“No, you are not to,” he said with a sudden anger in his voice, and he took them off, and then let her help him again.
When he was in bed, Elizabeth stood by him for a moment.
“Are you comfortable?” she asked.
“If I could sleep,” he said, only just above his breath. “If I could.”
“Oh, but you will,” said Elizabeth. “Don’t be afraid, David. It’s all right.”
She set the door into her room ajar and then sat down by the window, and looked out at the night. The blind was up. The night was dark and clear. There were stars, many little glittering points. It was very still. Elizabeth fixed her eyes upon the sky, but after a minute or two she did not see it at all. Her mind was full of David and his need. This tortured, sleepless state of his had no reality. How could it compass and oppress the immortal image of God? Her thought rose into peace. Elizabeth opened her mind to the Divine light. Her will rested. She was conscious only of that radiant peace. It enwrapped her, it enwrapped David. In it they lived and moved and had their being. In it they were real and vital creatures. To lapse from consciousness of it, was to fall upon a formless, baseless dream, wherein were the shadows of evil. These shadows had no reality. Brought to the light, they faded, leaving only that peace—that radiance. Elizabeth’s eyes were opened. She saw the Wings of Peace.
And David slept.
CHAPTER XV
LOVE MUST TO SCHOOL
Love must to school to learn his alphabet,
His wings are shorn, his eyes are dim and wet.