The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-12-28


look at me. Poor Merry Ami
''Poor Merry Amir said Rebecca Rock, |
with all h r heart. She had fallen on her |
knees beside the dead, and had dropped her |
face into her hands,
'"And now, Rebecca,' said Sir Galahad. |
| 'Now Rebecca-" But when he saw her ON
her knees he dropped beside her and said no
! more. And when the landlady came in they
| did not ask her if it were proper; but she
said claw, yesp' as if they had, and turned
her face away.
And now, Rebecca," sail Sir Galahad
again-''now the grave is covered decent,
| and the room is swept, and the storm is over,
and I've waited four years for you, honest in
| the sight of God and the stars O Heaven, and
| Christmas comes O. Monday"
every well, said Rebecca.
81 don seem,' said Sir Galahad, ''to
have the words l thought 1 had to say, my
| girl. I'd got so used waiting; hadn't you?
l do not rightly see my way to take it natural
and safe. l think I'd not like, nor dare, my
dear, to have it any other day than Christ,
mas day; would you?"
| was glad there was no wind on Christ
| mas, and that the snow lay drifted over from
a little laughing storm; and that the sun
brooded with golden pinions in Primrose
Court; and that the town was full of holly:
and that the Lady Rebecca held spray of
myrt in her large firm hand, when she
walked with Sir Galahad to the minister's
| front door.
And when met Sir Galahad at the meat
stall, buying steak for dinner, and saw the
eyes and mile he carried in the sight of God
and Christmas day, bethoueht me of the
records of the Spotless Knight; how he
tried, stainless and alone-was found worthy
to be the guardian (''pure in thought and
word and deed') of the blessed cup from
which our Lord drank the last wine which
oh fny,oJ Sc
the kingdom of the Father; how his mortal
eye had beheld it, palled in red samite, treas
ured by 'agreat fellowship of angels; how his
mortal hand had laid hold of it and Heaven,
and his mortal name grew to be y holy thing
upon the lips of men forever; and how since
then twas there never one so hardy as to
say that he had seen the Sangreal on earth
any more"
''Sir Galahad," said 1, ''you have found the
Sangreal. ard have found youv'
But he, smiling, shook his head.
| Il don't feel alto sether sure. It seems to
me lnan don't know what he's found till
he's learned to bear his happiness as he bore
his longing fort, and his waiting an / his
.oss. But I can't help hoping, somehow,
mat I'm ut to be married on Christmas
day."
Such as it is, however, and for what it may
mean, this is the whisper. It would be
found, SO it is said, had we the eyes that see
or the ears that hear. signs or sounds of such
a matter, that certain of the old romanees
which we have been accustomed to regard as
finished ard ted for all time, are, in fact.
re-enacting and repeating themselves, with
tmldlty amounting almost stealth, in the
chilling and alien climate of orr modern civ
lllzatlon; that steam has not scorched out
valor, nor the telegraph overtaken chivalry
nor universal suffrage extinguished loyalty;
tnat the golden years did not go dumbly to
their graves as we are won't to think, that
they have arisen, like Lazarus, with their
ehin-clothes on, acquainted with things I'M
lawful to utter-reserVed, still visitors,
summed and strange. 1t is breathed that
somewhere walks the earth to-day the Blame
less King; it is limited that there somewhere
i1ides the Mismatvd Queen, 1T has been said
that at times the Vanished Knights of the
Round Table gather together in strange guise
to stranger conclave; that student familiar
with their story would be well puzzled should
he stumble upon them; that Sir Percival has
been seen in Pennsylvania coal mine; that
Bohort was discovered in New York one
day. in bricklayers apron with a trowel in
his hand that Isoude the Fair was all but
identified in a hospital at Washington dur
ing the War of the Rebellion that Launcelot
penitent and pale, may be heard, if one is so
fortunate as to trace him, in the form of a
certain street preacher, but little known
who gathers ill-favored men and women
about him in an unsavory part of the town a.
the decline of the Sunday afternoon; that
Guinevere is rumored to spend much time
alone in chamber looking towards the west,
engaged in keeping certain watch which
has been set her, for peril and a promise
which no man knows; that Arthur himself
filled post of high official importance at
Washington not long ago, and, escaping iden-
tihcatlon through two terms service, disap-
peared suddenly and mysteriously from public
hat cJa Ntf.
| ever will, but is adjudged to be the only i'm
mortal thing on earth, save the soul of man.
AS much as this, in common with few
| others, so far favored, had heard and forgot
| ten, till chance threw the whole chain of pref
| ty dreams before ne, by lasooing one link
around my very hands. As much as this I
found myself compelled to recall with more
than common thoughtfulness when 1 came
face to face with Sir Galahad at a. butchers
stall, last Christmas morning.
Did you ever knew a lost knight to be found
| until woman tracked him? Is it, therefore
surprising tina if it had not been for Rebecca
Rock, ST Galahad Holt would have escaped
recognition completely, and the modest num-
Der OF men and women now admitted to- the
secret OF the discovery have gone the hungri-
Grand the sadder for the loss?
1t was always matter of deep scientific
| speculation to Rebecca Rock why, when she
| came to town to find work in the neck-te fac
tory, she should have chosen lodgings in the
second back corner of Is Primrose Coult.
She would say: eff had hid on the western
slde7' or, Il had been able to pay the rent
OF the rom opposite the factoryp' Or s'How
near came to settling ON the little south at
tic of 1872
AS she sat and unused upon it with a puz-
zled face. If, indeed! What an 'Tf' it wssl
Such an If as there would have been in the
world if that other Rebecca had taken the
wrong road and missed of meeting Isaac in
! the desert at the set of the sun or if Eve had
lost her way in the shrubbery of Eden. and
| just happ ned not to find Adam till nobody
| knows whenl
Perhaps, too, such an If as there would
have been if Heloise had never gone to school
to Abelard, or Di Rimni had never seen her
| lovers face? She would have lost gran
| temptation. So much as that, Rebecca Rock.
cutting foundation" into strips for the pub
nc neck, eleven hours day, confusedly felt:
| but she had never heard of Heloise, and if she
had been obliged to sit beside Fra. cesca nj
Rimni in the neck-te factory she would have
| shrunk in the wounded wonder of a snow
drift from foot-mark.
How long it was before Galahad Holt. COM
ing home from the organ factory at seven
O'Clock to his solitary ground-floor lodgings at
l6 ~, noticed the tall woman in the blanket
shawl, who came in little later and passed
Hio uool III gong upstairs, now long before
sense OF anything more than tallness and a
shawl occurred to him; how soon he noticed
the outline of her arm when the shawl fell
from it, as she laid her large strong hand nm
on the bannisters; and when hefirst observed
the regular, calm echo which her step left nm.
on the croakng stairs; when first he met her
carrying a pail of water from the Conf. and
instead OF feeling moved to carry it for her
only thought how evenly she carried If for
herself; when first she smiled at suddenly oh
serving him; when first he gravely said GOOD
morning; when first he gravely Joined her il
they CHANGED upon the same side of the strest
in passing to and fro froh4 work; how first he
grayely learned to discuss with her the fall in
wages, and the wind we had on Saturday. tbe
rise in coal, and the sunset there would be to.
night; and when first he gravely came to feel
that wind and fuel, sun and payday were no
longer common matters for the common
world in consequence, but a heritage of his
and her discovery, ownership, and wealth, is
not accurately known.
Strictly speaking, he himself knew accurate |
y nothing. He worked, he ate, he slept: he |
sh'1 himself into his lonely lodging lit was so
sIu9uiar, said all the Court, in Sir Galabad to |