CHAPTER XV
THE MOUNTAIN CREST
That sleigh-drive was to Dinah the acme of delight, and for ever afterthe jingle of horse-bells was to recall it to her mind. The sight of thegay red trappings, the trot of the muffled hoofs, the easy motion of thesleigh slipping over the white road, and above all, Isabel, clad inpurple and seated beside her, a figure of royal distinction, made apicture in her mind that she was never to forget. She rode in a magicchariot through wonderland.
She longed to delay the precious moments as they flew, like a childchasing butterflies in the sunshine; but they only seemed to fly thefaster. She chattered almost incessantly for the first few miles, andoccasionally Isabel smiled and answered her; but for the most part it wasScott, seated opposite, who responded to her raptures,--Scott,unfailingly attentive and courteous, but ever watchful of his sister'sface.
She gazed straight ahead when she was not looking at anything to whichDinah called her attention. Her eyes had the intense look of one whowatches perpetually for something just out of sight.
Quiet but alert, he marked her attitude, marked also the emaciation whichwas so painfully apparent in the strong sunshine and formed so piteous acontrast to the vivid youth of the girl beside her. Presently Dinah cameout of her rhapsodies and observed his vigilance. She watched himcovertly for a time while she still chatted on. And she noted that therewere very weary lines about his eyes, lines of anxiety, lines ofsleeplessness, that filled her warm heart with quick sympathy and alonging to help.
The road was one of wild beauty. It wound up a desolate mountain passalong which great black boulders were scattered haphazard like the mightytoys of a giant. The glittering snow lay all around them, making theirnakedness the more apparent. And far, far above, the white crags shonewith a dazzling purity in the sunlit air.
Below them the snow lay untrodden, exquisitely pure, piled here in greatdrifts, falling away there in wonderful curves and hollows, but alwaysshowing a surface perfect and undesecrated by any human touch. And everthe sleigh ran smoothly on over the white road till it seemed to Dinah asif they moved in a dream. She fell silent, charmed by the swift motion,and by the splendour around her.
"You are quite warm, I hope?" Scott said, after an interval.
She was wrapped in a fur cloak belonging to Isabel. She smiled anaffirmative, but she saw him as through a veil. The mystery and thewonder of creation filled her soul.
"I feel," she said, "I feel as if we were being taken up into heaven."
"Oh, that we were!" said Isabel, speaking suddenly with a force that hadin it something terrible. "Do you see those golden peaks, sweetheart?That is where I would be. That is where the gates of Heaven open--wherethe lost are found."
Dinah's hand was clasped in hers under the fur rug, and she felt the thinfingers close with a convulsive hold.
Scott leaned forward. "Heaven is nearer to us than that, Isabel," he saidgently.
She looked at him for a moment, but her eyes at once passed beyond. "No,no, Stumpy! You never understand," she said restlessly. "I must reach themountain-tops or die. I am tired--I am tired of my prison. And I stiflein the valley--I who have watched the sun rise and set from the very edgeof the world. Why did they take me away? If I had only waited a littlelonger--a little longer--as he told me to wait!" Her voice suddenlyvibrated with a craving that was passionate. "He would have come with thenext sunrise. I always knew that the dawn would bring him back to me.But"--dull despair took the place of longing--"they took me away, and thesun has never shone since."
"Isabel!" Scott's voice was very grave and quiet. "Miss Bathurst willwonder what you mean. Don't forget her!"
Dinah pressed close to her friend's side. "Oh, but I do understand!" shesaid softly. "And, dear Mrs. Everard, I wish I could help you. But Ithink Mr. Studley must be right. It is easier to get to heaven than toclimb those mountain-peaks. They are so very steep and far away."
"So is Heaven, child," said Isabel, with a sigh of great weariness.
As it were with reluctance, she again met the steady gaze of Scott'seyes, and gradually her mood seemed to change. Her brief animationdropped away from her; she became again passive, inert, save that shestill seemed to be watching.
Scott broke the silence, kindly and practically. "We ought to reach the_chalet_ at the head of the pass soon," he said. "You will be glad ofsome tea."
"Oh, are we going to stop for tea?" said Dinah.
"That's the idea," said Scott. "And then back by another way. We ought toget a good view of the sunset. I hope it won't be misty, but they say achange is coming."
"I hope it won't come yet," said Dinah fervently. "The last few days havebeen so perfect. And there is so little time left."
Scott smiled. "That is the worst of perfection," he said. "It neverlasts."
Dinah's eyes were wistful. "It will go on being perfect here long afterwe have left," she said. "Isn't it dreadful to think of all the goodthings--all the beauty--one misses just because one isn't there?"
"It would be if there were nothing else to think of," said Scott. "Butthere is beauty everywhere--if we know how to look for it."
She looked at him uncertainly. "I never knew what it meant before I camehere," she told him shyly. "There is no time for beautiful things in mylife. It's very, very drab and ugly. And I am very discontented. I havenever been anything else."
Her voice quivered a little as she made the confession. Scott's eyes wereso kind, so full of friendly understanding. Isabel had dropped out oftheir intercourse as completely as though her presence had beenwithdrawn. She lay back against her cushions, but her eyes were stillwatching, watching incessantly.
"I think the very dullest life can be made beautiful," Scott said, aftera moment. "Even the desert sand is gold when the sun shines on it. Thetrouble is,--" he laughed a little--"to get the sun to shine."
Dinah leaned forward eagerly, confidentially. "Yes?" she questioned.
He looked her suddenly straight in the eyes. "There is a great store ofsunshine in you," he said. "One can't come near you without feeling it.Isabel will tell you the same. Do you keep it only for the Alps? Ifso,--" he paused.
Dinah's face flushed suddenly under his look. "If so?" she asked, underher breath.
He smiled. "Well, it seems a pity, that's all," he said. "Rather a wastetoo when you come to think of it."
Dinah's eyes caught the reflection of his smile. "I shall remember that,Mr. Greatheart," she said.
"Forgive me for preaching!" said Scott.
She put out a hand to him quickly, spontaneously. "You don't preach--andit does me good," she said somewhat incoherently. "Please--always--saywhat you like to me!"
"At risk of hurting you?" said Scott. He held the small, impulsive hand amoment and let it go.
"You could never hurt me," Dinah answered. "You are far too kind."
"I think the kindness is on your side," he answered gravely. "Most peopleof my acquaintance would think me a bore--if nothing worse."
"Most people have never really met you, Stumpy," said Isabelunexpectedly. "Dinah is one of the privileged few, and I am glad sheappreciates it."
"Good heavens!" said Scott, flushing a deep red. "Spare me, Isabel!"
Dinah broke into her gay, infectious laugh. "Please--please don't beupset about it! I'm glad I'm one of the few. I've felt you were a princein disguise all along."
"Very much in disguise!" protested Scott. "Remove that, and there wouldbe nothing left."
"Except a man," said Isabel, "You can't get away, Stumpy. You're caught."
A fleeting smile crossed her face like a gleam of light and was gone. Sheturned her look upon Dinah, and became silent again.
Scott, much disconcerted, hunted in every pocket for his cigarette-case."You don't mind my smoking, I hope?" he murmured.
"I like it," said Dinah. "Let me help you light up!"
She made a screen with her hands, and guarded the flame from the draught.
He thanked her courteously, recovering hi
s composure with a smile thatwas not without self-ridicule, and in a moment they were talking againupon impersonal matters. But the episode, slight though it was, dwelt inDinah's mind thereafter with an odd persistence. She felt as if Isabelhad given her a flashlight glimpse of something which otherwise she wouldscarcely have realized. In that single fleeting moment of revelation shehad seen that which no vision of knight in shining armour could havesurpassed.
They reached the _chalet_ at the top of the pass, and descended for tea.The windows looked right down the snow-clad valley up which they hadcome. The sun had begun to sink, and the greater part of it lay inshadow.
Far away, rising out of the shadows, all golden amid floating mists, wasa mighty mountain crest, higher than all around. The sun-rays lighted upits wondrous peaks. The glory of it was unearthly, almost more than theeye could bear.
Dinah stood on the little wooden verandah of the _chalet_ and gazed andgazed till the splendour nearly blinded her.
"Still watching the Delectable Mountains?" said Scott's voice at hershoulder.
She made a little gesture in response. She could not take her eyes offthe wonder.
He came and stood beside her in mute sympathy while he finished hiscigarette. There was a certain depression in his attitude of whichpresently she became aware. She summoned her resolution and turnedherself from the great vision that so drew her.
He was leaning against a post of the verandah, and she read again in hisattitude the weariness that she had marked earlier in the afternoon.
"Are you--troubled about your sister?" she asked him diffidently.
He threw away the end of his cigarette and straightened himself. "Yes, Iam troubled," he said, in a low voice. "I am afraid it was a mistake tobring her here."
"I thought her looking better this morning," Dinah ventured.
His grey eyes met hers. "Did you? I thought it a good sign that sheshould make the effort to speak to strangers. But I am not certain nowthat it has done her any good. We brought her here to wake her from herlethargy. Eustace thought the air would work wonders, but--I am not sure.It is certainly waking her up. But--to what?"
His eyelids drooped heavily, and he passed his hand across his foreheadwith a gesture that went to her heart.
"It's rather soon to judge, isn't it?" she said.
"Yes," he admitted. "But there is a change in her; there is anundoubted change. She gets hardly any rest, and the usual draught atnight scarcely takes effect. Of course the place is noisy. That may havesomething to do with it. My brother is very anxious to put a stop to thesleeping-draught altogether. But I can't agree to that. She has neverslept naturally since her loss--never slept and never wept. Biddy--theold nurse--declares if she could only cry, all would come right. But Idon't know--I don't know."
He uttered a deep sigh, and leaned once more upon the balustrade.
Dinah came close to him, her sweet face full of concern. "Mr. Studley,"she murmured, "you--you don't think I do her any harm, do you?"
"You!" He gave a start and looked at her with that in his eyes thatreassured her in a moment. "My dear child, no! You are a perfect godsendto her--and to me also, if you don't mind my saying so. No--no! Themischief that I fear will probably develop after you have gone. As longas you are here, I am not afraid for her. Yours is just the sort ofinfluence that she needs."
"Oh, thank you!" Dinah said gratefully. "I was afraid just for a moment,because I know I have been silly and flighty. I try to be sober when I amwith her, but--"
"Don't try to be anything but yourself, Miss Bathurst!" he said. "I haveconfided in you just because you are yourself; and I wouldn't have youany different for the world. You help her just by being yourself."
Dinah laughed while she shook her head. "I wish I were as nice as youseem to think I am."
He laughed also. "Perhaps you have never realized how nice you reallyare," he returned with a simplicity equal to her own. "Ah! Here comesIsabel! I expect she is ready. We had better go in."
They met her as they turned inwards. The reflection of the sunset glorywas in her face recalling some of its faded beauty. She took Dinah's arm,looking at her with a strangely wistful smile.
"I want you now, sweetheart," she said. "Scott can have histurn--afterwards."
"I want you too," said Dinah instantly, squeezing her hand very closely."Come and look at the mountains! They are so glorious now that the sun issetting."
They turned back for a few moments and Isabel's eyes went to that far andwonderful mountain crest. The gold was turning to rose. The glorydeepened even as they watched.
"The peaks of Paradise," breathed Dinah softly.
Isabel was silent for a space, her eyes fixed and yearning. Then atlength in a low voice that thrilled with an emotion beyond words shespoke.
"I know now where to look. That is where he is waiting for me. That iswhere I shall find him."
And then swiftly she turned, aware of her brother close behind her.
He looked at her with eyes of deep compassion. "Some day, Isabel!" hesaid gently.
She made a swift gesture as of one who brushes aside every hindrance."Soon!" she said. "Very soon!"
Scott's eyes met Dinah's for a single instant, and she thought they heldsuffering as well as weariness. But they fell immediately. He stood backin silence for them to pass.
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