|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 31
They stood looking at this crowd of loveliness, this happy
jumble, in silence. No, it didn't matter what Mrs. Fisher did; not
here; not in such beauty. Mrs. Arbuthnot's discomposure melted out of
her. In the warmth and light of what she was looking at, of what to
her was a manifestation, and entirely new side of God, how could one be
discomposed? If only Frederick were with her, seeing it too, seeing as
he would have seen it when first they were lovers, in the days when he
saw what she saw and loved what she loved. . .
She sighed.
"You mustn't sigh in heaven," said Mrs. Wilkins. "One doesn't."
"I was thinking how one longs to share this with those one
loves," said Mrs. Arbuthnot.
"You mustn't long in heaven," said Mrs. Wilkins. "You're
supposed to be quite complete there. And it is heaven, isn't it, Rose?
See how everything has been let in together--the dandelions and the
irises, the vulgar and the superior, me and Mrs. Fisher--all welcome,
all mixed up anyhow, and all so visibly happy and enjoying ourselves."
"Mrs. Fisher doesn't seem happy--not visibly, anyhow," said Mrs.
Arbuthnot, smiling.
"She'll begin soon, you'll see."
Mrs. Arbuthnot said she didn't believe that after a certain age
people began anything.
Mrs. Wilkins said she was sure no one, however old and tough,
could resist the effects of perfect beauty. Before many days, perhaps
only hours, they would see Mrs. Fisher bursting out into every kind of
exuberance. "I'm quite sure," said Mrs. Wilkins, "that we've got to
heaven, and once Mrs. Fisher realizes that that's where she is, she's
bound to be different. You'll see. She'll leave off being ossified,
and go all soft and able to stretch, and we shall get quite--why, I
shouldn't be surprised if we get quite fond of her."
The idea of Mrs. Fisher bursting out into anything, she who
seemed so particularly firmly fixed inside her buttons, made Mrs.
Arbuthnot laugh. She condoned Lotty's loose way of talking of heaven,
because in such a place, on such a morning, condonation was in the very
air. Besides, what an excuse there was.
And Lady Caroline, sitting where they had left her before
breakfast on the wall, peeped over when she heard laughter, and saw
them standing on the path below, and thought what a mercy it was they
were laughing down there and had not come up and done it round her.
She disliked jokes at all times, but in the morning she hated them;
especially close up; especially crowding in her ears. She hoped the
originals were on their way out for a walk, and not on their way back
from one. They were laughing more and more. What could they possibly
find to laugh at?
She looked down on the tops of their heads with a very serious
face, for the thought of spending a month with laughers was a grave
one, and they, as though they felt her eyes, turned suddenly and looked
up.
The dreadful geniality of those women. . .
She shrank away from their smiles and wavings, but she could not
shrink out of sight without falling into the lilies. She neither
smiled nor waved back, and turning her eyes to the more distant
mountains surveyed them carefully till the two, tired of waving, moved
away along the path and turned the corner and disappeared.
This time they both did notice that they had been met with, at
least, unresponsiveness.
"If we weren't in heaven," said Mrs. Wilkins serenely, "I should
say we had been snubbed, but as nobody snubs anybody there of course we
can't have been."
"Perhaps she is unhappy," said Mrs. Arbuthnot.
"Whatever it is she is she'll get over it here," said Mrs.
Wilkins with conviction.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|