“I know for whom it was intended,” said the General’s lady, “but I shall
not say it. I don’t think it. Heaven disposes, but I shall be astonished.”
“I am astonished also!” said the General. “I haven’t an idea in my head!”
And he fell into a reverie, waiting for ideas.
There is a power, a nameless power, in the possession of favor from
above, the favor of Providence, and this favor little George had. But we are
forgetting the birthday.
Emily’s room was fragrant with flowers, sent by male and female friends;
on the table lay beautiful presents for greeting and remembrance, but none
could come from George-none could come from him; but it was not
necessary, for the whole house was full of remembrances of him. Even out
of the ash-bin the blossom of memory peeped forth, for Emily had sat
whimpering there on the day when the window-curtain caught fire, and
George arrived in the character of fire engine. A glance out of the window,
and the acacia tree reminded of the days of childhood. Flowers and leaves
had fallen, but there stood the tree covered with hoar frost, looking like a
single huge branch of coral, and the moon shone clear and large among the
twigs, unchanged in its changings, as it was when George divided his bread
and butter with little Emily.
Out of a box the girl took the drawings of the Czar’s palace and of her
own castle-remembrances of George. The drawings were looked at, and
many thoughts came. She remembered the day when, unobserved by her
father and mother, she had gone down to the porter’s wife who lay dying.
Once again she seemed to sit beside her, holding the dying woman’s hand in
hers, hearing the dying woman’s last words: “Blessing George!” The
mother was thinking of her son, and now Emily gave her own interpretation
to those words. Yes, George was certainly with her on her birthday.
It happened that the next day was another birthday in that house, the
General’s birthday. He had been born the day after his daughter, but before
her of course-many years before her. Many presents arrived, and among
them came a saddle of exquisite workmanship, a comfortable and costly
