Greatheart | Page 7

for something just beyond their range of vision. For a while Scott limped beside her without speaking, but at last as they sighted the end of the pine-wood he gently broke the silence.
"Isabel dear, I think we must turn back very soon."
"Oh, why?" she said. "Why? You always say that when--" There came a break in her voice, and she ceased to speak.
Her pace quickened so that he had some difficulty in keeping up with her, but he made no protest. With the utmost patience he also pressed on.
But it was not long before her strength began to fail. She stumbled once or twice, and he put a supporting hand under her elbow. As they neared the edge of the pines it became evident that the road dwindled to a mere mountain-path winding steeply upwards through the snow. The sun shone dazzlingly upon the great waste of whiteness.
Very suddenly Isabel stopped. "He can't have gone this way after all," she said, and turned to her brother with eyes of tragic hopelessness. "Stumpy, Stumpy, what shall I do?"
He drew her hand very gently through his arm. "We will go back, dear," he said.
A low sob escaped her, but she did not weep. "If I only had the strength to go on and on and on!" she said. "I know I should find him some day then."
"You will find him some day," he answered with grave assurance. "But not yet."
They went back to the turn in the road where the sound of the stream rose like fairy music from an unseen glen. The snow lay pure and untrodden under the trees.
Scott paused again, and this time Isabel made no remonstrance. They stood together listening to the rush of the torrent.
"How beautiful this place must be in springtime!" he said.
She gave a sharp shiver. "It is like a dead world now."
"A world that will very soon rise again," he answered.
She looked at him with vague eyes. "You are always talking of the resurrection," she said.
"When I am with you, I am often thinking of it," he said with simplicity.
A haunted look came into her face. "But that implies--death," she said, her voice very low.
"And what is Death?" said Scott gently, as if he reasoned with a child. "Do you think it is more than a step further into Life? The passing of a boundary, that is all."
"But there is no returning!" she protested piteously. "It must be more than that."
"My dear, there is never any returning," he said gravely. "None of us can go backwards. Yesterday is but a step away, but can we retrace that step? No, not one of us."
She made a sudden, almost fierce gesture. "Oh, to go back!" she cried. "Oh, to go back! Why should we be forced blindly forward when we only want to go back?"
"That is the universal law," said Scott. "That is God's Will."
"It is cruel! It is cruel!" she wailed.
"No, it is merciful. So long as there is Death in the world we must go on. We have got to get past Death."
She turned her tragic eyes upon him. "And what then? What then?"
Scott was gazing steadfastly into her face of ravaged beauty. "Then--the resurrection," he said. "There are millions of people in the world, Isabel, who are living out their lives solely for the sake of that, because they know that if they only keep on, the Resurrection will give back to them all that they have lost. My dear, it is not going back that could help anyone. The past is past, the present is passing; there is only the future that can restore all things. We are bound to go forward, and thank God for it!"
Her eyes fell slowly before his. She did not speak, but after a moment gave him her hand with a shadowy smile. They continued the descent side by side.
Another curve of the road brought them within sight of the hotel.
Scott broke the silence. "Here is Eustace coming to meet us!"
She looked up with a start, and into her face came a curious, veiled expression, half furtive, half afraid.
"Don't tell him, Stumpy!" she said quickly.
"What, dear?"
"Don't tell him I have been looking for Basil this morning. He--he wouldn't understand. And--and--you know--I must look for him sometimes. I shall lose him altogether if I don't."
"Shall we pretend we are enjoying ourselves?" said Scott with a smile.
She answered him with feverish earnestness. "Yes--yes! Let us do that! And, Stumpy, Stumpy dear, you are good, you can pray. I can't, you know. Will you--will you pray sometimes--that I may find him?"
"I shall pray that your eyes may be opened, Isabel," he answered, "so that you may know you have never really lost him."
She smiled again, her fleeting, phantom smile. "Don't pray for the impossible, Stumpy!" she said. "I--I think that