INTO DEEP WATERS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 8990, 1 January 1895, Page 2

INTO DEEP WATERS.

Br Bichakd Prtce. Author of "Deck Chair Stories, Just Impediment." "Miss Maxwell's Affections, Sec Something struck the vicar in Mj daughter's appearance that day. He was a _rta» man. and generally he remarked littlo that did not concern his work. Her eyes sparkled, and she was full of some myatery. He was reminded other childish __?£_-- she used to prepare "surprises," and he thought as he looked at her that after all she was not much changed by fengtheniiig of frocks and twisting her hair up. . . _ ~_. Then he retreated once more into _imself. She had no remarkable beauty from any classical point of view. Her features were not regular, and an analysis of ber claim to even prettiness would have shown it to be slender. Yet Sibyl North was pretty, and she had that nameless charm that is more potent than perfection. Her mouth was good and so were her teeth, and as she was always laughing you saw them well and knew how white and even they were. Her eyes were not large nor was their colour in any way noticeable, but they danced with mischief and merriment. Her hair was brown and curly. It was long too, and she was very proud of it. She had the happy temperament that is not ruffled by the thousand and one small worries of life. She was not spared any of these, I suppose, but she rede buoyantly over them like a craft so light that the waves carry it safely above the rocks against which a heavier vessel would be broken. She was splendidly healthy, and this perhaps made it easy to be light- ; hearted. .. Mr North was a widower with a family of six, of whom Sibyl was the eldest. She kept house for him and she helped the governess with the children's lessons. She played cricket with the boys in the field behind the house in the holidays. She mended stockings, she patched youthful knees, she knitted, and she read to her father. She had always a lap or a bosom to be cried on by the five year old boy or the six year old little sister, and she could comfort either and turn their tears into smiles. She packed for the brothers when they went to school, and she hid a cake 1 somewhere amongst their clothes to cheer their homesickness.

Mr North was a silent man who had given himself up to books. He was short in his manner, and his children regarded him with awe. Sybil was looked upon as mediator, but mediation was little necessary since all authority was vested in herself and the governess. To Sybil only did he show the warmer side of his nature. He liked to have her with him. He put into her willing hands much that was precious—and tedious too—of his work, and she copied for him, and made copious extracts. He seldom praised her in words. It was not his way.

" I should like a picture of you," he said one day, suddenly. Sybil looked up in surprise. " A picture, father?" He was silent for a few moments.

"Well, a photograph," he said, presently, and speaking slowly. "As a family this has been neglected. Your mother died and I have no likeness of her."

He said nothing more and the subject dropped. Sybil went on with her work of correcting proofs. A smile curved the comers of her mouth and her eyes twiukled. Her thoughts wandered.

From the study window she could see the waves beating on the shore. The vicarage stood on the Cornish coast. It was on tbe outskirts of a fiahing village and four miles from a town. The smell of the sea and the taste of brine were In the air when presently Sybil put down her work and, went out.

William North opened the window and looked after her. He, too, noted tbe smell of the sea. The air seemed full of spray and the waves broke themselves on the shore with iusistance. It was on the nezt day that Sybil wore her air of mystery. Mr North's birthday was approaching and the children were getting up a play. Instinctively he connected with this her sparkling eyes that seemed of themselves to be chuckling over something, and a mysterious visit to tbe town. He remembered afterwards her look upon that day.

The play progressed. William North unbent somewhat and quizzed thechildren as to the surprise they were getting up for him.

" Buj; Sybil's got a real surprise," said Mabey, the youngest girl, blurting out in an excess of affectionate confidence part of the secret of her sister.

" Hush," said Sybil. " You little blab," cried the boys, " Oae can't tell you anything." *'The mysterious visit to the town!" said Mr North. ' i "Be quiet, father, you're not to know," said Sybil. " Mabey, I told you not to say a word about it." "Yes, Mabey shall have her tongue tied," cried one of tbe~boys.

"You little tell-tale," said tbe other, and Mabey subsided into tears in Sybil's lap.

Mr North watch her as she soothed the little thing's distress. How gentle she was.

"Oh; my girl!" he said to himself suddenly. Her goodness seemed revealed to him in that moment.

"There's a spring-tide to-night," said Arthur; " Jack and I are going to Tether's Point to see it. Old Tremlin says it will be one of the highest ever known, and there's a splendid sea on already."

The younger children clamoured to be allowed to go too.

"No," said Sybil, "you, Willie and Mabey, must stay with mc. Tether's Point is too far for you to walk, besides it will not be high tide before your bedtime.El.ie, you can go with them if you like, but you must put on your strong boots, and tell nurse to tie my woollen scarf across your chest.

Willie and Mabey began to protest. ~ Mr North returned to his severe manner and silenced them.

"Sybil says no, and that is enough," he said, —" not another word."

Their mouths turned down.

" I think they might come down to the beach,, sir," said Sybil, - seeing their disappointment. "It Is only Tether's Point that is too far. Mabey, be good and ask father if you. may come down with mc for a quarter of an hour before going to bed.''

Mabey shrunk back . behind her "eider sister's skirts.

" But Sybil meant to go to Tether's Point herself" said Elsie, "yon know you did Sybil. You told mc so. You wanted to see the waves."

" I can see them just as well on the shore here," said Sybil.

" Why should yon sacrifice yourself to these children?" said Mr North testily. " Why can't their governess take them V

"She is lying down with a headache, sir, and nurse has a cold, and I can't send one of the other servants out to-night. Besides, I like to go with the children."

" Well, just as you like," said Mr North crossly. He went to his study*

The wind was roaring ronnd the house and the waves thundered on the shore. He settled himself to his work. He dipped his pen in the ink and looked at the ruled paper before biro. He dipped his pen in the ink again and yet again. He wrote a sentence, read it over, altered a word, and finally cancelled the whole with a line. Then he began once more. The house shook in the fierceness of the gale. A draught came from the chimney. Presently he heard the boys and Elsie s'arting. He heard their boots on the hall, and Elsie's strong pair creaked. Arthur

ungallantly told her that they made his head ache. Mr North smiled drily as he heard El*ie retort that they had been Arthur's bofore they were her's, and that they would be his still only that they had ceased to fit him. "And I'm not surprised," she added, " though they're miles too big for mc."

The door slammed on the areument.

The he heard tho pattering of Mabey and Willy and their excited voices calling for Sybil. _/ "Coming, coming, coming!' sounded in her voice from upstairs. He heard her bounding lightly down with a jump at the last four steps. Then it struck him that he had spoken crossly to her—even though it had been on her own behalf—and as she passed the study door he called to her. '• What is it, father ?" "Nothing. I want to kiss you, that's all." "Dear old father." " I am a bear someMmes." «* Never, father. Naver a bear to mc." "Sibyl r •Yes, dear." "Do the children love mc V " Yes, father, you are a little bit sharp with them sometimes." She laid her face against his. " Try to be gentle with them. They are children. They don't understand."

" How good you are, Sibyl." After that he moved as it ho would go on with his work. The children had opened the hall door and they had admitted the four winds of heaven.

" Now I must be off," she said.

He never knew what impulse moved him, but he followed her to the.door and there he kissed her again. When he went back to his writing-table there were tears in his eyes. Half an hour passed. It was filled in the study by the sound of the scratching of a pen. The vicar wrote that night a sermon that he never preached. The text was taken from the thirty-fir.t chapter of Proverbs and the twenty-niuth verse. „ He heard the children come in, and he called to them.

"Where is your sister, dear?" he asked of Mabey. " She sent us in because it was time for us to go to bed, and she has stopped because she wanted, to see the sea, and so we're to go to nurse."

"And oh, the sea's so rough," said Willy, " and there are great big enormous waves as big as—oh, ever so big I And Mabey's hat nearly blew away, and our coats are quite wet,"

"Go and take them off, my boy. Good night, little man. Good night, Mabey. Run along."

Sybil sood on the beach and watched the sea. Her clothes were twisted round her by the gale, and her hair had been blown loose and was slapping her face, and flapping like ribbons. Every wave seemed to dig into tbe shore as it broke With the crashing of a thousand guns, and then rushed up the sloping shingle. It tore the stones back with a grinding sound on its receding. Spray stood in drops on Sybil's face and on the nap of her rough coat. Foam lay like yellow snow in a long line that was washed higher and higher. How the wind roared and bow the sea thundered I Sybil breathed a prayed tor all-who were at the mercy of the waters. What a free and superb curve was that of the breaking wave I There must be for a moment a hollow, she thought, under each, as the hollow under the Falls of Niagara, where you can stand unwet in the heart of the cataract.

In the wild evening the g'amour of the storm took possession of her. She was buffeted by the wind and wet by the spray till it seemed to be that the tempest awoke a kindred spirit within her. She would like to dash into those angry waves and help in the havoc of the night. How rapturous to be a mermaid, to dive through those monstrous breakers, to ride npon tbe crests of them, to throw yourself backwards thence with outstretched arms, to turn and tumble and dance till you churned them to further foam!

She stood looking at the sea with a fascination that made her heedless of all but her fancies* Thenherheart stood still. A black mountain was advancing towards her. Had the whole sea heaped itself into one stupendous: wave?

There was the noise of the crushing Of a world.

In bis study the vicar looked up from his sermon.

" What was that ? " he said aloud. There was silence in the houso and then a screaming. The women rushed from their quarters. " The water's coming up the garden." The maid who spoke was white to the lips. Mr North went to the door and opened it. There was a sound in the garden that bad never been heard before, It was the rushing back of the water. It flowed down in a fiat sheet to the basin of the sea.

" A tidal wave," said the vicar, " it will not occur again."

"I thought it was the end of the world," said the nurse," it's a mercy the children were in. But Where's the boys and Miss Elsie?"

The vicar threw up his arms.

"Sibyl 1" he said, "Slbyll Where is Sibyl! My God, don't tell mc she isn't with you." - -

The servants looked at each other in blank affright. No one had seen her. No one had heard her come in.

"Can't you answer?" said: the .vicar, turning to them snch a frenzied look as not one of them will ever forget. They shrank back. The.nursa began to sob. .

Mr North ran down the garden splashing through the water that liad been left in pools upon the grass. The sea had fallen back to its accustomed place. There was nothing on the beach, but high np the line of yellow foam. The vicar ran hither and thither on the shore. He seemed bereft of his senses. The women followed him, keeping close together. 'He stopped and faced them.

" What shall I do ?" he said helplessly, "What shall I do?"

" Where are tbe boys and Elsie I" said the nurse.

"Tether's Point. They are safe—but Sybil. Oh, dear God, Sybil, Sybil."

He began to sob. His knees shook. He wore no hat and his grey hair was blowing in the wind. His long coat flapped around him. Sorpj64>f the parishioners gathered on the shore! The servants ran to them Old Tremlin said no boat could put out in such a sea—and if she could, what good ?

"But Miss Sybil!" he said, "It can't be true, the Lord couldn't let it."

The night was spent In search. Parties were quickly organised, and sent out in both directions. From Tether's Point came the boys and Elsif. "It washed up to within a foot of us. Did you all come out to see it? " " Was Sybil with you ? Have you seen Sybils"

They had not. With white faces they joined in the search. The pitiless sea fell back yard by yard, and with the dawn the wind dropped. - £ '

The vicar, a stricken man, raised his lined face to heaven.

"Tby way is in tho sea*" he said, " Thy path in the great waters;" aud again, "Hitherto shall thou come but no further: and here shall tby proud waves be stayed.'. Is It true, oh Lord? Is it true?"

It Was many days before there lay one morning at daybreak-upon tbe beach that which bad once been Sybil, It lay still in the grey light, and the ripples washed to and fro gently the hair that'looked like seaweed. Then the water* fell. Tbey had done their worst and they gave back tbeir plaything to the earth.

The post brought a little packet to the vicnr On his birthday. He opened it without iutercst. But it held Sybil's photograph.