Chapter 12

A HEART THAT WAITS

Late summer on the Norfolk Broads! And where on earth can the lover of
boats find a more charming resort? How alluring are the mysterious
entrances to these Broads! where a boat seems to make an insane dive
into a hopeless cul de sac of a ditch, and then suddenly emerges on a
wide expanse of water, teeming with pike and bream and eels; and fringed
with a border of plashy ground, full of reeds and willows and flowering
flags; and alive with water fowl.

Now close to the Manor of Hyde, the country home of Earl Hyde in
Norfolk, there was one of these delightful Broads--flat as a billiard
table, and hidden by the tall reeds which bordered it. But Annie Hyde
lying at the open window of her room in the Manor House could see its
silvery waters, and the black-sailed wherry floating on them, and the
young man sitting at the prow fishing, and idling, among the lilies and
languors of these hot summer days. Her hands were folded, her lips
moved, she was asking of some intelligence among the angels, grace and
favour for one who was dearer to her than her own life or happiness.

An aged man sat silently by her, a man of noble beauty, whose soul was
in every part of his body, expressive and impressive--a fiery particle
not always at its window, but when there, infecting and going through
observers, whether they would or not. He was dressed altogether in
black, and had fine small hands, a thin austere face and clean sensitive
lips which seemed to say, "He hath made us kings and priests"--a man of
celestial race, valuing things at their eternal, not at their temporal
worth.

There had been silence for some time between them, and he did not appear
disposed to break it; but Annie longed for him to do so, because she had
a mystical appetite for sacred things, and was never so happy and so
much at rest as when he was talking to her of them. For she loved God,
and had been led to the love of God by a kind of thirst for God.

"Dear father," she said finally, "I have been thinking of the past
years, in which you have taught me so much."

"It is better to look forward, Annie," he answered. "The traveller to
Eternity must not continually turn back to count his steps; for if God
be leading him, no matter how dangerous or lonely the road, 'He will
pluck thy feet out of the net.'"

"Even in the valley of death?"

"'BE NOT AFRAID! NOTHING OF THEE WILL DIE!"' Take these sweet
compassionate words of Jesus, as He wept by the dying bed of Joseph, His
father, into thy heart. Blessed are the homesick, Annie! for they shall
get home."

"All my life I have loved God, and His love has been over me."