IN THE CURRENT
Seven o'clock struck. It made no impression upon her. Eight o'clock – nine o'clock. It was now dark. Ten o'clock. She did not hear. Still at the window, her elbow on the sill, her chin resting in her hand, she kept watch on the river – but did not see the river: but saw the sea, wind-tossed and dark, where the lights go wide apart. Eleven o'clock. Ghostly moonlight filled the room. The tenement, restless in the summer heat, now sighed and fell asleep. Twelve o'clock. She had not moved: nor dared she move. There was a knock at the door – a quick step behind her. She turned in alarm.
"Millie!"
She rose. Voice and figure were well known to her. She started forward – but stopped dead.
"Is it you, Jim?" she faltered.
"Yes, Millie. It's me – come back. You don't feel the way you did before, do you, girl?" He suddenly subdued his voice – as though recollecting a caution. "You ain't going to send me away, are you?" he asked.
"Go 'way!" she complained. "Leave me alone."
He came nearer.
"Give me a show, Jim," she begged. "Go 'way. It ain't fair to come – now. Hear me?" she cried, in protest against his nearer approach, her voice rising shrilly. "It ain't fair – "
"Hist!" he interrupted. "You'll wake the – "
She laughed harshly. "Wake what?" she mocked. "Eh, Jim? What'll I wake?"
"Why, Millie!" he exclaimed. "You'll wake the boy."
"Boy!" she laughed. "What boy? There ain't no boy. Look here!" she cried, rushing impetuously to the bed, throwing back the coverlet, wildly tossing the pillows to the floor. "What'll I wake? Eh, Jim? Where's the boy I'll wake?" She turned upon him. "What you saying 'Hist!' for? Hist!" she mocked, with a laugh. "Talk as loud as you like, Jim. You don't need to care what you say or how you say it. There ain't nobody here to mind you. For I tell you," she stormed, "there ain't no boy – no more!"
He caught her hand.
"Let go my hand!" she commanded. "Keep off, Jim! I ain't in no temper to stand it – to-night."
He withdrew. "Millie," he asked, in distress, "the boy ain't – "
"Dead?" she laughed. "No. I give him away. He was different from us. I didn't have no right to keep him. I give him to a parson. Because," she added, defiantly, "I wasn't fit to bring him up. And he ain't here no more," she sighed, blankly sweeping the moonlit room. "I'm all alone – now."
"Poor girl!" he muttered.
She was tempted by this sympathy. "Go home, Jim," she said. "It ain't fair to stay. I'm all alone, now – and it ain't treating me right."
"Millie," he answered, "you ain't treating yourself right."
She flung out her arms – in dissent and hopelessness.
"No, you ain't," he continued. "You've give him up. You're all alone. You can't go on – alone. Millie, girl," he pleaded, softly, "I want you. Come to me!"
She wavered.
"Come to me!" he repeated, his voice tremulous, his arms extended. "You're all alone. You've lost him. Come to me!"
"Lost him?" she mused. "No – not that. If I'd lost him, Jim, I'd take you. If ever he looked in my eyes – as if I'd lost him – I'd take you. I've give him up; but I ain't lost him. Maybe," she proceeded, eagerly, "when the time comes, he'll not give me up. He loves me, Jim; he'll not forget. I know he's different from us. You can't tell a mother nothing about such things as that. God!" she muttered, clasping her hands, "how strangely different he is. And every day he'll change. Every day he'll be – more different. That's what I want. That's why I give him up. To make him – more different! But maybe," she continued, her voice rising with the intensity of her feeling, "when he grows up, and the time comes – maybe, Jim, when he can't be made no more different – maybe, when I go to him, man grown – are you listening? – maybe, when I ask him if he loves me, he'll remember! Maybe, he'll take me in. Lost him?" she asked. "How do you know that? Go to you, Jim? Go to you, now – when he might take me in if I wait? I can't! Don't you understand? When the time comes, he might ask me – where you was."
"You're crazy, Millie," the man protested. "You're just plain crazy."
"Crazy? Maybe, I am. To love and hope! Crazy? Maybe, I am. But, Jim, mothers is all that way."
"All that way?" he asked, regarding her with a speculative eye.
"Mothers," she repeated, "is all that way."
"Well," said he, swiftly advancing, "lovers isn't."
"Keep back!" she cried.
"No, I won't."
"You'll make a cat of me. I warn you, Jim!"
"You can't keep me off. You said you loved me. You do love me. You can't help yourself. You got to marry me."
She retreated. "Leave me alone!" she screamed. "I can't. Don't you see how it is? Quit that, now, Jim! You ain't fair. Take your arms away. God help me! I love you, you great big brute! You know I do. You ain't fair… Stop! You hurt me." She was now in his arms – but still resisting. "Leave me alone," she whimpered. "You hurt me. You ain't fair. You know I love you – and you ain't fair… Oh, God forgive me! Don't do that again, Jim. Stop! Let me go. For God's sake, stop kissing me! I like you, Jim. I ain't denying that. But let me go… Please, Jim! Don't hold me so tight. It ain't fair… Oh, it ain't fair…"
She sank against his broad breast; and there she lay helpless – bitterly sobbing.
"Don't cry, Millie!" he whispered.
Still she sobbed.
"Oh, don't cry, girl!" he repeated, tenderly. "It's all right. I won't hurt you. You love me, and I love you. That's all right, Millie. What's the matter with you, girl? Lift your face, won't you?"
"No, no!"
"Why not, Millie?"
"I don't know," she whispered. "I think I'm – ashamed."
There was no longer need to hold her fast. His arms relaxed. She did not move from them. And while they stood thus, in the moonlight, falling brightly through the window, he stroked her hair, murmuring, the while, all the reassuring words at his command.
"The boy's gone," he said, at last. "You'd be all alone without me. He ain't here. But he's well looked after, Millie. Don't you fret about him. By this time he's sound asleep."
She slipped from his embrace. He made no effort to detain her: conceiving her secure in his possession. A moment she stood staring at the floor, lost to her surroundings: then quickly turned to look upon him – her face aglow with some high tenderness.
"Asleep?" she asked, her voice low, tremulous.
"Sound asleep."
"How do you know that he's asleep?" she pursued. "Asleep? No; he ain't asleep." She paused – now woebegone. "He's wide awake – waiting," she went on. "He's waiting – just like he used to do – for me to come in… He's awake. Oh, sore little heart! He's lying alone in the dark – waiting. And his mother will not come… Last night, Jim, when I come in, he was there in the bed, awake and waiting. 'Oh, mother,' says he, 'I'm glad you're come at last. I been waiting so long. It's lonesome here in the dark without you. And to-morrow I'll wake, and wait, and wait; but you will not come!' He's awake, Jim. Don't you tell me no different. The pillow's wet with his tears… Lonely child – waiting for me! Oh, little heart of my baby! Oh, sore little heart!"
"Millie!"
"It ain't no use no more, Jim. You better go home. I'm all alone. My child's not here. But – he's somewhere. And it's him I love."
The man sighed and went away…
Left alone, she put the little room in order and made the bed, blinded by tears, her steps uncertain: muttering incoherently of her child, whimpering broken snatches of lullaby songs. When there was no more work left for her hands to do, she staggered to the bureau, and from the lower drawer took a great, flaunting doll, which she had there kept, poor soul! against the time when her arms would be empty, her bosom aching for a familiar weight upon it. And for a time she sat rocking the cold counterfeit, crooning, faintly singing, caressing it; but she had known the warmth, the sweet restlessness, the soft, yielding form of the living child, and could not be content. Presently, in a surge of disgust, she flung the substitute violently from her.
"It ain't no baby," she moaned, putting her hands to her face. "It's only a doll!"
She sank limp to the floor. There she lay prone – the moonlight falling softly upon her, but healing her not at all.
THE CHORISTER
The Rev. John Fithian lived alone with a man-servant in a wide-windowed, sombre, red old house, elbowed by tenements, near the Church of the Lifted Cross – once a fashionable quarter: now mean, dejected, incongruously thronged, and fast losing the last appearances of respectability. Sombre without – half-lit, silent, vast within: the whole intolerant of frivolity, inharmony, garishness, ugliness, but yet quite free of gloom and ghostly suggestion. The boy tiptoed over the thick carpets, spoke in whispers, eyed the shadowy corners – sensitive to impressions, forever alert: nevertheless possessing a fine feeling of security and hopefulness; still wistful, often weeping in the night, but not melancholy. Responsive to environment, by nature harmonious with his new surroundings, he presently moved through the lofty old rooms with a manner reflecting their own – the same gravity, serenity, old-fashioned grace: expressing even their stateliness in a quaint and childish way. Thus was the soil of his heart prepared for the seed of a great change.
By and by the curate enlightened the child concerning sin and the Vicarious Sacrifice. This was when the leaves were falling from the trees in the park – a drear, dark night: the wind sweeping the streets in violent gusts, the rain lashing the windowpanes. Night had come unnoticed – swiftly, intensely: in the curate's study a change from gray twilight to firelit shadows. The boy was squatted on the hearth-rug, disquieted by the malicious beating at the window, glad to be in the glow of the fire: his visions all of ragged men and women cowering from the weather.
"It is time, now," the curate sighed, "that I told you the story."
"What story?"
"The story of the Man who died for us."
The boy turned – in wonderment. "I did not know," he said, quickly, "that a man had died for us. What was his name? Why did he do it? My mother never told me that story."
"I think she does not know it."
"Then I'll tell her when I learn."
"Perhaps," said the curate, "she will like to hear it – from you."
Very gently, then, in his deep, mellifluous voice – while the rain beat upon the windows, crying out the sorrows of the poor – the curate unfolded the poignant story: the terms simple, the recital clear, vivid, complete… And to the heart of this child the appeal was immediate and irresistible.
"And they who sin," the curate concluded, "crucify Him again."
"I love that Jesus!" the boy sobbed. "I love Him – almost as much as mother."
"Almost?"
The boy misunderstood. He felt reproved. He flushed – ashamed that the new love had menaced the old. "No," he answered; "but I love Him very much."
"Not as much?"
"Oh, I could not!"
The boy was never afterwards the same. All that was inharmonious in life – the pain and poverty and unloveliness – became as sin: a continuous crucifixion, hateful, wringing the heart…
Late in the night, when he lay sleepless, sick for his mother's presence, her voice, her kisses, her soothing touch, the boy would rise to sit at the window – there to watch shadowy figures flit through the street-lamp's circle of light. Once he fancied that his mother came thus out of the night, that for a moment she paused with upturned glance, then disappeared in woe and haste: returning, halted again; but came no more…
At rare intervals the boy's mother came to the curate's door. She would not enter: but timidly waited for her son, and then went with him to the park, relieved to be away from the wide, still house, her spirits and self-confidence reviving with every step. One mellow evening, while they sat together in the dusk, an ill-clad man, gray and unkempt, shuffled near.
"Mother," the boy whispered, gripping her hand, "he is looking at us."
She laughed. "Let him look!" said she. "It don't matter."
The man staggered to the bench – heavily sat down: limp and shameless, his head hanging.
"Let us go away!" the boy pleaded.
"Why, darling?" his mother asked, puzzled. "What's the matter with you, anyhow?" She looked at him – realizing some subtle change in him, bewildered by it: searching eagerly for the nature and cause. "You didn't used to be like that," she said.
"I don't like him. He's wicked. He frightens me."
The man slipped suddenly from the bench – sprawling upon the walk. The woman laughed.
"Don't laugh!" the boy exclaimed – a cry of reproach, not free of indignation. "Oh, mother," he complained, putting her hand to his cheek, "how could you!"
She did not answer. The derelict picked himself up, whining in a maudlin way.
"How could you!" the boy repeated.
"Oh," said she, lightly, "he's all right. He won't hurt us."
"He's wicked!"
"He's drunk. It don't matter. What's come over you, dear?"
"I'm afraid," said the boy. "He's sinful."
"He's only drunk, poor man!"
High over the houses beyond, the steeple of the Church of the Lifted Cross pierced the blue-black sky. It was tipped with a blazing cross – a great cross, flaming in the night: a symbol of sacrifice, a hope, a protest, raised above the feverish world. To this the boy looked. It transported him far from the woman whose hand he clutched.
"They who sin," he muttered, his eyes still turned to the lifted cross, "crucify the dear Lord again!"
His mother was both mystified and appalled. She followed his glance – but saw only the familiar landmark: an illuminated cross, topping a steeple.
"For God's sake, Richard!" she demanded, "what you talking about?"
He did not hear.
"You ain't sick, are you?" she continued.
He shook his head.
"What's the matter with you?" she implored. "Oh, tell your mother!"
He loosened his hand from her clasp, withdrew it: but instantly caught her hand again, and kissed it passionately. So much concerned was she for his physical health that the momentary shrinking escaped her.
"You're sick," she said. "I know you are. You're singing too much in the church."
"No."
"Then you're eating too much lemon pie," she declared, anxiously. "You're too fond of that. It upsets your stomach. Oh, Richard! Shame, dear! I told you not to."
"You told me not to eat much," he said. "So I don't eat any – to make sure."
She was aware of the significance of this sacrifice – and kissed him quickly in fond approval. Then she turned up his coat-sleeve. "The fool!" she cried. "You got cold. That's what's the matter with you. Here it is November! And he ain't put your flannels on. That there curate," she concluded, in disgust, "don't know nothing about raising a boy."
"I'm quite well, mother."
"Then what's the matter with you?"
"I'm sad!" he whispered.
She caught him to her breast – blindly misconceiving the meaning of this: in her ignorance concluding that he longed for her, and was sick because of that… And while she held him close, the clock of the Church of the Lifted Cross chimed seven. In haste she put him down, kissed him, set him on his homeward way; and she watched him until he was lost in the dusk and distance of the park. Then, concerned, bewildered, she made haste to that quarter of the city – that swarming, flaring, blatant place – where lay her occupation for the night.
Near Christmas, in a burst of snowy weather, the boy sang his first solo at the Church of the Lifted Cross: this at evening. His mother, conspicuously gowned, somewhat overcome by the fashion of the place, which she had striven to imitate – momentarily chagrined by her inexplicable failure to be in harmony – seated herself obscurely, where she had but an infrequent glimpse of his white robe, wistful face, dark, curling hair. She had never loved him more proudly – never before realized that his value extended beyond the region of her arms: never before known that the babe, the child, the growing boy, mothered by her, nursed at her breast, her possession, was a gift to the world, sweet and inspiring. "Angels, ever bright and fair!" She felt the thrill of his tender voice; perceived the impression: the buzz, the subsiding confusion, the spell-bound stillness. "Take, oh, take me to your care!" It was in her heart to strike her breasts – to cry out that this was her son, born of her; her bosom his place…
When the departing throng had thinned in the aisle, she stepped from the pew, and stood waiting. There passed, then, a lady in rich attire – sweet-faced, of exquisite manner. A bluff, ruddy young man attended her.
"Did you like the music?" he asked – a conventional question: everywhere repeated.
"Perfectly lovely!" she replied. "A wonderful voice! And such a pretty child!"
"I wonder," said he, "who the boy can be?"
Acting upon ingenuous impulse, the boy's mother overtook the man, timidly touched his elbow, looked into his eyes, her own bright with proud love.
"He is my son," she said.
The lady turned in amazement. In a brief, appraising glance, she comprehended the whole woman; the outré gown, the pencilled eyebrows, the rouged cheeks, the bleached hair. She took the man's arm.
"Come!" she said.
The man yielded. He bowed – smiled in an embarrassed way, flushing to his sandy hair: turned his back.
"How strange!" the lady whispered.
The woman was left alone in the aisle – not chagrined by the rebuff, being used to this attitude, sensitive no longer: but now knowing, for the first time, that the world into which her child had gone would not accept her… The church was empty. The organ had ceased. One by one the twinkling lights were going out. The boy came bounding down the aisle. With a glad little cry he leaped into her waiting arms…