CHAPTER XXXI 456
-- my powers heard a call from heaven to rise , gather their full strength , spread their wings , and mount beyond ken . God had an errand for me ; to bear which afar , to deliver it well , skill and strength , courage and eloquence , the best qualifications of soldier , statesman , and orator , were all needed : for these all centre in the good missionary .
" A missionary I resolved to be . From that moment my state of mind changed ; the fetters dissolved and dropped from every faculty , leaving nothing of bondage but its galling soreness -- which time only can heal . My father , indeed , imposed the determination , but since his death , I have not a legitimate obstacle to contend with ; some affairs settled , a successor for Morton provided , an entanglement or two of the feelings broken through or cut asunder -- a last conflict with human weakness , in which I know I shall overcome , because I have vowed that I WILL overcome -- and I leave Europe for the East ."
He said this , in his peculiar , subdued , yet emphatic voice ; looking , when he had ceased speaking , not at me , but at the setting sun , at which I looked too . Both he and I had our backs towards the path leading up the field to the wicket . We had heard no step on that grass-grown track ; the water running in the vale was the one lulling sound of the hour and scene ; we might well then start when a gay voice , sweet as a silver bell , exclaimed -
" Good evening , Mr . Rivers . And good evening , old Carlo . Your dog is quicker to recognise his friends than you are , sir ; he pricked his ears and wagged his tail when I was at the bottom of the field , and you have your back towards me now ."
It was true . Though Mr . Rivers had started at the first of those musical accents , as if a thunderbolt had split a cloud over his head , he stood yet , at the close of the sentence , in the same attitude in which the speaker had surprised him -- his arm resting on the gate , his face directed towards the west . He turned at last , with measured deliberation . A vision , as it seemed to me , had risen at his side . There appeared , within three feet of him , a form clad in pure white -- a youthful , graceful form : full , yet fine in contour ; and when , after bending to caress Carlo , it lifted up its head , and threw back a