The Well in the Desert

by Emily Sarah Holt

  CHAPTER EIGHT.

  THE VEIL UPLIFTED.

  "Household names, that used to flutter Through your laughter unawares,-- God's Divine Name ye can utter With less trembling, in your prayers."

  Elizabeth B. Browning.

  Philippa sat down again with the book in her hand. Her mood had changedsuddenly at the sight of the text, which she instantly guessed to be theoriginal of her well-remembered device.

  "I need not go yet," she said, "unless I weary you, Mother."

  "I am never wearied of the Master's work," answered the low voice.

  Lady Sergeaux opened the door of the cell.

  "Lena and Oliver," she called, "you can return to the convent, and comehither for me again ere the dusk falleth. I shall abide a season withthis holy Mother."

  "But your Ladyship will ere that be faint for hunger," objected Lena.

  "No,--I will take care of that," replied the Grey Lady, ere Philippacould answer.

  Lena louted, and departed with Oliver, and her mistress again closed thedoor of the cell. The Grey Lady set bread before her, and honey, with acup of milk, bidding her eat.

  "Thank you, Mother, but I am not hungry yet," said Philippa.

  "You ought to be. You had better eat," was the quiet answer.

  And quiet as the voice was, it had a tone of authority which Philippainvoluntarily and unconsciously obeyed. And while she ate, her hostessin her turn became the questioner.

  "Are you a knight's wife?"

  "I am the wife of Sir Richard Sergeaux, a knight of Cornwall," saidPhilippa. "My lord is away in Gascony, in the train of the Earl ofArundel, who accompanies the Duke of Lancaster, at present Governor ofthose parts. While he is absent, I hope to be able to make my salvationin retreat, and to quiet my conscience."

  The Grey Lady made no reply. Philippa almost expected her to ask if herconscience were quiet, or how much of her salvation she had made. Guyof Ashridge, she thought, would have preached a sermon on that text.But no answer came from the veiled figure, only her head drooped uponher hand as if she were tired.

  "Now I am wearying you," said Philippa reproachfully. "I ought to havegone when I first thought thereof."

  "No," said the Grey Lady.

  Her voice, if possible, was even softer than before, but Philippa couldnot avoid detecting in it a cadence of pain so intense that she began towonder if she were ill, or what portion of her speech could possiblyhave caused it.

  "Are you ill, Mother?" she asked compassionately.

  The eremitess lifted her head; and her voice was again calm.

  "I thank you,--no. Let us not speak of ourselves, but of God."

  "Mother, I wish to ask you something," said Philippa rather doubtfully,for she did not wish to pain her again, yet she deemed her comingquestion necessary.

  "Ask what you will, Lady de Sergeaux."

  There was no sad cadence now in the gentle voice.

  "I desire to know--for so only can you really help me--if you knowyourself what it is to be unloved."

  Once more Philippa saw the grey veil tremble.

  "I know it--well." But the words were uttered scarcely above a whisper.

  "I meant to ask you that at first, and we name upon another subject.But I am satisfied if you know it. And now tell me, how may any becontent under such a trial? How may a weary, thirsting heart, come todrink of that water which he that drinketh shall thirst no more?Mother, all my life I have been drinking of many wells, but I never yetcame to this Well. `Ancor soyf j'ay:' tell me how I must labour, whereI must go, to find that Well whereof the drinker

  "`Jamays soyf n'aura A l'eternite'?"

  "Who taught you those lines?" asked the eremitess quickly.

  "I found them in the device of a jewel," replied Philippa.

  "Strange!" said the recluse; but she did not explain why she thought itso. "Lady, the Living Water is the gift of God; or rather, it is God.And the heart of man was never meant to be satisfied with anythingbeneath God."

  "But the heart of woman, at least," said Philippa, "for I am not a man--is often satisfied with things beneath God."

  "It often rests in them," said the Grey Lady; "but I doubt whether it issatisfied. That is a strong word. Are you?"

  "I am most unsatisfied," answered Philippa; "otherwise I had not come toyou. I want rest."

  "And yet Christ hath been saying all your life, to you, as toothers,--`Come unto Me, all ye that travail and are weary laden, and Iwill give you rest.'"

  "He never gave it me."

  "Because you never came for it."

  "I wonder if He can give it," said Philippa, sighing.

  "Trust me that He can. I never knew it till I came to Him."

  "But are you at rest? You scarcely looked so just now."

  "At rest," said the Grey Lady, "except when a breeze of earth stirs thesoul which should be soaring above earth--when the dreams of earth comelike a thick curtain between that soul and the hope of that Heaven--asit was just now."

  "Then you are not exempt from that?"

  "In coming to Christ for rest, we do not leave our human hearts and ourhuman infirmities behind us--assuredly not."

  "Then do you think it wrong to desire to beloved?"

  "Not wrong to desire Christ's love."

  "But to desire the love of some human being, or of any human being?"

  The eremitess paused an instant before she answered.

  "I should condemn myself if I said so," she replied in a low tone, thesad cadence returning to her voice. "I must leave that with God. Hehath undertaken to purge me from sin, and He knows what is sin. If thatbe so, He will purge me from it. I have put myself in His hands, to bedealt with as pleaseth Him; and my Physician will give me the medicineswhich He seeth me to need. Let me counsel you to do the same."

  "Yet what pleaseth Him might not please me."

  "It would be strange if it did."

  "Why?" said Philippa.

  "Because it is your nature to love sin, and it is His nature to loveholiness. And what we love, we become. He that loveth sin must needsbe a sinner."

  "I do not think I love sin," rejoined Philippa, rather offended.

  "That is because you cannot see yourself."

  Just what Guy of Ashridge had told her; but not more palatable now thanit had been then.

  "What is sin?" asked the Grey Lady.

  Philippa was ready with a list--of sins which she felt certain she hadnot committed.

  "Give me leave to add one," said the eremitess. "Pride is sin; nay, itis the abominable sin which God hateth. And is there no pride in you,Lady de Sergeaux? You tell me you cannot forgive your own father. NowI know nothing of you, nor of him; but if you could see yourself as youstand in God's sight--whatever it be that he hath done--you would knowyourself to be as black a sinner as he. Where, then, is yoursuperiority? You have as much need to be forgiven."

  "But I have _not_!" cried Philippa, in no dulcet tones, her annoyancegetting the better of her civility. "I never was a murderer! I neverturned coldly away from one that loved me--for none ever did love me. Inever crushed a loving, faithful heart down into the dust. I neverbrought a child up like a stranger. I never--stay, I will go no furtherinto the catalogue. But I know I am not such a sinner as he--nay, I amnot to be compared to him."

  "And have you," asked the Grey Lady, very gently, "turned no cold ear tothe loving voice of Christ? Have you not kept far away from theheavenly Father? Have you not grieved the Holy Spirit of God? May itnot be said to you, as our Lord said to the Jews of old time,--`Ye willnot come to Me, that ye might have life'?"

  It was only what Guy of Ashridge had said before. But this time thereseemed to be a power with the words which had not gone with his.Philippa was silent. She had no answer to make.

  "You are right," she said after a long pause. "I have done all this;but I never saw it before. Mother, the next time you are at the holymass, will you pray for me?"

  "Why wait ti
ll then?" was the rejoinder. "Let us tell Him so now."

  And, surprised as she was at the proposal, Philippa knelt down.

  "Thank you, and the holy saints bless you," she said, as she rose. "NowI must go; and I hear Lena's voice without. But ere I depart, may I askyou one thing?"

  "Anything."

  "What could I possibly have said that pained you? For that somethingdid pain you I am sure. I am sorry for it, whatever it may have been."

  The soft voice resumed its troubled tone.

  "It was only," said the Grey Lady, "that you uttered a name which hasnot been named in mine hearing for twenty-seven years: you told mewhere, and doing what, was one of whom and of whose doings I had thoughtnever to hear any more. One, of whom I try never to think, save when Iam praying for him, or in the night when I am alone with God, and canask Him to pardon me if I sin."

  "But whom did I name?" said Philippa, in an astonished tone. "Have Ispoken of any but of my husband? Do you know him?"

  "I have never heard of him before to-day, nor of you."

  "I think I did mention the Duke of Lancaster."

  A shake of the head negatived this suggestion.

  "Well, I named none else," pursued Philippa, "saving the Earl ofArundel; and you cannot know him."

  Even then she felt an intense repugnance to saying, "My father." But,much to her surprise, the Grey Lady slowly bowed her head.

  "And in what manner," began Philippa, "can you know--"

  But before she uttered another word, a suspicion which almost terrifiedher began to steal over her. She threw herself on her knees at the feetof the Grey Lady, and grasped her arm tightly.

  "All the holy saints have mercy upon us!--are you Isabel La Despenser?"

  It seemed an hour to Philippa ere the answer came. And it came in atone so low and quivering that she only just heard it.

  "I was."

  And then a great cry of mingled joy and anguish rang through the lonelycell.

  "Mother! mine own mother! I am Philippa Fitzalan!"

  There was no cry from Isabel. She only held out her arms; and in anembrace as close and tender as that with which they had parted, thelong-separated mother and daughter met.