the morning of the procession had come—such a glorious morning!—bright sunshine, blue sky, and a soft breeze blowing down from the hill. at an early hour the whole town was astir. every one was anxious to join in or to see this procession; for the brave general for whose home-coming it was planned was the favourite of the town, and all were anxious to do him honour.
it seemed to them only a few days ago that they had seen his sturdy figure walking down the shady alley accompanied by his sons, fine fair-haired young fellows, who had since then fallen wounded to death in the dreadful battle of sedan.
those whose work could be got over in the early morning rose with the sun, so as to leave the afternoon free to do honour to their general. the washerwomen at the river's edge were battering their linen on the stones from early dawn, while the usually[pg 250] sulky river crept in to-day bright with little rivulets of gold; and the walls of the gray old castle were gay with flags, whose shining spear-heads caught the first rays of the rising sun.
in the streets the pigeons were already pecking happily, for the noisy tread of the early risers had disturbed them; and beneath the windows of violet's house a whole cluster were collected, madam adler having already risen and thrown out to them a large sieveful of corn which she had brought from the bakery for the purpose.
she looked up at violet's window before she turned to re-enter the shop, and sighed heavily. she had been, in the evening before, to see her little darling, and to show her ella dressed in her angel's garments,—soft white raiment, and glistening wings. but the effect on violet had been so overpowering that madam adler had hurried ella away, and had herself been obliged to listen to a lecture from evelina for having so thoughtlessly broken in on the child's evening sleep and set her heart beating with a distress too deep for words.
madam adler had made no reply to evelina's reproaches, for her own heart was too full of pain, to see the great change which had lately come over the little wan face; and when she saw the sudden lustre[pg 251] which burned in violet's eyes at the first sight of ella with the white dress and the shining wings, and then listened to the passionate sobbing which followed, she had gone back to her own house overwhelmed with grief at the result of her visit, and she longed for the day of the procession to be over, that the subject might pass away from violet's mind, and ella's wings be folded up and put away.
ella, upstairs in her room, was awake also this morning at an unusually early hour. she could not rest, with the joyous expectation of being an angel and walking in the great procession; and ever so many times she had risen and gone over and touched with her soft, fat fingers the wings so beautifully tipped with silver and shining with stars, and which lay upon the table in the middle of the room: but every time she looked at them a sorrowful remembrance came over her of violet's face and her bitter tears; and at last the little girl walked back to her bedside, and kneeling down said softly,—
"oh, thou good lord jesus, be very kind to poor violet in the house opposite, and give her wings too, like ella!"
she looked up very steadily at the ceiling as she said these words. her wide-open eyes seemed to see far up above the roof and the chimneys and the[pg 252] storks. the soft yellow hair was straggling out in long loops and curls from under her linen night-cap, her elbows rested on the bed, and her dimpled fingers were clasped. was she, after all, so unlike an angel, this "fat miss ella," at whose appearance evelina could not restrain her laughter?
when ella had finished her little prayer, and was just saying "amen" in a rather loud voice, the door opened and fritz walked in.
"what art thou doing, ella?" he said rather curiously. "out of bed already, at this early hour, and saying thy prayers! dost thou think thou art an angel already?"
ella blushed crimson as she stood up, and she shuffled her little pink feet over each other uneasily on the carpet.
"it was only about violet," she said nervously, and her eyes travelled back again to the wings shining so softly on the dark oil-cloth cover of the table.
"so thou hast been thinking of her too," said fritz, drawing a deep breath. "i have thought of nothing else all night, and that is why i too am up so early, and dressed, as thou seest, for going out."
ella had noticed that fritz had his cap in his hand, and she had wondered at it.
[pg 253]
"well, well?" she asked open-mouthed.
"well, i am going off to the police barrack to try and see violet's friend. mother told me last night that she heard the procession was not to pass through our street at all, but was to turn up by the cathedral and across the market square to the station; and then poor violet could not see it at all, or hear any of the music. mother says she is glad, but i am not a bit; for look at this, ella." fritz drew from his trowsers pocket a little crumpled scrap of paper and spread it out upon the palm of his hand. "she dropped this out of the window to me last night;—and i know this one thing." fritz spoke in a curious, husky voice, and turned away his face.
"what thing, fritz?"
"violet will never send me any more notes. look at this;—i was half an hour before i could make it out."
there was a large v, and then a lot of trembling up-and-down strokes without any pretence at printing, only there was a dot over one stroke, and a letter something like a "t" at the end; then came the word "wants," pretty fairly readable; then another trembling set of meaningless lines, and the word "angels;" and again a word which fritz after much trouble had made out to be "sing."
[pg 254]
"violet wants to hear the angels sing;" that was her message.
"and i am going straight now to the barracks, and i shall show this to our policeman, and he shall go to the general's wife, and they shall arrange together that the procession is to go through this street. i have settled it all in the night when i was lying awake."
"perhaps the general's wife will not do it."
"perhaps she will, thou little ass," replied fritz curtly, as he banged the door after him and went out.
"ah, if i could give violet my wings," said ella softly, as, once more returning to the table, she touched the silver pinions which lay spread out upon it shiningly; "but the good lord jesus is much much kinder than ella, and perhaps he will lend her some wings just for this one day."
ella went over to the casement and looked across and down at the closed shutters of violet's window. she was singing softly to herself the words of the angels' song, which her mother had with much care been teaching to her for the last few days,—
"angels, sing on, your faithful watches keeping,
sing us sweet fragments of the songs above,
till morning's joy shall end the night of weeping,
and life's long shadows break in endless love."
ella had the sweetest childish voice that one could[pg 255] hear anywhere: yes, it was for this reason she had been chosen to form one of the angel-choir, and now as she came to the end of her verse, she sang out the chorus loud and clearly,—
"angels of jesus,
angels of light,
singing to welcome
the pilgrims of night."
ella did not quite understand what the words of the hymn meant, though her mother had given many long minutes to their explanation. she only knew they were about the good lord jesus, and she felt that they were words violet would love to hear; so she sang them loud enough and clear enough for the sound to reach her ears were she awake.
but there was no stir in the oriel window except a burst of song from the canary opposite, behind whose cage the curtains of violet's casement had been loosely folded; but the blind in the room next to hers was at this moment quickly drawn up, and ella saw evelina look out hurriedly into the street, and then withdraw as quickly behind the table. she was up early, too, and dressed already in a pretty white and blue muslin dress, which she was evidently trying on before the looking-glass, for ella saw her take up some blue bows from the table and pin them on her[pg 256] dress, arranging them first in one place and then in another until she was satisfied with their effect.
ella wondered that evelina should be so smartly dressed at so early an hour; but she wondered still more when she saw her turn back a moment from the window and then reappear with a large leghorn hat in her hand, covered with some pale blue flowers, and lined with a pretty light blue satin, the same colour as the ribbon bows upon her dress.
she turned it backwards and forwards for a few moments, picking up the blue flowers with her fingers, just here and there where they stuck too closely to the straw; and she bent the broad flap a little to one side, and pinned it up with much care; and then she placed it on her head, smiling a little and moving to and fro in front of the mirror. all at once she turned and walked away. ella saw her hurriedly snap off the hat and throw it on the bed, and then move forward as if towards violet's room. ella watched for her to come back; but at last growing tired of waiting she lay down on her little bed, and, still humming the angels' chorus, she fell into a light sleep.
before, however, she had quite wandered off into the land of dreams the door of her room opened again, and fritz came in with flushed face and excited manner.
[pg 257]
"it is all of no use," he cried, flinging his cap down at the foot of the bed. "i have seen the policeman, and he says it is no good for him to ask."
"and he will not even try?" asked ella, opening her sleepy eyes.
"oh yes, he will try. he has gone off now to see the colonel; but he knows it is all no use." fritz sat down on the side of ella's little cot, and suddenly burst out crying.
"i wish i had never told her anything about it," he said sobbing.
"why, dear fritz?" and ella threw her fat arms round her brother's neck.
"that old cat evelina told the policeman that since i had told violet about the angels she has had no sleep and can eat nothing, and that in a few days she will be quite dead."
"quite dead," echoed ella mournfully; "and poor fritz will never see her nor speak to her any more."
"hush, ella," cried fritz, springing up from the bed angrily; "fritz will see her again. fritz will speak to violet again. he will go this instant and ask the lord jesus this very day to make her quite well, to take all the sickness away from her; and the lord jesus must listen to fritz this time, for he will go out on the very top of the house and call ever so[pg 258] loud, so loud that he must hear him." and fritz, his face all quivering with the anguish of the moment, started up and rushed wildly out of the room; and ella heard his feet ascending the little wooden ladder that led out among the nasturtiums and the red geraniums on to the red-tiled roof above.
