The Richest Heart

Chapter 25

The sound of music flooded the room with a sweetness and a joy. Emiline closed her eyes and soaked in each perfect note. It was elegant and more beautiful than anything the girl had ever heard. She gathered her skirt into one hand as she danced across the floor, believing for three wonderful seconds that she was a fair lady at a ball. But, as the music came to a gentle stop, she knew that none of that was true.

"That was beautiful, Anna!" she cried, opening her eyes and clapping as Susan's cousin lifted her fingers from the piano's keys. "How did you learn to play that way?" Anastasia gave her a proud smile, as if she was a performer on a stage.

"Years of practice and love, My Dear," she answered. "Music is the cry of a heart too many times broken and just beginning to find life again. It's like a dream that's too good to be true; one that you never want to end; the breath of the wind reviving a faint soul." Anastasia's words were like music themselves. Emiline couldn't always understand them, but she liked to hear the dramatic lady speak.

"Wouldn't Peter be happy if he could hear this," Emma thought, listening as Anna began a new song.

Of course, Anastasia played ten times better than Peter did, and his simple hymns couldn't compare to the exciting, new songs that the city girl chose. But, if Emma had really thought about it, she would have seen that there was something pure and dear about Peter's hymns that Anna's music didn't have; it was the praise of a good heart crying out to God. Jesus is the only one who can give life to broken hearts. Without him everything we try to do is empty and meaningless.

Across the room, Susan was sitting in a big chair with a little heap of fabric on her lap. There was a gentle smile on her face, but Emiline could tell that her mind wasn't focused on music and poetry or dreams about balls. There was a sparkle of scheming in her eyes as if she was making a plan. Anna glanced at her curiously.

"Dearest cousin, may I ask what you are doing?" she said, turning the page of her music book and setting her fingers to work at the keys again. "You've been very busy with something over there and you've hardly said a word to me all morning! What sort of wonders are you working?" Susan laughed.

"Nothing very wonderful, Anna," she answered. "But it's so much fun! I've been sewing! Emiline's mother taught me how!" An off-key clamor broke through the air as Anastasia's fingers fumbled. Suddenly the lady turned around, her eyes wide with a question.

"You've been what?" she asked in surprise. Susan looked up at her calmly.

"Sewing," she answered proudly. In unspeakable shock, Anastasia mouthed the word without making a noise. Emiline stared at her, almost wanting to laugh. The young woman looked horrified. At last she found her voice.

"Oh, my poor darling!" she exclaimed at last. "Has it really come to this? My own dear cousin so poor that she has to...sew her own clothes?!" She gasped and lifted a hand to her brow. "I knew no good would come of you and Auntie leaving the city! Just as I had feared! You've been forced to live the life of a pauper!" She let out a pitying moan, but Susan and Emma started to laugh.

"Don't be silly, Anna!" Susan giggled. "I don't do it because we're poor! I do it because it's fun! I love sewing!" the girl explained cheerfully. "And look at what I made," she added, standing up to show off the simple gown she was wearing that day. Anastasia eyed it skeptically. "I couldn't love it more," Susan continued. " And sewing is such a delightful hobby, isn't it Emiline?" Emma gave a start as her friend pulled her into the conversation.

"Hobby?" she repeated in her mind. "Sewing?" She tried to hide a smirk and wriggled awkwardly. To her, stitching and mending were chores, and she never liked chores.