Nature's organ was dumb now
that the hands which played upon it so skillfully had passed far away. But
she was loyal to her teacher; she remembered many things which he had said
and tried hard to feel as he felt, to put her hand in beautiful Mother
Nature's and walk with her and be at peace. Mister Jan would soon return;
the fortnight was already past; each day as she rose she felt he might come
to claim her before the evening.
And, meanwhile, other concerns occupied her thoughts. The voice which spoke
to her after she bid John Barren "good-by," had since then similarly
sounded on the ear of her heart. Alike at high noon and in the silence of
the night watches it addressed her; and the mystery of it, taken with her
other sorrows, began to affect her physically. For the first time in her
life the girl felt ill in body. Her appetite failed, dawn found her sick
and weary; her glass told her of a white, unhappy face, of eyes that were
lighted from within and shone with strange thoughts. She was always
listening now--listening for the new voice, that she might hear the word it
uttered. Her physical illness she hid with some cunning and put a bright
face upon life as far as she could do so before those of her home; but the
task grew daily more difficult. Then, with a period of greatly increased
discomfort, Joan grew alarmed and turned to the kind God of "Mister Jan,"
and made great, tearful praying for a return of strength.
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