Beulah - Page 114/348

They were at home, and, only pausing at the door of Mrs. Watson's

room to tell the good woman the "music was charming," Beulah

hastened to her own apartment. Throwing herself into a chair, she

recalled the incidents of the evening, and her cheeks burned

painfully as her position in the eyes of the world was forced upon

her recollection. Tears of mortification rolled over her hot face,

and her heart throbbed almost to suffocation. She sank upon her

knees and tried to pray, but sobs choked her utterrance; and,

leaning her head against the bed, she wept bitterly.

Ah, is there not pain, and sorrow, and evil enough in this fallen

world of ours, that meddling gossips must needs poison the few pure

springs of enjoyment and peace? Not the hatred of the Theban

brothers could more thoroughly accomplish this fiendish design than

the whisper of detraction, the sneer of malice, or the fatal

innuendo of envious, low-bred tattlers. Human life is shielded by

the bulwark of legal provisions, and most earthly possessions are

similarly protected; but there are assassins whom the judicial arm

cannot reach, who infest society in countless hordes, and, while

their work of ruin and misery goes ever on, there is for the unhappy

victims no redress. Thy holy precepts, O Christ! alone can antidote

this universal evil.

Beulah calmed the storm that raged in her heart, and, as she took

the flowers from her hair, said resolutely: "Before long I shall occupy a position where there will be nothing

to envy, and then, possibly, I may escape the gossiping rack. Eugene

may think me a fool, if he likes; but support myself I will, if it

costs me my life. What difference should it make to him, so long as

I prefer it? One more year of study and I shall be qualified for any

situation; then I can breathe freely. May God shield me from all

harm!"