| Share page |
|
THE PORTER'S SON |
921 |
||
|
This was a longer speech than he usually made, and he returned again to his meditation and looked dignified. But of all that George heard or saw up there, he kept most clearly in his thoughts the little Miss Emily; how charming she was, how gentle, how light, and how fragile ! If she was to be painted, it must be .in a soap-bubble. There was a fragrance about her clothes, about her curly, golden hair, as if she was a fresh-blossomed rose-tree ; and with her he had once shared his bread and butter ! She had eaten it with a hearty appetite, and nodded to him at every other mouthful. Could she remember it still ? Yes, certainly; she had given him the beautiful Psalm-book ' in memory ' of it; and then the first time the New Year's new moon was seen, he went outside with bread and a farthing, and opened the book to see what Psalm he would light upon. It was a psalm of praise and thanksgiving ; and he opened it again to see what would be granted to little Emily. He took care not to dip into the book where the funeral hymns were, and yet he opened it between Death and the Grave. This was nothing to put faith in, and yet he was frightened when the dainty little girl was soon laid up in bed, and the doctor's carriage stopped outside the gate every noon.
' They won't keep her ! ' said the Porter's wife; ' our Lord knows well whom He will have !'
But they did keep her; and George drew pictures and sent them to her ; he drew the Castle of the Czar, the old Kremlin in Moscow, exactly as it stood, with towers and cupolas; they looked like gigantic green and golden cucumbers, at least in George's drawings. They pleased little Emily so much, and therefore, in the course of a week, George sent a few more pictures, all of them buildings, because with them she could imagine so much inside the doors and windows. He drew a Chinese house, with bells throughout all the sixteen stories ; he drew two Greek temples, with slender marble pillars, and steps round about; he drew a Norwegian church ; one could see that it was made entirely of timber, carved and wonderfully set up, every story looked as if it were on cradle-rockers. Most beautiful of all, however, was one drawing, a castle, which he called ' Little Emily's \ In such a one should she live ; George had completely |
|||