第164章 Halcyon Days (3)

"You father has such a wonderful constitution," he said as they paced to and fro in the little garden."I should not be surprised if, in a couple of months, he is as strong as ever; though most men would probably feel such an overstrain to the end of their days."After that, the time at Milford was pure happiness.Erica learned to love every inch of that lovely neighborhood, from the hill of Rocksbury with its fir-clad heights, to Trencharn Lake nestled down among the surrounding heath hills.In after years she liked to recall all those peaceful days, days when time had ceased to exist at any rate, as an element of friction in life.There was no hurrying here, and the recollection of it afterward was a perpetual happiness.The quiet river where they had one day seen an otter, a marked event in their uneventful days; the farm with its red gables and its crowd of gobbling turkeys; the sweet-smelling fir groves with their sandy paths; and their own particular wood where beeches, oaks, and silvery birch trees were intermingled, with here and there a tall pine sometimes stately and erect, sometimes blown aslant by the wind.

Here the winding paths were bordered with golden moss, and sheltered by a tangled growth of bracken and bramble with now and then a little clump of heather or a patch of blue harebells.Every nook of that place grew familiar to them and had its special associations.There was the shady part under the beeches where they spent the hot days, and this was always associated with fragments of "Macbeth" and "Julius Caesar." There was the cozy nook on the fir hill where in cool September they had read volume after volume of Walter Scott, Raeburn not being allowed to have anything but light literature, and caring too little for "society"novels to listen to them even now.There was the prettiest part of all down below, the bit of sandy cliff riddled with nest holes by the sand martins; here they discovered a little spring, the natural basin scooped out in the rock, festooned with ivy and thickly coated with the pretty green liverwort.Never surely was water so cold and clear as that which flowed into the basin with its ground of white sand, and overflowed into a little trickling stream; while in the distance was heard the roar of the river as it fell into a small waterfall.There was the ford from which the place was named and which Erica associated with a long happy day when Brian had come down to see her father.She remembered how they had watched the carts and horses splashing though the clear water, going in muddy on one side and coming out clean on the other.She had just listened in silence to the talk between Brian and her father which happened to turn on Donovan Farrant.

They discussed the effect of early education and surroundings upon the generality of men, and Raeburn, while prophesying great things for Donovan's future and hoping that he might live to see his first Budget, rather surprised them both by what he said about his tolerable well-known early life.He was a man who found it very difficult to make allowances for temptations he had never felt, he was convinced that under Donovan's circumstances he should have acted very differently, and he made the common mistake of judging others by himself.His ruggedly honest nature and stern sense of justice could not get over those past failings.However, this opinion about the past did not interfere with his present liking of the man.He liked him much; and when, toward the end of their six weeks' stay at Milford, Donovan invited them to Oakdene, he was really pleased to accept the invitation.He hoped to be well enough to speak at an important political meeting at Ashborough about the middle of October, and as Ashborough was not far from Oakdene, Donovan wrote to propose a visit there en route.

At length the last evening came.Raeburn and Erica climbed Rocksbury for the last time, and in the cool of the evening walked slowly home.

"I have always dreaded old age," he said."But I shall dread it no more.This has been a foretaste of the autumn of life, and it has been very peaceful.I don't see why the winter should not be the same if I have you with me, little one.""You shall have me as long as I am alive," she said, giving his strong hand a little loving squeeze.

"Truth to tell," said Raeburn, "I thought a few weeks ago that it would be a case of 'Here lies Luke Raeburn, who died of litigation!' But, after all, to be able to work to the last is the happiest lot.Tis an enviable thing to die in harness."They were walking up a hill, a sort of ravine with steep high banks on either side, and stately pines stretching their blue-green foliage up against the evening sky.A red glow of sunset made the dark stems look like fiery pillars, and presently as they reached the brow of the hill the great crimson globe was revealed to them.

They both stood in perfect silence watching till it sunk below the horizon.

And a great peace filled Erica's heart though at one time her father's wish would have made her sad and apprehensive.In former times she had set her whole heart on his learning before death that he was teaching error.Now she had learned to add to "Thy will be done," the clause which it takes some of us a life time to say, "Not my will."