what I must say. But the spokenwords stunned me, for all that.
"I suppose," said papa, not lightly, "you will think so tillyou are tried; and then you will take a woman's privilege ofchanging your mind. But if the trial is to come in that shape,Daisy, it is very far off. There are no men of your way ofthinking, my pet."
He kissed me as he said it; and I could not for a momentspeak.
"But we will go to Palestine, papa?"
"Yes, we will go to Palestine. That is fixed. You and I willtake a holiday, and for a while give up all thoughts ofmarrying and giving in marriage."
CHAPTER XIV.
FLIGHT
I am coming to the holiday of my life; a time that seems, as Ilook back to it, like a chequered mosaic of pleasure pieceslaid in bright colours, all in harmony, and making out apattern of beauty. It is odd I should speak so; for I haveknown other holidays, when fewer clouds were in my sky andfewer life-shadows stretching along the landscape.Nevertheless, this is how it looks to me in the retrospect;and to write of it, is like setting the pins of that mosaicwork over again. Not one of them is lost in my memory.
Truly I have known other holidays; yet never one that took meout of so much harassment and perplexity. And I could not getrid of all my burdens, even in Palestine; but somehow I gotrid of all my anxious trouble about them. I had left behind somuch, that I accepted even thankfully all that remained. I wasfree from mamma's schemes for me, and cleared from the pursuitof those who seconded her schemes; they could not follow me inthe Holy Land. No more angry discussions of affairs at home,and words of enmity and fierce displeasure toward the part ofthe nation that held my heart. No more canvassing of war news;not much hearing of them, even; a clean escape from thedemands of society and leisure for a time to look into myheart and see what condition it was in. And to my greatastonishment I had found the love of admiration and theambition of womanly vanity beginning to stir again; in me, whoknew better things, and who really did not value these; in me,who had so much to make me sober and keep down thoughts offolly. I found that I had a certain satisfaction when enteringa room, to know that the sight of me gave pleasure; yes, more;I liked to feel that the sight of no one else gave so muchpleasure. I could hardly understand, when I came to look atit, how so small a satisfaction could have taken possession ofmy mind; I was very much ashamed; but the fact remained. Whenwe set sail for Palestine I got clear, at least for the time,from all this. I hoped for ever. - And it was exceedinglysweet to find myself alone with papa.
How mamma ever consented to the plan, I do not know. Becausepapa had settled it and given his word, perhaps; for in thosecases I know she never interfered; necessity made her yield.She would not go with us; she went to Paris, where Aunt Garywas come for the winter. Ransom went home to join the army;and papa and I took our holiday. I ought not to have been sohappy, with so many causes of anxiety on my mind; Ransom inthe war on one side, and Christian already engaged on theopposite side; both in danger, not to speak of other friendswhom I knew; and my own and Mr. Thorold's future so very darkto look forward to. But I was happy. I believe, the veryenormous pressure of things to trouble me, helped me to throwoff the weight. In fact, it was too heavy for me to bear. Ihad trusted and given up myself to God; it was not a mocktrust or submission; I laid off my cares, or in the expressiveBible words, "rolled them" upon him. And then I went light.Even my self-spoken sentence, the declaration that I ought notto marry a person who was not a Christian, did not crush me asI thought it would. Somebody has said very truly, "There is ahealing power in truth." It is correct in more ways than one.And especially in truth towards God, in whole-hearted devotionto him, or as the Bible says again, in "wholly following theLord," there is strength and healing; "quietness and assurancefor ever." I was no nearer despair now than I had been before.And I was more ready for my holiday.
My holiday began on board the steamer, among the novelvarieties of character and costume by which I found myselfsurrounded. I was certainly getting far away from the Americanwar, far from Parisian saloons; I could not even regret theDome of Florence. And I shall never forget the minute when Ifirst looked upon the coast of Jaffa. I had been in the cabinand papa called me; and with the sight, a full, delicioussensation of pleasure entered my heart, and never left it, Ithink, while I stayed in the land. The picture is all beforeme. The little white town, shining in the western sun on itshill, with its foot in the water; the surf breaking on therocks; and the long line of high land in the distance, which Iknew was the hill country of Palestine. I was glad, with afulness of gladness. Even the terrors of landing through thesurf could not dash my pleasure, though the water was notquiet enough to make it safe, and I did not see how we werepossibly to get through. I thought we would, and we did; andthen out of the confusion on the quay we found our way to anice little hotel. Few things I suppose are nice in Jaffa; butthis really seemed clean, and I am sure it was pleasant. TheOriental style of the house - the courtyard, and alcove rooms,stone floors and cushioned divans, - were delightful to me.And so was our first dinner there; papa and I alone, tired andhungry, and eating with the Mediterranean full in sight, andthe sun going down "ayont the sea." I established a truce withsorrowful thoughts that evening, and slept the night throughin peace. The next morning papa found me standing at thewindow of one of our rooms that looked inward from the sea.
"Well, Daisy," said he, putting his hands on my shoulders - "Ihave got my Daisy of ten years old back again. What is itnow?"
"Oh, papa," I exclaimed, "look at the housetops! I have readof housetops all my life; and now here they are!"
"They have been here all the time, Daisy."
"But - it is so impossible to realise without seeing it, papa.It was on such a housetop that Peter was when he had hisvision. You can see, it is the pleasantest part of the house,papa. I should like to sleep on the housetop, as they do insummer; with only the stars over me. How nice!"
"What was Peter's vision, besides the stars?"
"Papa! Not the stars; his vision was at noonday. I have justbeen reading about it. How delicious the Bible will be here!"
"It is always delicious to you, I think," papa said; I fanciedrather sadly. "It is a taste you were born with. Sit down andread me about that vision."
But it was papa that sat down, and I stood by the window, andwe read together those chapters of the Acts; and papa grewvery much interested, and we had an excellent talk allbreakfast time. The strange dishes at breakfast helped theinterest too; the boiled rice and meat, and the fish and thepomegranates. I seemed to have my living in Bible times aswell as places. The Mediterranean lay sparkling before us; asit was before Peter no doubt when he went up to that housetopto pray. The house is gone; but it is the same sea yet.
"I shall always look upon Jaffa with respect," said papa, atlast; "since here it was that the gates of religion werepublicly set open for all the world, and the key taken out ofthe hands of the Jews. It is a little place too, to haveanything of so much interest belonging to it."
"That is not all, papa," I said. "Solomon had the cedar forthe Temple, and for all his great buildings, floated downhere."
"Solomon!" said papa.
"Don't you remember, sir, his great works, and the timber hehad to get from Lebanon?"
"Did it come this way?"
"The only way it could come, papa; and then it had to go byland up to Jerusalem - the same way that we are going; thirty-three miles."
"Where did you learn so much about it?"
"That isn't much, papa; all that is in Murray; but now may Iread you about Solomon's floats of timber, while you arefinishing that pomegranate?"
"Read away," said papa. "Pomegranates are not ripe now, arethey?"
"They keep, papa."
Papa laughed at me, and I read to him as much as I liked; andhe was almost as much engaged as I was.
"We'll go out and look at this famous harbour for lumber," hesaid. "It is not good for much else, Daisy; I thoughtyesterday we should certainly make shipwreck on that reef. Isit possible th
ere is no better along the coast."
"It is not what we would call a harbour at all, papa. Nothingbut little boats can get through that narrow opening in thereef; and I suppose, Solomon's cedar timber got through."
"The ships of old time were not much more than our boats, manyof them," said my father. "How delightfully you realiseeverything, Daisy!"
"Well, papa, - don't you?"
"Not the past, child. I realise _you_ by my side."
"Papa, if you think about it a little, you will realise Joppatoo."
"I have not your imagination, Daisy. About Solomon's temple, -there is nothing of it left now, I suppose?"
"Oh, no,