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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6627.txt b/6627.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8504fbc --- /dev/null +++ b/6627.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16462 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Barriers Burned Away, by E. P. Roe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Barriers Burned Away + +Author: E. P. Roe + +Posting Date: September 8, 2012 [EBook #6627] +Release Date: October, 2004 +First Posted: January 5, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARRIERS BURNED AWAY *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "HE MAY GET LOST IN THE STORM."] + +The Works of E. P. Roe + +VOLUME FIVE + +BARRIERS BURNED AWAY + +ILLUSTRATED + + + +NEW YORK + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by + +In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington + +COPYRIGHT, 1882 + +COPYRIGHT, 1885 + +COPYRIGHT, 1892 + +COPYRIGHT, 1900, + + + + +This Book + +IS REVERENTLY DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER + + + + +PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION + +I shall say but few words in regard to this first child of my +imagination. + +About one year ago our hearts were in deepest sympathy with our +fellow-citizens of Chicago, and it occurred to me that their losses, +sufferings, and fortitude might teach lessons after the echoes of the +appalling event had died away in the press; and that even the lurid +and destructive flames might reveal with greater vividness the need +and value of Christian faith. + +I spent some days among the smouldering ruins, and then began the +following simple story, which has grown into larger proportions than +I at first intended. But comparatively a small part of the narrative +is occupied with the fire, for its scenes are beyond description, and +too strange and terrible to be dwelt upon. Therefore the thread of my +story is carried rapidly through that period of unparalleled excitement +and disaster. + +Nearly all the scenes introduced are historical, and are employed to +give their terrible emphasis to that which is equally true in the +serenest and securest times. + +E. P. R. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I +LOVE UNKNOWN + +CHAPTER II +LOVE KNOWN + +CHAPTER III +LAUNCHED + +CHAPTER IV +COLD WATER + +CHAPTER V +A HORNET'S NEST + +CHAPTER VI +"STARVE THEN!" + +CHAPTER VII +A GOOD SAMARITAN + +CHAPTER VIII +YAHCOB BUNK + +CHAPTER IX +LAND AT LAST +CHAPTER X +THE NEW BROOM + +CHAPTER XI +TOO MUCH ALIKE + +CHAPTER XII +BLUE BLOOD + +CHAPTER XIII +VERY COLD + +CHAPTER XIV +SHE SPEAKS TO HIM + +CHAPTER XV +PROMOTED + +CHAPTER XVI +JUST IN TIME + +CHAPTER XVII +RESCUED + +CHAPTER XVIII +MISS LUDOLPH MAKES A DISCOVERY + +CHAPTER XIX +WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH HIM? + +CHAPTER XX +IS HE A GENTLEMAN? + +CHAPTER XXI +CHRISTINE'S IDEA OF CHRISTIANS + +CHAPTER XXII +EQUAL TO AN EMERGENCY + +CHAPTER XXIII +THE REVELATION + +CHAPTER XXIV +NIGHT THOUGHTS +CHAPTER XXV +DARKNESS +CHAPTER XXVI +MISS LUDOLPH COMMITS A THEFT + +CHAPTER XXVII +A MISERABLE TRIUMPH + +CHAPTER XXVIII +LIFE WITHOUT LOVE + +CHAPTER XXIX +DENNIS'S LOVE PUT TO PRACTICAL USE + +CHAPTER XXX +THE TWO HEIGHTS + +CHAPTER XXXI +BEGUILED + +CHAPTER XXXII +BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT + +CHAPTER XXXIII +THE TWO PICTURES + +CHAPTER XXXIV +REGRET + +CHAPTER XXXV +REMORSE + +CHAPTER XXXVI +AN APPARITION + +CHAPTER XXXVII +IF HE KNEW! + +CHAPTER XXXVIII +THE GATES OPEN + +CHAPTER XXXIX +SUSIE WlNTHROP APPEARS AGAIN + +CHAPTER XL +SUGGESTIVE PICTURES AND A PRIZE + +CHAPTER XLI +FIRE! FIRE! + +CHAPTER XLII +BARON LUDOLPH LEARNS THE TRUTH + +CHAPTER XLIII +"CHRISTINE, AWAKE! FOR YOUR LIFE!" + +CHAPTER XLIV +ON THE BEACH + +CHAPTER XLV +"PRAYER IS MIGHTY." CHRISTINE A CHRISTIAN + +CHAPTER XLVI +CHRISTINE'S GRAVE + +CHAPTER XLVII +SUSIE WINTHROP + +CHAPTER XLVIII +DR. ARTEN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING + +CHAPTER XLIX +BILL CRONK'S TOAST + +CHAPTER L +EVERY BARRIER BURNED AWAY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +LOVE UNKNOWN + + +From its long sweep over the unbroken prairie a heavier blast than +usual shook the slight frame house. The windows rattled in the +casements, as if shivering in their dumb way in the December storm. +So open and defective was the dwelling in its construction, that eddying +currents of cold air found admittance at various points--in some +instances carrying with them particles of the fine, sharp, hail-like +snow that the gale was driving before it in blinding fury. + +Seated at one of the windows, peering out into the gathering gloom of +the swiftly coming night, was a pale, faded woman with lustrous dark +eyes. An anxious light shone from them, as she tried in vain to catch +a glimpse of the darkening road that ran at a distance of about fifty +yards from the house. As the furious blast shook the frail tenement, +and circled round her in chilly currents from many a crack and crevice, +she gave a short, hacking cough, and drew a thin shawl closer about +her slight frame. + +The unwonted violence of the wind had its effect upon another occupant +of the room. From a bed in the corner near the stove came a feeble, +hollow voice--"Wife!" + +In a moment the woman was bending over the bed, and in a voice full +of patient tenderness answered, "Well, dear?" + +"Has he come?" + +"Not yet; but he MUST be here soon." + +The word MUST was emphasized in such a way as to mean doubt rather +than certainty, as if trying to assure her own mind of a matter about +which painful misgivings could not be banished. The quick ear of the +sick man caught the tone, and in a querulous voice he said, "Oh! if +he should not get here in time, it would be the last bitter drop in +my cup, now full and running over." + +"Dear husband, if human strength and love can accomplish it, he will +be here soon. But the storm is indeed frightful, and were the case +less urgent, I could almost wish he would not try to make his way +through it. But then we know what Dennis is; he never stops to consider +difficulties, but pushes right on; and if--if he doesn't--if it is +possible, he will be here before very long." + +In spite of herself, the mother's heart showed its anxiety, and, too +late for remedy, she saw the effect upon her husband. He raised himself +in bed with sudden and unwonted strength. His eyes grew wild and almost +fierce, and in a sharp, hurried voice, he said: "You don't think there +is danger? There is no fear of his getting lost? If I thought that I +would curse God and die." + +"Oh, Dennis, my husband, God forbid that you should speak thus! How can +you feel so toward our Best Friend?" + +"What kind of a friend has He been to me, pray? Has not my life been +one long series of misfortunes? Have I not been disappointed in all +my hopes? I once believed in God and tried to serve Him. But if, as +I have been taught, all this evil and misfortune was ordered and made +my inevitable lot by Him, He has not been my friend, but my enemy. +He's been against me, not for me." + +In the winter twilight the man's emaciated, unshorn face had the +ghostly, ashen hue of death. From cavernous sockets his eyes gleamed +with a terribly vindictive light, akin to insanity, and, in a harsh, +high voice, as unnatural as his appearance and words, he continued: +"Remember what I have gone through! what I have suffered! how often +the cup of success that I was raising to my lips has been dashed to the +ground!" + +"But, Dennis, think a moment." + +"Ah! haven't I thought till my heart is gall and my brain bursting? +Haven't I, while lying here, hopelessly dying, gone over my life again +and again? Haven't I lived over every disappointment, and taken every +step downward a thousand times? Remember the pleasant, plentiful home +I took you from, under the great elms in Connecticut. Your father did +not approve of your marrying a poor school-teacher. But you know that +then I had every prospect of getting the village academy, but with my +luck another got ahead of me. Then I determined to study law. What +hopes I had! I already grasped political honors that seemed within my +reach, for you know I was a ready speaker. If my friends could only +have seen that I was peculiarly fitted for public life and advanced +me sufficient means, I would have returned it tenfold. But no; I was +forced into other things for which I had no great aptness or knowledge, +and years of struggling poverty and repeated disappointment followed. +At last your father died and gave us enough to buy a cheap farm out +here. But why go over our experience in the West? My plan of making +sugar from the sorghum, which promised so brilliantly, has ended in +the most wretched failure of all. And now money has gone, health has +gone, and soon my miserable life will be over. Our boy must come back +from college, and you and the two little ones--what will you do?" and +the man covered his head with the blanket and wept aloud. His poor +wife, borne down by the torrent of his sorrow, was on her knees at his +bedside, with her face buried in her hands, weeping also. + +But suddenly he started up. His sobs ceased. His tears ceased to flow, +while his eyes grew hard and fierce, and his hands clenched. + +"But he was coming," he said. "He may get lost in the storm this bitter +winter night." + +He grasped his wife roughly by the arm. She was astonished at his +sudden strength, and raised a tearful, startled face to his. It was +well she could not see its terrible expression in the dusk; but she +shuddered as he hissed in her ear, "If this should happen--if my +miserable death is the cause of his death--if my accursed destiny +involves him, your staff and hope, in so horrible a fate, what have +I to do but curse God and die?" + +It seemed to the poor woman that her heart would burst with the agony +of that moment. As the storm had increased, a terrible dread had chilled +her very soul. Every louder blast than usual had caused her an internal +shiver, while for her husband's sake she had controlled herself +outwardly. Like a shipwrecked man who is clinging to a rock, that he +fears the tide will submerge, she had watched the snow rise from one +rail to another along the fence. When darkness set in it was half-way +up to the top rail, and she knew it was _drifting_. The thought of her +ruddy, active, joyous-hearted boy, whose affection and hopefulness had +been the broad track of sunlight on her hard path--the thought of his +lying white and still beneath one of these great banks, just where she +could never know till spring rains and suns revealed to an indifferent +stranger his sleeping-place--now nearly overwhelmed her also, and even +her faith wavered on the brink of the dark gulf of despair into which +her husband was sinking. Left to herself, she might have sunk for a +time, though her sincere belief in God's goodness and love would have +triumphed. But her womanly, unselfish nature, her long habit of +sustaining and comforting her husband, came to her aid. Breathing a +quick prayer to Heaven, which was scarcely more than a gasp and a glance +upward, she asked, hardly knowing what she said, "And what if he is +_not_ lost? What if God restores him safe and well?" + +She shuddered after she had thus spoken, for she saw that her husband's +belief in the hostility of God had reached almost the point of insanity. +If this test failed, would he not, in spite of all she could say or do, +curse God and die, as he had said? But she had been guided in her +words more than she knew. He that careth for the fall of the sparrow +had not forgotten His children in their sore extremity. + +The man in answer to her question relaxed his hold upon her arm, and +with a long breath fell back on his pillow. + +"Ah!" said he, "if I could only see him again safe and well, if I could +only leave you with him as your protector and support, I believe I +could forgive all the past and be reconciled even to my hard lot." + +"God gives you opportunity so to do, my father, for here I am safe and +sound." + +The soft snow had muffled the son's footsteps, and his approach had +been unnoted. Entering at the back door, and passing through the +kitchen, he had surprised his parents in the painful scene above +described. As he saw his mother's form in dim outline kneeling at the +bed, her face buried in its covering--as he heard his father's +significant words--the quick-witted youth realized the situation. While +he loved his father dearly, and honored him for his many good traits, +he was also conscious of his faults, especially this most serious one +now threatening such fatal consequences--that of charging to God the +failures and disappointments resulting from defects in his own +character. It seemed as if a merciful Providence was about to use this +awful dread of accident to the son--a calamity that rose far above and +overshadowed all the past--as the means of winning back the alienated +heart of this weak and erring man. + +The effect of the sudden presence in the sick-room was most marked. +The poor mother, who had shown such self-control and patient endurance +before, now gave way utterly, and clung for a few moments to her son's +neck with hysterical energy, then in strong reaction fainted away. The +strain upon her worn and overtaxed system had been too severe. + +At first the sick man could only look through the dusk at the outline +of his son with a bewildered stare, his mind too weak to comprehend +the truth. But soon he too was sobbing for joy. + +But when his wife suddenly became a lifeless weight in his son's arms, +who in wild alarm cried, "Mother, what is the matter? Speak to me! Oh! +I have killed her by my rash entrance," the sick man's manner changed, +and his eyes again became dry and hard, and even in the darkness had +a strange glitter. + +"Is your mother dead?" he asked, in a low, hoarse voice. + +"Oh, mother, speak to me!" cried the son, forgetting for a time his +father. + +For a moment there was death-like silence. Then the young man groped +for an old settle in the corner of the room, laid his mother tenderly +upon it, and sprang for a light, but as he passed his father's bed the +same strong grasp fell upon his arm that his mother had shuddered under +a little before, and the question was this time hissed in his ear, "Is +your mother dead?" For a moment he had no power to answer, and his +father continued: "What a fool I was to expect God to show mercy or +kindness to me or mine while I was above ground! You are only brought +home to suffer more than death in seeing your mother die. May that God +that has followed me all my life, not with blessings--" + +"Hush, father!" cried his son, in loud, commanding tones. "Hush, I +entreat," and in his desperation he actually put his hand over his +father's mouth. + +The poor woman must have been dead, indeed, had she long remained deaf +to the voice of her beloved son, and his loud tones partially revived +her. In a faint voice she called, "Dennis!" + +With hands suddenly relaxed, and hearts almost stilled in their beating, +father and son listened for a second. Again, a little louder, through +that dark and silent room, was heard the faint call, "Dennis!" + +Springing to her side, her son exclaimed, "Oh, mother, I am here; don't +leave us; in mercy don't leave us." + +"It was I she called," said his father. + +With unnatural strength he had tottered across the room, and taking +his wife's hand, cried, "Oh, Ethel, don't die! don't fill my already +full cup to overflowing with bitterness!" + +Their familiar voices were the best of remedies. After a moment she +sat up, and passing her hand across her brow as if to clear away +confusion of mind, said: "Don't be alarmed; it's only a faint turn. +I don't wonder though that you are frightened, for I never was so +before." + +Poor woman, amid all the emergencies of her hard lot, she had never +in the past given way so far. + +Then, becoming aware of her husband's position, she exclaimed: "Why, +Dennis, my husband, out of your bed? You will catch your death." +"Ah, wife, that matters little if you and Dennis live." + +"But it matters much to me," cried she, springing up. + +By this time her son had struck a light, and each was able to look on +the other's face. The unnatural strength, the result of excitement, was +fast leaving the sick man. The light revealed him helplessly leaning +on the couch where his wife had lain. His face was ashen in color, and +he was gasping for breath. Tenderly they carried him back to his bed, +and he was too weak now to do more than quietly lie upon it and gaze +at them. After replenishing the fire, and looking at the little ones +that were sleeping in the outer room, they shaded the lamp, and sat +down at his bedside, while the mother asked her son many eager questions +as to his escape. He told them how he had struggled through the snow +till almost exhausted, when he had been overtaken by a farmer with a +strong team, and thus enabled to make the journey in safety. + +As the sick man looked and listened, his face grew softer and more +quiet in its expression. + +Then the young man, remembering, said: "I bought the medicines you +wrote for, mother, at Bankville. This, the druggist said, would produce +quiet and sleep, and surely father needs it after the excitement of +the evening." + +The opiate was given, and soon the regular, quiet breathing of the +patient showed that it had taken effect. A plain but plentiful supper, +which the anxious mother had prepared hours before, was placed upon the +kitchen table, and the young man did ample justice to it; for, the +moment the cravings of his heart were satisfied in meeting his kindred +after absence, he became conscious of the keenest hunger. Toiling +through the snow for hours in the face of the December storm had taxed +his system to the utmost, and now he felt the need of food and rest. +After supper he honestly meant to watch at his father's bedside, while +his mother slept; but he had scarcely seated himself on the old settle, +when sleep, like an armed man, overpowered him, and in spite of all +his efforts he was soon bound in the dreamless slumber of healthful +youth. But with eyes so wide and lustrous that it seemed as if sleep +could never close them again, the wife and mother, pale and silent, +watched between her loved ones. The troubled expression was gone, for +the ranks of her little band had closed up, and all were about her in +one more brief rest in the forward and uncertain march of life. She +seemed looking intently at something far off--something better discerned +by the spiritual than by the natural eye. Disappointments had been +bitter, poverty hard and grinding, but she had learned to escape into +a large world that was fast becoming real to her strong imagination. +While her husband was indulging in chimerical visions of boundless +prosperity here on earth which he would bring to pass by some lucky +stroke of fortune or invention, she also was picturing to herself +grander things which God would realize to her _beyond_ time and +earth. When alone, in moments of rest from incessant toil, she would +take down the great family Bible, and with her finger on some +description of the "new heavens and new earth," as the connecting link +between the promise and her strong realization of it, she would look +away with that intent gaze. The new world, purged from sin and sorrow, +would rise before her with more than Edenlike loveliness. Her spirit +would revel in its shadowy walks and sunny glades, and as the crowning +joy she would meet her Lord and Saviour in some secluded place, and +sit listening at His feet like Mary of old. Thus, in the strong illusion +of her imagination, Christ's words seemed addressed directly to her, +while she looked up into His face with rapt attention. Instead of +_reading_ her Lord's familiar sayings, she seemed to _listen_ to them as +did the early disciples. After a little time she would close the Bible +and go back to her hard practical life, awed yet strengthened, and with +a hopeful expression, like that which must have rested on the disciples' +faces on coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +LOVE KNOWN + + +Hour after hour passed. The storm was dying away, and at times, through +broken rifts in the clouds, stars would gleam out. Instead of the +continued roar and rush, the wind blew in gusts at longer intervals, +and nature seemed like a passionate child that had cried itself to +sleep. The fitful blasts were the involuntary sobs that heave the +breast, till at last quiet and peace take the place of stormy anger. + +It seemed as if the silent watcher never could withdraw her gaze from +the beautiful world of her vision. Never had it seemed so near and +real before, and she was unconscious of the lapse of time. Suddenly +she heard her name called--"Ethel!" + +If the voice had come from the imaginary world present to her fancy, +it could not have startled her more for a moment. Then she realized +that it was her husband who spoke. He had called her name in his sleep, +and yet it seemed a call of God. At once it flashed through her mind +that in dreaming of a glorious and happy future she was forgetting him +and his need. + +She turned the light upon his face. Never had he looked so pale and +wan, and she realized that he might be near his end. In an agony of +self-reproach and yearning tenderness she kneeled at his bedside and +prayed as she never had prayed before. Could he go home? Could he be +received, feeling toward his Father as he did? He had talked of +forgiving, when he stood so sorely in need of Christ's forgiveness; +and she had been forgetting that need, when every moment might involve +her husband's salvation. Out of his sleep he had called her to his +help. Perhaps God had used his unconscious lips to summon her. With +a faith naturally strong, but greatly increased by the vision of the +night, she went, as it were, directly into the presence of her Lord, +and entreated in behalf of her husband. + +As she thus knelt at the bedside, with her face buried in the covering, +she felt a hand placed softly on her head, and again her husband's +voice called, "Ethel!" + +She looked up and saw that he was awake now, his eyes fixed on her +with an expression of softness and tenderness that she had not seen +for many a long day. The old restless, anxious light had gone. + +"What were you doing, Ethel?" he asked. "Praying that you might see +that God loved you--that you might be reconciled to Him." + +Two great tears gathered in the man's eyes. His lips quivered a moment, +then he said, brokenly, "Surely God must love me, or He would never +have given me--a wife--who would watch and pray for me--the long +winter night." + +"Oh, Dennis, forgive me; I cannot deceive you; for a time I forgot +you, I forgot everything, and just wandered through Paradise alone. +But in your sleep you called me to your help, and now it seems as if +I could not be happy even there without you. I pray you, in Christ's +stead, be reconciled to God," she pleaded, falling into the familiar +language of Scripture, as she often did under strong emotion. Then, +in low, thrilling words, she portrayed to him the "new earth" of her +vision, wherein "God shall wipe away all tears, and there shall be no +more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more +pain." She showed him that all might still be well--that eternity was +long enough to make up for the ills of our brief troubled life here. +But his mind seemed preoccupied. These future joys did not take that +hold upon him that she earnestly desired. His eyes seemed to grow dim +in tender, tearful wistfulness, rather than become inspired with +immortal hopes. At last he spoke: + +"Ethel, it seemed as if I heard some one calling me. I woke up--and +there you--were praying--for me. I heard my name--I heard God's +name--and I knew that you were interceding for me. It seemed to break +my hard heart right up like the fountains of the great deep to see you +there--praying for me--in the cold, cold room." (The room was not +cold; it was not the winter's chill that he was feeling, but a chill +that comes over the heart even in the tropical summer.) "Then, as you +prayed, a great light seemed to shine into my soul. I saw that I had +been charging God unjustly with all my failures and misfortunes, when +I had to thank myself for them. Like a wilful child, I had been acting +as if God had but to carry out my wild schemes. I remembered all my +unreasonable murmurings and anger; I remembered the dreadful words I +was on the point of uttering tonight, and for a moment it seemed as +if the pit would open and swallow me up." + +He paused for breath, and then went on: + +"But as my despairing eyes glanced restlessly around, they fell upon +the face of my son, noble and beautiful even in sleep, and I remembered +how God had brought him safely back. Then your low, pleading tone fixed +my attention again. It seemed to me that God's love must be better and +stronger than human love, and yet you had loved me through all my folly +and weakness; so perhaps had He. Then I felt that such a prayer as you +were offering could not remain unheard, you seemed to pray so earnestly. +I felt that I ought to pray myself, and I commenced calling out in my +heart, 'God be merciful to me--a sinner.' Then while I prayed, I +seemed to see my Saviour's face right above your bowed head. Oh, how +reproachfully He looked at me! and yet His expression was full of love, +too. It was just such a look, I think, that He fixed on Peter when he +denied Him. Then it seemed that I fell down at His feet and wept +bitterly, and as I did so the look of reproach passed away, and only +an expression of love and forgiveness remained. A sudden peace came +into my soul which I cannot describe; a rush of tears into my eyes; +and when I had wiped them away, I saw only your bowed form +praying--praying on for me. And, Ethel dear, my patient, much-enduring +wife, I believe God has answered your prayer. I feel that I am a new +man." + +"God be praised!" exclaimed his wife, with streaming eyes. Then in a +sudden rush of tenderness she clasped her husband to her heart, her +strong love seeming like the echo of God's love, the earnest here on +earth of that above, where all barriers shall pass away. + +The sound of their voices toward the last had awakened their son, and +he now stood beside them with wet eyes and heaving breast. + +When the wife rose from her embrace, she saw that her husband was very +weak. For a few moments he gasped for breath. Then, getting a little +easier, he looked up and saw his son, and exclaimed: "Thank God--my +boy--thank God--you are here. Ah, my son--I have learned much--since +we spoke together last. I have seen that--I have much more--need of +forgiveness than--to forgive. Thanks to your--mother's prayers--I +believe--I feel sure that I am forgiven." + +"More thanks to God's love, Dennis," said his wife. "God wanted to +forgive you all the time more than we wanted Him to. Thank God, who +is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us. He is +longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish." + +"Those are sweet words, wife, and I have found them true." + +For a little time they sat with clasped hands, their hearts too full +to speak. Faint streaks along the eastern horizon showed that the dawn +was near. The sick man gave a slight shiver, and passed his hands +across his eyes as if to clear away a mist, and then said, feebly: +"Dennis, my son--won't you turn up the lamp a little--and fix the fire? +The room seems getting so cold--and dark." + +The wife looked at her son in quick alarm. The stove was red-hot, and +the lamp, no longer shaded, stood openly on the table. + +The son saw that he must take the lead in the last sad scene, for in +the presence of death the heart of the loving, constant woman clung +to her husband as never before. Throwing herself on her knees by his +side, she cried with loud, choking sobs, "Oh, Dennis--husband--I +fear--you are leaving me!" + +"Is this death?" he asked of his son, in an awed tone. + +"I fear it is, father," said the young man, gently. + +After a moment his father said, composedly: "I think you are right. +I feel that--my end is near, Ethel--darling--for my sake--try to be +calm--during the last few moments I am with you." + +A few stifled sobs and the room was still. + +"I have but little time to--put my house--in order--and if I had +months--I could not do it. Dennis, I leave you--little else--than +debts--embarrassments, and the record of many failures. You must +do--the best you can. I am not able to advise you. Only never love this +world as I have. It will disappoint you. And, _whatever happens, +never lose faith in the goodness of God_. This has been my bane. +It has poisoned my life here, and, had it not been for this dear wife, +it would have been my destruction here-after. For long years--only her +patient love--has stood between me and a miserable end. Next to God--I +commit her and your little sisters to your care. Be true to this most +sacred trust. + +"Ethel, dear, my more than wife--my good angel--what shall I say to +you?" and the man's lip quivered, and for a time he could say no more. +But the unwonted composure had come into his wife's manner. The eyes +were gaining that intent look which was their expression when picturing +to herself scenes in the life beyond. + +"Oh, Dennis, we seem just on the confines of a glorious world--it is +so near, so real--it seems as if but a step would take us all into it. +Oh! if you could but see its beauties, its glories--if you could hear +the music, you would not fear to enter. It seems as if we were there +together now." + +"Oh, Ethel, come back, come back," cried her husband, piteously. "I +am not worthy of all that. I have no heart for glory now. I can see +only my Saviour's face looking--at me--with love and forgiveness. +That is heaven enough for me--and when you come--my cup will be more +than full. And now--farewell--for a little while." + +For a few moments they clung to each other. Then the little girls were +brought, and their father pressed his cold lips to their warm, fresh +young faces. They wondered at a scene they could not understand, and +were tearful because of the tears of others. + +He was now going very fast. Suddenly he turned to his son and said, +"Dennis, repeat to me that verse, 'This is a faithful saying--'" + +With a voice hoarse and broken by emotion, his son complied: "This is +a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus +came into the world to save sinners." + +"Of whom I am chief," said his father, emphatically. "And yet"--his face +lighting up with a wan smile, like a sudden ray of light falling +on a clouded landscape before the sun sinks below the horizon--"and +yet forgiven." + +By and by he again whispered, "Forgiven!" Then his eyes closed, and +all was still. They thought he was gone. But as they stood over him +in awed, breathless silence, his lips again moved. Bending down, they +heard in faint, far-away tones, like an echo from the _other side, +"Forgiven!"_ + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LAUNCHED + + +Scarcely was the last word spoken when a sudden glory filled the room. +So brilliant was the light that mother and son were startled. Then +they saw what had been unnoted before, that day had broken, and that +the sun, emerging from a single dark cloud, was shining, full-orbed, +into the apartment with a light that, reflected from myriads of snowy +crystals, was doubly luminous. Nevertheless it seemed to them a good +omen, an earnest, an emblem of the purer, whiter light into which the +cleansed and pardoned spirit had entered. The snow-wrapped prairie was +indeed pure and bright, but it was _cold_. The Father's embrace, +receiving home the long-absent, erring, but forgiven child, would be +warm indeed. + +Though the bereaved wife believed that a brighter dawn than that which +made the world resplendent around her had come to her husband, still +a sense of desolation came over her which only those can understand +who have known a loss like hers. For years he had filled the greater +part of time, thought, and heart. As she saw her first and only love, +the companion of a life which, though hard, still had the light and +solace of mutual affection--as she saw him so still, and realized that +she would hear him speak no more--_complain_ no more (for even the +weaknesses of those we love are sadly missed after death)--a flood +of that natural sorrow which Christianity consoles, but was never +designed to prevent, overwhelmed her, and she gave way utterly. + +Her son took her in his arms and held her silently, believing that +unspoken sympathy was worth more at such a time than any words. + +After the convulsive sobbing had somewhat ceased, he struck the right +chord by saying: "Mother, father is not lost to us. He himself said +good-by only for a little while. Then you have us to love and think +of; and remember, what could we do without you?" + +The unselfish woman would have tried to rise from a bed of death to +do anything needed by her loved ones, and this reminder of those still +dependent on her care proved the most potent of restoratives. She at +once arose and said: "Dennis, you are right. It is indeed wrong for +me to give way thus, when I have so much to be thankful for--so much +to live for. But, O Dennis! you cannot understand this separation of +husband and wife, for God said, 'They twain shall be one flesh'; and +it seems as if half my very life had gone--as if half my heart had +been wrenched away, and only a bleeding fragment left." + +The patter of feet was heard on the kitchen floor, the door opened, +and two little figures in white trailing nightgowns entered. At first +they looked in shy wonder and perplexity at their tall brother, whom +they had not seen for months, but at his familiar voice, recalling +many a romp and merry time together, they rushed to his arms as of old. + +Then they drew near the bed to give their father his accustomed morning +kiss; but, as they approached, he seemed so still that awe began to +creep over their little faces. A dim recollection of the farewell kiss +given a few hours before, when they were scarcely awake, recurred to +them. + +"Father," said the elder (about five), "we want to give you +good-morning kiss." + +Seldom had their father been so sick or irritable but that he reached +out his arms to his little ones and gave them a warm embrace, that did +him more good than he realized. The influence of trusting children is +sometimes the most subtile oil that can be thrown on the troubled +waters of life. + +But as the little ones saw that their father made no response to their +approach and appeal, they timidly drew a step nearer, and looked into +his wasted, yet peaceful face, with its closed eyes and motionless +repose, and then, turning to their mother, said in a loud whisper, +with faces full of perplexity and trouble, "Is papa asleep?" + +The little figures in their white drapery, standing beside their dead +father, waiting to perform the usual, well-remembered household rite, +proved a scene too touching for the poor mother's self-control, and +again she gave way to a burst of sorrow. But her son, true to his +resolution to be the stay and strength of the family, hastened to the +children, and, taking them by the hand, said gently: "Yes, little ones, +papa is asleep. It may be a long time before he wakes, but he surely +will by and by, and then he will never be sick any more. Come, we will +go into the other room and sing a pretty hymn about papa's sleep." + +The thought of hearing their brother sing lured them away at once, for +he had a mellow tenor voice that seemed to the little girls sweeter +than a bird's. A moment later the widow's heart was comforted by hearing +those words that have been balm for so many wounds: + + "Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep! + From which none ever wakes to weep." + +Then, putting on his sisters' flannel wrappers, he set them down by +the fire, telling stories in the meantime to divert their thoughts +from the scene they had just witnessed. + +Thus no horror of death was suffered to enter their young minds. They +were not brought face to face with a dreadful mystery which they could +not understand, but which would have a sinister effect for life. +Gradually they would learn the truth, but still the first impression +would remain, and their father's death would ever be to them a sleep +from which he would wake by and by, "never to be sick any more." + +Dennis set about preparations for their simple morning meal so deftly +and easily as to show that it was no unaccustomed task. A sister older +than himself had died while yet an infant, leaving a heartache till +he came--God's best remedy. Then two sisters had died after his day, +and he had been compelled to be to his mother daughter as well as son, +to make himself useful in every household task. His father had been +wrapped up in useless inventions, vain enterprises, and was much away. +So mother and son were constantly together. He had early become a great +comfort and help to her, God blessing her in this vital respect, though +her lot seemed hard in other ways. Thus, while he had the heart and +courage of a man, he also had the quick, supple hand and gentle bearing +of a woman, when occasion required. As proof of his skill, a tempting +meal from the simplest materials was placed smoking on the table, and +the little girls were soon chatting contentedly over their breakfast. +In the meantime the wife within had drawn near her dead husband and +taken his cold hand. For a while she dwelt on the past in strong and +tearful agony, then, in accordance with long-established habit, her +thoughts went forward into the future. In imagination she was present +at her husband's reception in heaven. The narrow, meagre room melted +away, and her feet seemed to stand on the "golden pavement." The +jubilant clash of heavenly cymbals thrilled her heart. She seemed +taking part in a triumphal march led by celestial minstrelsy toward +the throne. She saw her husband mount its white, glistening steps, so +changed, and yet so like his former self when full of love, youth, and +hope. He appeared overwhelmed with a sense of unworthiness, but his +reception was all the more kind and reassuring. Then as he departed +from the royal presence, crowned with God's love and favor forever, +though he had all heaven before him, he seemed looking for her as that +he longed for most, and her strong effort to reach his side aroused +her from her revery as from a dream. But her vision had strengthened +her, as was ever the case, and the bitterness of grief was passed. +Imprinting a long kiss on her husband's cold forehead, she joined her +family in the outer room with calm and quiet mien. Her son saw and +understood the change in his mother's manner, and from long experience +knew its cause. + +We need not dwell on what followed--preparations for burial, the +funeral, the return to a home from which one who had filled so large +a place had gone--a home on which rested the shadow of death. These +are old, familiar scenes, acted over and over every day, and yet in +the little households where they occur there is a terrible sense of +novelty as if they then happened for the first time. The family feel +as if they were passing through a chaotic period--the old world breaking +up and vanishing, and a new formation and combination of all the +elements that make up life taking place. + +Many changes followed. Their farm was sold. Part of a small house in +the village of Bankville was rented as their future residence. A very +small annuity from some property in the East, left by Mrs. Fleet's +father, was, with Dennis's labor, all the family had to depend on +now--a meagre prospect. + +But Dennis was very sanguine; for in this respect he had his father's +temperament. The world was all before him, and Chicago, the young and +giant city of the West, seemed an Eldorado, where fortune, and perhaps +fame, might soon be won. He would not only place the family beyond +want, but surround them with every luxury. + +Dennis, wise and apt as far as his knowledge went, was in some respects +as simple and ignorant as a child. There were many phases and conditions +of society of which he had never dreamed. Of the ways of the rich and +fashionable, of the character of artificial life, he had not the +remotest experience. He could not see or understand the distinctions +and barriers that to the world are more impassable than those of +ignorance, stupidity, and even gross immorality. He would learn, to +his infinite surprise, that even in a Western democratic city men would +be welcomed in society whose hand no pure woman or honorable man ought +to touch, while he, a gentleman by birth, education, and especially +character, would not be recognized at all. He would discover that +wealth and the indorsement of a few fashionable people, though all +else were lacking, would be a better passport than the noblest qualities +and fine abilities. As we follow him from the seclusion of his simple +country home into the complicated life of the world, all this will +become apparent. + +Long and earnest was the conversation between mother and son before +they separated. Pure and noble were the maxims that she sought to +instil into his mind. They may not have been worldly wise, but they +were heavenly wise. Though some of her advice in the letter might avail +little, since she knew less of the world than did her son, still in +its spirit it contained the best of all wisdom, profitable for this +life and the life to come. But she sent him forth to seek his fortune +and theirs with less solicitude than most mothers have just cause to +feel, for she knew that he had Christian principle, and had passed +through discipline that had sobered and matured him far beyond his +years. She saw, however, in every word and act his father's sanguine +temperament. He was expecting much, hoping far more, and she feared +that he also was destined to many a bitter disappointment. Still she +believed that he possessed a good strong substratum of common-sense, +and this combined with the lessons of faith and patience taught of God +would prove the ballast his father had lacked. + +She sought to modify his towering hopes and rose-colored visions, but +to little purpose. Young, buoyant, in splendid health, with a surplus +of warm blood tingling in every vein, how could he take a prudent, +distrustful view of the world? It seemed to beckon him smilingly into +any path of success he might choose. Had not many won the victory? and +who ever felt braver and more determined than he, with the needs of +the dear ones at home added to his own incentives and ambitions? So, +with many embraces, lingering kisses, and farewell words, that lost +not their meaning though said over and over again, they parted. The +stage carried him to the nearest railway station, and the express train +bore him rapidly toward the great city where he expected to find all +that a man's heart most craves on earth. + +Sanguine as his father, constant as his mother, with a nature that +would go right or wrong with tremendous energy, as direction might be +given it, he was destined to live no tame, colorless life, but would +either enjoy much, or else suffer much. To his young heart, swelling +with hopes, burning with zeal to distinguish himself and provide for +those he was leaving, even the bleak, snow-clad prairie seemed an arena +in which he might accomplish a vague something. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +COLD WATER + + +The train, somewhat impeded by snow, landed Dennis in Chicago at about +nine in the evening. In his pocket he had ten dollars--ample seed corn, +he believed, for a golden harvest. This large sum was expected to +provide for him till he should find a situation and receive the first +instalment of salary. He would inform his employer, when he found him, +how he was situated, and ask to be paid early and often. + +Without a misgiving he shouldered the little trunk that contained his +worldly effects, and stalked off to a neighboring hotel, that, from +its small proportions, suggested a modest bill. With a highly important +man-of-the-world manner he scrawled his name in an illegible, +student-like hand on the dingy, dog-eared register. With a gracious, +condescending air he ordered the filthy, tobacco-stained porter to +take his trunk to his room. + +The bar-room was the only place provided for strangers. Regarding the +bar with a holy horror, he got away from it as far as possible, and +seated himself by the stove, on which simmered a kettle of hot water +for the concoction of punches, apparently more in demand at that hotel +than beds. Becoming disgusted with the profanity and obscenity +downstairs, he sought refuge in the cold, miserable little room assigned +to him. Putting on his overcoat, he wrapped himself up in a coverlet +and threw himself down on the outside of the bed. + +The night passed slowly. He was too uncomfortable, too excited, to +sleep. The scenes of the past blended confusedly with visions of the +future, and it was nearly morning when he fell into an unquiet slumber. + +When at last aroused by the shriek of a locomotive, he found that the +sun was up and shining on the blotched and broken wall above him. A +few minutes sufficed for his toilet, and yet, with his black curling +hair, noble forehead, and dark, silken upper lip, many an exquisite +would have envied the result. + +His plan was simple enough--dictated indeed by the necessities of the +case. He must at once find a situation in which he could earn sufficient +to support his mother and sisters and himself. Thence he could look +around till he found the calling that promised most. Having left college +and given up his chosen profession of the law, he had resolved to adopt +any honest pursuit that seemed to lead most quickly to fortune. + +Too impatient to eat his breakfast, he sallied forth into the great +city, knowing not a soul in it. His only recommendations and credentials +were his young, honest face, and a letter from his minister, saying +that he was a member of the church in Bankville, "in good and regular +standing," and, "as far as he knew, a most worthy young man"--rather +meagre capital amid the competitions of a large city. But, with courage +bold and high, he strode off toward the business part of the town. + +As he passed the depot it occurred to him that an opening might exist +there. It would be a good post of observation, and perhaps he would +be able to slip home oftener. So he stopped and asked the man in the +ticket-office, blandly, "Do you wish to employ a young man in connection +with this depot or road in any capacity?" + +The ticket-man stared at him a moment through his window, frowned, and +curtly said, "No!" and then went on counting what seemed to poor Dennis +millions of money. The man had no right to say yes or no, since he was +a mere official, occupying his own little niche, with no authority +beyond. But an inveterate feud seemed to exist between this man and +the public. He acted as if the world in general, instead of any one +in particular, had greatly wronged him. It might be a meek woman with +a baby, or a bold, red-faced drover, a delicately-gloved or horny hand +that reached him the change, but it was all the same. He knitted his +brows, pursed up his mouth, and dealt with all in a quick, jerking +way, as if he could not bear the sight of them, and wanted to be rid +of them as soon as possible. Still these seem just the peculiarities +that find favor with railroad corporations, and the man would probably +vent his spite against the public throughout his natural life. + +From him, however, Dennis received his first dash of cold water, which +he minded but little, and went on his way with a good-natured laugh +at the crusty old fellow. + +He was soon in the business part of the city. Applying at a large +dry-good store, he was told that they wanted a cash boy; "but he would +not do; one a quarter his size would answer." + +"Then I will go where they want the other three-fourths and pay +accordingly," said Dennis, and stalked out. + +He continued applying at every promising place, but to no purpose. It +was midwinter; trade was dull; and with clerks idling about the shops +employers were in no mood to add to their number. + +At last he found a place where an assistant book-keeper was wanted. +Dennis's heart leaped within him, but sank again as he remembered how +little he knew of the art. "But I can learn quickly," he thought to +himself. + +The man looked carelessly at his poor little letter, and then said, +in a business-like tone, "Show me a specimen of your handwriting." + +Poor Dennis had never written a good hand, but at college had learned +to write a miserable scrawl, in rapidly taking notes of lectures. +Moreover, he was excited, and could not do himself justice. Even from his +sanguine heart hope ebbed away; but he took the pen and scratched +a line or two, of which he himself was ashamed. The man looked at them +with an expression of mild disgust, and then said, "Mr. Jones, hand +me your ledger." + +The head book-keeper passed the volume to his employer, who showed +Dennis entries looking as from copper-plate, and quietly remarked: +"The young man we employ must write like that, and thoroughly understand +book-keeping. Good-morning, sir." + +Dennis walked out, feeling almost as crestfallen as if he had been +convicted of stealing, but the noon-day sun was shining in the sky, +the streets were full of life and bustle, and hope revived. + +"I shall find the right niche before long," he said to himself, and +trudged on. + +Some time after he entered a retail dry-goods store. + +"Yes, they wanted a young man there, but he was rather old." + +Still the merchant saw that Dennis was fine-looking, would appear well +behind the counter, and make a taking salesman with the ladies, he +stopped to parley a moment more. + +"Do you understand the business?" + +"No, sir; but I can soon learn, for I am young and strong." + +"Strength is not what is needed, but experience. Ours is not the kind +of work for Paddies." + +"Well, sir," said Dennis, rather shortly, "I'm not a Paddy." + +The dapper little retailer frowned slightly at Dennis's tone, and +continued: "You spoke as if main strength was the principal thing. +Have you had any experience at all?" + +"No, sir." + +But seeing intelligence in the young man's face, and scenting a sharp +bargain, he said, "Why, then, you would have to begin at tho very +beginning, and learn the name of everything, its quality, etc." + +"Yes, sir; but I would do my very best." + +"Of course, of course, but nothing can take the place of experience. +I expect, under the circumstances, you would look for very little +remuneration the first year?" + +"How much could you give?" + +The man named a sum that would not have supported Dennis alone. + +He replied that, though his services might not be worth more than that, +he was so situated that he could not take a very small salary. + +"Then bring something besides ignorance to the market," said the man, +turning on his heel. + +Dennis was now hungry, tired, and disappointed. Indeed the calls of +appetite became so clamorous that he sought a cheap restaurant. After +demolishing a huge plate of such viands as could be had at little cost, +he sat brooding over a cup of coffee for an hour or more. The world +wore a different aspect from that which it had presented in the morning, +and he was lost in a sort of dull, painful wonder. + +But the abundant meal and slight element of coffee that colored the +lukewarm water quite heartened him again. He resolved to go back to +his hotel and find a more quiet and comfortable place in which to lodge +until something permanent offered. He made what he considered sufficient +inquiry as to the right direction, and resolved to save even the carfare +of five cents by walking the distance. + +But whether he had not understood the directions rightly, or whether, +brooding over the events of the day, his mind had been too preoccupied +to heed them, he found to his great disgust, after walking two or three +miles, that he had gone away from his destination instead of toward +it. Angry with himself, out of humor with all the world, he began to +give way to the latent obstinacy of his nature. Though everything went +"contrairy," there was one thing under his control--himself--and he +would make that do the bidding of his will. + +Turning on his heel, he resolved with dogged resolution to walk back +the whole distance. He would teach himself a lesson. It was fine +business, just when he needed his wits so sorely, to commence blundering +in this style. No wonder he had failed during the day; he deserved to +fail in other respects, since in this one he had not shown the good +sense of a child. + +When people are "out of sorts," and things are going wrong, the +disposition to blame somebody or something is almost universal. But +we think that it will be found a safe general rule, that the nobler +the nature, the less worthy of blame, the greater the tendency to blame +self rather than anything else. Poor Dennis had no great cause for +bitter reproaches, and yet he plodded on with an intense feeling of +self-disgust. + +To think that after New-England schools and three years in college he +should write such a hand and have no definite knowledge of book-keeping! +"What have I learned, I'd like to know?" he muttered. Then to go and +lose his way like a country bumpkin! and he gnawed his lips with +vexation. + +The street-cars glided often and invitingly by, but he would not even +look at them. + +At last, foot-sore and fairly aching with cold and fatigue, he reached +the little hotel, which appeared more miserable, obscure, and profane +than ever. But a tempting fiend seemed to have got into the gin and +whiskey bottles behind the red-nosed bartender. To his morbid fancy +and eyes, half-blinded with wind and cold, they appeared to wink, +beckon, and suggest: "Drink and be merry; drink and forget your +troubles. We can make you feel as rich and glorious as a prince, in +ten minutes." + +For the first time in his life Dennis felt a strong temptation to drink +for the sake of the effects. When was a man ever weak that the devil +did not charge down upon him? + +But the evil and ruin wrought in one case proved another's safeguard, +for the door opened and a miserable wreck of a man entered. As Dennis +looked at his blotched, sodden face, trembling hand, shuffling gait, +and general air of wretchedness, embodying and suggesting the worst +ills of humanity, he decided not to drink for the sake of the effects. + +Then came another rush of self-disgust that he had ever entertained +such a temptation, and he flung himself off supperless to bed. + +As he bowed that night he could not pray as usual. For anger, passion +with one's self, as well as with any one else, renders true prayer +impossible. But he went through the form, and then wrapped himself up +as before. The wearied body soon mastered the perturbed mind, and he +fell into a heavy sleep that lasted till morning. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A HORNET'S NEST + + +Dennis awoke greatly refreshed and strengthened. For half an hour he +lay quietly thinking over the scenes of the preceding day; something +of his old anger returned, but he compressed his lips, and, with a +face expressing the most resolute purpose, determined that the day +before him should tell a different story. Every faculty and energy he +possessed should be skilfully bent to the attainment of his objects. +Wise deliberation should precede everything. He would write a few lines +to his mother, decide as to a lodging-place, and then seek better +success in another part of the city. He went to the bar and inquired +as to his bill, and found that so far as bed and meals were concerned, +such as they were, he could not find anything cheaper in the city, the +house evidently not depending on these for its revenue. Disgusted as +he was with his surroundings, he resolved to lose no time in looking +for a new boarding-place, but, after writing to his mother, to start +off at once in search of something permanent. He was in no mood to +consult personal wishes, and the saving of time and money settled the +question. + +Where should he write? There was no place save a desk at the end of +the bar. Looking askance at the half-filled, villanous-smelling bottle +at his elbow, he wrote in a hand stiff and unnatural (for he had +resolved to change his scrawl to a business hand at once), the following +note: + +"CHICAGO, ILL., Jan. 10th. + +"DEAR MOTHER--I arrived safely, and am very well. I did not, yesterday, +find a situation suited to my taste, but expect better success to-day. +I am just on the point of starting out on my search, and when settled +will write you full particulars. Many kisses for yourself and the +little girls. Your affectionate son, DENNIS." + +"There! there is nothing in that to worry mother, and soon I shall +have good news for her." (If he had seen its reception, he would have +learned his mistake. The intuitions of love are keen, and this formal +negative note in the constrained hand told more of his disappointment +than any words could have done. While he knew it not, his mother was +suffering with him. In reply she wrote a letter full of general +sympathy, intending to be more specific when he gave her his +confidence.) + +Dennis folded the letter most carefully and mailed it--for he was now +doing the least thing with the utmost precision--with the air of one +who meant to find out the right thing to do, and then to do it to a +hair-breadth. Nothing should go wrong that day. So at an early hour +he again sallied forth. + +Not far from the hotel there was a new grocery store about to be opened +by two young men, formerly clerks, but now setting up for themselves. +They stood at the door receiving a cart-load of goods as Dennis +approached. He had made up his mind to ask at every opportunity, and +to take the first thing that promised fairly; he would also be very +polite. Touching his hat to the young men--a little act pleasing to +them in their newly acquired dignity as heads of a firm which as yet +had no subordinates--Dennis asked if they would need any assistance. +Graciously replying to his salutations, they answered, yes; they wanted +a young man. + +Dennis explained that he was from the country, and showed the +ministerial letter. The young grocers looked wise over it, seemed +pleased, said they wanted a young fellow from the country, that was +not up to city tricks. Chicago was a hard place on young men--spoiled +most of them. Glad he was a member of the church. They were not, but +believed a man must be mighty good to be one. As the young man they +hired must sleep in the store, they wanted one they could trust, and +would prefer a church member. + +The salary they offered was not large, but pretty fair in view of his +having so much to learn, and it was intimated, that if business was +good, and he suited, it would be increased. The point uppermost in +their minds was to find some one with whom they could trust their store +and goods, and this young man from the country, with a letter from a +minister, seemed a godsend. + +They engaged him, but just as he was starting, with heart swelling +with self-satisfaction and joy, one of the firm asked, carelessly, +"Where are you staying?'" + +"At Gavin's Hotel." + +The man turned sharply, and looked most suspiciously at him, and then +at his partner, who gave a low whistle of surprise, and also eyed the +young man for a moment askance. Then the men stepped aside, and there +was a brief whispered consultation. Dennis's heart sank within him. +He saw that something was wrong, but what, he had not the least idea. +The elder member of the embryo firm now stepped up and said, decidedly, +"Good-morning, young man; we shall not need your services." + +"What do you mean?" cried Dennis, in a voice of mingled dismay and +indignation. + +The man's face was growing red with anger, but he said, coldly, "You +had better move on. _We_ understand." + +"But _I_ don't understand, your course toward me is most unjust." + +"Look here, young man, we are too old birds to be caught by any such +light chaff as you have about you. You are a pretty church member, you +are! You are a smart one, you are; nice boy, just from the country; +suppose you do not know that Gavin's Hotel is the worst gambling hole +in the city, and every other man that goes there a known thief. Come, +you had better move on if you do not want to get into trouble. You +will make nothing here." + +"But I tell you, gentlemen--" cried Dennis, eagerly. + +"_You_ may tell what you please. _We_ tell you that we would not believe +any one from that den under oath. Now you leave!" + +The last words were loud and threatening. The attention of passers-by +was drawn toward them, and Dennis saw that further words were useless. +In the minds of shrewd but narrow business men, not over-honest +themselves, more acquainted with the trickery of the world than with +its virtues, suspicion against any one is fatal, and most assuredly +so against a stranger with appearances unfavorable. + +With heart wellnigh bursting with anger, disappointment, and shame, +Dennis hastened away. He had been regarded as a thief, or at best a +blackleg, seeking the position for some sinister purpose. This was the +opening scene of the day on which he had determined that no mistakes +should be made, and here at the outset he had allowed himself to be +identified with a place of notorious ill-repute. + +Reaching the hotel, he rushed upstairs, got his trunk, and then turned +fiercely on the red-nosed bartender-"Why did you not tell me the +character of this place?" + +"What kind of a place is it?" asked that functionary, coolly, arms +akimbo. + +"You know well enough. You knew I was not one of your sort." + +"You don't mean to say that this is a bad place, do you?" said the +barkeeper, in mock solemnity. + +"Yes, the worst in Chicago. There is your money." + +"Hold on here, my small chicken; there is some money, but not enough +by a jugful. I want five dollars out of you before you take that trunk +off." + +"Why, this is sheer robbery," exclaimed Dennis. + +"Oh, no; just keeping up the reputation of the house. You say it is +the worst in Chicago: must try and keep up our reputation." + +"Little fear of that; I will not pay it;" and Dennis started for his +trunk. + +"Here, let that trunk alone; and if yer don't give me that five dollars +cussed quick, I'll put a head on yer;" and he of the red nose put his +hands on the bar in readiness to spring over. + +"I say, young feller," said a good-natured loafer standing by, "you +had better gin him the five dollars; for Barney is the worst one in +all Chicago to put a head on a man." + +"And will you stand by and see this outrage?" said Dennis, appealing +to him. + +"Oh, gosh!" said the man, "I've got quarrels 'nough of my own without +getting my head broke for fellers I don't know." + +Dennis was almost speechless from indignation. Conscious of strength, +his strong impulse for a moment was to spring at the throat of the +barkeeper and vent his rage on him. There is a latent tiger in every +man. But a hand seemed to hold him back, and a sober second thought +came over him. What! Dennis Fleet, the son of Ethel Fleet, brawling, +fighting in a bar-room, a gambling-den, and going out to seek a +situation that required confidence and fair-appearing, all blackened, +bruised, and bleeding! As the truth flashed upon him in strong revulsion +of feeling he fairly turned pale and sick. + +"There's the money," said he, hoarsely, "and God forgive you." + +In a moment he had taken his trunk and was gone. The barkeeper stared +after him, and then looked at the money with a troubled and perplexed +face. + +"Wal," said he, "I'm used enough to havin' folk ask God to damn me, +but I'm blessed if I ever had one ask Him to forgive me, before. I be +hanged," said he, after a moment, as the thought grew upon him--"I +be hanged if I wouldn't give him back the money if he hadn't gone so +quick." + +With heart full of shame and bitterness, Dennis hastened down the +street. At the corner he met a policeman, and told him his story. All +the satisfaction he got was, "You ought not to go to such a place. But +you're lucky if they only took five dollars from you; they don't +let off many as easy as that." + +"Can I have no redress?" + +"Now look here; it's a pretty ticklish thing to interfere with them +fellers. It'll cost you plaguy sight more'n that, and blood, too, like +enough. If you'll take my advice, you won't stir up that hornet's +nest." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"STARVE THEN!" + + +Dennis now followed the natural impulse to go to some distant part of +the city, entirely away from the region that had become so hateful to +him. + +Putting the trunk on the front of a street-car, he rode on till he was +in the heart of the south-side district, the great business centre. +He took his trunk into a roomy hardware store, and asked if he might +leave it there a while. Receiving a good-natured permission, he next +started off in search of a quiet, cheap boarding-place. His heart was +heavy, and yet he felt thankful to have escaped as he had, for the +thought of what might have been his experience if Barney had tried to +fulfil his threat sickened him. The rough was as strong as he, and +scenes of violence were his delight and daily experience. He rather +gloried in a black eye, for he always gave two in exchange, and his +own bruised, swollen member paved the way gracefully for the telling +of his exploits, as it awakened inquiry from the lesser lights among +whom he shone. But what would Dennis have done among the merchants +with "a head on him," as the barkeeper understood the phrase? He would +have had to return home, and that he felt would be worse than death. +In fact, he had come nearer to a desperate struggle than he knew, for +Barney rarely resisted so inviting an opportunity to indulge his +pugilistic turn, and had he not seen the policeman going by just at +that time, there would have been no idle threats in the case. + +Dennis set his teeth with dogged resolution, determined if necessary, +to persevere in his search till he dropped in the street. But as he +remembered that he had less than five dollars left, and no prospect +of earning another, his heart grew like lead. + +He spent several weary hours in the vain search for a boarding-house. +He had little to guide him save short answers from policemen. The +places were either too expensive, or so coarse and low that he could +not bring himself to endure them. In some cases he detected that they +were accompanied by worse evils than gambling. Almost in despair, +tired, and very hungry (for severe indeed must be the troubles that +will affect the appetite of healthful youth on a cold winter day), he +stopped at a small German restaurant and hotel. A round-faced, jolly +Teuton served him with a large plate of cheap viands, which he devoured +so quickly that the man, when asked for more, stared at him for a +moment, and then stolidly obeyed. + +"What do you ask for a small room and bed for a night?" said Dennis. + +"Zwei shillen," said the waiter, with a grin; "dot ish, if you don't +vant as pig ped as dinner. Ve haf zwei shillen for bed, and zwei shillen +for efery meal--von dollar a day--sheap!" + +The place was comparatively clean. A geranium or two bloomed in the +window, and lager instead of fiery whiskey seemed the principal beverage +vended. Dennis went out and made inquiries, and every one in the +neighborhood spoke of it as a quiet, respectable place, though +frequented only by laboring people. "That is nothing against it," +thought Dennis. "I will venture to stay there for a night or two, for +I must lose no more time in looking for a situation." + +He took his trunk there, and then spent the rest of the day in +unavailing search. He found nothing that gave any promise at all. In +the evening he went to a large hotel and looked over the files of +papers. He found a few advertisements for clerks and experts of various +kinds, but more from those seeking places. But he noted down everything +hopeful, and resolved that he would examine the morning papers by +daylight for anything new in that line, and be the first on hand. His +new quarters, though plain and meagre, were at least clean. Too weary +to think or even to feel more than a dull ache in his heart, he slept +heavily till the dawn of the following day. Poor fellow! it seemed to +him that he had lived years in those two days. + +He was up by daylight, and found a few more advertisements that looked +as if they might lead to something. As early as it was possible to see +the parties, he was on the ground, but others were there as soon as +himself. They had the advantage of some knowledge and experience in +the duties required, and this decided the question. Some spoke kindly, +and suggested that he was better fitted for teaching than for business. + +"But where am I to find a position at this season of the year, when +every place is filled?" asked Dennis. "It might be weeks before I could +get anything to do, and I must have employment at once." + +They were sorry, hoped he would do well, turned away, and went on doing +well for themselves; but the majority merely satisfied themselves that +he would not answer their purpose, and bade him a brief, business-like +good-morning. And yet the fine young face, so troubled and anxious, +haunted a good many of those who summarily dismissed him. But "business +is business." + +The day passed in fruitless inquiry. Now and then he seemed on the +point of succeeding, but only disappointment resulted. There were at +that season of the year few situations offering where a salary +sufficient for maintenance was paid, and for these skilled laborers +were required. Dennis possessed no training for any one calling save +perhaps that of teacher. He had merely the fragment of a good general +education, tending toward one of the learned professions. He had fine +abilities, and undoubtedly would in time have stood high as a lawyer. +But now that he was suddenly called upon to provide bread for himself +and those he loved, there was not a single thing of which he could +say, "I understand this, sir, and can give you satisfaction." + +He knew that if he could get a chance at almost anything, he could +soon learn enough to make himself more useful than the majority +employed, for few had his will and motive to work. But the point was +to find some one who would pay sufficient for his own and his mother's +support while he learned. + +It is under just such circumstances that so many men, and especially +women, make shipwreck. Thrown suddenly upon their own resources, they +bring to the great labor-market of the world general intelligence, and +also general ignorance. With a smattering of almost everything, they +do not know practically how to do _one thing well_. Skilled hands, +though backed by neither heart nor brains, push them aside. Take the +young men or the young women of any well-to-do town or village, and +make them suddenly dependent upon their own efforts, and how many could +compete in any one thing with those already engaged in supplying the +market? And yet just such helpless young creatures are every day +compelled to shift for themselves. If to these unfortunates the paths +of honest industry seem hedged and thorny, not so those of sin. They +are easy enough at first, if any little difficulty with conscience can +be overcome; and the devil, and fallen humanity doing his work, stand +ready to push the wavering into them. + +At the close of the next day, spent in weary search, Dennis met a +temptation to which many would have yielded. As a last resort he had +been going around among the hotels, willing to take even the situation +of porter, if nothing better offered. The day was fast closing, when, +worn out and dejected, he entered a first-class house, and made his +usual inquiry. The proprietor looked at him for a moment, slapped him +on the back, and said: "Yes, you are the man I want, I reckon. Do you +drink? No! might have known that from your face. Don't want a man that +drinks for this place. Come along with me, then. Will give you two and +a half a day if you suit, and pay you every night. I pay my help +promptly; they ain't near so apt to steal from you then." + +And the man hurried away, followed by Dennis with beating heart and +flushed, wondering face. Descending a flight of stairs, they entered +a brilliantly lighted basement, which was nothing less than a large, +elegantly arranged bar-*room, with card and lunch-tables, and +easy-chairs for the guests to smoke and tipple in at their leisure. +All along one side of this room, resplendent with cut glass and polished +silver, ran the bar. The light fell warm and mellow on the various +kinds of liquor, that were so arranged as to be most tempting to the +thirsty souls frequenting the place. + +Stepping up to the bulky man behind the bar the landlord said: "There, +Mr. Swig, is a young man who will fill capitally the place of the chap +we dismissed to-day for getting tight. You may bet your life from his +face that he don't drink. You can break him in in a few days, and you +won't want a better assistant." + +For a moment a desperate wish passed through Dennis's mind, "Oh, that +wrong were right!" Then, indignant with himself, he spoke up, firmly--"I +think I have a word to say in this matter." + +"Well, say on, then; what's the trouble?" + +"I cannot do this kind of work." + +"You will find plenty harder." + +"None harder for one believing as I do. I will starve before I will +do this work." + +The man stared at him for a moment, and then coolly replied, "Starve +then!" and turned on his heel and walked away. + +Dennis also rushed from the place, followed by the coarse, jeering +laugh of those who witnessed the scene. In his morbid, suffering state +their voices seemed those of mocking demons. + +The night had now fallen. He was too tired and discouraged to look any +further. Wearily he plodded up the street, facing the bitter blast +filled with snow that had begun to fall. + +This then was the verdict of the world--"Starve!" This was the only +prospect it offered--that same brave world which had so smilingly +beckoned him on to great achievements and unbounded success but a few +days since--"Starve!" Every blast that swept around the corners howled +in his ears, "Starve!" Every warmly clad person hurrying unheedingly +by seemed to say by his indifference, "Starve! who cares? there is no +place for you, nothing for you to do." + +The hard, stern resolution of the past few days, not to yield an inch, +to persist in hewing his way through every difficulty, began to flag. +His very soul seemed crushed within him. Even upon the threshold of +his life, in his strong, joyous youth, the world had become to him +what it literally was that night, a cold, wintry, stormy place, with +a black, lowering sky and hard, frozen earth. + +His father's old temptation recurred to him with sudden and great +power. "Perhaps father was right," he mused. "God was against him, and +is also against me, his son. Does He not visit the iniquity of the +fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation? Not +but that He will save us at last, if we ask Him, but there seems some +great wrong that must be severely punished here. Or else if God does +not care much about our present life, thinking only of the hereafter, +there must be some blind fate or luck that crushes some and lifts up +others." + +Thus Dennis, too sad and morbid to take a just view of anything, plodded +on till he reached his boarding-place, and stealing in as if he had +no business to be there, or anywhere else, sat down in a dusky corner +behind the stove, and was soon lost to surrounding life in his own +miserable thoughts. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A GOOD SAMARITAN + + +Dennis was too good a Christian, and had received too deep a lesson +in his father's case, to become bitter, angry, and defiant, even if +he had believed that God was against him. He would have felt that it +was simply his duty to submit--to endure patiently. Somehow Until +to-day his heart had refused to believe that God could be against any +of His creatures. In fact, it was his general impression that God had +everything to do with his being a good Christian, but very little with +his getting a good place. The defect in his religion, and that of his +mother, too, was that both separated the spiritual life of the soul +too widely from the present life with its material, yet essential, +cares and needs. At this point they, like multitudes of others, fell +short of their full privilege, and enjoyment of God's goodness. His +mother had cheered and sustained her hard lot by hopes and visions of +the better life beyond--by anticipating joys to come. She had never +fully learned how God's love, like the sunlight, could shine upon and +brighten the thorny, rocky way, and cause the thorns to blossom, and +delicate fragrant flowers to grow in the crevices and bloom in shaded +nooks among the sharp stones. She must wait for her consolation. She +must look out of her darkness to the light that shone through the +portals of the tomb, forgetting that God caused His servants to sing +at midnight, in the inner prison, the deepest dungeon, though scourged +and bleeding. + +Unconsciously her son had imbibed the same ideas. + +Most devoutly he asked every day to be kept from sin, that he might +grow in the Christian life; but he did not ask or expect, save in a +vague, general way, that help which a wise, good, earthly father would +give to a young, inexperienced child, struggling with the hard, +practical difficulties of this world. As the days grew darker and more +full of disappointment, he had asked with increasing earnestness that +he might be kept from sin--from falling before the many and peculiar +temptations that assailed him; and we have seen how God answered his +prayer, and kept him where so many would have fallen. But God meant +to show him that His goodness extended further than he thought, and +that He cared for His children's well-being now as truly as in the +hereafter, when He gathered them home into His immediate presence. But +Dennis could not see this now. As far as he thought at all on the +subject, he had the vague feeling that God was either trying his faith +or meting out some righteous judgment, and he must do the best he +could, and only see to it that he did not sin and give way morally. + +Yet, in the thick night of his earthly prospects, Dennis still loved +and trusted God. He reasoned justly, that if at last brought to such +a place as heaven, no matter what he suffered here, he had only cause +for unbounded gratitude. And he felt sure that all would be right in +the end, but now feared that his life would be like his father's, a +tissue of disappointments, and that he, an unsuccessful voyager, +storm-tossed and shipwrecked, would be thrown upon the heavenly shore +by some dark-crested billow of misfortune. + +Thus Dennis sat lost in gloomy musings, but too wearied in mind and +body to follow any line of thought long. A few stern facts kept looming +up before him, like rocks on which a ship is drifting. He had less +than a dollar in his pocket. It was Friday night. If he did not get +anything to do on Saturday, how was he going to live through Sunday +and the days that followed? Then his dependent mother and sisters rose +up before him. They seemed to his morbid fancy hungry and cold, and +their famine-pinched faces full of reproach. His head bowed lower, and +he became the very picture of dejection. + +He was startled by a big, hearty voice at his side, exclaiming: "What +makes yer so down in the mouth? Come, take a drink, and cheer up!" + +Raising his eyes, he saw a round, red face, like a harvest moon, shining +full upon him. It was somewhat kindly in its expression, in keeping +with the words. Rough as was the courtesy, it went straight to the +lonely, discouraged heart of the young man, and with moistened eyes +he said, "I thank you for speaking to me in a tone that has a little +human touch in it, for the last man that spoke to me left an echo in +my ear that I would gladly get out of it." + +"Bad luck to him, then! Give us yer hand; there!" with a grip like a +vise. "Bill Cronk never went back on a man he took to. I tell yer what, +stranger," said he, becoming confidential, "when I saw yer glowering +and blinking here in the corner as if yer was listening to yer own +funeral sermon, I be ---- if I could take a comfortable drink. Come, +now, take a good swig of old rye, and see how things will mellow up." + +Our good Samaritan in this case was a very profane and disreputable +one, as many are in this medley world. He had a great, kindly nature, +that was crawling and grovelling in all sorts of low, unseemly places, +instead of growing straight up toward heaven. + +"I hope you will think me none the less friendly if I decline," said +Dennis. "I would drink with you as quick as with any man living, but +it is a thing I never do." + +"Oh, you're temperance, are yer? Well, I don't think none the wuss of +yer for standing by yer colors. Between us, it would be better for me +if I was a little more so. Hang it all! I take a drop too much now and +then. But what is a fellow to do, roughing it up and down the world +like me? I should often get lonely and mope in the corner as you did, +if I didn't get up steam. When I am down in the mouth I take a drink +to 'liven me up, and when I feel good I take a drink to make me feel +better. When I wouldn't take a drink on my own hook, I meet somebody +that I'd ought to drink with. It is astonishing how many occasions +there are to drink, 'specially when a man's travelling, like me." + +"No fear but what the devil will make occasions enough," said Dennis. + +"What has the devil got to do with it?" asked the man, gruffly. + +Just then the miserable wretch entered who, appearing opportunely in +Gavin's Hotel, had cured Dennis of his desire to drink, when weary and +despondent, for the sake of the effects. For a moment they looked at +the blear-eyed, trembling wreck of a man, and then Dennis asked, "Had +God any hand in making that man what he is?" + +"I should say not," said Bill Cronk, emphatically. + +"Well, I should say the devil had," said Dennis; "and there behind the +bar are the means used--the best tool he has, it seems to me; for with +it he gets hold of men with some heart and soul in them, like you." + +The man winced under the words that both conscience and experience +told him were true; at the same time he was propitiated by Dennis's +good opinion of him. He gave a big, good-natured laugh, slapped Dennis +on the shoulder, and said: "Wal, stranger, p'raps you're right. 'Tain't +every temperance lecturer though that has an awful example come in +just at the right time so slick. But you've stood by yer colors, and +we won't quarrel. Tell us, now, if it ain't private, what you're so +chopfallen about." + +Dennis told his story, as grateful for this rough sympathy as a thirsty +traveller would be in finding a spring though surrounded by thorns and +rocks. + +The round, jolly face actually grew long and serious through interest +in the young man's tribulations. + +After scratching a shaggy but practical head for a few moments, Bill +spoke as follows: + +"Seems to me the case is just this: here you are, a young blooded colt, +not broken to either saddle or thills--here you are whinnying around a +market where they want nothing but dray-hosses. People look shy at +you--usually do at a strange hoss. Few know good p'ints when they see +'em. When they find you ain't broke in to nothin', they want you to +work for nothin'. I see how you can't do this. And yet fodder is runnin' +short, and you must do somethin'." + +Bill, having dealt in live-stock all his life, naturally clothed his +thoughts in language drawn from familiar objects, and Dennis, miserable +as he was, half smiled at the close parallel run between him and a +young, useless colt; but he only said, "I don't think there is a +cart-horse in all Chicago that feels more broken down and dispirited +than I do to-night." + +"That may all be, too," said Bill; "but you'd feel a little oats mighty +quick, and a cart-hoss wouldn't. But I know the p'ints, whether it's +a man or a hoss; you'd take kindly to work of the right sort, and it +would pay any one to take you at yer own terms, but you can't make 'em +see it. If I was in a situation to take you, I'd do it in a minute. +Hang it all! I can't do much for you, either. I took a drop too much +in Cleveland t'other night, and some of the folks in the house looked +over my pocket-book and left me just enough to get home with." + +Dennis shook his head reproachfully and was about to speak. + +"I know what you're going to say," said Bill, heading off another +temperance lecture. "I'll take a drink by and by, and think over what +you've said, for I can't think much until I get a little steam up. But +now we must try and see some way out of the fog for you;" and again +in absence of the wonted steam he scratched the shaggy head vigorously. + +"Seems to me the best thing for you is to do as I did when I first +broke the home pasture and started out on a rampage. I just grabbed +the fust job that come along, good, bad, or indifferent--always kept +doing something. You can look for a bird in the bush quite well when +you've got one in the hand as when you hain't. To be sure I wasn't as +squeamish as you are. I'd jumped at the offer you had this afternoon; +but I reckon I'd taken toll too often to be very profitable. But in +this way I always kept a-goin'--never got down underfoot so the stronger +ones could tread on me. When it comes to that, I want to die. Now if +you've got plenty of clear grit--Leetle disposed to show the white +feather though, to-night, ain't yer?" + +Dennis flushed up, and was about to speak, almost angrily. + +"There! there!" said his new friend. "I said yer wasn't a cart-hoss: +one touch of the spur and up goes tail and ears, and then look out. +Are yer ashamed to do any kind of honest work? I mean kinder pious +work, that hasn't any smack of the devil you're so afraid of in it?" + +"No! work is just what I want." + +"Would you black boots, now?" + +Dennis winced, thought a moment, and then, with a manly flush, said, +"Yes, before I would take a cent of charity from any living soul." + +"Give us yer hand again. You're the kind of critter I like to invest +in; for you'd improve on a feller's hands. No fear about you; the only +thing is to get you in harness before a load that will pay to haul." + +Suddenly he got up, strode to the bar-room door, looked out into the +night, and came back again. + +"I think I know of a way in which you can make two or three dollars +to-morrow." + +"How?" exclaimed Dennis, his whole face lighting up with hope. + +"Go to a hardware store, invest in a big wooden snow-shovel, and clean +off sidewalks before stores. You can pick up a good many quarters +before night, like enough." + +"I will do it," said Dennis, heartily, "and thank you warmly for the +suggestion, and for your kindly interest generally," and he looked up +and felt himself another man. + +"Gosh! but it takes mighty few oats to set you up! But come, and let +us have a little plain, substantial fodder. I will drink nothing but +coffee, to-night, out of compliment to you." + +Cheered, comforted, and hopeful, Dennis sat down with his good +Samaritan, and made a hearty supper, after which they parted with a +strong friendly grip, and sincere good wishes, Cronk, the drover, going +on further west, and Dennis to the rest he so sorely needed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +YAHCOB BUNK + + +Before retiring, Dennis as usual took his Bible from his trunk to read +a chapter. He was now in a very different mood from that of a few hours +ago. The suggestion of his bar-room acquaintance was a light upon his +way. And with one of Dennis's age and temperament, even a small hope +is potent. He was eager for the coming day, in order to try the +experiment of wringing bread and opportunity for further search out +of the wintry snows. + +But that which had done him the most good--more than he realized--was +the kindness he had received, rough though it was--the sympathy and +companionship of another human being; for if he had been cast away on +a desert island he could not have been more isolated than in the great +city, with its indifferent multitudes. + +Moreover the generous supper was not without its decided influence; +and with it he had drunk a cup of good coffee, that nectar of the gods, +whose subtile, delicate influence is felt in body and brain, in every +fibre of the nature not deadened and blunted by stronger and coarser +stimulants. He who leaves out physical causes in accounting for mental +and moral states, will usually come wide of the mark. But while giving +the influences above referred to their due force, so far from ignoring, +we would acknowledge with emphasis, the chief cause of man's ability +to receive and appreciate all the highest phases of truth and good, +namely, God's help asked for and given. Prayer was a habit with Dennis. +He asked God with childlike faith for the bestowment of every Christian +grace, and those who knew him best saw that he had no reason to +complain that his prayers were unanswered. + +But now, at a time when he would most appreciate it, God was about to +reveal to him a truth that would be a rich source of help and comfort +through life, and a sudden burst of sunshine upon his dark way at the +present hour. He was to be shown how he might look to heaven for help +and guidance in respect to his present and earthly interests, as truly +as in his spiritual life. + +As he opened his Bible his eyes caught the words of our Lord--"Launch +out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught." + +Then Peter's answer--"Master, we have toiled all the night and have +taken nothing: nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net." + +The result--"They inclosed a great multitude of fishes." + +With these words light broke in upon his mind. "If our Lord," he mused, +"helped His first disciples catch fish, why should He not help me find +a good place?" Then unbelief suggested, "It was not for the sake of +the fish; they were only means to a higher end." + +But Dennis, who had plenty of good common-sense, at once answered +this objection: "Neither do I want position and money for low, selfish +purposes. My ends are the best and purest, for I am seeking my own +honest living and the support of my mother and sisters--the very +imperative duties that God is now imposing on me. Would God reveal a +duty and no way of performing it?" + +Then came the thought: "Have I asked Him to help me? Have I not been +seeking in my own wisdom, and trusting in my own strength? and this +too when my ignorance of business, the dull season of the year, and +everything was against me, when I specially needed help. Little wonder +that I have fared as I have." + +Turning the leaves of his Bible rapidly, he began searching for +instances of God's interference in behalf of the temporal interests +of His servants--for passages where earthly prosperity was promised +or given. After an hour he closed the Bible with a long breath of +wonder, and said to himself "Why, God seems to care as much for the +well-being and happiness of his children here as He will when He has +us all about Him in the home above. I've been blind for twenty-one +years to one of the grandest truths of this Book." + +Then, as the thought grew upon him, he exclaimed, joyously, "Take +heart, Dennis Fleet: God is on your side in the struggle for an honest +success in this life as truly as in your fight against sin and the +devil." + +It was long before he slept that night, but a truth had been revealed +that rested and strengthened him more than the heavy slumbers after +the weary days that had preceded. + +The dawn of the winter morning was cold and faint when Dennis appeared +in the bar-room the next day. The jolly-faced Teuton was making the +fire, stopping often to blow his cold fingers, and wasting enough good +breath to have kindled a furnace. His rubicund visage, surrounded by +shaggy hair and beard of yellow, here appeared in the dust and smoke +he was making like the sun rising in a fog. + +"Hillo!" he said, on seeing Dennis; "vat you oop dis early for? Don't +vant anoder dinner yet, I hope?" + +"I will take that in good time," said Dennis; "and shall want a bigger +one than that which so astonished you at first." + +"Oh, my eyes!" said the German; "den I go and tell de cook to pegin to +get him right avay." + +Laughing good-naturedly, Dennis went to the door and looked out. On +sidewalk and street the snow lay six or eight inches deep, untrodden, +white and spotless, even in the heart of the great city. "How different +this snow will look by night," thought he; "how soiled and black! +Perhaps very many come to this city in the morning of life like this +snow, pure and unstained; but after being here awhile they become like +this snow when it has been tossed about and trodden under every careless +foot. God grant that, however poor and unsuccessful I may remain, such +pollution may never be my fate." + +But feeling that he had no time for moralizing if he would secure bread +for the coming day of rest, he turned and said to the factotum of the +bar-room, "How much will you give to have the snow cleared off the +sidewalk in front of your house?" + +"Zwei shillen." + +"Then I will earn my breakfast before I eat it, if you will lend me +a shovel." + +"I dought you vas a shentlemans," said the German, staring at him. + +"So I am; just the shentlemans that will clean off your sidewalk for +zwei shillen, if you will let him." + +"You vant to do him for exercise?" + +"No; for zwei shillings." + +"I dought you vas a shentlemans," said the man, still staring in stolid +wonder at Dennis. + +"Didn't you ever know of a gentleman who came from Germany to this +country and was glad to do anything for an honest living?" + +"Often and often I haf. You see von here," said the man, with a grin. +"Well, I am just that kind of a gentleman. Now if you will lend me a +shovel I will clean off your sidewalk for two shillings, and be a great +deal more thankful than if you had given me the money for nothing." +"Little fear of dot," said the man, with another grin. "Vel, you are +der queerest Yankee in Chicago, you are; I dink you are 'bout haf +Sherman. I tells you vat--here, vat's your name?--if you glean off dot +sidewalk goot, you shall haf preakfast and dinner, much as you eat, +vidout von shent to pay. I don't care if der cook is cooking all day. +I like your--vat you call him?--shpunk." + +"It's a bargain," said Dennis; "and if I can make a few more like it +to-day, I shall be rich." + +"You may vel say dot. I vill go into der market and see if dere's +enough for me to keep my bart of der bargain goot." + +For half an hour Dennis worked away lustily, and then called his +task-master and said, "Will you accept the job?" + +Surveying with surprise the large space cleared, and looking in vain +for reason to find fault, he said: "I say nothin' agin him. I hope you +vill eat your dinner as quick. Now come in to your preakfast." + +He pretended to be perfectly aghast at Dennis's onslaught on the +buckwheat cakes, and rolled up his eyes despairingly as each new plate +was emptied. + +Having finished, Dennis gave him a nod, and said, "Wait till +dinner-time." + +"Ah! dere vill be von famine," said the German, in a tone of anguish, +wringing his hands. + +Having procured the needful implement, Dennis started out, and, though +there was considerable competition, found plenty to do, and shovelled +away with little cessation till one o'clock. Then, counting his gains, +he found that he had paid for his shovel, secured breakfast and dinner, +and had a balance on hand of two dollars and fifty cents, and he had +nearly half a day yet before him. He felt rich--nay, more than that, +he felt like a man who, sinking in a shoreless ocean, suddenly catches +a plank that bears him up until land appears in the distance. + +"This is what comes of asking God to help a fellow," said he to himself. +"Strange, too, that He should answer my prayer in part before I asked, +by causing that queer jumble of good and evil, Bill Cronk, to suggest +to me this way of turning an honest penny. I wish Bill was as good a +friend to himself as he is to others. I fear that he will go to the +dogs. Bless me! the gnawings of hunger are bad enough, but what must +be those of conscience? I think I can astonish my German friend to-day +as never before;" and, shouldering his shovel, he walked back to dinner, +feeling like a prince bearing aloft the insignia of his power. + +When he entered the bar and lunch room, he saw that something was +wrong. The landlord met him, instead of his jolly, satirical friend. + +Now the owner of the place was a wizen-faced, dried-up old anatomy, +who seemed utterly exhaling away in tobacco smoke, while his assistant +was becoming spherical under the expansive power of lager. It was his +custom to sit up and smoke most of the night, and therefore he was +down late in the morning. When he appeared his assistant told him of +the bargain he had made with Dennis as a good joke. But old Hans hadn't +any faculty for jokes. Dollars and cents and his big meerschaum made +up the two elements of his life. The thought of losing zwei shillings +or zwei cents by Dennis, or any one else, caused him anguish, and +instead of laughing, his fun-loving assistant was aghast at seeing him +fall into a passion. + +"You be von big fule. Vat for we keep mens here who haf no money? You +should gleared him off, instead of making pargains for him to eat us +out of der house." + +"We haf his trunk," said Jacob, for that was his name. + +"Nothin' in it," growled Hans, yet somewhat mollified by this fact. +When Dennis appeared, he put the case without any circumlocution: "I +makes my livin' by keepin' dis house. I can no make my livin' unless +efrypodies bays me. I haf reason to dink dot you haf no moneys. Vat +ish de druf? 'Gause if you haf none, you can no longer stay here." + +"Have I not paid for everything I have had so far?" said Dennis. + +"Dot is not der question. Haf you got any moneys?" + +"What is your bill in advance up to Monday morning?" + +"Zwei dollar and a quarter, if you dake preakfast." +"Deduct breakfast and dinner to-day for clearing off the sidewalk." + +"Dot ish too much; you did it in half-hour." + +"Well, it would have taken you three. But a bargain is a bargain, the +world over. Did not you promise it?"--to Jacob. + +"Yah! und you shall haf him, too, if I be der loser. Yahcob Bunk ish +not der man to go pack on his vort." + +"Vel, den," said old Hans, "von dollar sheventy-five to Monday morning." + +"There's the money; now let me have my dinner, for I am in a hurry." + +At the sight of money Hans at once became the most obsequious of hosts, +and so would remain while it lasted. But Dennis saw that the moment +it was gone his purchased courtesy would change, and he trembled at +his narrow escape from being thrust out into the wintry streets, +friendless, penniless, to beg or starve--equally hard alternatives to +his mind. + +"Come, Yahcob, thou snail, give der shentlemans his dinner," said Hans. + +Jacob, who had been looking on with heavy, stolid face, now brightened +up on seeing that all was right, and gave Dennis a double portion of +the steaming pot-pie, and a huge mug of coffee. When Dennis had finished +these and crowned his repast with a big dumpling, Jacob came to him +with a face as long and serious as his harvest moon of a visage could +be made, and said: "Dere ish nodding more in Chicago; you haf gleaned +it out. Ve must vait dill der evenin' drain gomes pefore ve haf supper." + +"That will be time enough for me," said Dennis, laughing--for he could +laugh to-day at little things--and started off again with his shovel. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LAND AT LAST + + +During the latter part of a busy afternoon, Dennis came to a spacious, +elegant store before which the snow lay untouched save as trodden by +passers-by. Over the high arched doorway was the legend in gilt letters, +"Art Building"; and as far as a mere warehouse for beautiful things +could deserve the title, this place did, for it was crowded with +engravings, paintings, bronzes, statuary, and every variety of ornament. +With delighted eyes and lingering steps he had passed slowly through +this store a few days previous in his search, but had received the +usual cool negative. He had gone reluctantly out into the cold street +again as Adam went out of Paradise. + +A large florid-looking man with a light curling mustache now stood in +the doorway. His appearance was unmistakably that of a German of the +highest and most cultivated type. And yet, when he spoke, his English +was so good that you detected only a foreign accent. Strong vexation +was stamped upon his face as he looked at the snowy, untidy sidewalk. + +"Mr. Schwartz," he asked of one of his clerks, "was Pat here this +morning?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Was he perfectly straight?" + +"I cannot say that he was, sir." + +"He is off on a spree again. Send him to me the moment he returns." + +"Shall I clear your sidewalk?" said Dennis, stepping up and touching +his hat respectfully. + +"Yes," said the gentleman, scarcely looking at him; "and when you have +finished come to the office for your money;" and then he walked back +into the store with a frowning brow. + +Though Dennis was now pretty thoroughly fatigued with the hard day's +work, he entered on this task with a good will as the closing labor +of the day, hoping, from the wide space to be cleared, to receive +proportionate recompense. And yet his despatch was not so great as +usual, for in spite of himself his eyes were continually wandering to +the large show-windows, from which smiled down upon him summer +landscapes, and lovely faces that seemed all the more beautiful in +contrast with the bleak and darkening street. + +He was rudely startled from one of his stolen glances at a sweet, +girlish face that seemed peering archly at him from a corner. His ears +were assailed by the loud tones and strong brogue of "Pat," returning +thus late to his neglected duties. + +"Bad luck to yez! what yez doin' here?" + +"Clearing the sidewalk," said Dennis, laconically. + +"Give me that shovel, or I'll knock bloody blazes out of yez." + +Dennis at once stood on the defensive, and raised his tool +threateningly. At the same time seeing a policeman, he called out, +"Will you please cause this drunken fellow to move on?" + +The officer was about to comply, when the Irishman, with a snort like +that of a mad bull, rushed to the door of the art building, wrenched +it open, and, leaving it so, tore down the long store, crying, "Misther +Ludolph! Misther Ludolph! here's a bloody spalpane a-doin' my work." + +He had scarcely got half-way to the office before there was a crash +followed by a general commotion. + +Pat, in his blind rage, and with steps uncertain from the effects of +whiskey, had struck a valuable marble, and it lay broken on the floor. +This catastrophe sobered him, and he stood looking in dismay at the +destruction he had wrought. His employer, the gentleman whom Dennis +had seen at the door, now appeared upon the scene in a towering passion, +and scrupled not to heap maledictions upon the head of the unfortunate +Hibernian. + +"What do you mean by rushing through the store in this mad style?" he +demanded. + +"There's an impudent fellow outside a-doin' my work," said Pat. + +"Why didn't you do it yourself, instead of going off to the gin-mills +this morning? Didn't I warn you? Didn't I tell you your last spree +should be the last in my employ? Now begone, you drunken idiot! and +if you ever show your face on these premises again I'll have you +arrested and compel payment for this marble, and it will take every +cent you have in the world, and more too." + +"Ah! Misther Ludolph, if ye'll only give me one more--" + +"I tell you be off! or I will call the policeman at once." + +"But Bridget and the childer will starve." + +"What are Bridget and the children to me? If you won't take care of +them, you can't expect other people to. Begone!" said his employer, +advancing threateningly and stamping his foot. + +Pat looked around in vain for help: the clerks were but fainter echoes +of their master. + +Seeing his case to be hopeless, he turned about then hurried away, his +big red face distorted by many contending emotions. Nor did he stop +until he reached one of the fatal "gin-mills," where he soon drowned +memory and trouble in huge potations of the fiery element that was +destroying him and bringing wretchedness to "Bridget and the childer." + +Again Dennis had a lesson on drinking for the effects. + +He rapidly completed his work and entered the store. A clerk handed +him fifty cents. + +"May I see Mr. Ludolph a moment?" he asked. + +"Yes," replied the clerk, "he is in the inner office there; but I guess +you won't find him very smooth this evening," looking at the same time +suggestively toward the broken marble. + +But Mr. Ludolph was not in as bad a humor as was imagined. This thrifty +Teuton had not lost much by the mishap of the afternoon, for a month +or two of wages was due Pat, and this kept back would pay in the main +for the injury he had done. His whole soul being bent on the acquirement +of money, for reasons that will be explained further on, his momentary +passion soon passed away when he found he had sustained no material +injury. To Dennis's knock he responded in his usual tone, "Come in!" +and Dennis stood in a warm, lighted, cosey office, where the object +of his quest sat writing rapidly with his back to the door. Dennis +waited respectfully till the facile pen glided through the sentence, +and then Mr. Ludolph looked up. Dennis's bearing and appearance were +so unmistakably those of a gentleman that Mr. Ludolph, not +recognizing him as the person who had cleared his sidewalk, rose +courteously and said, "Did you wish to see me?" + +"Yes, sir," replied Dennis; "I understand that you dismissed a person +in your employ this afternoon. I would respectfully apply for his +place, if it is not promised." + +The gentleman smiled and said: "You are mistaken, I think. I discharged +a drunken Irishman, who had been porter and man-of-all-work about the +store, this afternoon; but I have no place vacant, young sir, that you +would care to fill." + +"If you think me competent to fill the position of porter and your +man-of-all-work, I would be very glad to obtain it; that is, if it +will support me and those dependent on me." + +The merchant muttered to himself, "I thought he was a gentleman." + +Then, as this was a business matter of some importance, he caused +Dennis to stand full in the light, while he withdrew somewhat in the +shadow, and gave it his attention with characteristic shrewdness and +caution. + +"You seem rather above the situation you ask for," he said. + +"I am not above it in circumstances," said Dennis, "and it certainly +is better than shovelling snow all day." + +"Are you the man that just cleaned my sidewalk?" + +"I am, sir." + +"You must be aware that your general appearance is very different from +that of the man discharged to-day, and from those seeking the menial +place in question. Can you explain this fact satisfactorily?" + +"I can readily explain it, and I hope satisfactorily. At any rate I +shall be perfectly open;" and Dennis told him briefly, but plainly, +just how he was situated. + +As the keen man of the world watched with the closest scrutiny the +honest young face, he believed every word. Accustomed to deal with all +classes of men from childhood, he had learned to read them as the open +page of a book. + +He asked coolly, however, "Have you no recommendations?" + +Dennis produced the ministerial letter, which Mr. Ludolph glanced at +with good-natured contempt. + +"This is all right," he said; "superstition is an excellent thing for +some minds. I managed Pat a year through his priest, and then he got +beyond the priest and me too." + +This undisguised contempt of all that he held sacred, and the classing +of true faith with gross superstition, pained Dennis; and his face +showed it, though he said nothing. + +"There," said the gentleman, "I did not mean to hurt your feelings, +but to the educated in our land these things seem very childish." + +"I should serve you none the worse," said Dennis, with quiet dignity, +"if I believed that the duty I owed to you I owed also to God." + +Mr. Ludolph looked as if a new idea had struck him, smiled, and said: +"Most people's religion, as far as my experience has gone, is not of +this practical kind. But I believe that I can trust you, and your face +and story are worth much more to me than this letter. A scamp might +possess that as well as an honest youth like you. Now, as to terms: +I will give you forty dollars a month for the first two months, and +then, if you develop and take well to the work, I will give you sixty." + +Dennis thought that this, with close economy, would enable him to live +and support his mother and sisters, and he accepted the terms. + +"Moreover, to show the advantage of telling a straightforward story, +you may sleep in the store: the building will be safer for having some +one in it. I will pay you at the end of every week as long as you suit, +so that you can commence sending something to your mother immediately. +You see that I take an interest in you," said the shrewd man, "and +expect you to take an interest in my business, and work for me as for +yourself." + +Simple, honest Dennis could not see that Mr. Ludolph cared infinitely +more for himself than for all the world combined, and made it his +life-study to get the most out of it with the least cost to himself. +Under the words that seemed so kind and considerate, the young man's +heart swelled with the strong and grateful purpose to spare himself +in no way in the service of such an employer. The wily man saw this, +and smiled to himself over the credulity of mankind. + +"Have you enough to last till next Saturday night?" he asked. + +"I will make it last," said Dennis, sturdily. + +"That is right," said Mr. Ludolph. "Stand on your own feet if you can. +I never give any more help than will barely enable a man to help +himself"--a maxim which had the advantage not only of being sound, but +of according exactly with his disposition. + +After a moment's thought, Mr. Ludolph spoke in a tone so sharp, and +a manner so stern, that Dennis was startled. + +"Mark me, young man, I wish a plain understanding in one respect: you +take Pat's place, and I expect you to do Pat's work. I wish no trouble +to arise from your being above your business." + +"You will have none," said Dennis, quietly and firmly. + +"All right, then. Mr. Schwartz will show you about closing up the +store. Be here early Monday morning, and remember that all depends +upon yourself." + +In the depths of his grateful heart Dennis felt how much the success +of that day and every day of life depended on God. + +Mr. Ludolph put on his coat and gloves and went out with Dennis into +the store. + +"Gentlemen," said he to his clerks, "this young man, Dennis Fleet by +name, will take the place of Pat Murphy, discharged to-day. Mr. +Schwartz, will you show him what it is necessary to do to-night? He +will be here on Monday morning at the usual time for opening the store, +and after that will sleep in the building." + +The clerks looked at him for a moment, as they might at a new piece +of furniture, or a labor-saving machine, and then coolly finished their +duties, and followed their employer. Mr. Schwartz showed him about +closing the store, taking care of the furnace, etc., and Dennis saw +that his place was no sinecure. Still it was not work, but its lack, +that he dreaded, and his movements were so eager and earnest that a +faint expression of surprise and curiosity tinged the broad, stolid +face of Mr. Schwartz; but he only buttoned his coat to the chin and +muttered, "New broom," and went his way homeward, leaving Dennis to +go his. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE NEW BROOM + + +The following Sabbath was a bright winter day without, but bright +summer in Dennis's heart. He inquired his way to a neighboring church, +and every word of prayer, praise, and truth fell on a glad, grateful +spirit. Returning, he wrote a long letter to his mother, telling her +all he had passed through, especially dwelling on the truth he had +discovered of God's wish to make this life happy and successful, as +well as the life beyond. + +In closing, he wrote: "Here I am, Dennis Fleet, who a few days since +thought the world scarcely large enough for what I meant to do, standing +contentedly and gratefully in Pat Murphy's shoes. I will not conceal +from you, speaking figuratively (the fates forbid that it should be +literally true), that I hope to outgrow them, and arrive at something +better before many months pass. In the meantime I am indeed thankful +for the means of winning honest bread for us all. It is quite a +come-down from the classics and law to the position of porter and man +of-all-work in a picture and music store, but if God means me to rise +He can lead me upward from my lowly standpoint as well as from the +most favored that I could have chosen for myself. I have learned that +if I will _trust Him_ and do present duty thoroughly, He will not forget +me." + +On Monday morning, half an hour before the specified time, Dennis stood +at the store. Impatiently he walked up and down before what would +become the scene of joys and sorrows such as he had never before +experienced. But we will not anticipate. + +In due time Mr. Schwartz appeared. He gave Dennis a cool nod, and said, +"Glad to see you so prompt," then muttered again to himself, "New +broom." + +In Mr. Schwartz's slow, plodding soul the fire of enthusiasm had never +burned. He was eminently conservative, and looked with wary suspicion +on anything that appeared like earnestness. In the midst of a driving, +bustling Western city, he stuck in the mud of his German phlegm, like +a snag in the swift current of the Mississippi. Yet Mr. Ludolph found +him a most valuable assistant. He kept things straight. Under his +minute supervision everything had to be right on Saturday night as +well as on Monday morning, on the 31st of December as well as on the +1st of January. He was one who through life would be satisfied with +a subordinate position, conscious of the lack of enterprise needful +to push his own way in the world. His painstaking, methodical spirit +was just the kind to pervade a large warehouse like that he had in +charge, and prevent loss and confusion in the multiplicity of objects +it contained. Pat's careless Irish ways had vexed his soul beyond +words, and now Dennis's eager manner suggested a hare-brained Yankee +youth who would raise a dust for a week and then be off at something +else. He was therefore cool and curt, seeking by frostiness of manner +to nip the budding enthusiasm that annoyed him. + +Dennis heeded him not, but bent every faculty to the mastery of the +duties required of him. He was to mop out the store with damp cloths, +so as to raise no dust, to look after the furnace and graduate the +heat throughout the building, to receive boxes, to assist in packing +and unpacking pianos and other musical instruments that occupied part +of the upper floors, and to make himself generally useful. So far from +being an easy position, it was one that required great strength and +despatch, and these had been Pat's qualities save when drink got the +better of him. For one of his age, Dennis was very strong, and his +experience in helping his mother in household duties had made him quick +and dexterous, where most young men would have been awkward and slow. +After a day or two Mr. Schwartz relaxed his grimness somewhat, for if +Dennis worked eagerly he also worked well for a beginner. Still it +would require several years of well-doing to satisfy old Schwartz that +all was right. But Mr. Ludolph, with his quick insight into character, +watched this "new broom" a few days, and then congratulated himself +on gaining another decided help toward the object nearest his heart. + +The other clerks were of German descent, and under Mr. Schwartz's rigid +system each one filled his appropriate niche, and performed carefully +the duties assigned. + +Even to Dennis's uncultivated eye there was an inartistic formality +about the whole establishment. His sense of this was at first but a +feeling--a vague impression that grew upon him without his quite knowing +why. He soon discovered, however, that everything was arranged squarely, +according to system, order, and not with a view of placing in the best +lights and shadows the beautiful things to be sold. He saw that Mr. +Ludolph was annoyed by the same defect. One bright day, when everything +stood out with glaring distinctness, he seemed provoked beyond measure +by this inartistic rigidity, and stormed through the store at a great +rate. + +"This art building and everybody and everything in it look as if they +had swallowed a ramrod," snarled he. "Mr. Schwartz, can't you teach +the young men to throw a little ease and grace into the arrangement +of the articles under their charge?" + +Mr. Schwartz looked at him with a blank, impassive face, and his +employer felt that he might as well ask an elephant to teach dancing. + +Turning suddenly on a stolid youth, he exclaimed, "By the gods! if you +have not arranged all the statuettes on your counter in straight lines, +and half of them with their backs toward the door at which our customers +enter! Here, gather round me while I give you some ideas of +arrangement." + + +The clerks gathered around him, while with hands of skill and taste +he placed everything artistically. The effect of a little transposition +was marvellous, and Mr. Schwartz acknowledged that the groups looked +doubly pretty and inviting. Dennis stood at a respectful distance, but +was a close observer. He was the only one who gained much benefit from +the lesson, because the only one capable of receiving it. With quick, +appreciative eye he saw the grouping needful to produce the desired +effect. + +As Mr. Ludolph looked up he caught Dennis's intelligent gaze. + +"That is right, Fleet," he said; "you learn, too, if you can, and when +you are dusting around see if you cannot combine a little order and +grace." + +From that day forward the hand and taste of Dennis Fleet gradually, +and almost imperceptibly at first, gave a new aspect and created a +new atmosphere in the "Art Building." But at first he was kept busy +enough at his humble routine duties. Every one felt and expressed a +little surprise at his getting into harness so quickly, but Mr. +Schwartz's influence was not conducive to conversation or emotions, +however faint. All went forward quietly and orderly, like well-oiled +machinery. Customers received every attention, and though many no doubt +had the undefined feeling that something was wrong in the arrangement +of the store, each found an abundance of beautiful things suited to his +taste and purse, and so trade was good, even though the holiday season +was over. + +As for Dennis, he was to a certain extent in Paradise. Nature had given +him a deep, earnest love of the beautiful, and a keen perception of it. + +Though his days were busy indeed, he found time gradually to study +every pretty thing in the store. Though much was mystery to him as +yet, he felt that he had crossed the threshold of a beautiful world--the +world of art. When a boy in New England he had taken drawing-lessons, +and had shown remarkable aptness. While at college, also, he had given +some attention to drawing and coloring, but circumstances had prevented +him from following the bent of his taste. Now the passion awoke with +tenfold force, and he had not been in his place a week before he began +to make sketches of little things that pleased him. Some of the pictures +and bronzes became almost dear because of the pleasure and inspiration +that they occasioned, and at their sale his feeling was akin to regret. +Early in the morning, when refreshed and brightened by the night's +rest, he would walk through the store as through fairy-land, and, +forgetting that he was a humble servitor, would feel as if all were +his. But in fact was not his possession truer than that of many whose +palace walls glow with every rich gem of art, and yet whose eyes are +blind and their hearts dull to the beauty they have paid for? + +A few days after his arrival, a little incident occurred that was hard +and practical enough, and might justly cause him to feel that he +occupied a humble place, not only in the world of art, but in the world +in general. There had been a day of rain, slush, and mud. One of the +younger clerks had been sent out on an errand, and came in well +splashed. Drawing off his boots, he threw them to Dennis, saying: "Here +you, Fleet! black my boots as quick as you can. I must go out again." + +Dennis reddened, and for a moment drew himself up as if he had been +struck. The young man saw it and said, in a loud, coarse tone that +could be heard by several customers: "Vat! you above your biz? I thought +it vould be so." + +Dennis acted with decision. He meant to have the matter settled at +once. Picking up the muddy boots, he marched straight into Mr. Ludolph's +office. That gentleman looked up, impatient at interruption, and saw +his man-of-all-work standing before him with the splashed boots dangling +in his hands. + +"'Well, what is it?" asked he, sharply. + +"Mr. Berder threw me those boots and told me to black them. Is this +a part of my duty here?" said Dennis, in a firm, quiet tone. + +"Curse it all!" said Mr. Ludolph, with much irritation; "I thought +there would be trouble with your uppishness." + +"There shall be no trouble whatever," said Dennis; "but I prefer to +take my orders from you, and not from Mr. Berder. If you say this is +expected, the disagreeable task shall be done as well as I can do it." + +Mr. Ludolph looked sharply at the young man for a moment and hesitated. +In his heart he felt that he was speaking to a gentleman, and that it +was not the thing to ask of him such menial work. But his irritation +and desire to crush out anything like insubordination prevailed. Still, +rather than directly order it, he appealed to the custom of the past, +and stepping to the door of the office he called: "Mr. Schwartz, come +here! Did Pat black the shoes of the _gentlemen_ of this store?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"You took Pat Murphy's place, did you not?" + +"Yes, sir," said Dennis. + +"It seems to me, then, that this settles the question," said Mr. +Ludolph, coolly, turning to his writing; but he furtively and carefully +watched Dennis's course. + +Determined to show that he was not above his business, that he accepted +the bitter with the sweet, Dennis went upstairs to his room, got +blacking and brush, and taking his station in a corner where Mr. Ludolph +could plainly see him through the glass doors of his office, he polished +away as vigorously as if that were his only calling. Mr. Ludolph looked +and smiled. His was a nature that could be pleased with a small triumph +like this. But the other clerks, seeing Mr. Berder's success, and +determining to do their part, also, in taking Dennis, "down a peg," +as they expressed it, brought their boots, too, and Mr. Berder came +with his again in the afternoon. Dennis cleaned and polished away in +full view of Mr. Ludolph, who began to realize with vexation that his +man-of-all-work would have little time for the duties of the store if +he were installed general bootblack of the establishment. But, after +this, cold and snow kept the streets dry and clean for some time, and +the matter passed on without further notice. Boots were seldom brought +to him, and when they were, they were cleaned without a word. In the +meantime, his ability and faithfulness in the discharge of his regular +duties, and in some slight degree his taste and judgment, began to be +recognized, and Mr. Ludolph congratulated himself that in giving Dennis +Pat Murphy's place he had made a decided change for the better. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TOO MUCH ALIKE + + +One of the duties that Dennis enjoyed most was the opening of new +goods. With the curiosity and pleasure of a child he would unpack the +treasures of art consigned to his employer, and when a number of boxes +were left at the front door he was eager to see their contents. During +his first three weeks at the store, there had not been many such +arrivals of goods and pictures. But now new things were coming in; and, +above all, Mr. Ludolph was daily expecting pictures imported +directly from Europe. + +One afternoon early in February a large flat box was brought to the +store. Mr. Ludolph examined its marks, smiled, and told Dennis to open +it with great care, cutting every nail with a chisel. There was little +need of cautioning him, for he would have bruised his right hand rather +than mar one line of beauty. + +The "Art Building" contained two or three small showrooms, where the +more valuable pictures could be exhibited in a good light. Into one +of these the large box was carried, and most carefully opened. The two +clerks who were helping Dennis laughed at his eager interest, and +called him under their breath a "green 'un." Mr. Schwartz looked upon +him as a mild sort of lunatic. But Mr. Ludolph, who stood near, to see +if the picture was safe and right, watched him with some curiosity. +His manner was certainly very different from Pat Murphy's at such a +time, and his interest both amused and pleased his employer. + +When at last the picture was lifted from the box and placed on a large +easel, all exclaimed at its beauty save Dennis. On looking at him, +they saw that his eyes had filled with tears, and his lips were +quivering so that he could not have spoken. + +"Is she a relation of yours?" asked Mr. Schwartz, in a matter-of-fact +tone. + +A loud laugh followed this sally from such an unusual source. Dennis +turned on his heel, left the room, and busied himself with duties in +a distant part of the store the rest of the day. It seemed to him that +they were like savages bartering away gold and pearls, whose value +they could not understand; much less could they realize his possession +of a nature of exquisite sensibility to beauty. + +When all were gone he returned to the room, and sat down before the +picture in rapt attention. It was indeed a fine work of art, finished +in that painstaking manner characteristic of the Germans. + +The painting was a winter scene in Germany. In the far background rose +wooded and snow-clad hills. Nearer in the perspective was a bold bluff, +surmounted by a half-ruined castle. At the base of the bluff flowed +a river, now a smooth glare of ice, and in the distance figures were +wheeling about upon skates. In the immediate foreground were two +persons. One was a lovely young girl, dressed in black velvet trimmed +with ermine. The basque fitted closely to her person, revealing its +graceful outlines, and was evidently adapted to the active sport in +which she was engaged. While the rich warm blood mantled her cheeks, +the snow was not whiter than her temples and brow. Down her shoulders +flowed a profusion of wavy hair, scattered threads of which glistened +like gold in the slanting rays of the sun. Her eyes, of a deep violet, +were turned, in sympathy with the scorn of the full, smiling mouth, +upon the figure of a young man kneeling before her, making awkward +attempts to fasten her skate to the trim little foot. It was evident +that the favor was too much for him, and that his fluttering heart +made his hands trembling and unskilful. But the expression of the +maiden's face clearly indicated that her heart was as cold toward him +as the ice on which he kneeled. + +The extreme beauty of the picture and its exquisite finish fascinated +Dennis, while the girl's face jarred upon his feelings like a musical +discord. After gazing fixedly for a long time, he said, "What possessed +the man to paint such a lovely face and make its expression only that +of scorn, pride, and heartless merriment?" + +All the long night the face haunted and troubled him. He saw it in his +dreams. It had for him a strong interest that he could not +understand--that strange fascination which a very beautiful thing that +has been marred and wronged has for some natures. So powerful was this +impression upon his sensitive nature that he caught himself saying, +as of a living being, "Oh, that I could give to that face the expression +God meant it to have!" + +And then he laughed at his own folly. His watchfulness caused him to +oversleep the next morning, and he was later than usual in getting +through the routine duties of the store. At length, about nine o'clock, +dusty and begrimed from mopping, feeding the furnace, etc., he stood +with duster and brush in hand before the painting that had so disturbed +his rest. He was in his shirt-sleeves, and in careful economy had a +large coarse apron of ticking girded about his person. His black, +dishevelled locks looked like an inverted crow's nest, and altogether +he was unpresentable, appearing more like the presiding divinity of +a dust-heap than of an "Art Building." + +After gazing a few moments on the scornful, beautiful face that might +have obtained its haughty patrician lineaments from the old barons of +the ruined castle just above, he seemed to grow conscious of this +himself, and shrunk behind the picture half ashamed, as if the fair +girl could see him. + +While engaged in cleaning off some stains and marks upon the frame, +he did not hear a light footstep in the room. Finishing his task, he +stepped out from behind the picture with the purpose of leaving the +apartment, when a vision met his gaze which startled him to that degree +that he dropped his brush and duster upon the floor, and stood +transfixed. There before him, in flesh and blood it seemed, stood the +lady of the picture--the same dress, the same beautiful blond face, +and, above all, the same expression. He was made conscious of his +absurd position by a suppressed titter from the clerks at the door, +and a broad laugh from Mr. Ludolph. The beautiful face turned toward +him for a moment, and he felt himself looked over from head to foot. +At first there was an expression of vexation at the interruption, and +then, as if from the ludicrousness of his appearance, the old laughing, +scornful look returned. Casting a quick, furtive glance at the picture, +which seemed to satisfy him, Dennis, with hot cheeks, gathered up his +tools and beat a hasty retreat. As he passed out, Mr. Ludolph asked, +good naturedly, "Why, Fleet, what is the matter?" + +"Indeed, sir, I hardly know," answered the bewildered youth, "but it +seems to me that I have lost my wits since that picture came. For a +moment I thought that the lady on the canvas had stepped out upon the +floor." + +"Now that you speak of it," exclaimed Mr. Ludolph, advancing into the +room, "there is a striking resemblance." + + +"Nonsense! father," Dennis heard the young lady say; "you are too old +to flatter. As for that hare-brained youth of the dust-brush, he looked +as if he might have the failing of poor Pat, and not always be able +to see straight." + +At this Dennis's cheeks grew hotter still, while a low laugh from one +or two of the clerks near showed that they were enjoying his +embarrassment. + +Dennis hastened away to his room, and it was well that he did not hear +the conversation that followed. + +"Oh, no!" responded Mr. Ludolph, "that is not Dennis's failing. He is +a member of a church in 'good and regular standing.' He will be one +of the 'pillars' by and by." + +"You are always having a fling at superstition and the superstitious," +said his daughter, laughingly. "Is that the reason you installed him +in Pat's place?" + +"Can you doubt it, my dear?" replied her father, in mock solemnity. + +"Well," said she, "I think your new factotum fails decidedly in good +manners, if nothing else. He stared most impudently at me when he came +out from behind the picture. I should have reprimanded him myself if +I had not been so full of laughter at his ridiculous appearance." + +"That's the joke of it. It was as good as a play to see him. I never +saw a man more startled and confused. He evidently thought for a moment, +as he said, that the girl in the painting had stepped out upon the +floor, and that you were she." + +"How absurd!" exclaimed his daughter. + +"Yes; and now that I think of it, he glanced from you to the picture, +to satisfy himself that his senses were not deceiving him, before he +started to come away." + +"I cannot see any special resemblance," she replied, at the same time +inwardly pleased that she should be thought like the beautiful creature +on the canvas. + +"But there is a strong resemblance," persisted her father, "especially +in general effect. I will prove it to you. There is old Schwartz; he +is not troubled with imagination, but sees things just as they are. +He would look at you, my dainty daughter, as if you were a bale of +wool, and judge as composedly and accurately." + +"I fear, my father," replied she, smilingly, "that you have conspired +with him to pull the entire bale over my eyes. But let him come." + +By this time Dennis had returned, and commenced dusting some pictures +near the entrance, where he could see and hear. He felt impelled by +a curiosity that he could not resist. Moreover he had a little natural +vanity in wishing to show that he was not such a guy, after all. It +was hard for him to remember that he stood in Pat Murphy's position. +What difference did it make to the lady whether such as he was a fright +or not? + +Mr. Schwartz entered, and at Mr. Ludolph's bidding looked at the living +and the painted girl. In his slow, sententious tones, one could not +help feeling that he was telling just how things appeared to him. The +young lady stood beside the painting and unconsciously assumed the +expression of her fair shadow. Indeed it seemed an expression but too +habitual to her face. + +"Yes," he said, "there is a decided resemblance--close in dress--close +in complexion--color of hair much the same--eyes much alike--Miss +Ludolph not quite so tall," etc. Then with an awkward attempt at a +compliment, like an elephant trying to execute a quickstep, he +continued: + +"If I may be permitted to be so bold as to speak--express an opinion--I +should beg leave to say that Miss Ludolph favors herself--more +favored--is better-looking," he blurted out at last, backing out of +the door at the same time, with his brow bathed in perspiration from +the throes of this great and unwonted effort at gallantry. + +"Bah!" said Dennis to himself, "the old mole left out the very chief +thing in tracing the likeness--the expression! See her now as she +listens to his awkward attempt at compliment. She is looking at him +with the same scornful, laughing face that the girl in the picture +wears toward the bungling admirer at her feet. He is right in one thing +though, she is better-looking." + +But the moment Mr. Schwartz's bulky figure vanished from the doorway, +Miss Ludolph caught the critical, intelligent gaze of Dennis Fleet, +and the expression of her face changed instantly to a frown. But, to +do her justice, it was more in vexation with herself than with him. +Her innate delicacy of feeling showed her that it looked like small +vanity to be standing there while comparisons like the above were +instituted. Her manner at once became cold, observant, and thoroughly +self-possessed. She stepped out into the store, and by a few keen, +critical glances seemed to take in its whole effect. Again +disapprobation clouded her fair brow, and she pronounced audibly but +one word--"Stiff." + +Then she passed into her father's private office. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BLUE BLOOD + + +Dennis's mind was a chaos of conflicting feelings. The picture had +deeply interested him, and so did the beautiful girl that it by strange +coincidence so strongly resembled. It could not be otherwise with one +of his beauty-loving nature. And yet the impression made by the face +in the painting--of something wrong, discordant--was felt more +decidedly in respect to the living face. + +But before he had time to realize what had just passed the lady and +her father appeared at the door of the office, and he heard the latter +say: "I know you are right, my dear. It's all wrong. The arrangement +of the store is as stiff and methodical as if we were engaged in selling +mathematical instruments. But I have not time to attend to the matter, +and there is not one in the store that has the least idea of artistic +combination, unless it is Fleet. I have noticed some encouraging +symptoms in him." + +"What! he of the duster and mop? I fear our case is desperate, then, +if he is our best hope." + +Dennis's cheeks were burning again; but, turning his back, he rubbed +away harder than ever at a Greek god that he was polishing. But they +gave him no thought. Speaking with a sudden animation the young lady +said, "Father, I have a great mind to try it myself--that is, if you +are willing." + +"But, my daughter, I could not permit you to be engaged in any such +employment before our customers." + +"Certainly not! I would come early in the morning, before art-customers +are stirring. I really should enjoy the task greatly, if I had any one +to help me who could in some faint degree comprehend the effects I +wished to produce. The long spring mornings soon to come would be just +the time for it. To what better use could I put my taste and knowledge +of art than in helping you and furthering our plan for life?" + +Mr. Ludolph hesitated between his pride and his strong desire to gain +the advantages which the acceptance of this offer would secure. Finally +he said: "We will think about it. I am expecting a great many new and +beautiful things early in the spring, and no doubt it would be well +then to rearrange the store completely, and break up the rigid system +into which we have fallen. In the meantime I appreciate your offer, +and thank you warmly." + +Dennis's heart leaped within him at the thought of instruction from +such a teacher, and he longed to offer his services. But he rightly +judged that the proposal would be regarded as an impertinence at that +time. The successor of Pat Murphy was not expected to know anything +of art, or have any appreciation of it. So he bent his head lower, but +gave Jupiter Olympus such a rubbing down as the god had deserved long +ago. In a moment more Miss Ludolph passed him on her way out of the +store, noticing him no more than she did his dust-brush. + +Mr. Ludolph was the younger son of a noble but impoverished German +family, and was intensely proud of his patrician blood. His parents, +knowing that he would have to make his own way in the world, had sent +him, while a mere boy, to this country, and placed him in charge of +a distant relative, who was engaged in the picture-trade in New York. +He had here learned to speak English in his youth with the fluency and +accuracy of a native, but had never become Americanized, so much family +pride had he inherited, and $o strongly did he cling to the traditions +of his own land. + +He showed great business ability in his chosen calling, especially +displaying remarkable judgment in the selection of works of art. So +unusual was his skill in this direction, that when twenty-one years +old he was sent abroad to purchase pictures. For several years he +travelled through Europe. He became quite cosmopolitan in character, +and for a time enjoyed life abundantly. His very business brought him +in contact with artists and men of culture, while his taste and love +of beauty were daily gratified. He had abundant means, and money could +open many doors of pleasure to one who, like him, was in vigorous +health and untroubled by a conscience. Moreover, he was able to spend +much time in his beloved Germany, and while there the great ambition +of his life entered his heart. His elder brother, who was living +inexclusive pride and narrow economy on the ancient but diminished +ancestral estate, ever received him graciously. This brother had +married, but had not been blessed or cursed with children, for the +German baron, with his limited finances, could never decide in what +light to regard them. Too poor to mingle with his equals, too proud +to stoop to those whom he regarded as inferiors, he had lived much +alone, and grown narrower and more bigoted in his family pride day by +day. Indeed, that he was Baron Ludolph, was the one great fact of his +life. He spent hours in conning over yellow, musty records of the +ancient grandeur of his house, and would gloat over heroic deeds of +ancestors he never thought of imitating. In brief, he was like a small +barnacle on an old and water-logged ship, that once had made many a +gallant and prosperous voyage richly freighted, but now had drifted +into shallow water and was falling to decay. He made a suggestion, +however, to his younger brother, that wakened the ambition of the +latter's stronger nature, and set him about what became his controlling +purpose, his life-work. + +"Make a fortune in America," said his brother, "and come back and +restore the ancient wealth and glory of your family." + +The seed fell into receptive soil, and from that day the art and +pleasure loving citizen of the world became an earnest man with a +purpose. But as he chose his purpose mainly from selfish motives it +did not become an ennobling one. He now gave double attention to +business and practical economy. He at once formed the project of +starting in business for himself, and of putting the large profits +resulting from his judicious selection of pictures into his own pocket. +He made the most careful arrangements, and secured agencies that he +could trust in the purchase of pictures after he should return to the +United States. + +During his stay in Paris, on his way back, an event occurred that had +a most untoward influence on his plans and hopes. He fell desperately +in love with a beautiful French woman. Like himself, she was poor, but +of patrician blood, and was very fascinating. She attracted him by her +extreme beauty and brilliancy. She was very shrewd, and could seem +anything she chose, being a perfect actress in the false, hollow life +of the world. In accordance with Parisian ideas, she wanted a husband +to pay her bills, to be a sort of protector and base of general +operations. Here was a man who promised well, fine-looking, and, if +not rich, capable of making large sums of money. + +She insinuated herself into his confidence, and appeared to share his +enthusiasm for the darling project of his life. He felt that, with +such a beautiful and sympathetic woman to spur him on and share his +success, earth would be a Paradise indeed; and she assured him, in +many delicate and bewitching ways, that it would. In brief, he married +her; and then learned, in bitterness, anger, and disgust, that she had +totally deceived him. To his passionate love she returned indifference; +to his desire for economy, unbounded extravagance, contracting debts +which he must pay to avoid disgrace. She showed an utter unwillingness +to leave the gayety of Paris, laughing in his face at his plan of life, +and assuring him that she would never live in so stupid a place as +Germany. His love died hard. He made every appeal to her that affection +prompted. He tried entreaty, tenderness, coldness, anger, but all in +vain. Selfish to the core, loving him not, utterly unscrupulous, she +trod upon his quivering heart as recklessly as upon the stones of the +street. Soon he saw that, in spite of his vigilance, he was in danger +of being betrayed in all respects. Then he grew hard and fierce. The +whole of his strong German nature was aroused. In a tone and manner +that startled and frightened her, he said: "_We_ sail for New York in +three days. Be ready. If you prove unfaithful to me--if you seek to +desert me, I will _kill_ you. I swear it--not by God, for I don't +believe in Him. If He existed, such creatures as you would not. But I +swear it by my family pride and name, which are dearer to me than life, +if you leave a stain upon them you shall _die_. You need not seek to +escape me. I would follow you through the world. I would kill you on the +crowded street--anywhere, even though I died myself the next moment. And +now look well to your steps." + +The glitter of his eye was as cold and remorseless as the sheen of +steel. She saw that he meant and would do just what he said. + +The woman had one good point--at least, it turned out to be such in +this case. She was a coward naturally, and her bad life made her dread +nothing so much as death. Her former flippant indifference to his +remonstrances now changed into abject fear. He saw her weak side, +learned his power, and from that time forward kept her within bounds +by a judicious system of terrorism. + +He took her to New York and commanded her to appear the charming woman +she could if she chose. She obeyed, and rather enjoyed the excitement +and deceit. His friends were delighted with her, but he received their +congratulations with a grim, quiet smile. At times, though, when she +was entertaining them with all grace, beauty, and sweetness, the thought +of what she was seemed only a horrid dream. But he had merely to catch +her eye, with its gleam of fear and hate, to know the truth. + +He felt that he could not trust to the continuance of her good behavior, +and was anxious to get away among strangers as soon as possible. He +therefore closed his business relations in New York. Though she had +crippled him greatly by her extravagance, he had been able to bring +out a fair stock of good pictures, and a large number of articles of +virtue, selected with his usual taste. The old firm, finding that +they could not keep him, offered all the goods he wanted on commission. +So +in a few weeks he started for Chicago, the most promising city of the +West, as he believed, and established himself there in a modest way. +Still the chances were even against him, for he had involved himself +heavily, and drawn to the utmost on his credit in starting. If he could +not sell largely the first year, he was a broken man. For months the +balance wavered, and he lived with financial ruin on one side, and +domestic ruin on the other. But, with a heart of ice and nerves of +steel, he kept his hand on the helm. + +His beautiful collection, though in an unpretentious store, at last +attracted attention, and after some little time it became _the_ thing in +the fashionable world to go there, and from that time forward his +fortune was made. + +When his wife became a mother, there was a faint hope in Mr. Ludolph's +heart that this event might awaken the woman within her, if aught of +the true woman existed. He tried to treat her with more kindness, but +found it would not answer. She mistook it for weakness on his part. +From first to last she acted in the most heartless manner, and treated +the child with shameless neglect. This banished from her husband even +the shadow of regard, and he cursed her to her face. Thenceforth will +and ambition controlled his life and hers, and with an iron hand he +held her in check. She saw that she was in the power of a desperate +man, who would sacrifice her in a moment if she thwarted him. +Through cowardly fear she remained his reluctant but abject slave, +pricking him with the pins and needles of petty annoyances, when she +would have pierced him to the heart had she dared. This monstrous state +of affairs could not last forever, and, had not death terminated the +unnatural relation, some terrible catastrophe would no doubt have +occurred. Having contracted a western fever, she soon became delirious, +and passed away in this unconscious state, to the intense joy and +relief of her husband. + +But the child lived, thrived, and developed into the graceful girl +whose beauty surpassed, as we have seen, even the painter's ideal. Her +father at first cared little for the infant, but secured it every +attention. As it developed into a pretty girl, however, with winning +ways, and rich promise, he gradually associated her with his hopes and +plans, till at last she became an essential part of his ambition. + +His plan now was briefly this: He would entangle himself with no +alliances or intimate associations in America, nor would he permit his +daughter to do so. His only object in staying here was the accumulation +of a large fortune, and to this for a few years he would bend every +energy of mind and body. As soon as he felt that he had sufficient means +to live in such style as befitted the ancient and honorable name +of his family, he would return to Germany, buy all he could of the +ancestral estate that from time to time had been parted with, and +restore his house to its former grandeur. He himself would then seek +a marriage connection that would strengthen his social position, while +his daughter also should make a brilliant alliance with some member +of the nobility. Mr. Ludolph was a handsome, well-preserved man; he +had been most successful in business, and was now more rapidly than +ever accumulating that which is truly a power with Europeans of blue +blood, as with democratic Americans. Moreover, his daughter's beauty +promised to be such that, when enhanced by every worldly advantage, +it might well command attention in the highest circles. He sought with +scrupulous care to give her just the education that would enable her +to shine as a star among the high-born. Art, music, and knowledge of +literature, especially the German, were the main things to which her +attention was directed, and in her father, with his richly stored mind, +faultless taste, and cultured voice, she had an instructor such as +rarely falls to the lot of the most favored. + +When Christine Ludolph was about sixteen years of age, events occurred +which might have greatly marred her father's plans. She secretly formed +a most unfortunate attachment, which came near resulting in a +clandestine marriage. Although the world would have judged her harshly, +and the marriage could only have been exceedingly disastrous to her +future life, the motherless girl was not very much to blame. Even among +the mature there is a proverbial blindness in these matters. She was +immature, misled by her imagination, and the victim of uncurbed romantic +fancies. But, after all, the chief incentive to her folly was a natural +craving for the love and sympathy which she had never found in her own +home. To her chilled young heart these gifts were so sweet and +satisfying that she was in no mood to criticise the donor, even had +her knowledge of the world enabled her to do so. Thus far, in his care +of Christine, Mr. Ludolph had conformed to the foreign ideas of +seclusion and repression, and the poor girl, unguided, unguarded by +kind womanly counsel, was utterly unsophisticated, and she might have +easily become the prey of the unscrupulous man whose chief incentive +had been her father's wealth. Mr. Ludolph fortunately discovered the +state of affairs in time to prevent gossip. Under his remorseless +logic, bitter satire, and ridicule her young dream was torn to shreds. +The man whom she had surrounded with a halo of romance was shown to +be worthless and commonplace. Her idol had chiefly been a creature of +the imagination, and when the bald, repulsive truth concerning him had +been proved to her in such a way that she could not escape conviction, +she was equally disgusted with him and herself. + +For some weeks Mr. Ludolph treated his daughter with cold distrust. +"She will be like her mother, I suppose," he thought. "Already she has +begun to deceive me and to imperil everything by her folly;" and his +heart was full of bitterness toward his child. Thus the poor girl dwelt +in a chilled and blighting atmosphere at a time when she most sorely +needed kindness and wise guidance. + +She was very unhappy, for she saw that her father had lost all +confidence in her. She fairly turned sick when she thought of the past. +She had lived in the world of romance and mystery; she had loved with +all her girlish power; and, however wrongly and unjustly, by the +inevitable laws of association she connected the words "love" and +"romance" with one whom she now detested and loathed. Within a week +after her miserable experience she became as utter a sceptic in regard +to human love, and happiness flowing from it, as her father had taught +her to be respecting God and the joy of believing. Though seemingly +a fair young girl, her father had made her worse than a pagan. She +believed in nothing save art and her father's wisdom. He seemed to +embody the culture and worldly philosophy that now became, in her +judgment, the only things worth living for. To gain his confidence +became her great desire. But this had received a severe shock. Mr. +Ludolph had lost all faith in everything save money and his own will. +Religion was to him a gross superstition, and woman's virtue and truth, +poetic fictions. + +He watched Christine narrowly, and said just enough to draw out the +workings of her mind. He then decided to tell his plan for life, and +give her strong additional motives for doing his will. The picture he +portrayed of the future dazzled her proud, ambitious spirit, and opened +to her fancy what then seemed the only path to happiness. She entered +into his projects with honest enthusiasm, and bound herself by the +most solemn promises to aid in carrying them out. But in bitterness +he remembered one who had promised with seeming enthusiasm before, and +he distrusted his daughter, watching her with lynx-eyed vigilance. + +But gradually he began to believe in her somewhat, as he saw her looking +forward with increasing eagerness to the heaven of German fashionable +life, wherein she, rich, admired, allied by marriage to some powerful +noble family, should shine a queen in the world of art. + +"I have joined her aspirations to mine," he said, in self-gratulation. +"I have blended our ambitions and sources of hope and enjoyment, and +that is better than all her promises." + +When Dennis saw first the face that was so beautiful and yet so marred +by pride and selfishness, Christine was about nineteen years old, and +yet as mature in some respects as a woman of thirty. She had the perfect +self-possession that familiarity with the best society gives. Mr. +Ludolph was now too shrewd to seek safety in seclusion. He went with +his daughter into the highest circles of the city, and Christine had +crowds of admirers and many offers. All this she enjoyed, but took it +coolly as her right, with the air of a Greek goddess accepting the +incense that rose in her temple. She was too proud and refined to flirt +in the ordinary sense of the word, and no one could complain that she +gave much encouragement. But this state of things was all the more +stimulating, and each one believed, with confidence in his peculiar +attractions, that he might succeed where all others had failed. Miss +Ludolph's admirers were unaware that they had a rival in some as yet +unknown German nobleman. At last it passed into a proverb that the +beautiful and brilliant girl who was so free and courtly in society +was as cold and unsusceptible as one of her father's statues. + +Thus it would seem that when circumstances brought the threads of these +two lives near each other, Dennis's and Christine's, the most impassable +barriers rose between them, and that the threads could never be woven +together, or the lives blended. She was the daughter of the wealthy, +aristocratic Mr. Ludolph; he was her father's porter. + +Next to the love of art, pride and worldly ambition were her strongest +characteristics. She was an unbeliever in God and religion, not from +conviction, but from training. She knew very little about either, and +what light she had came to her through false mediums. She did not even +believe in that which in many young hearts is religion's shadow, love +and romance, nor did her father take a more worldly and practical view +of life than she. + +In marked contrast we have seen the character of Dennis Fleet, drawing +its inspiration from such different sources. + +Could two human beings be more widely separated--separated in that +which divides more surely than continents and seas? + +Could Dennis have seen her warped, deformed moral nature, as clearly +as her beautiful face and form, he would have shrunk from her; but +while recognizing defects, he shared the common delusion, that the +lovely outward form and face must enshrine much that is noble and ready +to blossom into good, if the right motives can be presented. + +As for Christine, she had one chance for life, one chance for heaven. +She was _young_. Her nature had not so hardened and crystallized in evil +as to be beyond new and happier influences. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +VERY COLD + + +When Dennis entered Mr. Ludolph's store Christine was absent on a visit +to New York. On her return she resumed her old routine. At this time +she and her father were occupying a suite of rooms at a fashionable +hotel. Her school-days were over, Mr. Ludolph preferring to complete +her education himself in accordance with his peculiar views and tastes. +She was just passing into her twentieth year, and looked upon the world +from the vantage points of health, beauty, wealth, accomplishments of +the highest order, and the best social standing. Assurance of a long +and brilliant career possessed her mind, while pride and beauty were +like a coronet upon her brow. She was the world's ideal of a queen. + +And yet she was not truly happy. There was ever a vague sense of unrest +and dissatisfaction at heart. She saw that her father was proud and +ambitious in regard to her, but she instinctively felt that he neither +loved nor trusted her to any great extent. She seemed to be living in +a palace of ice, and at times felt that she was turning into ice +herself; but her very humanity and womanhood, deadened and warped +though they were, cried out against the _cold_ of a life without God or +love. In the depths of her soul she felt that something was wrong, but +what, she could not understand. It seemed that she had everything that +heart could wish, and that she ought to be satisfied. + +She had at last concluded that her restlessness was the prompting of +a lofty ambition, and that if she chose she could win world-wide +celebrity as an artist. This, with the whole force of her strong nature, +she had determined to do, and for over two years had worked with an +energy akin to enthusiasm. She had resolved that painting should be +the solid structure of her success, and music its ornament. + +Nor were her dreams altogether chimerical, for she had remarkable +talent in her chosen field of effort, and had been taught to use the +brush and pencil from childhood. She could imitate with skill and +taste, and express with great accuracy the musical thought of the +composer; but she could not create new effects, and this had already +begun to trouble her. She worked hard and patiently, determined to +succeed. So great had been her application that her father saw the +need of rest and change, and therefore her visit to New York. She had +now returned strengthened, and eager for her former studies, and resumed +them with tenfold zest. + +The plan of rearranging the store on artistic principles daily grew +in favor with her. It was just the exercise of taste she delighted in, +and she hoped some day to indulge it on palace walls that would be her +own. Her father's pride caused him to hesitate for some time, but she +said: "Why, Chicago is not our home; we shall soon be thousands of +miles away. You know how little we really care for the opinions of the +people here: it is only our own pride and opinion that we need consult. +I see nothing lowering or unfeminine in the work. I shall scarcely +touch a thing myself, merely direct; for surely among all in your +employ there must be one or two pairs of hands not so utterly awkward +but that they can follow plain instructions. My taste shall do it all. +We are both early risers, and the whole change can be made before the +store is opened. Moreover," she added (with an expression indicating +that she would have little difficulty in ruling her future German +castle, and its lord also), "this is an affair of our own. Those you +employ ought to understand by this time that it is neither wise nor +safe to talk of our business outside." + +After a moment's thought she concluded: "I really think that the proper +arrangement of everything in the store as to light, display, and effect, +so that people of taste will be pleased when they enter, would add +thousands of dollars to your sales; and this rigid system of old +Schwartz's, which annoys us both beyond endurance, will be broken up." + +Won over by arguments that accorded with his inclinations, Mr. Ludolph +gave his daughter permission to carry out the plan in her own way. + +She usually accompanied her father to the store in the morning. He, +after a brief glance around, would go to his private office and attend +to correspondence. She would do whatever her mood prompted. Sometimes +she would sit down for a half-hour before one picture; again she would +examine most critically a statue or a statuette. Whenever new music +was received, she looked it over and carried off such pieces as pleased +her fancy. + +She evidently was a privileged character, and no one save her father +exercised the slightest control over her movements. She treated all +the clerks, save old Schwartz, as if they were animated machines; and +by a quiet order, as if she had touched a spring, would set them in +motion to do her bidding. The young men in the store were of German +descent, and rather heavy and undemonstrative. Mr. Schwartz's system +of order and repression had pretty thoroughly quenched them. They were +educated to the niches they filled, and seemed to have no thought +beyond; therefore they were all unruffled at Miss Ludolph's air of +absolute sovereignty. Mr. Schwartz was as obsequious as the rest, but, +as second to her father in power, was permitted some slight familiarity. +In fact this heavy, stolid prime-minister both amused and annoyed her, +and she treated him with the caprice of a child toward an elephant--at +times giving him the sugar-plum of a compliment, and oftener +pricking him with the pin of some caustic remark. To him she was the +perfection of womankind--her reserved, dispassionate manner, her steady, +unwearied prosecution of a purpose, being just the qualities that he +most honored; and he worshipped her reverently at a distance, like an +old astrologer adoring some particularly bright fixed star. No whisking +comets or changing satellites for old Schwartz. + +As for Dennis, she treated him as she probably had treated Pat Murphy, +and for several days had no occasion to notice him at all. In fact he +kept out of her way, choosing at first to observe rather than be +observed. She became an artistic study to him, for her every movement +was grace itself, except that there was no softness or gentleness in +her manner. Her face fascinated him by its beauty, though its expression +troubled him--it was so unlike his mother's, so unlike what he felt +a woman's ought to be. But her eager interest in that which was becoming +so dear to him--art--would have covered a multitude of sins in his +eyes, and with a heart abounding in faith and hope, not yet diminished +by hard experience, he believed that the undeveloped angel existed +within her. But he remembered her frown when she had first noticed his +observation of her. The shrewd Yankee youth saw that her pride would +not brook even a curious glance. But while he kept at a most respectful +distance he felt that there was no such wide gulf between them as she +imagined. By birth and education he was as truly entitled to her +acquaintance as the young men who sometimes came into the store with +her and whom she met in society. Position and wealth were alone wanting, +and in spite of his hard experience and lowly work he felt that there +must be some way for him, as for others, to win these. + +He longed for the society of ladies, as every right-feeling young man +does, and to one of his nature the grace and beauty of woman +were peculiarly attractive. If, before she came, the lovely faces of the +pictures had filled the place with a sort of witchery, and created +about him an atmosphere in which his artist-soul was awakening into +life and growth, how much more would it be true of this living vision +of beauty that glided in and out every day! + +"She does not notice me," he at first said to himself, "any more than +do these lovely shadows upon the canvas. But why need I care? I can +study both them and her, and thus educate my eye, and I hope my hand, +to imitate and perhaps surpass their perfections in time." + +But this cool, philosophic mood did not last long. It might answer +very well in regard to the pictures on the walls, but there was a +magnetism about this living, breathing woman that soon caused him to +long for the privilege of being near her and speaking to her of that +subject that interested them both so deeply. Though he had never seen +any of her paintings to know them, he soon saw that she was no novice +in such matters and that she looked at works of art with the eye of +a connoisseur. In revery he had many a spirited conversation with her, +and he trusted that some day his dreams would become real. He had the +romantic hope that if she should discover his taste and strong love +of art she might at first bestow upon him a patronizing interest which +would gradually grow into respect and acknowledged equality. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +SHE SPEAKS TO HIM + + +After the plan for the re-arrangement of the store had been determined +upon, Miss Ludolph began to study its topography. She went regularly +through the building, examining closely every part and space, sometimes +sketching a few outlines in a little gilt book. Apparently she was +seeking by her taste to make the show-rooms pictures in themselves, +wherein all the parts should blend harmoniously, and create one +beautiful effect. Dennis saw what was coming. The carrying-out of the +plan he had heard discussed, and he wished with intense longing that +he might be her assistant. But she would as soon have thought of sending +for Pat Murphy. She intended to select one of the older clerks to aid +her. Still Dennis hoped that by some strange and happy turn of fortune +part of this work might fall to him. + +Every spare moment of early morning and evening he spent in sketching +and studying, but he sadly felt the need of instruction, and of money +to buy materials. He was merely groping his way as best he might; and +he felt that Miss Ludolph could teach him so much, if she would only +condescend to the task! He was willing to be a very humble learner at +first. If in some way he could only make known his readiness to pick +up the crumbs of knowledge that she might be willing out of kindness +to scatter in his path, he might expect something from ordinary good +nature. + +But a week or two passed without his receiving so much as a glance +from those cold blue eyes that rested so critically on all before them; +and on an unlucky day in March all hope of help from her vanished. +Under the influence of spring the streets were again becoming muddy, +and his duties as bootblack increased daily. He had arranged to perform +this menial task in a remote corner of the store, as much out of sight +as possible. The duty had become still more disagreeable since the +young lady haunted the place, for he feared she would learn to associate +him only with the dust-brush and blacking-brush. + +Just behind where he usually stood, a good picture had been hung, under +Mr. Schwartz's system, simply because it accurately fitted the space. +It was in a wretched light, and could never be seen or appreciated +there. Miss Ludolph in her investigations and plannings discovered +this at a time most unfortunate for poor Dennis. While polishing away +one morning, he suddenly became conscious that she was approaching. +It seemed that she was looking directly at him, and was about to speak. +His heart thumped like a trip-hammer, his cheeks burned, and a blur +came over his eyes, for he was diffident in ladies' presence. Therefore +he stood before her the picture of confusion, with a big boot poised +in one hand, and the polishing-brush in the other. With the instincts +of a gentleman, however, he made an awkward bow, feeling, though, that +under the circumstances his politeness could only appear ridiculous. +And he was right. It was evident from the young lady's face that her +keen perception of the ridiculous was thoroughly aroused. But for the +sake of her own dignity (she cared not a jot for him), she bit her lip +to control her desire to laugh in his face, and said, rather sharply, +"Will you stand out of my way?" + +_She had spoken to him._ + +He was so mortified and confused that in his effort to obey he partially +fell over a bronze sheep, designed to ornament some pastoral scene, +and the heel of Mr. Schwartz's heavy boot came down with a thump that +made everything ring. There was a titter from some of the clerks. Mr. +Ludolph, who was following his daughter, exclaimed, "What's the matter, +Fleet? You seem rather unsteady, this morning, for a church member." + +For a moment he had the general appearance usually ascribed to the +sheep, his unlucky stumbling-block. But by a strong effort he recovered +himself. Deigning no reply, he set his teeth, compressed his lips, +picked up the boot, and polished away as before, trying to look and +feel regardless of all the world. In fact there was as much pride in +his face as there had ever been in hers. But, not noticing him, she +said to her father: "Here is a specimen. Look where this picture is +hung. In bootblack corner I should term it. It would not sell here in +a thousand years, for what little light there is would be obscured +much of the time by somebody's big boots and the artist in charge. It +has evidently been placed here in view of one principle +alone--dimensions; its length and breadth according with the space in +the corner. You will see what a change I will bring about in a month +or two, after my plans are matured;" and then she strolled to another +part of the store. But, before leaving, Miss Ludolph happened to glance +at Dennis's face, and was much struck by its expression. Surely Pat +Murphy never would or could look like that. For the first time the +thought entered her mind that Dennis might be of a different clay and +character from Pat. But the next moment his expression of pride and +offended dignity, in such close juxtaposition to the big boot he was +twirling almost savagely around, again appealed to her sense of the +ludicrous, and she turned away with a broad smile. Dennis, looking up, +saw the smile and guessed the cause; and when, a moment after, Mr. +Schwartz appeared, asking in his loud, blunt way, "My boots ready?" +he felt like flinging both at his head, and leaving the store forever. +Handing them to him without a word, he hastened upstairs, for he felt +that he must be alone. + +At first his impulse was strong to rebel--to assert that by birth and +education he was a gentleman, and must be treated as such, or he would +go elsewhere. But, as the tumult in his mind calmed, the case became +as clear to him as a sum in addition. He had voluntarily taken Pat +Murphy's place, and why should he complain at Pat's treatment? He had +pledged his word that there should be no trouble from his being above +his business, and he resolved to keep his word till Providence gave +him better work to do. He bathed his hot face in cool water, breathed +a brief prayer for strength and patience, and went back to his tasks +strong and calm. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +PROMOTED + + +Late in the afternoon of the same day (which was Saturday), as Mr. +Ludolph was passing out of the store on his way home, he noticed the +table that he had arranged artistically some little time before as a +lesson to his clerks. Gradually it had fallen back into its old straight +lines and rigid appearance. He seemed greatly annoyed. + +"What is the use of re-arranging the store?" he muttered. "They will +have it all back again on the general principle of a ramrod in a little +while. But we have put our hands to this work, and it shall be carried +through, even if I discharge half of these wooden-heads." + +Then calling the clerk in charge, he said, "Look here, Mr. Berder, I +grouped the articles on this counter for you once, did I not?" +"Yes, sir." + +"Let me find them Monday morning just as I arranged them on that +occasion." + +The young man looked as blank and dismayed as if he had been ordered +to swallow them all before Monday morning. + +He went to work and jumbled them up as if that were grouping them, and +then asked one or two of the other clerks what they thought of it. +They shook their heads, and said it looked worse than before. + +"I vill study over him all day to-morrow, and den vill come early +Monday and fix him;" and the perplexed youth took himself off. + +Dennis felt almost sure that he could arrange it as Mr. Ludolph had +done, or with something of the same effect, but did not like to offer +his services, not knowing how they would be received, for Mr. Berder +had taken special delight in snubbing him. + +After the duties of the store were over, Dennis wrote to his mother +a warm, bright, filial letter, portraying the scene of the day in its +comic light, making all manner of fun of himself, that he might hide +the fact that he had suffered. But he did not hide it, as a return +letter proved, for it was full of sympathy and indignation that +_her_ son should be so treated, but also full of praise for his +Christian manliness and patience. + +"And now, my son," she wrote, "let me tell you of at least two +results of your steady, faithful performance of your present humble +duties. The money you send so regularly is more than sufficient for +our simple wants. We have every comfort, and I am laying something by +for sickness and trouble, for both are pretty sure to come before long +in this world. In the second place, you have given me that which is +far better than money--comfort and strength. I feel more and more that +we can lean upon you as our earthly support, and not find you a 'broken +reed.' While so many sons are breaking their mothers' hearts, you are +filling mine with hope and joy. I am no prophetess, my son, but from +the sure word of God I predict for you much happiness and prosperity +for thus cheering and providing for your widowed mother. Mark my words. +God has tried you and not found you wanting. He will soon give you +better work to do--work more in keeping With your character and +ability." + +This prediction was fulfilled before Dennis received the letter +containing it, and it happened on this wise. + +Early on Monday morning Mr. Berder appeared and attempted the hopeless +task of grouping the articles on his table in accordance with Mr. +Ludolph's orders. After an hour's work he exclaimed in despair, "I +cannot do him to save my life." + +Dennis at a distance, with a half-amused, half-pitying face, had watched +Mr. Berder's wonderful combinations, and when Rip Van Winkle was placed +between two togated Roman senators, and Ichabod Crane arranged as if +making love to a Greek goddess, he came near laughing outright. But +when Mr. Berder spoke he approached and said, kindly and respectfully, +"Will you let me try to help you?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Berder; "you cannot make dings vorse." +Acting upon this ungracious permission, Dennis folded his arms and +studied the table for five minutes. + +"Come," said Mr. Berder, "standing dere and looking so vise as an owl +von't help matters. Mr. Ludolph vill be here soon." + +"I am not losing time," said Dennis; and a moment proved he was not, +for, having formed a general plan of arrangement, he went rapidly to +work, and in a quarter of an hour could challenge Mr. Ludolph or any +other critic to find serious fault. + +"There! I could do better if I had more time, but I must go to my +sweeping and dusting, or Mr. Schwartz will be down on me, and he is +pretty heavy, you know. I never saw such a man--he can see a grain of +dust half across the store." + +Mr. Berder had looked at Dennis's quick, skilful motions in blank +amazement, and then broke out into an unwonted panegyric for him: "I +say, Vleet, dot's capital! Where you learn him?" Then in a paroxysm +of generosity he added, "Dere's a quarter for you." + +"No, I thank you," said Dennis, "I did not do it for money." + +"Vat did der fool do it for, den, I'd like to know?" muttered Mr. +Berder, the philosophy of bid life resuming its former control. "Saved +a quarter, anyhow, and, vat's more, know vere to go next dime der old +man comes down on me." + +A little after nine Mr. and Miss Ludolph came in, and paused at the +table. Dennis, unnoticed, stood behind Benjamin Franklin and Joan of +Arc, placed lovingly together on another counter, face to face, as if +in mutual admiration, and from his hiding-place watched the scene +before him with intense anxiety. One thought only filled his mind--Would +they approve or condemn his taste? for he had arranged the table on +a plan of his own. His heart gave a glad bound when Mr. Ludolph said: +"Why, Berder, this is excellent. To be sure you have taken your own +method, and followed your own taste, but I find no fault with that, +when you produce an effect like this." + +"I declare, father," chimed in Miss Ludolph, "this table pleases me +greatly. It is a little oasis in this great desert of a store. Mr. +Berder, I compliment you on your taste. You shall help me rearrange, +artistically, everything in the building." + +Dennis, in his agitation, came near precipitating Benjamin Franklin +into the arms of Joan of Arc, a position scarcely in keeping with +either character. + +"Yes, Christine, that is true," continued Mr. Ludolph, "Mr. Berder +will be just the one to help you, and I am glad you have found one +competent. By all the furies! just compare this table with the one +next to it, where the Past, Present, and Future have not the slightest +regard for each other, and satyrs and angels, philosophers and bandits, +are mixed up about as closely as in real life. Here, Berder, try you +hand at this counter also; and you, young men, gather round and see +the difference when _art_, instead of mathematics, rules the world of +art. If this thing goes on, we shall have the golden age back again in +the store." + +Mr. Berder, though somewhat confused, had received all his compliments +with bows and smiles. But Dennis, after his thrill of joy at having +pleased Mr. and Miss Ludolph's fastidious taste, felt himself reddening +with honest indignation that Mr. Berder should carry off all his laurels +before his face. But he resolved to say nothing, knowing that time +would right him. When Mr. Ludolph asked the young men to step forward, +he came with the others. + +"That's right, Fleet," said Mr. Ludolph, again, "you can get a useful +hint, too, like enough." + +"Nonsense, father," said Miss Ludolph, in a tone not so low but that +Dennis heard it; "why spoil a good sweeper and duster by putting uppish +notions in his head? He keeps the store cleaner than any man you ever +had, and I don't soil my dresses as I used to." + +Dennis's color heightened a little, and his lips closed more firmly, +but he gave no other sign that he heard this limitation of his hope +and ambition. But it cut him rather deep. The best he could ever do, +then, in her view, was to keep her dresses from being soiled. + +In the meantime Mr. Berder had shown great embarrassment at Mr. +Ludolph's unexpected request. After a few moments of awkward hesitation +he stammered out that he could do it better alone. The suspicion of +keen Mr. Ludolph was at once aroused and he persisted: "Oh, come, Mr. +Berder, we don't expect you to do your best in a moment, but a person +of your taste can certainly make a great change for the better in the +table before you." + +In sheer desperation the entrapped youth attempted the task, but he +had not bungled five minutes before Mr. Ludolph said, sharply, "Mr. +Berder, you did not arrange this table." + +"Vell," whined Mr. Berder, "I didn't say dot I did." + +"You caused me to believe that you did," said Mr. Ludolph, his brow +growing dark. "Now, one question, and I wish the truth: Who did +arrange this table?" + +"Vleet, dere, helped me," gasped Mr. Berder. + +"_Helped_ you? Mr. Fleet, step forward, if you please, for I intend to +have the truth of this matter. How much help did Mr. Berder give you in +arranging this table?" + +"None, sir," said Dennis, looking straight into Mr. Ludolph's eyes. + +All looked with great surprise at Dennis, especially Miss Ludolph, who +regarded him most curiously. "How different he appears from Pat Murphy!" +she again thought. + +"Some one has told a lie, now," said Mr. Ludolph, sternly. "Mr. Fleet, +I shall put you to the same test that Berder failed in. Arrange that +counter sufficiently well to prove that it was your hands that arranged +this." + +Dennis stepped forward promptly, but with a pale face and compressed +lips. Feeling that both honor and success were at stake, he grouped +and combined everything as before, as far as the articles would permit, +having no time to originate a new plan. As he worked, the clerks gazed +in open astonishment, Mr. Ludolph looked significantly at his daughter, +while she watched him with something of the same wonder which we have +when one of the lower animals shows human sagacity and skill. + +Mr. Ludolph was Napoleonic in other respects than his ambition and +selfishness. He was shrewd enough to "promote on the field for +meritorious services." Therefore, as Dennis's task approached +completion, he said: "That will do, Mr. Fleet, you can finish the work +at your leisure. Mr. Berder, you are discharged from this day for +deception. I would have borne with your incompetency if you had been +truthful. But I never trust any one who has deceived me once," he said, +so sternly that even Christine's cheek paled. "Mr. Schwartz will settle +with you, and let me never see or hear from you again. Mr. Fleet, I +promote you to Mr. Berder's counter and pay." + +Thus this man of the world, without a thought of pity, mercy, or kindly +feeling in either case, gave one of his clerks a new impetus toward +the devil, and another an important lift toward better things, and +then went his way, congratulating himself that all things had worked +together for his good, that morning, though where he would find another +Dennis Fleet to fill Pat's place, again vacant, he did not know. + +But Miss Ludolph looked at Dennis somewhat kindly, and with a little +honest admiration in her face. He was very different from what she had +as a matter of course supposed him to be, and had just done in a quiet, +manly way a thing most pleasing to her, so she said with a smile that +seemed perfectly heavenly to him, "_You_ are above blacking boots, sir." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +JUST IN TIME + + +At the close of the day on which Dennis received his promotion, and +his horizon was widened so unexpectedly, Mr. Ludolph, in passing out, +noticed him engaged as usual on one of Pat Murphy's old tasks. He +stopped and spoke kindly, "Well, Fleet, where am I going to find a man +to fill your place made vacant to-day?" + +"Would you be willing to listen to a suggestion from me?" + +"Certainly." + +"If a young boy was employed to black boots, run errands, and attend +to minor matters, I think that by industry I might for a while fill +both positions. In a short time the furnace will require no further +attention. I am a very early riser, and think that by a little good +management I can keep the store in order and still be on hand to attend +to my counter when customers are about." + +Mr. Ludolph was much pleased with the proposition, and said, promptly, +"You may try it, Fleet, and I will pay you accordingly. Do you know +of a boy who will answer?" + +"I think I do, sir. There is a German lad in my mission class who has +interested me very much. His father is really a superior artist, but +is throwing himself away with drink, and his mother is engaged in an +almost hopeless effort to support the family. They have seen much +better days, and their life seems very hard in contrast with the past." + +"Can we trust such a boy? Their very necessities may lead to theft." + +"They are not of the thieving sort, sir. I am satisfied that they would +all starve rather than touch a penny that did not belong to them." + +"Very well, then, let him come and see me; but I will hold you +responsible for him." + +Mr. Ludolph, being in a good humor, was disposed to banter Dennis, so +he added: "Do you find time to be a missionary, also? Are you not in +danger of becoming a 'Jack at all trades'?" + +"I am not entitled to the first character, and hope to shun the latter. +I merely teach a dozen boys in a mission school on Sundays." + +"When you ought to be taking a good long nap, or a row on the lake for +fresh air and recreation." + +"I should be dishonest if I spent my Sabbaths in that way." + +"How so?" + +"I should give the lie to my profession and belief. I must drop the +name of Christian when I live for myself." + + +"And if you should drop it, do you think you would be much the loser?" + +"Yes, sir," said Dennis, with quiet emphasis. + +"You are expecting great reward, in some sort of Paradise, for your +mission work, etc.?" + +"Nothing done for God is forgotten or unrewarded." + +"Believing that, it seems to me that you are looking after self-interest +as much as the rest of us," said his employer, with a shrewd smile. + +Looking straight into Mr. Ludolph's eyes, Dennis said, earnestly: +"Without boasting, I think that I can say that I try to serve you +faithfully. If you could see my heart, I am sure you would find that +gratitude for your kindness is a part of my motive, as well as my +wages. In the same manner, while I do not lose sight of the rich rewards +God promises and daily gives for the little I can do for Him, I am +certain that I can do much out of simple gratitude and love, and ask +no reward." + +"Ignorance is certainly bliss in your case, young man. Stick to your +harmless superstition as long as you can." + +And he walked away, muttering: "Delusion, delusion! I have not said +a word or done a thing for him in which I had not in view my interests +only, and yet the poor young fool sees in the main disinterested +kindness. Little trouble have the wily priests in imposing on such +victims, and so they get their hard-earned wages and set them +propagating the delusion in mission schools, when mind and body need +change and rest. Suppose there is a Supreme Being in the universe, +what a monstrous absurdity to imagine that He would trouble Himself +to reward this Yankee youth for teaching a dozen ragamuffins in a +tenement-house mission school!" + +Thus Mr. Ludolph's soliloquy proved that his own pride and selfishness +had destroyed the faculty by which he could see God. The blind are not +more oblivious to color than he was to those divine qualities which +are designed to win and enchain the heart. A man may sadly mutilate +his own soul. + +At a dainty dinner-table Mr. Ludolph and his daughter discussed the +events of the day. + +"I am glad," said the latter, "that he is willing to fill Pat's place, +for he keeps everything so clean. A dusty, slovenly store is my +abomination. Then it shows that he has no silly, uppish notions so +common to these Americans." (Though born here, Miss Ludolph never +thought herself other than a German lady of rank.) "But I do not wish +to see him blacking boots again. Yet he is an odd genius. How comical +he looked bowing to me with one of Mr. Schwartz's big boots describing +a graceful curve on a level with his head. Let old Schwartz black his +own boots. He ought to as a punishment for carrying around so much +leather. This Fleet must have seen better days. He is like all Yankees, +however, sharp after the dollar, though he seems more willing to work +for it than most of them." + +"I'll wager you a pair of gloves," said her father, "that they get a +good percentage of it down at the mission school. He is just the subject +for a cunning priest, because he sincerely believes in their foolery. +He belongs to a tribe now nearly extinct, I imagine--the martyrs, who +in old-fashioned times died for all sorts of delusions." + +"How time mellows and changes everything! There is something heroic +and worthy of art in the ancient martyrdoms, while nothing is more +repulsive than modern fanaticism. It is a shame, though, that this +young man, with mother and sisters to support, should be robbed of his +hard earnings as was Pat Murphy by his priest, and I will try to open +his eyes some day." + +"I predict for you no success." + +"Why so?--he seems intelligent." + +"I have not studied character all my life in vain. He would regard +you, my fair daughter, as the devil in the form of an angel of light +tempting him." + +"He had better not be so plain-spoken as yourself." + +"Oh, no need of Fleet's speaking; his face is like the page of an open +book." + +"Indeed! a face like a sign-board is a most unfortunate one, I should +think." + +"Most fortunate for us. I wish I could read every one as I can Fleet." + +"You trust no one, I believe, father." + +"I believe what I see and know." + +"I wish I had your power of seeing and knowing. But how did he get his +artistic knowledge and taste?" + +"That I have not inquired into fully, as yet. I think he has an unusual +native aptness for these things, and gains hints and instruction where +others would see nothing. And, as you say, in the better days past he +may have had some advantages." + +"Well," said she, caressing the greyhound beside her, "if Wolf here +should go to the piano and execute an opera, I should not be more +astonished than I was this morning." + +And then their conversation glided off on other topics. + +After dessert, Mr. Ludolph lighted a cigar and sat down to the evening +paper, while his daughter evoked from the piano true after-dinner +music--light, brilliant, mirth-inspiring. Then both adjourned to their +private billiard-room. + +The scene of our story now changes from Mr. Ludolph's luxurious +apartments in one of the most fashionable hotels in the city to a +forlorn attic in De Koven Street. It is the scene of a struggle as +desperate, as heroic, against as tremendous odds, as was ever carried +on in the days of the Crusades. But as the foremost figure in this +long, weary conflict was not an armed and panoplied knight, but merely +a poor German woman, only God and the angels took much interest in it. +Still upon this evening she was almost vanquished. She seemed to have +but one vantage-point left on earth. For a wonder, her husband was +comparatively sober, and sat brooding with his head in his hands over +the stove where a fire was slowly dying out. The last coal they had +was fast turning to ashes. From a cradle came a low, wailing cry. It +was that of hunger. On an old chest in a dusky corner sat a boy about +thirteen. Though all else was in shadow, his large eyes shone with +unnatural brightness, and followed his mother's feeble efforts at the +washtub with that expression of premature sadness so pathetic in +childhood. Under a rickety deal table three other and smaller children +were devouring some crusts of bread in a ravenous way, like +half-famished young animals. In a few moments they came out and clamored +for more, addressing--not their father; no intuitive turning to him +for support--but the poor, over-tasked mother. The boy came out of his +corner and tried to draw them off and interest them in something else, +but they were like a pack of hungry little wolves. The boy's face was +almost as sharp and famine-pinched as his mother's, but he seemed to +have lost all thought of himself in his sorrowful regard for her. As +the younger children clamored and dragged upon her, the point of +endurance was passed, and the poor woman gave way. With a despairing +cry she sank upon a chair and covered her face with her apron. + +"Oh, mine Gott, Oh, mine Gott," she cried, "I can do not von more +stroke if ve all die." + +In a moment her son had his arms around her neck, and said: "Oh, moder, +don't cry, don't cry. Mr. Fleet said God would surely help us in time +of trouble if we would only ask Him." + +"I've ask Him, and ask Him, but der help don't come. I can do no more;" +and a tempest of despairing sobs shook her gaunt frame. + +The boy seemed to have got past tears, and just fixed his large eyes, +full of reproach and sorrow, on his father. + +The man rose and turned his bloodshot eyes slowly around the room. The +whole scene, with its meaning, seemed to dawn upon him. His mind was +not so clouded by the fumes of liquor but that he could comprehend the +supreme misery of the situation. He heard his children crying--fairly +howling for bread. He saw the wife he had sworn to love and honor, +where she had fallen in her unequal conflict, brave, but overpowered. +He remembered the wealthy burgher's blooming, courted daughter, whom +he had lured away to marry him, a poor artist. He remembered how, in +spite of her father's commands and her mother's tears, she had left +home and luxury to follow him throughout the world because of her faith +in him and love for him--how under her inspiration he had risen to +great promise as an artist, till fame and fortune became almost +a certainty, and then, under the debasing influence of his terrible +appetite, he had dragged her down and down, till now he saw +her--prematurely old, broken in health, broken in heart--fall helplessly +before the hard drudgery that she no longer had strength to perform. +With a sickening horror he remembered that he had taken even the +pittance she had wrung from that washtub, to feed, not his children, +but his accursed appetite for drink. Even his purple, bloated face +grew livid as all the past rushed upon him, and despair laid an icy +hand upon his heart. + +A desperate purpose formed itself within his mind. + +Turning to the wall where hung a noble picture, a lovely landscape, +whose rich coloring, warm sunlight, and rural peace formed a sharp, +strange contrast with the meagre, famine-stricken apartment, he was +about to take it down from its fastening when his hand was arrested +by a word--"Father!" + +He turned, and saw his son looking at him with his great eyes full of +horror and alarm, as if he were committing a murder. + +"I tell you I must, and I vill," said he, savagely. + +His wife looked up, sprang to his side, and with her hands upon his +arm, said, "No, Berthold, you must not, you shall not sell dot picture." + +He silently pointed to his children crying for bread. + +"Take der dress off my back to sell, but not dot picture. Ve may as +vell die before him goes, for we certainly vill after. Dot is de only +ding left of der happy past. Dot, in Gott's hands, is my only hope for +der future. Dot picture dells you vat you vas, vat you might be still +if you vould only let drink alone. Many's der veary day, many's der +long night, I've prayed dot dot picture vould vin you back to your +former self, ven tears and sufferings vere in vain. Leave him, and +some day he vill tell you so plain vat you are, and vot you can be, +dot you break der horrid spell dot chains you, and your artist-soul +come again. Leave him, our only hope, and sole bar against despair and +death. I vill go and beg a dousand times before dot picture's sold; +for if he goes, your artist-soul no more come back, and you're lost, +and ve all are lost." + +The man hesitated. His good angel was pleading with him, but in vain. + +Stamping his foot with rage and despair, he shouted, hoarsely, "It is +too late I am lost now." + +And he tore the picture from its fastening. His wife sank back against +the wall with a groan as if her very soul were departing. + +But before his rash steps could leave the desolation he had made, he +was confronted by the tall form of Dennis Fleet. + +The man stared at him for a moment as if he had been an apparition, +and then said, in a hard tone, "Let me pass!" + +Dennis had knocked for some time, but such was the excitement within +no one had regarded the sound. He had, therefore, heard the wife's +appeal and its answer, and from what he knew of the family from his +mission scholar, the boy Ernst, comprehended the situation in the main. +When, therefore, matters reached the crisis, he opened the door and +met the infatuated man as he was about to throw away the last relic +of his former self and happier life. With great tact he appeared as +if he knew nothing, and quietly taking a chair he sat down with his +back against the door, thus barring egress. In a pleasant, affable +tone, he said: "Mr. Bruder, I came to see you on a little business +to-night. As I was in something of a hurry, and no one appeared to +hear my knock, I took the liberty of coming in." + +The hungry little ones looked at him with their round eyes of childish +curiosity, and for a time ceased their clamors. The wife sank into a +chair and bowed her head in her hands with the indifference of despair. +Hope had gone. A gleam of joy lighted up Ernst's pale face at the sight +of his beloved teacher, and he stepped over to his mother and commenced +whispering in her ear, but she heeded him not. The man's face wore a +sullen, dangerous, yet irresolute expression. It was evident that he +half believed that Dennis was knowingly trying to thwart him, and such +was his mad frenzy that he was ready for any desperate deed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +RESCUED + + +In a tone of suppressed excitement, which he tried in vain to render +steady, Mr. Bruder said: "You haf der advantage of me, sir. I know not +your name. Vat is more, I am not fit for bissiness dis night. Indeed, +I haf important bissiness elsewhere. You must excuse me," he added, +sternly, advancing toward the door with the picture. + +"Pardon me, Mr. Bruder," said Dennis, politely. "I throw myself entirely +on your courtesy, and must ask as a very great favor that you will not +take away that picture till I see it, for that, in part, is what I +came for. I am in the picture trade myself, and think I am a tolerably +fair judge of paintings. I heard accidentally you had a fine one, and +from the glimpse I catch of it, I think I have not been misinformed. +If it is for sale, perhaps I can do as well by you as any one else. +I am employed in Mr. Ludolph's great store, the 'Art Building.' You +probably know all about the place." + +"Yes, I know him," said the man, calming down somewhat. + +"And now, sir," said Dennis, with a gentle, winning courtesy impossible +to resist, "will you do me the favor of showing me your picture?" + +He treated poor Bruder as a gentleman, and he, having really been one, +was naturally inclined to return like courtesy. Therefore he said, +"Oh, certainly, since you vish to see him. I suppose I might as vell +sell him to you as any von else." + +Mr. Bruder was a man of violent impulses, and his mad excitement was +fast leaving him under Dennis's cool, business-like manner. To gain +time was now the great desideratum. + +The picture having been replaced upon the wall, Mr. Bruder held the +lamp so as to throw upon it as good a light as possible. + +Dennis folded his arms calmly and commenced its study. He had meant +to act a part---to pretend deep interest and desire for long critical +study---that he might secure more time, but in a few moments he became +honestly absorbed in the beautiful and exquisitely finished landscape. + +The poor man watched him keenly. Old associations and feelings, +seemingly long dead, awoke. As he saw Dennis manifest every mark of +true and growing appreciation, he perceived that his picture was being +studied by a discriminating person. Then his artist-nature began to +quicken into life again. His eyes glowed, and glanced rapidly from +Dennis to the painting, back and forth, following up the judgment on +each and every part which he saw written in the young man's face. As +he watched, something like hope and exultation began to light up his +sullen, heavy features; thought and feeling began to spiritualize and +ennoble what but a little before had been so coarse and repulsive. + +Ernst was looking at Dennis in rapt awe, as at a messenger from heaven. + +The poor wife, who had listened in a dull apathy to the conversation, +raised her head in sudden and intelligent interest when the picture +was replaced upon the wall. It seemed that her every hope was bound +up in that. As she saw Dennis and her husband standing before it---as +she saw the face of the latter begin to assume something of its former +look---her whole soul came into her great blue eyes, and she watched +as if more than life were at stake. + +If that meagre apartment, with its inmates, their contrasts of +character, their expressive faces, could have then been portrayed, it +would have made a picture with power to move the coldest heart. + +At last Dennis drew a long breath, turned and gave his hand to the +man, saying with hearty emphasis, "Mr. Bruder, you are an artist." + +The poor man lifted his face to heaven with the same expression of joy +and gratitude that had rested on it long, long years ago, when his +first real work of merit had received similar praise. + +His wife saw and remembered it, and, with an ecstatic cry that thrilled +Dennis's soul, exclaimed, "Ah! mine Gott be praised! mine Gott be +praised! his artist-soul come back!" and she threw herself on her +husband's neck, and clung to him with hysteric energy. The man melted +completely, and bowed his head upon his wife's shoulder, while his +whole frame shook with sobs. + +"I will be back in half an hour," said Dennis, hastily, brushing tears +from his own eyes. "Come with me, Ernst." + +At the foot of the stairs Dennis said: "Take this money, Ernst, and +buy bread, butter, tea, milk, and coal, also a nice large steak, for +I am going to take supper with you to-night. I will stay here and +watch, for your father must not be permitted to go out." + +"Oh, Gott bless you! Gott bless you!" said the boy, and he hurried +away to do his errand. + +Dennis walked up and down before the door on guard. Ernst soon returned, +and carried the welcome food upstairs. After a little time he stole +down again and said: "Father's quiet and queer like. Mother has given +the children a good supper and put them to bed. Better come now." + +"In a few moments more; you go back and sit down quietly and say +nothing." + +After a little Dennis went up and knocked at the door. Mrs. Bruder +opened it, and held out her hand. Her quivering lips refused to speak, +but her eyes filled with grateful tears. The children were tucked away +in bed. Ernst crouched by the fire, eating some bread and butter, for +he was cold and half-famished. Mr. Bruder sat in the dusky corner with +his head in his hands, the picture of dejection. But, as Dennis entered, +he rose and came forward. He tried to speak, but for a moment could +not. At last he said, hoarsely: "Mr. Vleet, you haf done me and mine +a great kindness. No matter vat the result is, I dank you as I never +danked any living being. I believe Gott sent you, but I fear too late. +You see before you a miserable wreck. For months and years I haf been +a brute, a devil. Dot picture dere show you vat I vas, vat I might haf +been. You see vat I am," he added, with an expression of intense +loathing. "I see him all to-night as if written in letters of fire, +and if dere is a vorse hell dan der von I feel vithin my soul, Gott +only knows how I am to endure him." + +"Mr. Bruder, you say I have done you a favor." + +"Gott knows you haf." + +"I want you to do me one in return. I want you to let me be your +friend," said Dennis, holding out his hand. + +The man trembled, hesitated; at last he said, brokenly, "I am not +fit--to touch--your hand." + +"Mr. Bruder," said Dennis, gently, "I hope that I am a Christian." + +"Still more, den, I am unfit efer to be in your presence." + +"What! am I greater than my Master? Did not Christ take the hand of +every poor, struggling man on earth that would let Him? Come, Mr. +Bruder, if you have any real gratitude for the little I have done to +show my interest in you and yours, grant me my request." + +"Do you really mean him?" he gasped. "Do you really vant to be drunken +old Berthold Bruder's friend?" + +"God is my witness, I do," said Dennis, still holding out his hand. + +The poor fellow drew a few short, heavy breaths, and then grasped +Dennis's hand, and clung to it with the force of a drowning man. +"Oh!" said he, after a few moments of deep emotion, "I feel dot I haf +a plank under me now." + +"God grant that yon may soon feel that you are on the Rock Christ +Jesus," said Dennis, solemnly. + +Fearing the reaction of too great and prolonged emotion, Dennis now +did everything in his power to calm and quiet his new-found friends. +He told them that he boarded at a restaurant, and he asked if he might +take supper with them. + +"Him is yours already," said Mr. Bruder. + +"No, it isn't," said Dennis--"not after I have given it to you. But +I want to talk to you about several matters, for I think you can be +of great service to me;" and he told them of his experience during the +day; that he had been promoted, and that he wanted Ernst to come and +aid him in his duties. Then he touched on the matter nearest his +heart--his own wish to be an artist, his need of instruction--and told +how by his increase of pay he had now the means of taking lessons, +while still able to support his mother and sisters. + +"And now, Mr. Bruder, I feel that I have been very fortunate in making +your acquaintance. You have the touch and tone that I should be +overjoyed to acquire. Will you give me lessons?" + +"Yes, morning, noon, and night, vithout von shent of pay." + +"That will not do. I'll not take one on those terms." + +"I vill do vatever you want me to," said the man, simply, "I vish I +could be led and vatched over as a little child." + +Dennis saw his pathetic self-distrust, and it touched him deeply. + +"As your friend," he said, with emphasis, "I will not advise you to +do anything that I would not do myself." + +So they arranged that Ernst should go to the store in the morning, and +that Dennis should come three nights in the week for lessons. + +All made a hearty supper save Mr. Bruder. He had reached that desperate +stage when his diseased stomach craved drink only. But a strong cup +of tea, and some bread that he washed down with it, heartened him a +little, and it was evident that he felt better. The light of a faint +hope was dawning in his face. + +Dennis knew something of the physical as well as moral Struggle before +the poor man, and knew that after all it was exceedingly problematical +whether he could be saved. Before he went away he told Mrs. Bruder to +make her husband some very strong coffee in the morning, and to let +him drink it through the day. As for Bruder, he had resolved to die +rather than touch another drop of liquor. + +But how many poor victims of appetite have been haunted to the grave +by such resolves--shattered and gone almost as soon as made! + +After a long, earnest talk, in which much of the past was revealed on +both sides, Dennis drew a small Testament from is pocket and said: +"Mr. Bruder, I wish to direct your thoughts to a better Friend than +I am or can be. Will you let me read you something about Him?" + +"Yes, and dank you. But choose someding strong--suited to me." + +Dennis read something strong--the story of the Demoniac of Gadara, and +left him "sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind." + +"Mr. Bruder, permit me as your _friend_ to say that I think that is the +only safe place for you. Your better self, your true manhood, has been +overpowered by the demon of intemperance. I do not undervalue human will +and purpose, but I think you need a divine, all-powerful Deliverer." + +"I know you are right," said Mr. Bruder. "I haf resolved ofer and +ofer again, only to do vorse, and sink deeper at der next temptation, +till at last I gave up trying. Unless I am sustained by some strength +greater dan mine, I haf no hope. I feel dot your human sympathy and +kindness vill be a great help to me, and somehow I dake him as an +earnest dot Gott vil be kind to me too." + +"Oh, Mr. Fleet!" he continued, as Dennis rose to go, "how much I owe +to you! I vas in hell on earth ven you came. I vould haf been in hell +beneath before morning. I proposed, from the proceeds of dot picture, +to indulge in von more delirium, and den seek to quench all in der +vaters of der lake." + +Dennis shuddered, but said: "And I believe that God purposes that you +should have a good life here, and a happy life in heaven. Co-work with +Him." + +"If He vill help me, I'll try," said the man, humbly. "Good-night, and +Gott bless you;" and he almost crushed Dennis's hand. + +As the young man turned to Mrs. Bruder, he was much struck by her +appearance: she was very pale, and a wonderful light shone from her +eyes. She took his hand in both of hers, and looked at him for a moment +with an expression he could never forget, and then slowly pointed +heavenward without a word. + +Dennis hastened away, much overcome by his own feelings. But the silent, +deserted streets seemed luminous, such was the joy of his heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +MISS LUDOLPH MAKES A DISCOVERY + + +Several hours were measured off by the clock of a neighboring steeple +before Dennis's excited mind was sufficiently calm to permit sleep, +and even then he often started up from some fantastic dream in which +the Bruders and Mr. and Miss Ludolph acted strange parts. At last he +seemed to hear exquisite music. As the song rose and fell, it thrilled +him with delight. Suddenly it appeared to break into a thousand pieces, +and fall scattering on the ground, like a broken string of pearls, and +this musical trash, as it were, awoke him. The sun was shining brightly +into the room, and all the air seemed vibrating with sweet sounds. He +started up and realized that he had greatly overslept. Much vexed, he +began to dress in haste, when he was startled by a brilliant prelude +on the piano, and a voice of wonderful power and sweetness struck into +an air that he had never heard before. Soon the whole building was +resonant with music, and Dennis stood spellbound till the strange, +rich sounds died away, as before, in a few instrumental notes that had +seemed in his dream like the song breaking into glittering fragments. + +"It must be Miss Ludolph," thought Dennis. "And can she sing like that? +What an angel true faith would make of her! Oh, how could I oversleep +so!" And he dressed in breathless haste. In going down to the second +floor, he found a piano open and new music upon it, which Miss Ludolph +had evidently been trying; but she was not there. Yet a peculiar +delicate perfume which the young lady always used pervaded the place, +even as her song had seemed to pulsate through the air after it had +ceased. She could not be far off. Stepping to a picture show-room over +the front door, Dennis found her sitting quietly before a large +painting, sketching one of the figures in it. + +"I learned from my father that you were a very early riser," she said, +looking up for a moment, and then resuming her work. "I fear there is +some mistake about it. If we are ever to get through rearranging the +store you will have to curtail your morning naps." + +"I most sincerely beg your pardon. I never overslept so before. But +I was out late last night, and passed through a most painful scene, +that so disturbed me that I could not sleep till nearly morning, and +I find to my great vexation that I have overslept. I promise you it +shall not happen again." + +"I am not sure of that, if you are out late in Chicago, and passing +through painful scenes. I should say that this city was a peculiarly +bad place for a young man to be out late in." + +"It was an experience wholly unexpected to me, and I hope it may never +occur again. It was a scene of trouble that I had no hand in making, +but which even humanity would not permit me to leave at once." + +"Not a scene of measles or smallpox, I hope. I am told that your mission +people are indulging in these things most of the time. You have not +been exposed to any contagious disease?" + +"I assure you I have not." + +"Very well; be ready to assist me to-morrow morning, for we have no +slight task before us, and I wish to complete it as soon as possible. +I shall be here at half-past six, and do not promise to sing you awake +every morning. Were you not a little startled to hear such unwonted +sounds echoing through the prosaic old store?" + +"I was indeed. At first I could not believe that it was a human voice." + +"That is rather an equivocal compliment." + +"I did not mean to speak in compliment at all, but to say in all +sincerity that I have seldom heard such heavenly music." + +"Perhaps you have never heard very much of any kind, or else your +imagination overshadows your other faculties. In fact I think it does, +for did you not at first regard me as a painted lady who had stepped +from the canvas to the floor?" + +"I confess that I was greatly confused and startled." + +"In what respect did you see such a close resemblance?" + +Dennis hesitated. + +"Are you not able to tell?" asked she. + +"Yes," said Dennis, with heightened color, "but I do not like to say." + +"But I wish you to say," said she, with a slightly imperious tone. + +"Well, then, since you wish me to speak frankly, it was your expression. +As you stood by the picture you unconsciously assumed the look and +manner of the painted girl. And all the evening and morning I had been +troubling over the picture and wondering how an artist could paint so +lovely a face, and make it express only scorn and pride. It seemed to +me that such a face ought to have been put to nobler uses." + +Miss Ludolph bit her lip and looked a little annoyed, but turning to +Dennis she said, with some curiosity: "You are not a bit like the man +who preceded you. How did you come to take his place?" + +"I am poor, and will gratefully do any honest work rather than beg or +starve." + +"I wish all the poor were of the same mind, but, from the way they +drag on us who have something to give, I think the rule is usually the +other way. Very well, that will answer; since you have asked papa to +let you continue to do Pat's duties, you had better be about them, +though it is not so late as you think;" and she turned to her sketching +in such a way as to quietly dismiss him. + +She evidently regarded him with some interest and curiosity, as a +unique specimen of the genus homo, and, looking upon him as a humble +dependant, was inclined to speak to him freely and draw him out for +her amusement. + +On going downstairs he saw that Mr. Ludolph was writing in his office. +He was an early riser, and sometimes, entering the side door by a pass +key before the store was opened, would secure an extra hour for +business. He shook his head at Dennis, but said nothing. + +By movements wonderfully quick and dexterous Dennis went through his +wonted tasks, and at eight o'clock, the usual hour, the store was ready +for opening. + +Mr. Ludolph often caught glimpses of him as he darted to and fro, his +cheeks glowing, and every act suggesting superabundant life. + +He sighed and said: "After all, that young fellow is to be envied. He +is getting more out of existence than most of us. He enjoys everything, +and does even hard work with a zest that makes it play. There will be +no keeping him down, for he seems possessed by the concentrated vim +of this driving Yankee nation. Then he has a world of delusions besides +that seem grand realities. Well, it is a sad thing to grow old and +wise." + +Indeed it is, in Mr. Ludolph's style. + +When Dennis opened the front door, there was Ernst cowering in the +March winds, and fairly trembling in the flutter of his hopes and +fears. Dennis gave him a hearty grasp of the hand and drew him in, +saying, "Don't be afraid; I'll take care of you." + +The boy's heart clung to him as the vine tendril clasps the oak, and, +upheld by Dennis's strength, he entered what was to him wonderland +indeed. + +Mr. Ludolph looked him over as he and his daughter passed out on their +return to breakfast, and said, "He will answer if he is strong enough." + +He saw nothing in that child's face to fear. + +Dennis assured him with a significant glance, which Mr. Ludolph +understood as referring to better fare, that "he would grow strong +fast now." + +Miss Ludolph was at once interested in the boy's pale face and large, +spiritual eyes; and she resolved to sketch them before good living had +destroyed the artistic effect. + +Under kindly instruction, the boy took readily to his duties, and +promised soon to become very helpful. At noon Dennis took him out to +lunch, and the poor, half-starved lad feasted as he had not for many +a long day. + +The afternoon mail brought Dennis his mother's letter, and he wondered +that her prediction should be fulfilled even before it reached him, +and thus again his faith was strengthened. He smiled and said to +himself, "Mother lives so near the heavenly land that she seems to get +the news thence before any one else." + +During the day a lady who was talking to Mr. Ludolph turned and said +to Dennis: "How prettily you have arranged this table! Let me see; I +think I will take that little group of bronzes. They make a very nice +effect together." + +Dennis, with his heart swelling that he had arrived at the dignity of +salesman, with much politeness, which evidently pleased the lady, +assured her that they would be sent promptly to her address. + +Mr. Ludolph looked on as if all was a matter of course while she was +present, but afterward said: "You are on the right track, Fleet. You +now see the practical result of a little thought and grace in +arrangement. In matters of art, people will pay almost as much for +these as for the things themselves. The lady would not have bought +those bronzes under Berder's system. When things are grouped rightly, +people see just what they want, and buy the _effect_ as well as the +articles;" and with this judicious praise Mr. Ludolph passed on, better +pleased with himself even than with Dennis. + +But, as old Bill Cronk had intimated, such a peck of oats was almost +too much for Dennis, and he felt that he was in danger of becoming too +highly elated. + +After closing the store, he wrote a brief but graphic letter to his +mother, describing his promotion, and expressing much sympathy for +poor Berder. Regarding himself as on the crest of prosperity's wave, +he felt a strong commiseration for every degree and condition of +troubled humanity, and even could sigh over unlucky Berder's deserved +tribulations. + +About eight o'clock he started to see his new friends in De Koven +Street, and take his lesson in drawing. They welcomed him warmly, for +they evidently looked upon him as the one who might save them from the +engulfing waves of misfortune and evil. + +The children were very different from the clamorous little wolves of +the night before. No longer hungry, they were happy in the corner, +with some rude playthings, talking and cooing together like a flock +of young birds. Ernst was washing the tea-things, while his mother +cared for the baby, recalling to Dennis, with a rush of tender memories, +his mother and his boyhood tasks. Mr. Bruder still sat in the dusky +corner. The day had been a hard one for him. Having nothing to do in +the present, he had lived the miserable past over and over again. At +times his strength almost gave way, but his wife would say, "Be patient! +your friend Mr. Fleet will be in soon." + +From a few hints of what had passed, Dennis saw the trouble at once. +Mr. Bruder must have occupation. After a few kindly generalities, they +two got together, as congenial spirits, before the rescued picture; +and soon both were absorbed in the mysteries of the divine art. + +As the wife looked at the kindling, interested face of her husband, +she murmured to herself over and over again, like the sweet refrain +of a song, "His artist-soul haf come back; it truly haf." + +The lesson that night could be no more than a talk on general principles +and rules. But Mr. Bruder soon found that he had an apt scholar, and +Dennis's enthusiasm kindled his own flagging zeal, and the artist-soul +awakening within him, as his wife believed, longed to express itself +as of old in glowing colors. + +Moreover, his ambition was renewed in this promising pupil. Naturally +generous, and understanding his noble profession, he felt his poor +benumbed heart stir and glow at the thought of aiding this eager +aspirant to become what he had hoped to be. He might live again in the +richer and better-guided genius of his scholar. + +"I will send you by Ernst in the morning some sketching paper, +materials, and canvas, and you can prepare some studies for me. I will +let him bring some drawings and colorings that I have made of late in +odd moments, and you can see about how advanced I am, and what faults +I have fallen into while groping my own way. And I am going to send +you some canvas, also, for I am quite sure that if you paint a picture +Mr. Ludolph will buy it." + +The man's face brightened visibly at this. + +"Will you let your friend make a suggestion?" continued Dennis. + +"You can command me," said Mr. Bruder, with emphasis. + +"No; friends never do that; but I would like to suggest that at first +you take some simple subject, that you can soon finish, and leave +efforts that require more time for the future. That picture there shows +what you can do, and you need to work now more from the commercial +standpoint than the artist's." + +After a moment's thought, the man said, "You are right. As I look +around dis room, and see our needs, I see dat you are right. Do' I +meant to attempt someding difficult, to show Mr. Ludolph vat I could +do." + +"That will all come in good time; and now, my friend, good-night." + +The next day was far more tolerable for poor Bruder, because he was +occupied, and he found it much easier to resist the clamors of appetite. + +Dennis's sketches interested him greatly, for, though they showed the +natural defects of one who had received little instruction, both power +and originality were manifest in their execution. + +"He, too, can be an artist, if he vill," was his emphatic comment, +after looking them over. + +He prepared one study, to be continued under his own eye, and another +for Dennis to work at alone. Afterward he sat down to something for +himself. He thought a few moments, and then outlined rapidly as his +subject the figure of a man dashing a wineglass to the ground. + +As he worked, his wife smiled encouragement to him as of old, and often +looked upward in thankfulness to Heaven. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH HIM? + + +The sun was just tingeing the eastern horizon with light when Dennis +sprang from his bed on the following morning. He vowed that Miss Ludolph +should never have cause to complain of him again; for, great as was +the luxury of being awakened by such exquisite music, it was one that +he could not afford. + +It must be confessed that he gave a little more care than usual that +morning to his toilet; but his resources were very limited. Still, as +nature had done so much for him, he could not complain. By half-past +six his duties in the store were accomplished, and brushed and furbished +up as far as possible, he stood outside the door awaiting his fair +task-mistress. Sometimes he wondered at the strange fascination she +exercised over him, but generally ended by ascribing it to her beauty +and love of art. + +A little after the time appointed she appeared with her father, and +seemed pleased at Dennis's readiness for work. + +"I shall not have to sing you awake this morning," she said, "and I +am glad, for I am in a mood for business." + +She was attired in a close-fitting walking-dress that set off her +graceful person finely. It was evident that her energetic nature would +permit no statuesque repose while Dennis worked, but that she had come +prepared for active measures. + +She had inherited a good constitution, which, under her father's +direction, had been strengthened and confirmed by due regard to hygienic +rules. Therefore she had reached the stage of early womanhood abounding +in vitality and capable of great endurance. Active, graceful motion +was as natural to her as it is for a swallow to be on the wing. The +moment she dropped her book, palette, or pencil, she was on her feet, +her healthful nature seeming like a mountain brook, that, checked for +a time in its flow, soon overleaps its bounds and speeds on more swiftly +than ever. But the strange part of this superabundant activity was, +that she never seemed to do anything in an abrupt way, as from mere +impulse. Every act glided into another smoothly and gracefully. Her +lithe, willowy figure, neither slight nor stout, was peculiarly adapted +to her style of movement. She delighted in the game of billiards, for +the quick movements and varied attitudes permitted, and the precision +required, were all suited to her taste; and she had gained such +marvellous skill that even her father, with his practiced hand, was +scarcely her match. + +As she tripped lightly up the long winding stairs to the show-room +over the front door where their labors were to begin, she appeared to +Dennis the very embodiment of grace and beauty. And yet she seemed so +cold and self-centred, so devoid of warm human interest in the great +world of love, joy, and suffering, that she repelled while she +fascinated. + +"If the blood should come into the cheeks of one of her father's +statues, and the white marble eyes turn to violet blue, and the snowy +hair to wavy gold, and it should spring from its pedestal into just +such life, it would be more like her than any woman I ever saw," thought +Dennis, as he stood for a moment or two waiting to do her bidding. + +Her plans had been thoroughly matured, and she acted with decision. +Pointing to the side opposite the door--the side which would naturally +strike the eye of the visitor first--she said, "I wish all the pictures +taken down from that wall and placed around the room so that I can see +them." + +She began as an absolute dictator, intending to give no hint of her +plans and purposes except as conveyed by clear, terse orders. But these +had so intelligent and appreciative an interpreter in Dennis, that +gradually her attention was drawn to him as well as to his work. + +He had his step-ladder ready, and with a celerity decidedly pleasing, +soon placed the pictures safely on the floor, so that she could still +see them and judge of their character. Though his dexterous manner and +careful handling of the pictures were gratifying, it must be confessed +that his supple form, the graceful and varied attitudes he unconsciously +assumed in his work, pleased her more, and she secretly began to study +him as an artistic subject, as he had studied her. + +In her complacency she said: "So far, very well, Mr. Fleet. I +congratulate myself that I have you to assist me, instead of that +awkward fraud, Mr. Berder." + +"And I assure you, Miss Ludolph, that I have longed intensely for this +privilege ever since I knew your purpose." + +"You may have cause to repent, like many another whose wishes have +been gratified; for your privilege will involve a great deal of hard +work." + +"The more the better," said Dennis, warmly. + +"How so? I should think you had more to do now than you would care +about." + +"Work is no burden to one of my years and strength, provided it is +suited to one's tastes. Moreover, I confess that I hope to derive great +advantages from this labor." + +"In what way?" she asked, with a slight frown, imagining that he +thought of extra pay. + +"Because unconsciously you will give me instruction, and I hope that +you are not unwilling that I should gain such hints and suggestions +as I can from the display of your taste that I must witness." + +"Not at all," said she, laughing. "I see that you are ambitious to +learn your business and rise in the store." + +"I am ambitious to gain a knowledge of one of the noblest callings." + +"What is that?" + +"Art." + +"What!" said she, with a half-scornful smile; "are you a disciple of +art?" + +"Yes; why not?" + +"Well, I do not wish to hurt your feelings, but, to tell you the honest +truth, it seems but the other day that you were Pat Murphy." + +"But am I a Pat Murphy?" he asked, with gentle dignity. + +"No, Mr. Fleet; I will do you the justice to say that I think you very +much above your station." + +"I am sufficiently a democrat, Miss Ludolph, to believe that a man can +be a man in any honest work." + +"And I, Mr. Fleet, am not in the least degree a democrat." + +Which fact she proceeded to prove by ordering him about for the next +hour like the most absolute little despot that ever queened it over +a servile province in the dark ages. Bat it was rather difficult to +keep up this style of dictatorship with Dennis. He seemed so intelligent +and polite that she often had it to her tongue to ask his opinion on +certain points. Toward the last she did so, and the opinion he gave, +she admitted to herself, was judicious; but for a purpose of her own +she disregarded it, and took a different way. + +Dennis at once saw through her plan of arrangement. In the centre of +that side of the room which he had cleared, she caused him to hang one +of the largest and finest pictures, which, under Mr. Schwartz's +management, had been placed in a corner. Around the central painting +all the others were to be grouped, according to color, subject, and +merit. At the same time each wall was to have a character of its own. +Such a task as this would require no little thought, study, and +comparison; and Miss Ludolph was one to see delicate points of +difference which most observers would not notice. It was her purpose +to make the room bloom out naturally like a great flower. This careful +selection of pictures was necessarily slow, and Dennis rejoiced that +their united work would not soon be over. + +To her surprise she often saw his eyes instinctively turning to the +same picture that she was about to select, and perceived that he had +divined her plan without a word of explanation, and that his taste was +constantly according with hers in producing the desired effects. Though +all this filled her with astonishment, she revealed no sign of it to +him. At eight she said: "That will do for to-day. We have made a good +beginning--better indeed than I had hoped. But how is it, Mr. Fleet, +since you are such an uncompromising democrat, that you permit a young +lady to order you about in this style?" + +Dennis smiled and said: "It seems perfectly natural for you to speak +in this way, and it does not appear offensive as it might in another. +Moreover, I have voluntarily taken this position and am in honor bound +to accept all it involves." + +"But which was the controlling motive of your mind?" + +"Well, a few seem born to command, and it is a pleasure to obey," said +Dennis, paying a strong but honest compliment to the natural little +autocrat. + +"Indeed, Mr. Fleet, do church members flatter?" said she, secretly +much pleased. + +"I did not mean to flatter," said he, flushing. "They who have power +should use it like the All-powerful--gently, considerately." + +It was her turn to flush now, and she said, "Oh, I perceive, the +compliment was the sugar-coating of the little homily to follow." + +"I have no such diplomacy as you credit me with," said Dennis, looking +straight into her eyes with honest frankness. "I merely spoke my passing +thought." + +"But he has fine eyes," said she to herself, and then she said to him: +"Very well, I certainly will give you credit for being superior to +your position. Be ready again to-morrow at the same hour;" and with +a smile somewhat kindly she vanished. + +Somehow she seemed to take the light out of the room with her. The +pictures suddenly looked tame and ordinary, and everything commonplace. +Here was an effect not exactly artistic, which he could not understand. +He sighed, he scarcely knew why. + +But the day's duties came with a rush, and soon he was utterly absorbed +in them. + +That evening Dennis was much cheered by Mr. Bruder's comments on his +sketches. + +"Considering de advantages you haf had, an de little time you can give, +dey are very goot. You haf fallen into de natural faults of dose who +work alone, but we can soon cure dese. Now here is some vork dat I +vant you to do under my eye, and dat study on outlining you can take +home. Moreover, I can give you some lessons in outlining from my own +picture;" and Mr. Bruder showed him what he had done. + +Dennis saw in the clear, vigorous profile the artist's thought, and +congratulated himself that his teacher was a master in his profession. + +For two hours they worked and talked, and Dennis felt that every such +lesson would be a long step forward. + +Poor Bruder looked more and more like himself every day, but God only +knew how he had to struggle. + +"I don't know how him vill end," he said. "I pray nearly every minute, +but sometimes I feel dat I must drink even do' I die dat moment." + +It was disease as well as appetite that he was fighting, for appetite +indulged beyond a certain point becomes disease. + +His wife's face was different also--the sharp look of misery fading +out of it. Dennis noticed the changes, and thought to himself, while +walking home: "After all, the highest art is to bring out on the living +face all we can of God's lost image. How beautiful the changes in these +two poor people's faces! and the best part of it is, that they are the +reflex of changes going on in the soul, the imperishable part." + +Then, in quick and natural transition, his mind reverted to Christine +Ludolph; and the thought of her face, which God had fashioned so fair, +but which was already sadly marred by sin, becoming fixed and rigid +in pride and selfishness, was as painful as if, according to an old +legend, her lithe, active form should gradually turn to stone. But if +the reverse could ever be true--if the beautifying Christian graces +could dwell within her soul and light up her face--as lamps illumining +some rare and quaint transparency, the resulting loveliness would +realize the artist's fondest ideal. + +Musing thus, what wonder that he vowed then and there, under the +starlight, to pray and work for her till the new life should illumine +her heart. Little dreamed Christine, as she slept that night, that the +first link of a chain which might bind her to heaven had been forged. + +The dawn was late and lowering on the following morning. Great masses +of clouds swept across the sky, and soon the rain was falling in gusty +torrents. Dennis rose and hastened through his duties as before, and +was ready at the hour appointed, but had little hope of seeing Miss +Ludolph. Still he opened the door and looked up the street. To his +surprise he saw her coming, attended by her father's valet. Only part +of her glowing face was visible, for she was incased from head to foot +in a light and delicate suit of rubber. + +Dennis opened the door, and she stepped quickly in, scattering spray +on every side like a sea-nymph. The young man looked at her with +open-eyed admiration and surprise, which both amused and pleased her. + +"True enough," she thought, "his face is like a signboard." + +She seemed to him, as she threw off her wet coverings, like an exquisite +flower, that, lifted by the breeze after a storm, scatters the +burdensome rain-drops on every side and stands up more beautiful and +blooming than ever. + +"You were not expecting me, I imagine," she said. + +"Well, I must admit I scarcely did, and yet I could not help looking +for you." + +"Isn't that a distinction without a difference?" she asked, with a +pleasant smile, for she was gratified at not finding the store closed +and dark. + +"I am very glad you have come," he replied, flushing slightly with +pleasure, "for it would have been a long, dreary morning if you had +not." + +Dennis thought he referred to the lack of occupation. He did not know, +nor did she notice, that he meant the lack of herself. + +"Well," said she, "I am glad you like the work, for you destined to +have enough of it." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +IS HE A GENTLEMAN? + + +The days and weeks that followed were to Dennis such as only come once +in a lifetime, and not in every lifetime either. A true, pure love was +growing up within his heart--growing as the little child develops in +strength and pleasurable life, and yet unconsciously to itself. It +seemed as if some strong magician's wand had touched the world or him. +Everything was transfigured, and no wonderland was more full of interest +than that in which he existed. His life was a waking dream, in which +nothing was distinct or definite, but all things abounded in hope and +happy suggestion. He compared it afterward to a tropical island of the +Pacific, a blissful fragment of life by itself, utterly distinct from +the hard, struggling years that preceded, and the painful awakening +that followed. + +Even the place of his daily toil was pervaded by a beautiful presence. +For many days he and Christine worked together, and at last her eyes +had rested on, or her fingers had touched, nearly everything in the +store, and therefore all was associated with her. Throughout their +labors his quick sympathy and appreciation made him almost hands and +feet to her, and she regarded him as a miracle of helpfulness--one +of those humble, useful creatures who are born to wait upon and +interpret the wishes of the rich and great. His admiring glances +disturbed her not and raised no suspicion in her mind. She had been +accustomed to such for years, and took them as a matter of course. + +She treated the young men whom she met in society with a courtly ease +and freedom, but her smiles and repartee ever seemed like brilliant +moonlight that had no warmth; and, while no restraint appeared, she +still kept all at a distance. There was a marked difference in her +intercourse with Dennis. Regarding him as too humble ever to presume +upon her frankness, she daily spoke more freely, and more truly acted +out herself before him. She was happy and in her element among the +beautiful works of art they were arranging, and in this atmosphere her +womanly nature, chilled and dwarfed though it was, would often manifest +itself in ways sweet and unexpected. Under no other circumstances could +she have appeared so well. She as often spoke to herself in racy comment +on what was before her as to Dennis, and ever and anon would make some +pleasant remark to him, as she might throw a dainty morsel to her +greyhound Wolf, looking wistfully at her while she dined. At the same +time it must be confessed that she had a growing respect for him, as +she daily saw some new proof of his intelligence and taste; but both +education and disposition inclined her instinctively to the old feudal +idea that even genius, if poor, must wait a humble servitor on wealth +and rank, and where a New England girl would have been saying to +herself, "This gifted, educated man is my equal, and, whether I want +to or not, I ought to treat him as such," she was not troubled at all. +To her, he was her father's clerk and man-of-all-work, a most useful, +trusted, and agreeable servant, and she was kind to him as such. Indeed +the little autocrat was kind to every one that pleased her. She was +a benign queen to obedient subjects, but woe to those who were +otherwise. + +To Dennis, however, though he realized it not, she was becoming as the +very apple of his eye. He was learning to regard her with a deeper +interest because of the very defects that he plainly recognized. While +on the one hand he had the enthusiastic love caused by his admiration +for her, on the other he felt the tenderer and greater love which was +the result of pity. He tried to account for his feelings toward her +by the usual sophistries of unconscious lovers. It was friendship; it +was artistic interest in her beauty; it was the absorbing, unselfish +regard of a Christian for one providentially commended to him to be +led out of darkness into light. How could he help thinking of one for +whom he prayed night and morning and every hour in the day? It was all +this, but he was soon to learn that it was a great deal more. And so +the days of occupation and companionship passed; the spell worked on +with increasing and bewildering power, and the crisis could not be +delayed much longer. + +One morning in the latter part of April she seemed more gracious than +usual. Their labors were drawing to a close, and, as he had proved so +tasteful and efficient in the store, she concluded that he might be +equally useful in other ways and places. She could command him at the +store, but not in respect to a task that she had in view; so she adopted +a little feminine artifice as old as the time when Eve handed Adam the +apple, and she looked at him in such a way that he could not refuse. + +Blind, honest Dennis, it is needless to say, saw nothing of this little +strategy of which he was destined to be the happy, willing victim, +and his love expanded and bloomed under the genial light of her presence +and kindness, like the flowers of the convolvulus in a bright dawn of +June. She brought her general graciousness to a definite and blissful +climax by saying, when about to go home, "Well, Mr. Fleet, you have +done better than usual to-day, and I certainly must give you credit +for possessing more taste than any young man of my acquaintance." + +Dennis's heart gave as great a bound as if the laurel crown of all the +Olympic games had been placed upon his brow. + +"I am now going to ask a favor," she continued. + +"You may command me, Miss Ludolph," interrupted Dennis. + +"No, not in this case," she replied. "Whatever you do will be regarded +as a personal favor to me. At the same time it will afford you scope +for such display of your taste as will secure many compliments." + +"If I am able to satisfy _you_ I shall be more than compensated," said +Dennis with a bow. + +She smiled and thought to herself, "That isn't bad for a porter and +man-of-all-work," and explained as follows: + +"Some young ladies and gentlemen have decided upon giving an +entertainment, consisting of music, tableaux, and statuary. Now, in +regard to the two latter parts, we need above all things some person +of taste like yourself, whose critical eye and dexterous hand will +insure everything to be just right. You will be a sort of general stage +manager and superintendent, you know. I feel sure you will be all the +more willing to enter upon this work when you know that the proceeds +are to go toward the Church of the Holy Virgin. This is going to be +a very select affair, and the tickets are five dollars each." + +"Is it a Protestant church?" asked Dennis, in some trepidation. + +"Oh, certainly," she answered, with a peculiar smile, "an Episcopal +church." + +"It seems a strange name for a Protestant church," said Dennis. "It +is enough for me that you wish it; at the same time it certainly is +a pleasure to contribute what little I can to aid any Christian +organization." + +"Come, Mr. Fleet, you are narrow," she said, with a controversial +twinkle in her eye. "Why not toward a Catholic church?" + +"I fear that all people with decided religious opinions are sometimes +regarded as narrow," he answered, with a smile. + +"That is an inadequate answer to my question," she said; "but I will +not find fault since you have so good-naturedly acceded to my request. +Come to No. -- Wabash Avenue at three this afternoon. Papa gives you +leave of absence." + +She vanished, and figuratively the sun went down to Dennis, and he was +in twilight till he should see her again. He looked forward to the +afternoon with almost feverish eagerness, for several reasons. It would +be his first introduction to "good society," for as such the +unsophisticated youth regarded the prospect. He had the natural longing +of a young, healthful nature for the companionship of those of his own +age and culture, and his life in the great city had often been very +lonely. He expected, as a matter of course, to be treated as an equal +at the artistic entertainment in which he was to participate. In his +business relations at the store he had taken a subordinate position +and made up his mind to the logical consequences. But now that he was +invited to a private house, and would appear there possessing all the +qualities of a gentleman, he surely would be treated as one. "Is not +this Chicago, whose citizens were nearly all poor a few years ago?" +he thought; "and surely, if what Miss Ludolph says is true, I have +advantages in my taste over most poor young men." Moreover, it was his +ideal of an entertainment, where art and music should take the place +of the coarser pleasures of eating, drinking, and dancing. Chief of +all, Christine would be there, and even he in his blindness became a +little uneasy and self-conscious as he realized how this thought towered +above the others. + +She had given him a list of the things he was to bring with him in the +afternoon, and he occupied every spare moment in getting them ready. +At a quarter past two he summoned the carman of the store, and they +loaded up the miscellaneous cargo needed for the coming mysteries, and +by three all were before the large elegant mansion to which he had +been directed. Dennis rang the bell and was shown by a servant into +the front parlor, where he found Miss Ludolph, Miss Brown, a tall, +haughty brunette, and the young lady of the house, Miss Winthrop, a +bright, sunny-faced blonde, and two or three other young ladies of no +special coloring or character, being indebted mainly to their toilets +for their attractions. Dennis bowed to Miss Ludolph, and then turned +toward the other ladies, expecting as a matter of course to be +introduced. No introduction came, but his expectant manner was so +obvious that Miss Ludolph colored and looked annoyed, and the other +young ladies tittered outright. + +Advancing a step or two she said, coldly, "Mr. Fleet, you may help +Mapes carry the things into the back parlor, and then we will direct +you as to the arrangement." + +Dennis crimsoned painfully. At first he was too confused to think, and +merely obeyed mechanically. Then came the impulse to say boldly that +this kind of thing might answer at the store, but not here, and he +nearly carried it out; but soon followed the sober second thought, +that such action would bring a blight over all his prospects, and +involve the loss of his position at the store. Such giving way to +passion would injure only himself. They would laugh, and merely suffer +a momentary annoyance; to him and his the result would be most +disastrous. Why should he let those who cared not a jot for him cause +such sad injury? + +By the time he had carried his first armful into the back parlor, he +had resolved for his mother and sisters' sakes that he would go through +the following scenes as well as he could, and then turn his back on +society till he could enter it a recognized gentleman; and with +compressed lips and flashing eye he mentally vowed that that day should +soon come. + +As he was unpacking his materials he could not help hearing the +conversation in the front parlor. + +"Did you ever see such presumption?" exclaimed Miss Brown. "He evidently +expected to be introduced, and that we should rise and courtesy +all around." + +"He must have seen better days, for he certainly appeared like a +gentleman," said Miss Winthrop. + +"I should hardly give that title to a man who swept a store out every +morning" replied Miss Brown. + +"No, indeed!" chorused the three colorless young ladies. + +"I know nothing about this young man," said Miss Winthrop, ruffling +her plumage somewhat for an argument, of which she was fond; "but, as +a case in hand, suppose a highly educated and refined man for some +reason swept a store out every morning, what would you call him?" and +she looked around as if she had given a poser. + +The colorless young ladies looked blank--their natural expression. + +"Nonsense!" said the positive Miss Brown; "such men don't sweep stores. +He may have passed current in some country village, but that is not +our set." + +"But the case is certainly supposable," retorted Miss Winthrop, more +intent upon her argument than upon Dennis. "Come, what does the Countess +say?" she asked, turning to Christine; for that was the familiar name +by which she went among her young companions. + +"The case is not supposable, but actual," she answered, so distinctly +that it seemed that she meant Dennis to hear. "As far as I have any +means of judging, he is a refined, educated man, and I have learned +from papa that his motive in sweeping the store is the support of his +mother and sisters--certainly a very worthy one. To your question, +Susie, I answer unhesitatingly that in accordance with your American +principles and professions he is a gentleman, and you ought to treat +him as such. But you Americans are sometimes wonderfully inconsistent, +and there is often a marvellously wide margin between your boasted +equality and the reality. Now in Europe these questions have been +settled for ages, and birth and rank define a person's position +accurately." + +"I do not believe in equality," said Miss Brown, with a toss of her +head. (Her father was a mighty brewer, but he and hers were in character +and antecedents something like the froth on their own beer.) + +Miss Winthrop was a little embarrassed at finding her supposed case +a real one, for it might involve some practical action on her part. +Many an ardent advocate of the people in theory gives them practically +the cold shoulder, and is content to stay on the summit of Mt. Olympus. +She was a girl of good impulses and strong convictions of abstract +right, but rarely had either the courage or the opportunity to carry +them out. She was of the old Boston family of Winthrops, and therefore +could meet Miss Ludolph on her own ground in the way of pedigree. + +But, however Dennis fared, she felt that she must look after her +argument, and, having conquered theoretically as far as America was +concerned, determined to carry war into Europe, so she said: "Are you +not mistaken in saying that birth and rank only settle position abroad? +Some of the most honored names there are or were untitled." + +"Oh, certainly, but they were persons of great genius, and _genius_ is +the highest patent of nobility. But I leave you republicans to settle +this question to suit yourselves. I am going to look after the +preparations for this evening, as I have set my heart on a success +that shall ring through the city." + +But they all flocked after her into the back parlor, now doubly +interesting as it contained an object of curiosity in Dennis Fleet--a +veritable gentleman who swept a store. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +CHRISTINE'S IDEA OF CHRISTIANS + + +The large apartment where the amateur performers expected to win their +laurels was now filled with all the paraphernalia needed to produce +musical, artistic, and scenic effects. Much had been gathered before +Dennis's arrival, and his cart-load added all that was necessary. +Everything seemed in inextricable confusion. + +"The idea of having anything here to-night!" exclaimed Miss Winthrop. +"It will take us a week to get things arranged." + +"The thing is hopeless," said the blank young ladies. + +Even Christine looked somewhat dismayed, but she said, "Remember we +have till half-past eight." + +"I will call two or three of the servants," said Miss Brown. + +"I beg of you do not, at least not yet," exclaimed Christine. "What +will their clumsy hands do in work like this, but mar everything. I +have great faith in Mr. Fleet's abilities," she continued, turning +toward Dennis, with an enchanting smile, and resuming the tactics of +the morning. Though the smile went to Dennis's heart like a fiery +arrow, his pride, thoroughly aroused, made him cold and self-possessed. +He naturally assumed the manner possible only to the true gentleman +who, though wronged, chooses not to show his feelings save by a grave, +quiet dignity. In view of their action and manner, he consciously felt +himself their superior; and this impression, like an atmosphere, was +felt by them also. As they looked upon his tall, erect form, manly +bearing, and large dark eyes, in which still lurked the fire of an +honest indignation, they felt the impossibility of ordering him about +like Mapes the carman. They regarded him for a moment in awkward +silence, not knowing what to do or say. Even haughty Christine was +embarrassed, for the stronger spirit was present and thoroughly aroused, +and it overpowered the weaker natures. Christine had never seen Dennis +look like that, and did not know that he could. He was so different +from the eager, humble servitor that heretofore had interpreted her +very wishes, even before they were spoken! Moreover, the success of +their entertainment now depended upon him, and she felt that he was +in a mood requiring delicate treatment, and that she could not order +him around in the role to which she had assigned him. And yet if she +had known him, she might, for he had made up his mind to go through +even the most menial service with proud humility, and then be careful +not to be so caught again; and, when Dennis had resolved upon a thing, +that settled the question so far as he was concerned. Seeing Christine's +hesitation and embarrassment, he stepped forward and said: "Miss +Ludolph, if you will indicate _your_ wishes I will carry them out as +rapidly as possible. I can soon bring order out of this confusion; and +you must have some plan of arrangement." + +She gave him a quick, grateful glance, that thawed more of his ice +than he cared to have melt so quickly. + +"Of course we have," said she. "This is but the nervous hesitation +before the shock of a battle that has all been planned on paper. Here +is our programme." + +"All battles do not go forward in the field as planned on paper, if +my feeble memory serves me," said Miss Winthrop, maliciously. + +"I grant you that," said Christine, quietly, "and you need not tax +your memory so greatly to prove it." + +She was now very kind and gracious to Dennis, believing that to be the +best policy. It usually is, but she received no special proof of it +from him: he listened alike to request, suggestion, and compliment. +There was nothing sullen or morose in his appearance, nothing resentful +or rude. With the utmost respect he heard all she said, and carried +out her wishes with that deft, graceful promptness in which he had few +equals. At the same time his manner was that of one who thoroughly +respected himself--that of a refined and cultivated person, who, having +become committed to a disagreeable part, performed it with only the +protest of dignified silence. + +As his first step, he cleared a space for action, and arranged +everything to be in view when needed. The rapidity with which order +emerged from confusion was marvellous to the young ladies. + +Then he took their programme, studied it a few moments, and compared +it with the pictures of the scenes they wished to imitate. He then +arranged for these one after another, placing everything needed within +reach, and where it could readily be seen, making the combinations +beforehand as far as possible. As he worked so intelligently and +skilfully, requiring so few explanations, the young ladies exchanged +significant glances, and strolled into the front parlor. They must +express an opinion. + +"I declare, Christine," said Miss Winthrop, "it is a shame that you +did not introduce him, for he is a gentleman. He works like a captive +prince." + +"How romantic!" gushed the colorless young ladies. + +"Nonsense!" said Miss Brown; "I hate to see any one in his position +putting on such airs." + +As soon as she had seen Dennis fairly at work just like her mother's +servants, or her father's men, she felt that he ought to be treated +as such--riches being Miss Brown's patent of nobility; and she resolved +if possible to lower his ridiculous pride, as she regarded it. Miss +Brown was a very handsome, stylish girl of a certain type, but she no +more understood Dennis's feelings than she did Sanscrit. + +Christine said nothing, but admitted to herself, with a secret wonder, +that Dennis awakened in her a respect, a sort of fear, that no other +man had inspired, save her father. There was something in his manner, +though altogether respectful, that made her feel that he was not to +be trifled with. This impression was decidedly heightened when, a few +moments later, Miss Brown, pursuant of her resolution to lower Dennis's +pride, ordered him in an offensive manner to do something for her that +had no connection with the entertainment. At first he acted as if he +had not heard her, but his rising color showed that he had. In spite +of warning glances from Christine and Miss Winthrop, she repeated her +request in a loud, imperious tone. + +Dennis drew himself up to his full height, and, turning his dark eyes +full upon her, said, firmly, "I am ever ready to _offer_ any service +that a gentleman can to a lady, but surely I am not your footman." + +"Your pride is ridiculous, sir. You are here to help, and will be paid +for it. This is my house, and I expect persons of your position, while +in it, to do as they are bidden." + +"Since such are the rules and principles of your house, permit me at +once to leave you in full possession;" and he was about to retire with +a manner as cold as Mr. Ludolph himself could have assumed, and as +haughty, when a light hand fell upon his arm. Looking down he met the +deep blue eyes of Christine Ludolph lifted pleadingly to his. + +"Mr. Fleet, you need not do what is asked. It is not right to require +it. In fact we all owe you an apology." Then, in a low, quick tone, +she added, "Will you not stay as a favor to me?" + +She felt his arm tremble under her hand, there was a moment's +hesitation, then he replied, in the same manner, "Miss Ludolph, _you_ +can command me on _this_ occasion" (there was no promise for the +future); and then he turned to his work as if resolved to see and know +nothing else till the ordeal ended. + +In spite of herself Christine blushed, but taking Miss Brown by the arm +she led her aside and gave her a vigorous lecture. + +"Are you sane?" she said. "Do you not remember that nearly a thousand +dollars' worth of tickets are sold, and that the people will be here +by half-past eight, and at nine we must appear? Even after what he has +done, if you should drive him away the thing would be a failure, and +we should be the ridiculous town-talk for a year." + +"But I hate--" + +"No matter what you hate. Treat him as you please tomorrow. We need +him now;" and so the petted, wilful girl, spoiled by money and flattery, +was kept under restraint. + +A great deal of preparation was required for the last two pieces on +the programme, and the young ladies grouped themselves not far off +while Dennis worked. Christine explained from time to time as the +natural leader of the party. Still an awkward silence followed the +scene above described. This restraint could not long endure, and one +of the colorless young ladies asked a question that led to more than +she intended, and indeed, more than she understood. + +"Christine, what do you do with yourself Sundays? Your pew is not +occupied once in an age." + +"I usually paint most of the day, and ride out with papa in the +afternoon when it is pleasant." + +"Why, you are a perfect little heathen!" they all exclaimed in chorus. + +"Yes, I suppose I am worse than a pagan," she said, "for I not only +do not believe in your superstitions, but have none of my own." + +"What do you believe in, then?" asked Miss Winthrop. + +"Art, music, fame, power." + +She announced her creed so coolly and decidedly that Dennis lifted a +startled face to hers. She saw his grieved, astonished expression, and +it amused her very much. Henceforth she spoke as much for his benefit +as for theirs. + +"If you would be equally honest," she continued, "you would find that +your creeds also are very different from the one in the prayer-book." + +"And what would mine be, pray," asked one of the colorless young ladies. + +"I will sum it up in one sentence, Miss Jones--'Keep in the fashion.'" + +"I think that you are very unjust. I'm sure I go to church regularly, +and attend a great many services in Lent and on Saints' days. I've +been confirmed, and all that." + +"Yes, it is the thing to do in your set. Now, here is Miss Winthrop, +a Presbyterian, who manifests quite another religious phase." + +"Pray what is mine?" asked that lady, laughing. + +"Oh, you want hair-splitting in regard to the high doctrines--clear, +brilliant arguments, cutting like sharp, merciless steel into the +beliefs of other denominations. Then, after your ism has been glorified +for an hour on Sunday morning, and all other isms pierced and lashed, +you descend from your intellectual heights, eat a good dinner, take +a nap, and live like the rest of us till the next Sabbath, when (if +it is a fine day) you climb some other theological peak, far beyond +the limits of perpetual snow, and there take another bird's-eye view +of something that might be found very different if you were nearer to +it." + +"And what is my phase?" asked Miss Brown. + +"Oh, you are an out-and-out sinner, and do just what you please, in +spite of priest or prayer-book," said Christine, with a laugh in which +all the ladies joined. + +"Well," said Miss Brown, "I do not think that I am worse than the rest +of you." + +"Not in the least," replied Christine. "We all have some form of +religion, or none at all, as it accords with our peculiar tastes." + +"And you mean to say that having a religion or not is a mere matter +of taste?" asked Miss Winthrop. + +"Yes, I should say it was, and practically that it _is_. You ladies, and +nearly all that I have met, seem to choose a style of religion suited to +your tastes; and the tastes of many incline them to have no religion at +all." + +"Why, Miss Ludolph!" exclaimed Miss Winthrop, her cheeks glowing with +honest dissent and zeal for the truth; "our religion is taken from the +Bible. Do you not believe in the Bible?" + +"No! not in the sense in which you ask the question; nor you either, +my charming Miss Winthrop." + +"Indeed I do, every word of it," said the orthodox young lady, hotly. + +"Let me test you. Miss Brown, have you such a book in the house? Oh, +yes, here is an elegantly bound copy, but looking as if never opened. +And now, Miss Winthrop, this city is full of all sorts of horrid people, +living in alleys and tenement houses. They are poor, half-naked, hungry, +and sometimes starving. Many are in prison, and more ought to be; many +are strangers, more utterly alone and lonely in our crowded streets +than on a desert island. They are suffering from varieties of disgusting +disease, and having a hard time generally. How many hungry people have +you fed? How many strangers (I do not mean distinguished ones from +abroad) have you taken in and comforted? How many of the naked have +you clothed? And how long is your list of the sick and imprisoned that +you have visited, my luxurious little lady?" + +A real pallor overspread Miss Winthrop's sunny face, for she saw what +was coming, but she answered, honestly, "I have done practically nothing +of all this." Then she added: "Papa and mamma are not willing that I +should visit such places and people. I have asked that I might, but +they always discourage me, and tell of the awful experiences of those +who do." + +"Then they don't believe the Bible, either," said Christine; "for if +they did they would insist on your doing it; and if you believed you +would do all this in spite of them; for see what is written here; the +very Being that you worship and dedicate your churches to will say, +because of your not doing this, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into +everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.' And this is +but one of many similar passages. Now all this is a monstrous fable +to me. The idea of any such experiences awaiting my light-hearted +little Sybarite here!" + +Miss Winthrop had buried her face in her hands, and was trembling from +head to foot. The words of God never seemed so real and true before +as now when uttered by an unbeliever. + +"I don't believe there is any such place or things," said Miss Brown, +bluntly. + +"There spake my mature and thoughtful friend who is not to be imposed +upon," said Christine, with a touch of irony in her tone. + +Dennis had listened in sad wonder. Such words of cynical unbelief were +in dark, terrible contrast with the fair young face. He saw the mind +and training of her father in all she said, but he bitterly condemned +the worldly, inconsistent life of multitudes in the church who do more +to confirm unbelievers than all their sophistries. But as she went on, +seemingly having the argument all her own way, his whole soul burned +to meet and refute her fatal views. For her own sake and the others' +as well as for the dishonored name of his Lord, he must in some way +turn the tide. Though regarded as a humble servitor, having no right +to take part in the conversation, he determined that his hands must +lift up the standard of truth if no others would or could. To his joy +he found that the programme would soon give him the coveted opportunity. + +Christine went on with a voice as smooth and musical as the flow of +a stream over a glacier. + +"I have read the Bible several times, and that is more than all of you +can say, I think. It is a wonderful book, and has been the inspiration +of some of our best art. There are parts that I enjoy reading very +much for their sublimity and peculiarity. But who pretends to live as +this old and partially obsolete book teaches? Take my father, for +instance. All the gentlemen in the church that I know of can do, and +are accustomed to do, just what he does, and some I think do much +worse; and yet he is an infidel, as you would term him. And as to the +ladies, not the Bible, but fashion rules them with a rod of iron. I +have cut free from it all, and art shall be my religion and the +inspiration of my life." + +As Christine talked on, the twilight deepened, and Dennis worked with +increasing eagerness. + +"After all," she continued, "it is only history repeating itself. The +educated mind to-day stands in the same attitude toward Christianity +as that of the cultured mind of Greece and Rome toward the older +mythology in the second century. Then as now the form of religion was +kept up, but belief in its truth was fast dying out. The cities abounded +in gorgeous temples, and were thronged with worshippers, but they +sacrificed at the dictates of fashion, custom, and law, not of faith. +So our cities are adorned with splendid churches, and fashion and the +tastes of the congregation decide as to the form of service. The sects +differ widely with each other, and all differ with the Bible. The +ancients gave no more respect to what was regarded as the will of their +imaginary deities than do modern Christians to the precepts of the +Bible. People went to the ceremonies, got through with them, and then +did what they pleased; and so they do now. + +"Take for instance one of your commonest doctrines, that of prayer; +the majority have no practical belief in it. My father has taken me, +and out of curiosity I have attended several prayer meetings. The +merest fraction of the congregation are present at the best of times, +and if the night is stormy the number out is ridiculously small. Yet +all profess to believe that the Lord of heaven and earth will be +present, and that it is His will that they should be. Your Bible teaches +that the Being who controls completely the destiny of every person +will be in the midst of those gathered in His name, to hear and answer +their petitions. If this is true, then no earthly ruler was every so +neglected and insulted, so generally ignored, as this very Deity to +whom you ascribe unlimited power, and from whom you say you receive +life and everything. An eastern despot would take off the heads of +those who treated him in such a style; and a republican politician +would scoff at the idea of giving office to such lukewarm followers. +Why, here in Christian Chicago the will of God is no more heeded by +the majority than that of the Emperor of China, and the Bible might +as well be the Koran. Looking at these facts from my impartial +standpoint, I am driven to one of two alternatives: either you regard +your God as so kind and good, so merciful, that you can trespass on +His forbearance to any extent, and treat Him with a neglect and an +indifference that none would manifest toward the pettiest earthly +potentate, and still all will be well; or else you have no real +practical belief in your religion. Though not very charitably inclined, +I cannot think quite so meanly of human nature as to take the former +view, so I am driven to the latter. For surely no man who wished to +live and prosper, no woman who loved her husband and children, could +so coolly and continually disregard the Deity in whom they profess to +believe, with the old Greek poet, that they 'live, move, and have their +being.'" + +The twilight deepened, and Christine continued, her words, portraying +the decline of faith, according ominously with the increasing gloom. + +"Why, in order to see the truth of what I am saying, look at the emblem +of your faith--the Cross. All its historical associations are those +of self-denial, and suffering for others. The Founder of your faith +endured death upon it. He was a great, good man like Socrates, though +no doubt a mistaken enthusiast. But what He meant He said plainly and +clearly, as, for instance, 'Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come +after Me cannot be My disciple.' I admit that in the past He had a +wonderful following. In the ages of martyrdom multitudes left all, and +endured all that He did, for His sake. But so there have been other +great leaders with equally devoted followers. But in this practical +age religious enthusiasm has but little chance. What crosses do the +members of the Church of the Holy Virgin take up? and what are borne +by your great rich church, Miss Winthrop? The shrewd people of this +day manage better, and put their crosses on the top of the church. I +suppose they reason that the stone tower can carry it for the whole +congregation, on the principle of a labor-saving machine. But, honestly, +your modern disciples are no more like their Master than one of the +pale, slim, white-kidded gentlemen who will be here to-night is like +Richard Coeur de Lion as he led a charge against the Moslems. Your +cross is dwindling to a mere pretty ornament--an emblem of a past that +is fast fading from men's memories. It will never have the power to +inspire the heart again, as when the Crusaders--" + +At that moment their eyes were blinded by a sudden, dazzling light. +There was a general and startled exclamation, and then, awe-struck and +silent, they gazed as if spellbound upon a luminous cross blazing +before them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +EQUAL TO AN EMERGENCY + + +The fiery cross that so awed Christine and her little group of auditors +was to be the closing scene of the evening entertainment. It was of +metal, and by a skilful adjustment of jets was made to appear as if +all aflame. While the others were intent on Christine's words, and +she in the interest of her theme had quite forgotten him, Dennis made +all his arrangements, and at the critical point narrated in the +preceding chapter he turned on the gas with the most startling effect. +It seemed a living, vivid refutation of Christine's words, and even +she turned pale. After a moment, for the emblem to make its full +impression, Dennis stepped out before them all, his face lighted up +by the luminous cross. They admitted that no crusader could look more +earnest and brave than he. + +"Miss Ludolph," he said, in a firm, yet respectful tone, "I should +evermore be unworthy of your respect and confidence--what is more, I +should be false to myself, false to my faith--should I remain silent +in view of what I have been compelled to hear. That sacred emblem has +not spent its meaning, or its power. Millions to-day would die for +the sake of Him who suffered on it. Many even of those weak, +inconsistent ones that you have so justly condemned would part with +life rather than with the faint hope that centres there," pointing to +the radiant symbol. + +"You are rude, sir," said Christine, her face pale, but her eyes +flashing in turn. + +"No, he is right! he is right!" exclaimed Miss Winthrop, springing up +with tears in her eyes. "Undeserving as I am of the name of Christian, +I would die, I know I would die, before I would give up my poor little +hope--though I confess you make me fear that it is a false one. But +it's the best I have, and I mean it shall be better. I think a good +touch of persecution, that would bring people out, would do the church +more good than anything else. + +"Pardon me, Miss Ludolph," continued Dennis; "but I appeal to your +sense of justice. Could I be a true man and be silent, believing what +I do? Could I hear the name of my Best Friend thus spoken of, and say +not one word in His behalf?" + +"But I spoke most highly of the Christ of the Bible." + +"You spoke of Him as a great, good, but mistaken _man_, an enthusiast. +To me He is the mighty God, my Divine Saviour, to whom I owe infinitely +more than life. You know that I mean no disrespect to you," he added, +with gentle but manly courtesy. "I regret more deeply than words can +express that you honestly think as you do. But if I as honestly believe +the Bible, am I not acting as you said a true follower ought? For I +assure you it is a heavier cross than you can ever know to speak thus +unbidden where I am regarded only as a serving-man. But should I not be +false and cowardly if I held my peace? And if you afterward should know +that I claimed the name of Christian, would you not despise me as you +remembered this scene?" + +Christine bit her lip and hesitated, but her sense of justice prevailed, +and she said, "I not only pardon you, but commend your course in view +of your evident sincerity." + +Dennis replied by a low bow. + +At this moment there was a loud ring at the door. + +"There come the gentlemen," exclaimed Miss Brown. "I am so glad! Oh, +dear! what a long, uncomfortable preachment we have had! Now for some +fun!" + +The colorless young ladies had stared first at Christine, and then at +the cross, in blank amazement. + +At the word "gentlemen" they were all on the alert and ready for _real_ +life; but Miss Winthrop left the room for a short time. + +A handsome, lively youth entered, scattering bows and compliments on +every side with the off-hand ease of an accomplished society man. He +paid no heed to Dennis, evidently regarding him as the showman. + +"Well, ladies, you have done your part," he said; "your arrangements +seem complete." + +"Yes, Mr. Mellen; but where is our tenor?" asked Christine. "We have +only three-quarters of an hour for music rehearsal, before we must +retire to dress for our parts." + +"Bad news for you, Miss Ludolph," said Mr. Mellen, coming to her side; +"Archer is sick and can't come." + +"Can't come?" they all exclaimed in dismayed chorus. + +"What is the matter?" asked Miss Winthrop, anxiously, coming in at +that moment. + +"Matter enough," said Miss Brown, poutingly; "that horrid Archer has +gone and got sick, I do believe he did it on purpose. He did not know +his parts near as well as he ought, and he has taken this way to get +out of it." + +"But he promised me he would study them all the morning," said +Christine. "Oh, I am so sorry! What shall we do? Our entertainment +seems fated to be a failure;" and she spoke in a tone of deep +disappointment. + +"I assure you I feel the deepest sympathy for you," said Mr. Mellen, +looking tenderly at Christine, "but I did my best. I tried to drag +Archer here out of his sick-bed, and then I ran around among some other +good singers that I know, but none would venture. They said the music +was difficult, and would require much practice, and that now is +impossible." + +"Oh, isn't it too bad?" mourned Miss Winthrop. "The programme is all +printed, and the people will be so disappointed! We can't have that +splendid duet that you and Mr. Archer were to sing, Christine. I have +a score of friends who were coming to hear that alone." + +"Oh, as for that matter, half our music is spoiled," said Christine, +dejectedly. "Well, this is the last time I attempt anything of the +kind. How in the world we are going to get out of this scrape I do not +know. The tickets are so high, and so much has been said, that the +people are expecting a great deal, and there is every prospect of a +most lame and impotent conclusion." + +A general gloom settled upon the faces of all. At this moment Dennis +stepped forward hesitatingly and said to Christine, "Have you the music +that Mr. Archer was to sing?" + +"Certainly! do you suppose it was of the kind that he could +extemporize?" said Miss Brown, pertly. + +"Will you let me see it? If you are willing, perhaps I can assist you +in this matter." + +All turned toward him with a look of great surprise. + +"What do you think of that from the man who sweeps Mr. Ludolph's store?" +asked Miss Brown, in a loud whisper. + +"I think the fellow is as presuming as he is ignorant," said Mr. Mellen, +so plainly that all heard him. + +"It is not presuming, sir, to offer a kindness where it is needed," +said Dennis, with dignity, "and my ignorance is not yet proved. The +presumption is all on your part." + +Mr. Mellen flushed and was about to answer angrily when Miss Winthrop +said hastily, but in a kindly tone, "But really, Mr. Fleet, much of +our music is new and very difficult." + +"But it is written, is it not?" asked Dennis, with a smile. + +Christine looked at him in silent wonder. What would he not do next? +But she was sorry that he had spoken, for she foresaw only mortification +for him. + +"Oh, give him the music by all means," said Miss Brown, expecting to +enjoy his blundering attempts to sing what was far beyond him. "There, +I will play the accompaniment. It's not the tune of Old Hundred that +you are to sing now, young man, remember." + +Dennis glanced over the music, and she began to play a loud, difficult +piece. + +He turned to Miss Ludolph, and said: "I fear you have given me the +wrong music. Miss Brown is playing something not written here." + +They exchanged significant glances, and Miss Winthrop said, "Play the +right music, Miss Brown." + +She struck into the music that Dennis held, but played it so out of +time that no one could sing it. Dennis laid down his sheets on the +piano and said quietly, though with flushed face: "I did not mean to +be obtrusive. You all seemed greatly disappointed at Mr. Archer's +absence and the results, and I thought that in view of the emergency +it would not be presumption to offer my services. But it seems that +I am mistaken." + +"No, it is not presumption," said Miss Winthrop. "It was true kindness +and courtesy, which has been ill requited. But you see, to be frank, +Mr. Fleet, we all fear that you do not realize what you are +undertaking." + +"Must I of necessity be an ignoramus because, as Miss Brown says, I +sweep a store?" + +"Let me play the accompaniment," said Christine, with the decided +manner that few resisted, and she went correctly through the difficult +and brilliant passage. Dennis followed his part with both eye and ear, +and then said, "Perhaps I had better sing my part alone first, and +then you can correct any mistakes." + +There was a flutter of expectation, a wink from Mr. Mellen, and an +audible titter from Miss Brown. + +"Certainly" said Miss Ludolph, who thought to herself, "If he will +make a fool of himself, he may"; and she played the brief prelude. + +Then prompt at the proper moment, true to time and note, Dennis's rich, +powerful tenor voice startled and then entranced them all. He sung the +entire passage through with only such mistakes as resulted from his +nervousness and embarrassment. + +At the close, all exclaimed in admiration save Miss Brown, who bit her +lip in ill-concealed vexation, and said, with a half-sneer, "Really, +Mr. What-is-your-name, you are almost equal to Blind Tom." + +"You do Blind Tom great injustice," said Dennis. "I read my music." + +"But how did you learn to read music in that style?" asked Christine. + +"Of course it took me years to do so. But no one could join our musical +club at college who could not read anything placed before him." + +"It must have been small and select, then." + +"It was." + +"How often had you sung that piece before?" asked Miss Brown. + +"I never saw it before," answered Dennis. + +"Why, it is just out," said Christine. + +"Well, ladies and gentlemen, our troubles are over at last," said Miss +Winthrop. "Mr. Fleet seems a good genius--equal to any emergency. If +he can sing that difficult passage, he can sing anything else we have. +We had better run over our parts, and then to our toilets." + +One of the colorless young ladies played the accompaniments, her music +making a sort of neutral tint, against which their rich and varied +voices came out with better effect. They sung rapidly through the +programme, Dennis sustaining his parts correctly and with taste. He +could read like the page of an open book any music placed before him, +and years of practice enabled him to sing true and with confidence. +As he sung one thing after another with perfect ease, their wonder +grew; and when, in the final duet with Christine, they both came out +strongly, their splendid, thoroughly-trained voices blending in perfect +harmony, they were rewarded with a spontaneous burst of applause, in +which even Miss Brown was compelled to join. + +Christine said nothing, but gave Dennis a quick, grateful glance, which +amply repaid him for the martyrdom she had led him into that afternoon. + +He acknowledged the plaudits of the others with a slight, cool bow, +but her thanks with a warm flush of pleasure, and then turned to +complete his arrangements as if nothing had happened. There was not +the slightest show of exultation or of a purpose to demand equality, +in view of what had taken place. His old manner returned, and he acted +as if they were all strangers to him. They exchanged significant, +wondering glances, and after a brief consultation retired to the +dining-room, where coffee and sandwiches were waiting. Miss Winthrop +and Christine sincerely hoped that Miss Brown would invite Dennis out, +but she did not, and since it was her house, as she had said, they +could not interfere. Dennis heard the clatter of knives and forks, and +saw that he was again slighted; but he did not care now. Indeed, in +the light of the sacred emblem before which he had stood, he had learned +patience. He remembered how the rich and great of the world had treated +his Master. Then, too, Christine's kind, grateful glance seemed to +fall upon him like a warm ray of sunlight. + +When they had finished and were about to dress for their parts, Miss +Brown put her head within the door and said, "You will find some lunch +in the dining-room." + +Dennis paid no heed to her, but he heard Miss Winthrop say: "Really, +Miss Brown, that is too bad after what he has done and shown himself +to be. I wonder that he does not leave the house." + +"He will not do that until he is no longer needed," said Christine. + +"Then he may as soon as he chooses," said Miss Brown. She was a girl +of violent prejudices, and from her very nature would instinctively +dislike such a person as Dennis Fleet. + +"Well," said Miss Winthrop, "he is a gentleman, and he gave the +strongest proof of it when he quietly and modestly withdrew after +achieving a success that would have turned any one's head, and that +ought to have secured him full recognition." + +"I told you he was a gentleman," said Christine, briefly, "and I +consider myself a judge;" and then their voices passed out of hearing. + +Dennis, having arranged everything so that he could place his hands +readily upon it, found that he had half an hour to spare. He said to +himself: "Miss Ludolph is wrong. I shall leave the house for a short +time. I am a most unromantic individual; for, no matter what or how +I feel, I do get hungry. But I am sure Miss Brown's coffee and +sandwiches would choke me. I have already swallowed too much from her +to care for any more, so here's for a restaurant." + +Miss Winthrop hastened through her toilet in order that she might come +down and speak to Dennis while he was alone. She wished to thank him +for his course and his vindication of the truth, and to assure him +that she both respected him and would treat him as a true gentleman. +She went into the back parlor, but he was not there; then she passed +to the dining-room, but found only servants clearing away and preparing +for the grand supper of the evening. + +In quick alarm she asked, "Where is Mr. Fleet?" + +"Is it the man in the back parlor, mum? He's just after goin' out." + +"Oh, girls!" exclaimed Miss Winthrop, rushing upstairs, "Mr. Fleet has +gone." + +And there was general consternation. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE REVELATION + + +The toilets of the young ladies were nearly completed, but, without +waiting to add another touch, all hastened to the place where they had +left Dennis. One of the colorless young ladies appeared upon the scene +with a shawl around her bare shoulders, and a great deal of color on +one cheek, and none on the other as yet; but this slight discrepancy +was unnoted in the dire calamity they feared. + +Many were the exclamations and lamentations. + +"Why, the people will be here in fifteen minutes," said Miss Winthrop, +in a nervous tremor. + +"Did he leave no word?" asked Miss Brown of the servants. + +"No word, mum," was the dismal echo. + +"What shall we do?" they said, looking at one another with blank faces; +but none could answer. + +"I do hate such proud, freakish people. There is no managing or +depending on them," said Miss Brown, spitefully. + +Miss Winthrop bit her lips to keep from saying to her hostess what +would be more true than polite. There was a flash of anger in +Christine's dark blue eyes, and she said, coldly: "I imagine that you +have finished the business this time, Miss Brown. But I confess that +I am greatly surprised, for he said I could depend upon him for +to-night." + +"So you can," said Dennis, coming in behind them. "I am sorry you have +had this needless alarm. But the fact is, I am a plain, ordinary mortal, +and live in a very material way." + +"There was plenty of lunch in the dining-room," said Miss Brown, tartly. +"You need not have gone out and made all this trouble." + +"Pardon me for slighting your hospitality," said Dennis, with slight +emphasis on the word. + +Again significant glances were exchanged. Miss Brown darted a black +look at Dennis, and left the room. + +"I can assure you, ladies," added he, "that all is ready. I can lay +my hand in a moment on whatever is needed. Therefore you need give +yourselves no further anxiety." + +There was a general stampede for the dressing-rooms, but Miss Winthrop +lingered. When Dennis was alone she went up to him and frankly gave +her hand, saying: "Mr. Fleet, I wish to thank you for your course +to-day. Between Miss Ludolph's unwitting sermon and your brave and +unexpected vindication of our faith, I hope to become more deserving +of the name of Christian. You are a gentleman, sir, in the truest and +best sense of the word, and as such it will ever be a pleasure to +welcome you at my father's house;" and she gave him her card. + +A flush of grateful surprise and pleasure mantled Dennis's face, but +before he could speak she was gone. + +The audience were soon thronging in. By half-past eight the performers +were all in the back parlor, and there was a brilliant army of actors +and actresses in varied and fanciful costume, many coming to the house +dressed for their parts. There were gods and goddesses, shepherds and +shepherdesses, angels, crusaders, who would take leave of languishing +ladies, living statuary, and tableaux of all sorts. Dennis was much +shocked at the manner in which ladies exposed themselves in the name +of art and for the sake of effect. Christine seemed perfectly Greek +and pagan in this respect, yet there was that in her manner that forbade +a wanton glance. But, as he observed the carriage of the men around +him, he was more than satisfied that no plea of art could justify the +"style," and felt assured that every pure-minded woman would take the +same view if she realized the truth. Under the name of fashion and art +much is done in society that would be simply monstrous on ordinary +occasions. + +The music, as far as possible, was in character with the scenes. The +entertainment went forward with great applause. Every one was radiant; +and the subtile, exhilarating spirit of assured success glowed in every +eye, and gave a richer tone and coloring to everything. + +Christine appeared in several and varied characters, and Dennis had +eyes only for her. The others he glanced over critically as the artist +in charge, and then dismissed them from his thoughts; but on Christine +his eyes rested in a spell-bound admiration that both amused and pleased +her. She loved power of every kind, and when she read approval in the +trained and critical eye of Dennis Fleet she knew that all the audience +were applauding. + +But Dennis had little time for musing, so great was the strain upon +him to prevent confusion. His voice excited great surprise and applause, +many inquiring vainly who he was. When he and Christine sung together +the audience were perfectly carried away, and stormed and applauded +without stint. Indeed, it seemed that they could not be satisfied. The +call was so urgent that several asked Christine to sing again, and she +did so alone. For ten minutes she held the audience perfectly entranced, +and no one more so than Dennis. Usually she was too cold in all that +she did, but now in her excitement she far surpassed herself, and he +acknowledged that he had never heard such music before. + +The very soul of song seemed breathed into her, and every nook and +corner of the house appeared to vibrate with melody. Even the servants +in distant rooms said that it seemed that an angel was singing. After +she ceased, the audience sat spellbound for a moment, and then followed +prolonged thunders of applause, the portly brewer, Mr. Brown himself, +leading off again and again. + +"Now let the tenor sing alone," he said, for, though a coarse man, he +was hearty and good-natured. + +The audience emphatically echoed his wish, but Dennis as decidedly +shook his head. + +Then came a cry, "Miss Ludolph and the tenor again"; and the audience +took it up with a clamor that would not be denied. + +Christine looked inquiringly at Dennis, and he replied in a low tone, +"You command me this evening." + +Again she thanked him with her eyes, and from a music stand near +chose a magnificent duet from Mendelssohn, in which he must sing several +difficult solos. + +"Act your pleasure. I am familiar with it," he said, smiling at the +way she had circumvented him in his refusal to sing alone. + +Christine sat down and played her own accompaniment, while Dennis stood +at her side. He determined to do his best and prove that though he +swept a store he could also do something else. Many of the strains +were plaintive, and his deep and unconscious feeling for his fair +companion in song gave to his voice a depth, and at times a pathos, +that both thrilled and _touched_ the heart, and there were not a few wet +eyes in the audience. Unconsciously to himself and all around, he was +singing his love; and even Christine, though much preoccupied with her +part, wondered at the effect upon herself, and recognized the deep +impression made upon the audience. + +As the last notes died away the sliding-doors were closed. + +Dennis had achieved a greater success than Christine, because, singing +from the heart, he had touched the heart. His applause could be read +in moist eyes and expressive faces rather than in noisy hands. She saw +and understood the result. A sad, disappointed look came into her face, +and she said in a low, plaintive tone, as if it were wrung from her: +"There must be something wrong about me. I fear I shall never reach +true art. I can only win admiration, never touch the heart." + +Dennis was about to speak eagerly, when they were overwhelmed by the +rush and confusion attendant on the breaking up of the entertainment. +Part of the older guests at once left for their homes, and the rest +stayed for supper. The parlors were to be cleared as soon as possible +for dancing. Christine was joined by her father, who had sat in the +audience, scarcely believing his eyes, much less his ears. Was that +the young man who was blacking old Schwartz's boots the other day? + +His daughter was overwhelmed with compliments, but she took them very +coolly and quietly, for her heart was full of bitterness. That which +her ambitious spirit most desired she could not reach, and to the +degree that she loved art was her disappointment keen. She almost +envied poor Dennis, but she knew not the secret of his success; nor +did he, either, in truth. His old manner returned, and he busied himself +in rapidly packing up everything that he had brought. Mr. Ludolph, who +had received a brief explanation from Christine, came and said, kindly, +"Why, Fleet, you have blossomed out strongly to-day." + +"Indeed, sir, I think I have never had a more rigorous pruning," was +the reply. + +When the story had been told Mr. Ludolph in full, he understood the +remark. Christine was waiting for the crowd to disperse somewhat, in +order to speak to Dennis also, for her sense of justice and her genuine +admiration impelled her to warm and sincere acknowledgment. But at +that moment Mr. Mellen came in, exclaiming, "Miss Ludolph, they are +all waiting for you to lead the dance, for to you is given this honor +by acclamation, and I plead your promise to be my partner"; and he +carried her off, she meaning to return as soon as possible, and +supposing Dennis would remain. + +A moment after, light, airy music was heard in the front parlor, +followed by the rhythmical cadence of light feet and the rustle of +silks like a breeze through a forest. + +For some reason as she went away Dennis's heart sank within him. +Reaction followed the strong excitements of the day, and a strange +sense of weariness and despondency crept over him. The gay music in +the other room seemed plaintive and far away, and the tripping feet +sounded like the patter of rain on autumn leaves. The very lights +appeared to burn dimmer, and the color to fade out of his life. +Mechanically he packed up the few remaining articles, to be called for +in the morning, and then leaned heavily against a pillar, intending +to rest a moment before going out into the night alone. + +Some one pushed back the sliding-door a little and passed into the +room. Through the opening he caught a glimpse of the gay scene +within. Suddenly Christine appeared floating lightly through the waltz +in her gauzy drapery, as if in a white, misty cloud. Through the narrow +opening she seemed a radiant, living portrait. But her partner whirled her +out of the line of vision. Thus in the mazes of the dance she kept +appearing and disappearing, flashing in sight one moment, leaving a blank +in the crowded room the next. + +"So it will ever be, I suppose," he said to himself, bitterly; "chance +and stolen glimpses my only privilege." + +Again she appeared, smiling archly on the man whose arm clasped her +waist. + +A frown black as night gathered on Dennis's brow; then a sudden pallor +overspread his face to his very lips. The revelation had come! Then +for the first time he knew--knew it as if written in letters of fire +before him--that he loved Christine Ludolph. + +At first the knowledge stunned and bewildered him, and his mind was +a confused blur; then as she appeared again, smiling upon and in the +embrace of another man, a sharp sword seemed to pierce his heart. + +Dennis was no faint shadow of a man who had frittered away in numberless +flirtations what little heart he originally had. He belonged to the +male species, with something of the pristine vigor of the first man, +who said of the one woman of all the world, "This is now bone of my +bones, and flesh of my flesh"; and one whom he had first seen but a +few short months since now seemed to belong to him by the highest and +divinest right. But could he ever claim his own? + +In his morbid, wearied state, there seemed a "great gulf fixed" between +them. For a moment he fairly felt faint and sick, as if he had received +a wound. He was startled by hearing Miss Winthrop say at his side: +"Mr. Fleet, you will not leave yet. I have many friends wishing an +introduction to you. What is the matter? You look as if you were ill." + +At her voice he flushed painfully. He was so vividly conscious of his +love himself that he felt that every one else must be able to see it, +and darkness and solitude now seemed a refuge. Recovering himself by +a great effort he said, "Pardon me, I do--I am not well--nothing is +the matter--a little rest and I shall be myself again." + +"No wonder. You have been taxed every way beyond mortal endurance, and +I think that it is a shame the way you have been treated. Pray do not +judge Chicago society altogether by what you have seen here. Let me +get you some refreshment, and then I will acquaint you with some people +who can recognize a gentleman when they meet him." + +"No, Miss Winthrop," said Dennis, courteously but firmly; "you are not +in your own home, and by staying I should not be accepting your +hospitality. I appreciate your kindness deeply, and thank your friends +who have expressed a willingness to make my acquaintance. It would not +be right to stay longer in this house than is necessary. I do not feel +resentful. I have no room in my memory for Miss Brown and her actions, +but at the same time self-respect requires that I go at once;" and he +took his hat. + +"I am not surprised that you feel as you do. But give me the pleasure +of welcoming you at my own home as soon as possible," she said, and +gave her hand to him in parting. + +Dennis took it respectfully and bowed low, saying, "I shall not +willingly deny myself so great a pleasure." and was gone. + +Christine came in a few moments later, and found only servants clearing +the room for dancing. + +"Where is Mr. Fleet?" she asked. + +"Gone, mum." + +"Yes," said Miss Winthrop, coming in at the same time; "he has gone +now in very truth; and I don't think the power exists that could lead +him to darken these doors again. I doubt if I ever come myself. I never +saw a clearer instance of--of--well--_shoddy_." + +"It seems to me that you Christians are as proud as any of us." + +"Isn't there a difference between pride and self-respect? I am satisfied +that if Miss Brown were in trouble, or poor, Mr. Fleet would be the +first to help her. Oh, Christine, we have treated him shamefully!" + +"You seem to take a wonderful interest in this unknown knight in rusty +armor." (Dennis's dress was decidedly threadbare.) + +"I do," said the impulsive girl, frankly, "because he is wonderfully +interesting. What man of all the large audience present to-night could +have acted the part he did? I am satisfied that that man is by birth +and education a gentleman. Are you ready, with your aristocratic +notions, to recognize chiefly Miss Brown's title to position? What +could her coat-of-arms be but the dollar symbol and the beer-barrel?" + +"Come, remember she is our hostess." + +"You are right; I should not speak so here; but my indignation gets +the better of me." + +"Would you invite him to your house?" + +"Certainly. I have asked him; and what is more, he has promised to +come. Supposing that he is poor, are not many of your noblemen as poor +as poverty? My parlors shall be haunted only by men of ability and +character." + +"You are not going to shut out this little heathen," said Christine, +putting her arm about her friend. + +"Never!" said Miss Winthrop, returning the embrace with double warmth. +Then she added, sadly: "You are not an unbeliever from conviction and +knowledge, Christine, but from training and association. While I admire +and honor your father as a splendid and gifted man, I regret his and +your scepticism more deeply than you can ever know." + +"Well, Susie," said Christine, with a smile, "if they shut out such +as you from your Paradise, I do not wish to go there." + +"If, with my clear knowledge of the conditions of entrance, I _shut +myself out_, I shall have no right to complain," said Miss Winthrop, +sadly. + +But the absence of two such belles could not long remain unnoted; and, +having been discovered, they were pounced upon by half a dozen young +gentlemen, clamorous for the honor of their hands in the "German." + +In spite of herself, Christine was vexed and annoyed. Dennis had seemed, +in his obscurity, a nice little bit of personal property, that she +could use and order about as she pleased. He had been so subservient +and eager to do her will, that she had never thought of him otherwise +than as her "humble servant." But now her own hand had suddenly given +him the role of a fine gentleman. Christine was too logical to think +of continuing to order about a man who could sing Mendelssohn's music +as Dennis had done. + +She congratulated herself that the arrangement of the store was nearly +completed, and that only one show-room was unfinished. + +"I suppose he will be very dignified when we meet again," she thought +to herself. "I should not be at all surprised if my impulsive little +friend Susie loses her heart to him. Well, I suppose she can to any +one she chooses. As for me, rich or poor, stupid or gifted, the men +of this land are all alike;" and with a half-sigh she plunged resolutely +into the gayeties of the evening, as if to escape from herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +NIGHT THOUGHTS + + +Dennis passed out of the heavy, massive entrance to the wealthy brewer's +mansion with a sense of relief as if escaping from prison. The duskiness +and solitude of the street seemed a grateful refuge, and the night +wind was to his flushed face like a cool hand laid on a feverish brow. +He was indeed glad to be alone, for his was one of those deep, earnest +natures that cannot rush to the world in garrulous confidence when +disturbed and perplexed. There are many sincere but shallow people who +must tell of and talk away every passing emotion. Not of the abundance +of their hearts, for abundance there is not, but of the uppermost thing +in their hearts their mouths must speak, even though the subjects be +of the delicate nature that would naturally be hidden. Such mental +constitutions are at least healthful. Concealed trouble never preys +upon them like the canker in the bud. Everything comes to the surface +and is thrown off. + +But at first Dennis scarcely dared to recognize the truth himself, and +the thought of telling even his mother was repugnant. For half an hour +he walked the streets in a sort of stupor. He was conscious only of +a heavy, aching heart and a wearied, confused brain. All the time, +however, he knew an event had occurred that must for good or evil +affect his entire existence; but he shrank with nervous dread from +grappling with the problem. As the cold air refreshed and revived him, +his strong, practical mind took up the question almost without volition, +and by reason of his morbid, wearied state, only the dark and +discouraging side was presented. The awakening to his love was a very +different thing to Dennis, and to the majority in this troubled world, +from the blissful consciousness of Adam when for the first time he saw +the fair being whom he might woo at his leisure, amid embowering roses, +without fear or thought of a rival. + +To Dennis the fact of his love, so far from promising to be the source +of delightful romance and enchantment, clearly showed itself to be the +hardest and most practical question of a life full of such questions. +In his strong and growing excitement he spoke to himself as to a second +person: "Oh, I see it all now. Poor, blind fool that I was, to think +that by coveting and securing every possible moment in her presence +I was only learning to love art! As I saw her to-night, so radiant and +beautiful, and yet in the embrace of another man, and that man evidently +an ardent admirer, what was art to me? As well might a starving man +seek to satisfy himself by wandering through an old Greek temple as +for me to turn to art alone. One crumb of warm, manifested love from +her would be worth more than all the cold, abstract beauty in the +universe. And yet what chance have I? What can I hope for more than +a passing thought and a little kindly, condescending interest? Clerk +and man-of-all-work in a store, poor and heavily burdened, the idea +of my loving one of the most wealthy, admired, and aristocratic ladies +in Chicago! It is all very well in story-books for peasants to fall +in love with princesses, but in practical Chicago the fact of my +attachment to Miss Ludolph would be regarded as one of the richest +jokes of the season, and by Mr. Ludolph as such a proof of rusticity +and folly as would at once secure my return to pastoral life." + +Then hope whispered, "But you can achieve position and wealth as others +have done, and then can speak your mind from the standpoint of +equality." + +But Dennis was in a mood to see only the hopeless side that night, and +exclaimed almost aloud: "Nonsense! Can it be even imagined that she, +besieged by the most gifted and rich of the city, will wait for a poor +unknown admirer? Mr. Mellen, I understand, approaches her from every +vantage-ground save that of a noble character; but in the fashionable +world how little thought is given to this draw back!" and in his +perturbation he strode rapidly and aimlessly on, finding some relief +in mere physical activity. + +Suddenly his hasty steps ceased, and even in the dusk of the street +his face gleamed out distinctly, so great was its pallor. Like a ray +of light, a passage from the Word of God revealed to him his situation +in a new aspect. It seemed to him almost that some one had whispered +the words in his ear, so distinctly did they present themselves--"Be +ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." + +Slowly and painfully he said to himself, as if recognizing the most +hopeless barrier that had yet been dwelt upon, "Christine Ludolph is +an infidel." + +Not only the voice of reason, and of the practical world, but also the +voice of God seemed to forbid his love; and the conviction that he +must give it all up became a clear as it was painful. The poor fellow +leaned his head against the shaggy bark of an elm in a shadowy square +which the street-lamps could but faintly penetrate. The night wind +swayed the budding branches of the great tree, and they sighed over +him as if in sympathy. + +The struggle within his soul was indeed bitter, for, though thus far +he had spoken hopelessly, he had not been altogether hopeless; but now +that conscience raised its impassable wall high as heaven, which he +must not break through, his pain was so great as to almost unman him, +and such tears as only men can weep fell from his eyes. In anguish he +exclaimed, "That which might have been the chief blessing of life has +become my greatest misfortune." + +Above him the gale caused two fraying limbs to appear to moan in echo +of the suffering beneath. + +"This then must be the end of my prayers in her behalf--my ardent +hope and purpose to lead her to the truth--she to walk through honored, +sunny paths to everlasting shame and night, and I through dark and +painful ways to light and peace, if in this bitter test I remain +faithful. Surely there _is_ much to try one's faith. And yet it must be +so as far as human foresight can judge." + +Then a great pity for her swelled his heart, for he felt that her case +was the saddest after all, and his tears flowed faster than ever. + +Human voices now startled him--some late revellers passing homeward. +The tears and emotion, of which we never think of being ashamed when +alone with Nature and its Author, he dreaded to have seen by his +fellows, and hastily wiping his eyes, he slunk into the deeper shadow +of the tree, and they passed on. Then, an old trait asserting itself, +he condemned his own weakness. Stepping from the sheltering trunk +against which he was leaning, he stood strong and erect. + +The winds were hushed as if expectant in the branches above. + +"Dennis Fleet," he said, "you must put your foot on this folly here +and now." + +He bared his head and looked upward. + +"O God," he said, solemnly, "if this is contrary to Thy will--Thy will +be done." + +He paused a moment reverently, and then turned on his heel and strode +resolutely homeward. + +A gust of wind crashed the branches overhead together like the clash +of cymbals in victory. + +The early spring dawn was tingeing the eastern horizon before the gay +revel ceased and the mansion of the rich brewer was darkened. All the +long night, light, airy music had caused late passers-by to pause a +moment to listen, and to pity or envy the throng within, as disposition +dictated. Mr. Brown was a man who prided himself on lavish and rather +coarse hospitality. A table groaning under costly dishes and every +variety of liquor was the crowning feature, the blissful climax of all +his entertainments; and society from its highest circles furnished an +abundance of anxious candidates for his suppers, who ate and criticised, +drank to and disparaged, their plebeian host. + +Mrs. Brown was heavy in every sense of the word, and with her huge +person draped with acres of silk, and festooned with miles of +point-lace, she waddled about and smiled and nodded good-naturedly at +everybody and everything. + +It was just the place for a fashionable revel, where the gross, repulsive +features of coarse excess are veiled and masked somewhat by +the glamour of outward courtesy and good-breeding. + +At first Christine entered into the dance with great zest and a decided +sense of relief. She was disappointed and out of sorts with herself. +Again she had failed in the object of her intense ambition, and though +conscious that, through the excitement of the occasion, she had sung +better than ever before, yet she plainly saw in the different results +of her singing and that of Dennis Fleet that there was a depth in the +human heart which she could not reach. She could secure only admiration, +superficial applause. The sphere of the true artist who can touch and +sway the popular heart seemed beyond her ability. By voice or pencil +she had never yet attained it. She had too much mind to mistake the +character of the admiration she excited, and was far too ambitious to +be satisfied with the mere praise bestowed on a highly accomplished +girl. She aspired, determined, to be among the first, and to be a +second-rate imitator in the world of art was to her the agony of a +disappointed life. And yet to imitate with accuracy and skill, not +with sympathy, was the only power she had as yet developed. She saw +the limitations of her success more clearly than did any one else, and +chafed bitterly at the invisible bounds she could not pass. + +The excitement of the dance enabled her to banish thoughts that were +both painful and humiliating. Moreover, to a nature so active and full +of physical vigor, the swift, grace motion was a source of keen +enjoyment. + +But when after supper many of the ladies were silly, and the gentlemen +were either stupid or excited, according to the action of the "invisible +spirit of wine" upon their several constitutions--when after many +glasses of champagne Mr. Mellen began to effervesce in frothy +sentimentality and a style of love-making simply nauseating to one of +Christine's nature--she looked around for her father in order to escape +from the scenes that were becoming revolting. + +Though of earth only in all the sources of her life and hopes, she was +not earthy. If her spirit could not soar and sing in the sky, it also +could not grovel in the mire of gross materiality. Some little time, +therefore, before the company broke up, on the plea of not feeling +well she lured her father away from his wine and cigars and a knot of +gentlemen who were beginning to talk a little incoherently. Making +their adieux amid many protestations against their early departure, +they drove homeward. + +"How did you enjoy yourself?" asked her father. + +"Very much in the early part of the evening, not at all in the latter +part. To sum up, I am disgusted with Mr. Mellen and these Browns in +general, and myself in particular." + +"What is the matter with Mr. Mellen? I understand that the intriguing +mammas consider him the largest game in the city." + +"When hunting degenerates into the chase and capture of insects, you +may style him game. Between his champagne and silly love-making, he +was as bad as a dose of ipecac." + +Christine spoke freely to her father of her admirers, usually making +them the themes of satire and jest. + +"And what is the trouble with our entertainers?" + +"I am sorry to speak so of any one whose hospitality I have accepted, +but unless it is your wish I hope never to accept it again. They all +smell of their beer. Everything is so coarse, lavish, and ostentatious. +They tell you as through a brazen trumpet on every side, 'We are rich.'" +"They give magnificent suppers," said Mr. Ludolph, in apology. + +"More correctly, the French cook they employ gives them. I do not +object to the nicest of suppers, but prefer that the Browns be not on +the _carte de menu_. From the moment our artistic programme ended, +and the entertainment fell into their hands, it began to degenerate +into an orgy. Nothing but the instinctive restraints of good-breeding +prevents such occasions from ending in a drunken revel." + +"You are severe. Mr. Brown's social effort is not a bad type of the +entertainments that prevail in fashionable life." + +"Well, it may be true, but they never seemed to me so lacking in good +taste and refinement before. Wait till we dispense choice viands and +wines to choicer spirits in our own land, and I will guarantee a +marvellously wide difference. Then the eye, the ear, the mind, shall +be feasted, as well as the lower sense." + +"Well, I do not see why you should be disgusted with yourself. I am +sure that you covered yourself with glory, and were the belle of the +occasion." + +"That is no great honor, considering the occasion. Father, strange as +it may seem to you, I envied your man-of-all-work to-night. Did you +not mark the effect of his singing?" + +"Yes, and felt it in a way that I cannot explain to myself. His tones +seemed to thrill, and stir my very heart. I have not been so affected +by music for years. At first I thought it was surprise at hearing him +sing at all, but I soon found that it was something in the music +itself." + +"And that something I fear I can never grasp--never attain." + +"Why, my dear, they applauded you to the echo." + +"I would rather see one moist eye as the tribute to my singing than +to be deafened by noisy applause. I fear I shall never reach high art. +Men's hearts sleep when I do my best." + +"I think you are slightly mistaken there, judging from your train of +admirers," said Mr. Ludolph, turning off a disagreeable subject with +a jest. The shrewd man of the world guessed the secret of her failure. +She herself must feel, before she could touch feeling. But he had +systematically sought to chill and benumb her nature, meaning it to +awake at just the time, and under just the circumstances, that should +accord with his controlling ambition. Then reverting to Dennis, he +continued: "It won't answer for Fleet to sweep the store any longer +after the part he played to-night. Indeed, I doubt if he would be +willing to. Not only he, but the world will know that he is capable +of better things. What has occurred will awaken inquiry, and may soon +secure him good business offers. I do not intend to part readily with +so capable a young fellow. He does well whatever is required, and +therefore I shall promote him as fast as is prudent. I think I can +make him of great use to me." + +"That is another thing that provokes me," said Christine. "Only +yesterday morning he seemed such a useful, humble creature, and last +evening through my own folly he developed into a fine gentleman; and +I shall have to say, 'By your leave, sir'; 'Will you please do +this'?--If I dare ask anything at all." + +"I am not so sure of that," said her father. "My impression is that +Fleet has too much good sense to put on airs in the store. But I will +give him more congenial work; and as one of the young gentleman clerks, +we can ask him up now and then to sing with us. I should much enjoy +trying some of our German music with him." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DARKNESS + + +The next morning Christine did not appear at the late breakfast at +which her father with contracted brow and capricious appetite sat +alone. Among the other unexpected results of the preceding day she had +taken a very severe cold, and this, with the reaction from fatigue and +excitement, caused her to feel so seriously ill that she found it +impossible to rise. Her father looked at her, and was alarmed; for her +cheeks were flushed with fever, her head was aching sadly, and she +appeared as if threatened with one of those dangerous diseases whose +earlier symptoms are so obscure and yet so much alike. She tried to +smile, but her lip quivered, and she turned her face to the wall. + +The philosophy of Mr. Ludolph and his daughter was evidently adapted +to fair weather and smooth sailing. Sickness, disease, and the possible +results, were things that both dreaded more than they ever confessed +to each other. It was most natural that they should, for only in health +or life could they enjoy or hope for anything. By their own belief +their horizon was narrowed down to time and earth, and they could look +for nothing beyond. In Mr. Ludolph's imperious, resolute nature, +sickness always awakened anger as well as anxiety. It seemed like an +enemy threatening his dearest hopes and most cherished ambition, +therefore the heavy frown upon his brow as he pushed away the scarcely +tasted breakfast. + +To Christine the thought of death was simply horrible, and with the +whole strength of her will she ever sought to banish it. To her it +meant corruption, dust, nothingness. With a few drawbacks she had +enjoyed life abundantly, and she clung to it with the tenacity of one +who believed it was all. With the exception of some slight passing +indisposition, both she and her father had been seldom ill; and for +a number of years now they had voyaged on over smooth, sunny seas of +prosperity. + +Christine's sudden prostration on the morning following the +entertainment was a painful surprise to both. + +"I will have Dr. Arten call at once," he said, at parting, "and will +come up from the store early in the day to see you;" and Christine was +left alone with her French maid. + +Her mind was too clouded and disturbed by fever to think coherently, +and yet a vague sense of danger--trouble--oppressed her, and while she +lay in a half-unconscious state between sleeping and waking, a thousand +fantastic visions presented themselves. But in them all the fiery Cross +and Dennis Fleet took some part. At times the Cross seemed to blaze +and threaten to burn her to a cinder, while he stood by with stern, +accusing face. The light from the Cross made him luminous also, and +the glare was so terrible that she would start up with a cry of fear. +Again, they would both recede till in the far distance they shone like +a faint star, and then the black darkness that gathered round her was +more dreadful than the light, and with her eyes closed she would reach +out her hot hands for the light to return. Once or twice it shone upon +her with soft, mellow light, and Dennis stood pointing to it, pleading +so earnestly and tenderly that tears gathered in her eyes. Then all +was again blurred and distorted. + +Within an hour after her father left, she found Dr. Arten feeling her +pulse and examining her symptoms. With a great effort she roused +herself, and, looking at the doctor with an eager inquiring face, said; +"Doctor, tell me the truth. What is the matter?" + +He tried to smile and evade her question, but she would not let him. + +"Well, really, Miss Ludolph," he said, "we can hardly tell yet what +is the matter. You have evidently caught a very severe cold, and I +hope that is all. When I come this evening I may be able to speak more +definitely. In the meantime I will give you something to soothe and +reduce your fever!" + +The French maid followed the doctor out, leaving the door ajar in her +haste, and in an audible whisper said: "I say, docteur, is it not ze +smallpox? Zere is so much around. Tell me true, for I must leave zis +very minute." + +"Hush, you fool!" said the doctor, and they passed out of hearing. +A sickening dread made Christine's heart almost stand still. When the +woman returned her mistress watched her most narrowly and asked, "What +did the doctor say to you?" + +The maid replied in French that he had said she must be still and not +talk. + +"But you asked him if I had the smallpox. What did he say?" + +"Ah, mademoiselle, you make one grand meestake. I ask for a small box +to keep your medicine in, zat it make no smell." + +From the woman's lie, and from the fact that she was redolent with +camphor, and that she kept as far away as possible, near the windows, +Christine gathered a most painful confirmation of her fears. For a +time she lay almost paralyzed by dread. + +Then as the medicine relieved her of fever and unclouded her mind, +thought and conscience awoke with terrible and resistless power. As +never before she realized what cold, dark depths were just beneath her +gay, pleasure-loving life, and how suddenly skies radiant with the +richer promise of the future could become black and threatening. +Never had earthly life seemed so attractive, never had her own prospects +seemed so brilliant, and her hopes of fame, wealth, and happiness in +her future German villa more dazzling, than now when they stood out +against the dark background of her fears. + +"If, instead of going forward to all this delight, I become an object +of terror and loathing even before I die, and something that must be +hidden out of sight as soon as possible after, what conceivable fate +could be worse? That such a thing is possible proves this to be a +dreadful and defective world, with all its sources of pleasure. Surely +if there were a God he would banish such horrible evils. + +"There is no God--there can't be any--at least none such as the Bible +reveals. How often I have said this to myself! how often my father has +said it to me! and yet the thought of Him torments me often even when +well. + +"Why does this thought come so persistently now? I settled it long +ago, under father's proof, that I did not believe in Him or the +superstitions connected with His name. Why doesn't the question stay +settled? Other superstitions do not trouble me. Why should that Cross +continually haunt me? Why should the _man_ who died thereon have the +power to be continually speaking to me through His words that I have +read? I believe in Socrates as much as I do in Him, and yet I recall the +Greek sage's words with an effort, and cannot escape from the +Nazarene's. All is mystery and chaos and danger. We human creatures +are like frothy bubbles that glisten and dance for a moment on a swift +black tide that seems flowing forever, and yet nowhere." + +Then her thoughts recurred to Dennis. + +"That young Fleet seemed to believe implicitly in what he said +yesterday, and he lives up to what he believes. I would give the world +for his delusion, were it only for its comforting and sustaining power +for this life. If he were very ill, he would be imagining himself on +the threshold of some sort of heaven or paradise, and would be calm +and perhaps even happy, while I am so supremely wretched I find that +I have nothing--absolutely nothing to sustain me--not even the memory +of good deeds. I have not even lived the unselfish life that Socrates +recommends, much less the holy life of the Bible. I have pleased myself. +Well, believing as I have been taught, that seemed the most sensible +course. Why doesn't it seem so now?" + +Thus tossed on a sea of uncertainty and fear, Christine, in darkness +and weakness, grappled with those mighty questions which only He can +put to rest who said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in +God, believe also in Me." + +Dennis walked resolutely home. He felt himself adamant in his stern +resolution. He at least had the deathlike peace that follows decision. +The agony of conflict was over for a time, and, as he thought, forever. + +From mere exhaustion he slept heavily, and on the following day with +white face and compressed lips entered on his work. And work it now +became indeed; for the old glamour was all gone, and life looked as +practical and hard as the stones of the street. Even the pictures on +the walls seemed to him but things for sale, representing money values; +and money appeared the beginning, middle, and ending of the world's +creed. Like the unsubstantial mirage had vanished the beautiful, happy +life of the past few weeks. Around him were the rocks and sands of the +desert, through which he must toil with weary, bleeding feet till he +reached the land watered by the river of life. Reason and duty, as he +believed, forbade the existence of this foolish passion, and he must +and would destroy it; but in his anguish he felt as if he had resolved +to torture himself to death. + +"And she will never know what I suffer--never know the wealth of heart +I have lavished upon her. I am glad she will not, for the knowledge +of my love would make no more impression on her cold, proud nature +than a drop of warm summer rain falling on the brow of yonder marble +statue of Diana. She would only be amazed at my presumption. She feels +that she shines down on me like the sun, and that I am a poor little +satellite that she could blot out altogether by causing her father to +turn me into the street again, which undoubtedly would be done should +I reveal my feelings." + +And he was right. + +"Come!" said he to himself, breaking from his painful revery, "no +weakness! You have your way to make in the world, and your work to do. +God will help you, and no creature shall hinder you;" and he plunged +resolutely into his duties. + +Mr. Ludolph was late in reaching the store that morning, and Dennis +found himself secretly hoping, in spite of himself, that Christine +would accompany him. His will and heart were now in distinct opposition, +and the latter would not obey orders. + +When Mr. Ludolph appeared, it was with a frowning, clouded brow. Without +a word he passed into his private office, but seemed so restless and +troubled in his manner that Dennis felt something was wrong. Why should +he take such an interest in this man? Why should he care? The other +clerks did not: not one save himself had noticed anything different. +Poor Dennis was to learn that he had a disease of many and varied +symptoms. + +After something over an hour had passed, Mr. Ludolph started from his +desk, took his hat and cane as with the purpose of going out--a very +unusual thing at that time. But, as he was passing down the store, he +met Dr. Arten opposite Dennis's counter. + +"Well?" said Mr. Ludolph, impatiently. + +"I will call again this evening," said the doctor, prudently +non-committal. "Your daughter has caught a very severe cold. I hope +it is nothing more than a cold, but so many troublesome diseases +commence with these obscure symptoms that we have to wait till further +developments reveal the true nature of the case." + +"You doctors make no headway in banishing disease from the world," +snarled Mr. Ludolph. "There is smallpox around, is there not?" + +"Yes, I am sorry to say there is a great deal of it, but if you remember +the history of that one disease, I think you will admit your remark +to be unfair." + +"I beg your pardon, doctor, but I am anxious, and all out of sorts, +as I ever am in sickness" (when affecting himself--he might justly +have added). "It seems such a senseless, useless evil in the world. +The idea of you Christians believing a benevolent Being rules the +world, and that He permits smallpox. Can it be possible that my daughter +has contracted this loathsome horror?" "Well, it is possible, but I +hope not at all probable. We doctors are compelled to look at the +practical rather than the theological side of the question. It is +possible for any one to have this disease. Has your daughter been +vaccinated?" + +"No!" growled Mr. Ludolph. "I don't believe in vaccination. It is as +apt to vitiate the system as to protect it." + +"I am sorry for that," said the doctor, looking grave. + +Keen Mr. Ludolph saw and read his physician's expression accurately. +Seizing his hand he said, eagerly: "Pardon me, doctor; you can +understand a father's feelings. Watch this case night and day. Spare +no pains, and be assured I will regret no expense"; and he hastened +away to his daughter's bedside. + +No prisoner at the bar ever listened with more interest than Dennis. +If it had been his own case they were discussing it would not have +touched him half so nearly. + +But a moment before, Christine in her pride, wealth, and beauty seemed +destined to go through life as in a triumphant march. Now he saw her +to be a weak human creature, threatened as sorely as the poorest and +humblest. Her glorious beauty, even her life, might pass away in Le +Grand Hotel as surely as in a tenement house. The very thought thrilled +him with fear. Then a great pity rushed into his soul like a tide, +sweeping everything before it. His stern resolution to stifle and +trample upon his love melted like a snow-wreath, and every interest +of life centred in the darkened room where Christine tossed and moaned +in the deeper darkness of uncertainty and doubt. The longing to go to +her with comfort and help was so intense that it required the utmost +effort of reason and will to prevent such rash action. He trembled at +himself--at the strength of his feelings--and saw that though he might +control outward action his heart had gone from him beyond remedy, and +that his love, so long unrecognized, was now like the principal source +of the Jordan, that springs from the earth a full-grown river, and +that he could not help it. + +Mr. Ludolph found little comfort at his daughter's bedside. Sending +her maid away, who was glad to go, Christine told what she had +overheard. Smallpox seemed in the mind of every one, but this was not +strange since it was so prevalent in the city. + +"Oh, father, what shall I do--what shall I do, if this should be the +case? Janette will leave me, and there will be no one to take care of +me. I know I shall die, and I might as well as to be made hideous by +this horrible disease. No, I would rather live, on any terms; for to +die is to be nothing. Oh, father, are you sure the Bible is all false? +There is so much in it to comfort the sick. If I could only believe +in such a life hereafter as Susie Winthrop does, I would as soon die +as not." + +"No," said Mr. Ludolph, firmly, "your only chance is to get well. There +is no use in deceiving ourselves. I have secured the services of the +most skilful of physicians, and will see that you have every attention. +So try to be as calm as possible, and co-operate with every effort to +baffle and banish disease. After all it may be nothing more than a +severe cold." + +So then in very truth this world was all. In bitterness and dread she +realized how slight was her hold upon it. To her healthful body pain +was a rare experience, but now her head and every bone ached, and the +slightest movement caused increased suffering. But her mental trouble +was by far the greatest. Often she murmured to herself, "Oh, that I +had been trained to the grossest superstitions, so that I might not +look down into this black bottomless gulf that unbelief opens at my +feet!" and she tossed and moaned most piteously. + +Mr. Ludolph returned to the store in an exceedingly worried and anxious +state. As he entered he caught Dennis's eager, questioning gaze, and +a thought struck him: "Perhaps this young fellow, through his mission +school, may know of some good, trustworthy woman who would act as +nurse"; and coming to Dennis he explained the situation, and then asked +if he knew of any one, or could find a suitable person. + +Dennis listened eagerly, thought a moment, and then said, with a flushed +face and in a low tone: "I think my mother would be willing to come. +She has had the smallpox and would not be afraid." + +"But would she be willing?" + +"I think I could persuade her," said Dennis. + +Mr. Ludolph thought a moment, then said: "I think she would be the one +of all others, for she must be very much of a lady, and I would not +like to put my daughter in charge of a common, coarse woman. You may +rest assured that I would reward her liberally." + +"She would not come for money, sir." + +"What then?" + +Dennis flushed how more deeply than before. He had been speaking for +his mother from his own point of view, and now he hardly knew what to +say, for he was not good at evasion. But he told the truth, if not all +the truth. "We feel very grateful to you for the means of support, and +a chance in life when the world was very dark. You have since promoted +me--" + +"Nonsense!" said Mr. Ludolph, somewhat touched, though; "you have +earned every dollar you have received, and your coming has been of +advantage to me also. But if your mother will meet this need, should +it occur, neither of you will have cause to regret it"; and he passed +on to his office, but soon after went away again and did not return +that day. + +To Dennis the hours dragged on like years, full of suspense and mental +tumult. At times he would bow his head behind his counter, and pray +in tearful fervor for the object of his constant thought. The day was +rainy, and the store empty of customers, for which he was most thankful, +as he would have made the poorest of salesmen. At last the hour for +closing arrived, and he was left to himself. In the solitude of his +own room he once more looked the situation fairly in the face. With +his head bowed in his hands he reflected: "Last night I _thought_ +to tear this love from my heart, but to-night I find that this would +be to tear out my heart itself. I cannot do it. It is my strongest +conviction that I can no more stop loving her than I can stop living. +Unconsciously this love has grown until now it is my master, and it +is folly to make any more resolves, only to be as weak as water when +I least expect it. What shall I do?" + +Motionless, unconscious of the lapse of time, he remained hour after +hour absorbed in painful thought. Circumstances, reason, the Bible, +all seemed to frown upon his love; but, though it appeared to be +hopeless, his whole nature revolted against the idea of its being +wrong. + +"It cannot be wrong to love, purely and unselfishly," he muttered. +"Such love as mine seems to carry its own conviction of right with +it--an inner consciousness that seems so strong and certain as to be +beyond argument--beyond everything; and yet if God's Word is against +it I must be wrong, and my heart is misleading me." + +Again in unbroken silence an hour passed away. Then the thought struck +him: "It is not contrary to God's action! He so loved the +world--unbelievers and all--as to give His best and dearest! Can it +be wrong to be God-like?" + +"It is not wise, it is not safe," prudence whispered, "to give a +worldly, unbelieving spirit the power to influence you that she will +have who is first in your heart. What true congeniality can there be? +What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? or what part +hath he that believeth with an infidel? As the most intimate friend +and companion in life, you should seek one who truly can be _one_ +with you in all things, and most assuredly so in this vital respect." + +"Ah," thought Dennis, "that would have been very good advice to give +awhile ago. If from the first I could have understood my feelings and +danger, I might have steeled my heart against the influences that have +brought me to this. But the mischief is done. The words that now, in +spite of myself, continually run in my mind, are, 'What God hath joined +together let not man put asunder.' It seems as if some resistless power +had joined my soul to hers, and I find no strength within myself to +break the bond. I am not usually irresolute; I think I have principle; +and yet I feel that I should not dare make the most solemn vow against +this love. I should be all the more weak because conscience does not +condemn me. It seems to have a light that reason and knowledge know +not of. And yet I wish I could be more sure. I wish I could say to +myself, I may be loving hopelessly, but not sinfully. I would take the +risk. Indeed I cannot help taking it. Oh, that I could find light, +clear and unmistakable!" + +He rose, turned up his light, and opened the Pauline precepts. These +words struck his eyes, "Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be +loosed." Then, above, the words, "How knowest thou, O man, whether +thou shalt save thy wife, even though she be an unbeliever?" + +"Am I not bound--bound by that which is God's link in the chain? It +does not seem as if the legal contract could change or strengthen my +feelings materially, and while honoring the inviolable rite of marriage, +which is God's law and society's safety, I know that nothing can more +surely bind me to her, so that the spirit, the vital part of the +passage, applies to me. Then if through this love I could save her--if +by prayer and effort I could bring her feet into the paths of life--I +should feel repaid for all that I could possibly suffer. She may slight +my human love with its human consummation, but God will not let a life +of prayer and true love be wasted, and she may learn here, or know +hereafter, that though the world laid many rich gifts at her feet I +brought the best of all." + +He looked out, and saw that the early spring dawn was tingeing the +horizon. + +"A good omen," he said aloud. "Perhaps the night of this trouble is +past, and the dawn is coming. I am convinced that it is not wrong; and +I am resolved to make the almost desperate attempt. A mysterious hope, +coming from I know not where or what, seems to beckon and encourage +me forward." + +Dennis was young. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +MISS LUDOLPH COMMITS A THEFT + + +Mr. Ludolph on his return found Christine suffering from a nervous +horror of the smallpox. From the indiscreet and callous maid, intent +on her own safety, and preparing to palliate the cowardice of her +flight should her fears prove true, Christine learned that the city +was full of this loathsome disease, and her feelings were harrowed by +exaggerated instances of its virulent and contagious character. + +"But you will surely stay with me," pleaded Christine. + +"Mademoiselle could not expect zat." + +"Heartless!" muttered Christine. Then she said: "Won't you go for Susie +Winthrop? Oh, how I would like to see her now!" + +"She vould not come; no von vould come who knew." + +Christine wrung her hands and cried, "Oh, I shall die alone and deserted +of all!" + +"No, you shall not," said her father, entering at that moment; "so do +not give way, my dear.--Leave the room, stupid!" (to the maid, who +again gladly escaped, resolving not to re-enter till the case was +decided). "I have secured the best of physicians, and the best of +nurses, and by to-night or to-morrow morning we shall know about what +to expect. I cannot help hoping still that it is only a severe cold." +And he told her of Dennis's offer of his mother's services. + +"I am sure I should like her, for somehow I picture to myself a kind, +motherly person. What useful creatures those Fleets are! They are on +hand in emergencies when one so needs help. It seemed very nice to +have young Fleet my humble servant; but really, father, he +deserves promotion." + +"He shall have it, and I doubt not will be just as ready to do your +bidding as ever. It is only commonplace people whose heads are turned +by a little prosperity. Fleet knew he was a gentleman before he came +to the store." + +"Father, if I should have the smallpox and live, would my beaut--would +I become a fright?" + +"Not necessarily. Let us hope for the best. Make the most of the world, +and never endure evils till they come, are my maxims. Half of suffering +is anticipation of possible or probable evil." + +"Father," said Christine, abruptly, "I believe you are right, you +_must_ be right, and have given me the best comfort and hope that +truthfully can be given. But this is a strange, cruel world. We seem +the sport of circumstances, the victims of hard, remorseless laws. One +bad person can frightfully injure another person" (a spasm distorted +her father's face). "What accidents may occur! Worst of all are those +horrible, subtle, contagious diseases which, none can see or +guard against! Then to suffer, die, corrupt--faugh! To what a disgusting +end, to what a lame and impotent conclusion, does the noble creature, +man, come! My whole nature revolts at it. For instance, here am I a +young girl, capable of the highest enjoyment, with everything to live +for, and lured forward by the highest hopes and expectations; and yet, +in spite of all the safeguards you can place around me, my path is in +the midst of dangers, and now perhaps I am to be rendered hideous, if +not killed outright, by a disease the very thought of which fills me +with loathing. What I fear _has_ happened, and may happen again. And +what compensation is there for it all?--what can enable one to bear it +all? Oh, that I could believe in a God and a future happier life!" + +"And what kind of a God would He be who, having the power to prevent, +permits, or orders, as the Bible teaches, all these evils? I am a man +of the world, and pretend to nothing saint-like or chivalric, but do +you think I am capable of going to Mr. Winthrop and striking down his +daughter Susie with a loathsome disease? And yet if a minister or +priest should come here he would begin to talk about the mysterious +providence, and submission to God's will. If I am to have a God, I +want one at least better than myself." + +"You _must_ be right," said Christine, with a weary moan. "There is no +God, and if there were, in view of what you say, I could only hate and +fear Him. How chaotic the world is! But it is hard." After a moment she +added, shudderingly: "_It is horrible_. I did not think of these things +when well." + +"Get well and forget them again, my dear. It is the best you can do." + +"If I get well," said Christine, almost fiercely, "I shall get the +most I can out of life, cost what it may;" and she turned her face to +the wall. + +A logical result of his teaching, but for some reason it awakened in +Mr. Ludolph a vague foreboding. + +The hours dragged on, and late in the afternoon the hard-driven +physician appeared, examined his patient, and seemed relieved. + +"If there is no change for the worse," he said, cheerily, "if no new +symptoms develop by to-morrow, I can pronounce this merely a severe +cold, caused by the state of the system and too sudden check of +perspiration;" and the doctor gave and opiate and bowed himself out. + +Long and heavily Christine slept. The night that Dennis filled with +agonizing prayer and thought was to her a blank. While he in his strong +Christian love brought heaven nearer to her, while he resolved on that +which would give her a chance for life, happy life, here and hereafter, +she was utterly unconscious. No vision or presentiment of good, like +a struggling ray of light, found access to her darkened spirit. So +heavy was the stupor induced by the opiate, that her sleep seemed like +the blank she so feared, when her brilliant, ambitious life should end +in nothingness. + +So I suppose God's love meditates good, and resolves on life and joy +for us, while our hearts are sleeping, dead to Him, benumbed and +paralyzed so that only His love can awaken them. Like a vague yet +hope-inspiring dream, this truth often enters the minds of those who +are wrapped in the spiritual lethargy that may end in death. God wakes, +watches, loves, and purposes good for them. When we are most +unconscious, perhaps another effect for our salvation has been resolved +upon in the councils of heaven. + +But ambition more than love, earthly hopes rather than heavenly, kept +Mr. Ludolph an anxious watcher at Christine's side that night. A smile +of satisfaction illumined his somewhat haggard face as he saw the fever +pass away and the dew of natural moisture come out on Christine's brow, +but there was no thankful glance upward. Immunity from loathsome disease +was due only to chance and the physician's skill, by his creed. + +The sun was shining brightly when Christine awoke and by a faint call +startled her father from a doze in the great armchair. + +"How do you feel, my dear?" he asked. + +She languidly rubbed her heavy eyes, and said she thought she was +better--she felt no pain. The opiate had not yet lost its effect. But +soon she greatly revived, and when the doctor came he found her +decidedly better, and concluded that she was merely suffering from a +severe cold, and would soon regain her usual health. + +Father and daughter were greatly relieved, and their spirits rose. + +"I really feel as if I ought to thank somebody," said Christine. "I +am not going to thank the doctor, for I know what a bill is coming, +so I will thank you. It was very kind of you to sit up the long night +with me." + +Even Mr. Ludolph had to remember that he had in his anxiety thought +as much of himself as of her. + +"Another lease of life," said Christine, dreamily looking into the +future; "and, as I said last night, I mean to make the most of it." + +"I can best guide you in doing that," said her father, looking into +his daughter's face with keen scrutiny. + +"I believe you, and intend to give you the chance. When can we leave +this detested land, this city of shops and speculators? To think that +I, Christine Ludolph, am sick, idle, and perhaps have endangered all +by reason of foolish exposure in a brewer's tawdry, money-splashed +house! Come, father when is the next scene in the brief drama to open? +I am impatient to go _home_ to our beloved Germany and enter on real +life." + +"Well, my dear, if all goes well, we can enter on our true career a +year from next fall--a short year and a half. Do not blame the delay, +for it will enable us to live in Germany in almost royal style. I never +was making money so rapidly as now. I have invested in that which +cannot depreciate, and thus far has advanced beyond belief--buildings +in the business part of the city. Rents are paying me from twenty to +a hundred per cent. At the same time I could sell out in a month. So +you see you have only to co-operate with me--to preserve health and +strength--to enjoy all that money can insure; and money can buy almost +everything." + +Christine's eyes sparkled as the future opened before her, and she +said, with emphasis, "If _I_ could preserve health and strength, I would +live a thousand years." + +"You can do much toward it. Every chance is in favor of prudence and +wise action;" and, much relieved, her father went to the store. + +Business had accumulated, and in complete absorption he gave himself +to it. With an anxiety beyond expression, Dennis, flushed and trembling, +ventured to approach. Merely glancing to see who it was, Mr. Ludolph, +with his head bent over his writing, said, "Miss Ludolph is better--no +fear of smallpox, I think--you need not write to your mother--greatly +obliged." + +It was well for Dennis that his employer did not look up. The open +face of Mr. Ludolph's clerk expressed more than friendly interest in +his daughter's health. The young man went to his tasks with a mountain +of fear lifted from his heart. + +But the thought of the beloved one lying alone and sick at the hotel +seemed very pathetic to him. Love filled his heart with more sympathy +for Christine upon her luxurious couch, in rapid convalescence, than +for all the hopeless suffering of Chicago. What could he do for her? +She seemed so far off, so high and distant, that he could not reach +her. If he ventured to send anything, prudence whispered that she would +regard it as an impertinence. But love can climb every steep place, +and prudence is not its grand-vizier. + +Going by a fruit-store in the afternoon he saw some fine strawberries, +the first in from the South. He bought a basket, decorated it with +German ivy obtained at a flower-stand, and spirited it upstairs to his +room as if it were the most dangerous of contraband. In a disguised +hand he wrote on a card, "For Miss Ludolph." Calling Ernst, who had +little to do at that hour of the day, he said: "Ernst, my boy, take +this parcel to Le Grand Hotel, and say it is for Miss Christine Ludolph. +Tell them to send it right up, but on no account--remember, on no +account--tell any one who sent it. Carry it carefully in just this +manner." + +Ernst was soon at his destination, eager to do anything for his friend. + +After all, the day had proved a long one for Christine. Unaccustomed +to the restraints of sickness, she found the enforced inaction very +wearisome. Mind and body both seemed weak. The sources of chief +enjoyment when well seemed powerless to contribute much now. In silken +robe she reclined in an arm-chair, or languidly sauntered about the +room. She took up a book only to throw it down again. Her pencil fared +no better. Ennui gave to her fair young face the expression of one who +had tried the world for a century and found it wanting. She was leaning +her elbow on the window-sill, gazing vacantly into the street, when +Ernst appeared. + +"Janette," she said, suddenly, "do you see that boy? He is employed +at the store. Go bring him up here; I want him;" and with more animation +than she had shown that day she got out materials for a sketch. + +"I must get that boy's face," she said, "before good living destroys +all his artistic merit." + +Ernst was unwilling to come, but the maid almost dragged him up. + +"What have you got there?" asked Miss Ludolph, with a reassuring smile. + +"Something for Miss Ludolph," stammered the boy, looking very much +embarrassed. + +Christine carefully opened the parcel and then exclaimed with delight: +"Strawberries, as I live! the very ambrosia of the gods. Papa sent +them, did he not?" + +"No," said the boy, hanging his head. + +"Who did, then?" said Christine, looking at him keenly. + +He shuffled uneasily, but made no answer. + +"Come, I insist on knowing," she cried, her wilful spirit and curiosity +both aroused. + +The boy was pale and frightened, and she was mentally taking notes of +his face. But he said, doggedly, "I can't tell." + +"But I say you must. Don't you know that I am Miss Ludolph?" + +"I don't care what you do to me," said the little fellow, beginning +to cry, "I won't tell." + +"Why won't you tell, my boy?" said Christine, cunningly, in a wheedling +tone of voice. + +Before he knew it, the frightened, bewildered boy fell into the trap, +and he sobbed, "Because Mr. Fleet told me not to, and I wouldn't disobey +him to save my life." + +A look of surprise, and then a broad smile, stole over the young girl's +face--at the gift, the messenger, and at him who sent it. It was indeed +a fresh and unexpected little episode, breaking the monotony of the +day--as fresh and pleasing to her as one of the luscious berries so +grateful to her parched mouth. + +"You need not tell me," she said, soothingly, "if Mr. Fleet told you +not to." + +The boy saw the smile, and in a moment realized that he had been tricked +out of the forbidden knowledge. + +His little face glowed with honest indignation, and looking straight +at Miss Ludolph, with his great eyes flashing through the tears, he +said, "You stole that from me." + +Even she colored a little and bit her lip under the merited charge. +But all this made him all the more interesting as an art study, and +she was now sketching away rapidly. She coolly replied, however, "You +don't know the world very well yet, my little man." + +The boy said nothing, but stood regarding her with his unnaturally +large eyes filled with anger, reproach, and wonder. + +"Oh," thought Christine, "if I could only paint that expression!" + +"You seem a great friend of Mr. Fleet," she said, studying and sketching +him as if he had been an inanimate object. + +The boy made no answer. + +"Perhaps you do not know that I am a friend--friendly," she added, +correcting herself, "to Mr. Fleet also." + +"Mr. Fleet never likes to have his friends do wrong," said the boy, +doubtingly. + +Again she colored a little, for Ernst's pure and reproachful face made +her feel that she had done a mean thing, but she laughed said: "You +see I am not in his mission class, and have never had the instruction +that you have. But, after all, why do you think Mr. Fleet better than +other people?" + +"By what he does." + +"That is a fair test; what has he done?" + +"He saved us all from starving, and worse than starving." + +Then with feminine tact she drew from him his story, and it was told +with deep feeling and the natural pathos of childhood, and his gratitude +caused him to dwell with a simple eloquence on the part Dennis had +taken, while his rich and loved German accent made it all the more +interesting to Christine. She dropped her pencil, and, when he finished, +her eyes, that were seldom moistened by the dew of sympathy, were wet. + +"Good-by, my child," she said, in a voice so kind and sweet that it +seemed as if another person had spoken. "You shall come again, and +then I shall finish my sketch. When I get well I shall go to see your +father's picture. Do not be afraid; neither you nor Mr. Fleet will +fare the worse for the strawberries, and you may tell him that they +have done me much good." + +When Dennis, wondering at Ernst's long absence, heard from him his +story, his mind was in a strange tumult, and yet the result of his +effort seemed favorable. But he learned more fully than ever that +Christine was not perfect, and that her faultless beauty and taste +were but the fair mask of a deformed spirit. But he dwelt in hope on +the feeling she had shown at Ernst's story. + +"She seemed to have two hearts," said the boy--"a good, kind one way +inside the cold, hard outside one." + +"That is about the truth," thought Dennis. "Good-night, Ernst. I don't +blame you, my boy, for you did the best you could." + +He had done better than Dennis knew. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +A MISERABLE TRIUMPH + + +After Ernst's departure Christine reclined wearily in her chair, quite +exhausted by even the slight effort she had made, but her thoughts +were busy. + +"What a unique character that Dennis Fleet is! And yet, in view of +what he believes and professes, he is both natural and consistent. He +seems humble only in station, and that is not his fault. Everything +he does seems marked by unusual good taste and intelligence. His earlier +position and treatment in the store must have been very galling. I can +hardly believe that the gentleman I sang Mendelssohn's music with the +other evening was the same that I laughed at as he blacked old +Schwartz's boots. And yet he saw me laugh, and blacked the boots, +conscious that he was a gentleman. It must have been very hard. And +yet I would rather do such work myself than live on charity, and so +undoubtedly he felt. It is very fortunate that we nearly finished the +rearrangement of the pictures before all this occurred, for I could +not order him about now as I have done. The fact is, I like servants, +not dignified helpers; and knowing what I do, even if he would permit +it, I could not speak to him as formerly. But he did show wonderful +taste and skill in his help. See now that little ivy-twined basket of +luscious fruit: it looks just like him. If he were only rich and titled, +what a genuine nobleman he would make! He is among the few men who do +not weary or disgust me; so many are coarse and commonplace. I cannot +understand it, but I, who fear and care for no one except my father, +almost feared him when under Miss Brown's insolence he looked as few +men can. What a jumble the world is! He sweeps the store, while +insignificant atoms of men are conspicuous in their littleness by +reason of high position. + +"It was very kind of him to send me this tasteful gift after the +miserable experience I caused him the other day. I suppose he does it +on the principle of returning good for evil, as his creed teaches. +Moreover, he seems grateful that father gave him employment, and a +chance to earn twice what he receives. He certainly must be promoted +at once. + +"Perhaps," thought she, smiling to herself, while a faint tinge of +color came into her cheeks--"perhaps, like so many others, he may be +inclined to be a little sentimental also, though he will never be as +silly as some of them. + +"What a noble part he acted toward those Bruders! The heart of a pagan +could not fail to be touched by that poor little fellow's story, and +it has made me believe that I have more heart than I supposed. +Sometimes, especially when I hear or read of some such noble deed, I +catch glimpses of a life infinitely better than the one I know, like +the sun shining through a rift in the clouds; then they shut down +again, and father's practical wisdom seems the best there is. + +"At any rate," she said aloud, getting up and walking the floor with +something of the old restless energy, "I intend to live while I live, +and crowd into life's brief day all that I can. I thank Mr. Fleet for +a few sensations in what would otherwise have been a monotonous, dreary +afternoon." + +"What, strawberries!" said Mr. Ludolph, coming in. "Where did you get +these? They are the first I have seen." + +"Your man-of-all-work sent them to me," said Christine, daintily dipping +one after another in sugar. + +"Well, that is a good joke." + +"A most excellent one, which I am enjoying, and in which you may share. +Help yourself." + +"And what has led him to this extravagant favor?" + +"Consistency, I suppose. As a good Christian he would return good for +evil; and I certainly caused him many and varied tortures the other +day." + +"No, he is grateful; from first to last the callow youth has been +overwhelmed with gratitude that I have permitted him to be worth to +me double what I paid him." + +"Well, you have decided to promote him, have you not?" + +"Yes, he shall have charge of the hanging of new pictures, and the +general arrangement of the store, so as to keep up your tasteful and +artistic methods. Moreover, he shall meet customers at the door, and +direct them just where to find what they want. He is fine-looking, +polite, speaks English perfectly, and thus takes well. I can gradually +work him in as general salesman, without creating troublesome +jealousies." + +"What will old Schwartz say?" + +"Schwartz is good at finance and figures. I can trust him, and he must +relieve me more in this respect. He of course knows that this is the +more important work, and will feel honored. As to the others, if they +do not like it I can find plenty who will. Fleet's good fortune will +take him quite by surprise. He was performing his old humble duties +as briskly and contentedly as usual to-day." + +"I am surprised at that, for I should have supposed that he would have +been on his dignity somewhat, indicating by manner at least that the +time for a change had come. He can indicate a great deal by manner, +as you might have learned had you seen him under Miss Brown's insults +and my lack of courtesy. Well, it does me good to find one American +whose head is not turned by a little success. You are right though, +I think, father; that young fellow can be very useful to you, and a +decided help in hastening the time when we can leave this shop life, +and enter our true sphere. I am more impatient to go than words can +express, for life seems so brief and uncertain that we must grasp +things as soon as possible or we lose them forever. Heavens! what a +scare I have had! Everything seemed slipping from under my feet +yesterday, and I sinking I know not where. Surely by concentrating +every energy we can be ready to go by a year from next fall." + +"Yes, that is my plan now." + +On the following day Dennis was again promoted and his pay increased. +A man more of the Pat Murphy type was found to perform the coarse work +of the store. As Mr. Ludolph had said, Dennis could hardly realize his +good fortune. He felt like one lifted out of a narrow valley to a +breezy hillside. He was now given a vantage-point from which it seemed +that he could climb rapidly, and his heart was light as he thought of +what he would be able to do for his mother and sisters. Hope grew +sanguine as he saw how he would now have the means to pursue his beloved +art-studies to far greater advantage. But, above all, his promotion +brought him nearer the object of his all-absorbing passion. What he +feared would take him one or two years to accomplish he had gained in +a day. Hope whispered that perhaps it was through her influence in +some degree that he had obtained this advance. Could she have seen and +read his ardent glances? Lovers' hopes will grow like Jonah's gourd, +and die down as quickly. Words could not express his longing to see +her again, but for several days she did not come to the store. She +merely sent him word to complete the unfinished show-room in accordance +with the plan on which they had been working, leaving space on the +sides of the room opposite each other for two large pictures. Though +much disappointed, Dennis had carefully carried out her bidding. + +Every evening the moment his duties permitted he sought his instructor, +Mr. Bruder, and, with an eagerness that his friends could not +understand, sought to educate hand and eye. Dennis judged rightly that +mere business success would never open to him a way to the heart of +such a girl as Christine. His only hope of winning even her attention +was to excel in the world of art, where she hoped to shine as a queen. +Then to his untiring industry and eager attention he added real genius +for his tasks, and it was astonishing what progress he made. When at +the close of his daily lesson Dennis had taken his departure, Mr. +Bruder would shake his head, and cast up his eyes in wonder, and +exclaim: "Dot youth vill astonish de vorld yet. Never in all Germany +haf I seen such a scholar." + +Often till after midnight he would study in the solitude of his own +little room. And now, relieved of duties in the early morning, he +arranged an old easel in the attic of the store, a sort of general +lumber-room, yet with a good light for his purpose. Here he secured +two good hours daily, and often more, for painting; and his hand grew +skilful, and his eye true, under his earnest efforts. But his intense +application caused his body to grow thin and his face pale. + +Christine had rapidly recovered from her illness, her vital and elastic +constitution rebounding back into health and vigor like a bow rarely +bent. She, too, was working scarcely less eagerly than Dennis, and +preparing for a triumph which she hoped would be the earnest of the +fame she meant to achieve. She no longer came to the store with her +father in the morning, but spent the best and early hours of the day +in painting, riding out along the lake and in the park in the afternoon. +Occasionally she came to the store in the after part of the day, glanced +sharply round to see that her tasteful arrangement was kept up, and +ever seemed satisfied. + +Dennis was usually busy with customers at that time, and, though +conscious of her presence the moment she entered, found no excuse or +encouragement to approach. The best he ever received from her was a +slight smile and a cold bow of recognition, and in her haste and +self-absorption she did not always give these. She evidently +had something on her mind by which it was completely occupied. + +"She does not even think of me," sighed Dennis; "she evidently imagines +that there is an immeasurable distance between us yet." + +He was right; she did not think of him, and scarcely thought of any +one else, so absorbed was she in the hope of a great success that now +was almost sure. She had sent her thanks for the berries by her father, +which so frightened Dennis that he had ventured on no more such favors. +She had interceded for his promotion. Surely she had paid her debt, +and was at quits. So she would have been if he had only given her a +basket of strawberries, but having given his heart, and lifelong love, +he could scarcely be expected to be satisfied. But he vowed after each +blank day all the more resolutely that he would win her attention, +secure recognition of his equality, and so be in position for laying +siege to her heart. + +But a deadly blight suddenly came over all his hopes. + +One bright morning late in May two large flat boxes were brought to +the store. Dennis was busy with customers, and Mr. Schwartz said, in +his blunt, decided way, that he would see to the hanging of those +pictures. They were carried to the show-room in the rear of the store, +and Dennis at once concluded that they were something very fine, +designed to fill the spaces he had left, and was most anxious to see +them. Before he was disengaged they were lifted from their casing and +were standing side by side on the floor, opposite the entrance, the +warm rich morning light falling upon them with fine effect. Mr. Schwartz +seemed unusually excited and perplexed for him, and stared first at +one picture, then at the other, in a manner indicating that not their +beauty, but some other cause disturbed him. + +Dennis had scarcely had time to exclaim at the exquisite loveliness +and finish of the two paintings before Mr. Ludolph entered, accompanied +by Mr. Cornell, a well-known artist, Mr. French, proprietor of another +large picture-store, and several gentlemen of taste, but of lesser +note, whom Dennis had learned to know by sight as habitues of the +"Temple of Art." He also saw that Christine was advancing up the store +with a lady and gentleman. Feeling that his presence might be regarded +as obtrusive, he passed out, and was about to go away, when he heard +his name called. + +Looking up he saw Miss Winthrop holding out her hand, and in a moment +more she presented him to her father, who greeted him cordially. +Christine also gave him a brief smile, and said: "You need not go away. +Come and see the pictures." + +Quick-eyed Dennis observed that she was filled with suppressed +excitement. Her cheeks, usually but slightly tinged with pink, now by +turns glowed and were pale. Miss Winthrop seemed to share her +nervousness, though what so excited them he could not divine. The +paintings, beautiful as they were, could scarcely be the adequate +cause; and yet every eye was fastened on them. + +One seemed the exact counterpart of the other in frame and finish as +well as subject. A little in the background, upon a crag overhanging +the Rhine, was a castle, massive, frowning, and built more for security +and defence than comfort. The surrounding landscape was bold, wild, +and even gloomy. But in contrast with these rugged and sterner features, +was a scene of exquisite softness and tenderness. Beneath the shadow +of some great trees not far from the castle gate, a young crusader was +taking leave of his fair-haired bride. Her pale, tearful face, wherein +love and grief blent indescribably, would move the most callous heart, +while the struggle between emotion and the manly pride that would not +permit him to give way, in the young chieftain's features, was scarcely +less touching. Beautiful as were the accessories of the pictures, their +main point was to portray the natural, tender feeling induced by a +parting that might be forever. At first they all gazed quietly and +almost reverently at the vivid scene of human love and sorrow, save +old Schwartz, who fidgeted about as Dennis had never seen him before. +Clearly something was wrong. + +"Mr. Schwartz," said Mr. Ludolph, "you may hang the original picture +on the side as we enter, and the copy opposite. We would like to see +them up, and in a better light." + +"Dat's it," snorted Mr. Schwartz; "I'd like to know vich is vich." + +"You do not mean to say that you cannot tell them apart? The original +hung here some time, and you saw it every day." + +"I do mean to say him," said Mr. Schwartz, evidently much vexed with +himself. "I couldn't have believed dat any von in de vorld could so +impose on me. But de two pictures are just de same to a pin scratch +in frame, subject, and treatment, and to save my life I cannot tell +dem apart." + +Christine's face fairly glowed with triumph, and her eyes were all +aflame as she glanced at her friend. Miss Winthrop came and took her +cold, quivering hands into her own warm palms, but was scarcely less +excited. Dennis saw not this side scene, so intent was he on the +pictures. + +"Do you mean to say," said Mr. Cornell, stepping forward, "that one +of these paintings is a copy made here in Chicago, and that Mr. Schwartz +cannot tell it from the original?" + +"He says he cannot," said Mr. Ludolph. + +"And I'd like to see the von who can," said old Schwartz, gruffly. + +"Will you please point out the original," said one of the gentlemen, +"that we may learn to distinguish them? For my part they seem like the +twins whose mother knew them apart by pink and white ribbons, and when +the ribbons got mixed she could not tell which was which." + +Again Christine's eyes glowed with triumph. + +"Well, really, gentlemen," said Mr. Ludolph, "I would rather you would +discover the copy yourselves. Mr. Cornell, Mr. French, and some others, +I think, saw the original several times." + +"Look at Mr. Fleet," whispered Miss Winthrop to Christine. + +She looked, and her attention was riveted to him. Step by step, he had +drawn nearer, and his eyes were eagerly glancing from one picture to +the other as if following up a clew. Instinctively she felt that he +would solve the question, and her little hands clenched, and her brow +grew dark. + +"Really," said Mr. Cornell, "I did not know that we had an artist in +Chicago who could copy the work of one of the best European painters +so that there need be a moment's hesitancy in detecting differences, +but it seems I am mistaken. I am almost as puzzled as Mr. Schwartz." + +"The frames are exactly alike," said Mr. French. + +"There is a difference between the two pictures," said Mr. Cornell, +slowly. "I can feel it rather than see it. They seem alike, line for +line and feature for feature, in every part; and just where the +difference lies and in what it consists I cannot tell for the life of +me." + +With the manner of one who had settled a difficult problem, Dennis +gave a sigh of relief so audible that several glanced at him. + +"Perhaps Mr. Fleet from his superior knowledge and long experience can +settle this question," said Christine, sarcastically. + +All eyes were turned toward him. He flushed painfully, but said nothing. + +"Speak up," said Mr. Ludolph, good-naturedly, "if you have any opinion +to give." + +"I would not presume to give my opinion among so many more competent +judges." + +"Come, Mr. Fleet," said Christine, with a covert taunt in her tone, +"that is a cheap way of making a reputation. I fear the impression +will be given that you have no opinion." + +Dennis was now very pale, as he ever was under great excitement. The +old look came again that the young ladies remembered seeing at Miss +Brown's entertainment. + +"Come, speak up if you can," said Mr. Ludolph shortly. + +"Your porter, Mr. Ludolph?" said Mr. Cornell, remembering Dennis only +in that capacity. "Perhaps he has some private marks by which he can +enlighten us." + +Dennis now acted no longer as porter or clerk, but as a man among men. + +Stepping forward and looking Mr. Cornell full in the face he said: "I +can prove to you, sir, that your insinuation is false by simply stating +that I never saw those pictures before. The original had been removed +from the store before I came. I have had therefore no opportunity of +knowing the copy from the original. But the pictures are different, +and I can tell precisely wherein I think the difference lies." + +"Tell it then," said several voices. Christine stood a little back and +on one side, so that he could not see her face, or he would have +hesitated long before he spoke. In the firm, decided tones of one +thoroughly aroused and sure of his ground, he proceeded. + +"Suppose this the copy," said he, stepping to one of the pictures. +(Christine breathed hard and leaned heavily against her friend.) "I +know of but one in Chicago capable of such exquisite work, and he did +not do it; indeed he could not, though a master in art." + +"You refer to Mr. Bruder?" said Mr. Cornell. + +Dennis bowed and continued: "It is the work of one in whom the imitative +power is wonderfully developed; but one having never felt--or unable +to feel--the emotions here presented cannot portray them. This picture +is but the beautiful corpse of that one. While line for line, and +feature for feature, and even leaf for leaf on the trees is faithfully +exact, yet the soul, the deep, sorrowful tenderness that you feel in +that picture rather than see, is wanting in this. In that picture you +forget to blame or praise, to criticise at all, so deeply are your +sympathies touched. It seems as if in reality two human hearts were +being torn asunder before you. This you know to be an exquisite picture +only, and can coolly criticise and dwell on every part, and say how +admirably it is done." + +And Dennis bowed and retired. + +"By Jove, he is right," exclaimed Mr. Cornell; and approving faces and +nodding heads confirmed his judgment. But Dennis enjoyed not his +triumph, for as he turned he met Christine's look of agony and hate, +and like lightning it flashed through his mind, "She painted the +picture." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +LIFE WITHOUT LOVE + + +As Dennis realized the truth, and remembered what he had said, his +face was scarcely less full of pain than Christine's. He saw that her +whole soul was bent on an imitation that none could detect, and that +he had foiled her purpose. But Christine's wound was deeper than that. +She had been told again, clearly and correctly, that the sphere of +high, true art was beyond her reach. She felt that the verdict was +true, and her own judgment confirmed every word Dennis uttered. But +she had done her best; therefore her suffering was truly agony--the +pain and despair at failure in the most cherished hope of life. There +seemed a barrier which, from the very limitations of her being, she +could not pass. She did not fail from the lack of taste, culture, or +skill, but in that which was like a sixth sense--something she did not +possess. Lacking the power to touch and move the heart, she knew she +could never be a great artist. + +Abruptly and without a word she left the room and store, accompanied +by the Winthrops. Dennis felt as if he could bite his tongue out, and +Christine's face haunted him like a dreadful apparition. Wherever he +turned he saw it so distorted by pain, and almost hate, that it scarcely +seemed the same that had smiled on him as he entered at her invitation. + +"Truly God is against all this," groaned he, to himself; "and what I +in my weakness could not do He has accomplished by this unlooked-for +scene. She will now ever regard me with aversion." + +Dennis, like many another, thought he saw God's plan clearly from a +mere glimpse of a part of it. He at once reached this miserable +conclusion, and suffered as greatly as if it had been God's will, +instead of his own imagination. To wait and trust is often the latest +lesson we learn in life. + +Mr. Ludolph's guests, absorbed in the pictures, at first scarcely +noticed the departure of the others. + +Christine, with consummate skill and care, kept her relationship to +the picture unknown to all save the Winthrops, meaning not to +acknowledge it unless she succeeded. But in Dennis's startled and +pained face she saw that he had read her secret, and this fact also +annoyed her much. + +"I should like to know the artist who copied this painting," said Mr. +Cornell. + +"The artist is an amateur, and not willing to come before the public +at present," said Mr. Ludolph, so decidedly that no further questions +were asked. + +"I am much interested in that young clerk of yours," said Mr. French. +"He seems to understand himself. It is so hard to find a good +discriminating judge of pictures. Do you expect to keep him?" + +"Yes, I do," said Mr. Ludolph, with such emphasis that his rival in +trade pressed that point also no further. + +"Well, really, Mr. Ludolph," said one of the gentlemen, "you deal in +wonders, mysteries, and all sorts of astonishing things yere. We have +an unknown artist in Chicago deserving an ovation; you have in your +employ a prince of critics, and if I mistake not he is the same who +sang at Brown's some little time ago. Miss Brown told me that he was +your porter." + +"Yes, I took him as a stranger out of work and knew nothing of him. +But he proved to be an educated and accomplished man, who will doubtless +be of great use to me in time. Of course I promoted him when I found +him out." These last remarks were made for Mr. French's benefit rather +than for any one's else. He intended that his rival should knowingly +violate all courtesy if he sought to lure Dennis away. After admiring +the paintings and other things recently received, the gentlemen bowed +themselves out. + +On leaving the store Mr. Winthrop--feeling awkward in the presence of +the disappointed girl--had pleaded business, and bidden her adieu with +a warm grasp of the hand and many assurances that she had succeeded +beyond his belief. + +"I know you mean kindly in what you say," said Christine, while not +the slightest gleam lighted up her pale, sad face. "Good-by." + +She, too, was relieved, and wished to be alone. Miss Winthrop sought +to comfort her friend as they walked homeward. + +"Christine, you look really ill. I don't see why you take this matter +so to heart. You have achieved a success that would turn any head but +yours. I could not believe it possible had I not seen it. Your ambition +and ideal are so lofty that you will always make yourself miserable +by aiming at the impossible. As Mr. Fleet said, I do not believe there +is another in the city who could have done so well, and if you can do +that now, what may you not accomplish by a few years more of work?" + +"That's the terrible part of it," said Christine, with a long sigh. +"Susie, I have attained my growth. I can never be a real artist and +no one living can ever know the bitterness of my disappointment. I do +not believe in the immortality that you do, and this was my only chance +to live beyond the brief hour of my life. If I could only have won for +myself a place among the great names that the world will ever honor, +I might with more content let the candle of my existence flicker out +when it must. But I have learned to-day what I have often feared--that +Christine Ludolph must soon end in a forgotten handful of dust." + +"Oh, Christine, if you could only believe!" + +"I cannot. I tried in my last sickness, but vainly. I am more convinced +than ever of the correctness of my father's views." + +Miss Winthrop sighed deeply. "Why are you so despondent?" she at last +asked. + +As if half speaking to herself, Christine repeated the words, "'Painted +by one having never felt, or unable to feel, the emotions presented, +and therefore one who cannot portray them.' That is just the trouble. +I tried to speak in a language I do not know. Susie, I believe I am +about half ice. Sometimes I think I am like Undine, and have no soul. +I know I have no heart, in the sense that you have." "I live a very cold +sort of life," she continued, with a slight shudder. "I seem +surrounded by invisible barriers that I cannot pass. I can see, beyond, +what I want, but cannot reach it. Oh, Susie, if you knew what I suffered +when so ill! Everything seemed slipping from me. And yet why I should +so wish to live I hardly know, when my life is so narrowed down." + +"You see the disease, but not the remedy," sighed Susie. + +"What is the remedy?" + +"_Love_. Love to God, and I may add love for some good man." + +Christine stopped a moment and almost stamped her foot impatiently. + +"You discourage me more than any one else," she cried. "As to loving +God, how can I love merely a name? and, even if He existed, how could +I love a Being who left His world so full of vile evils? As to human +love, faugh! I have had enough of romantic attachments." + +"Do you never intend to marry?" + +"Susie, you are the friend of my soul, and I trust you and you only +with our secret. Yes, I expect to marry, but not in this land. You +know that in Germany my father will eventually be a noble, the +representative of one of the most ancient and honorable families. We +shall soon have sufficient wealth to resume our true position there. +A husband will then be found for me. I only stipulate that he shall +be able to give me position among the first, and gratify my bent for +art to the utmost." + +"Well, Christine, you are a strange girl, and your dream of the future +is stranger still." + +"Sometimes I think that all is a dream, and may end like one. Nothing +seems certain or real, or turns out as one expects. Think of it. A +nobody who swept my father's store the other day has this morning made +such havoc in my dream that I am sick at heart." + +"But you cannot blame Mr. Fleet. He did it unconsciously; he was goaded +on to do it. No _man_ could have done otherwise. You surely do not feel +hardly toward him?" + +"We do not naturally love the lips and bless the voice that tell us +of an incurable disease. Oh, no," she added, "why should I think of +him at all? He merely happened to point out what I half suspected +myself. And yet the peculiar way this stranger crosses my path from +time to time almost makes me superstitious." + +"And you seem to have peculiar power over him. He would have assuredly +left us in the lurch at our tableau party had it not been for you, and +I should not have blamed him. And to-day he seemed troubled and pained +beyond expression when he read from your face, as I imagine, that you +were the author of the picture." + +"Yes, I saw that he discovered the fact, and this provokes me also. +If he should speak his thoughts--" + +"I do not think he will. I am sure he will not if you caution him." + +"That I will not do; and I think on the whole he has too much sense +to speak carelessly of what he imagined he saw in a lady's face. And +now, Susie, good-by. I shall not inflict my miserable self longer upon +you to-day, and I am one who can best cure my wounds in solitude." + +"Do you cure them, Christine? or do you only cover them up? If I had +your creed nothing could cure my wounds. Time might deaden the pain, +and I forget them in other things, but I do not see where any cure +could come from. Oh, Christine! you did me good service when in the +deepening twilight of Miss Brown's parlor you showed me my useless, +unbelieving life. But I do believe now. The cross is radiant to me +now--more radiant than the one that so startled us then. Mr. Fleet's +words were true, I know, as I know my own existence. I could die for +my faith." + +Christine frowned and said, almost harshly: "I don't believe in a +religion so full of crosses and death. Why could not the all-powerful +Being you believe in take away the evil from the world?" + +"That is just what He came to do. In that very character he was pointed +out by His authorized forerunner: 'Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh +away the sin of the world.'" + +"Why does he not do it then?" asked Christine, petulantly. "Centuries +have passed. Patience itself is wearied out. He has had time enough, +if He ever meant or had the power to fulfil the promise. But the world +is as full of evil and suffering as ever. Susie, I would not disturb +your credulous faith, for it seems to do you good; but to me Christ +was a noble but mistaken man, dead and buried centuries ago. He can +do for me no more than Socrates. They vigorously attacked evil in their +day, but evil was too much for them, as it is for us. We must just get +the most we can out of life, and endure what we cannot prevent or +escape. An angel could not convert me to-day--no, not even Susie +Winthrop, and that is saying more still;" and with a hasty kiss she +vanished. + +Susie looked wistfully after her, and then bent her steps homeward +with a pitying face. + +Christine at once went to her own private room. Putting on a loose +wrapper she threw herself on a lounge, and buried her face in the +cushions. Her life seemed growing narrow and meagre. Hour after hour +passed, and the late afternoon sun was shining into her room when she +arose from her bitter revery, and summed up all in a few words spoken +aloud, as was her custom when alone. + +"Must I, after all, come down to the Epicurean philosophy, 'Let us +eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die'? I seem on a narrow +island, the ocean is all around me, and the tide is rising, _rising_. It +will cover _soon_ my standing-place, and then what becomes of Christine +Ludolph?" + +A look of anguish came into the fair young face, and a slight shudder +passed over her. She glanced around a room furnished in costly elegance. +She saw her lovely person in the mirror opposite, and exclaimed: "What +a mystery it all is! I have so much, and yet so utterly fail of having +that which contents. I have all that wealth can purchase; and multitudes +act as if that were enough. I know I am beautiful. I can see that +yonder for myself, as well as read it in admiring eyes. And yet my +maid is better contented than I, and the boy who blacks the boots +better satisfied with his lot than either of us. I am raised so high +that I can see how much more there is or might be beyond. I feel like +one led into a splendid vestibule, only to find that the palace is +wanting, or that it is a mean hovel. All that I have only mocks me, +and becomes a means of torture. All that I am and have ought to be, +might be, a mere prelude, an earnest and a preparation for something +better beyond. But I am told, and must believe, that this is all, and +I may lose this in a moment and forever. It is as if a noble strain +of music commenced sweetly, and then suddenly broken down into a few +discordant notes and ceased. It is like my picture--all very well; but +that which would speak to and move the heart, year after year, when +the mere beauty ceased to please--that life or something is wanting. +What were his words?--'This picture is but the beautiful corpse of +the other'; and my life is but a cold marble effigy of a true life. +And yet is there any true and better life? If there is nothing better +beyond, I have been carried forward too far. Miss Brown thoroughly +enjoys champagne and flirtations. Susie Winthrop is happy in her +superstition, as any one might be who could believe what she does. +But I have gone past the power of taking up these things, as I have +gone past my childhood's sports. And now what is there for me? My most +dear and cherished hope--a hope that shone above my life like a sun--has +been blown away by the breath of my father's clerk (it required no +greater power to bring me down to my true level), and I hoped to be +a queen among men, high-born, but crowned with the richer coronet of +genius. I, who hoped to win so high a place that men would speak of +me with honest praise, now and in all future time, must be contented +as a mere accomplished woman, deemed worthy perhaps in time to grace +some nobleman's halls who in the nice social scale abroad may stand +a little higher than myself. I meant to shine and dazzle, to stoop to +give in every case; but now I must take what I can get, with a humble +'Thank you';" and she clenched her little powerless hands in impotent +revolt at what seemed very cruel destiny. + +She appeared at the dinner-table outwardly calm and quiet. Her father +did not share in her bitter disappointment, and she saw that he did +not, and so felt more alone. He regarded her success as remarkable (as +it truly was), having never believed that she could copy a picture so +exactly as to deceive an ordinarily good observer. When, therefore, +old Schwartz and others were unable to distinguish between the pictures, +he was more than satisfied. He was sorry that Dennis had spoiled the +triumph, but could not blame him. At the same time he recognized in +Fleet another and most decided proof of intelligence on questions of +art, for he knew that his criticism was just. He believed that when +the true knight that his ambition would choose appeared, with golden +spurs and jewelled crest, then her deeper nature would awaken, and she +far surpass all previous effort. Moreover, he did not fully understand +or enter into her lofty ambition. To see her settled in life, titled, +rich, and a recognized leader in the aristocracy of his own land, was +his highest aspiration so far as she was concerned. + +He began, therefore, in a strain of compliment to cheer his daughter +and rally her courage; but she shook her head sadly, and said so +decidedly, "Father, let us change the subject," that with some surprise +at her feelings he yielded to her wish, thinking that a little time +and experience would moderate her ideas and banish the pain of +disappointment. It was a quiet meal, both being occupied by their own +thoughts. Soon after he was absorbed for the evening by his cigar and +some business papers. + +It was a mild, summer-like night, and a warm, gentle rain was falling. +Even in the midst of a great city the sweet odors of spring found their +way to the private parlor where Christine sat by the window, still +lost in painful thoughts. + +"Nature is full of hope, and the promise of coming life. So ought I +to be in this my spring-time. Why am I not? If I am sad and disappointed +in my spring, how dreary will be my autumn, when leaf after leaf of +beauty, health, and strength drops away!" + +A muffled figure, seemingly regardless of the rain, passed slowly down +the opposite side of the street. Though the person cast but a single +quick glance toward her window, and though the twilight was deepening, +something in the passer-by suggested Dennis Fleet. For a moment she +wished she could speak to him. She felt very lonely. Solitude had done +her no good. Her troubles only grew darker and more real as she brooded +over them. She instinctively felt that her father could not understand +her, and she had never been able to go to him for sympathy. He was not +the kind of person that any one would seek for such a purpose. Christine +was not inclined to confidence, and there was really no one who knew +her deeper feelings, and who could enter into her real hopes for life. +She was so proud and cold that few ever thought of giving her +confidence, much less of asking hers. + +Up to the time of her recent illness she had been strong, +self-confident, almost assured of success. At times she recognized +dimly that something was wrong; but she shut her eyes to the unwelcome +truth, and determined to succeed. But her sickness and fears at that +time, and now a failure that seemed to destroy the ambition of her +life, all united in greatly shaking her self-confidence. + +This evening, as never before, she was conscious of weakness and +dependence. With the instinct of one sinking, her spirit longed for +help and support. Then the thought suddenly occurred to her, "Perhaps +this young stranger, who so clearly pointed out the disease, may also +show the way to some remedy." + +But the figure had passed on. In a moment mere pride and conventionality +resumed sway, and she smiled bitterly, saying to herself, "What a weak +fool I am to-night! Of all things let me not become a romantic miss +again." + +She went to her piano and struck into a brilliant strain. For a few +moments the music was of a forced and defiant character, loud, gay, +but with no real or rollicking mirth in it, and it soon ceased. Then +in a sharp contrast came a sad, weird German ballad, and this was real. +In its pathos her burdened heart found expression, and whoever listened +then would not merely have admired, but would have felt. One song +followed another. All the pent-up feeling of the day seemed to find +natural flow in the plaintive minstrelsy of her own land. + +Suddenly she ceased and went to her window. The muffled figure stood +in the shadow of an angle in the attitude of a listener. A moment later +it vanished in the dusk toward the business part of the city. The quick +footsteps died away, and only the patter of the falling rain broke the +silence. Christine felt sure that it was Dennis. At first her feeling +was one of pleasure. His coming and evident interest took somewhat, +she scarcely knew why, from her sense of loneliness. Soon her pride +awoke, however, and she said: "He has no business here to watch and +listen. I will show him that, with all his taste and intelligence, we +have no ground in common on which he can presume." + +Her father had also listened to the music, and said to himself: +"Christine is growing a little sentimental. She takes this +disappointment too much to heart. I must touch her pride with the spur +a little, and that will make her ice and steel in a moment. It is no +slight task to keep a girl's heart safe till you want to use it. I will +wait till the practical daylight of to-morrow, and then she shall +look at the world through my eyes again." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +DENNIS'S LOVE PUT TO PRACTICAL USE + + +The day following his unlucky criticism of the pictures was one of +great despondency to Dennis. He had read in Christine's face that he +had wounded her sorely; and, though she knew it to be unintentional, +would it not prejudice her mind against him, and snap the slender +thread by which he hoped to draw across the gulf between them the cord, +and then the cable, that might in time unite their lives? + +In the evening his restless, troubled spirit drove him, in spite of +the rain, to seek to be at least nearer to her. He felt sure that in +the dusk and wrapped in his greatcoat he would not be noticed, but was +mistaken, as we have seen. He was rewarded, for he heard her sing as +never before, as he did not believe she could sing. For the first time +her rich, thoroughly trained voice had the sweetness and power of +feeling. To Dennis her song seemed like an appeal, a cry for help, and +his heart responded in the deepest sympathy. As he walked homeward he +said to himself: "She could be a true artist, perhaps a great one, for +she can feel. She has a heart. She has a taste and skill in touch that +few can surpass. I can scarcely believe the beautiful coloring and +faultless lines of that picture are her work." He long for a chance +to speak with her and explain. He felt that he had so much to say, and +in a thousand imaginary ways introduced the subject of her painting. +He hoped he might find her sketching in some of the rooms again. He +thought that he knew her better for having heard her sing, and that +he could speak to her quite frankly. + +The next day she came to the store, but passed him without the slightest +notice. He hoped she had not seen him, and, as she passed out, so +placed himself that she must see him, and secured for his pains only +a slight, cold inclination of the head. + +"It is as I feared," he said, bitterly. "She detests me for having +spoiled her triumph. She is not just," he added, angrily. "She has no +sense of justice, or she would not blame me. What a mean-spirited +craven I should have been had I shrunk away under her taunts yesterday. +Well, I can be proud too." + +When she came in again he did not raise his eyes, and when she passed +out he was in a distant part of the store. Christine saw no tall muffled +figure under her window again, though she had the curiosity to look. +That even this humble admirer, for whom she cared not a jot, should +show such independence rather nettled and annoyed her for a moment. +But she paid no more heed to him than to the other clerks. + +But what was the merest jar to Christine's vanity cost Dennis a +desperate struggle. It required no effort on her part to pass him by +without a glance. To him it was torture. In a few days she ceased to +think about him at all, and only remembered him in connection with her +disappointment. But she was restless, could settle down to no work, and +had lost her zest in her old pleasures. She tried to act as usual, +for she saw her father's eye was on her. He had not much indulgence +for any one's weaknesses save his own, and often by a little cold +satire would sting her to the very quick. On the other hand, his +admiration, openly expressed in a certain courtly gallantry, nourished +her pride but not her heart. Though she tried to keep up her usual +routine, her manner was forced before him and languid when alone. But +he said, "All this will pass away like a cold snap in spring, and the +old zest will come again in a few days." + +It did, but from a cause which he could not understand, and which his +daughter with consummate skill and care concealed. He thought it was +only the old enthusiasm rallying after a sharp frost of disappointment. + +Dennis's pride gave way before her cool and unstudied indifference. +It was clearly evident to him that he had no hold upon her life +whatever, and how to gain any he did not see. He became more and more +dejected. + +"She must have a heart, or I could not love her so; but it is so incased +in ice I fear I can never reach it." + +That something was wrong with Dennis any friend who cared for him at +all might see. The Bruders did, and, with the quick intuitions of +woman, Mrs. Bruder half guessed the cause. Mr. Bruder, seeing +preoccupation and sometimes weary apathy in Dennis's face, would say, +"Mr. Fleet is not well." + +Then, as even this slight notice of his different appearance seemed +to give pain, Mr. Bruder was patiently and kindly blind to his pupil's +inattention. + +Dennis faithfully kept up all his duties on Sunday as during the week; +but all was now hard work. Some little time after the unlucky morning +which he could never think of without an expression of pain, he went +to his mission class as usual. He heard his boys recite their lessons, +said a few poor lame words in explanation, and then leaned his head +listlessly and wearily on his hand. He was startled by hearing a sweet +voice say, "Well, Mr. Fleet, are you not going to welcome a new laborer +into your corner of the vineyard?" + +With a deep flush he saw that Miss Winthrop was in charge of the class +next to him, and that he had been oblivious to her presence nearly an +hour. He tried to apologize. But she interrupted him, saying: "Mr. +Fleet, you are not well. Any one can see that." + +Then Dennis blushed as if he had a raging fever, and she was perplexed. + +The closing exercises of the school now occupied them and then they +walked out together. + +"Mr. Fleet," she said, "you never accepted my invitation. We have not +seen you at our house. But perhaps your circle of friends is so large +that you do not wish to add to it." + +Dennis could not forbear a smile at the suggestion, but he said, in +apology, "I do not visit any one, save a gentleman from whom I am +taking lessons." + +"Do you mean to say that you have no friends at all in this great city?" + +"Well, I suppose that is nearly the truth; that is, in the sense you +use the term. My teacher and his wife--" + +"Nonsense! I mean friends of one's own age, people of the same culture +and status as yourself. I think we require such society, as truly as +we need food and air. I did not mean those whom business or duty brought +you in contact with, or who are friendly or grateful as a matter of +course." + +"I have made no progress since my introduction to society at Miss +Brown's," said Dennis. + +"But you had the sincere and cordial offer of introduction," said Miss +Winthrop, looking a little hurt. + +"I feel hardly fit for society," said Dennis, all out of sorts with +himself. "It seems that I can only blunder and give pain. But I am +indeed grateful for your kindness." + +Miss Winthrop looked into his worn, pale face, and instinctively knew +that something was wrong, and she felt real sympathy for the lonely +young man, isolated among thousands. She said, gently but decidedly: +"I did mean my invitation kindly, and I truly wished you to come. The +only proof you can give that you appreciate my courtesy is to accept +an invitation for to-morrow evening. I intend having a little musical +entertainment." + +Quick as light flashed the thought, "Christine will be there." He said, +promptly: "I will come, and thank you for the invitation. If I am +awkward, you must remember that I have never mingled in Chicago society, +and for a long time not in any." + +She smiled merrily at him, and said, "Don't do anything dreadful, Mr. +Fleet." + +He caught her mood, and asked what had brought her down from her +theological peak to such a valley of humiliation as a mission school. + +"You and Miss Ludolph" she answered, seriously. "Between you, you gave +me such a lesson that afternoon at Miss Brown's that I have led a +different life ever since. Christine made all as dark as despair, and +against that darkness you placed the fiery Cross. I have tried to cling +to the true cross ever since. Now He could not say to me, 'Inasmuch +as ye did it not.' And oh!" said she, turning to Dennis with a smile +full of the light of Heaven, "His service is so very sweet! I heard +last week that teachers were wanted at this mission school, so I came, +and am glad to find you a neighbor." + +Dennis's face also kindled at her enthusiasm, but after a moment grew +sad again. + +"I do not always give so lifeless a lesson as to-day," he said, in a +low voice. + +"Mr. Fleet, you are not well. I can see that you look worn and greatly +wearied. Are you not in some way overtaxing yourself?" + +Again that sensitive flush, but he only said: "I assure you I am well. +Perhaps I have worked a little hard. That is all." + +"Well, then, come to our house and play a little tomorrow evening," +she answered from the platform of a street car, and was borne away. + +Dennis went to his lonely room, full of self-reproach. + +"Does she find Christ's service so sweet, and do I find it so dull and +hard? Does human love alone constrain me, and not the love of Christ? +Truly I am growing weak. Every one says I look ill. I think I am, in +body and soul, and am ceasing to be a man; but with God's help I will +be one--and what is more, a Christian. I thank you, Miss Winthrop; you +have helped me more than I have helped you. I will accept your +invitation to go out into the world. I will no longer mope, brood, and +perish in the damp and shade of my own sick fancies. If I cannot win +her, I can at least be a man without her;" and he felt better and +stronger than he had done for a long time. The day was breaking again. + +In accordance with a custom that was growing with him ever since the +memorable evening when Bill Cronk befriended him, he laid the whole +matter before his Heavenly Father, as a child tells an earthly parent +all his heart. Then he added one simple prayer, "Guide me in all +things." + +The next day was brighter and better than its forerunners. "For some +reason I feel more like myself," he thought. After the excitement and +activity of a busy day, he said, "I can conquer this, if I must." + +But when he had made his simple toilet, and was on his way to Miss +Winthrop's residence, his heart began to flutter strangely, and he +knew the reason. Miss Winthrop welcomed him most cordially, and put +him at his ease in a moment, as only a true lady can. Then she turned +to receive other guests. He looked around. Christine was not there; +and his heart sank like lead. "She will not be here," he sighed. But +the guests had not ceased coming, and every new arrival caused a flutter +of hopes and fears. He both longed and dreaded to meet her. At last, +when he had almost given up seeing her, suddenly she appeared, advancing +up the parlor on her father's arm. Never had she seemed so dazzlingly +beautiful. He was just then talking to Mr. Winthrop, and for a few +moments that gentleman was perplexed at his incoherent answers and the +changes in his face. Having paid their respects to the daughter, Mr. +and Miss Ludolph came toward Mr. Winthrop, and of course Dennis had +to meet them. Having greeted them warmly, Mr. Winthrop said, "Of course +you do not need an introduction to Mr. Fleet." + +Dennis had shrunk a little into the background, and at first they had +not noticed him. Mr. Ludolph said, good-naturedly, "Glad to see you, +Mr. Fleet, and will be still more glad to hear your fine voice." + +But Christine merely bowed as to one with whom her acquaintance was +slight, and turned away. At first Dennis had blushed, and his heart +had fluttered like a young girl's; but, as she turned so coolly away, +his native pride and obstinacy were aroused. + +"She shall speak to me and do me justice," he muttered. "She must +understand that I spoke unconsciously on that miserable morning, and +am not to be blamed. As I am a man, I will speak boldly and secure +recognition." But as the little company mingled and conversed before +the music commenced, no opportunity offered. He determined to show +her, however, that he was no country boor, and with skill and taste +made himself agreeable. + +Christine furtively watched him. She was surprised to see him, as the +idea of meeting him in society as an equal had scarcely been suggested +before. But when she saw that he greeted one after another with grace +and ease, and that all seemed to enjoy his conversation, so that a +little knot of Miss Winthrop's most intelligent guests were about him +at last, she felt that it would be no great condescension on her part +to be a little more affable. In her heart, though, she had not forgiven +the unconscious words that had smitten to the ground her ambitious +hopes. + +Then again, his appearance deeply interested her. A suppressed +excitement and power, seen in the glow and fire of his dark eyes, and +felt in his tones, stirred her languid pulses. + +"He is no vapid society-man," she said to herself; and her artist eye +was gratified by the changes in his noble face. + +"Look at Fleet," whispered her father; "could you believe he was +sweeping the store the other day? Well, if we don't find out his worth +and get what we can from him, the world will. We ought to have had him +up to sing before this, but I have been so busy since your illness +that it slipped my mind." + +Miss Winthrop now led Christine to the piano, and she played a classical +piece of music in faultless taste. Then followed duets, solos, quartets, +choruses, and instrumental pieces, for nearly all present were musical +amateurs. Under the inspiration of this soul-stirring art, coldness +and formality melted away, and with jest and brilliant repartee, +alternating with song, there gathered around Miss Winthrop's piano +such a group as could never grace the parlors of Miss Brown. Sometimes +they would carry a new and difficult piece triumphantly through; again +they would break down, with much laughter and good-natured rallying. + +Dennis, as a stranger, held back at first; but those who remembered +his singing at the tableau party were clamorous to hear him again, and +they tested and tried his voice during the evening in many and varied +ways. But he held his own, and won greener laurels than ever. He did +his very best, for he was before one whom he would rather please than +all the world; moreover, her presence seemed to inspire him to do +better than when alone. Christine, like the others, could not help +listening with delight to his rich, clear tenor, and Mr. Ludolph was +undisguised in his admiration. + +"I declare, Mr. Fleet, I have been depriving myself of a good deal of +pleasure. I meant to have you up to sing with us before, but we have +been under such a press of business of late! But the first evening I +am disengaged you must surely come." + +Christine had noticed how quietly and almost indifferently Dennis had +taken the many compliments showered on him before, but now, when her +father spoke, his face flushed, and a sudden light came into his eyes. +Dennis had thought, "I can then see and speak to her." Every now and +then she caught his eager, questioning, and almost appealing glance, +but he made no advances. "He thinks I am angry because of his keen +criticism of my picture. For the sake of my own pride, I must not let +him think that I care so much about his opinion;" and Christine resolved +to let some of the ice thaw that had formed between them. Moreover, +in spite of herself, when she was thrown into his society, he greatly +interested her. He seemed to have just what she had not. He could meet +her on her own ground in matters of taste, and then, in contrast with +her cold, negative life, he was so earnest and positive. "Perhaps papa +spoke for us both," she thought, "and I have been depriving myself of +a pleasure also, for he certainly interests while most men only weary +me." + +Between ten and eleven supper was announced; not the prodigal abundance +under which the brewer's table had groaned, but a dainty, elegant +little affair, which inspired and promoted social feeling, though the +"spirit of wine" was absent. The eye was feasted as truly as the palate. +Christine had stood near Dennis as the last piece was sung, and he +turned and said in a low, eager tone, "May I have the pleasure of +waiting on you at supper?" + +She hesitated, but his look was so wistful that she could not well +refuse, so with a slight smile she bowed assent, and placed the tips +of her little gloved hand on his arm, which so trembled that she looked +inquiringly and curiously into his face. It was very pale, as was ever +the case when he felt deeply. He waited on her politely but silently +at first. She sat in an angle, somewhat apart from the others. As he +stood by her side, thinking how to refer to the morning in the +show-room, she said: "Mr. Fleet, you are not eating anything, and you +look as if you had been living on air of late--very unlike your +appearance when you so efficiently aided me in the rearrangement of +the store. I am delighted that you keep up the better order of things." +Dennis's answer was quite irrelevant. + +"Miss Ludolph," he said, abruptly, "I saw that I gave you pain that +morning in the show-room. If you only knew how the thought has pained +me!" + +Christine flushed almost angrily, but said, coldly, "Mr. Fleet, that +is a matter you can never understand, therefore we had better dismiss +the subject." + +But Dennis had determined to break the ice between them at any risk, +so he said, firmly but respectfully: "Miss Ludolph, I did understand +all, the moment I saw your face that day. I do understand how you have +felt since, better than you imagine." + +His manner and words were so assured that she raised a startled face +to his, but asked coldly and in an indifferent manner, "What can you +know of my feelings?" + +"I know," said Dennis, in a low tone, looking searchingly into her +face, from which cool composure was fast fading--"I know your dearest +hope was to be among the first in art. You staked that hope on your +success in a painting that required a power which you do not possess." +Christine became very pale, but from her eyes shone a light before +which most men would have quailed. But Dennis's love was so true and +strong that he could wound her for the sake of the healing and life +he hoped to bring, and he continued--"On that morning this cherished +hope for the future failed you, not because of my words, but because +your artist eye saw that my words were true. You have since been +unhappy--" + +"What right have _you_--you who were but a few days since--who are a +stranger--what right have you to speak thus to me?" + +"I know what you would say, Miss Ludolph," he answered, a slight flush +coming into his pale face. "Friends may be humble and yet true. But +am I not right?" + +"I have no claim on your friendship," said Christine, coldly. "But, +for the sake of argument, grant that you are right, what follows?" and +she looked at him more eagerly than she knew. She felt that he had +read her very soul and was deeply moved, and again the superstitious +feeling crept over her, "That young man is in some way connected with +my destiny." + +Dennis saw his power and proceeded rapidly, for he knew they might be +interrupted at any moment; and so they would have been had anything +less interesting than eating occupied the attention of others. + +"I saw in the picture what in your eyes and mine would be a fatal +defect--the lack of life and true feeling--the lack of power to live. +I did not know who painted it, but felt that any one who could paint +as well as that, and yet leave out the soul, as it were, had not the +power to put it in. No artist of such ability could willingly or +ignorantly have permitted such a defect." + +Christine's eyes sank, their fire faded out, and her face had the +pallor of one listening to her doom. This deeper feeling mastered the +momentary resentment against the hand that was wounding her, and she +forgot him, and all, in her pain and despair. + +In a low, earnest tone Dennis continued: "But since I have come to +know who the artist is, since I have studied the picture more fully, +and have taken the liberty of some observation"--Christine hung on +his lips breathlessly, and Dennis spoke slowly, marking the effect of +every word--"I have come to the decided belief that the lady who painted +that picture can reach the sphere of true and highest art." + +The light that stole into Christine's face under his slow, emphatic +words was like a rosy dawn in June; and the thought flashed through +Dennis's mind, "If an earthly hope can so light up her face, what will +be the effect of a heavenly one?" + +For a moment she sat as one entranced, looking at a picture far off +in the future. His words had been so earnest and assured that they +seemed reality. Suddenly she turned on him a look as grateful and happy +as the former one had been full of pain and anger, and said: "Ah, do +not deceive me, do not flatter. You cannot know the sweetness and power +of the hope you are inspiring. To be disappointed again would be death. +If you are trifling with me I will never forgive you," she added, in +sudden harshness, her brow darkening. + +"Nor should I deserve to be forgiven if I deceived you in a matter +that to you is so sacred." + +"But how--how am I to gain this magic power to make faces feel and +live on canvas?" + +"You must believe. You yourself must feel." + +She looked at him with darkening face, and then in a sudden burst of +passion said: "I don't believe; I can't feel. All this is mockery, +after all." + +"No!" said Dennis, in the deep, assured tone that ever calms and secures +attention. "This is not mockery. I speak the words of truth and +soberness. You do not believe, but that is not the same as cannot. And +permit me to contradict you when I say you _do_ feel. On this subject so +near your heart you feel most deeply--feel as I never knew any one feel +before. This proves you capable of feeling on other and higher subjects, +and what you feel your trained and skilful hand can portray. You felt on +the evening of that miserable day, and sang as I never heard you sing +before. Your tones then would move any heart, and my tears fell with the +rain in sympathy: I could not help it." + +Her bosom rose and fell tumultuously, and her breath came hard and +quick. + +"Oh, if I could believe you were right!" + +"I know I am right," he said, so decidedly that again hope grew rosy +and beautiful in her face. + +"Then again," he continued, eagerly, "see what an advantage you have +over the most of us. Your power of imitation is wonderful. _You can copy +anything you see._" + +"Good-evening, Miss Ludolph. Where have you been hiding? I have twice +made the tour of the supper-room in my search," broke in the voluble +Mr. Mellen. Then he gave Dennis a cool stare, who acted as if +unconscious of his presence. An expression of disgust flitted across +Christine's face at the interruption, or the person--perhaps both--and +she was about to shake him off that Dennis might speak further, +when Miss Winthrop and others came up, and there was a general movement +back to the parlors. + +"Why, Christine, what is the matter?" asked her friend. "You look as +if you had a fever. What has Mr. Fleet been saying?" + +"Oh, we have had an argument on my hobby, art, and of course don't +agree, and so got excited in debate." + +Miss Winthrop glanced keenly at them and said, "I would like to have +heard it, for it was Greek meeting Greek." + +"To what art or _trade_ did Mr. Fleet refer?" asked Mr. Mellen, with an +insinuation that all understood. + +"One that you do not understand," said Christine, keenly. + +The petted and spoiled millionaire flushed angrily a moment, and then +said with a bow: "You are right, Miss Ludolph. Mr. Fleet is acquainted +with one or two arts that I have never had the pleasure of learning." + +"He has at least learned the art of being a gentleman," was the sharp +retort. + +The young man's face grew darker, and he said, "From the _sweeping_ +nature of your remarks, I perceive that Mr. Fleet is high in your +favor." + +"A poor pun made in poorer taste," was all the comfort he got from +Christine. + +Dennis was naturally of a very jealous disposition where his affections +were concerned. His own love took such entire possession of him that +he could not brook the interference of others, or sensibly consider +that they had the same privilege to woo, and win if possible, that he +had. Especially distasteful to him was this rich and favored youth, +whose presence awakened all his combativeness, which was by no means +small. + +Mr. Mellen's most inopportune interruption and covert taunts provoked +him beyond endurance. His face was fairly white with rage, and for a +moment he felt that he could stamp his rival out of existence. In the +low, concentrated voice of passion he said, "If Mr. Mellen should lose +his property, as many do, I gather from his remarks that he would still +keep up his idea of a gentleman on charity." + +Mr. Mellen flushed to the roots of his hair, his hands clenched. In +the flashing eyes and threatening faces of the young men those +witnessing the scene foresaw trouble. A light hand fell on Dennis's +arm, and Miss Winthrop said, "Mr. Fleet, I wish to show you a picture, +and ask your judgment in regard to it." + +Dennis understood the act, and in a moment more his face was crimson +with shame. + +"Miss Winthrop, you ought to send me home at once. I told you I was +unfit for society. Somehow I am not myself. I humbly ask your pardon." + +"So sincere a penitent shall receive absolution at once. You were +greatly provoked. I trust you for the future." + +"You may," was the emphatic answer. After that pledge Mr. Mellen might +have struck him and received no more response than from a marble statue. + +Mr. Mellen also took a sober second thought, remembering that he was +in a lady's parlor. He walked away with his ears tingling, for the +flattered youth had never had such an experience before. The few who +witnessed the scene smiled significantly, as did Christine half +contemptuously; but Miss Winthrop soon restored serenity, and +the remaining hours passed away in music and dancing. Christine did not +speak to Dennis again--that is, by word of mouth--but she thought of +him constantly, and their eyes often met;--on his part that same eager, +questioning look. She ever turned hers at once away. But his words +kept repeating themselves continually, especially his last sentence, +when the unlucky Mr. Mellen had broken in upon them--"You can copy +anything you see." + +"How noble and expressive of varied feeling his face is!" she thought, +watching it change under the playful badinage of Miss Winthrop. + +"How I would like to copy it! Well, you can--'You can copy anything +you see.'" Then like a flash came a suggestion--"You can make him +love you, and copy feeling, passion, life--from the _living_ face. +Whether I can believe or feel, myself, is very doubtful. This I can +do: he himself said so. I cannot love, myself--I must not; I do not +wish to now, but perhaps I can inspire love in him, and then make his +face a study. As to my believing, he can never know how utterly +impossible his faith is to me." + +Then conscience entered a mild protest against the cruelty of the +project. "Nonsense!" she said to herself; "most girls flirt for sport, +and it is a pity if I cannot with such a purpose in view. He will soon +get over a little puncture in his heart after I have sailed away to +my bright future beyond the sea, and perhaps Susie will comfort him;" +and she smiled at the thought. Dennis saw the smile and was entranced +by its loveliness. How little he guessed the cause! + +Having resolved, Christine acted promptly. When their eyes again met, +she gave him a slight smile. He caught it instantly and looked +bewildered, as if he could not believe his eyes. Again, when a little +later, at the urgent request of many, he sang alone for the first time, +and again moved his hearers deeply by the real feeling in his tones, +he turned from the applause of all, with that same questioning look, +to her. She smiled an encouragement that she had never given him before. +The warm blood flooded his face instantly. All thought that it was the +general chorus of praise. Christine knew that she had caused it, and +surprise and almost exultation came into her face. "I half believe he +loves me now," she said. She threw him a few more kindly smiles from +time to time, as one might throw some glittering things to an eager +child, and every moment assured her of her power. + +"I will try one more test," she said, and by a little effort she lured +to her side the offended Mr. Mellen, and appeared much pleased by his +attention. Then unmistakably the pain of jealousy was stamped on +Dennis's face, and she was satisfied. Shaking off the perplexed Mr. +Mellen again, she went to the recess of a window to hide her look of +exultation. + +"The poor victim loves me already," she said. "The mischief is done. +I have only to avail myself of what exists from no fault of mine, and +surely I ought to; otherwise the passion of the infatuated youth will +be utterly wasted, and do no one any good." + +Thus in a somewhat novel way Christine obtained a new master in +painting, and poor Dennis and his love were put to use somewhat as a +human subject might be if dissected alive. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE TWO HEIGHTS + + +Dennis went home in a strange tumult of hopes and fears, but hope +predominated, for evidently she cared little for Mr. Mellen. "The ice +is broken at last," he said. It was, but he was like to fall through +into a very cold bath, though he knew it not. He was far too excited +to sleep, and sat by his open window till the warm June night grew +pale with the light of coming day. + +Suddenly a bright thought struck him; a moment more and it became an +earnest purpose. "I think I can paint something that may express to +her what I dare not put in words." + +He immediately went up into the loft and prepared a large frame, so +proportioned that two pictures could be painted side by side, one +explanatory and an advance upon the other. He stretched his canvas +over this, and sketched and outlined rapidly under the inspiration of +his happy thought. + +Christine came with her father to the store, as had been her former +custom, and her face had its old expression. The listless, disappointed +look was gone. She passed on, not appearing to see him while with her +father, and Dennis's heart sank again. "She surely knew where to look +for me if she cared to look," he said to himself. Soon after he went +to the upper show-room to see to the hanging of a new picture. + +"I am so glad your taste, instead of old Schwartz's mathematics, has +charge of this department now," said a honeyed voice at his side. He +was startled greatly. + +"What is the matter? Are you nervous, Mr. Fleet? I had no idea that +a lady could so frighten you." + +He was blushing like a girl, but said, "I have read that something +within, rather than anything without, makes us cowards." + +"Ah, then you confess to a guilty conscience?" she replied, with a +twinkle in her eye. + +"I do not think I shall confess at all till I have a merciful +confessor," said Dennis, conscious of a deeper meaning than his light +words might convey. + +"'The quality of mercy is not strained,' therefore it is unfit for my +use. I'll none of it, but for each offence impose unlimited penance." + +"But suppose one must sin?" + +"He must take the consequences then. Even your humane religion teaches +that;" and with this parting arrow she vanished, leaving him too excited +to hang his picture straight. + +It all seemed a bewildering dream. Being so thoroughly taken by surprise +and off his guard, he had said far more than he meant. But had she +understood him? Yes, better than he had himself, and laughed at his +answers with their covert meanings. + +She spent the next two days in sketching and outlining his various +expressions as far as possible from memory. She would learn to catch +those evanescent lines--that something which makes the human face +eloquent, though the lips are silent. + +Dennis was in a maze, but he repeated to himself jubilantly again, +"The ice is broken." That evening at Mr. Bruder's he asked for studies +in ice. + +"Vy, dat is out of season," said Mr. Bruder, with a laugh. + +"No, now is just the time. It is a nice cool subject for this hot +weather. Please oblige me; for certain reasons I wish to be able to +paint ice perfectly." + +Arctic scenery was Mr. Bruder's forte, on which he specially prided +himself. He was too much of a gentleman to ask questions, and was +delighted to find the old zest returning in his pupil. They were soon +constructing bergs, caves, and grottoes of cold blue ice. Evening after +evening, while sufficient light lasted, they worked at this study. +Dennis's whole soul seemed bent on the formation of ice. After a month +of labor Mr. Bruder said, "I hope you vill get over dis by fall, or +ve all freeze to death." + +"One of these days I shall explain," said Dennis, smiling. + +The evening of the second day after the little rencounter in the +show-room, Mr. Ludolph sat enjoying his cigar, and Christine was at +the piano playing a difficult piece of music. + +"Come, father," she said, "here is a fine thing just from Germany. +There is a splendid tenor solo in it, and I want you to sing it for +me." + +"Pshaw!" said her father, "why did I not think of it before?" and he +rang the bell. "Here, Brandt, go down to the store, and if Mr. Fleet +is there ask him if he will come up to my rooms for a little while." + +Brandt met Dennis just starting for his painting lesson, but led him +a willing captive, to give Christine instruction unconsciously. + +She, whose strategy had brought it all about, smiled at her success. +It was not her father's tenor she wanted, but Dennis's face; and her +father should unknowingly work her will. The girl had learned so much +from the wily man of the world that she was becoming his master. + +Dennis came and entered with a thrill of delight what was to him +enchanted ground. Mr. Ludolph was affable, Christine kind, but she +looked more than she said. + +Dennis sang the solo, after one or two efforts, correctly. Then Mr. +Ludolph brought out a piece of music that he wished to try; Christine +found others; and before they knew it the evening had passed. Quite +a knot of delighted listeners gathered in the street opposite. This +Christine pointed out to her father with evident annoyance. + +"Well, my dear," he said, "hotel life in a crowded city renders escape +from such things impossible." + +But a purpose was growing in her mind of which she spoke soon after. +Throughout the evening she had studied Dennis's face as much as she +could without attracting notice, and the thought grew upon her that +at last she had found a path to the success she so craved. + +"You seem to have gone to work with your old interest," said her father, +as he came out of his room the next morning and found Christine at her +easel. + +"I shall try it again," she said, briefly. + +"That is right," said he. "The idea of being daunted by one partial +failure! I predict for you such success as will satisfy even your +fastidious taste." + +"We shall see," she said. "I hope, too." But she would not have her +father know on what grounds. He might regard the experiment as a +dangerous one for herself as well as for Dennis, and she decided to +keep her plan entirely secret. + +She now came to the store daily, and rarely went away without giving +Dennis a smile or word of recognition. But he noticed that she ever +did this in a casual manner, and in a way that would not attract +attention. He also took the hint, and never was obtrusive or +demonstrative, but it was harder work for his frank nature. When +unobserved, his glances grew more ardent day by day. So far from +checking these, she encouraged them, but, when in any way he sought +to put his feelings into words, she changed the subject instantly and +decidedly. This puzzled him, for he did not understand that looks could +be painted, but not words. The latter were of no use to her. But she +led him on skilfully, and, from the unbounded power his love gave her, +played upon his feelings as adroitly as she touched her grand piano. + +Soon after the company at Miss Winthrop's, she said to him, "You +received several invitations the other evening, did you not?" + +"Yes." + +"Accept them. Go into society. It will do you good." +Thus he soon found himself involved in a round of sociables, musicales, +and now and then a large party. Christine was usually present, radiant, +brilliant, the cynosure of all eyes, but ever coolly self-possessed. +At first she would greet him with distant politeness, or pretend not +to see him at all, but before the evening was over would manage to +give him a half-hour in which she would be kind and even gentle at +times, but very observant. Then for the rest of the evening he would +find no chance to approach. It appeared that she was deeply interested +in him, enjoyed his society, and was even becoming attached to him, +but that for some reason she determined that no one should notice this, +and that matters should only go so far. Poor Dennis could not know +that he was only her unconscious instructor in painting, paid solely +in the coin of false smiles and delusive hopes. At times, though, she +would torture him dreadfully. Selecting one of her many admirers, she +would seem to smile upon his suit, and poor Dennis would writhe in all +the agonies of jealousy, for he was very human, and had all the normal +feeling of a strong man. She would then watch his face grow pale and +his manner restless, as quietly and critically as an entomologist +regards the struggles of an insect beneath his microscope. Again, she +would come to him all grace and sweetness, and his fine face would +light up with hope and pleasure. She would say honeyed nothings, but +study him just as coolly in another aspect. + +Thus she kept him hot and cold by turns--now lifting him to the pinnacle +of hope, again casting him down into the valley of fear and doubt. +What she wanted of him was just what she had not--feeling, intense, +varied feeling, so that, while she remained ice, she could paint as +if she felt; and with a gifted woman's tact, and with the power of one +loved almost to idolatry, she caused every chord of his soul, now in +happy harmony, now in painful discord, to vibrate under her skilful +touch. But such a life was very wearing, and he was failing under it. +Moreover, he was robbing himself of sleep in the early morning, that +he might work on his picture in the loft of the store, for which he +asked of poor Mr. Bruder nothing but ice. + +Mrs. Bruder worried over him continually. + +"You vork too hart. Vat shall we do for you? Oh, my fren, if you love +us do not vork so hart," she would often say. But Dennis would only +smile and turn to her husband in his insatiable demand for painted +ice. At last Mr. Bruder said, "Mr. Fleet, you can paint ice, as far +as I see, as veil as myself." + +Then Dennis turned around short and said, "Now I want warm rosy light +and foliage; give me studies in these." + +"By de hammer of Thor, but you go to extremes." + +"You shall know all some day," said Dennis, entering on his new tasks +with increasing eagerness. + +But day by day he grew thinner and paler. Even Christine's heart +sometimes relented; for, absorbed as she was in her own work and +interests, she could not help noticing how sadly he differed from the +vigorous youth who had lifted the heavy pictures for her but a few +short weeks ago. But she quieted herself by the thought that he was +a better artistic subject, and that he would mend again when the cool +weather came. + +"Where shall we go for the two hot months?" asked her father the morning +after the Fourth. + +"I have a plan to propose," replied Christine. "Suppose we go to +housekeeping." + +"What!" said her father, dropping his knife and fork, and looking at +her in astonishment. "Go to all the expense of furnishing a house, +when we do not expect to stay here much more than a year? We should +hardly be settled before we left it." + +"Listen to me patiently till I finish, and then I will abide by your +decision. But I think you will give me credit for having a slight turn +for business as well as art. You remember Mr. Jones's beautiful house +on the north side, do you not? It stands on ---- Street, well back, +surrounded by a lawn and flowers. There is only one other house on the +block. Well, Mr. Jones is embarrassed, and his house is for sale. From +inquiry I am satisfied that a cash offer would obtain the property +cheaply. The furniture is good, and much of it elegant. What we do not +want--what will not accord with a tasteful refurnishing--can be sent +to an auction-room. At comparatively slight expense, if you can spare +Mr. Fleet to help me during the time when business is dull, I can make +the house such a gem of artistic elegance that it will be noted +throughout the city, and next fall some rich snob, seeking to vault +suddenly into social position, will give just what you are pleased to +ask. In the meantime we have a retired and delightful home. + +"Moreover, father," she continued, touching him on his weak side, "it +will be a good preparation for the more difficult and important work +of the same kind awaiting me in my own land." + +"Humph!" said Mr. Ludolph, meditatively, "there is more method in your +madness than I imagined. I will think of it, for it is too important +a step to be taken hastily." + +Mr. Ludolph did think of it, and, after attending to pressing matters +in the store, went over to see the property. A few days afterward he +came up to dinner and threw the deed for it into his daughter's lap. +She glanced it over, and her eyes grew luminous with delight and +triumph. + +"See how comfortable and happy I will make you in return for this +kindness," she said. + +"Oh, come," replied her father, laughing, "that is not the point. This +is a speculation, and your business reputation is at stake." + +"I will abide the test," she answered, with a significant nod. + +Christine desired the change for several reasons. There was a room in +the house that would just suit her as a studio. She detested the +publicity of a hotel. The furnishing of an elegant house was a form +of activity most pleasing to her energetic nature, and she felt a very +strong wish to try her skill in varied effect before her grand effort +in the Ludolph Hall of the future. + +But in addition to these motives was another, of which she did not +speak to her father. In the privacy of her own home she could pursue +that peculiar phase of art study in which she was absorbed. Her life +had now become a most exciting one. She ever seemed on the point of +obtaining the power to portray the eloquence of passion, feeling, but +there was a subtile something that still eluded her. She saw it daily, +and yet could not reproduce it. She seemed to get the features right, +and yet they were dead, or else the emotion was so exaggerated as to +suggest weak sentimentality, and this of all things disgusted her. +Every day she studied the expressive face of Dennis Fleet, the +mysterious power seemed nearer her grasp. Her effort was now gaining +all the excitement of a chase. She saw before her just what she wanted, +and it seemed that she had only to grasp her pencil or brush, and place +the fleeting expressions where they might always appeal to the sympathy +of the beholder. Nearly all her studies now were the human face and +form, mainly those of ladies, to disarm suspicion. Of course she took +no distinct likeness of Dennis. She sought only to paint what his face +expressed. At times she seemed about to succeed, and excitement brought +color to her cheek and fire to her eye that made her dazzlingly +beautiful to poor Dennis. Then she would smile upon him in such a +bewitching, encouraging way that it was little wonder his face lighted +up with all the glory of hope. + +If once more she could have him about her as when rearranging the +store, and, without the restraint of curious eyes, could play upon his +heart, then pass at once to her easel with the vivid impression of +what she saw, she might catch the coveted power, and become able to +portray, as if she felt, that which is the inspiration of all the +highest forms of art--feeling. + +That evening, Dennis, at Mr. Ludolph's request, came to the hotel to +try some new music. During the evening Mr. Ludolph was called out for +a little time. Availing himself of the opportunity, Dennis said, "You +seem to be working with all your old zest and hope." + +"Yes," she said, "with greater hope than ever before." + +"Won't you show me something that you are doing?" + +"No, not yet. I am determined that when you see work of mine again the +fatal defect which you pointed out shall be absent." + +His eyes and face became eloquent with the hope she inspired. Was her +heart, awakening from its long winter of doubt and indifference, +teaching her to paint? Had she recognized the truth of his assurance +that she must feel, and then she could portray feeling? and had she +read in his face and manner that which had created a kindred impulse +in her heart? He was about to speak, the ice of his reserve and prudence +fast melting under what seemed good evidence that her smiles and +kindness might be interpreted in accordance with his longings. She saw +and anticipated. + +"With all your cleverness, Mr. Fleet, I may prove you at fault, and +become able to portray what I do not feel or believe." + +"You mean to say that you work from your old standpoint merely?" asked +Dennis, feeling as if a sunny sky had suddenly darkened. + +"I do not say that at all, but that I do not work from yours." + +"And yet you hope to succeed?" "I think I am succeeding." + +Perplexity and disappointment were plainly written on his face. She, +with a merry and half-malicious laugh, turned to the piano, and sung: + + From Mount Olympus' snowy height + The gods look down on human life: + Beneath contending armies fight; + All undisturbed they watch the strife. + +Dennis looked at her earnestly, and after a moment said, "Will you +please play that accompaniment again?" + +She complied, and he sang: + + Your Mount Olympus' icy peak + Is barren waste, by cold winds swept: + Another height I gladly see, + Where God o'er human sorrow wept. + +She turned a startled and almost wistful face to him, for he had given +a very unexpected answer to her cold, selfish philosophy, which was +so apt and sudden as to seem almost inspired. + +"Do you refer to Christ's weeping over Jerusalem?" she asked. + +"Yes." + +She sat for a little time silent and thoughtful, and Dennis watched +her keenly. Suddenly her brow darkened, and she said, bitterly: +"Delusion! If He had been a God He would not have idly wept over sorrow. +He would have banished it." + +Dennis was about to reply eagerly, when Mr. Ludolph entered, and music +was resumed. But it was evident that Dennis's lines had disturbed the +fair sceptic's equanimity. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +BEGUILED + + +Dennis returned to his room greatly perplexed. There was something in +Christine's actions which he could not understand. From the time of +their first conversation at Miss Winthrop's, she had evidently felt +and acted differently. If her heart remained cold and untouched, if +as yet neither faith nor love had any existence therein, what was the +inspiring motive? Why should deep discouragement change suddenly to +assured hope? + +Then again her manner was equally inexplicable. From that same evening +she gave him more encouragement than he had even hoped to receive for +months, but yet he made no progress. She seemed to enjoy meeting him, +and constantly found opportunity to do so. Her eyes were continually +seeking his face, but there was something in her manner in this respect +that puzzled him more than anything else. She often seemed looking at +his face, rather than at _him_. At first Christine had been furtive +and careful in her observations, but as the habit grew upon her, and +her interest increased, she would sometimes gaze so steadily that poor +Dennis was deeply embarrassed. Becoming conscious of this, she would +herself color slightly, and be more careful for a time. + +In her eagerness for success, Christine did not realize how dangerous +an experiment she was trying. She could not look upon such a face as +Dennis Fleet's, eloquent with that which should never fail to touch +a woman's heart with sympathy, and then forget it when she chose. +Moreover, though she knew it not, in addition to her interest in him +as an art study, his strong, positive nature affected her cool, negative +one most pleasantly. His earnest manifested feeling fell like sunlight +on a heart benumbed with cold. + +Thus, under the stimulus of his presence, she found that she could +paint or sketch to much better purpose than when alone. This knowledge +made her rejoice in secret over the opportunity she could now have, +as Dennis again assisted her in hanging pictures, and affixing to the +walls ornaments of various kinds. + +Coming to him one morning in the store, she said, "I am going to ask +a favor of you again." + +Dennis looked as if she were conferring the greatest of favors. His +face always lighted up when she spoke to him. + +"It is very kind of you to ask so pleasantly for what you can command," +he said. + +"To something of the same effect you answered before, and the result +was the disagreeable experience at Miss Brown's." + +Dennis's brow contracted a little, but he said, heroically, "I will +go to Miss Brown's again if you wish it." + +"How self-sacrificing you are!" she replied, with a half-mischievous +smile. + +"Not as much so as you imagine," he answered, flushing slightly. + +"Well, set your mind at rest on that score. Though not very merciful, +as you know, I would put no poor soul through that ordeal again. In +this case you will only have to encounter one of the tormentors you +met on that occasion, and I will try to vouch for her better behavior." +Then she added, seriously: "I hope you will not think the task beneath +you. You do not seem to have much of the foolish pride that stands in +the way of so many Americans, and then"--looking at him with a pleading +face--"I have so set my heart upon it, and it would be such a +disappointment if you were unwilling!" + +"You need waste no more ammunition on one ready to surrender at +discretion," he said. + +"Very well; then I shall treat you with all the rigors of a prisoner +of war. I shall carry you away captive to my new castle on the north +side and put you at your old menial task of hanging pictures and +decorating in various ways. As eastern sovereigns built their palaces +and adorned their cities by the labors of those whom the fortunes of +war threw into their hands, so your skill and taste shall be useful +to me; and I, your head task-mistress," she added, with her insinuating +smile, "will be ever present to see that there is no idling, nothing +but monotonous toil. Had you not better have stood longer in the +defensive?" + +Dennis held out his hands in mock humility and said: "I am ready for +my chains. You shall see with what fortitude I endure my captivity." + +"It is well that you should show it somewhere, for you have not done +so in your resistance. But I parole you on your honor, to report at +such times as I shall indicate and papa can spare you;" and with a +smile and a lingering look that seemed, as before, directed to his +face rather than himself, she passed out. + +That peculiar look often puzzled him, and at times he would go to a +glass and see if there was anything wrong or unusual in his appearance. +But now his hopes rose higher than ever. She had been very gracious, +certainly, and invited intimate companionship. Dennis felt that she +must have read his feelings in his face and manner, and, to his +ingenuous nature, any encouragement seemed to promise all he hoped. + +For a week after this he scarcely saw her, for she was very busy making +preliminary arrangements for the occupation of her new home. But one +afternoon she suddenly appeared, and said, with affected severity, +"Report to-mor-row at nine A.M." + +Dennis bowed humbly. She gave him a pleasant smile over her shoulder, +and passed away as quickly as she had come. It seemed like a vision +to him, and only a trace of her favorite perfume (which indeed ever +seemed more an atmosphere than a perfume) remained as evidence that +she had been there. + +At five minutes before the time on the following day he appeared at +the new Ludolph mansion. From an open window Christine beckoned him +to enter, and welcomed him with characteristic words--"In view of your +foolish surrender to my power, remember that you have no rights that +I am bound to respect." + +"I throw myself on your mercy." + +"I have already told you that I do not possess that trait; so prepare +for the worst." + +She was dressed in some light summer fabric, and her rounded arms and +neck were partially bare. She looked so white and cool, so +self-possessed, and, with all her smiles, so devoid of warm human +feeling, that Dennis felt a sudden chill at heart. The ancient fable +of the sirens occurred to him. Might she not be luring him on to his +own destruction? At times he almost hoped that she loved him; again, +something in her manner caused him to doubt everything. But there were +not, as in the case of Ulysses and his crew, friendly hands to bind +and restrain, or to put wax in his ears, and soon the music of her +voice, the strong enchantment of the love she had inspired, banished +all thought of prudence. His passion was now becoming a species of +intoxication, a continued and feverish excitement, and its influence +was unhappy on mind and body. There was no rest, peace, or assurance +in it, and the uncertainty, the tantalizing inability to obtain a +definite satisfying word, and yet the apparent nearness of the prize, +wore upon him. Sometimes, when late at night he sat brooding over his +last interview, weighing with the nice scale of a lover's anxiety her +every look and even accent, his own haggard face would startle him. + +Then again her influence was not morally good, and his interest declined +in everything save what was connected with her. + +Conscience at times told him that he was more bent on gaining her love +for himself than in winning it for God. He satisfied himself by trying +to reason that when he had won her affection his power for good would +be greater, and thus, while he ever sought to look and suggest his own +love in nameless little ways, he made less and less effort to remind +her of a better love than even his. Moreover, she never encouraged any +approach to sacred themes, sometimes repelling it decidedly, and so, +though he would scarcely acknowledge it, the traitorous fear sprung +up, that in speaking of God's love he might mar his chances of speaking +of his own. + +In the retirement of his own room, his reveries grew longer, and his +prayers shorter and less inspired by faith and earnestness. At the +mission school, Susie Winthrop noticed with regret that the lesson was +often given in a listless, preoccupied manner; and even the little +boys themselves missed something in the teacher once so interesting +and animated. From witnessing his manner when with Christine, Miss +Winthrop had more than suspected his secret for some time, and she +felt at first a genuine sympathy for him, believing his love to be +hopeless. From the first she had found Dennis very fascinating, but +when she read his secret in his ardent glances toward Christine, she +became conscious that her interest was rather greater than passing +acquaintance warranted, and, like the good, sensible girl that she +was, fought to the death the incipient fancy. At first she felt that +he ought to know that Christine was pledged to a future that would +render his love vain. But her own feelings made her so exceedingly +sensitive that it was impossible to attempt so difficult and delicate +a task. Then, as Christine seemed to smile upon him, she said to +herself: "After all, what is their plan, but a plan, and to me a very +chimerical one? Perhaps Mr. Fleet can give Christine a far better +chance of happiness than her father's ambition. And, after all, these +are matters in which no third person can interfere." So, while remaining +as cordial as ever, she prudently managed to see very little of Dennis. + +As we have seen, under Christine's merry and half-bantering words (a +style of conversation often assumed with him), even the thought of +caution vanished. She led him over the moderately large and partially +furnished house. There were women cleaning, and mechanics at work on +some of the rooms. As they passed along she explained the nature of +the decorations she wished. They consisted largely of rich carvings +in wood, and unique frames. + +"I wish you to help me design these, and see that they are properly +put up, and to superintend the fresco-painters and mechanics in general. +Indeed, I think you are more truly my prime-minister than my captive." + +"Not less your captive," said Dennis, with a flush. + +She gave him a bewildering smile, and then studied its effect upon +him. He was in Elysium, and his eyes glowed with delight at her presence +and the prospect before him. At last she led him into two large +apartments on the second floor that opened into each other, and said, +"These are my rooms; that yonder is my studio," as was evident from +the large easel with canvas prepared upon it. + +They at once had to Dennis all the sacredness of a shrine. + +"I intend to make these rooms like two beautiful pictures," said +Christine, "and here shall be the chief display of your taste." + +Dennis could scarcely believe his ears, or realize that the cold, +beautiful girl who a few short months ago did not notice him now +voluntarily gave him such opportunities to urge his suit. The success +that a man most covets seemed assured, and his soul was intoxicated +with delight. He said, "You intimated that my tasks might be menial, +but I feel as I imagine a Greek artist must have done, when asked to +decorate the temple of a goddess." + +"I think I told you once before that your imagination overshadowed +your other faculties." + +Her words recalled the painted girl whom she by a strange coincidence +so strongly resembled. To his astonishment he saw the same striking +likeness again. Christine was looking at him with the laughing, scornful +expression that the German lady bent upon the awkward lover who kneeled +at her feet. His face darkened in an instant. + +"Have I offended you?" she asked, gently; "I remember now you did not +admire that picture." + +"I liked everything about it save the expression of the girl's face. +I think you will also remember that I said that such a face should be +put to nobler uses." + +Christine flushed slightly, and for a moment was positively afraid of +him. She saw that she must be more careful, for she was dealing with +one of quick eye and mind. At the same time her conscience reproached +her again. The more she saw of him the more she realized how sincere +and earnest he was; how different from ordinary society-men, to whom +an unsuccessful suit to a fair lady is a mere annoyance. But she was +not one to give up a purpose readily for the sake of conscience or +anything else, and certainly not now, when seemingly on the point of +success. So she said, with a slight laugh, "Do not compare me to any +of those old pagan myths again;" and having thus given a slight reason, +or excuse, for her unfortunate expression, she proceeded to beguile +him more thoroughly than ever by the subtile witchery of smiles, +glances, and words, that might mean everything or nothing. + +"You seem to have a study on your easel there," said Dennis, as they +stood together in the studio. "May I see it?" + +"No," said she; "you are to see nothing till you see a triumph in the +portrayal of feeling and lifelike earnestness that even your critical +eye cannot condemn." + +She justly feared that, should he see her work, he might discover her +plan; for, however she might disguise it, something suggesting himself +entered into all her studies. + +"I hope you will succeed, but doubt it." + +"Why?" she asked, quickly. + +"Because we cannot portray what we cannot feel. The stream cannot rise +higher than its fountain." Then he added, with heightened color and +some hesitation, "I fear--your heart is still sleeping"; and he watched +with deep anxiety how she would take the questioning remark. + +At first she flushed almost angrily; but, recovering self-possession +in a moment, she threw upon him an arch smile, suggesting all that a +lover could wish, and said: "Be careful, Mr. Fleet; you are seeking +to penetrate mysteries that we most jealously guard. You know that in +the ancient temple there was an inner sanctuary which none might enter." + +"Yes, _one_ might," said Dennis, significantly. + +With her long lashes she veiled the dark blue eyes that expressed +anything but tender feeling, and yet, so shaded, they appeared as a +lover would wish, and in a low tone she answered, "Well, he could not +enter when he would, only when permitted." + +She raised her eyes quickly to see the effect; and she did see an +effect that she would have given thousands to be able to transfer to +canvas. + +His face, above all she had ever seen, seemed designed to express +feeling, passion; and his wearing life had made it so thin, and his +eyes were so large and lustrous, that the spiritual greatly +predominated, and she felt as if she could almost see the throbs of +the strong, passionate heart. + +Apart from her artistic purposes, contact with such warm, intense life +had for Christine a growing fascination. She had not realized that in +kindling and fanning this flame of honest love to sevenfold power and +heat, she might be kindled herself. When, therefore, she saw the face +of Dennis Fleet eloquent with the deepest, strongest feeling that human +features can portray, another chord than the artistic one was touched, +and there was a low, faint thrill of that music which often becomes +the sweetest harmony of life. + +"And at some time in the future may I hope to enter?" he asked, +tremulously. + +She threw him another smile over her shoulder as she turned to her +easel--a smile that from a true woman would mean, You may, but which +from many would mean nothing, and said, vaguely, "What is life without +hope?" and then, as matters were going too fast and far, decisively +changed the subject. + +Seated at her easel she painted eagerly and rapidly, while he measured +the space over and around the fireplace with a view to its +ornamentation. She kept the conversation on the general subject of +art, and, though Dennis knew it not, every glance at his face was that +of a portrait-painter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT + + +Dennis went back to the store in a maze of hopes and fears, but hope +predominated. Christine could not be indifferent and treat him as she +did, if she had a particle of sincerity, and with a lover's faith he +would not believe her false, though he knew her to be so faulty. + +"At any rate," he said to himself, "in this new arrangement I have all +the opportunity a man could ask, and if I cannot develop her plainly +manifested interest into something more decisive by such companionship, +I may as well despair;" and he determined to avail himself of every +advantage within his reach in making the most of what he deemed a rare +stroke of fortune. His greatly increased salary enabled him to dress +with that taste and even elegance so pleasing to a lady's eye, and he +had withal acquired that ease and grace of manner which familiarity +with the best society bestows. + +It is also well to tell the reader that after some hesitation Dennis +had confided his feelings to his mother, and received from her the +warmest sympathy. To Ethel Fleet's unworldly nature, that he should +fall in love with and marry his employer's daughter seemed eminently +fitting, with just a spice of beautiful romance. And it was her son's +happiness and Christine's beauty that she thought of, not Mr. Ludolph's +money. In truth, such was her admiration for her son, she felt that +with all her wealth the young lady would receive a greater honor than +she conferred. Though Dennis wrote with the partiality of a lover, he +could not so portray Christine's character but that his mother felt +the deepest anxiety, and often sighed in sad foreboding of serious +trouble in the future. + +From Mrs. Fleet's knowledge of her son's passion, Christine, though +she knew it not, received another advantage of incalculable value. +Dennis had painted an excellent little cabinet likeness of her, and +sent it to his mother. In the quiet of the night she would sit down +before that picture, and by her strong imagination summon her ideal +of Christine, and then lead her directly to Christ, as parents brought +their children of old. Could such prayers and faith be in vain? Faith +is often sorely tried in this world, but never tried in vain. + +Day after day Dennis went to Mr. Ludolph's new home during the morning +hours, and Christine's spell worked with bewildering and increasing +power. While she tortured him with many doubts and fears, his hope +grew to be almost a certainty that he had at last made a place for +himself in her heart. Sometimes the whole story of his love trembled +on his lips, but she never permitted its utterance. That she determined +should be reserved for the climax. He usually met her alone, but noticed +that in the presence of others she was cool and undemonstrative. Mr. +Ludolph rarely saw them together, and, when he did, there was nothing +in his daughter's manner to awaken suspicion. This perfectly acted +indifference in the presence of others, and equally well acted regard +when alone, often puzzled Dennis sorely. But at last he concluded: +"She is wiser than I. She knows that I am in no condition now to make +proposals for her hand; therefore it is better that there should be +no recognized understanding between us;" and he resolved to be as +prudent as she. Then again she would so awaken his jealousy and fears +that he would feel that he must know his fate--that anything was better +than such torturing uncertainty. + +As for Christine, two processes were going on in her mind--one that +she recognized, and one that she did not. + +Her artistic aims were clear and definite. In the first place she meant +perfectly to master the human face as it expressed emotions, especially +such as were of a tender nature; and in the second place she intended +to paint a picture that in itself would make her famous. She chose a +most difficult and delicate subject--of the character she had ever +failed in--a declaration of love. + +When Dennis began to work again in her presence, the picture was well +advanced. + +In a grand old hall, whose sides were decorated with armor and weapons, +a young man stood pleading his cause with a lady whose hand he held. +The young girl's face was so averted that only a beautiful profile was +visible, but her form and attitude were grace itself. The lovers stood +in an angle of the hall near an open window, through which was seen +a fine landscape, a picture within a picture. But Christine meant to +concentrate all her power and skill on the young knight's face. This +should be eloquent with all the feeling and passion that the human +face could express, and she would insure its truthfulness to life +by copying life itself--the reality. Dennis Fleet was the human victim +that she was offering on the altar of her ambition. + +Much of the picture was merely in outline, but she finished the form +and features of the suppliant in all save the expression, and this she +meant to paint from his face whenever she was in the right mood and +could bring matters to a crisis. + +After he had been coming to the house two or three times a week for +nearly a month she felt that she was ready for the final scene, and +yet she dreaded it, she had staked so much hope upon it. It also +provoked her to find that she was really afraid of him. His was such +a strong, sincere nature, that she felt increasingly the wrong of +trifling with it. In vain she tried to quiet herself by saying, "I do +not care a straw for him, and he will soon get over his infatuation +on discovering the truth." + +But she had a lesson to learn as well as he, for as we have intimated, +unrecognized as yet, there was a process going on in her mind that in +time would make strange havoc in her cold philosophy. Her heart's long +winter was slowly breaking up; her girlish passion, intense as it was +foolish, proved that she had a heart. Everything had been against her. +Everything in her experience and education, and especially in her +father's strong character and prejudices, had combined to deaden and +to chill her; and had these influences continued, she would undoubtedly +have become as cold and hard as some whom we find in advanced life +with natures like the poles, where the ice gathers year after year, +but never melts. + +But in Dennis Fleet she met a nature as positive as she was becoming +negative. He was so warm and earnest that when she commenced to fan +his love into a stronger flame for purely artistic purposes, as she +vowed to herself, some sparks of the sacred fire fell on the cold altar +of her own heart and slowly began to kindle. + +But this awakening would not now be that of a child, but of a _woman_. +Therefore, Mr. Ludolph, beware! + +But she had yet much to learn in the hard, strange school of experience +before she would truly know herself or her own needs. + +Success in art, however, was still her ruling passion. And though +strange misgivings annoyed and perplexed her, though her respect for +Dennis daily increased, and at times a sudden pity and softness made +her little hands hesitate before giving an additional wrench to the +rack of uncertainty upon which she kept him; still, she would not for +the world have abandoned her purpose, and such compunctions were as +yet but the little back eddies of the strong current. + +One day, in the latter part of August, Christine felt herself in the +mood to give the finishing touch to the principal figure in her picture. +The day was somewhat hazy, the light subdued and favorable for artistic +work. Though she had prolonged Dennis's labors, to his secret delight +and great encouragement, she could not keep him employed much longer. + +She sent for him to come over in the afternoon. "Some brackets, +carvings, and pictures had come for her studio, and she wished him to +put them up," she said, coolly, as he entered. + +He had come glowing with hope and almost assurance, for, the last time +they had parted, she had dismissed him with unusual kindness. But here +was one of those capricious changes again that he could not understand. + +She took her seat at her easel, saying, with a nod and a smile, "I can +direct you here, for I am in a mood for work this afternoon." + +He bowed quietly and went on with his task. Her rather cool reception +oppressed him, and the tormenting question presented itself, for the +hundredth time, "Can she in any degree feel as I do?" He longed to +settle the matter by plain, straightforward action. + +Her maid knocked at the door, saying, "The mail, mademoiselle." + +A dainty note was handed her, which seemed decidedly pleasing, and +Dennis noticed as she read it that she wore on her finger a solitaire +diamond that he had not seen before. His latent jealousy was aroused. +She saw that her spell was working, and smiled. Soon she said: "Mr. +Fleet, you seem very grave. What is the matter?" + +He answered, curtly, "Nothing." + +She looked at him with a pretty, pained surprise. At the same time her +heart smote her. His face was so pale and thin, and indicated such +real suffering, that she pitied him more than ever. But she would have +suffered much herself for the sake of success, and she was not one to +hesitate long over the suffering of another. She compressed her lips +as she said, mentally: "Art is first, and these transient feelings are +secondary. There is little in the world but that has cost some one +deeply." She did not know how profound a truth this was. + +After a few moments Dennis said, in a tone that had a jealous tinge, +"Miss Ludolph, your correspondent seems to interest you deeply." + +"And you also, I think," she replied, with an arch smile; "and you +will be interested still more when you have read this;" and she offered +him the note. + +"I have no right--do not think me prying," said he, flushing. + +"I give the right. You know a lady can give many rights--if she +chooses," she added, significantly. + +He looked at her eagerly. + +Her eyes fell consciously, and her cheeks glowed with excitement, for +she felt that the critical moment had come. But instantly her proud, +resolute nature aroused as never before, and she determined to make +the most of the occasion, let the consequences be what they might. +Therefore she worked eagerly and watched him closely. Never had she +been so conscious of power. She felt inspired, capable of placing on +the canvas anything she chose. If in this mood she could succeed in +bringing into his face just the expression she desired, she could catch +it and fix it forever, and with it make a laurel (not a hymeneal) +wreath for her own brow. But what could Dennis know of all this? To +him the glowing cheek and eyes so lustrous told a different tale; and +hope--sweet, exquisite, almost assured--sprang up in his heart. + +And he meant that it should be assured. He would speak that day if it +were possible, and _know_ his happiness, instead of fondly believing and +hoping that all was sure. Then he would be as prudent and patient as she +desired. Thus Christine was destined to have her wish fulfilled. + +She continued: "The note is from a special friend of yours; indeed I +think you form a little mutual-admiration society, and you are spoken +of, so I think you had better read it." + +"I shall not read the note," said Dennis; "but you may tell me, if you +choose, what you think the writer will have no objection to my knowing." + +"And do you mean to suggest that you do not know who wrote the note? +I can inform you that you are to be invited to a moonlight sail and +musicale on the water. Is not that a chance for romance?" + +"And will _you_ go?" asked Dennis, eagerly. + +"Yes, if _you_ will," she said, in a low tone, giving him a sidelong +glance. + +This was too much for Dennis, the manner more than the words, and taken +together they would have led any earnest man to committal. He was about +to speak eagerly, but she was not quite ready. + +"Moreover," she continued, quickly, while Dennis stood before her with +cheeks alternately hot and pale, "this special friend who invites you +will be there. Now don't pretend ignorance of her name." + +"I suppose you mean Miss Winthrop," said Dennis, flushing. + +"Ah, you blush, do you? Well, it is my turn to ask pardon for seeming +curiosity." + +He drew a few steps nearer to her, and the expression she had so longed +to see came into his face. She looked at him earnestly with her whole +soul in her eyes. She would photograph him on memory, if possible. For +a moment or two he hesitated, embarrassed by her steady gaze, and +seemingly at a loss for words. Then, in a low, deep tone he said, "You, +better than any one, know that I have no cause to blush at the mention +of Miss Winthrop's name." + +She did not answer, but was painting rapidly. He thought this was due +to natural excitement expressing itself in nervous action. But she did +not discourage him, and this he felt was everything. With his heart +in his eyes and tones, he said: "Oh, Christine, what is the use of +wearing this transparent mask any longer? Your quick woman's eye +has seen for weeks the devoted love I cherish for you. I have heard much +of woman's intuitions. Perhaps you saw my love before I recognized it +myself, since your grace and beauty caused it to grow unconsciously +while I was your humble attendant. But, Christine, believe me, if you +will but utter in words what I fondly believe I have read in your +kindly glances and manner, though so delicately veiled--if you will +give me the strength and rest which come of assured hope--I know that +not far in the future I shall be able to place at your feet more than +mere wealth. I, too, hope to be an artist, and you have been my chief +inspiration. I could show you a picture now that would tell more of +what I mean than can my poor words. There is a richer and happier world +than you have yet known, and oh, how I have prayed that I might lead +you into it!" and in words of burning eloquence he proceeded to tell +the story of his love. + +She heard him as in a dream. She understood his words, remembered them +afterward, but so intent was she on her darling purpose that she heeded +them not. His voice sounded far away, and every power of mind and body +was concentrated to transfer his expression to the canvas before her. +Even he, blinded as he was by his emotions, occupied by the long pent-up +torrent of feeling that he was pouring into her unheeding ear, wondered +at her strange, dazzling beauty and peculiar manner. + +After speaking a moment or two, the blur over his eyes and the confusion +of his mind began to pass away, and he was perplexed beyond measure +at the way she was receiving the open declaration of his love. She was +painting through it all, not with the nervous, random stroke of one +who sought to hide excitement and embarrassment in occupation. She was +working earnestly, consciously, with precision, and, what was strangest +of all, she seemed so intent upon his face that his words, which would +have been such music to any woman that loved, were apparently unheard. +He stopped, but the break in his passionate flow of language was +unnoted. + +"Christine, listen to me!" he cried, in an agony of fear and perplexity. +The tone of his appeal might have stirred a marble bosom to pity, but +she only raised her left hand deprecatingly as if warding off an +interruption, while she worked with intense eagerness with her right. + +"Christine!" a frown contracted her brow for a second, but she worked +on. + +He looked at her as if fearing she had lost her reason, but there was +no madness in her swift, intelligent strokes. Then like a flash the +thought came to him: "It is my face, not myself, that she wants! This, +then, has been the secret of her new hope as an artist. She would not +feel, as I told her she must, but she would call out and copy my +emotion; and this scene, which means life or death to me, is to her +but a lesson in art, and I am no more than the human subject under the +surgeon's knife. But surely no anatomist is so cruel as to put in his +lancet before the man is dead." + +Every particle of color receded from his face, and he watched her +manner for the confirmation of his thought. + +Her face was indeed a study. A beautiful smile parted her lips, her +eyes glowed with the exultation of assured and almost accomplished +success, and she looked like an inspired priestess at a Greek oracle. + +But a bitterness beyond words was filling his heart. + +A few more skilful strokes, and she threw down her brush, crying in +ecstatic tones, "Eureka! Eureka!" as she stood before the painting in +rapt admiration. In an instant he stood by her side. With all the pride +of triumph she pointed to the picture, and said: "Criticise that, if +you can! Deny that there is soul, life, feeling there, if you dare! +Is that painting but a 'beautiful corpse'?" + +Dennis saw a figure and features suggesting his own, pleading with all +the eloquence of true love before the averted face of the maiden in +the picture. It was indeed a triumph, having all the power of the +reality. + +He passed his hand quickly across his forehead, as if to repel some +terrible delusion, while yet he whispered its reality to himself, in +silent, despairing confession: "Ah, my God! How cold she must be when +she can see any one look like that, and yet copy the expression as +from a painted face upon the wall!" + +Then, his own pride and indignation rising, he determined at once to +know the truth; whether he held any place in her heart, or whether the +picture was all, and he nothing. + +Drawing a step nearer, as if to examine more closely, he seized a brush +of paint and drew it over the face that had cost both him and Christine +so much, and then turned and looked at her. + +For a moment she stood paralyzed, so great seemed the disaster. Then +she turned on him in fury. "How dare you!" she exclaimed. + +Only equal anger, and the consciousness of right, could have sustained +any man under the lightning of her eyes. + +"Rather, let me ask, how dare you?" he replied, in the deep, +concentrated voice of passion; and lover and lady stood before the +ruined picture with blazing eyes. In the same low, stern voice he +continued, "I see the secret of your artistic hope now, Miss Ludolph, +but permit me to say that you have made your first and last success, +and there in that black stain, most appropriately black, is the result." + +She looked as if she could have torn him to atoms. + +"You have been false," he continued. "You have acted a lie before me +for weeks. You have deceived in that which is most sacred, and with +sacrilegious hands have trifled with that which every true man regards +as holy." + +She trembled beneath his stern, accusing words. Conscience echoed them, +anger and courage were fast deserting her in the presence of the aroused +and more powerful spirit of her wronged lover. But she said, petulantly, +"Nonsense! You know well that half the ladies of the city would have +flirted with you from mere vanity and love of power; my motive was +infinitely beyond this." + +Until now this had almost seemed sufficient reason to excuse her action, +but she distrusted it even to loathing as she saw the look of scorn +come out on his noble face. + +"And is that your best plea for falsehood? A moment since I loved you +with a devotion that you will never receive again. But now I despise +you." + +"Sir!" she cried, her face scarlet with shame and anger, "leave this +room!" + +"Yes, in a moment, and never again to enter it while Christine Ludolph +is as false in character as she is beautiful in person. But before I +go, you, in your pride and luxury, shall hear the truth for once. Not +only have you been false, but you have been what no true woman ever +can be--cruel as death. Your pencil has been a stiletto with which you +have slowly felt for my heart. You have dipped your brush in human +suffering as if it were common paint. Giotto stabbed a man and +mercifully took him off by a few quick pangs, that he might paint his +dying look. You, more cruel, accomplish your purpose by slow, +remorseless torture. Merciful Heaven only knows what I have suffered +since you smiled and frowned on me by turns, but I felt that if I could +only win your love I would gladly endure all. You falsely made me +believe that I had won it, and yet all the while you were dissecting +my heart, as a surgeon might a living subject. And now what have you +to offer to solace the bitterness of coming years? Do you not know +that such deeds make men bad, faithless, devilish? Never dream of +success till you are changed utterly. Only the noble in deed and in +truth can reach high and noble art." + +She sat before the disfigured picture with her face bowed in her hands. + +She thought he was gone, but still remained motionless like one doomed. +A few moments passed and she was startled by hearing his voice again. +It was no longer harsh and stern, but sad, grave, and pitiful. "Miss +Ludolph, may God forgive you." + +She trembled. Pride and better feeling were contending for the mastery. +After a few moments she sprang up and reached out her hands; but he +was gone now in very truth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE TWO PICTURES + + +When Christine saw that Dennis was not in the room, she rushed to a +window only in time to see his retreating form passing down the street. +For a moment she felt like one left alone to perish on a sinking wreck. +His words, so assured in their tones, seemed like those of a prophet. +Conscience echoed them, and a chill of fear came over her heart. What +if he were right? What if she had let the one golden opportunity of +her life pass? Even though she had stolen her inspiration from him +through guile and cruelty, had he not enabled her to accomplish more +than in all her life before? To what might he not have led her, if she +had put her hand frankly and truthfully in his? There are times when +to those most bewildered in mazes of error light breaks, clear and +unmistakable, defining right and wrong with terrible distinctness. +Such an hour was this to Christine. The law of God written on her heart +asserted itself, and she trembled at the guilty thing she saw herself +to be. But there seemed no remedy save in the one she had driven away, +never to return, as she believed. After a brief but painful revery she +exclaimed: "But what am I thinking of? What can he or any man of this +land be to me?" + +Then pride, her dominant trait, awoke as she recalled his words. + +"He despises me, does he? I will teach him that I belong to a sphere +he cannot touch--the poor infatuated youth! And did he dream that I, +Christine Ludolph, could give him my hand? He shall learn some day +that none in this land could receive that honor, and none save the +proudest in my own may hope for it. The idea of my giving up my ancient +and honorable name for the sake of this unknown Yankee youth." + +Bold, proud words that her heart did not echo. + +But pride and anger were now her controlling impulses, and with the +strong grasp of her resolute will she crushed back her gentler and +better feelings, and became more icy and hard than ever. + +By such choice and action, men and women commit moral suicide. + +With a cold, white face, and a burnished gleam in her eyes, she went +to the easel and commenced painting out the ominous black stain. + +"I'll prove him a false prophet also. I will be an artist without +passing through all his sentimental and superstitious phases that have +so amused me during the past weeks. I have seen his lovelorn face too +often not to be able to reproduce it and its various expressions." + +Her strokes were quick and almost fierce. + +"Mrs. Dennis Fleet, ha! ha! ha!" and her laugh was as harsh and +discordant as the feeling that prompted it. + +Again, a little later: "He despises me! Well, he is the first man that +ever dared to say that;" and her face was flushed and dark with anger. + + +Dennis at first walked rapidly from the scene of his bitter +disappointment, but his steps soon grew slow and feeble. The point of +endurance was passed. Body and mind acting and reacting on each other +had been taxed beyond their powers, and both were giving way. He felt +that they were, and struggled to reach the store before the crisis +should come. Weak and trembling, he mounted the steps, but fell fainting +across the threshold. One of the clerks saw him fall and gave the +alarm. Mr. Ludolph, Mr. Schwartz, and others hastened to the spot. +Dennis was carried to his room, and a messenger was despatched for Dr. +Arten. Ernst, with flying feet, and wild, frightened face, soon reached +his home in De Koven Street, and startled his father and mother with +the tidings. + +The child feared that Dennis was dead, his face was so thin and white. +Leaving the children in Ernst's care, both Mr. and Mrs. Bruder, prompted +by their strong gratitude to Dennis, rushed through the streets as if +distracted. Their intense anxiety and warm German feeling caused them +to heed no more the curious glances cast after them than would a man +swimming for life note the ripple he made. + +When Dennis regained consciousness, they, and Mr. Ludolph and Dr. +Arten, were around him. At first his mind was confused, and he could +not understand it all. + +"Where am I?" he asked, feebly, "and what has happened?" + +"Do not be alarmed; you have only had a faint turn," said the doctor. + +"Oh, Mr. Fleet, you vork too hart, you vork too hart; I knew dis vould +come," sobbed Mrs. Bruder. + +"Why, his duties in the store have not been so onerous of late," said +Mr. Ludolph, in some surprise. + +"It is not der vork in der store, but he vork nearly all night too. +Den he haf had trouble, I know he haf. Do he say no vort about him?" + +Dennis gave Mrs. Bruder a sudden warning look, and then, through the +strong instinct to guard his secret, roused himself. + +"Is it anything serious, doctor?" he asked. + +The physician looked grave, and said, "Your pulse and whole appearance +indicate great exhaustion and physical depression, and I also fear +that fever may set in." + +"I think you are right," said Dennis. "I feel as if I were going to +be ill. My mind has a tendency to wander. Mr. Ludolph, will you permit +me to go home? If I am to be sick, I want to be with my mother." + +Mr. Ludolph looked inquiringly at the doctor, who said significantly, +in a low tone, "I think it would be as well." + +"Certainly, Fleet," said his employer; "though I hope it is only a +temporary indisposition, and that you will be back in a few days. You +must try and get a good night's rest, and so be prepared for the journey +in the morning." + +"With your permission I will go at once. A train leaves now in an hour, +and by morning I can be at home." + +"I scarcely think it prudent," began the doctor. + +"Oh, certainly not to-night," said Mr. Ludolph, also. + +"Pardon me, I must go at once," interrupted Dennis, briefly and so +decidedly that the gentlemen looked at each other and said no more. + +"Mr. Bruder," he continued, "I must be indebted to you for a real proof +of your friendship. In that drawer you will find my money. The key is +in my pocketbook. Will you get a carriage and take me to the depot at +once? and can you be so kind as to go on home with me? I cannot trust +myself alone. Mrs. Bruder, will you pack up what you think I need?" +His faithful friends hastened to do his bidding. + +"Mr. Ludolph, you have been very kind to me. I am sorry this has +occurred, but cannot help it. I thank you gratefully, and will now +trespass on your valuable time no longer." + +Mr. Ludolph, feeling that he could be of no further use, said: "You +will be back in a week, Fleet. Courage. Good-by." + +Dennis turned eagerly to the doctor and said: "Can you not give me +something that will reduce the fever and keep me sane a little longer? +I know that I am going to be delirious, but would reach the refuge of +home first." + +A prescription was given and immediately procured, and the doctor went +away shaking his head. + +"This is the way people commit suicide. They know no more about, or +pay no more heed to, the laws of health than the laws of China. Here +is the result: This young fellow has worked in a way that would break +down a cast-iron machine, and now may never see Chicago again." + +But Dennis might have worked even in his intense way for months and +years without serious harm, had not a fair white hand kept him on the +rack of uncertainty and fear. + +Not work, but worry, makes havoc of health. + +In the gray dawn Ethel Fleet, summoned from her rest, received her +son, weak, unconscious, muttering in delirium, and not recognizing +even her familiar face. He was indeed a sad, painful contrast to the +ruddy, buoyant youth who had left her a few short months before, +abounding in hope and life. But she comforted herself with the thought +that neither sin nor shame had brought him home. + +We need not dwell on the weary weeks that followed. Dennis had every +advantage that could result from good medical skill and the most +faithful nursing. But we believe that his life lay rather in his +mother's prayers of faith. In her strong realization of the spiritual +world she would go continually into the very presence of Jesus, and +say, "Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick"; or, like parents of old, she +would seem by her importunity to bring the Divine Physician to his +very bedside. + +Mr. Bruder, too, insisted on remaining, and watched with the unwearied +faithfulness of one who felt that he owed to Dennis far more than life. +It was indeed touching to see this man, once so desperate and depraved, +now almost as patient and gentle as the mother herself, sitting by his +unconscious friend, often turning his eyes heavenward and muttering +in deep guttural German as sincere a prayer as ever passed human lips, +that Dennis might be spared. + +The hand of God seemed about to take him from them, but their strong, +loving faith laid hold of that hand, and put upon it the restraint +that only reverent, believing prayer can. Dennis lived. After many +days delirium ceased, and the confused mind became clear. But during +his delirium Ethel and Mr. Bruder learned from the oft-repeated words, +"Cruel, cruel Christine!" the nature of the wound that had nearly +destroyed his life. + +Mr. Ludolph was late in reaching his home on the evening after Dennis +was taken sick. Christine sat in the dusk on the ivy-shaded piazza, +awaiting him. He said, abruptly, "What have you been doing to Fleet, +over here?" + +For a second her heart stood still, and she was glad the increasing +gloom disguised her face. By a great effort she replied, in a cool, +matter-of-fact tone: "I do not understand your question. Mr. Fleet was +here this afternoon, and gave some finishing touches to my studio. I +do not think I shall need him any more." + +Her quiet, indifferent voice would have disarmed suspicion itself. + +"It is well you do not, for he seems to have received some 'finishing +touches' himself. He fell across the threshold of the store in a dead +faint, and has gone home, threatened with a serious illness." + +Even her resolute will could not prevent a sharp, startled exclamation. + +"What is the matter?" said her father, hastily; "you are not going to +faint also, are you?" + +"No," said Christine, quietly again; "but I am tired and nervous, and +you told your news so abruptly! Why, it seemed but a moment ago he was +here at work, and now he is dangerously ill. What an uncertain stumbling +forward in the dark life is!" + +This was a style of moralizing peculiarly distasteful to Mr. +Ludolph--all the more repugnant because it seemed true, and brought +home in Dennis's experience. Anything that interfered with his plans +and interests, even though it might be God's providence, always angered +him. And now he was irritated at the loss of one of his best clerks, +just as he was becoming of great value; so he said, sharply: "I hope +you are not leaning toward the silly cant of mysterious providence. +Life is uncertain stumbling only to fools who can't see the chances +that fortune throws in their way, or recognize the plain laws of health +and success. This young Fleet has been putting two days' work in one +for the past four months, and now perhaps his work is done forever, +for the doctor looked very grave over him." + +Again the shadow of night proved most friendly to Christine. Her face +had a frightened, guilty look that it was well her father did not see, +or he would have wrung from her the whole story. She felt the chill +of a terrible dread at heart. If he should die, her conscience would +give a fearful verdict against her. She stood trembling, feeling almost +powerless to move. + +"Come," said her father, sharply, "I am hungry and tired." + +"I will ring for lights and supper," said Christine hastily, and then +fled to her own room. + +When she appeared, her father was sitting at the table impatiently +awaiting her. But her face was so white, and there was such an +expression in her eyes, that he started and said, "What is the matter?" + +His question irritated her, and she replied as sharply as he had spoken. + +"I told you I was tired, and I don't feel well. I have been a month +in constant effort to get this house in order, and I am worn out, I +suppose." + +He looked at her keenly, but said more kindly, "Here, my dear, take +this wine"; and he poured out a glass of old port. + +She drank it eagerly, for she felt she must have something that would +give her life, warmth, and courage. In a way she could not understand, +her heart sank within her. + +But she saw her father was watching her, and knew she must act +skillfully to deceive him. Rallied and strengthened by the generous +wine, her resolute will was soon on its throne again, and Mr. Ludolph +with all his keen insight was no match for her. In a matter-of-fact +tone she said: + +"I do not see how we have worked Mr. Fleet to death. Does he charge +anything of the kind?7' + +"Oh, no! but he too seems possessed with the idea of becoming an artist. +That drunken old Bruder, whom he appears to have reformed, was giving +him lessons, and after working all day he would study much of the night +and paint as soon as the light permitted in the morning. He might have +made something if he had had a judicious friend to guide him" ("And +such you might have been," whispered her conscience), "but now he drops +away like untimely fruit." + +"It is a pity," said she, coolly, and changed the subject, as if she +had dismissed it from her mind. + +Mr. Ludolph believed that Dennis was no more to his daughter than a +useful clerk. + +The next morning Christine rose pale and listless. + +Her father said, "I will arrange my business so that we can go off on +a trip in a few days." + +When left alone she sat down at her easel and tried to restore the +expression that had so delighted her on the preceding day. But she +could not. Indeed she was greatly vexed to find that her tendency was +to paint his stern and scornful look, which had made a deeper impression +on her mind than any she had even seen on his face, because so +unexpected and novel. She became irritated with herself, and cried, +fiercely: "Shame on your weakness! You are unworthy of your blood and +ancestry. I will reproduce that face as it was before he so insolently +destroyed it;" and she bent over her easel with an expression not at +all in harmony with her work. Unconsciously she made a strange contrast, +with her severe, hard face and compressed lips, to the look of love +and pleading she sought to paint. For several days she wrought with +resolute purpose, but found that her inspiration was gone. + +At last she threw down her brush in despair, and cried: "I cannot catch +it again. The wretch either smiles or frowns upon me. I fear he was +right: I have made my first and last success;" and she leaned her head +sullenly and despairingly on her hand. Again the whole scene passed +before her, and she dwelt upon every word, as she was beginning often +to do now, in painful revery. When she came to the words, "I too mean +to be an artist. I could show you a picture that would tell you far +more of what I mean than can my poor words" she started up, and, hastily +arraying herself for the street, was soon on her way to the Art +Building. + +No one heeded her movements there, and she went directly upstairs to +his room. Though simple and plain, it had unmistakably been the abode +of a gentleman and a person of taste. It was partially dismantled, and +in disorder from his hasty departure, and she found nothing which +satisfied her quest there. She hastened away, glad to escape from a +place where everything seemed full of mute reproach, and next bent her +steps to the top floor of the building. In a part half-filled with +antiquated lumber, and seldom entered, she saw near a window facing +the east an easel with canvas upon it. She was startled at the throbbing +of her heart. + +"It is only climbing these long stairs," she said; but her words were +belied by the hesitating manner and eager face with which she approached +and removed the covering from the canvas. + +She gazed a moment and then put out her hand for something by which +to steady herself. His chair was near, and she sank into it, exclaiming: +"He has indeed painted more than he--more than any one--could put into +words. He has the genius that I have not. All here is striking and +original;" and she sat with her eyes riveted to a painting that had +revealed to her--herself. + +Here was the secret of Dennis's toil and early work. Here were the +results of his insatiable demand for the incongruous elements of ice +and sunlight. + +Side by side were two emblematic pictures. In the first there opened +before Christine a grotto of ice. The light was thin and cold but very +clear. Stalactites hung glittering from the vaulted roof. Stalagmites +in strange fantastic forms rose to meet them. Vivid brightness and +beauty were on every side, but of that kind that threw a chill on the +beholder. All was of cold blue ice, and so natural was it that the eye +seemed to penetrate its clear crystal. To the right was an opening in +the grotto, through which was caught a glimpse of a summer landscape, +a vivid contrast to the icy cave. + +But the main features of the picture were two figures. Sleeping on a +couch of ice was the form of a young girl. The flow of the drapery, +the contour of the form, was grace itself, and yet all was ice. But +the face was the most wonderful achievement. Christine saw her own +features, as beautiful as in her vainest moments she had ever dared +to hope. So perfect was the portrait that the delicate blue veins +branched across the temple in veiled distinctness. It was a face that +lacked but two things, life and love; and yet in spite of all its +beauty the want of these was painfully felt--all the more painfully, +even as a lovely face in death awakens a deeper sadness and regret. + +One little icy hand grasped a laurel wreath, also of ice. The other +hand hung listless, half open, and from it had dropped a brush that +formed a small stalagmite at her side. + +Bending over her in most striking contrast was the figure of a young +man, all instinct with life, power, and feeling. Though the face was +turned away, Dennis had suggested his own form and manner. His left +hand was extended toward the sleeping maiden, as if to awaken her, +while with the right he pointed toward the opening through which was +seen the summer landscape, and his whole attitude indicated an eager +wish to rescue her. This was the first picture. + +The second one was still more suggestive. At the entrance of the grotto, +which looked more cold than ever, in its partial shadow, Christine saw +herself again, but how changed! She now had a beauty which she could +not believe in--could not understand. + +The icy hue and rigidity were all gone. She stood in the warm sunlight, +and seemed all warmth and life. Her face glowed with feeling, yet was +full of peace. + +Instead of the barren ice, flowers were at her feet, and fruitful trees +bent over her. Birds were seen flitting through their branches. The +bended boughs, her flowing costume, and the tress of golden hair lifted +from her temple, all showed that the summer wind was blowing. + +Everything, in contrast with the frozen, death-like cave, indicated +life, activity. Near her, a plane-tree, which in nature's language is +the emblem of genius, towered into the sky; around its trunk twined +the passion-flower, meaning, in Flora's tongue, "Holy love"; while +just above her head, sipping the nectar from an open blossom, was a +bright-hued butterfly, the symbol of immortality. By her side stood +the same tall, manly form, with face still averted. He was pointing, +and her eyes, softened, and yet lustrous and happy, were following +where a path wound through a long vista, in alternate light and shadow, +to a gate, that in the distance looked like a pearl. Above and beyond +it, in airy outline, rose the walls and towers of the Holy City, the +New Jerusalem. + +For a long time she sat in rapt attention. Moment by moment the +paintings in their meaning grew upon her. At last her eyes filled with +tears, her bosom rose and fell with an emotion most unwonted, and in +low tones she murmured: "Heavenly delusion! and taught with the logic +I most dearly love. Oh, that I could believe it! I would give ten +thousand years of the life I am leading to know that it is true. Is +there, can there be a path that leads through light or shade to a final +and heavenly home? If this is true, in spite of all my father's keen +and seemingly convincing arguments, what a terrible mistake our life +is!" + +Then her thoughts reverted to the artist. + +"What have I done in driving him away with contempt in his heart for +me? I can no more affect haughty superiority to the man who painted +those pictures. Though he could not be my lover, what a friend he might +have been! I fear I shall never find his equal. Oh, this world of chaos +and confusion! What is right? What is best? _What is truth?_ He might +have taught me. But the skilful hand that portrayed those wonderful +scenes may soon turn to dust, and I shall go to my grave burdened with +the thought that I have quenched the brightest genius that will ever +shine upon me;" and she clasped her hands in an agony of regret. + +Then came the thought of securing the pictures. Dropping a veil over +her red eyes, she went down and got some large sheets of paper, and +by fastening them together made a secure covering. Then she carried +the light frame with the canvas to the second floor, and, summoning +Ernst, started homeward with her treasure. The boy obeyed with +reluctance. Since the time she had surprised him out of his secret in +regard to the strawberries, he had never liked her, and now he felt +that in some way she was the cause of the sickness of his dearest +friend. Christine could not bear the reproach of his large, truthful +eyes, and their walk was a silent one. At parting she handed him a +banknote, but he shook his head. + +"Have you heard from Mr. Fleet?" she asked, with a flush. + +The boy's lip quivered at the mention of that name, and he answered, +hastily: "Fader wrote moder Mr. Fleet was no better. I fear he die;" +and in an agony of grief he turned and ran sobbing away. + +From under her veil Christine's tears were falling fast also, and she +entered her elegant home as if it had been a prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +REGRET + + +The next day was the Sabbath, and a long, dreary one it was to +Christine. But late in the afternoon Susie Winthrop came with a pale, +troubled face. + +"Oh, Christine, have you heard the news?" she exclaimed. + +Christine's heart stood still with fear, but by a great effort she +said, composedly, "What news?" + +"Mr. Fleet has gone home very ill; indeed, he is not expected to live." + +For a moment she did not answer, and when she did it was with a voice +unnaturally hard and cold: "Have you heard what is the matter?" + +Miss Winthrop wondered at her manner, but replied, "Brain fever, I am +told." + +"Is he delirious?" asked Christine, in a low tone. + +"Yes, all the time. Ernst, the little office-boy, told me he did not +know his own mother. It seems that the boy's father is with Mrs. Fleet, +helping take care of him." + +Christine's face was averted and so colorless that it seemed like +marble. + +"Oh, Christine, don't you care?" said Susie, springing up and coming +toward her. + +"Why should I care?" was the quick answer. + +Susie could not know that it was in reality but an incoherent cry of +pain--the blind, desperate effort of pride to shield itself. But the +tone checked her steps and filled her face with reproach. + +"Perhaps you have more reason to care than you choose to admit," she +said, pointedly. + +Christine flushed, but said, coldly: "Of course I feel an interest in +the fate of Mr. Fleet, as I do in that of every passing acquaintance. +I feel very sorry for him and his friends"; but never was sympathy +expressed in a voice more unnaturally frigid. + +Susie looked at her keenly, and again saw the tell-tale flush rising +to her cheek. She was puzzled, but saw that her friend had no confidence +to give, and she said, with a voice growing somewhat cold also: "Well, +really, Christine, I thought you capable of seeing as much as the rest +of us in such matters, but I must be mistaken, if you only recognized +in Dennis Fleet a passing acquaintance. Well, if he dies I doubt if +either you or I look upon his equal again. Under right influences he +might have been one of the first and most useful men of his day. But +they need not tell me it was overwork that killed him. I know it was +trouble of some kind." + +Christine was very pale, but said nothing; and Susie, pained and +mystified that the confidence of other days was refused, bade her +friend a rather cold and abrupt adieu. + +Left alone, Christine bowed her white face in her hands and sat so +still that it seemed as if life had deserted her. In her morbid state +she began to fancy herself the victim of some terrible fatality. Her +heart had bounded when Susie Winthrop was announced, believing that +from her she would gain sympathy; but in strange perversity she had +hidden her trouble from her friend, and permitted her to go away in +coldness. Christine could see as quickly and as far as any, and from +the first had noted that Dennis was very interesting to her friend. +Until of late she had not cared, but now for some reason the fact was +not pleasing, and she felt a sudden reluctance to speak to Susie of +him. + +Now that she was alone a deeper sense of isolation came over her than +she had ever felt before. Her one confidential friend had departed, +chilled and hurt. She made friends but slowly, and, having once become +estranged, from her very nature she found it almost impossible to make +the first advances toward reconciliation. + +Soon she heard her father's steps, and fled to her room to nerve herself +for the part she must act before him. But she was far from successful; +her pale face and abstracted manner awakened his attention and his +surmises as to the cause. Having an engagement out, he soon left her +to welcome solitude; for when she was in trouble he was no source of +help or comfort. + +Monday dragged wearily to a close. She tried to work, but could not. +She took up the most exciting book she could find, only to throw it +down in despair. Forever before the canvas or the page would rise a +pale thin face, at times stern and scornful, again full of reproach, +and then of pleading. + +Even at night her rest was disturbed, and in dreams she heard the +mutterings of his delirium, in which he continually charged her with +his death. At times she would take his picture from its place of +concealment, and look at it with such feelings as would be awakened +by a promise of some priceless thing now beyond reach forever. Then +she would become irritated with herself, and say, angrily: "What is +this man to me? Why am I worrying about one who never could be much +more to me living than dead? I will forget the whole miserable affair." + +But she could not forget. Tuesday morning came, but no relief. "Whether +he lives or dies he will follow me to my grave!" she cried. "From the +time I first spoke to him there has seemed no escape, and in strange, +unexpected ways he constantly crosses my path!" + +She felt that she must have some relief from the oppression on her +spirit. Suddenly she thought of Ernst, and at once went to the store +and asked if he had heard anything later. He had not, but thought that +his mother would receive a letter that day. + +"I want to see your father's picture, and will go home that way, if +you will give me the number." + +The boy hesitated, but at last complied with her wish. + +A little later Christine knocked at Mr. Bruder's door. There was no +response, though she heard a stifled sound within. After a little she +knocked more loudly. Then the door slowly opened, and Mrs. Bruder stood +before her. Her eyes were very red, and she held in her hand an open +letter. Christine expected to find more of a lady than was apparent +at first glance in the hard-working woman before her, so she said, "My +good woman, will you tell Mrs. Bruder I would like to see her?" + +"Dis is Mrs. Bruder," was the answer. + +Then Christine noticed the letter, and the half-effaced traces of +emotion, and her heart misgave her; but she nerved herself to say, "I +came to see your husband's picture." + +"It is dere," was the brief reply. + +Christine began to expatiate on its beauty, though perhaps for the +first time she looked at a fine picture without really seeing it. She +was at a loss how to introduce the object of her visit, but at last +said, "Your husband is away?" + +"Yes." + +"He is taking care of one of my father's--of Mr. Fleet, I am told. +Have you heard from him as to Mr. Fleet's health?" + +"Dis is Miss Ludolph?" + +"Yes." + +"You can no read Sherman?" + +"Oh, yes, I can. German is my native tongue." + +"Strange dot him should be so." + +"Why?" + +"Der Shermans haf hearts." + +Christine flushed deeply, but Mrs. Bruder without a word put her +husband's letter into her hand, and Christine read eagerly what, +translated, is as follows: + +"MY DEAR WIFE--Perhaps before this reaches you our best friend, our +human savior, will be in heaven. There is a heaven, I believe as I +never did before; and when Mrs. Fleet prays the gate seems to open, +and the glory to stream right down upon us. But I fear now that not +even her prayers can keep him. Only once he knew her; then he smiled +and said, 'Mother, it is all right,' and dropped asleep. Soon fever +came on again, and he is sinking fast. The doctor shakes his head and +gives no hope. My heart is breaking. Marguerite, Mr. Fleet is not dying +a natural death; he has been slain. I understand all his manner now, +all his desperate hard work. He loved one above him in wealth--none +could be above him in other respects--and that one was Miss Ludolph. +I suspected it, though till delirious, he scarcely ever mentioned her +name. But now I believe she played with his heart--the noblest that +ever beat--and then threw it away, as if it were a toy instead of the +richest offering ever made to a woman. Proud fool that she was; she +has done more mischief than a thousand such frivolous lives as hers +can atone for. I can write no more; my heart is breaking with grief +and indignation." + +As Christine read she suffered her veil to drop over her face. When +she looked up she saw that Mrs. Bruder's gaze was fixed upon her as +upon the murderer of her best friend. She drew her veil closer about +her face, laid the letter down, and left the room without a word. She +felt so guilty and miserable on her way home that it would scarcely +have surprised her had a policeman arrested her for the crime with +which her own conscience, as well as Mr. Bruder's letter, charged her; +and yet her pride revolted at it all. + +"Why should this affair take so miserable a form with me?" she said. +"To most it ends with a few sentimental sighs on one side, and as a +good joke on the other. All seems to go wrong of late, and I am destined +to have everything save happiness and the success upon which I set my +heart. There is no more cruel mockery than to give one all save the +very thing one wants; and, in seeking to grasp that, I have brought +down upon myself this wretched, blighting experience. On this chaotic +world! The idea of there being a God! Why, I could make a better world +myself!" and she reached her home in such a morbid, unhappy state, +that none in the great city need have envied the rich and flattered +girl. Mechanically she dressed and came down to dinner. + +During the afternoon Ernst, while out on an errand, had slipped home +and heard the sad news. He returned to Mr. Ludolph's office crying. +To the question, "What is the matter?" he had answered, "Oh, Mr. Fleet +is dying; he is dead by dis time!" + +Mr. Ludolph was sadly shocked and pained, for as far as he could like +anybody besides himself and daughter, he had been prepossessed in favor +of his useful and intelligent clerk, and he was greatly annoyed at the +thought of losing him. He returned full of the subject, and the first +words with which he greeted Christine were, "Well, Fleet will hang no +more pictures for you, and sing no more songs." + +She staggered into a chair and sat before him pale and panting, for +she thought he meant that death had taken place. + +"Why, what is the matter?" cried he. + +She stared at him gaspingly, but said nothing. + +"Here, drink this," he said, hastily pouring out a glass of wine. + +She took it eagerly. After a moment he said: "Christine, I do not +understand all this. I was merely saying that my clerk, Mr. Fleet, was +not expected--" + +The point of endurance and guarded self-control was past, and she +cried, half-hysterically: "Am I never to escape that man? Must every +one I meet speak to me as if I had murdered him?" + +Then she added, almost fiercely: "Living or dead, never speak to me +of him again! I am no longer a child, but a woman, and as such I insist +that his name be dropped between us forever!" + +Her father gave a low exclamation of surprise, and said, "What! was +he one of the victims?" (this being his term for Christine's rejected +suitors). + +"No," said she; "I am the victim. He will soon be at rest, while I +shall be tormented to the grave by--" She hardly knew what to say, so +mingled and chaotic were her feelings. Her hands clenched, and with +a stamp of her foot she hastily left the room. + +Mr. Ludolph could hardly believe his eyes. Could this passionate, +thoroughly aroused woman be his cold, self-contained daughter? He could +not understand, as so many cannot, that such natures when aroused are +tenfold more intense than those whom little things excite. A long and +peculiar train of circumstances, a morbid and overwrought physical +condition, led to this outburst from Christine, which was as much a +cause of surprise to herself afterward as to her father. He judged +correctly that a great deal had occurred between Dennis and herself +of which he had no knowledge, and again his confidence in her was +thoroughly shaken. + +At first he determined to question her and extort the truth. But when, +an hour later, she quietly entered the parlor, he saw at a glance that +the cold, proud, self-possessed woman before him would not submit to +the treatment accepted by the little Christine of former days. The +wily man read from her manner and the expression of her eye that he +might with her consent lead, but could not command without awakening +a nature as imperious as his own. + +He was angry, but he had time to think. Prudence had given a decided +voice in favor of caution. + +He saw what she did not recognize herself, that her heart had been +greatly touched, and in his secret soul he was not sorry now to +believe that Dennis was dying. + +"Father," said Christine, abruptly, "how soon can we start on our +eastern trip?" + +"Well, if you particularly wish it," he replied, "I can leave by the +evening train to-morrow." + +"I do wish it very much," said Christine, earnestly, "and will be +ready." + +After an evening of silence and constraint they separated for the +night. + +Mr. Ludolph sat for a long time sipping his wine after she had gone. + +"After all it will turn out for the best," he said. "Fleet will probably +die, and then will be out of the way. Or, if he lives, I can easily +guard against him, and it will go no further. If she had been bewitched +by a man like Mr. Mellen, the matter would have been more difficult. + +"In truth," he continued, after a little, "now that her weak woman's +heart is occupied by an impossible lover, there is no danger from +possible ones;" and the man of the world went complacently to his rest, +believing that what he regarded as the game of life was entirely in +his own hands. + +The next evening the night express bore Christine from the scene of +the events she sought to escape; but she was to learn, in common with +the great host of the sinning and suffering, how little change of place +has to do with change of feeling. We take memory and character with +us from land to land, from youth to age, from this world to the other, +from time through eternity. Sad, then, is the lot of those who ever +carry the elements of their own torture with them. + +It was Christine's purpose, and she had her father's consent, to make +a long visit in New York, and, in the gayety and excitement of the +metropolis, to forget her late wretched experience. + +As it was still early in September, they resolved to stop at West Point +and participate in the gayest season of that fashionable watering-place. +At this time the hotels are thronged with summer tourists returning +homeward from the more northern resorts. Though the broad piazzas of +Cozzens's great hotel were crowded by the _elite_ of the city, there was +a hum of admiration as Christine first made her round on her father's +arm; and in the evening, when the spacious parlor was cleared for +dancing, officers from the post and civilians alike eagerly sought +her hand, and hundreds of admiring eyes followed as she swept through +the mazes of the dance, the embodiment of grace and beauty. She was +very gay, and her repartee was often brilliant, but a close observer +would have seen something forced and unnatural in all. Such an observer +was her father. He saw that the sparkle of her eyes had no more heart +and happiness in it than that of the diamonds on her bosom, and that +with the whole strength of her resolute nature she was laboring to +repel thought and memory. But, as he witnessed the admiration she +excited on every side, he became more determined than ever that his +fair daughter should shine a star of the first magnitude in the +_salons_ of Europe. At a late hour, and wearied past the power +of thought, she gladly sought refuge in the blank of sleep. + +The next morning they drove out early, before the sun was high and +warm. It was a glorious autumn day. Recent rains had purified the +atmosphere, so that the unrivalled scenery of the Hudson stood out in +clear and grand outline. + +As Christine looked about her she felt a thrill of almost delight--the +first sensation of the kind since that moment of exultation which +Dennis had inspired, but which he had also turned to the bitterness +of disaster and humiliation. She was keenly alive to beauty, and she +saw it on every side. The Ludolph family had ever lived among the +mountains on the Rhine, and the heart of this latest child of the race +yearned over the rugged scenery before her with hereditary affection, +which had grown stronger with each successive generation. + +The dew, like innumerable pearls, gemmed the grass in the park-like +lawn of the hotel, and the slanting rays of the sun flecked the +luxuriant foliage. Never before had this passion for the beautiful in +nature been so gratified, and all the artist feeling within her awoke. + +On reaching the street the carriage turned southward, and, after passing +the village of Highland Falls, entered on one of the most beautiful +drives in America. At times the road led under overarching forest-trees, +shaded and dim with that delicious twilight which only myriads of +fluttering leaves can make. Again it would wind around some bold +headland, and the broad expanse of the Hudson would shine out dotted +with white sails. Then through a vista its waters would sparkle, +suggesting an exquisite cabinet picture. On the right the thickly-wooded +mountains rose like emerald walls, with here and there along their +base a quiet farmhouse. With kindling eye and glowing cheeks she drank +in view after view, and at last exclaimed, "If there were only a few +old castles scattered among these Highlands, this would be the very +perfection of scenery." + +Her father watched her closely, and with much satisfaction. + +"After all, her wound is slight," he thought, "and new scenes and +circumstances will soon cause her to forget." + +Furtively, but continually, he bent his eyes upon her, as if to read +her very soul. A dreamy, happy expression rested on her face, as if +a scene were present to her fancy even more to her taste than the one +her eyes dwelt upon. In fact she was living over that evening at Miss +Winthrop's, when Dennis had told her that she could reach truest and +highest art--that she could feel--could copy anything she saw; and +exhilarated by the fresh morning air, inspired by the scenery, she +felt for the moment, as never before, that it might all be true. + +Was he who gave those blissful assurances also exerting a subtile, +unrecognized power over her? Certainly within the last few weeks she +had been subject to strange moods and reveries. But the first dawning +of a woman's love is like the aurora, with its strange, fitful flashes. +The phenomena have never been satisfactorily explained. + +But, as Mr. Ludolph watched complacently and admiringly, her expression +suddenly changed, and a frightened, guilty look came into her face. +The glow upon her cheeks gave place to extreme pallor, and she glanced +nervously around as if fearing something, then caught her father's +eye, and was conscious of his scrutiny. She at once became cold and +self-possessed, and sat at his side pale and quiet till the ride ended. +But he saw from the troubled gleam of her eyes that beneath that calm +exterior were tumult and suffering. Few in this life are so guilty and +wretched as not to have moments of forgetfulness, when the happier +past comes back and they are oblivious of the painful present. Such +a brief respite Christine enjoyed during part of her morning ride. The +grand and swiftly varying scenery crowded her mind with pleasant images, +which had been followed by a delicious revery. She felt herself to be +a true priestess of Nature, capable of understanding and interpreting +her voices and hidden meanings--of catching her evanescent beauty and +fixing it on the glowing canvas. The strong consciousness of such power +was indeed sweet and intoxicating. Her mind naturally reverted to him +who had most clearly asserted her possession of it. + +"He, too, would have equal appreciation of this scenery," she said to +herself. + +Then came the sudden remembrance, shrivelling her pretty dreams as the +lightning scorches and withers. + +"_He--he is dead!--he must be by this time!_" + +And dread and guilt and something else which she did not define, but +which seemed more like a sense of great loss, lay heavy at her heart. +No wonder her father was perplexed and provoked by the sad change in +her face. At first he was inclined to remonstrate and put spurs to her +pride. But there was a dignity about the lady at his side, even though +she was his daughter, that embarrassed and restrained him. Moreover, +though he understood much and suspected far more--more indeed than the +truth--there was nothing acknowledged or tangible that he could lay +hold of, and she meant that it should be so. For reasons she did not +understand she felt a disinclination to tell her troubles to Susie +Winthrop, and she was most resolute in her purpose never to permit her +father to speak on the subject. + +If Mr. Ludolph had been as coarse and ignorant as he was hard and +selfish, he would have gone to work at the case with sledge-hammer +dexterity, as many parents have done, making sad, brutal havoc in +delicate womanly natures with which they were no more fit to deal than +a blacksmith with hair-springs. But though he longed to speak, and +bring his remorseless logic to bear, Christine's manner raised a barrier +which a man of his fine culture could not readily pass. + +She joined her father at a late breakfast, smiling and brilliant, but +her gayety was clearly forced. The morning was spent in sketching, she +seeming to crave constant occupation or excitement. + +In the afternoon father and daughter drove up the river to the military +grounds to witness a drill. Mr. Ludolph did his best to rally Christine, +pointing out everything of interest. First, the grand old ruin of Fort +Putnam frowned down upon them. This had been the one feature wanting, +and Christine felt that she could ask nothing more. Her wonder and +admiration grew as the road wound along the immediate bluff and around +the plain by the river fortifications. But when she stood on the piazza +of the West Point Hotel, and looked up through the Highlands toward +Newburgh, tears came to her eyes, and she trembled with excitement. +From her recent experiences her nerves were morbidly sensitive. But +her father could only look and wonder, she seemed so changed to him. + +"And is the Rhine like this?" she asked. + +"Well, the best I can say is, that to a German and a Ludolph it seems +just as beautiful," he replied. + +"Surely," said she, slowly and in half-soliloquy, "if one could live +always amid such scenes as these, the Elysium of the gods or the heaven +of the Christians would offer few temptations." + +"And among just such scenes you shall live after a short year passes," +he answered, warmly and confidently. But with anger he missed the +wonted sparkle of her eyes when these cherished plans were broached. + +In bitterness Christine said to herself: "A few weeks since this thought +would have filled me with delight. Why does it not now?" + +Silently they drove to the parade-ground. At the sally-port of the +distant barracks bayonets were gleaming. There was a burst of martial +music, then each class at the Academy--four companies--came out upon +the grassy plain upon the double-quick. Their motions were light and +swift, and yet so accurately timed that each company seemed one perfect +piece of mechanism. A cadet stood at a certain point with a small color +flying. Abreast of this their advance was checked as suddenly as if +they had been turned to stone, and the entire corps was in line. Then +followed a series of skilful manoeuvres, in which Christine was much +interested, and her old eager manner returned. + +"I like the army," she exclaimed; "the precision and inflexible routine +would just suit me. I wish there was war, and I a man, that I might +enter into the glorious excitements." + +Luxurious Mr. Ludolph had no tastes in that direction, and, shrugging +his shoulders, said: "How about the hardships, wounds, and chances of +an obscure death? These are the rule in a campaign; the glorious +excitements the exceptions." + +"I did not think of those," she said, shrinking against the cushions. +"Everything seems to have so many miserable drawbacks!" + +The pageantry over, the driver turned and drove northward through the +most superb scenery. + +"Where are we going?" asked Christine. + +"To the cemetery," was the reply. + +"No, no! not there!" she exclaimed, nervously. + +"Nonsense! Why not?" remonstrated her father. + +"I don't wish to go there!" she cried, excitedly. "Please turn around." + +Her father reluctantly gave the order, but added, "Christine, you +certainly indulge in strange moods and whims of late." + +She was silent a moment, and then she began a running fire of questions +about the Academy, that left no space for explanations. + +That evening she danced as resolutely as ever, and by her beauty and +brilliant repartee threw around her many bewildering spells that even +the veterans of the Point could scarcely resist. + +But when alone in her own room she looked at her white face in the +mirror, and murmured in tones full of unutterable dread and remorse, +"He is dead--he must be dead by this time!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +REMORSE + + +Christine had a peculiar experience while at West Point. She saw on +every side what would have brought her the choicest enjoyment, had her +mind been at rest. To her artist nature, and with her passion and power +for sketching, the Highlands on the Hudson were paradise. But though +she saw in profusion what once would have delighted her, and what she +now felt ought to be the source of almost unmingled happiness, she was +still thoroughly wretched. It was the old fable of Tantalus repeating +itself. Her sin and its results had destroyed her receptive power. The +world offered her pleasures on every side; she longed to enjoy them, +but could not, for her heart was preoccupied--filled and overflowing +with fear, remorse, and a sorrow she could not define. + +A vain, shallow girl might soon have forgotten such an experience as +Christine had passed through. Such a creature would have been +sentimental or hysterical for a little time, according to temperament, +and then with the old zest have gone to flirting with some new victim. +There are belles so weak and wicked that they would rather plume +themselves on the fact that one had died from love of them. But in +justice to all such it should be said that they rarely have mind enough +to realize the evil they do. Their vanity overshadows every other +faculty, and almost destroys those sweet, pitiful, unselfish qualities +which make a true woman what a true man most reverences next to God. + +Christine was proud and ambitious to the last degree, but she had not +this small vanity. She did not appreciate the situation fully, but she +was unsparing in her self-condemnation. + +If Dennis had been an ordinary man, and interested her no more than +had other admirers, and had she given him no more encouragement, she +would have shrugged her shoulders over the result and said she was +very sorry he had made such a fool of himself. + +But as she went over the past (and this now she often did), she saw +that he was unusually gifted; nay, more, the picture she discovered +in the loft of the store proved him possessed of genius of a high +order. And such a man she had deceived, tortured, and even killed! +This was the verdict of her own conscience, the assertion of his own +lips. She remembered the wearing life of alternate hope and fear she +had caused him. She remembered how eagerly he hung on her smiles and +sugared nothings, and how her equally causeless frowns would darken +all the world to him. She saw day after day how she had developed in +a strong, true heart, with its native power to love unimpaired, the +most intense passion, and all that her own lesser light might burn a +little more brightly. Then, with her burning face buried in her hands, +she would recall the bitter, shameful consummation. Worse than all, +waking or sleeping, she continually saw a pale, thin face, that even +in death looked upon her with unutterable reproach. In addition to the +misery caused by her remorse, there was a deeper bitterness still. +Within the depths of her soul a voice told her that the picture was +true; that he might have awakened her, and led her out into the warmth +and light of a happy life--a life which she felt ought to be possible, +but which as yet had been but a vague and tantalizing dream. Now the +world seemed to her utter chaos--a place of innumerable paths leading +nowhere; and her own hands had broken the clew that might have brought +her to something assured and satisfactory. She was very wretched, for +her life seemed but a little point between disappointment on one side +and the blackness of death and nothingness on the other. The very +beauty of the landscapes about her often increased her pain. She felt +that a few weeks ago she would have enjoyed them keenly, and found in +their transference to canvas a source of unfailing pleasure. With a +conscious blush she thought that if he were present to encourage, to +stimulate her, by the very vitality of his earnest, loving nature, she +would be in the enjoyment of paradise itself. In a word, she saw the +heaven she could not enter. + +To the degree that she had mind, heart, conscience, and an intense +desire for true happiness, she was unhappy. Dress, dancing, the passing +admiration of society, the pleasures of a merely fashionable life, +seemed less and less satisfactory. She was beyond them, as children +outgrow their toys, because she had a native superiority to them, and +yet they seemed her best resource. She had all her old longing to +pursue her art studies, and everything about her stimulated her to +this, but her heart and hand appeared paralyzed. She was in just that +condition, mental and moral, in which she could do nothing well. + +And so the days passed in futile efforts to forget--to drown in almost +reckless gayety--the voices of conscience and memory. But she only +remembered all the more vividly; she only saw the miserable truth all +the more clearly. She suffered more in her torturing consciousness +than Dennis in his wild delirium. + +After they had been at the hotel about a week, Mr. Ludolph received +letters that made his speedy return necessary. On the same day the +family of his old New York partner arrived at the house on their return +from the Catskills. Mrs. Von Brakhiem gladly received Christine under +her care, feeling that the addition of such a bright star would make +her little constellation one of the most brilliant in the fashionable +world. + +The ladies of the house were now immersed in the excitement of an +amateur concert. Mrs. Von Brakhiem, bent upon shining among the +foremost, though with a borrowed lustre, assigned Christine a most +prominent part. She half shrank from it, for it recalled unpleasant +memories; but she could not decline without explanations, and so entered +into the affair with a sort of recklessness. + +The large parlors were filled with chairs, which were soon occupied, +and it was evident that in point of attraction elegant toilets would +vie with the music. Christine came down on her father's arm, dressed +like a princess, and, though her diamonds were few, such were their +size and brilliancy that they seemed on fire. Every eye followed Mrs. +Von Brakhiem's party, and that good lady took half the admiration to +herself. + +A superior tenor, with an unpronounceable foreign name, had come up +from New York to grace the occasion. But personally he lacked every +grace himself, his fine voice being the one thing that redeemed him +from utter insignificance in mind and appearance. Nevertheless he was +vain beyond measure, and made the most of himself on all occasions. + +The music was fine, for the amateurs, feeling that they had a critical +audience, did their best. Christine chose three brilliant, difficult, +but heartless pieces as her contribution to the entertainment (she +would not trust herself with anything else); and with something +approaching reckless gayety she sought to hide the bitterness at her +heart. Her splendid voice and exquisite touch doubled the admiration +her beauty and diamonds had excited, and Mrs. Von Brakhiem basked in +still stronger reflected light. She took every opportunity to make it +known that she was Miss Ludolph's chaperon. + +After her first effort, the "distinguished" tenor from New York opened +his eyes widely at her; at her second, he put up his eyeglass in +something like astonishment; and the close of her last song found him +nervously rummaging a music portfolio in the corner. + +But for Christine the law of association had become too strong, and +the prolonged applause recalled the evening at Miss Brown's when the +same sounds had deafened her, but when turning from it all she had +seen Dennis Fleet standing in rapt attention, his lips parted, his +eyes glowing with such an honest admiration that even then it was worth +more to her than all the clamor. Then, by the same law of association, +she again saw that eager, earnest face, changed pale, dead--dead!--and +she the cause. Regardless of the compliments lavished upon her, she +buried her face in her hands and trembled from head to foot. + +But the irrepressible tenor had found what he wanted, and now came +forward asking that Miss Ludolph would sing a duet with him. + +She lifted a wan and startled face. Must the torturing similarity and +still more torturing contrast of the two occasions be continued? But +she saw her father regarding her sternly--saw that she was becoming +the subject of curious glances and whispered surmises. Her pride was +aroused at once, and, goaded on by it, she said, "Oh, certainly; I am +not feeling well, but it does not signify." + +"And den," put in the tenor, "dis is von grand occazeon to _you_, for it +is so unfrequent dat I find any von vorthy to sing dis style of music +vith _me_." + +"What is the music?" asked Christine, coldly. + +To her horror she found it the same selection from Mendelssohn that +she had sung with Dennis. + +"No," she said, sharply, "I cannot sing that." + +"Pardon me, my daughter, you can sing it admirably if you choose," +interposed her father. + +She turned to him imploringly, but his face was inflexible, and his +eyes had an incensed look. For a moment she, too, was angry. Had he +no mercy? She was about to decline coldly, but her friends were very +urgent and clamorous--"Please do," "Don't disappoint us," echoing on +every side. The tenor was so surprised and puzzled at her insensibility +to the honor he had conferred, that, to prevent a scene she could not +explain, she went to the piano as if led to the stake. + +But the strain was too great upon her in her suffering state. The +familiar notes recalled so vividly the one who once before had sung +them at her side that she turned almost expecting to see him--but saw +only the vain little animated music-machine, who with many contortions +was producing the harmony. "Just this mockery my life will ever be," +she thought; "all that I am, the best I can do, will always be connected +with something insignificant and commonplace. The rich, impassioned +voice of the _man_ who sang these words, and who might have taught me to +sing the song of a new and happier life, I have silenced forever." + +The thought overpowered her. Just then her part recurred, but her voice +died away in a miserable quaver, and again she buried her face in her +hands. Suddenly she sprang from the piano, darted through the low-cut +open window near, and a moment later ordered her startled maid from +the room, turned the key, and was alone. + +Her father explained coldly to the astonished audience and the +half-paralyzed tenor (who still stood with his mouth open) that his +daughter was not at all well that evening, and ought not to have +appeared at all. This Mrs. Von Brakhiem took up and repeated with +endless variations. But the evidences of sheer mental distress on the +part of Christine had been too clear, and countless were the whispered +surmises of the fashionable gossips in explanation. + +Mrs. Von Brakhiem herself, burning with curiosity, soon retired, that +she might receive from her lovely charge some gushing confidences, +which she expected, as a matter of course, would be poured into what +she chose to regard as her sympathizing ear. But she knocked in vain +at Christine's door. + +Later Mr. Ludolph knocked. There was no answer. + +"Christine!" he called. + +After some delay a broken voice answered, "You cannot enter--I am not +well--I have retired." + +He turned on his heel and strode away, and that night drank more brandy +and water than was good for him. + +As for Christine, warped and chilled though her nature had been, she +was still a woman, she was still young, and, though she knew it not, +she had heard the voice which had spoken her heart into life. Through +a chain of circumstances for which she was partly to blame, she had +been made to suffer as she had not believed was possible. The terrible +words of Mr. Bruder's letter rang continually in her ears--"Mrs. Fleet +is not dying a natural death; he has been, slain." + +For many long, weary days the conviction had been growing upon her +that she had indeed slain him and mortally wounded herself. Until +to-night she had kept herself outwardly under restraint, but now the +long pent-up feeling gave way, and she sobbed as if her heart would +break--sobbed till the power to weep was gone. If now some kind, +judicious friend had shown her that she was not so guilty as she deemed +herself; that, however, frightful the consequences of such acts, she +was really not to blame for what she did not intend and could not +foresee; more than all, if she could only have known that her worst +fears about Dennis were not to be realized, and that he was now +recovering, she might at once have entered on a new and happier life. +But there was no such friend, no such knowledge, and her wounded spirit +was thrown back upon itself. + +At last, robed as she had been for the evening, she fell asleep +from sheer exhaustion and grief--for grief induces sleep. + +The gems that shone in her dishevelled hair; that rose and fell as at +long intervals her bosom heaved with convulsive sobs, like the fitful +gusts of a storm that is dying away; the costly fabrics she wore--made +sad mockery in their contrast with the pale, tear-stained, suffering +face. The hardest heart might have pitied her--yes, even the wholly +ambitious heart of her father, incensed as he was that a plebeian +stranger of this land should have caused such distress. + +When Christine awoke, her pride awoke also. With bitterness of spirit +she recalled the events of the past evening. But a new phase of feeling +now began to manifest itself. + +After her passionate outburst she was much calmer. In this respect the +unimpeded flow of feeling had done her good, and, as intimated, if +kindness and sympathy could now have added their gentle ministrations, +she might have been the better for it all her life. But, left to +herself, she again yielded to the sway of her old and worst traits. +Chief among these was pride; and under the influence of this passion +and the acute suffering of her unsoothed, unguided spirit, she began +to rebel in impotent anger. She grew hard, cynical, and reckless. Her +father's lack of sympathy and consideration alienated her heart even +from him. Left literally alone in the world, her naturally reserved +nature shut itself up more closely than ever. Even her only friend, +Susie Winthrop, drifted away. One other, who might have been--But she +could think of him only with a shudder now. All the rest seemed +indifferent, or censorious, or, worse still, to be using her, like +Mrs. Von Brakhiem and even her own father, as a stepping-stone to their +personal ambition. Christine could not see that she was to blame for +this isolation. She did not understand that cold, selfish natures, +like her own and her father's, could not surround themselves with warm, +generous friends. She saw only the fact. But with flashing eyes she +resolved that her heart's secrets should not be pried into a +hair-breadth further; that she would be used only so far as she chose. +She would, in short, "face out" the events of the past evening simply +and solely on the ground that she had not been well, and permit no +questions to be asked. + +Cold and self-possessed, she came down to a late breakfast. Mrs. Von +Brakhiem, and others who had been introduced, joined her, but nothing +could penetrate through the nice polished armor of her courteous +reserve. Her father looked at her keenly, but she coolly returned his +gaze. + +When alone with her soon afterward, he turned and said, sharply, "What +does all this mean?" + +She looked around as if some one else were near. + +"Were you addressing me?" she asked, coldly. + +"Yes, of course I am," said her father, impatiently. + +"From your tone and manner, I supposed you must be speaking to some +one else." + +"Nonsense! I was speaking to you. What does all this mean?" + +She turned on him an indescribable look, and after a moment said in +a slow, meaning tone, "Have you not heard my explanation, sir?" + +Such was her manner, he felt he could as easily strike her as say +another word. + +Muttering an oath, he turned on his heel and left her to herself. + +The next morning her father bade her "Good-by." In parting he said, +meaningly, "Christine, beware!" + +Again she turned upon him that peculiar look, and replied in a low, +firm tone: "That recommendation applies to you, also. Let us both +beware, lest we repent at leisure." + +The wily man, skilled in character, was now thoroughly convinced that +in his daughter he was dealing with a nature very different from his +wife's--that he was now confronted by a spirit as proud and imperious +as his own. He clearly saw that force, threatening, sternness would +not answer in this case, and that if he carried his points it must be +through skill and cunning. By some means he must ever gain her consent +and co-operation. + +His manner changed. Instinctively she divined the cause; and hers did +not. Therefore father and daughter parted as father and daughter ought +never to part. + +After his departure she was to remain at West Point till the season +closed, and then accompany Mrs. Von Brakhiem to New York, where she +was to make as long a visit as she chose;--and she chose to make a +long one. In the scenery, and the society of the officers at West +Point, and the excitements of the metropolis, she found more to occupy +her thoughts than she could have done at Chicago. She went deliberately +to work to kill time and snatch from it such fleeting pleasures as she +might. + +They stayed in the country till the pomp and glory of October began +to illumine the mountains, and then (to Christine's regret) went to +the city. There she entered into every amusement and dissipation that +her tastes permitted, and found much pleasure in frequent visits to +the Central Park, although it seemed tame and artificial after the +wild grandeur of the mountains. It was well that her nature was so +high-toned that she found enjoyment in only what was refined or +intellectual. Had it been otherwise she might soon have taken, in her +morbid, reckless state, a path to swift and remediless ruin, as many +a poor creature all at war with happiness and truth has done. And thus +in a giddy whirl of excitement (Mrs. Von Brakhiem's normal condition) +the days and weeks passed, till at last, thoroughly satiated and jaded, +she concluded to return home, for the sake of change and quiet, if +nothing else. Mrs. Von Brakhiem parted with her regretfully. Where +would she find such another ally in her determined struggle to be +talked about and envied a little more than some other pushing, jostling +votaries of fashion? + +In languor or sleep Christine made the journey, and in the dusk of a +winter's day her father drove her to their beautiful home, which from +association was now almost hateful to her. Still she was too weary to +think or suffer much. They met each other very politely, and their +intercourse assumed at once its wonted character of high-bred courtesy, +though perhaps it was a little more void of manifested sympathy and +affection than before. + +Several days elapsed in languid apathy, the natural reaction of past +excitement; then an event occurred which most thoroughly aroused her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +AN APPARITION + + +Mr. Ludolph had hoped to hear on his return that Dennis was dead. That +would end all difficulties. Mr. Schwartz did not know;--he was not at +last accounts. Ernst was summoned. With a bright, hopeful face he +stated that his mother had just received a letter saying Dennis was +a little better. He was much surprised at his employer's heavy frown. + +"He will live," mused Mr. Ludolph; "and now shall I permit him to +return to my employ, or discharge him?" + +His brow contracted in lines of thought that suggested shrewdness, +cunning, nothing manly, and warily he judged. + +"If I do not take him, he will go to Mr. French with certainty. He had +better return, for then both he and Christine will be more thoroughly +under my surveillance. + +"Curses on Christine's waywardness! There may be no resisting her, and +my best chance will be in managing him. This I could not do if he were +in the store of my rival;" and so for unconscious Dennis this +important question was decided. + +At last, as we have said, his delirium ceased, and the quiet light of +reason came into his eyes. He looked at his mother and smiled, but was +too weak even to reach out his hand. + +The doctor, coming in soon after, declared danger past, and that all +depended now on good nursing. Little fear of his wanting that! + +"Ah, mine Gott be praised! mine Gott be praised!" exclaimed Mr. Bruder, +who had to leave the room to prevent an explosion of his grateful, +happy feelings that might have proved too rude a tempest for Dennis +in his weak state. He was next seen striding across the fields to a +neighboring grove, ejaculating as he went. When he returned his eyes +shone with a great peace and joy, and he had evidently been with Him +who had cast out the demon from his heart. + +Day after day Dennis rallied. Unlike poor Christine, he had beneath +him the two strongest levers, love and prayer, and steadily they lifted +him up to health and strength and comparative peace. At last he was +able to sit up and walk about feebly, and Mr. Bruder returned rejoicing +to his family. As he wrung Dennis's hand at parting, he said, in rather +a hoarse voice: "If any von tell me Gott is not goot and heareth not +prayer, den I tell him he von grand heathen. Oh! but we vill velcome +you soon. Ve vill haf de grandest supper, de grandest songs, de +grandest--" but just here Mr. Bruder thought it prudent to pull his +big fur cap over his eyes, and make a rush for the stage. + +As if by tacit understanding, Christine's name had not been mentioned +during Dennis's recovery. But one evening, after the little girls had +been put to bed, and the lamp shaded, he sat in the dimly lighted room, +looking fixedly for a long time at the glowing embers. His mother was +moving quietly about, putting away the tea-things, clearing up after +the children's play; but as she worked she furtively watched him. At +last coming to his side she pushed back the hair that seemed so dark +in contrast with the thin, white face and said, gently, "You are +thinking of Miss Ludolph, Dennis." + +He had some blood yet, for that was not the glow of the fire that +suffused his cheek; but he only answered, quietly, "Yes, mother." + +"Do you think you can forget her?" + +"I don't know." + +"Prayer is a mighty thing, my son." + +"But perhaps it is not God's will that I should ever win her," said +Dennis, despondently. + +"Then surely it is not yours, my child." + +"No, mother," said Dennis, with bowed head and low tone, "but yet I +am human and weak." + +"You would still wish that it were His will?" + +"Yes; I could not help it." + +"But you would submit?" + +"Yes, with His help I would," firmly. + +"That is sufficient, my boy; I have such confidence in God that I know +this matter will result in a way to secure you the greatest happiness +in the end." + +But after a little time he sighed, wearily, "Yet how hard it is to +wait till the great plan is worked out!" + +Solemnly she quoted-"God will render to every man according to his +deeds. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory +and honor and immortality, eternal life." + +Braced by the stirring words of inspiration, strengthened by his +mother's faith, he looked up after a moment and said, earnestly, "At +any rate I will try to be a _man in your sense of the word_, and that is +saying a great deal." + +She beamed at him through her spectacles over her knitting-needles; +and he thought, as he gazed fondly at her, that in spite of her quaint, +old-fashioned garb, and homely occupation, she appeared more truly a +saint than any painted on cathedral windows. + +He soon noticed that his mother had grown feeble, and he determined +to take her with him on his return, believing that, by his care, and +the wise use of tonics, he could restore her to her wonted strength. +His increased salary now justified the step. + +Early in November his physician said he might return to business if +he would be prudent. He gladly availed himself of the permission, for +he longed to be employed again. + +The clerks all welcomed him warmly, for his good-nature had disarmed +jealousy at his rapid rise. But in the greeting of Mr. Ludolph he +missed something of the cordiality he expected. + +"Perhaps she has told him," thought he; and at once his own manner +became tinged with a certain coldness and dignity. He determined that +both father and daughter should think of him only with respect. + +At the Bruders' the millennium came with Dennis. Metaphorically the +fatted calf was killed; their plain little room was trimmed with +evergreens, and when he entered he was greeted by such a jubilant, +triumphant chorus of welcomes as almost took away his breath. What +little he had left was suddenly squeezed out of him; for Mrs. Bruden, +dropping her frying-pan and dish-cloth, rushed upon him, exclaiming, +"Ah! mine fren! mine fren! De goot Gott be praised;" and she gave him +an embrace that made his bones ache. + +Mr. Bruder stalked about the room repeating with explosive energy, +like minute-guns, "Praise Gott! Praise Gott!" Ernst, his great eyes +dimmed with happy tears, clung to Dennis's hand, as if he would make +sure, by sense of touch as well as sight, that he had regained his +beloved teacher. The little Bruders were equally jubilant, though from +rather mixed motives. Dennis's arrival was very well, but they could +not keep their round eyes long off the preparations for such a supper +as never before had blessed their brief career. + +"Truly," thought Dennis, as he looked around upon the happy family, +and contrasted its appearance with that which it had presented when +he first saw it, "my small investment of kindness and effort in this +case has returned large interest. I think it pays to do good." + +The evening was one of almost unmingled happiness, even to his sore, +disappointed heart, and passed into memory as among the sunniest places +of his life. + +He found a pleasant little cottage over on the West side, part of which +he rented for his mother and sisters. + +With Mr. Ludolph's permission he went after them, and installed them +in it. Thus he had what he had needed all along--a home, a resting-place +for body and soul, under the watchful eye of love. + +About this time Dr. Arten met him, stared a moment, then clapped him +on the back in his hearty way, saying, "Well, well, young man! you +have cause to be thankful, and not to the doctors, either." + +"I think I am," said Dennis, smiling. + +Suddenly the doctor looked grave, and asked in a stern voice, "Are you +a heathen, or a good Christian?" + +"I hope not the former," replied Dennis, a little startled. + +"Then don't go and commit suicide again. Don't you know flesh and blood +can only stand so much? When an intelligent young fellow like you goes +beyond that, he is committing suicide. Bless your soul, my ambitious +friend, the ten commandments ain't all the law of God. His laws are +also written all over this long body of yours, and you came near paying +a pretty penalty for breaking them. You won't get off the second time." + +"You are right, doctor; I now see that I acted very wrongly." + +"'Bring forth fruits meet for repentance.' I am rich enough to give +sound advice," said the brusque old physician, passing on. + +"Stop a moment, doctor," cried Dennis, "I want you to see my mother." + +"What is the matter with her? She been breaking the commandments, too?" + +"Oh, no!" exclaimed Dennis. "She is not a bit of a heathen." + +"I am not so sure about that. I know many eminent saints in the church +who will eat lobster salad for supper, and then send for the doctor +and minister before morning. There is a precious twaddle about +'mysterious Providence.' Providence isn't half so mysterious as people +make out. The doctor is expected to look serious and sympathetic, and +call their law-breaking and its penalty by some outlandish Latin name +that no one can understand. I give 'em the square truth, and tell 'em +they've been breaking the commandments." + +Dennis could not forbear smiling at the doctor's rough handling of +humbug, even in one of its most respectable guises. Then, remembering +his mother, he added, gravely: "I am truly anxious about my mother, +she has grown so feeble. I want, and yet dread, the truth." + +The bantering manner of the good old doctor changed at once, and he +said, kindly, "I'll come, my boy, within a few days, though I am nearly +run off my feet." + +He went off, muttering, "Why don't the people send for some of the +youngsters that sit kicking up their heels in their offices all day?" + +Dennis soon fell into the routine of work and rapidly grew stronger. +But his face had acquired a gravity, a something in expression that +only experience gives, which made him appear older by ten years. All +trace of the boy had gone, and his countenance was now that of the +man, and of one who had suffered. + +As soon as he recovered sufficient strength to act with decision, he +indignantly tried to banish Christine's image from his memory. But he +found this impossible. Though at times his eyes would flash, in view +of her treatment, they would soon grow gentle and tender, and he found +himself excusing and extenuating, by the most special pleadings, that +which he had justly condemned. + +One evening his mother startled him out of a long revery, in which he +had almost vindicated Christine, by saying, "A very pleasant smile has +been gradually dawning on your face, my son." + +"Mother," replied he, hesitatingly, "perhaps I have judged Miss Ludolph +harshly." + +"Your love, not your reason, has evidently been pleading for her." + +"Well, mother, I suppose you are right." + +"So I suppose the Divine love pleads for the weak and sinful," said +Mrs. Fleet, dreamily. + +"That is a very pleasant thought, mother, for sometimes it seems that +my love could make black white." + +"That the Divine love has done, but at infinite cost to itself." + +"Oh that my love at any cost to itself could lead her into the new +life of the believer!" said Dennis, in a low, earnest tone. + +"Your love is like the Divine in being unselfish, but remember the +vital differences and take heed. God _can_ change the nature of the +imperfect creature that He loves. You cannot. His love is infinite +in its strength and patience. You are human. The proud, selfish, +unbelieving Miss Ludolph (pardon mother's plain words) could not make +you happy. To the degree that you were loyal to God, you would be +unhappy, and I should surely dread such a union. The whole tone of +your moral character would have to be greatly lowered to permit even +peace." + +"But, mother," said Dennis, almost impatiently, "in view of my +unconquerable love, it is nearly the same as if I were married to her +now." + +"No, my son, I think not. I know your pretty theory on this subject, +but it seems more pretty than true. Marriage makes a vital difference. +It is the closest union that we can voluntarily form on earth, and is +the emblem of the spiritual oneness of the believer's soul with Christ. +We may be led through circumstances, as you have been, to love one +with whom we should not form such a union. Indeed, in the true and +mystic meaning of the rite, you could not marry Christine Ludolph. The +Bible declares that man and wife shall be one. Unless she changes, +unless you change (and that God forbid), this could not be. You would +be divided, separated in the deepest essentials of your life here, and +in every respect hereafter. Again, while God loves every sinful man +and woman, He does not take them to His heart till they cry out to Him +for strength to abandon the destroying evil He hates. There are +no unchanged, unrenewed hearts in heaven." + +"Oh, mother, how inexorable is your logic!" said Dennis, breathing +heavily. + +"Truth in the end is ever more merciful than falsehood," she answered, +gently. + +After a little, he said, with a heavy sigh, "Mother, you are right, +and I am very weak and foolish." + +She looked at him with unutterable tenderness. She could not crush out +all hope, and so whispered, as before: "Prayer is mighty, my child. +It is not wrong for you to love. It is your duty, as well as privilege, +to pray for her. Trust your Heavenly Father, do His will, and He will +solve this question in the very best way." + +Dennis turned to his mother in sudden and passionate earnestness, and +said: "Your prayers are mighty, mother, I truly believe. Oh, pray +for her--for my sake as well as hers. Looking from the human side, I am +hopeless. It is only God's almighty power that can make us, as you +say, truly one. I fear that now she is only a heartless, fashionable +girl. Yet, if she is only this, I do not see how I came to love her +as I do. But my trust now is in your prayers to God." + +"And in your own also: the great Father loves you, too, my son. If He +chooses that the dross in her character should be burned away, and +your two lives fused, there are in His providence just the fiery trials, +just the circumstances that will bring it about." (Was she unconsciously +uttering a prophecy?) "The crucible of affliction, the test of some +great emergency, will often develop a seemingly weak and frivolous +girl into noble life, where there is real gold of latent worth to be +acted on." + +"Christine Ludolph is anything but weak and frivolous," said he. "Her +character is strong, and I think most decided in its present bent. But +as you say, if the Divine Alchemist wills it, He can change even the +dross to gold, and turn unbelief to faith." + +Hope, Christine! There is light coming, though as yet you cannot see +it. There are angels of mercy flying toward you, though you cannot +hear the rustle of their wings. The dark curtain of death and despair +can never shut down upon a life linked to heaven by such true, strong +prayer. And yet the logical results of wrong-doing will work themselves +out, sin must be punished and faith sorely tried. + +Dennis heard incidentally that Christine was absent on a visit to New +York, but he knew nothing of the time of her return. + +He now bent himself steadily and resolutely to the mastering of his +business, and under Mr. Bruder's direction resumed his art studies, +though now in such moderation as Dr. Arten would commend. + +He also entered on an artistic effort that would tax his powers and +genius to the very utmost, of which more anon. + +By the time Christine returned, he was quite himself again, though +much paler and thinner than when he first entered the store. + +After Christine had been at home nearly a week, her father, to rouse +her out of her listlessness, said one morning: "We have recently +received quite a remarkable painting from Europe. You will find it in +the upper show-room, and had better come down to-day to see it, for +it may be sold soon. I think you would like to copy one or two figures +in it." + +The lassitude from her New York dissipation was passing away, and her +active nature beginning to assert itself again. She started up and +said, "Wait five minutes and I will get sketching materials and go +down with you." + +By reason of her interdict, made at West Point, so earnestly, and +indeed fiercely, and confirmed by her manner, her father had never +mentioned the name of Dennis Fleet. The very fact that no one had +spoken of him since that dreadful day when tidings came in on every +side that he could not live was confirmation in her mind that he was +dead. + +She dreaded going to the store, especially for the first time, for +everything would irresistibly remind her of him whom she could not +think of now without a pang. But as the ordeal must come, why, the +sooner it was over the better. So a few moments later her hand was on +her father's arm, and they were on their way to the Art Building as +in happier days. + +Mr. Ludolph went to his office, and Christine, looking neither to the +right nor to the left, ascended to the upper show-room, and at once +sought to engage every faculty in making the sketch her father had +suggested. Since Dennis was not, as she believed, either on the earth +or elsewhere, she tried to take up life again as it had been before +he came, and to act as if he had never been. + +Hopeless task! In that familiar place, where they had begun the +rearrangement of the store, everything spoke of him. She saw his glowing +cheeks; again his dark, eager eyes followed her every movement and +interpreted her wishes even before she could speak. Some of the pictures +on the walls his hands had handled, and in her strong fancy his lithe +form seemed moving the ladder to take them down again, while she, with +heart and mind at rest, looked with growing curiosity and interest on +her humble helper. + +What changes had occurred within a short half-year! She shuddered at +the thought that one who was then so instinct with life and happiness +could now be dust and nothingness, and she the cause. + +Association and conscience were again too powerful. She was becoming +nervous and full of a strange unrest, so she concluded to finish her +sketch at another time. As she was gathering up her materials she heard +some one enter the room. + +She was in such a morbid, unstrung state that the least thing startled +her. But imagine if you can her wonder and terror as she saw Dennis +Fleet--the dead and buried, as she fully believed--enter, carrying a +picture as of old, and looking as of old, save that he was paler and +thinner. Was it an apparition? or, as she had read, had she dwelt so +long on this trouble that her mind and imagination were becoming +disordered and able to place their wild creations before her as +realities? + +Her sketching materials fell clattering to the floor, and after one +sharp exclamation of alarm she stood as if transfixed, with parted +lips and dilated eyes, panting like a frightened bird. + +If a sculptor had wished to portray the form and attitude of one +startled by the supernatural, never could he have found a more fitting +model than Christine at this moment. + +As she had been seated a little on one side Dennis had not seen her +at first; but, on recognizing her so unexpectedly, he was scarcely +less startled than she, and the valuable picture he was carrying nearly +met sudden destruction. But he had no such reason as Christine for the +continuance of his surprise, and, at once recovering himself, he set +the picture against the wall. + +This made the illusion still more strange and terrible to Christine. +There was the dead before her, doing just as she had been +imagining--just what he had done at her bidding months before. + +Dennis was greatly puzzled by her look of alarm and distress. Then he +thought that perhaps she feared he would break out in bitter and angry +invectives again, and he advanced toward her to assure her of the +contrary. + +Slowly and instinctively she retreated and put up her hands with a +deprecatory gesture. + +"She cannot endure the sight of me," thought he, but at once he said, +with dignified courtesy: "Miss Ludolph, you have nothing to fear from +me, that you should regard me in that manner. You need not shrink as +if from contagion. We can treat each other as courteous strangers, at +least." + +"I--I--I--thought you were dead!" she gasped, in a loud whisper. + +Dennis's cheek grew paler than it had been in all his sickness, and +then as suddenly became dark with anger. His eyes were terrible in +their indignation as he advanced a few paces almost fiercely. She +trembled violently and shrunk further away. + +"You thought I was dead?" he asked, sternly. + +"Ye-e-s," in the same unnatural whisper. + +"What!" he exclaimed, in short and bitter emphasis, "do you mean to +say that you never cared even to ask whether I lived or died in my +long, weary illness?--that you were so supremely indifferent to my +fate that you could not articulate one sentence of inquiry? Surely +this is the very sublimity of heartlessness; this is to be callous +beyond one's power of imagination. It seems to me that I would feel +as much interest as that in any human being I had once known. If even +a dog had licked my hand in good-will, and afterward I had seen it, +wounded or sick, creep off into covert, the next time I passed that +way I would step aside to see whether the poor creature had lived or +died. But after all the wealth of affection that I lavished upon you, +after toiling and almost dying in my vain effort to touch your marble +heart, you have not even the humanity to ask if I am above ground!" + +The illusion had now passed from Christine's mind, and with it her +alarm. The true state of the case was rapidly dawning upon her, and +she was about to speak eagerly; but in his strong indignation he +continued, impetuously: "You thought I was dead! The wish probably was +father to the thought. My presumption deserved no better fate. But +permit me to tell you, though all unbidden, I did not die. With God's +blessing I expect to live to a good old age, and intend that but few +years shall pass before my name is as well known and honored as the +ancient one of Ludolph;" and he turned on his heel and strode from the +room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +IF HE KNEW! + + +For a little time after Dennis's angry tread died away, Christine sat +almost paralyzed by surprise and deeper emotion. Her mind, though +usually clear and rapid in its action, was too confused to realize the +truth. Suddenly she sprang up, gathered together her sketching +materials, and drawing a thick veil over her face sped through the +store, through the streets, to the refuge of her own room. She must +be alone. + +Hastily throwing aside her wrappings, she began to walk up and down +in her excitement. Her listlessness was gone now in very truth, and +her eye and cheek glowed as never before. As if it had become the great +vivifying principle of her own life, she kept repeating continually +in a low, ecstatic tone, "He lives! he lives! he is not dead; his blood +is not upon my conscience!" + +At last she sat down in her luxurious chair before the window to think +it all over--to commune with herself--often the habit of the reserved +and solitary. From the disjointed sentences she let fall, from the +reflection of her excited face in yonder glass, we gather quite +correctly the workings of her mind. Her first words were, "Thank heaven! +thank something or other, I have not blotted out that true, strong +genius." + +Again--"What untold wretchedness I might have saved myself if I had +only asked the question, in a casual way, 'How is Mr. Fleet?' Christine +Ludolph, with all your pride and imagined superiority, you can be very +foolish. + +"How he hates and despises me now! little wonder!" + +"But if he knew!" + +"Knew what? Why could you not ask after him, as after any other sick +man? You have had a score or so of offers, and did not trouble yourself +as to the fate of the lovelorn swains. Seems to me your conscience has +been very tender in this case. And the fact that he misjudges you, +thinks you callous, heartless, and is angry, troubles you beyond +measure." + +"When before were you so sensitive to the opinion of clerks and +trades-people, or even the proudest suitors for your hand? But in this +case you must cry out, in a tone of sentimental agony, 'Oh, if he only +knew it!" + +"Knew what?" + +Her face in yonder mirror has a strange, introverted expression, as +if she were scanning her own soul. Her brow contracts with thought and +perplexity. + +Gradually a warm, beautiful light steals into her face, transforming +it as from the scowl of a winter morning into a dawn of June; her eyes +become gentle and tender. A rich color comes out upon her cheeks, +spreads up her temples, mantles her brow, and pours a crimson torrent +down her snowy neck. Suddenly she drops her burning face into her +hands, and hides a vision one would gladly look longer upon. But see, +even her little ears have become as red as coral. + +The bleakest landscape in the world brightens into something like +beauty when the sun shines upon it. So love, the richer, sweeter light +of the soul, make the plainest face almost beautiful; but when it +changed Christine Ludolph's faultless, yet too cold and classical, +features into those of a loving woman's, it suggested a beauty scarcely +human. + +A moment later there came a faint whisper: "I fear--I almost fear I +love him." Then she lifted a startled, frightened face and looked +timidly around as if, in truth, walls had ears. + +Reassured by the consciousness of solitude, her head dropped on her +wrist and her revery went forward. Her eyes became dreamy, and a +half-smile played upon her lips as she recalled proof after proof of +his affection, for she knew the cruel words of the last interview were +the result of misunderstanding. + +But suddenly she darted from her seat and began pacing the room in the +strongest perturbation. + +"Mocked again!" she cried; "the same cruel fate! my old miserable +experience in a new aspect! With everything within my reach, save the +one thing I want, I possess the means of all kinds of happiness except +that which makes me happy. In every possible way I am pledged to a +career and future in which he can take no part. Though my heart is +full of the strangest, sweetest chaos, and I do not truly understand +myself, yet I am satisfied that this is not a school-girl's fancy. But +my father would regard it as the old farce repeated. Already he suspects +and frowns upon the matter. I should have to break with him utterly +and forever. I should have to give up all my ambitious plans and +towering hopes of life abroad. A plain Mrs. in this city of shops is +a poor substitute for a countess's coronet and a villa on the Rhine." + +Her cheek flushed, and her lip curled. + +"That indeed would be the very extravagance of romance, and how could +I, least of all, who so long have scoffed at such things, explain my +action? These mushroom shopkeepers, who were all nobodies the other +day, elevate their eyebrows when a merchant's daughter marries her +father's clerk. But when would the wonder cease if a German lady of +rank followed suit? + +"Then again my word, my honor, every sacred pledge I could give, forbids +such folly. + +"Would to heaven I had never seen him, for this unfortunate fancy of +mine must be crushed in its inception; strangled before it comes to +master me as it has mastered him." + +After a long and weary sigh she continued: "Well, everything is +favorable for a complete and final break between us. He believes me +heartless and wicked to the last degree. I cannot undeceive him without +showing more than he should know. I have only to avoid him, to say +nothing, and we drift apart. + +"If we could only have been friends he might have helped me so much! +but that now is clearly impossible--yes, for both of us. + +"Truly one of these American poets was right: + +"'For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these--It +might have been.' + +"But thanks to the immortal gods, as the pious heathen used to say, +his blood is not on my hands, and this has taken a mountain off my +heart. Thus relieved I can perhaps forget all the miserable business. +Fate forbids that I, as it has forbidden that many another high-born +woman, should marry where she might have loved." + +If Christine's heart was wronged, her pride was highly gratified by +this conclusion. Here was a new and strong resemblance between herself +and the great. In mind she recalled the titled unfortunates who had +"loved where they could not marry," and with the air and feeling of +a martyr to ancestral grandeur she pensively added her name to the +list. + +With her conscience freed from its burden of remorse, with the +knowledge, so sweet to every woman, that she might accept this happiness +if she would, in spite of her airs of martyrdom, the world had changed +greatly for the better, and with the natural buoyancy of youth she +reacted into quite a cheerful and hopeful state. + +Her father noticed this on his return to dinner in the evening, and +sought to learn its cause. He asked, "How did you make out with your +sketch?" + +"I made a beginning," she answered, with some little color rising to +her cheek. + +"Perhaps you were interrupted?" + +"Why did you not tell me that Mr. Fleet had recovered?" she asked, +abruptly. + +"Why, did you think he was dead?" + +"Yes." + +Mr. Ludolph indulged in a hearty laugh (he knew the power of ridicule). + +"Well, that is excellent!" he said. "You thought the callow youth had +died on account of your hardness of heart; and this explains your +rather peculiar moods and tenses of late. Let me assure you that a +Yankee never dies from such a cause." + +Mr. Ludolph determined if possible to break down her reserve and let +in the garish light, which he knew to be most fatal to all romantic +fancies, that ever thrive best in the twilight of secrecy. But she was +on the alert now, and in relief of mind had regained her poise and the +power to mask her feeling. So she said in a tone tinged with cold +indifference, "You may be right, but I had good reason to believe to +the contrary, and, as I am not altogether without a conscience, you +might have saved much pain by merely mentioning the fact of his +recovery." + +"But you had adjured me with frightful solemnity never to mention his +name again," said her father, still laughing. + +Christine colored and bit her lip. She had forgotten for the moment +this awkward fact. + +"I was nervous, sick, and not myself that day, and every one I met +could speak of nothing but Mr. Fleet." + +"Well, really," he said, "in the long list of the victims that you +have wounded if not slain, I never supposed my clerk and quondam +man-of-all-work would prove so serious a case." + +"A truce to your bantering, father! Mr. Fleet is humble only in station, +not in character, not in ability. You know I have never been very +tender with the 'victims,' as you designate them, of the Mellen stamp; +but Mr. Fleet is a man, in the best sense of the word, and one that +I have wronged. Now that the folly is past I may as well explain to +you some things that have appeared strange. I think I can truly say +that I have given those gentlemen who have honored, or rather annoyed +me, by their unwished-for regard, very little encouragement. Therefore, +I was not responsible for any follies they might commit. But for +artistic reasons I did encourage Mr. Fleet's infatuation. You remember +how I failed in making a copy of that picture. In my determination to +succeed, I hit upon the rather novel expedient of inspiring and copying +the genuine thing. You know my imitative power is better than my +imagination, and I thought that by often witnessing the expression of +feeling and passion, I might learn to portray it without the +disagreeable necessity of passing through any such experiences myself. +But the experiment, as you know, did not work well. These living +subjects are hard to manage, and, as I have said, I am troubled by a +conscience." + +Mr. Ludolph's eyes sparkled, and a look of genuine admiration lighted +up his features. + +"Brava!" he cried; "your plan was worthy of you and of your ancestry. +It was a real stroke of genius. You were too tender-hearted, otherwise +it would have been perfect. What are the lives of a dozen such young +fellows compared with the development and perfection of such a woman +as you bid fair to be?" + +Christine had displayed in this transaction just the qualities that +her father most admired. But even she was shocked at his callousness, +and lifted a somewhat startled face to his. + +"Your estimate of human life is rather low," she said. + +"Not at all. Is not one perfect plant better than a dozen imperfect +ones? The gardener often pulls up the crowding and inferior ones to +throw them about the roots of the strongest, that in their death and +decay they may nourish it to the highest development. The application +of this principle is evident. They secure most in this world who have +the skill and power to grasp most." + +"But how about the rights of others? Conscious men and women are not +plants." + +"Let them be on their guard then. Every one is for himself in this +world. That can be plainly seen through the thin disguises that some +try to assume. After all, half the people we meet are little better +than summer weeds." + +Christine almost shuddered to think that the one bound to her by closest +ties cherished such sentiments toward the world, and probably, to a +certain extent, toward herself, but she only said, quietly: "I can +hardly subscribe to your philosophy as yet, though I fear I act upon +it too often. Still it does not apply to Mr. Fleet. He is gifted in +no ordinary degree, and doubtless will stand high here in his own land +in time. And now, as explanation has been made, with your permission +we will drop this subject out of our conversation as before." + +"Well," said Mr. Ludolph to himself, between sips of his favorite Rhine +wine, "I have gained much light on the subject to-night, and I must +confess that, even with my rather wide experience, the whole thing is +a decided novelty. If Christine were only less troubled with conscience, +over-fastidiousness, or whatever it is--if she were more moderate in +her ambition as an artist, and could be satisfied with power and +admiration, as other women are--what a star she might become in the +fashionable world of Europe! But, for some reason, I never feel sure +of her. Her spirit is so wilful and obstinate, and she seems so full +of vague longing after an ideal, impossible world, that I live in +constant dread that she may be led into some folly fatal to my ambition. +This Fleet is a most dangerous fellow. I wish I were well rid of him; +still, matters are not so bad as I feared--that is, if she told me the +whole truth, which I am inclined to doubt. But I had better keep him +in my employ during the few months we still remain in this land, as +I can watch over him, and guard against his influence better than if +he were beyond my control. But no more promotion or encouragement does +he get from me." + +Janette, Christine's French maid, passed the open door. The thought +struck Mr. Ludolph that he might secure an ally in her. + +The unscrupulous creature was summoned, and agreed for no very large +sum to become a spy upon Christine, and report anything looking toward +friendly relations with Dennis Fleet. + +"The game is still in my hands," said the wary man. "I will yet steer +my richly-freighted argosy up the Rhine. Here's to Christine, the belle +of the German court!" and he filled a slender Venetian glass to the +brim, drained it, and then retired. + +Christine, on reaching her room, muttered to herself: "He now knows +all that I mean he ever shall. We are one in our ambition, if nothing +else, and therefore our relations must be to a certain degree +confidential and amicable. And now forget you have a conscience, forget +you have a heart, and, above all things, forget that you have ever +seen or known Dennis Fleet." + +Thus the influence of a false education, a proud, selfish, ambitious +life, decided her choice. She plunged as resolutely into the whirl of +fashionable gayety about her as she had in the dissipations of New +York, determined to forget the past, and kill the time that must +intervene before she could sail away to her brilliant future in Germany. + +But she gradually learned that, if conscience had robbed her of peace +before, something else disturbed her now, and rendered her efforts +futile. She found that there was a principle at work in her heart +stronger even than her resolute will. In spite of her purpose to the +contrary, she caught herself continually thinking of Dennis, and +indulging in strange, delicious reveries in regard to him. + +At last she ceased to shun the store as she had done at first, but with +increasing frequency found some necessity for going there. + +After the interview in the show-room, Dennis was driven to the bitter +conclusion that Christine was utterly heartless, and cared not a jot +for him. His impression was confirmed by the fact that she shunned the +store, and that he soon heard of her as a belle and leader in the +ultra-fashionable world. He, too, bitterly lamented that he had ever +seen her, and was struggling with all the power of his will to forget +her. He fiercely resolved that, since she wished him dead, she should +become dead to him. + +Almost immediately after his return he had discovered that the two +emblematical pictures had been removed from the loft over the store. +He remembered that he had spoken of them to Christine, and from Ernst +he gathered that she herself had taken them away. It was possible, he +believed, that she had made them the subject of ridicule. At best she +must have destroyed them in order to blot out all trace of a +disagreeable episode. Whatever may have been their fate, they had, as +he thought, failed in their purpose, and were worthless to him, and +he was far too proud to make inquiries. + +As the weeks passed on, he apparently succeeded better than she. There +was nothing in her character, as she then appeared, that appealed to +anything gentle or generous. She seemed so proud, so strong and resolute +in her choice of evil, so devoid of the true womanly nature, as he had +learned to reverence it in his mother, that he could not pity, much +less respect her, and even his love could scarcely survive under such +circumstances. + +When she began coming to the store again, though his heart beat thick +and fast at her presence, he turned his back and seemed not to see +her, or made some errand to a remote part of the building. At first +she thought this might be accident, but she soon found it a resolute +purpose to ignore her very existence. By reason of a trait peculiar +to Christine, this was only the more stimulating. She craved all the +more that which was seemingly denied. + +Accustomed to every gratification, to see all yield to her wishes, and +especially to find gentlemen almost powerless to resist her beauty, +she came to regard this one stern, averted face as infinitely more +attractive than all the rest in the world. + +"That he so steadily avoids me proves that he is anything but +indifferent," she said to herself one day. + +She condemned her visits to the store, and often reproached herself +with folly in going; but a secret powerful magnetism drew her thither +in spite of herself. + +Dennis, too, soon noticed that she came often, and the fact awakened +a faint hope within him. He learned that his love was not dead, but +only chilled and chained by circumstances and his own strong will. +True, apart from the fact of her coming, she gave him no encouragement. +She was as distant and seemingly oblivious of his existence as he of +hers, but love can gather hope from a marvellously little thing. + +But one day Christine detected her father watching her movements with +the keenest scrutiny, and after that she came more and more rarely. +The hope that for a moment had tinged the darkness surrounding Dennis +died away like the meteor's transient light. + +He went into society very little after his illness, and shunned large +companies. He preferred to spend his evenings with his mother and in +study. The Winthrops were gone, having removed to their old home in +Boston, and he had not formed very intimate acquaintances elsewhere. +Moreover, his limited circle, though of the best and most refined, was +not one in which Christine often appeared. + +But one evening his cheek paled and his heart fluttered as he saw her +entering the parlors of a lady by whom he had been invited to meet a +few friends. For some little time he studiously avoided her, but at +last his hostess, with well-meant zeal, formally presented him. + +They bowed very politely and very coldly. The lady surmised that +Christine did not care about the acquaintance of her father's clerk, +and so brought them no more together. But Christine was pained by +Dennis's icy manner, and saw that she was thoroughly misunderstood. +When asked to sing, she chose a rather significant ditty: + + "Ripple, sparkle, rapid stream, + Let your dancing wavelets gleam + Quiveringly and bright; + Children think the surface glow + Reaches to the depth below, + Hidden from the light. + + "Human faces often seem + Like the sparkle of the stream, + In the social glare; + Some assert, in wisdom's guise, + (Look they not with children's eyes?) + All is surface there." + +As she rose from the piano her glance met his with something like +meaning in it, he imagined. He started, flushed, and his face became +full of eager questioning. But her father was on the watch also, and, +placing his daughter's hand within his arm, he led her into the front +parlor, and soon after they pleaded another engagement and vanished +altogether. + +No chance for explanation came, and soon a new and all-absorbing anxiety +filled Dennis's heart, and the shadow of the greatest sorrow that he +had yet experienced daily drew nearer. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +THE GATES OPEN + + +At Dennis's request, Dr. Arten called and carefully inquired into Mrs. +Fleet's symptoms. Her son stood anxiously by awaiting the result of +the examination. At last the physician said, cheerily: "There is no +immediate occasion for alarm here. I am sorry to say that your mother's +lungs are far from strong, but they may carry her through many +comfortable years yet. I will prescribe tonics, and you may hope for +the best. But mark this well, she must avoid exposure. A severe cold +might be most serious in its consequences." + +How easy to say, "Do not take cold!" How many whose lives were at stake +have sought to obey the warning, but all in vain! Under Dr. Arten's +tonics, Mrs. Fleet grew stronger, and Dennis rejoiced over the +improvement. But, in one of the sudden changes attendant on the breaking +up of winter, the dreaded cold was taken, and it soon developed into +acute pneumonia. + +For a few days she was very ill, and Dennis never left her side. In +the intervals of pain and fever she would smile at him and whisper: +"The harbor is near. This rough weather cannot last much longer." + +"Mother, do not leave us; we cannot spare you," ever pleaded her son. + +Contrary to her expectations, however, she rallied, but continued in +a very feeble state. Dennis was able to resume his duties in the store, +and he hoped and tried to believe that the warm spring and summer days +soon to come would renew his mother's strength. But every day she grew +feebler, and Dr. Arten shook his head. + +The Bruders were very kind, and it was astonishing how much Mrs. Bruder, +though burdened with her large family, found time to do. If Mrs. Fleet +had been her own mother she could not have bestowed upon her more +loving solicitude. Mr. Bruder was devotion itself. He removed his easel +to an attic-room in Mrs. Fleet's house; and every hour of Dennis's +absence heard him say: "Vat I do for you now? I feel no goot unless +I do someding." + +Some little time after Mrs. Fleet was taken sick a mystery arose. The +most exquisite flowers and fruits were left at the house from time to +time, marked in a bold, manly hand, "For Mrs. Fleet." But all efforts +to discover their source failed. + +The reader will guess that Christine was the donor, and Dennis hoped +it--though, he admitted to himself, with little reason. + +Mrs. Fleet had not much pain. She seemed gently wafted as by an ebbing +tide away from time and earth, Kindly but firmly she sought to prepare +Dennis's mind for the change soon to take place. At first he could not +endure its mention, but she said, earnestly: "My son, I am not dying. +I am just entering on the true, real, eternal life--a life which is +as much beyond this poor feeble existence as the sun is brighter than +a glow-worm. I shall soon clasp my dear husband to my heart again, +and, oh, ecstasy! I shall soon in reality see the Saviour whom I now +see almost continually in vision." + +Then again she would turn toward her earthly treasures with unutterable +yearning and tenderness. + +"Oh, that I could gather you up in my arms and take you all with me!" +she would often exclaim. Many times during the day she would call the +little girls from their play and kiss their wondering faces. + +One evening Dennis came home and found a vase of flowers with a green +background of mint at his mother's bedside. Their delicate fragrance +greeted him as soon as he entered. As he sat by her side holding her +hand, he said, softly: "Mother, are not these sprays of mint rather +unusual in a bouquet? Has the plant any special meaning? I have noticed +it before mingled with these mysterious flowers." + +She smiled and answered, "When I was a girl its language was, 'Let us +be friends again.'" + +"Do you think--can it be possible that _she_ sends them?" said he, in a +low, hesitating tone. + +"Prayer is mighty, my son." + +"And have you been praying for her all this time, mother?" + +"Yes, and will continue to do so to the last." + +"Oh, mother! I have lost hope. My heart has been full of bitterness +toward her, and I have felt that God was against it all." + +"God is not against her learning to know Him, which is life. Jesus has +loved her all the time, and she has wronged Him more than she has you." + +Dennis bowed his head on his mother's hand, and she felt hot tears +fall upon it. At last he murmured: "You are indeed going to heaven +soon, dear mother, for your language is not of earth. When will such +a spirit dwell within me?" + +"Again remember your mother's words," she answered, gently; "prayer +is mighty." + +"Mother," said he, with a sudden earnestness, "do you think you can +pray for us in heaven?" + +"I know of no reason to the contrary." + +"Then I know you will, and the belief will ever be a source of hope +and strength." + +Mrs. Fleet was now passing through the land of Beulah. To her strong +spiritual vision, the glories of the other shore seemed present, and +at times she thought that she really heard music; again it would seem +as if her Saviour had entered the plain little room, as He did the +humble home at Bethany. + +Her thoughts ran much on Christine. One day she wrote, feebly: + +"Would Miss Ludolph be willing to come and see a dying woman? + ETHEL FLEET." + +Mr. Bruder carried it, but most unfortunately Christine was out, so +that her maid, ever on the alert to earn the price of her treachery, +received it. It was slightly sealed. She opened it, and saw from its +contents that it must be given to Mr. Ludolph. He with a frown committed +it to the flames. + +"I have written to her," she whispered to her son in the evening, "and +think she will come to see me." + +Dennis was sleepless that night, through his hope and eager expectation. +The following day, and the next passed, and she came not. + +"I was right," exclaimed he, bitterly. "She is utterly heartless. It +was not she who sent the flowers. Who that is human would have refused +such a request! Waste no more thought upon her, for she is unworthy, +and it is all in vain." "No!" said Mrs. Fleet in sudden energy. "It +is not in vain. Have I not prayed again and again? and shall I doubt +God?" + +"Your faith is stronger than mine," he answered, in deep despondency. + +"God's time is not always ours," she answered, gently. + +But an angry fire lurked in Dennis's eyes, and he muttered to himself +as he went to his room: "She has snapped the last slender cord that +bound me to her. I could endure almost anything myself, but that she +should refuse to visit my dying mother proves her a monster, with all +her beauty." + +As he was leaving the house in the morning, his mother whispered, +gently, "Who was it that said, 'Father, forgive them, they know not what +they do?'" + +"Ah, but she does know," said he, bitterly. "I can forgive nearly +everything against myself, but not slights to you." + +"The time will come when you will forgive everything, my son." + +"Not till there is acknowledgment and sorrow for the wrong," answered +he, sternly. Then with a sudden burst of tenderness he added: "Good-by, +darling mother. I will try to do anything you wish, even though it is +impossible;" but his love, through Janette's treachery, suffered the +deepest wound it had yet received. + +Christine of her own accord had almost decided to call upon Mrs. Fleet, +but before she could carry out her purpose while hastily coming +downstairs one day, she sprained her ankle, and was confined to her +room some little time. + +She sent Janette with orders for the flowers, who, at once surmising +their destination, said to the florist that she was Miss Ludolph's +confidential maid, and would carry them to those for whom they were +designed. He, thinking it "all right," gave them to her, and she took +them to a Frenchman in the same trade whom she knew, and sold them at +half-price, giving him a significant sign to ask no questions. To the +same market she brought the fruit; so from that time they ceased as +mysteriously as they had appeared at Mrs. Fleet's bedside. + +But Dennis was so anxious, and his mother was now failing so rapidly, +that he scarcely noted this fact. The warm spring days seemed rather +to enervate than to strengthen her. He longed to stay with her +constantly, but his daily labor was necessary to secure the comforts +needful to an invalid. Every morning he bade her a most tender adieu, +and during the day often sent Ernst to inquire how she was. + +One evening Christine ventured to send Janette on the same errand and +impatiently awaited her return. At last she came, appearing as if +flushed and angry. + +"Whom did you see?" asked Christine, eagerly. + +"I saw Mr. Fleet himself." + +"Well, what did he say?" + +"He bite his lip, frown, and say, 'Zere is no answer,' and turn on his +heel into ze house." + +It was now Christine's turn to be angry. "What!" she exclaimed, "does +his Bible teach him to forget and forgive nothing? Can it be that he, +like the rest of them, believes and acts on only such parts as are to +his mood?" + +"I don't know nothing about him," said the maid, "only I don't want +to go zere again." + +"You need not," was the brief reply. + +After a long, bitter revery, she sighed: "Ah, well, thus we drift +apart. But it is just as well, for apart we must ever be." + +One morning early in May Mrs. Fleet was very weak, and Dennis left her +with painful misgivings. During the morning he sent Ernst to see how +she was, and he soon returned, with wild face, crying, "Come home +quick!" + +Breaking abruptly from his startled customer, Dennis soon reached his +mother's side. Mr. and Mrs. Bruder were sobbing at the foot of the +bed, and the girls were pleading piteously on either side--"Oh, mother! +please don't go away!" + +"Hush!" said Dennis, solemnly. Awed by his manner, all became +comparatively silent. He bent over the bed, and said, "Mother, you are +leaving us." + +The voice of her beloved son rallied the dying woman's wandering mind. +After a moment she recognized him, smiled faintly, and whispered: "Yes, +I think I am--kiss me--good-by. Bring--the children. Jesus--take +care--my little--lambs. Good-by--true--honest friends--meet me--heaven. +Dennis--these children--your charge--bring them home--to me. Pray for +_her_. I don't know--why--she seems very--near to me. Farewell--my +good--true--son--mother's blessing--God's blessing--ever rest--on you." + +Her eyes closed, and she fell into a gentle sleep. + +"She vake no more in dis vorld," said Mrs. Bruder, in an awed tone. + +Mr. Bruder, unable to control his feelings any longer, hurried from +the room. His wife, with streaming eyes, silently dressed the little +girls, and took them home with her, crying piteously all the way for +mamma. + +Pale, tearless, motionless, Dennis sat, hour after hour holding his +mother's hand. He noted that her pulse grew more and more feeble. At +last the sun in setting broke through the clouds that had obscured it +all day, and filled the room with a sudden glory. + +To Dennis's great surprise, his mother's eyes opened wide, with the +strange, far-off look they ever had when she was picturing to herself +the unknown world. + +Her lips moved. He bent over her and caught the words: "Hark! hear!--It +never was so sweet before. See the angels--thronging toward me--they +never came so near before." + +Then a smile of joy and welcome lighted up her wan features, and she +whispered, "Oh, Dennis, husband--are we once more united?" + +Suddenly there was a look of ecstasy such as her son had never seen +on any human face, and she cried almost aloud, "Jesus--my Saviour!" +and received, as it were, directly into His arms, she passed from +earth. + +We touch briefly on the scenes that followed. Dennis took the body of +his mother to her old home, and buried it under the wide-spreading elm +in the village churchyard, where as a happy child and blooming maiden +she had often sat between the services. It was his purpose to remove +the remains of his father and place them by her side as soon as he +could afford it. + +His little sisters accompanied him east, and he found a home for them +with a sister of his mother, who was a good, kind, Christian lady. +Dennis's salary was not large, but sufficient to insure that his sisters +would be no burden to his aunt, who was in rather straitened +circumstances. He also arranged that the small annuity should be paid +for their benefit. + +It was hard parting from his sisters, whose little hearts seemed +breaking at what appeared to them to be a new bereavement. + +"How can I leave them!" he exclaimed, with tears falling fast from his +eyes. + +"They are children," said his aunt, soothingly, "and will forget their +troubles in a few days." + +And so it proved; but Dennis, with a sore heart, and feeling very +lonely, returned to Chicago. + +When at last Christine got out again, she learned from Ernst at the +store that Dennis's mother had died, and that he had taken the remains +and his sisters east. In his sorrow he seemed doubly interesting to +her. + +"How I wish it were in my power to cheer and comfort him!" she sighed, +"and yet I fear my ability to do this is less than that of any one +else. In very truth he seems to despise and hate me now. The barriers +between us grow stronger and higher every day. How different it all +might have been if--. But what is the use of these wretched 'ifs'? +What is the use of resisting this blind, remorseless fate that brings +happiness to one and crushes another?" + +Wearily and despondingly she rode back to the elegant home in which +she found so little enjoyment. + +Whom should she met there but Mrs. Von Brakhiem from New York, bound +westward with a gay party on a trip to the Rocky Mountains and +California? They had stopped to spend a few days in Chicago, and were +determined to take Christine on with them. Her father strongly seconded +the plan. Though Christine surmised his motive, she did not care to +resist. Since she would soon be separated from Dennis forever, the +less she saw of him the less would be the pain. Moreover, her sore and +heavy heart welcomed any change that would cause forgetfulness; and +so it was speedily arranged. + +Mrs. Von Brakhiem and her party quite took possession of the Ludolph +mansion, and often made it echo with gayety. + +On the evening of the day that Dennis buried his mother, Ernst went over +at Mr. Ludolph's request to carry a message. He found the house +the scene of a fashionable revel. There were music and dancing in the +parlors, and from the dining-room the clink of glasses and loud peals +of laughter proved that this was not Christine's ideal of an +entertainment as she had portrayed it to her father on a former +occasion. In truth, she had little to do with the affair; it was quite +impromptu, and Mr. Ludolph and Mrs. Von Brakhiem were responsible for +it. + +But Ernst could not know this, and to him it seemed shocking. The +simple funeral service taking place on that day in the distant New +England village had never been absent from his thoughts a moment. Since +early morning he had gone about with his little face composed to +funereal gravity. + +His simple, warm-hearted parents felt that they could only show proper +respect for the occasion by the deepest gloom. Their rooms were arranged +in stiff and formal manner, with crape here and there. All unnecessary +work ceased, and the children, forbidden to play, were dressed in +mourning as far as possible, and made to sit in solemn and dreadful +state all day. It would not have surprised Ernst if the whole city had +gone into mourning. Therefore the revelry at the Ludolph mansion seemed +to him heartless and awful beyond measure, and nearly the first things +he told Dennis on the latter's return was that they had had "a great +dancing and drinking party, the night of the funeral, at Mr. Ludolph's." +Then, trying to find some explanation for what seemed to him such a +strange and wicked thing, he suggested, "Perhaps they meant it for a +wake." + +Poor little Ernst's ideas of the world, outside of his home, had been +gathered from a very low neighborhood. + +He also handed Dennis a letter that Mr. Ludolph requested should be +given him on his return. It read as follows: + + "CHICAGO, May 6, 1871. + +"I have been compelled to supply your place in your absence: therefore +your services will be no longer needed at this store. Inclosed you +will find a check for the small balance still due you, + AUGUST LUDOLPH." + +Dennis's brow grew very dark, and in bitter soliloquy he said, half +aloud, as he strode up and down his little room in great agitation: +"And so it all ends! The girl at whose side my mother would have watched +in the most dangerous and loathsome of diseases; the woman of ice whom +I sought to melt and render human by as warm, true love as ever man +lavished on one who rewarded his affection--this beautiful monster +will not even visit my mother when dying; she holds a revel on the day +of the funeral; and now, through her influence no doubt, I am robbed +of the chance of winning honest bread. She cannot even endure the sight +of the man who once told her the unvarnished truth. Poor as you deem +me, Christine Ludolph, with God's help not many years shall pass before +it will be condescension on my part to recognize you." + +He would not even go to the store again. The Bruders, having heard +what had occurred, took Ernst away also; but Dennis soon found him a +better situation elsewhere. + +The day on which Dennis returned, Christine was speeding in a palace-car +toward the Rocky Mountains, outwardly gay, determined to enjoy herself +and carry out her reckless purpose to get the most possible out of +life, cost what it might. + +If she had been a shallow girl, thoughtless and vain, with only mind +enough to take in the events of the passing moment, she might have +bought many fleeting pleasures with her abundant wealth. But this she +was not, with all her faults, and wherever she went, in the midst of +gayest scenes, and in the presence of the grandest and most inspiring +scenery, thought and memory, like two spectres that no spell could lay, +haunted her and robbed her of peace and any approach to happiness. +Though possessing the means of gratifying every whim, though restrained +by no scruples from doing what she chose, she felt that all around +were getting more from life than she. + +During her absence she experienced a sudden and severe attack of +illness. Her friends were much alarmed about her, and she far more +about herself. All her old terror returned. In one respect she was +like her mother; she had no physical courage, but shrank with +inexpressible dread from danger, pain, and death. Again the blackness +of darkness gathered round her, and not one in the gay pleasure party +could say a word to comfort her. + +She recovered, and soon regained her usual health, but her +self-confidence was more thoroughly shaken. She felt like one in a +little cockle-shell boat out upon a shoreless ocean. While the +treacherous sea remained calm, all might be well, but she knew that +a storm would soon arise, and that she must go down, beyond remedy. +Again she had been taught how suddenly, how unexpectedly, that storm +might rise. + +Dennis resolved at once to enter on the career of an artist. He sold +to Mr. French, at a moderate price, some paintings and sketches he had +made. He rented a small room that became his studio, +sleeping-apartment--in brief, his home, and then went to work with all +the ordinary incentives to success intensified by his purpose to reach +a social height that would compel Christine to look upward if their +acquaintance were renewed. + +Disappointment in love is one of the severest tests of character in +man or woman. Some sink into weak sentimentality, and mope and languish; +some become listless, apathetic, and float down the current of existence +like driftwood. Men are often harsh and cynical, and rail at the sex +to which their mothers and sisters belong. Sometimes a man inflicts +a wellnigh fatal wound and leaves his victim to cure it as best she +may. From that time forth she may be like the wronged Indian, who slays +as many white men as he can. Not a few, on finding they cannot enter +the beautiful paradise of happy love, plunge into imbruting vice, and +drown not only their disappointment but themselves in dissipation. +Their course is like that of some who deem that the best way to cure +a wound or end a disease is to kill the patient as soon as possible. +If women have true metal in them (and they usually have) they become +unselfishly devoted to others, and by gentle, self-denying ways seek +to impart to those about them the happiness denied to themselves. + +But with all manly young men the instinct of Dennis is perhaps the +most common. They will rise, shine, and dazzle the eyes that once +looked scornfully or indifferently at them. + +As he worked patiently at his noble calling this smaller ambition was +gradually lost in the nobler, broader one, to be a true artist and a +good man. + +During his illness some gentlemen of large wealth and liberality, who +wished to stimulate and develop the native artistic talent of their +city, offered a prize of two thousand dollars for the finest picture +painted during the year, the artist also having the privilege of selling +his work. + +On his return after his illness Dennis heard of this, and determined +to be one of the competitors. He applied to Mr. Cornell, who had the +matter in charge, for permission to enter the lists, which that +gentleman granted rather doubtfully. He had known Dennis only as a +critic, not as an artist. But having gained his point, Dennis went +earnestly to work on the emblematic painting he had resolved upon, and +with what success the following chapters will show. + +His mother's sickness and death, of course, put a complete shop to his +artistic labors for a time, but when entering on his new career, he +gave himself wholly to this effort. + +The time for exhibition and decision was fixed--Saturday morning October +7, 1871. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +SUSIE WINTHROP APPEARS AGAIN + + +Our story passes rapidly over the scenes and events of the summer and +fall of '71. Another heavy blow fell upon Dennis in the loss of his +old friend and instructor, Mr. Bruder. + +By prayer and effort, his own and others, he was saved morally and +spiritually, but he had been greatly shattered by past excess. He was +attacked by typhoid fever, and after a few days' illness died. Recovery +from this disease depends largely upon strength and purity of +constitution. But every one of the innumerable glasses of liquor that +poor Bruder had swallowed had helped to rob him of these, and so there +was no power to resist. + +Under her husband's improved finances, Mrs. Bruder had removed to +comfortable lodgings in Harrison Street, and these she determined to +keep if possible, dreading for the sake of her children the influences +of a crowded tenement house. Dennis stood by her, a stanch and helpful +friend; Ernst was earning a good little sum weekly, and by her needle +and washtub the patient woman continued the hard battle of life with +fair prospects of success. + +Dennis's studio was on the south side, at the top of a tall building +overlooking the lake. Even before the early summer sun rose above the +shining waves he was at his easel, and so accomplished what is a fair +day's work before many of his profession had left their beds. Though +he worked hard and long, he still worked judiciously. Bent upon +accomplishing what was almost impossible within the limited time +remaining, he determined that, with all his labor, Dr. Arten should +never charge him with suicidal tendencies again. Therefore he trained +himself mentally and morally for his struggle as the athlete trains +himself physically. + +He believed in the truth, too little recognized among brain-workers, +that men can develop themselves into splendid mental conditions, wherein +they can accomplish almost double their ordinary amount of labor. + +The year allotted to the competitors for the prize to be given in +October was all too short for such a work as he had attempted, and +through his own, his mother's, and Mr. Bruder's illness, he had lost +a third of the time, but in the careful and skilful manner indicated +he was trying to make it up. He had a long conversation with shrewd +old Dr. Arten, who began to take a decided interest in him. He also +read several books on hygiene. Thus he worked under the guidance of +reason, science, Christian principle, instead of mere impulse, as is +too often the case with genius. + +In the absorption of his task he withdrew utterly from society, and, +with the exception of his mission class, Christian worship on the +Sabbath, and attendance on a little prayer-meeting in a neglected +quarter during the week, he permitted no other demands upon his time +and thoughts. + +His pictures had sold for sufficient to provide for his sisters and +enable him to live, with close economy, till after the prize was given, +and then, if he did not gain it (of which he was not at all sure), his +painting would sell for enough to meet future needs. + +And so we leave him for a time earnestly at work. He was like a ship +that had been driven hither and thither, tempest-tossed and in danger. +At last, under a clear sky and in smooth water, it finds its true +bearings, and steadily pursues its homeward voyage. + +The Christine whom he had first learned to love in happy +unconsciousness, while they arranged the store together, became a +glorified, artistic ideal. The Christine whom he had learned to know +as false and heartless was now to him a strange, fascinating, unwomanly +creature, beautiful only as the Sirens were beautiful, that he might +wreck himself body and soul before her unpitying eyes. He sought to +banish all thought of her. + +Christine returned about midsummer. She was compelled to note, as she +neared her native city, that of all the objects it contained Dennis +Fleet was uppermost in her thoughts. She longed to go to the store and +see him once more, even though it should be only at a distance, with +not even the shadow of recognition between them. She condemned it all +as folly, and worse than vain, but that made no difference to her +heart, which would have its way. + +Almost trembling with excitement she entered the Art Building the next +day, and glanced around with a timidity that was in marked contrast +to her usual cold and critical regard. But, as the reader knows, Dennis +Fleet was not to be seen. From time to time she went again, but neither +he nor Ernst appeared. She feared that for some reason he had gone, +and determined to learn the truth. Throwing off the strange timidity +and restraint that ever embarrassed her where he was concerned, she +said to Mr. Schwartz one day: "I don't like the way that picture is +hung. Where is Mr. Fleet? I believe he has charge of that department." + +"Why, bless you! Miss Ludolph," replied Mr. Schwartz, with a look of +surprise, "Mr. Ludolph discharged him over two months ago." + +"Discharged him! what for?" + +"For being away too much, I heard," said old Schwartz, with a shrug +indicating that that might be the reason and might not. + +Christine came to the store but rarely thereafter, for it had lost its +chief element of interest. That evening she said to her father, "You +have discharged Mr. Fleet?" + +"Yes," was the brief answer. + +"May I ask the reason?" + +"He was away too much." + +"That is not the real reason," she said, turning suddenly upon him. +"Father, what is the use of treating me as a child? What is the use +of trying to lock things up and keep them from me? I intend to go to +Germany with you this fall, and that is sufficient." + +With a courtly smile Mr. Ludolph replied, "And I have lived long enough, +my daughter, to know that what people _intend_, and what they _do_ are +two very different things." + +She flushed angrily and said: "It was most unjust to discharge him as +you did. Do you not remember that he offered his mother's services as +nurse when I was dreading the smallpox?" + +"You are astonishingly grateful in this case," said her father, with +a meaning that Christine understood too well; "but, if you will read +the records of the Ludolph race, you will find that its representatives +have often been compelled to do things somewhat arbitrarily. Since you +have been gone, I have received letters announcing the death of my +brother and his wife. I am now Baron Ludolph!" + +But Christine was too angry and too deeply wounded to note this +information, which at one time would have elated her beyond measure. +She coldly said, "It is a pity that noblemen are compelled to aught +but noble deeds"; and, with this parting arrow, she left him. + +Even her father winced, and then with a heavy frown said, "It is well +that this Yankee youth has vanished; still, the utmost vigilance is +required." + +Again he saw the treacherous maid and promised increased reward if she +would be watchful, and inform him of every movement of Christine. + +In the unobtrusive ways that her sensitive pride permitted, Christine +tried to find out what had become of Dennis, but vainly. She offered +her maid a large reward if she would discover him, but she had been +promised a larger sum not to find him, and so did not. The impression +was given that he had left the city, and Christine feared, with a +sickening dread, that she would never see him again. But one evening +Mr. Cornell stated a fact in a casual way that startled both Mr. and +Miss Ludolph. + +He was calling at their house, and they were discussing the coming +exhibition of the pictures which would compete for the prize. + +"By the way, your former clerk and porter is among the competitors; +at least he entered the lists last spring, but I have lost sight of +him since. I imagine he has given it up, and betaken himself to tasks +more within the range of his ability." + +The eyes of father and daughter met, but she turned to Mr. Cornell, +and said, coolly, though with a face somewhat flushed, "And has Chicago +so much artistic talent that a real genius has no chance here?" + +"I was not aware that Mr. Fleet was a genius," answered Mr. Cornell. + +"I think that he will satisfy you on that point, and that you will +hear from him before the exhibition takes place." + +Mr. Ludolph hastily changed the subject, but he had forebodings as to +the future. + +Christine went to her room, and thought for a long time; suddenly she +arose, exclaiming, "He told me his story once on canvas; I will now +tell him mine." + +She at once stretched the canvas on a frame for a small picture, and +placed it on an easel, that she might commence with dawn of day. + +During the following weeks she worked scarcely less earnestly and +patiently than Dennis. The door was locked when she painted, and before +she left the studio the picture was hidden. + +She meant to send it anonymously, so that not even her father should +know its authorship. She hoped that Dennis would recognize it. + +When she was in the street her eyes began to have an eager, wistful +look, as if she was seeking some one. She often went to galleries, and +other resorts of artists, but in vain, for she never met him, though +at times the distance between them was less than between Evangeline +and her lover, when she heard the dip of his oar in her dream. Though +she knew that if she met him she would probably give not one encouraging +glance, yet the instinct of her heart was just as strong. + +Mr. Ludolph told the maid that she must find out what Christine was +painting, and she tried to that degree that she wakened suspicion. + +On one occasion Christine turned suddenly on her, and said: "What do +you mean? If I find you false--if I have even good reason to suspect +you--I will turn you into the street, though it be at midnight!" + +And the maid learned, as did Mr. Ludolph, that she was not dealing +with a child. + +During Monday, October 2, Dennis was employed all the long day in +giving the finishing touches to his picture. It was not worked up as +finely as he could have wished; time did not permit this. But he had +brought out his thought vividly, and his drawings were full of power. +On the following Saturday the prize would be given. + +In the evening he walked out for air and exercise. As he was passing +one of the large hotels, he heard his name called. Turning, he saw on +the steps, radiant with welcome, his old friend, Susie Winthrop. Her +hand was on the arm of a tall gentleman, who seemed to have eyes for her +only. But in her old impulsive way she ran down the steps, and +gave Dennis a grasp of the hand that did his lonely heart good. Then, +leading him to the scholarly-looking gentleman, who was gazing through +his glasses in mild surprise, she said: "Professor Leonard, my husband, +Mr. Fleet. This is the Dennis Fleet I have told you about so often." + +"Oh-h," said the professor, in prolonged accents, while a genial light +shone through his gold spectacles. "Mr. Fleet, we are old acquaintances, +though we have never met before. If I were a jealous man, you are the +only one I should fear." + +"And we mean to make you wofully jealous to-night, for I intend to +have Mr. Fleet dine with us and spend the evening. Wo, I will take no +excuse, no denial. This infatuated man will do whatever I bid him, and +he is a sort of Greek athlete. If you do not come right along I shall +command him to lay violent hands on you and drag you ignominiously in." + +Dennis was only too glad to accept, but merely wished to make a better +toilet. + +"I have just come from my studio," he said. + +"And you wish to go and divest yourself of all artistic flavor and +become commonplace. Do you imagine I will permit it? No! so march in +as my captive. Who ever heard of disputing the will of a bride? This +man" (pointing up to the tall professor) "never dreams of it." + +Dennis learned that she was on her wedding trip, and saw that she was +happily married, and proud of her professor, as he of her. + +With feminine tact she drew his story from him, and yet it was but a +meagre, partial story, like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out, +for he tried to be wholly silent on his love and disappointment. But +in no respect did he deceive Mrs. Leonard. Her husband went away for +a little time. In his absence she asked, abruptly, "Have you seen Miss +Ludolph lately?" + +"No!" said Dennis, with a tell-tale flush. Seeing her look of sympathy, +and knowing her to be such a true friend, the impulsive young man gave +his confidence almost before he knew it. She was just the one to inspire +trust, and he was very lonely, having had no one to whom he could speak +his deeper feelings since his mother died. + +"Miss Ludolph wronged me in a way that a man finds it hard to forget +or forgive," he said, in a low, bitter tone; "but I should have tried +to do both had she not treated my mother most inhumanly;" and he told +his story over again with Hamlet in. + +Mrs. Leonard listened with breathless interest, and then said: "She +is a strange girl, and that plan of making you her unconscious model +is just like her, though it was both cruel and wicked. And yet Mr. +Fleet, with shame for my sex I admit it, how many would have flirted +with you to the same degree from mere vanity and love of excitement! +I have seen Miss Ludolph, and I cannot understand her. We are no longer +the friends we once were, but I cannot think her utterly heartless. +She is bent upon becoming a great artist at any cost, and I sometimes +think she would sacrifice herself as readily as any one else for this +purpose. She looks to me as if she had suffered, and she has lost much +of her old haughty, cold manner, save when something calls it out. +Even in the drawing-room she was abstracted, as if her thoughts were +far away. You are a man of honor, and it is due that you should know +the following facts. Indeed I do not think that they are a secret any +longer, and at any rate they will soon be known. If Mr. Ludolph were +in Germany he would be a noble. It is his intention to go there this +fall, and take his wealth and Christine with him, and assert his +ancestral titles and position. Christine could not marry in this land +without incurring her father's curse, and I think she has no disposition +to do that--her ambition is fully in accord with his." + +"Yes," said Dennis, bitterly, "and where other women have hearts, she +has ambition only." + +The professor returned and the subject was dropped. + +Dennis said, on taking his leave: "I did not expect to show any one +my picture till it was placed on exhibition with the others, but, if +you care to see it, you may to-morrow. Perhaps you can make some +suggestions that will help me." + +They eagerly accepted the invitation, and came the following morning. +Dennis watched them with much solicitude. When once they understood +his thought, their delight and admiration knew no bounds. The professor +turned and stared at him as if he were an entirely different person +from the unpretending youth who had been introduced on the preceding +evening. + +"If you do not get the prize," he said, sententiously, "you have a +great deal of artistic talent in Chicago." + +"'A Daniel come to judgment!'" cried his wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +SUGGESTIVE PICTURES AND A PRIZE + + +At last the day of the exhibition dawned. Dennis had sent his picture, +directed to Mr. Cornell, with his own name in an envelope nailed to +its back. No one was to know who the artists were till after the +decision was given. Christine had sent hers also, but no name whatever +was in the envelope attached to it. + +At an early hour, the doors were thrown open for all who chose to come. +The committee of critics had ample time given them for their decision, +and at one o'clock this was to be announced. + +Although Dennis went rather early, he found that Christine was there +before him. She stood with Professor and Mrs. Leonard, Mr. Cornell, +and her father, before his picture, fie could only see her side face, +and she was glancing from the printed explanation in the catalogue to +the painting. Mrs. Leonard was also at her side, seeing to it that no +point was unnoted. Christine's manner betrayed intense interest and +excitement, and with cause, for again Dennis had spoken to her deepest +soul in the language she best loved and understood. + +As before, she saw two emblematic pictures within one frame merely +separated by a plain band of gold. + +The first presented a chateau of almost palatial proportions, heavy, +ornate, but stiff and quite devoid of beauty. It appeared to be the +abode of wealth and ancestral greatness. + +Everything about the place indicated lavish expenditure. The walks and +trees were straight and formal, the flowers that bloomed here and +there, large and gaudy. A parrot hung in a gilded cage against a column +of the piazza. No wild songsters fluttered in the trees, or were on +the wing. Hills shut the place in and gave it a narrow, restricted +appearance, and the sky overhead was hard and brazen. On the lawn stood +a graceful mountain ash, and beneath it were two figures. The first +was that of a man, and evidently the master of the place. His appearance +and manner chiefly indicated pride, haughtiness, and also sensuality. +He had broken a spray from the ash-tree, and with a condescending air +was in the act of handing it to a lady, in the portraiture of whom +Dennis had truly displayed great skill. She was very beautiful, and +yet there was nothing good or noble in her face. Her proud features +showed mingled shame and reluctance to receive the gift in the manner +it was bestowed, and yet she was receiving it. The significance of the +mountain ash is "Grandeur." The whole scene was the portrayal, in the +beautiful language of art, of a worldly, ambitious marriage, where the +man seeks mere beauty, and the woman wealth and position, love having +no existence. + +It possessed an eloquence that Christine could not resist, and she +fairly loathed the alliance she knew her father would expect her to +make after their arrival in Germany, though once she had looked forward +to it with eagerness as the stepping-stone to her highest ambition. + +The second picture was a beautiful contrast. Instead of the brazen +glare of the first, the air was full of glimmering lights and shades, +and the sky of a deep transparent blue. Far up a mountain side, on an +overhanging cliff, grew the same graceful ash-tree, but its branches +were entwined with vines of the passion-flower that hung around in +slender streamers. On a jutting rock, with precarious footing, stood +a young man reaching up to grasp a branch, his glance bold and hopeful, +and his whole manner full of daring and power. He had evidently had +a hard climb to reach his present position; his hat was gone; his dress +was light and simple and adapted to the severest effort. + +But the chief figure in this picture also was that of a young girl who +stood near, her right hand clasping his left, and steadying and +sustaining him in his perilous footing. The wind was in her golden +hair, and swept to one side her light, airy costume. Her pure, noble +face was lilted up toward _him_, rather than toward the spray he sought +to grasp, and an eager, happy light shone from her eyes. She had +evidently climbed _with_ him to their present vantage-point, and now her +little hand secured and strengthened him as he sought to grasp, for her, +success and prosperity joined with unselfish love. The graceful +wind-flowers tossed their delicate blossoms around their feet, and above +them an eagle wheeled in its majestic flight. + +Below and opposite them on a breezy hillside stood a modern villa, as +tasteful in its architecture as the former had been stiff and heavy. +A fountain played upon the lawn, and behind it a cascade broke into +silver spray and mist. High above this beautiful earthly home, in the +clear, pure air rose a palace-like structure in shadowy, golden outline, +indicating that after the dwelling-place of time came the grander, the +perfect mansion above. + +Christine looked till her eyes were blinded with tears, and then dropped +her veil. In the features of the lady in each case she had not failed +to trace a faint likeness, sufficient to make it clear to herself. She +said in a low, plaintive tone, with quivering lips, "Mr. Fleet painted +that picture." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Leonard, looking at her with no little wonder and +perplexity. + +By a great effort Christine recovered herself and said, "You know how +deeply fine paintings always affect me." + +Dennis of course knew nothing of Christine's feelings. He could only +see that his picture had produced a profound effect on her, and that +she had eyes for nothing else. But he overheard Mr. Cornell say, "It +is indeed a remarkable painting." + +"Do you know its author?" asked Mr. Ludolph, with a heavy frown. + +"No, I do not. It is still a mystery." + +"Will it take the prize, do you think?" + +"I am not at liberty to give an opinion as yet," replied Mr. Cornell, +with a smile. "There is another picture here, almost if not quite as +fine, though much smaller and simpler;" and he took Mr. Ludolph off +to show him that. + +Dennis was now recognized by Mrs. Leonard and her husband, who came +forward and greeted him cordially, and they started on a tour of the +gallery together. Though his heart beat fast, he completely ignored +Christine's presence, and responded coldly to Mr. Ludolph's slight bow. + +Christine, on being aware of his presence, furtively devoured him with +her eyes. The refining influences of his life were evident in his face +and bearing, and she realized her ideal of what a man ought to be. +Eagerly she watched till he should discover her painting where it hung +opposite his own, and at last she was amply rewarded for all her toil. +He stopped suddenly and stood as if spellbound. + +The picture was very simple, and few accessories entered into it. Upon +a barren rock of an island stood a woman gazing far out at sea, where +in the distance a ship was sailing _away_. Though every part had been +worked up with exquisite finish, the whole force and power of the +painting lay in the expression of the woman's face, which was an +indescribable mingling of longing and despair. Here also Christine had +traced a faint resemblance to herself, though the woman was middle-aged +and haggard, with famine in her cheeks. + +As Dennis looked and wondered, the thought flashed into his mind, "Could +_she_ have painted that?" He turned suddenly toward her and was +convinced that she had done so; for she was looking at him with +something of the same expression, or at least he fancied so. She blushed +deeply and turned hastily away. He was greatly agitated, but in view of +the eyes that were upon him controlled himself and remained outwardly +calm. + +Mr. Ludolph also was convinced that his daughter had painted the +picture, and he frowned more heavily than before. He turned a dark +look on her, and found her regarding Dennis in a manner that caused +him to grind his teeth with rage. But he could only sit down and watch +the course of events. + +The people were now thronging in. The gentlemen who made up the prize, +with their committee of award, of which Mr. Cornell was chairman, were +also present. Most critically they examined each picture till at last +their choice narrowed down to the two paintings above described. But +it soon became evident that their choice would fall upon the larger +one, and Dennis saw that he was to be the victor. To his surprise +Christine seemed utterly indifferent as to the result of their decision. +He could not know that the prize had no place in her thoughts when she +painted her picture. She had found her reward in its effect on him. + +At one o'clock Mr. Cornell came forward and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, +and especially do I address that group of liberal citizens who are so +generously seeking to encourage art in our great and prosperous city, +it gives me pleasure to inform you that your munificence has brought +forth rich fruit, for here are many paintings that would do credit to +any gallery. We hesitated a little time between two very superior +pictures, but at last we have decided that the larger one is worthy +of the prize. The smaller picture is one of great merit; its treatment +is unusually fine, though the subject is not new. + +"The two emblematic pictures in some parts show crude and hasty work; +indeed some minor parts are quite unfinished. The artist evidently has +not had sufficient time. But the leading features are well wrought +out, and the power and originality of the entire effort so impress us +that, as I have said, we render our decision in its favor. That all +may know our verdict to be fair, we state on our honor that we do not +know by whom a single painting present was executed. Dr. Arten, as the +largest contributor toward the prize, you are appointed to bestow it. +On the back of the picture you will find an envelope containing the +name of the artist, whom we all shall delight to honor." + +Amid breathless expectation, Dr. Arten stepped forward, took down the +envelope, and read in a loud, trumpet-voice-- + +"DENNIS FLEET." + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +FIRE! FIRE! + + +"Will Dennis Fleet come forward?" cried Dr. Arten. Very pale, and +trembling with excitement, Dennis stepped out before them all. + +"Take heart, my young friend; I am not about to read your +death-warrant," said the doctor, cheerily. "Permit me to present you +with this check for two thousand dollars, and express to you what is +of more value to the true artist, our esteem and appreciation of your +merit. May your brush ever continue to be employed in the presentation +of such noble, elevating thoughts." + +And the good doctor, quite overcome by this unusual flight of eloquence, +blew his nose vigorously and wiped from his spectacles the moisture +with which his own eyes had bedewed them. + +Dennis responded with a low bow, and was about to retire; but his few +friends, and indeed all who knew him, pressed forward with their +congratulations. + +Foremost among these were the professor and his wife. Tears of delight +fairly shone in Mrs. Leonard's eyes as she shook his hand again and +again. Many others also trooped up for an introduction, till he was +quite bewildered by strange names, and compliments that seemed stranger +still. + +Suddenly a low, well-known voice at his side sent a thrill to his heart +and a rush of crimson to his face. + +"Will Mr. Fleet deign to receive my congratulations also?" + +He turned and met the deep blue eyes of Christine Ludolph lifted timidly +to his. But at once the association that had long been uppermost in +regard to her--the memory of her supposed treatment of his +mother--flashed across him, and he replied, with cold and almost stately +courtesy, "The least praise or notice from Miss Ludolph would be a +most unexpected favor." + +She thought from his manner that he might as well have said +"unwelcome favor," and with a sad, disappointed look she turned away. + +Even in the excitement and triumph of the moment, Dennis was oppressed +by the thought that he had not spoken as wisely as he might. Almost +abruptly he broke away and escaped to the solitude of his own room. + +He did not think about his success. The prize lay forgotten in his +pocketbook. He sat in his arm-chair and stared apparently at vacancy, +but in reality at the picture that he was sure Christine had painted. +He went over and over again with the nicest scrutiny all her actions +in the gallery, and now reproached himself bitterly for the repelling +answer he had given when she spoke to him. He tried to regain his old +anger and hardness in view of her wrongs to him and his, but could +not. The tell-tale picture, and traces of sorrow and suffering in her +face in accord with it, had disarmed him. He said to himself, and half +believed, that he was letting his imagination run away with his reason, +but could not help it. At last he seized his hat and hastened to the +hotel where Mrs. Leonard was staying. She at once launched out into +a eulogistic strain descriptive of her enjoyment of the affair. + +"I never was so proud of Chicago," she exclaimed. "It is the greatest +city in the world. Only the other day her streets were prairies. I +believe my husband expected to find buffalo and Indians just outside +the town. But see! already, by its liberality and attention to art, +it begins to vie with some of our oldest cities. But what is the matter? +You look so worried." + +"Oh, nothing," said Dennis, coming out of his troubled, abstracted +manner. + +With her quick intuition, Mrs. Leonard at once divined his thoughts, +and said soon after, when her husband's back was turned: "All I can +say is, that she was deeply, most deeply affected by your picture, but +she said nothing to me, more than to express her admiration. My friend, +you had better forget her. They sail for Europe very soon; and, besides, +she is not worthy of you." + +"I only wish I could forget her, and am angry with myself but I cannot," +he replied, and soon after said "good-night." + +Wandering aimlessly through the streets, he almost unconsciously made +his way to the north side, where the Ludolph mansion was situated. Then +a strong impulse to Go to it came over him, and for the first time +since the far-off day when, stunned and wounded by his bitter +disappointment, he had gone away apparently to die, he found himself +at the familiar place. The gas was burning in Mr. Ludolph's library. +He went around on the side street (for the house was on a corner), and +a light shone from what he knew to be Christine's studio. She +undoubtedly was there. Even such proximity excited him strangely, and +in his morbid state he felt that he could almost kiss the feeble rays +that shimmered out into the darkened street. In his secret soul he +utterly condemned his folly, but promised himself that he would be +weak no longer after that one night. The excitements of the day had +thrown him off his balance. + +Suddenly he heard, sweet and clear, though softened by distance and +intervening obstacles, the same weird, pathetic ballad that had so +moved him when Christine sang it at Le Grand Hotel, on the evening +after he had pointed out the fatal defect in her picture. At short +intervals, kindred and plaintive songs followed. + +"There is nothing exultant or hopeful about those strains," he said +to himself. "For some reason she is not happy. Oh, that I might have +one frank conversation with her and find out the whole truth! But it +seems that I might just as well ask for a near look at yonder star +that glimmers so distantly. For some reason I cannot believe her so +utterly heartless as she has seemed; and then mother has prayed. Can +it all end as a miserable dream?" + +Late at night the music ceased, and the room was darkened. + +Little dreamed Christine that her plaintive minstrelsy had fallen on +so sympathetic an ear, and that the man who seemingly had repelled her +slightest acquaintance had shivered long hours in the cold, dark street. + +So the divine Friend waits and watches, while we, in ignorance and +unbelief, pay no heed. Stranger far, He waits and watches when we know, +but yet, unrelenting, ignore His presence. + +With heavy steps, Dennis wearily plodded homeward. He was oppressed +by that deep despondency which follows great fatigue and excitement. + +In the southwest he saw a brilliant light. He heard the alarm-bells, +and knew there was a fire, but to have aroused him that night it +must have come scorchingly close. He reached his dark little room, threw +himself dressed on the couch, and slept till nearly noon of the next +day. + +When he awoke, and realized how the first hours of the Sabbath had +passed, he started up much vexed with himself, and after a brief +retrospect said: "Such excitements as those of yesterday are little +better than a debauch, and I must shun them hereafter. God has blessed +and succeeded me, and it is but a poor return I am making. However my +unfortunate attachment may end, nothing is gained by moping around in +the hours of night. Henceforth let there be an end of such folly." + +He made a careful toilet and sat down to his Sabbath-school lesson. + +To his delight he again met Mrs. Leonard, who came to visit her +old mission class. She smiled most approvingly, and quoted, "He that is +faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." + +He went home with her, and in the evening they all went to church +together. + +He cried unto the Lord for strength and help, and almost lost +consciousness of the service in his earnest prayer for true manhood +and courage to go forward to what he feared would be a sad and lonely +life. And the answer came; for a sense of power and readiness to do +God's will, and withal a strange hopefulness, inspired him. Trusting +in the Divine strength, he felt that he could meet his future now, +whatever it might be. + +Again the alarm-bells were ringing, and there was a light on the +southwest. + +"There seems to be a fire over there in the direction of my poor German +friend's house. You remember Mrs. Bruder. I will go and call on them, +I think. At any rate I should call, for it is owing to her husband +that I won the prize;" and they parted at the church-door. + +Christine had left the picture-gallery soon after Dennis's abrupt +departure. Her gay friends had tried in vain to rally her, and rather +wondered at her manner, but said, "She is so full of moods of late, +you can never know what to expect." + +Her father, with a few indifferent words, left her for his place of +business. His hope still was to prevent her meeting Dennis, and to +keep up the estrangement that existed. + +Christine went home and spent the long hours in bitter revery, which +at last she summed up by saying, "I have stamped out his love by my +folly, and now his words, 'I despise you,' express the whole wretched +truth." Then clenching her little hands she added, with livid lips and +a look of scorn: "Since I can never help him (and therefore no one) +win earthly greatness, I will never be the humble recipient of it from +another. Since his second picture cannot be true of my experience, +neither shall the first." + +And she was one to keep such a resolve. The evening was spent, as we +know, in singing alone in her studio, this being her favorite, indeed +her only way, of giving expression to her feelings. Very late she +sought her bed to find but little sleep. + +The day of rest brought no rest to her, suggested no hope, no sacred +privilege of seeking Divine help to bear up under life's burdens. To +her it was a relic of superstition, at which she chafed as interfering +with the usual routine of affairs. She awoke with a headache, and a +long miserable day she found it. Sabbath night she determined to have +sleep, and therefore took an opiate and retired early. + +Mr. Ludolph sat in his library trying to construct some plan by which +Christine could be sent to Germany at once. + +When Dennis reached the neighborhood of the fire he found it much +larger than he supposed, and when he entered Harrison Street, near +Mrs. Bruder's home, he discovered that only prompt action could save +the family. The streets were fast becoming choked with fugitives and +teams, and the confusion threatened to develop into panic and wide +spread danger. The fire was but a block away when he rushed upstairs +to the floor which the Bruders occupied. From the way in which blazing +brands were flying he knew that there were was not a moment to spare. + +He found Mrs. Bruder startled, anxious, but in no way comprehending +the situation. + +"Quick!" cried Dennis. "Wake and dress the children--pack up what you +can lay your hands on and carry--you have no time to do anything more." + +"Ah! mine Gott! vat you mean?" + +"Do as I say--there's no time to explain. Here, Ernst, help me;" and +Dennis snatched up one child and commenced dressing it before it could +fairly wake. Ernst took up another and followed his example. Mrs. +Bruder, recovering from her bewilderment, hastily gathered a few things +together, saying in the meantime, "Surely you don't dink our home burn +up?" + +"Yes, my poor friend, in five minutes more we must all be out of this +building." + +"Oh, den come dis minute! Let me save de schilder;" and, throwing a +blanket around the youngest, the frightened woman rushed downstairs, +followed by Ernst and his little brother, while Dennis hastened with +the last child and the bundle. + +Their escape was none too prompt, for the blazing embers were falling +to such a degree in the direct line of the fire as to render that +position very perilous. But though their progress was necessarily slow, +from the condition of the streets, the breadth of the fire was not +great at this spot, and they soon reached a point to the west and +windward that was safe. Putting the family in charge of Ernst, and +telling them to continue westward, Dennis rushed back, feeling that +many lives depend upon stout hands and brave hearts that night. Moreover +he was in that state of mind which made him court rather than shun +danger. + +He had hardly left his humble friends before Mrs. Bruder stopped, put +her hand on her heart and cried: "Oh, Ernst! Oh, Gott forgive me! dot +I should forget him--your fader's picture. I must go back." + +"Oh, moder, no! you are more to us than the picture" The woman's eyes +were wild and excited, and she cried, vehemently: "Dot picture saved +mine Berthold life--yes, more, more, him brought back his artist soul. +Vithout him ve vould all be vorse dan dead. I can no live vidout him. +Stay here"; and with the speed of the wind the devoted wife rushed +back to the burning street, up the stairs, already crackling and +blazing, to where the lovely landscape smiled peacefully in the dreadful +glare, with its last rich glow of beauty. She tore it from its +fastenings, pressed her lips fervently against it, regained the street, +but with dress on fire. She staggered forward a few steps in the hot +stifling air and smoke, and then fell upon her burden. Spreading her +arms over it, to protect it even in death, the mother's heart went out +in agony toward her children. + +"Ah, merciful Gott! take care of dem," she sighed, and the prayer and +the spirit that breathed it went up to heaven together. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +BARON LUDOLPH LEARNS THE TRUTH + + +With eyes ablaze with excitement, Dennis plunged into the region just +before the main line of fire, knowing that there the danger would be +greatest. None realized the rapidity of its advance. At the door of +a tenement-house he found a pale, thin, half-clad woman tugging at a +sewing-machine. + +"Madam," cried Dennis, "you have no time to waste over that burden if +you wish to escape." + +"What is the use of escaping without it?" she answered, sullenly. "It +is the only way I have of making a living." + +"Give it to me then, and follow as fast as you can." Shouldering what +meant to the poor creature shelter, clothing, and bread, he led the +way to the southeast, out of the line of fire. It was a long, hard +struggle, but they got through safely. + +"How can I ever pay you?" cried the grateful woman. + +But he did not stay to answer, and now determined to make his way to +the west and windward of the fire, as he could then judge better of +the chances of its spreading. He thought it safer to go around and back +of the flames, as they now seemed much wider, and nearer the south +branch of the Chicago River. + +He found that he could cross the burned district a little to the +southwest, for the small wooden houses were swept so utterly away that +there were no heated, blazing ruins to contend with. He also saw that +he could do better by making quite a wide circuit, as he thus avoided +streets choked by fugitives. Beaching a point near the river on the +west side of the fire, he climbed a high pile of lumber, and then +discovered to his horror that the fire had caught in several places +on the south side, and that the nearest bridges were burning. + +To those not familiar with the topography of the city, it should be +stated that it is separated by the Chicago River, a slow, narrow stream, +into three main divisions, known as the south, the north, and the west +side. + +By a triumph of engineering, the former mouth of this river at the +lake is now its source, the main stream being turned back upon itself, +and dividing into two branches at a point a little over half a mile +from the lake, one flowing to the southwest into the Illinois, and the +other from the northwest into the main stream. + +The south division includes all the territory bounded on the east by the +lake, on the north by the main river and on the west by the south +branch. The north division includes the area bounded on the east by +the lake, on the south by the main river, and on the west by the north +branch, while the west division embraces all that part of the city +west of the two branches. The fire originated in De Koven Street, the +southeastern part of the west side, and it was carried steadily to the +north and east by an increasing gale. The south side, with all its +magnificent buildings, was soon directly in the line of the fire. + +When Dennis saw that the flames had crossed the south branch, and were +burning furiously beyond, he knew that the best part of the city was +threatened with destruction. He hastened to the Washington Street +tunnel, where he found a vast throng, carrying all sorts of burdens, +rushing either way. He plunged in with the rest, and soon found himself +hustled hither and thither by a surging mass of humanity. A little +piping voice that seemed under his feet cried: "O mamma! mamma! Where +are you? I'm gettin' lost." + +"Here I am, my child," answered a voice some steps in advance and +Dennis saw a lady carrying another child; but the rushing tide would +not let her wait--all, in the place where they were wedged, being +carried right along. Stooping down, he put the little girl on his +shoulder where she could see her mother, and so they pressed on. +Suddenly, in the very midst of the tunnel, the gas ceased, by reason +of the destruction of the works, and utter darkness filled the place. + +There was a loud cry of consternation, and then a momentary and dreadful +silence, which would have been the preface of a fatal panic, had not +Dennis cried out, in a ringing voice, "All keep to the right!" + +This cry was taken up and repeated on every hand, and side by side, +to right and left, the two living streams of humanity, with steady +tramp! tramp! rushed past each other. + +When they emerged into the glare of the south side Dennis gave the +child to its mother and said, "Madam, your only chance is to escape +in that direction," pointing northwest. + +He then tried to make his way to the hotel where Professor and Mrs. +Leonard were staying, but it was in the midst of an unapproachable sea +of fire. If they had not escaped some little time before, they had +already perished. He then tried to make his way to the windward toward +his own room. His two thousand dollars and all his possessions were +there, and the instinct of self-preservation caused him to think it +was time to look after his own. But progress was now very difficult. +The streets were choked by drays, carriages, furniture, trunks, and +every degree and condition of humanity. Besides, his steps were often +stayed by thrilling scenes and the need of a helping hand. In order +to make his way faster he took a street nearer the fire, from which +the people had mostly been driven. As he was hurrying along with his +hat drawn over his eyes to avoid the sparks that were driven about +like fiery hail, he suddenly heard a piercing shriek. Looking up he +saw the figure of a woman at the third story window of a fine mansion +that was already burning, though not so rapidly as those in the direct +line of the fire. He with a number of others stopped at the sound. + +"Who will volunteer with me to save that woman?" cried he. + +"Wal, stranger, you can reckon on this old stager for one," answered +a familiar voice. + +Dennis turned and recognized his old friend, the Good Samaritan. + +"Why, Cronk," he cried, "don't you know me? Don't you remember the +young man you saved from starving by suggesting the snow-shovel +business?" + +"Hello! my young colt. How are you? give us yer hand. But come, don't +let's stop to talk about snow in this hell of a place with that young +filly whinnying up there." + +"Right!" cried Dennis. "Let us find a ladder and rope; quick--" + +At a paint-shop around the corner a ladder was found that reached to +the second story, and some one procured a rope. + +"A thousand dollars," cried another familiar voice, "to the man who +saves that woman!" + +Looking round, Dennis saw the burly form of Mr. Brown, the brewer, his +features distorted by agony and fear; then glancing up he discovered +in the red glare upon her face that the woman was no other than his +daughter. She had come to spend the night with a friend, and, being +a sound sleeper, had not escaped with the family. + +"Who wants yer thousand dollars?" replied Bill Cronk's gruff voice. +"D'ye s'pose we'd hang out here over the bottomless pit for any such +trifle as that? We want to save the gal." + +Before Cronk had ended his characteristic speech, Dennis was half-way +up the ladder. He entered the second story, only to be driven back by +fire and smoke. + +"A pole of some kind!" he cried. + +The thills of a broken-down buggy supplied this, but the flames had +already reached Miss Brown. Being a girl of a good deal of nerve and +physical courage, however, she tore off her outer clothing with her +own hands. Dennis now passed her the rope on the end of the buggy-thill +and told her to fasten it to something in the room that would support +her weight, and lower herself to the second story. She fastened it, +but did not seem to know how to lower herself. Dennis tried the rope, +found it would sustain his weight; then, bringing into use an art +learned in his college gymnasium, he over-handed rapidly till he stood +at Miss Brown's side. Drawing up the rope he fastened her to it and +lowered her to the ladder, where Bill Cronk caught her, and in a moment +more she was in her father's arms, who at once shielded her from +exposure with his overcoat. Dennis followed the rope down, and had +hardly got away before the building fell in. + +"Is not this Mr. Fleet?" asked Miss Brown. + +"Yes." + +"How can we ever repay you?" + +"By learning to respect honest men, even though they are not rich, +Miss Brown." + +"Did you know who it was when you saved me?" + +"Yes." + +"Mr. Fleet, I sincerely ask your pardon." + +But before Dennis could reply they were compelled to fly for their +lives. + +Mr. Brown shouted as he ran, "Call at the house or place of business +of Thomas Brown, and the money will be ready." + +But Thomas Brown would have found it hard work to rake a thousand +dollars out of the ashes of either place the following day. The riches +in which he trusted had taken wings. + +Cronk and Dennis kept together for a short distance, and the latter +saw that his friend had been drinking. Their steps led them near a +large liquor-store which a party of men and boys were sacking. One of +these, half intoxicated, handed Bill a bottle of whiskey, but as the +drover was lifting it to his lips Dennis struck it to the ground. Cronk +was in a rage instantly. + +"What the ---- did you do that for?" he growled. + +"I would do that and more too to save your life. If you get drunk +to-night you are a lost man," answered Dennis, earnestly. + +"Who's a-goin' ter get drunk, I'd like ter know? You feel yer oats too +much to-night. No man or horse can kick over the traces with me;" and +he went off in the unreasoning anger of a half-drunken man. But he +carried all his generous impulses with him, for a few minutes after, +seeing a man lying in a most dangerous position, he ran up and shook +him, crying, "I say, stranger, get up, or yer ribs will soon be +roasted." + +"Lemme 'lone," was the maudlin answer. "I've had drink 'nuff. 'Tain't +mornin' yet." + +"Hi, there!" cried a warning voice, and Cronk started back just in +time to escape a blazing wall that fell across the street. The stupefied +man he had sought to arouse was hopelessly buried. Cronk, having got +out of danger, stood and scratched his head, his favorite way of +assisting reflection. + +"That's just what that young critter Fleet meant. What a cussed ole +mule I was to kick up so! Ten chances to one but it will happen to me +afore mornin'. Look here, Bill Cronk, you jist p'int out of this fiery +furnace. You know yer failin', and there's too long and black a score +agin you in t'other world for you to go to-night;" and Bill made a bee +line for the west side. + +Struggling off to windward through the choked streets for a little +distance, Dennis ascended the side stairs of a tall building, in order +to get more accurately the bearings of the fire. He now for the first +time realized its magnitude, and was appalled. It appeared as if the +whole south side must go. At certain points the very heavens seemed +on fire. The sparks filled the air like flakes of fiery snow, and great +blazing fragments of roofs, and boards from lumber yards, sailed over +his head, with the ill-omened glare of meteors. The rush and roar of +the wind and flames were like the thunder of Niagara, and to this awful +monotone accompaniment was added a Babel of sounds--shrieks, and shouts +of human voices, the sharp crash of falling buildings, and ever and +anon heavy detonations, as the fire reached explosive material. As he +looked down into the white upturned faces in the thronged streets, it +seemed to him as if the people might be gathering for the last great +day. Above all the uproar, the court-house bell could be heard, with +its heavy, solemn clangor, no longer ringing alarm, but the city's +knell. + +But he saw that if he reached his own little room in time to save +anything he must hasten. His course lay near the Art Building, the +place so thronged with associations to him. An irresistible impulse +drew him to it. It was evident that it must soon go, for an immense +building to the southwest, on the same block, was burning, and the +walls were already swaying. + +Suddenly a man rushed past him, and Mr. Ludolph put his pass key in +the side door. + +"Mr. Ludolph, it is not safe to enter," said Dennis. + +"What are you doing here with your ill-omened face?" retorted his old +employer, turning toward him a countenance terrible in its expression. +As we have seen, anything that threatened Mr. Ludolph's interests, +even that which most men bow before, as sickness and disaster, only +awakened his anger; and his face was black with passion and distorted +with rage. + +The door yielded, and he passed in. + +"Come back, quick, Mr. Ludolph, or you are lost!" cried Dennis at the +door. + +"I will get certain papers, though the heavens fall!" yelled back the +infuriated man, with an oath. + +Dennis heard an awful rushing sound in the air. He drew his hat over +his face as he ran, crouching. Hot bricks rained around him, but +fortunately he escaped. + +When he turned to look, the Art Building was a crushed and blazing +ruin. Sweet girlish faces that had smiled upon him from the walls, +beautiful classical faces that had inspired his artist soul, stern +Roman faces, that had made the past seem real, the human faces of gods +and goddesses that made mythology seem not wholly a myth, and the white +marble faces of the statuary, that ever reminded him of Christine, +were now all blackened and defaced forever. But not of these he thought, +as he shudderingly covered his eyes with his hands to shut out the +vision; but of that terrible face that in the darkness had yelled +defiance to Heaven. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +"CHRISTINE, AWAKE! FOR YOUR LIFE!" + + +Dennis was too much stunned and bewildered to do more than instinctively +work his way to the windward as the only point of safety, but the fire +was now becoming so broad in its sweep that to do this was difficult. +The awful event he had witnessed seemed partially to paralyze him; for +he knew that the oath, hot as the scorching flames, was scarcely uttered +before Mr. Ludolph's lips were closed forever. He and his ambitious +dream perished in a moment, and he was summoned to the other world to +learn what his proud reason scoffed at in this. + +For a block or more Dennis was passively borne alone by the rushing +mob. Suddenly a voice seemed to shout almost in his ear, "The north +side is burning!" and he started as from a dream. The thought of +Christine flashed upon him, perishing perhaps in the flames. He +remembered that now she had no protector, and that he for the moment +had forgotten her; though in truth he had never imagined that she could +be imperilled by the burning of the north side. + +In an agony of fear and anxiety he put forth every effort of which he +was capable, and tore through the crowd as if mad. There was no way +of getting across the river now save by the La Salle Street tunnel. +Into this dark passage he plunged with multitudes of others. It was +indeed as near Pandemonium as any earthly condition could be. Driven +forward by the swiftly pursuing flames, hemmed in on every side, a +shrieking, frenzied, terror-stricken throng rushed into the black +cavern. Every moral grade was represented there. Those who led abandoned +lives were plainly recognizable, their guilty consciences finding +expression in their livid faces. These jostled the refined and delicate +lady, who, in the awful democracy of the hour, brushed against thief +and harlot. Little children wailed for their lost parents, and many +were trampled underfoot. Parents cried for their children, women +shrieked for their husbands, some praying, many cursing with oaths as +hot as the flames that crackled near. Multitudes were in no other +costumes than those in which they had sprung from their beds. Altogether +it was a strange, incongruous, writhing mass of humanity, such as the +world had never looked upon, pouring into what might seem, in its +horrors, the mouth of hell. + +As Dennis entered the utter darkness, a confused roar smote his ear +that might have appalled the stoutest heart, but he was now oblivious +to everything save Christine's danger. With set teeth he put his +shoulder against the living mass and pushed with the strongest till +he emerged into the glare of the north side. Here, escaping somewhat +from the throng, he made his way rapidly to the Ludolph mansion, which +to his joy he found was still considerably to the windward of the fire. +But he saw that from the southwest another line of flame was bearing +down upon it. + +The front door was locked, and the house utterly dark. He rang the +bell furiously, but there was no response. He walked around under the +window and shouted, but the place remained as dark and silent as a +tomb. He pounded on the door, but its massive thickness scarcely +admitted of a reverberation. + +"They must have escaped," he said; "but, merciful heaven! there must +be no uncertainty in this case. What shall I do?" + +The windows of the lower story were all strongly guarded and hopeless, +but one opening on the balcony of Christine's studio seemed practicable +if it could be reached. A half-grown elm swayed its graceful branches +over the balcony, and Dennis knew the tough and fibrous nature of this +tree. In the New England woods of his early home he had learned to +climb for nuts like a squirrel, and so with no great difficulty he +mounted the trunk and dropped from an overhanging branch to the point +he sought. The window was down at the top, but the lower sash was +fastened. He could see the catch by the light of the fire. He broke +the pane of glass nearest it, hoping that the crash might awaken +Christine, if she were still there. But after the clatter died away +there was no sound. He then noisily raised the sash and stepped in. + +What a rush of memories came over him as he looked around the familiar +place! There was the spot on which he had stood and asked for the love +that he had valued more than life. There stood the easel on which, +through Christine's gifted touch, his painted face had pleaded with +scarcely less eloquence, till he blotted it out with his own hand. In +memory of it all his heart again failed him, and he sighed, "She will +never love me." + +But there was no time for sentiment. He called loudly: "Miss Ludolph, +awake! awake! for your life!" + +There was no answer. "She must be gone," he said. The front room, +facing toward the west, he knew to be her sleeping-apartment. Going +through the passage, he knocked loudly, and called again; but in the +silence that followed he heard his own watch tick, and his heart beat. +He pushed the door open with the feeling of one profaning a shrine, +and looked timidly in. Even in that thrilling hour of peril and anxiety, +his eye was enraptured by the beauty of the room. Not only was it +furnished with the utmost luxuriance, but everything spoke of a quaint +and cultured taste, from the curious marble clock and bronze on the +mantel, even to the pattern of the Turkey carpet on which the glare +of the fire, as it glinted through the shutters, played faintly. One +of the most marked features, however, was an exquisite life-size statue +of Diana at the foot of the bed, grasping her bow with one hand, and +in the act of seizing an arrow with the other, as if aroused to +self-defence. When Dennis first saw it, he was so startled by its +lifelike attitude that he stepped back into the passage. But, with all +the beauty of the room, it was utterly pagan; not a single thing +suggested Christian faith or a knowledge of the true God. With the +exception of its modern air, it might just as well have been the +resting-place of a Greek or Roman maiden of rank. + +Reassured, he timidly advanced again, and then for the first time, +between the two marble statuettes holding back the curtains of the +bed, saw Christine, but looking more white and deathlike than the +marble itself. + +She lay with her face toward him. Her hair of gold, unconfined, streamed +over the pillow; one fair round arm, from which her night-robe had +slipped back, was clasped around her head, and a flickering ray of +light, finding access at the window, played upon her face and neck +with the strangest and most weird effect. + +So deep was her slumber that she seemed dead, and Dennis, in his +overwrought state, thought that she was. For a moment his heart stood +still, and his tongue was paralyzed. A distant explosion aroused him. +Approaching softly he said, in an awed whisper (he seemed powerless +to speak louder), "Miss Ludolph!--Christine!" + +But the light of the coming fire played and flickered over the still, +white face, that never before had seemed so strangely beautiful. + +"Miss Ludolph!--Oh, Christine, awake!" cried Dennis, louder. + +To his wonder and unbounded perplexity, he saw the hitherto motionless +lips wreathe themselves into a lovely smile, but otherwise there was +no response, and the ghostly light played and flickered on, dancing +on temple, brow, and snowy throat, and clasping the white arm in wavy +circlets of gold. It was all so weird and strange that he was growing +superstitious, and losing faith in his own senses. He could not know +that she was under the influence of an opiate, and that his voice of +all others could, like a faint echo, find access to her mind so deeply +sunk in lethargy. + +But a louder and nearer explosion, like a warning voice, made him +wholly desperate; and he roughly seized her hand, determining to dispel +the illusion, and learn the truth at once. + +Christine's blue eyes opened wide with a bewildered stare; a look of +the wildest terror came into them, and she started up and shrieked, +"Father! father!" + +Then turning toward the as yet unknown invader, she cried, piteously: +"Oh, spare my life! Take everything; I will give you anything you ask, +only spare my life." + +She evidently thought herself addressing a ruthless robber. + +Dennis retreated toward the door the moment she awakened; and this +somewhat reassured her. + +In the firm, quiet tone that always calms excitement he replied, "I +only ask you to give me your confidence, Miss Ludolph, and to join +with me, Dennis Fleet, in my effort to save your life." + +"Dennis Fleet! Dennis Fleet! save my life! Oh, ye gods, what does it +all mean?" and she passed her hand in bewilderment across her brow, +as if to brush away the wild fancies of a dream. + +"Miss Ludolph, as you love your life arouse yourself and escape! The +city is burning!" + +"I don't believe it!" she cried, in an agony of terror and anger. +"Leave the room! How dare you! You are not Dennis Fleet; he is a white +man, and you are black! You are an impostor! Leave quick, or my father +will come and take your life! Father! father!" + +Dennis without a word stepped to the window, tore aside the curtain, +threw open the shutters, and the fire filled the room with the glare +of noonday. At that moment an explosion occurred which shook the very +earth. Everything rattled, and a beautiful porcelain vase fell +crashing to the floor. + +Christine shrieked and covered her face with her hands. + +Dennis approached the bedside, and said in a gentle, firm tone that +she knew to be his: "Miss Ludolph, I _am_ Mr. Fleet. My face is +blackened through smoke and dust, as is every one's out in the streets +to-night. You know something of me, and I think you know nothing +dishonorable. Can you not trust me? Indeed you must; your life depends +upon it!" + +"Oh, pardon me, Mr. Fleet!" she cried, eagerly. "I am not worthy of +this, but now that I know you, I do trust you from the depth of my +soul!" + +"Prove it then by doing just as I bid you," he replied, in a voice so +firm and prompt that it seemed almost stern. Retreating to the door, +he continued: "I give you just five minutes in which to make your +toilet and gather a light bundle of your choicest valuables. Dress in +woollen throughout, and dress warmly. I will see that the servants are +aroused. Your father is on the south side, and cannot reach you. You +must trust in God and what I can do for you." + +"I must trust to you _alone_," she said. "Please send my maid to me." + +Mr. Ludolph had sipped his wine during the evening, and his servants +had sipped, in no dainty way, something stronger, and therefore had +not awakened readily. But the uproar in the streets had aroused them, +and Dennis found them scuttling down the upper stairs in a half-clad +state, each bearing a large bundle, which had been made up without +regard to _meum_ and _tuum_. + +"Och, murther! is the world burning up?" cried the cook. + +"Be still, ye howlin' fool," said the cool and travelled maid. "It's +only von big fire!" + +"Go to your mistress and help her, quick!" cried Dennis. + +"Go to my meestress! I go to de street and save my life." + +"Oh, Janette!" cried Christine. "Come and help me!" + +"I am meeserable zat I cannot. I must bid mademoiselle quick adieu," +said the heartless creature, still keeping up the veneer of French +politeness. + +Dennis looked through the upper rooms and was satisfied that they were +empty. Suddenly a piercing shriek from Christine sent him flying to +her room. As he ran he heard her cry, "Oh, Mr. Fleet! come! help!" + +To go back a little (for on that awful night events marched as rapidly +as the flames, and the experience of years was crowded into hours, and +that of hours into moments), Christine had sought as best she could +to obey Dennis's directions, but she was sadly helpless, having been +trained to a foolish dependence on her maid. She had accomplished but +little when she heard a heavy step in the room. Looking up, she saw +a strange man regarding her with an evil eye. + +"What do you want?" she faltered. + +"You, for one thing, and all you have got, for another," was the brutal +reply. + +"Leave this room!" she cried, in a voice she vainly tried to render +firm. + +"Not just yet," he answered, with a satanic grin. She sought to escape +by him with the loud cry that Dennis heard, but the ruffian planted +his big grimy hand in the delicate frill of her night-robe where it +clasped her throat, and with a coarse laugh said: "Not so fast, my +dainty!" + +Trembling and half fainting (for she had no physical courage), she +cried for Dennis, and never did knightly heart respond with more brave +and loving throb to the cry of helpless woman than his. He came with +almost the impetus of a thunderbolt, and the man, startled, looked +around, and catching a glimpse of Dennis's blazing eyes, dropped his +hold on Christine, and shrank and cowered from the blow he could not +avert. Before his hand could instinctively reach the pistol it sought, +there was a thud, and he fell like a log to the floor. Then, springing +upon him, Dennis took away his weapons, and, seizing him by the collar +of his coat, dragged him backward downstairs and thrust him into the +street. Pointing his own pistol at him, he said, "If you trouble us +again, I will shoot you like a dog!" + +The villain slunk off, and finding some kindred spirits sacking a +liquor-store not far off, he joined the orgy, seeking to drown his +rage in rum, and he succeeded so effectually that he lay in the gutter +soon after. The escaping multitude trampled over him, and soon the +fire blotted out his miserable existence, as it did that of so many +who rendered themselves powerless by drink. + +When Dennis returned he found Christine panting helplessly on a chair. + +"Oh, dress! dress!" he cried. "We have not a moment to spare." + +The sparks and cinders were falling about the house, a perfect storm +of fire. The roof was already blazing, and smoke was pouring down the +stairs. + +At his suggestion she had at first laid out a heavy woollen dress and +Scotch plaid shawl. She nervously sought to put on the dress, but her +trembling fingers could not fasten it over her wildly throbbing bosom. +Dennis saw that in the terrible emergency he must act the part of a +brother or husband, and springing forward he assisted her with the +dexterity he had learned in childhood. + +Just then a blazing piece of roof, borne on the wings of the gale, +crashed through the window, and in a moment the apartment, that had +seemed like a beautiful casket for a still more exquisite jewel, was +in flames. + +Hastily wrapping Christine in the blanket shawl, he snatched her, +crying and wringing her hands, into the street. + +Holding his hand she ran two or three blocks with all the speed her +wild terror prompted; then her strength began to fail, and she pantingly +cried that she could run no longer. But this rapid rush carried them +out of immediate peril, and brought them into the flying throng pressing +their way northward and westward. Wedged into the multitude they could +only move on with it in the desperate struggle forward. But fire was +falling about them like a meteoric shower. + +Suddenly Christine uttered a sharp cry of pain. She had stepped on a +burning cinder, and then realized for the first time, in her excitement, +that her feet were bare. + +"Oh, what shall I do?" she cried piteously, limping and leaning heavily +on Dennis's arm. + +"Indeed, Miss Ludolph, from my heart I pity you." + +"Can you save me? Oh, do you think you can save me?" she moaned, in +an agony of fear. + +"Yes, I feel sure I can. At any rate I shall not leave you;" and taking +her a little out of the jostling crowd he kneeled and bound up the +burned foot with his handkerchief. A little further on they came to +a shoe-store with doors open and owners gone. Almost carrying Christine +into it, for her other foot was cut and bleeding, he snatched down a +pair of boy's stout gaiters, and wiping with another handkerchief the +blood and dust from her tender little feet, he made the handkerchiefs +answer for stockings, and drew the shoes on over them. + +In the brief moment so occupied, Christine said, with tears in her +eyes: "Mr. Fleet, how kind you are! How little I deserve all this!" + +He looked up with a happy smile, and she little knew that her few words +amply repaid him. + +There was a crash in the direction of the fire. With a cry of fear, +Christine put out her hands and clung to him. + +"Oh, we shall perish! Are you not afraid?" + +"I tremble for you, Miss Ludolph." + +"Not for yourself?" + +"No! why should I? I am safe. Heaven and mother are just beyond this +tempest." + +"I would give worlds for your belief." +"Come, quick!" cried he, and they joined the fugitives, and for a +half-hour pressed forward as fast as was possible through the choked +streets, Dennis merely saying an encouraging word now and then. Suddenly +she felt herself carried to one side, and falling to the ground with +him. In a moment he lifted her up, and she saw with sickening terror +an infuriated dray-horse plunging through the crowd, striking down +men, women, and children. + +"Are you hurt?" he asked, gently, passing his arm around her and helping +her forward, that they might not lose a single step. + +"Awful! Awful!" she said, in a low, shuddering tone. + +The dreadful scenes and the danger were beginning to overpower her. + +A little further on they reached an avenue to the northwest through +which Dennis hoped to escape. But they could make but little headway +through the dense masses of drays, carriages, and human beings, and +at last everything came to a deadlock. Their only hope was to stand +in their place till the living mass moved on again. + +Strange, grotesque, and sad beyond measure were the scenes by which +they were surrounded. By the side of the aristocratic Christine, now +Baroness Ludolph, stood a stout Irishwoman, hugging a grunting, +squealing pig to her breast. A little in advance a hook-nosed spinster +carried in a cage a hook nosed parrot that kept discordantly crying, +"Polly want a cracker." At Dennis's left a delicate lady of the highest +social standing clasped to her bare bosom a babe that slept as +peacefully as in the luxurious nursery at home. At her side was a +little girl carrying as tenderly a large wax doll. A diamond necklace +sparkled like a circlet of fire around the lady's neck. Her husband +had gone to the south side, and she had had but time to snatch this +and her children. A crowd of obscene and profane rowdies stood just +behind them, and with brutal jest and coarse laughter they passed +around a whiskey-bottle. One of these roughs caught a glimpse of the +diamond necklace, and was putting forth his blackened hand to grasp +it, when Dennis pointed the captured pistol at him and said, "This is +law now!" + +The fellow slunk back. + +Just before them was a dray with a corpse half covered with a blanket. +The family sat around crying and wringing their hands, and the driver +stood in his seat, cursing and gesticulating for those in advance to +move on. Some moments passed, but there was no progress. Dennis became +very anxious, for the fire was rapidly approaching, and the sparks +were falling like hail. Every few moments some woman's dress was ablaze, +or some one was struck by the flying brands, and shrieks for help were +heard on every side. Christine, being clad in woollen, escaped this +peril in part. She stood at Dennis's side trembling like a leaf, with +her hands over her face to shut out the terrible sights. + +At last the driver, fearing for his life, jumped off his dray and left +all to their fate. But a figure took his place that thrilled Dennis's +heart with horror. + +There on the high seat stood Susie Winthrop--rather Mrs. Leonard. The +light of insanity glowed in her eyes; her long hair swept away to the +north, and turning toward the fiery tempest she bent forward as if +looking for some one. But after a moment she sadly shook her head, as +if she had sought in vain. Suddenly she reached out her white arms +toward the fire, and sang, clear and sweet above the horrid din: + + "O burning flakes of fiery snow, + Bury me too, bury me deep; + My lover sleeps thy banks below; + Fall on me, that I may sleep!" + +At this moment a blazing brand fell upon the horses' heads; they +startled forward, and the crazed lady fell over on the corpse below. +The animals being thoroughly terrified turned sharp around on the +sidewalk, and tore their way right toward the fire, trampling down +those in their track, and so vanished with their strangely assorted +load. + +Dennis, fearing to stay any longer where he was, determined to follow +in their wake and find a street leading to the north less choked, even +though it might be nearer the fire, and so with his trembling companion +he pressed forward again. + +Two blocks below he found one comparatively clear, but in terrible +proximity to the conflagration. Indeed, the houses were burning on +each side, but the street seemed clear of flame. He thought that by +swiftly running they could get through. But Christine's strength was +fast failing her, and just as they reached the middle of the block a +tall brick building fell across the street before them! Thus their +only path of escape was blocked by a blazing mass of ruins that it +would have been death to cross. + +They seemed hemmed in on every side, and Dennis groaned in agony. + +Christine looked for a moment at the impassable fiery barrier, then +at Dennis, in whose face and manner she read unutterable sympathy for +herself, and the truth flashed upon her. + +With a piercing shriek she fainted dead away in his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +ON THE BEACH + + +In the situation of supreme peril described in the last chapter, Dennis +stood a second helpless and hopeless. Christine rested a heavy burden +in his arms, happily unconscious. Breathing an agonized prayer to +heaven, he looked around for any possibility of escape. Just then an +express-wagon was driven furiously toward them, its driver seeking his +way out by the same path that Dennis had chosen. As he reached them +the man saw the hopeless obstruction, and wheeled his horses. As he +did so, quick as thought, Dennis threw Christine into the bottom of +the wagon, and, clinging to it, climbed into it himself. He turned +her face downward from the fire, and, covering his own, he crouched +beside her, trusting all now to God. + +The driver urged his horses toward the lake, believing that his only +chance. They tore away through the blazing streets. The poor man was +soon swept from his seat and perished, but his horses rushed madly on +till they plunged into the lake. + +At the sound of water Dennis lifted his head and gave a cry of joy. +It seemed that the hand of God had snatched them from death. Gently +he lifted Christine out upon the sands and commenced bathing her face +from the water that broke in spray at his feet. She soon revived and +looked around. In a voice full of awe and wonder she whispered, "Ah! +there is another world and another life, after all." + +"Indeed there is, Miss Ludolph," said Dennis, supporting her on his +arm and bending over her, "but, thanks to a merciful Providence, you +are still in this one." + +"How is it?" she said, with a bewildered air. "I do not understand. +The last I remember, we were surrounded by fire, you were despairing, +and it seemed that I died." + +"You fainted, Miss Ludolph. But God as by a miracle brought us out of +the furnace, and for the present we are safe." After she had +sufficiently rallied from her excessive exhaustion and terror, he told +her how they escaped. + +"I see no God in it all," she said; "only a most fortunate opportunity, +of which you, with great nerve and presence of mind, availed yourself. +To you alone, again and again this dreadful night, I owe my life." + +"God uses us as His instruments to do His will. The light will come +to you by and by, and you will learn a better wisdom." + +"In this awful conflagration the light has come. On every side I see +as in letters of fire, 'There is no God.' If it were otherwise these +scenes would be impossible. And any being permitting or causing the +evils and crimes this dreadful night has witnessed, I shall fear and +hate beyond the power of language to express." + +She uttered these words sitting on the sands with multitudes of others, +her face (from which Dennis had washed the dust and smoke) looking in +the glare so wan and white that he feared, with a sickening dread, +that through exposure, terror, or some of the many dangers by which +they were surrounded, she might pass into the future world with all +her unbelief and spiritual darkness. He yearned over her with a +solicitude and pity that he could not express. She seemed so +near--indeed he could feel her form tremble, as she kneeled beside +her, and supported her by his arm--and yet, in view of her faithless +state, how widely were they separated! Should any one of the many +perils about them quench the little candle of her life, which even now +flickered faintly, where in the wide universe could he hope to meet +her again? God can no doubt console His children and make up to them +every loss, but the passionate heart, with its intense human love, +clings to its idol none the less. Dennis saw that the fire would +probably hem them in on the beach for the remainder of the night and +the following day. He determined therefore in every way possible to +beguile the weary, perilous hours, and, if she would permit it, to +lead her thoughts heavenward. Hence arose from time to time +conversations, to which, with joy, he found Christine no longer averse. +Indeed, she often introduced them. + +Chafing her hands, he said in accents of the deepest sympathy, "How +I pity you, Miss Ludolph! It must indeed be terrible to possess your +thoughtful mind, to realize these scenes so keenly, and yet have no +faith in a Divine Friend. I cannot explain to you the mystery of +evil--why it came, or why it exists. Who can? I am but one of God's +little children, and only know with certainty that my Heavenly Father +loves and will take care of me." + +"How do you know it?" she asked, eagerly. + +"In several ways. Mainly because I feel it." + +"It all seems so vague and unreal," she sighed, dreamily. "There is +nothing certain, assured. There is no test by which I can at once know +the truth." + +"That does not prevent the truth from existing. That some are blind +is no proof that color does not exist." + +"But how can you be sure there is a God? You never saw Him." + +"I do not see the heat that scorches us, but I feel it, and know it +exists." + +"But I feel the heat the same as yourself, and I have no consciousness +of a Divine Being." + +"That does not take away my consciousness that He is my Saviour and +Friend. As yet you are spiritually dead. If you were physically dead, +you would not feel the heat of this fire." + +"Oh, it is all mystery--darkness," she cried, piteously. + +The sun had now risen quite above the waters of the lake, but seen +through the lurid smoke which swept over its face, it seemed like one +of the great red cinders that were continually sailing over their +heads. In the frightful glare, the transition from night to day had +scarcely been noted. The long, narrow beach was occupied by thousands +of fugitives, who were hemmed in on every side. On the south was the +river, skirted with fire, while opposite, on the west, the heat was +almost intolerable; on the east were the cold waves of the lake, and +on the north a burning pier that they could not cross. Their only hope +was to cling to that narrow line where fire and water mingled, and +with one element to fight the other. Here again was seen the mingling +of all classes which the streets and every place of refuge witnessed. +Judges, physicians, statesmen, clergymen, bankers, were jostled by +roughs and thieves. The laborer sat on the sand with his family, side +by side with the millionaire and his household. The poor debauched +woman of the town moaned and shivered in her scant clothing, at a slight +remove from the most refined Christian lady. In the unparalleled +disaster, all social distinctions were lost, levelled like the beach +on which the fugitives cowered. From some groups was heard the voice +of prayer; from others, bitter wailings and passionate cries for lost +members of the family; others had saved quantities of vile whiskey, +if nothing else, and made the scene more ghastly by orgies that seemed +not of earth. Added to the liquor were the mad excitement and +recklessness which often seize the depraved classes on such occasions. +They committed excesses that cannot be mentioned-these drunken, howling, +fighting wretches. Obscene epithets and words fell around like blows. +And yet all were so occupied with their own misfortunes, sufferings, +and danger, as scarcely to heed their neighbors, unless these became +very violent. + +Upon this heterogeneous mass of humanity the fire rained down almost +as we imagine it to have fallen upon the doomed cities of the plain, +and the hot breath of the flames scorched the exposed cheek and crisped +even eyebrows and hair. Sparks, flakes, cinders, pieces of roof, and +fiery pebbles seemed to fill the air, and often cries and shrieks +announced that furniture and bedding which had been dragged thither, +and even the clothing of women and children, were burning. Added to +all the other terrors of the scene was the presence of large numbers +of horses and cattle, snorting and plunging in their fright and pain. + +But the sound that smote Dennis's heart with the deepest commiseration +was the continuous wail of helpless little children, many of them +utterly separated from parents and friends, and in the very agony of +fear. + +He greatly dreaded the effect of these upon Christine, knowing how, +in the luxurious past, she had been shielded from every rough +experience. But she at length rallied into something like composure. +Her constitution was elastic and full of vitality, and after escaping +from immediate danger she again began to hope. Moreover, to a degree +that even she could not understand, his presence was a source of +strength and courage, and her heart clung to him with desperate +earnestness, believing him the sole barrier against immediate death, +and (what she dreaded scarcely less) a lonely, wretched existence, +should her life be spared. + +Though he never lost sight of her for a moment, and kept continually +wetting her hair and person, he found time to render assistance to +others, and, by carrying his hat full of water here and there, +extinguished many a dangerous spark. He also, again and again, snatched +up little children from under the trampling hoofs of frightened horses. + +As she watched him, so self-forgetful and fearless, she realized more +and more vividly that he was sustained and animated by some mighty +principle that she knew nothing of, and could not understand. The +impression grew upon her that he was right and she wrong. Though it +all remained in mystery and doubt, she could not resist the logic of +true Christian action. + +But as the day advanced the flames grew hotter, and their breath more +withering. About noon Dennis noticed that some shanties on the sand +near them were in danger of catching fire and perilling all in that +vicinity. Therefore he said, "Miss Ludolph, stay here where I leave +you for a little time, so that I may know just where to find you." + +"Oh, do not leave me!" she pleaded: "I have no one in the wide world +to help me except you." + +"I shall not be beyond call. You see those shanties there; if possible +we must keep them from burning, or the fire will come too near for +safety." Then, starting forward, he cried, "Who will volunteer to keep +the fire back? All must see that if those buildings burn we shall be +in danger." + +Several men stepped forward, and with hats and anything that would +hold water they began to wet the old rookeries. But the fiery storm +swooped steadily down on them, and their efforts were as futile as if +they had tried to beat back the wind. Suddenly a mass of flame +leaped upon the buildings, and in a moment they were all ablaze. + +"Into the lake, quick!" cried Dennis, and all rushed for the cool +waters. + +Lifting Christine from the sand, and passing his arm around her +trembling, shivering form, he plunged through the breakers, and the +crowd pressed after him. Indeed they pushed him so far out in the cold +waves that he nearly lost his footing, and for a few moments Christine +lost hers altogether, and added her cries to those of the +terror-stricken multitude. But pushing in a little nearer the shore, +he held her firmly and said with the confidence that again inspired +hope: "Courage, Miss Ludolph. With God's help I will save you yet." + +Even as she clung to him in the water, she looked into his face. He +was regarding her so kindly, so pitifully, that a great and generous +impulse, the richest, ripest fruit of her human love, throbbed at her +heart, and faltered from her lips--"Mr. Fleet, I am not worthy of +this risk on your part. If you will leave me you can save your own +life, and your life is worth so much more than mine!" + +True and deep must have been the affection that could lead Christine +Ludolph to say such words to any human being. There was a time when, +in her creed, all the world existed but to minister to her. But she +was not sorry to see the look of pained surprise which came into +Dennis's face and to hear him say, very sadly: "Miss Ludolph, I did +not imagine that you could think me capable of that. I had the good +fortune to rescue Miss Brown last night, at greater peril than this, +and do you think I would leave you?" + +"You are a true knight, Mr. Fleet," she said, humbly, "and the need +or danger of every defenceless woman is alike a sacred claim upon you." + +Dennis was about to intimate that, though this was true in knightly +creed, still among all the women in the world there might be a +preference, when a score of horses, driven before the fire, and goaded +by the burning cinders, rushed down the beach, into the water, right +among the human fugitives. + +Again went up the cry of agony and terror. Some were no doubt stricken +down not to rise again. In the melee Dennis pushed out into deeper +water, where the frantic animals could not plunge upon him. A child +floated near, and he snatched it up. As soon as the poor brutes became +quiet, clasping Christine with his right arm and holding up the child +with the other, he waded into shallow water. + +The peril was now perhaps at its height, and all were obliged to wet +their heads, to keep even their hair from singeing. Those on the beach +threw water on each other without cessation. Many a choice bit of +property--it might be a piano, or an express-wagon loaded with the +richest furs and driven to the beach as a place of fancied security--now +caught fire, and added to the heat and consternation. + +When this hour of extreme danger had passed, standing with the cold +billows of the lake breaking round him, and the billows of fire still +rolling overhead, Dennis began to sing in his loud, clear voice: + + "Jesus, lover of my soul, + Let me to thy bosom fly, + While the billows near me roll, + While the tempest still is high." + +Voice after voice joined in, some loud and strong, but others weak and +trembling--the pitiful cry of poor terror-stricken women to the only +One who it seemed could help them in their bitter extremity. Never +before were those beautiful words sung in such accents of clinging, +touching faith. Its sweet cadence was heard above the roar of the +flames and the breakers. + +Christine could only cling weeping to Dennis. + +When the hymn ceased, in harshest discord the voice of a half-drunken +man grated on their ears. + +"An' what in bloody blazes does yer Jasus burn us all up for, I'd like +to know. Sure an' he's no right to send us to hell before our time." + +"Oh, hush! hush!" cried a dozen voices, shocked and pained. + +"Divil a bit will I hush, sure; an' haven't I as good a right to have +me say as that singin' parson!" + +"You are an Irishman, are you not?" said Dennis, now venturing out of +the water. + +"Yis! what have ye got to say agin it?" asked the man, belligerent at +once. + +"Did you ever know an Irishman refuse to do what a lady asked of him?" + +"Faith no, and I niver will." + +"Then this lady, who is sick and suffering, asks you to please keep +still, and I will be still also; so that's fair." + +The Irishman scratched his head a moment, and said in a quieter tone, +"Since ye spake so civil and dacent, I'll do as ye sez; and here's to +the leddy's health;" and he finished a bottle of whiskey, which he +soon laid him out on the beach. + +"Thank you! Thank you!" said grateful voices on every side. + +Dennis found the mother of the child and gave it to her; and then +causing Christine to sit down near the water, where he could easily +throw it on her, he stood at her side, vigilant and almost tender in +his solicitude. Her tears were falling very fast, and he presently +stooped down and said, gently, "Miss Ludolph, I think the worst of the +danger is over." + +"Oh, Mr. Fleet!" she whispered, "dreadful as it may seem to you, the +words of that drunken brute there are nearer the language of my heart +than those of your sweet hymn. How can a good God permit such creatures +and evils to exist?" + +"Again I must say to you," said Dennis, "that I cannot explain the +mystery of evil. But I know this, God is superior to it; He will at +last triumph over it. The Bible reveals Him to us as able and as seeking +to deliver all who will trust Him and work with Him, and those who +venture out upon His promises find them true. Miss Ludolph, this is +not merely a matter of theory, argument, and belief. It is more truly +a matter of experience. The Bible invites, 'Oh, taste and see that the +Lord is good.' I have tasted and know He is. I have trusted Him for +years, and He never failed me." + +"You certainly have been sustained throughout this dreadful scene by +a principle that I cannot understand, but I would give all the world +to possess it." + +"You may possess it, Miss Ludolph." + +"How? how?" she asked, eagerly. + +"Do you wish to believe as I do?" + +"Yes, indeed; and yet my heart rebels against a God who permits, even +if He does not cause, all this evil." + +"Does it rebel against a Being who from first to last tries to save +men from evil?" + +"Tries! tries! what an expression to apply to a God! Why does He not +do it in every case?" + +"Because multitudes will not let Him." + +"Oh, that is worse still! Surely, Mr. Fleet, you let your reason have +nothing to do with your faith. How can a poor and weak being like +myself prevent an Almighty one from doing what He pleases?" + +"I am stronger than you, Miss Ludolph, and yet I could not have saved +you to-night unless you had first trusted me, and then done everything +in your power to further my efforts." + +"But your power is human and limited, and you say God is all-powerful." + +"Yes, but it is His plan and purpose never to save us against our will. +He has made us in His own image and endowed us with reason, conscience, +and a will to choose between good and evil. He appeals to these noble +faculties from first to last. He has given us hearts, and seeks to +win them by revealing His love to us. More than all, His Spirit, +present in the world, uses every form of truth in persuading and making +us willing to become His true children. So you see that neither on the +one hand does God gather us up like drift-wood nor does He on the other +drag us at His chariot wheels, unwilling captives, as did those who, +at various times, have sought to overrun the world by force. God seeks +to conquer the world by the might of the truth, by the might of love." + +Christine was hanging with the most eager interest on his words. +Suddenly his eyes, which had expressed such a kindly and almost tender +interest in her, blazed with indignation, and he darted up the beach. +Turning around she saw, at some little distance, a young woman most +scantily clad, clinging desperately to a bundle which a large, coarse +man was trying to wrench from her. The wretch, finding that he could +not loosen her hold, struck her in the face with such force that she +fell stunned upon the ground, and the bundle flew out of her hand. +He eagerly snatched it up, believing it to contain jewelry. Before +he could escape he was confronted by an unexpected enemy. But Dennis +was in a passion, and withal weak and exhausted, while his adversary +was cool, and an adept in the pugilistic art. The two men fought +savagely, and Christine, forgetting herself in her instinctive desire +to help Dennis, was rushing to his side, crying, "If there is a man +here worthy of the name, let him strike for the right!" but before she +and others could reach the combatants the thief had planted his fist +on Dennis's temple. Though the latter partially parried the blow, it +fell with such force as to extend him senseless on the earth. The +villain, with a shout of derision, snatched up the bundle and dashed +off apparently toward the fire. There was but a feeble attempt made +to follow him. Few understood the case, and indeed scenes of violence +and terror had become so common that the majority had grown apathetic, +save in respect to their personal well-being. + +Christine lifted the pale face, down which the blood was trickling, +into her lap, and cried, in a tone of indescribable anguish, "Oh, he +is dead! he is dead!" + +"Oh, no, miss; he is not dead, I guess," said a good-natured voice +near. "Let me bring a hatful of water from the lake, and that'll bring +him to." + +And so it did. Dennis opened his eyes, put his hand to his head, and +then looked around. But when he saw Christine bending over him with +tearful eyes, and realized how tenderly she had pillowed his aching +head, he started up with a deep flush of pleasure, and said: "Do not +be alarmed, Miss Ludolph; I was only stunned for a moment. Where is +the thief?" + +"Oh, they let him escape," said Christine, indignantly. + +"Shame!" cried Dennis, regaining his feet rather unsteadily. + +"Wal, stranger, a good many wrongs to-night must go unrighted." + +The poor girl who had been robbed sat on the sands swaying backing and +forth, wringing her hands, and crying that she had lost everything. + +"Well, my poor friend, that is about the case with the most of us. We +may be thankful that we have our lives. Here is my coat," for her +shoulders and neck were bare; "and if you will come down to the lake +this lady," pointing to Christine, "will bathe the place where the +brute struck you." + +"Shall I not give up my shawl to some of these poor creatures?" asked +Christine. + +"No, Miss Ludolph, I do not know how long we may be kept here; but I +fear we shall suffer as much from cold as from heat, and your life +might depend upon keeping warm." + +"I will do whatever you bid me," she said, looking gratefully at him. + +"That is the way to feel and act toward God," he said, gently. + +But with sudden impetuosity she answered: "I cannot see what He has +just permitted to happen before my eyes. Right has not triumphed, but +the foulest wrong." + +"You do not see the end, Miss Ludolph." + +"But I must judge from what I see." + +After she had bathed the poor girl's face, comforted and reassured +her, Dennis took up the conversation again and found Christine eager +to listen. Pausing every few moments to throw water over his companion, +he said: "Faith is beyond reason, beyond knowledge, though not contrary +to them. You are judging as we do not judge about the commonest +affairs--from a few isolated, mysterious facts, instead of carefully +looking the subject all over. You pass by what is plain and well +understood to what is obscure, and from that point seek to understand +Christianity. Every science has its obscure points and mysteries, but +who begins with those to learn the science? Can you ignore the fact +that millions of highly intelligent people, with every motive to know +the truth, have satisfied themselves as to the reality of our faith? +Our Bible system of truth may contain much that is obscure, even as +the starry vault has distances that no eye or telescope can penetrate, +and as this little earth has mysteries that science cannot solve, but +there is enough known and understood to satisfy us perfectly. Let me +assure you, Miss Ludolph, that Christianity rests on broad truths, and +is sustained by arguments that no candid mind can resist after patiently +considering them." + +She shook her head, silenced perhaps, but not satisfied. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +"PRAYER IS MIGHTY"--CHRISTINE A CHRISTIAN + + +The day was now declining, and the fire in that part of the city +opposite them had so spent itself that they were beginning to have a +little respite from immediate danger. The fiery storm of sparks and +cinders was falling mostly to the northward. + +Dennis now ventured to sit down almost for the first time, for he was +wearied beyond endurance. The tremendous danger and excitements, and +the consciousness of peril to the one most dear to him, had kept him +alert long after he ought to have had rest, but overtaxed nature now +asserted its rights, and the moment the sharp spur of danger was removed +he was overpowered by sleep. + +Christine spoke to him as he sat near, but even to her (a thing he +could not have imagined possible) he returned an incoherent reply. + +"My poor friend, you do indeed need rest," said she, in kindest accents. + +He heard her voice like a sweet and distant harmony in a dream, swayed +a moment, and would have fallen over in utter unconsciousness on the +sands, had she not glided to his side and caught his head upon her lap. + +In the heavy stupor that follows the utmost exhaustion, Dennis slept +hour after hour. The rest of the day was a perfect blank to him. But +Christine, partially covering and shading his face with the edge of +her shawl, bent over him as patient in watching as he had been brave +in her deliverance. It was beautiful to see the features once so cold +and haughty, now sweet with more than womanly tenderness. There upon +that desolate beach, cold, hungry, homeless, shelterless, she was +happier than she had been for months. But she trembled as she thought +of the future; everything was so uncertain. She seemed involved in a +labyrinth of dangers and difficulties from which she could see no +escape. She knew that both store and home had gone, and probably most, +if not all, of her father's fortune. She felt that these losses might +greatly modify his plans, and really hoped that they would lead him +to remain in this country. She felt almost sure that he would not go +back to Germany a poor man, and to remain in America was to give her +a chance of happiness, and happiness now meant life with him over whom +she bent. For a long time she had felt that she could give up all the +world for him, but now existence would scarcely be endurable without +him. In proportion to the slowness with which her love had been kindled +was its intensity--the steady, concentrated passion of a strong, +resolute nature, for the first time fully aroused. All indecision +passed from her mind, and she was ready to respond whenever he should +speak; but woman's silence sealed her lips, and more than maiden +delicacy masked her heart. While she bent over him with an expression +that, had he opened his eyes, might have caused him to imagine for a +moment that his sleep had been death, and he had wakened in heaven, +yet he must needs awake to find that the look and manner of earth had +returned. Her sensitive pride made her guarded even in expressing her +gratitude, and she purposed to slip his head off upon her shawl whenever +he showed signs of awakening, so that he might believe that the earth +only had been his resting-place. + +But now in his unconsciousness, and unnoted by all around, indeed more +completely isolated by the universal misery and apathy about her than +she could have been in her own home, with a delicious sense of security, +she bent her eyes upon him, and toyed daintily with the curling locks +on his brow. Whatever the future might be, nothing should rob her of +the strange, unexpected happiness of this opportunity to be near him, +purchased at such cost. + +As she sat there and saw the fire rush and roar away to the northward, +and the sun decline over the ruins of her earthly fortune, she thought +more deeply and earnestly of life than ever before. The long, heavy +sleep induced by the opiate had now taken away all sense of drowsiness, +and never had her mind been clearer. In the light of the terrible +conflagration many things stood out with a distinctness that impressed +her as nothing had ever done before. Wealth and rank had shrivelled +to their true proportions, and she said, half aloud:-- + +"That which can vanish in a night in flame and smoke cannot belong to +us, is not a part of us. All that has come out of the crucible of this +fire is my character, myself. It is the same with Mr. Fleet; but +comparing his character with mine, how much richer he is! What if there +is a future life, and we enter into it with no other possession than +our character? and that which is called soul or spirit is driven forth +from earth and the body as we have just been from our wealth and homes? +I can no longer coolly and contemptuously ignore as superstition what +he believes. He is not superstitious, but calm, fearless, and seemingly +assured of something that as yet I cannot understand. One would think +that there must be reality in his belief, for it sustains him and +others in the greatest of trials. The hymn he sang was like a magnet +introduced among steel filings mingled with this sand. The mere earth +cannot move, but the steel is instinct with life. So, while many of +us could not respond, others seemed inspired at the name of Jesus with +new hope and courage, and cried to the Nazarene as if He could hear +them. Why don't people cry for help to other good men who lived in the +dim past, and whose lives and deeds are half myth and half truth? why +to this one man only? for educated Catholics no longer pray to the +saints." + +Then her thoughts reverted to Mr. Ludolph. + +"Poor father!" said she; "how will he endure these changes? We have +not felt and acted toward each other as we ought. He is now probably +anxious beyond measure, fearing that I perished in my sleep, and so +I should have done, had it not been for this more than friend that I +have so wronged. Oh, that I could make amends! I wonder--oh, I wonder +if he has any spark of love left for me? He seems kind, even tender, +but he is so to every one--he saved Miss Brown--" + +But here a most violent interruption took place. Christine, in the +complete absorption of her thoughts, had not noticed that a group of +rough men and women near by, who had been drinking all day, had now +become intoxicated and violent. They were pushing and staggering, +howling and fighting, in reckless disregard of the comfort of others, +and before she knew it she was in the midst of a drunken brawl. One +rough fellow struck against her, and another trod on Dennis, who started +up with a cry of pain. In a moment he comprehended the situation, and, +snatching up Christine and the shawl, he pushed his way out of the +melee with his right arm, the wretches striking at him and one another +aimlessly in their fury; while both men and women used language that +was worse than their blows. After a brief struggle, Dennis and Christine +extricated themselves, and made their way northward up the beach till +they found a place where the people seemed quiet. + +Dennis's sudden awakening had revealed to him that his head had been +pillowed, and it seemed such a kind and thoughtful act on Christine's +part that he could scarcely believe it; at the same time he was full +of shame and self-reproach that by his sleep he had left her unguarded, +and he said: "Miss Ludolph, I hope you will pardon you recreant knight, +who slept while you were in danger; but really I could not help it." + +"It is I who must ask pardon," replied Christine, warmly. "After your +superhuman exertions, your very life depended on rest. But I made a +wretched watcher--indeed I have lost confidence in myself every way. +To tell the truth, Mr. Fleet, I was lost in thought, and with your +permission I would like to ask you further about two things you said +this morning. You asserted that you knew God loved you, and that +Christianity was sustained by arguments that no candid mind could +resist. What are those arguments? and how can you know such a comforting +thing as the love of God?" + +His eyes lighted up in his intense delight that she should again +voluntarily recur to this subject, and he hoped that God was leading +her to a knowledge of Him, and that he, in answer to his own and his +mother's prayers, might be partially instrumental in bringing the +light. Therefore he said, earnestly: "Miss Ludolph, this is scarcely +the time and place to go over the evidences of Christianity. When in +happy security I hope you may do this at your leisure, and am sure you +will be convinced, for I believe that you honestly wish the truth. But +there is no need that you should wait and look forward into the +uncertain future for this priceless knowledge. The father will not +keep his child waiting who tries to find him. God is not far from any +one of us. When our Lord was on earth, He never repulsed those who +sought Him in sincerity, and He is the true manifestation of God. + +"Moreover," he continued, reverently, "God is now on earth as truly +as when Christ walked the waves of Galilee, or stood with the +life-giving word upon His lips at the grave of His friend Lazarus. The +mighty Spirit of God now dwells among men to persuade, help, and lead +them into all truth, and I believe He is guiding you. This Divine +Spirit can act as directly on your mind as did Christ's healing hand +when He touched blind eyes and they saw, and palsied bodies and they +sprung into joyous activity." + +Under his eager, earnest words, Christine's eyes also lighted up with +hope, but after a moment her face became very sad, and she said, +wearily, "Mystery! mystery! you are speaking a language that I do not +understand." + +"Can you not understand this: 'For God so loved the world, that He +gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not +perish, but have everlasting life'? and that the Bible tells us that +His Son did, in very truth, die that we might live?" + +"Yes, yes, I know that the Bible seems to teach all that, but there +must be some mistake about it. Why should an all-powerful God take +such a costly, indirect way of accomplishing His purpose when a word +would suffice?" + +"We will not discuss God's reasons; I think they are beyond us. But +imagining the Bible story to be true, even though you do not believe +it, is not the love of God revealed to us through His son, Jesus +Christ?" + +"Yes, it is the very extravagance of disinterested love, So much so +that my reason revolts at it. It is contrary to all my ideas of Deity +and power." + +"Pardon me, Miss Ludolph, for saying it, but I think your ideas of +Deity are borrowed more from mythology and human greatness than from +the Bible. Let your reason stand aside a moment; this is not contrary +to it, but beyond it. Imagining the Bible story true, can you not wish +it true? If the man who died on Calvary out of love for you I and for +us all is also God, would you fear to trust yourself to Him? Could +you distrust One who loved you well enough to die for you?" + +"No! no, indeed! if I only could believe it, no! But how can I ever +be sure it is true? I am sure of nothing. I am not sure there is a +God. I am not sure the Bible is more than human in its character. I +feel as if my feet stood out upon those shifting waves, and as if there +were nothing certain or stable." + +"But in part you know the truth, Miss Ludolph, though you do not believe +it, and I believe that the God of whom we have spoken _can directly +reveal Himself to you_ and make His truth as real to you as it is to +me." + +"Mr. Fleet," cried Christine, "if I could believe as you do, I should +be the happiest of the happy, for I should feel that, however much I +suffered in this brief life, in the existence beyond I should be more +than compensated;" and covering her tearful face with her hands she +moaned, as if it were wrung from her, "I have suffered so much, and +there seemed no remedy!" + +Dennis's feelings were also deeply touched, and the dew of sympathy +gathered in his own eyes. In the gentlest accents be said, "Oh, that +you could trust that merciful, mighty One who invites all the heavy +laden to come to Him for rest!" + +She looked up and saw his sympathy, and was greatly moved. In faltering +tones she said: "You feel for me, Mr. Fleet. You do not condemn me in +my blindness and unbelief. I cannot trust Him, because I am not sure +He exists. If there was such a God I would gladly devote my whole being +to Him; but I trust _you_, and will do anything you say." + +"Will you kneel on these sands with me in prayer to Him?" he asked, +earnestly. + +She hesitated, trembled, but at last said, "Yes." + +He took her hand as if they were brother and sister, and they kneeled +together on the desolate beach. The glow of sunset was lost in the +redder glow of the fire that smouldered all over the ruins, and still +raged in the northwest, and the smoke and gathering gloom involved +them in obscurity. + +Though the weary, apathetic fugitives regarded them not, we believe +that angelic forms gathered round, and that the heart of the Divine +Father yearned toward His children. + +When they rose, after a simple prayer from Dennis, in which he pleaded +almost as a child might with an earthly father, Christine trembled +like a leaf, and was very pale, but her face grew tearless, quiet, and +very sad. Dennis still held her hand in the warm, strong grasp of +sympathy. Gently she withdrew it, and said, in a low, despairing tone: +"It is all in vain. There is no answer. Your voice has been lost in +the winds and waves." + +"Wait the King's time," said he, reverently. + +"You addressed him as Father. Would a good father keep his child +waiting?" + +"Yes, sometimes He does; He is also King." + +After a moment she turned to him the saddest face he ever looked upon, +and said, gently, again giving him her hand, "Mr. Fleet, you have done +your best for me, and I thank you all the same." + +He was obliged to turn away to hide his feelings. Silently they again +sat down on the beach together. Weariness and something like despair +began to tell on Christine, and Dennis trembled when he thought of the +long night of exposure before her. He bent his face into his hands and +prayed as he had never prayed before. She looked at him wistfully, and +knew he was pleading for her; but she now believed it was all in vain. +The feeling grew upon her that belief or unbelief was a matter of +education and temperament, and that the feelings of which Dennis spoke +were but the deceptive emotions of our agitated hearts. To that degree +that the Divine love seemed visionary and hopeless, she longed for him +to speak of his own, if in truth it still existed, that she could +understand and believe in. If during what remained of life she could +only drink the sweetness of that, she felt it was the best she could +hope for--and then the blank of nothingness. + +But he prayed on, and with something of his mother's faith seemed at +last, as it were, in the personal presence of Christ. With an +importunity that would not be denied, he entreated for her who despaired +at his side. + +At last, putting her hand lightly on his arm, she said: "Mr. Fleet, +waste no more time on me. From the groans I hear, some poor woman is +sick or hurt. Perhaps you can do some real good by seeing to her needs." + +He rose quietly, feeling that in some way God would answer, and that +he must patiently wait. + +Going up the beach a short distance he found a German woman lying just +on the edge of the water. In answer to his questions, he learned from +her broken English that she was sick and in pain. A sudden thought +struck him. In seeking to help another, might not Christine find help +herself, and in the performance of a good deed, might not the Author +of all good reveal Himself? Returning to her, he said: "Miss Ludolph, +the poor woman you have heard is sick and alone. She is German, and +you can speak to her and comfort her as only a woman can." + +Christine went at once, though with little confidence in her powers. +Indeed it was, perhaps, the first visit of charity and mercy she had +ever made. But she would have done anything he asked, and determined +to do her best. She helped the poor creature further up from the water, +and then, taking her hands, spoke to her soothingly and gently in her +native tongue. + +"Heaven and all the angels bless your sweet face for taking pity on +a poor lone body, and so they will too," is the free rendering of her +grateful German. + +"Would you please say a little prayer for a lone, sick body?" she +asked, after a little while. + +Christine hesitated a moment, and then thought: "Why not? if it will +be of any comfort to the poor thing. It can do neither of us harm." + +Dennis saw her kneel at the woman's side, lift her white face to heaven, +and her lips move. Her attitude was unmistakably that of prayer. He +could scarcely believe his eyes. + +Her petition was brief and characteristic: "O God--if there is a +God--help this poor creature!" + +Then Dennis saw her start up and glance around in a strange, bewildered +manner. Suddenly she clasped her hands and looked up with an ecstatic, +thrilling cry: "There is! there is! God lives and loves me, I feel, +I know, and therefore I may hope and live." Turning to the still raging +flames, she exclaimed: "Burn on with your fiery billows, I do not fear +you now! I am safe, safe forever! Oh, how can I ever love and praise +Thee enough!" + +Then, springing to Dennis's side, she took both his hands in hers, and +said: "Mr. Fleet, you have saved my life again and again, and I am, +oh, how grateful! but in leading me to this knowledge you have made +me your debtor for evermore. God does live, and I believe now He loves +even me." + +As the glare of the fire fell on her face, he was awed and speechless +at its expression. From its ecstatic joy and purity it seemed that the +light of heaven, instead of her burning home, was illumining it. + +At last he said, brokenly, "Thank God! thank God! my many, many prayers +are answered!" + +The look of love and gratitude she gave him will only find its +counterpart in heaven, when the saved beam upon those who led them to +the Saviour. The whole of her strong womanly soul, thoroughly aroused, +was in her face, and it shone like that of an angel. + +To Dennis, with the force of fulfilled prophecy, recurred his mother's +words, and unconsciously he spoke them aloud: "PRAYER is MIGHTY." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +CHRISTINE'S GRAVE + + +After a moment Christine returned to her charge and said, gently, "I +think I can take better care of you now." + +The poor woman looked at her in a bewildered way, half fearing she had +lost her senses. But there was that in Christine's tone and manner now +that went like sunlight and warmth to the heart, and in broadest German +the grateful creature was soon blessing her again and again, and +Christine felt that she was blessed beyond even her wildest dreams. + +Dennis now felt that she must have food and rest. She appeared, in the +ghostly light of the distant flames, so pale and spirit-like, that he +almost feared she would slip away to heaven at once, and he began +looking for some one stronger, older, and more suitable, to take her +place. At a little distance further north he at last found a stout +German woman sitting with her two children on a large feather bed, the +sole relic of her household goods. Dennis acquainted her with the case, +and she soon took the matter out of his and Christine's hands in a +very satisfactory way. + +To the south and west opportunity of escape was utterly cut off; +eastward were the waters of the lake, so that their only chance was +to push northward. After making their way slowly for a short distance +among the thickly scattered groups and the varied articles that had +been dragged to the shore for safety, Dennis thought he heard a familiar +voice. + +"Dr. Arten!" he cried. + +"Hallo! who wants me?" answered the good old physician, bustling up +in rather incongruous costume, consisting of a dress coat, white vest, +red flannel drawers, and a very soiled pair of slippers. + +"Oh, doctor! the very sight of you inspires hope and courage." + +"Surely a young fellow like you can be in no want of those articles?" + +"If he is lacking," cried Christine, "it must be for the reason that +he has given hope and courage to every one he has met, and so has +robbed himself." + +"Heigho!" exclaimed the doctor, "you here?" + +"Yes, thanks to the heroism of Mr. Fleet." + +"Fleet, is that all you have saved from the fire?" asked the doctor, +with a humorous twinkle, pointing to Christine. + +"I am well satisfied," said Dennis, quietly, but with rising color. + +"I should have perished, had not Mr. Fleet come to my rescue," continued +Christine, warmly, glad of an opportunity to express a little of her +gratitude. + +The doctor turned his genial, humorous eye on her and said: "Don't be +too grateful, Miss Ludolph; he is a young man, and only did his duty. +Now if I had been so fortunate you might have been as grateful as you +pleased." + +It was Christine's turn to grow rather rosier than even the red fire +warranted, but she said, "You would have your joke, doctor, if the +world were burning up." + +"Yes, and after it burned up," he replied. "What do you think of that, +Miss Ludolph, with your German scepticism?" + +Tears came in Christine's eyes, and she said, in a low tone, "I am +glad to say that I have lost my German scepticism in the fire also." + +"What!" cried the doctor, seizing both her hands in his hearty way. +"Will you accept of our Christian superstition?" + +"I think I have accepted your glorious Christian truth, and the thought +makes me very happy." + +"Well, now I can almost say, Praise God for the fire, though old Dr. +Arten must commence again where the youngsters are who kick up their +heels in their office all day." + +With professional instinct he slipped his finger on Christine's pulse, +then rummaged in his pocket and soon drew out some powders, and in his +brusque way made her take one. + +"Oh, how bitter!" she exclaimed. + +"That is the way the ladies treat me," began the merry bachelor: "not +an ounce of gratitude when I save their lives. But let a young fellow +like Fleet come along and get them out of danger by mere brute strength, +instead of my delicate, skilful way, and language breaks down with their +thanks. Very well, I shall have compensation--I shall present +my bill before long. And now, young man, since you have set out to +rescue my little friend here, you had better carry the matter through, +for several reasons which I need not urge. Your best chance is to make +your way northward, and then continue around the west, where you can +find food and shelter;" and with a hearty grasp of the hand, the brave, +genial old man wished them "God speed!" + +Dennis told him of the poor German woman, and then pushed on in the +direction indicated. But Christine was growing weak and exhausted. At +last they reached the Catholic cemetery. It was crowded with fugitives +and the fire to the northwest still cut off all escape, even if +Christine's strength had permitted further exertion. It was now +approaching midnight, and she said, wearily: "Mr. Fleet, I am very +sorry, but I fear I cannot take another step. The powder Dr. Arten +gave me strengthened me for a time, but its effect is passing away, +and I feel almost paralyzed with fatigue. I am not afraid to stay here, +or indeed anywhere now." + +"It seems a very hard necessity that you should have to remain in such +a place, Miss Ludolph, but I see no help for it. We are certainly as +well off as thousands of others, and so I suppose ought not to +complain." + +"I feel as if I could never complain again, Mr. Fleet. I only hope my +father is as safe and as well as we are. I cannot tell you how my heart +goes out toward him now that I see everything in a different light. +I have not been a true daughter, and I do long to make amends. He +surely has escaped, don't you think?" + +"Mr. Ludolph was possessed of unusual sagacity and prudence," said +Dennis, evasively. "What any man could do, he could. And now, +Miss Ludolph, I will try to find you a resting-place. There are such +crowds here that I think we had better go nearer that side, where early +in the evening the fire drove people away." + +The cemetery had not been used of late years, and many of the bodies +had been removed. This caused excavations here and there, and one of +these from which the gathered leaves and grass had been burned, Dennis +thought might answer for Christine's couch, as in the hollow of this +vacant and nearly filled grave she would be quite sheltered from the +wind, and the sand was still warm from the effects of the fire. To his +surprise she made no objection. + +"I am so weary that I can rest anywhere," she said, "and a grave is +not to me what it was once." + +He arranged her shawl so that it might be mattress, pillow, and +covering, and wrapped her up. + +"And how will you endure the long, cold hours, my friend?" she asked, +looking up most sympathetically. + +"Thanks to your kindness, I had such a good sleep this afternoon that +I feel strong and rested," he replied, with a smile. + +"I fear you say so to put my mind at rest;" but even as she spoke her +eyes closed and she went to sleep like a tired and trusting child. As +with Dennis a few hours before, the limit of nature's endurance had +been reached, and the wealthy, high-born Miss Ludolph, who on Sabbath +night had slept in the midst of artistic elegance and luxury, now, on +Monday night, rested in a vacant grave under the open and +storm-gathering sky. Soon--to be accurate, at two o'clock on the morning +of Tuesday--rain began to fall. But, with all the discomfort it brought, +never had rain been more welcome. + +Christine shivered in her sleep, and Dennis looked around vainly for +some additional covering. The thronging fugitives were all in a similar +plight, and their only course was simply to endure till some path of +escape opened. + +The night was indeed a long one to him. At first excitement and +happiness kept him awake and unconscious of time and discomfort. But +he soon felt how weary and hungry he was, for he had eaten nothing +since his slight supper on Sabbath evening. The heat of the fire +perceptibly lessened as the rain began falling, and without his coat +Dennis was soon chilled to the bone. On every side he heard moans of +discomfort, and he knew that he had far more reason to endure patiently +than many near him. He tried to keep himself warm by walking around, +but at last he grew too weary for that, and sat, a patient, cowering +watcher, at the head of Christine's weird couch, listening sadly at +times to the pitiful crying of little children and the sighs and groans +of older sufferers. + +At last the light of welcome day streaked the eastern horizon, and +Christine opened her eyes in a bewildered way, but, on seeing him +swaying backward and forward with half-closed eyes, sprang up and said, +"And have you sat and watched there all the long night?" + +"I hope you feel rested and better, Miss Ludolph," he replied, startled +from drowsiness by her voice. + +"It has been raining, too. I fear you are wet through. Oh, how much +you must have suffered on my account!" + +"I imagine you are as wet as I am, Miss Ludolph. This has been a very +democratic experience for you. We are all about alike in this strange +camping-ground." + +"No; your kindness made me quite comfortable. Indeed, I never slept +better. And you, without any coat or shelter, have watched patiently +hour after hour." + +"Well, you did as much for me yesterday afternoon, so we are quits." + +"I think there is a great difference," she said. "And remember what +a watcher I made; I let those drunken creatures run over you." + +"I don't see how you could have helped it," said he, laughing. "That +you should have cared for me as you did was a favor that I never +expected," he added, blushing. + +She blushed too, but made no reply; at the same time she was vexed +with herself that she did not. Dennis, with a lover's blindness, +misunderstood her silence, and thought that, as a friend, she was more +grateful than he could wish, but he must speak in no other character. + +Then he remembered that it would be dishonorable to urge his suit under +the circumstances; it would be a source of inexpressible pain to her, +with her strong sense of obligation, to put aside expressions of his +deeper regard, and he resolved to avoid if possible any manifestations +of his feelings. While she was dependent upon him he would act the +part of a brother toward her, and if his human love could never find +its consummation, he would bear his loss as patiently as possible. But +in spite of himself a tinge of sadness and restraint came into his +manner, and Christine sighed to herself, "If _he_ only knew, and _I_ +only knew, just the truth, how much happier we might be!" There was a +general movement now in the strangely assorted multitude. The fire had +swept everything away so completely on the north side that there were +not hot blazing ruins to prevent crossing. Accordingly men came pouring +over, looking for their families. On every side were cries of joy on +recognition of those whom fear and terrible forebodings had buried under +the blackened remains of once happy homes. But mingled with exclamations +of joy were sobs and wails of anguish, as some now realized in the +lapsing hours that absent members of the household were lost. + +Christine looked in vain for her father; at last Dennis said: "Miss +Ludolph, do you feel equal to the effort of crossing to the west side? +You must be faint with hunger, and there only can we hope for help." + +"Oh, yes! let us go at once, for your sake as well as mine;" for she +saw that his long fasting and great fatigue had made him very haggard. + +They urged their way across the burned district as fast as their +exhausted state would permit, carefully avoiding burning brands that +still lay in the street. + +"I hope you will have patience with me in my slow progress," said +Christine, "for I feel as I imagine Rip Van Winkle must have done, +after his twenty years' nap." + +"I think you have borne up heroically, Miss Ludolph," said Dennis, +warmly. + +"Oh, no! I am not in the least heroic, but I confess that I am very +hungry. I never knew what hunger was before. Well, I can now appreciate +what must often be the condition of the poor, and hope not to be so +forgetful of them hereafter." + +"I am glad to hear you say that you are hungry, Miss Ludolph, for it +proves that with care you will rally after this dreadful exposure, and +be your former self." + +"Ah! Mr. Fleet, I hope I shall never be my old self again. I shudder +when I think what I was when you awakened me that dreadful night." + +"But I have feared," said he, ever avoiding any reference to his own +services, "that, though you might escape the fire, the exposure would +be greater than you could endure. I trembled for you last night when +it began to rain, but could find no additional covering." + +"No brother could be kinder or more thoughtful of me," she said, turning +upon him a glad, grateful face. + +"That is it," thought Dennis. "She hints to me what must be our +relationship. She is the Baroness Ludolph, and is pledged to a future +that I cannot share." + +But as he saw her gratitude, he resolved all the more resolutely not +to put it to the hard test of refusing his love. A little later he +unconsciously sighed wearily, and she looked at him wistfully. + +"Oh, that I _knew_ if he felt toward me as he once did!" she said to +herself. + +They now reached the unscathed streets of the west side, which were +already thronged with fugitives as hungry and gaunt as themselves. +Mingling with this great strange tide of weak, begrimed, hollow-eyed +humanity, they at last reached Dr. Goodwin's beautiful church. Here +already had begun the noble charity dispensed from that place during +the days of want and suffering that followed. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +SUSIE WINTHROP + + +Waiting with multitudes of others, Christine and Dennis at last received +an army biscuit (hardtack in the soldier's vernacular) and a tin-cup +of what resembled coffee. To him it was very touching to see how eagerly +she received this coarse fare, proving that she was indeed almost +famished. Too weak to stand, they sat down near the door on the +sidewalk. A kind lady presently came and said, "If you have no place to +go you will find it more comfortable in the church." + +They gladly availed themselves of her permission, as the thronged +street was anything but pleasant. + +"Mr. Fleet," said Christine, "I am now going to take care of you in +return for your care last night," and she led him up to a secluded +part of the church by the organ, arranged some cushions on a seat, and +then continued: "As I have obeyed you, so you must now be equally +docile. Don't you dare move from that place till I call you;" and she +left him. + +He was indeed wearied beyond expression, and most grateful for a chance +to rest. This refuge and the way it was secured seemed almost a heavenly +experience, and he thought with deepest longing, "If we could always +take care of each other, I should be perhaps too well satisfied with +this earthly life." + +When after a little time Christine returned he was sleeping as heavily +as he had done before upon the beach, but the smile his last thought +occasioned still rested on his face. + +For some little time she also sat near and rested, and her eyes sought +his face as if a story were written there that she never could finish. +Then she went to make inquiries after her father. But no one to whom +she spoke knew anything about him. + +Bread and other provisions were constantly arriving, but not fast +enough to meet the needs of famishing thousands. Though not feeling +very strong she offered her services, and was soon busily engaged. All +present were strangers to her, but, when they learned from the inquiries +for her father that she was Miss Ludolph, she was treated with deference +and sympathy. But she assumed nothing, and as her strength permitted, +during the day, she was ready for any task, even the humblest. She +handed food around among the hungry, eager applicants, with such a +sweet and pitying face that she heard many a murmured blessing. Her +efforts were all the more appreciated as all saw that she too had +passed through the fire and had suffered deeply. At last a kind, +motherly lady said: "My dear, you look ready to drop. Here, take this," +and she poured out a glass of wine and gave her a sandwich; "now, go +and find some quiet nook and rest. It's your duty." + +"I have a friend who has suffered almost everything in saving me. He +is asleep now, but he has had scarcely anything to eat for nearly three +days, and I know he will be very hungry when he wakes." + +"Nothing to eat for three days! Why, you must take him a whole loaf, +and this, and this," cried the good lady, about to provision Dennis +for a month. + +"Oh, no," said Christine, with a smile, "so much would not be good for +him. If you will give me three or four sandwiches, and let me come for +some coffee when he wakes, it will be sufficient;" and she carried +what now seemed treasures to where Dennis was sleeping, and sat down +with a happy look in her face. + +The day had been full of sweet, trustful thoughts. She was conscious +of a presence within her heart and all around that she knew was Divine, +and in spite of her anxiety about her father and the uncertainty of +the future, she had a rest and contentment of mind that she had never +experienced before. Then she felt such a genuine sympathy for the +sufferers about her, and found them so grateful when she spoke to them +gently and kindly, that she wondered she had never before discovered +the joy of ministering to others. She was entering a new world, and, +though there might be suffering in it, the antidote was ever near, and +the pleasures promised to grow richer, fuller, more satisfying, till +they developed into the perfect happiness of heaven. But every Christian +joy that was like a sweet surprise--every thrilling hope that pointed +to endless progress in all that is best and noblest in life, instead +of the sudden blank and nothingness that threatened but yesterday--and, +above all, the animating consciousness of the Divine love which kept +her murmuring, "My Saviour, my good, kind Heavenly Father," all reminded +her of him who had been instrumental in bringing about the wondrous +change. Often during the day she would go and look at him, and could +Dennis only have opened his eyes at such a moment, and caught her +expression, no words would have been needed to assure him of his +happiness. + +The low afternoon sun shone in gold and crimson on his brow and face +through the stained windows before he gave signs of waking, and then +she hurried away to get the coffee hot from the urn. + +She had hardly gone before he arose greatly refreshed and strengthened, +but so famished that a roast ox would have seemed but a comfortable +meal. His eye at once caught the sandwiches placed temptingly near. + +"That is Miss Ludolph's work," he said; "I wonder if she has saved any +for herself." He was about to go and geek her when she met him with +the coffee. + +"Go back," she said; "how dare you disobey orders?" + +"I was coming to find you." + +"Well, that is the best excuse you could have made, but I am here; so +sit down and drink this coffee and devour these sandwiches." + +"Not unless you share them with me." + +"Insubordinate! See here," and she took out her more dainty provision +from behind a seat and sat down opposite, in such a pretty, +companionable way that he in his admiration and pleasure forgot his +sandwiches. + +"What is the matter?" she asked. "You are to eat the sandwiches, not +me." + +"A very proper hint, Miss Ludolph; one might well be inclined to make +the mistake." + +"Now that is a compliment worthy of the king of the Cannibal Islands." + +"Miss Ludolph," said Dennis, looking at her earnestly, "you do indeed +seem happy." + +A ray of light slanting through a yellow diamond of glass fell with +a sudden glory upon her face, and in a tone of almost ecstasy she said: +"Oh, I am so glad and grateful, when I realize what might have been, +and what is! It seems that I have lost so little in this fire in +comparison with what I have gained. And but for you I might have lost +everything. How rich this first day of life, real, true life, has been! +My Heavenly Father has been so kind to me that I cannot express it. +And then to think how I have wronged Him all these years!" + +"You have indeed learned the secret of true eternal happiness, Miss +Ludolph." + +"I believe it--I feel sure of it. All trouble, all pain will one day +pass away forever; and sometimes I feel as if I must sing for joy. I +do so long to see my father and tell him. I fear he won't believe it +at first, but I can pray as you did, and it seems as if my Saviour +would not deny me anything. And now, Mr. Fleet, when you have finished +your lunch, I am going to ask one more favor, and then will dub you +truest knight that ever served defenceless woman. You will find my +father for me, for I believe you can do anything." + +Even in the shadow where he sat she caught the pained expression of +his face. + +She started up and grasped his arm. + +"You know something," she said; then added: "Do not be afraid to find +my father now. When he knows what services you have rendered me, all +estrangement, if any existed, will pass away." + +But he averted his face, and she saw tears gathering in his eyes. + +"Mr. Fleet," she gasped, "do you know anything I do not?" + +He could hide the truth no longer. Indeed it was time she should learn +it. Turning and taking her trembling hand, he looked at her so sadly +and kindly that she at once knew her father was dead. + +"Oh, my father!" she cried, in a tone of anguish that he could never +forget, "you will never, never know. All day I have been longing to +prove to you the truth of Christianity by my loving, patient tenderness, +but you have died, and will never know," she moaned, shudderingly. + +He still held her hand--indeed she clung to his as to something that +might help sustain her in the dark, bitter hour. + +"Poor, poor father!" she cried; "I never treated him as I ought, and +now he will never know the wealth of love I was hoping to lavish on +him." Then, looking at Dennis almost reproachfully, she said: "Could +you not save him? You saved so many others." + +"Indeed I could not, Miss Ludolph; I tried, and nearly lost my life +in the effort. The great hotel behind the store fell and crushed all +in a moment." + +She shuddered, but at last whispered, "Why have you kept this so long +from me?" + +"How could I tell you when the blow would have been death? Even now +you can scarcely bear it." + +"My little beginning of faith is sorely tried. Heavenly Spirit," she +cried, "guide me through this darkness, and let not doubt and unbelief +cloud my mind again." + +"Such prayer will be answered," said Dennis, in a deep, low tone. + +They sat in the twilight in silence. He still held her hand, and she +was sobbing more gently and quietly. Suddenly she asked, "Is it wrong +thus to grieve over the breaking of an earthly tie?" + +"No, not if you will say as did your Lord in His agony, 'Oh, my Father, +Thy will be done.'" + +"I will try," she said, softly, "but it is hard." + +"He is a merciful and faithful High Priest. For in that He Himself +hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor them that are +tempted." + +"Do you know that I think my change in feeling makes me grieve all the +more deeply? Until to-day I never loved my father as I ought. It is +the curse of unbelief to deaden everything good in the heart. Oh, I +do feel such a great, unspeakable pity for him!" + +"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that +fear Him." + +"Is that in the Bible?" she asked. + +"Yes." + +"It is very sweet. He indeed must be my refuge now, for I am alone in +the world." + +"He has said, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' I have passed +through this sorrow so recently myself that I can sympathize with you +as a fellow-sufferer." + +"True, true, you have," she answered. "Is that the reason that Christ +suffered with us--that we might know He sympathized with us?" + +"Yes." + +"How unspeakably comforting is such sympathy, both human and divine! +Tell me about your mother." + +"I fear I cannot without being unmanned. She was one of Heaven's +favorites, and I owe everything to her. I can tell you one thing, +though, she prayed for you continually--even with her dying lips, when +my faith had broken down." + +This touched Christine very deeply. At last she said, "I shall see her +some day." + +"I wish you had seen her," he continued very sadly, looking as if at +a scene far away. + +"You cannot wish it more than I. Indeed I would have called on her, +had it not been for an unfortunate accident." + +He looked at her with some surprise, as if not understanding her remark, +but said, "She greatly wished to see you before she died." + +"Oh, I wish I had known it!" + +"Did you not know it?" he asked, in a startled manner. + +"No, but I felt grateful to her, for I understood that she offered to +take care of me in case I had the smallpox. I wanted to visit her very +much, and at last thought I would venture to do so, but just then I +sprained my ankle. I sent my maid to inquire, but fear she didn't do +my errand very well," added Christine, looking down. + +"She never came, Miss Ludolph." Then he continued, eagerly: "I fear +I have done you a great wrong. A little time before my mother died, +she wrote you a line saying that she was dying and would like to see +you. I did not know you could not come--I thought you would not." + +Crimson with shame and humiliation, Christine buried her burning cheeks +in her hands and murmured, "I never received it." + +"And did you send the exquisite flowers and fruit?" he asked. "Ah, I +see that you did. I am so glad--so very glad that I was mistaken! I +sincerely ask your pardon for my unjust thoughts." + +"It is I who should ask pardon, and for a long time I have earnestly +wished that I might find opportunity to do so. My conduct has been +simply monstrous, but of late it has seemed worse than the reality. +Everything has been against me. If you only knew--but--" (and her head +bowed lower). Then she added, hastily, "My maid has been false, and +I must have appeared more heartless than ever." But, with biter shame +and sorrow, she remembered who must have been the inspirer of the +treachery, and, though she never spoke of it again, she feared that +Dennis suspected it also. It was one of those painful things that must +be buried, even as the grave closes over the frail, perishing body. + +Let those who are tempted to a wicked, dishonorable deed remember that, +even after they are gone, the knowledge of it may come to those who +loved them, like an incurable wound. + +Dennis's resolution not to speak till Christine should be no longer +dependent on him was fast melting away, as he learned that she had not +been so callous and forgetful as she had seemed. But before he could +add another word, a wild, sweet, mournful voice was heard singing: + + "O fiery storm, wilt never cease? + Thy burning hail falls on my heart; + Bury me deep, that I in peace + May rest where death no more can part." + +In awed, startled tones they both exclaimed, "SUSIE WINTHROP!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +DOCTOR ARTEN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING + + +Hastening down into the body of the church, Dennis and Christine found +Mrs. Leonard lying on some cushions in a pew. She was scantily clad, +her sweet face scorched and blackened, and her beautiful hair almost +crisped away. + +Her husband was bending over her in an agony of mingled grief and joy. +She had just been brought in from wandering aimlessly and alone quite +out upon the prairie, singing in a low, plaintive way to herself words +suggested by the sudden disaster that had temporarily robbed her of +husband, of reason, and almost of life. + +Dennis afterward learned from Professor Leonard that when first aroused +they had escaped from the hotel, but, not realizing the danger, he had +stepped back a moment at her request to get something she valued very +much, and they had become separated. + +"And thus at last I find the poor child," he cried, with a look of +agony. + +Mrs. Leonard did not know any of them, but continued her low, plaintive +singing. + +Dr. Arten, who had found his way to the church as one of the centres, +was soon in attendance, his benevolent face becoming the very embodiment +of pity. The crowd were pushed back, and with other kind ladies +Christine took charge of her poor unconscious friend, and all was done +that skill and tender love could suggest. At last, under the doctor's +opiates, her low, weird singing ceased, and she slept, her husband +holding her hand. The thronging fugitives were kept a little away, and +Dr. Arten slept near, to be within call. + +A lady asked Christine to go home with her, but she thanked her and +said, "No, I would rather remain in the church near my friends." + +Dennis saw that she was greatly wearied. Taking her hand, he said: +"Miss Ludolph, it is my turn to take care of you again. See, our friends +are preparing a place there for the ladies to sleep. Please go to rest +at once, for you do indeed need it." + +"I am very tired, but I know I could not sleep. How strange this life +is! All day, the world, in spite of what has happened, seemed growing +brighter. Now with the night has come the deeper darkness of sorrow. +On every side pain and suffering seem to predominate, and to me there +will ever be so much mystery in events like my father's death and my +friend Susie's experience, that I know it will be hard to maintain a +childlike faith." + +"God will help you to trust; you will not be left to struggle alone. +Then remember you are His child, and earthly parents do much that +little children cannot understand." + +With a faint smile she answered: "I fear I shall be one of those +troublesome children that are ever asking why. All day it has seemed +so easy to be a Christian, but already I learn that there will be times +when I shall have to cling to my Saviour, instead of being carried +forward in His arms. Indeed, I almost fear that I shall lose Him in +the darkness." + +"But He will not lose you," replied Dennis. "Since you are not sleepy, +let me tell you a short Bible story." + +"Oh, do, please do, just as if I were a little child." + +"It is in the New Testament. Jesus had sent His disciples in a boat +across the sea of Galilee, while He should go up alone on a mountain +to pray. The night came, and with it a storm swept down against the +disciples. The smooth sea was lashed into great foam-crested waves +which broke over their little ship. They tugged hour after hour at +the oars, but in vain. The night grew darker, the wind more contrary, +the waves higher and more threatening, their arms wearied, and they +may have feared that they would perish alone and without remedy in the +black midnight. But we read that 'He saw them toiling in rowing,' +though they knew it not. From the distant mountain side 'He saw +them'--marked every weary stroke of the oar, and every throb of fear. +But at last, when they were most ready to welcome Him, when none could +say, 'We should have rowed through the storm alone,' He came to them +walking safely on the dark waves that threatened them with death, and +said, 'Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid.' Then they gladly +received Him into the ship, and immediately the rough waves were hushed, +and the keel of the boat grated on the beach toward which they had +vainly rowed. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped Him, +saying, 'Of a truth thou art the Son of God.' + +"Now it was on the evening of that very night that these same disciples +had engaged in a scene of festivity. They had stood in the sunset on +the mountain slope, and seen their Lord feed many thousand. Then all +was peace, safety, and good cheer. Life changed as quickly for them +as for you, but did not their Divine Master see them as truly in the +stormy night as in the sunlight? Did He leave them to perish? + +"He is watching you, Miss Ludolph, for He is ever the same; and before +this stormy night of your sorrow passes away you will hear His voice, +saying, 'Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid.'" + +"Already I hear it," she said, in a low, glad voice, smiling through +her tears. "I can, I do trust Him, and the conflicting winds of doubt +and fear are becoming still. Among all these homeless people there +must be many sad, discouraged hearts. You have helped me so much; can +you not say a word or sing something that will help them?" + +Dennis thought a moment, and then, in a sweet, clear voice that +penetrated every part of the large building, sang: + + "Father in Heaven, the night is around us, + Terror and danger our portion have been; + We cry unto Thee, oh, save and defend us, + Comfort the trembling, and pardon our sin. + + "Hearts that are heavy, look onward and upward; + Though wild was the storm that wrecked your loved homes, + Faith lifts your sad glances hopefully heavenward, + To mansions prepared with glory-crowned domes. + + "Hearts that are breaking, whose lov'd ones have vanished, + Swept down in the seething ocean of fire, + E'en now they may rest where pain is all banished, + And join their glad songs with the heavenly choir. + + "Hearts that are groaning with life's weary burden, + Who fear to go forward, to sorrow a prey; + Jesus invites you--'Oh, come, heavy laden'; + Leave sin at His feet, bear mercy away." + +After the first line there was a breathless hush; but, when he closed, +low sobbings might be heard from many of the women, and in the dim +light not a few tears shone in the eyes of manhood. Dennis's voice was +sympathetic in its character, and he had the power of throwing into +it much feeling. + +Christine was weeping quietly, but her tears now were like the warm +spring rain as it falls on the precious seed. At last she said, "You +have done these people much good." + +"To you belongs all the credit, for it was at your suggestion I sang." + +She shook her head, and then said, "Good-night, my friend, I shall +never forget this day with its mingled experience; but I think, I hope, +I shall never doubt God again;" and she went to her rest. + +The light of the next day brought to view many hard realities, and +chief among these was the bread question. Dennis was up with the dawn, +and by eager inquiries sought to comprehend the situation. Some were +gloomy and discouraged, some apathetic, and some determined, courageous, +and hopeful; and to this last class he belonged. + +Most thankful that he had come out of the fiery ordeal unscathed, he +resolved to contribute his quota toward a new and better Chicago. +Young, and sanguine in temperament, he already saw the city rise from +its ashes in statelier proportions and richer prosperity. With a thrill +of exultation he heard the report that some Napoleonic business men +had already telegraphed for building material, and were even now +excavating the hot ruins. + +Christine had hardly joined him as he stood at the door when a gentleman +entered and asked, "Who here are willing and able to work for fair +wages?" + +"I am at your service," said Dennis, stepping forward promptly. + +"You are a gentleman, sir," said the speaker, impressed with the fact +by Dennis's bearing, though his hat and coat were gone; "I need laborers +who can handle the pick and shovel." + +"I will work for less, then, till I can handle these tools as well as +a laborer. There is no reason why I should eat the bread of charity +a day longer, especially when so many need it more than I." + +"I said you were a gentleman; I now say you are a man, and that to me +means a great deal more," said the energetic stranger. "You shall have +two dollars a day with the rest." + +He turned to Christine and said, almost proudly, "The supper you have +to-night shall be yours also." + +"That is," she replied, with a smile, "I shall live on your charity +instead of that of some one else." + +His face grew sad at once, but he answered, as he went away, "I could +not give you charity, Miss Ludolph." + +Christine saw that she had pained him, and was much vexed with herself. +But his remark added to the hope and almost belief that she still held +her old place in his heart, and she resolved to make amends in the +evening for her unlucky speech. + +With a smile she said to herself: "If he only knew that I would prefer +the coarsest, scantiest fare provided by him to the most costly banquet, +he would not have gone away with that long face. How rich life would +be if I could commence it with him, and we struggle up together! Oh, +Heaven, grant," she sighed, looking earnestly upward, "that through +these wonderful, terrible changes, I may climb the mountain at his +side, as he so graphically portrayed it in his picture!" + +Mrs. Leonard still slept, and her husband in an agony of anxiety watched +at her side. At last, a little before midday, she opened her eyes and +said, in her natural tone: "Why, John, I must have greatly overslept. +Where am I?" and then, as her husband fairly sobbed for joy, she started +up and said, hurriedly: "What is the matter? What has happened?" + +"Oh, be calm!" whispered Christine to the professor. "Everything depends +on keeping her quiet." Then she bent over her friend, and said: "Do +not be alarmed, Susie; you are now safe and well, and so is your +husband. But you have been ill, and for his sake and your own you must +keep quiet." + +She turned inquiringly to her husband, who said, more calmly, "It is +all true, and if you can only be careful we can go back to Boston as +well as ever." + +"I will do anything you say, John; but why am I in a church?" + +"You were taken sick in the street, and this was the nearest place to +bring you." + +"Oh, dear! I have had such strange, dreadful dreams. I am so glad they +were only dreams, and you are here with me;" and she lay quietly holding +her husband's hands and looking contentedly in his face. It was evident +she was herself again, and much better. + +Dr. Arten soon after came and said, cheerily, "All right! all right! +will have you out in a day or two as good as new, and then, Miss +Ludolph, you will see how much more grateful she is to the old doctor +than you were." + +"You must present your bill," replied Christine, with a smile. + +"May I?" retorted the doctor, wiping his lips. + +"Oh, I don't know about that," cried Christine; adding, quickly, "when +I welcome you to my own home you may." + +"An old maid's hall, I suppose." + +"It will be an orphan's home, at least," said Christine, softly and +sadly. + +Tears filled the old man's eyes, and putting his arm around her he +drew her to him, saying, as he stroked her drooping head: "Poor child! +poor child! I did not know. But you shall never want a protector while +the old doctor is above ground. As far as possible I will be a father +to you;" and Christine knew she had found a friend as true and strong +as steel, and she buried her face on his shoulder and cried as +trustingly as his own child might have done. + +"Oh, Christine!" cried Mrs. Leonard, "I am so sorry for you!" + +At the voice of her old friend she at once rallied, and, trying to +smile through her tears, said, "God has been so much better to me than +I deserved that I have only gratitude when I think of myself; but my +poor father--" and again she covered her face and wept. + +"Christine, come here," said Mrs. Leonard, softly, and she put her +arms around the weeping girl. "You spoke of God's being good to you. +Have you in truth found and learned to trust Him?" + +"Yes," she replied, eagerly, joy and peace coming out in her face like +the sun shining through clouds and rain. Then with bowed head she +whispered low: "The one I wronged on earth led me to the One I wronged +in heaven, and both have forgiven me. Oh, I am so glad, so happy!" + +"Then you have seen Mr. Fleet." + +"Yes, he saved my life again and again, but in teaching me how to find +my Saviour, he has done far more for me." + +"And you will not wrong him any more, will you, Christine? He has loved +you so long and faithfully." + +In reply she lifted an eager face to her friend and said, "Do you think +he can love me still after my treatment of him?" + +"Give him a chance to tell you," said Mrs. Leonard, with a +half-mischievous smile. "Has he not shown his feelings?" + +"He has treated me more as a brother might have done, and yet he is +so very respectful and deferential--I hope--but I am not perfectly +sure--and then he seems under some restraint." + +Mrs. Leonard said, musingly: "He knows that you are Baroness Ludolph. +I told him last week, for I thought he ought to know, and the fact of +your approaching departure for Europe has been no secret of late. He +thinks you are pledged to a future in which he cannot share; and in +your grateful, dependent condition he would not cause you the pain of +refusing him. I think that is just where he stands," she concluded, +with a woman's mastery of the science of love, and taking almost as +much interest in her friend's affair as she had felt in her own. To +most ladies this subject has a peculiar fascination, and, having settled +their own matters, they enter with scarcely less zest on the task of +helping others arrange theirs. Mrs. Leonard rallied faster under the +excitement of this new interest than from the doctor's remedies. + +After a few moments' thought Christine said, decidedly: "All that +nonsense about the Baroness Ludolph is past forever--burned up in the +fire with many things of more value. I have been fed too long on the +husks of human greatness and ambition to want any more of them. They +never did satisfy me, and in the light and heat of the terrific ordeal +through which I have just passed they shrivelled into utter nothingness. +I want something that I cannot lose in a whiff of smoke and flame, and +I think I have found it. Henceforth I claim no other character than +that of a simple Christian girl." Then bowing her head on her friend's +shoulder she added, in a whisper, "If I could climb to true greatness +by Mr. Fleet's side, as he portrayed it in his picture, it seems to +me heaven would begin at once." + +The doctor, who had taken the professor aside, now joined them, and +said: "Mrs. Leonard, you have only to take reasonable care of yourself, +and you will soon recover from this shock and exposure. I wish all my +patients were doing as well." + +She replied with a smile, taking her husband's hand: "Since I have +found my old Greek here, with his learned spectacles, I am quite myself, +and I feel as if I were only playing invalid." + +"You may have slept in a church before," said the doctor, with a twinkle +in his eye, "and you must do so again. But no one will thunder at you +from the pulpit this time, so I leave you in peace and security, and +to-night will be within call." + +Christine followed him to the lobby of the church, when the +irrepressible joker could not forbear saying: "Now let me give you a +little paternal advice. Don't be too grateful to that young Fleet. He +only did his duty, and of course doesn't deserve any special--" + +Christine, with flushing cheeks, interrupted him as if she had not +heard: "Doctor, how good and kind you are! Here you are off without +any rest to look after the sick and suffering, and you seem to bring +health and hope wherever you go." + +"Yes, yes; but I send my bill in too--mind that." (Some of his poorer +patients never received any, and he, when twitted of the fact, would +mutter, roughly, "Business oversight--can't attend to everything.") + +Christine looked for a moment at the face so inspiring in its hearty +benevolence, and with an impulse, so unlike the cold, haughty girl of +old, sprang forward, threw her arms around his neck, and gave him a +kiss which he declared afterward was like a mild stroke of lightning, +and said, "And there is the first instalment of what I owe you." + +The old gentleman looked as if he decidedly liked the currency, and +with moistened eyes that he vainly tried to render humorous, he raised +his finger impressively in parting, and said, "Don't you ever get out +of debt to me." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +BILL CRONK'S TOAST + + +After all, it was a long day to Christine. Tears would start from her +eyes at the thought of her father, but she realized that the only thing +for her to do was to shroud his memory in a great, forgiving pity, and +put it away forever. She could only turn from the mystery of his life +and death--the mystery of evil--to Him who taketh away the sin of the +world. There was no darkness in that direction. She busied herself +with Mrs. Leonard, and the distribution of food to others, till six +o'clock, and then she stood near the door to watch till her true knight +should appear in his shirt-sleeves, with a shovel on his shoulder, and +an old burned, tattered felt hat on his head, instead of jewelled crest +and heron plume. + +Dennis had gone to his work not very hopeful. He knew Christine would +be his grateful friend while she lived, and would perhaps even regard +him as a brother, but all this might be and still she be unable to +respond to his deeper feelings. Moreover, he knew she was Baroness +Ludolph, and might be heiress of such titles and estates in Germany +as would require that she should go at once to secure them; and so she +seemed clearly to pass beyond his sphere. + +As he shovelled the hot bricks and cinders hour after hour among other +laborers, the distance between himself and the Baroness Ludolph seemed +to increase; and when, begrimed and weary, he sat down to eat his +dinner of a single sandwich saved from breakfast (for as yet he had +no money), the ruins around him were quite in keeping with his feelings. +He thought most regretfully of his two thousand dollars and burned +picture. The brave, resolute spirit of the morning had deserted him. +He did not realize that few men have lived who could be brave and +hopeful when weary and hungry, and fewer still, when, in addition, +they doubted the favor of the lady of their love. + +The work of the afternoon seemed desperately hard and long, but with +dogged persistency Dennis held his own with the others till six, and +in common with them received his two dollars. Whether Christine would +accept the supper he brought or not, he determined to fulfil his promise +and bring one. Wearily he trudged off to the west side, in order to +find a store. No one who met him would have imagined that this plodding +laborer was the artist who the week before had won the prize and title +of genius. + +If he had been purchasing a supper for himself, he would doubtless +have been sensible about it; but one that the Baroness Ludolph might +share was a different matter. He bought some very rich cake, a can of +peaches, a box of sardines, some fruit, and then his money gave out! +But, with these incongruous and indigestible articles made up into one +large bundle, he started for the church. He had gone but a little way +when some one rushed upon him, and little Ernst clasped him round the +neck and fairly cried for joy. Sitting on the sidewalk near were the +other little Bruders, looking as forlorn and dirty as three motherless +children could. Dennis stopped and sat down beside them (for he was +too tired to stand), while Ernst told his story--how their mother had +left them, and how she had been found so burned that she was recognized +only by a ring (which he had) and a bit of the picture preserved under +her body. They had been looking ever since to find him, and had slept +where they could. + +As Ernst sobbingly told his story the other children cried in doleful +chorus, and Dennis's tears fell fast too, as he realized how his humble +friend had perished. He remembered her kindness to his mother and +little sisters, and his heart acknowledged the claim of these poor +little orphans. Prudence whispered, "You cannot afford to burden +yourself with all these children," and pride added, "What a figure you +will make in presenting yourself before the Baroness Ludolph with all +these children at your heels!" But he put such thoughts resolutely +aside, and spoke like a brother; and when one of the children sobbed, +"We so hungry!" out came the Baroness Ludolph's fruit and cake, and +nothing remained for Christine but the sardines and peaches, since +these could not well be opened in the street. The little Bruders having +devoured what seemed to them the ambrosia of the gods, he took the +youngest in his arms, Ernst following with the others; and so they +slowly made their way to the church where Christine was now anxiously +waiting, with many surmises and forebodings at Dennis's delay. + +At last, in the dusk, the little group appeared at the church-door, +and she exclaimed, "What has kept you so, Mr. Fleet?" + +He determined to put the best face on the situation, and indulge in +no heroics, so he said, "You could not expect such a body of infantry +as this to march rapidly." + +"What!" she exclaimed, "have you brought all the lost children in the +city back with you?" + +"No, only those that fell properly to my care;" and in a few words he +told their story. + +"And do you, without a cent in the world, mean to assume the burden +of these four children?" she asked, in accents of surprise. + +He could not see her face, but his heart sank within him, for he thought +that to her it would seem quixotic and become another barrier between +them; but he answered, firmly: "Yes, till God, who has imposed the +burden, removes it, and enables me to place them among friends in a +good home. Mrs. Bruder, before she died, wrote to her family in Germany, +telling her whole story. Relatives may take the children; if not, some +way will be provided." + +"Mr. Fleet, I wonder at you," was her answer. "Give me that child, and +you bring the others." + +He wondered at her as he saw her take the child and imprint a kiss on +the sleepy, dirty face; and Ernst, who had been eying her askance, +crept timidly nearer when he saw the kiss, and whispered, "Perhaps her +old outside heart has been burned away." + +They followed to a lobby of the lecture-room, and here she procured +a damp towel and proceeded to remove the tear and dust stains from the +round and wondering faces of the children. Having restored them to +something of their original color, she took them away to supper, saying +to Dennis, with a decided nod, "You stay here till I come for you." + +Something in her manner reminded him of the same little autocrat who +had ordered him about when they arranged the store together. She soon +returned with a basin of water and a towel, saying: "See what a luxury +you secure by obeying orders. Now give an account of yourself, as every +lady's knight should on his return. How have you spent the day?" + +He could not forbear laughing as he said: "My employment has been +almost ludicrously incongruous with the title by which you honor me. +I have been shovelling brick and mortar with other laborers." + +"All day?" + +"All day." + +Her glance became so tender and wistful that he forgot to wash his +hands in looking at her, and felt for the moment as if he could shovel +rubbish forever, if such could be his reward. + +Seemingly by an effort, she regained her brusque manner, which he did +not know was but the mask she was trying to wear, and said, quickly: +"What is the matter? Why don't you wash your face?" + +"You told me to give an account of myself," he retorted, at the same +time showing rising color in his dust-begrimed face. + +"Well, one of your ability can do two things at once. What have you +got in that bundle?" + +"You may have forgotten, but I promised to bring you home something +that you chose to regard as charity." + +"If I was so ungracious, you ought to have rewarded me by bringing me +a broken brick. Will you let me see what you brought?" but without +waiting for permission she pounced upon the bundle and dragged out the +peaches and sardines. + +He, having washed and partially wiped his face, was now able to display +more of his embarrassment, and added, apologetically: "That is not all +I had. I also bought some cake and fruit, and then my money gave out." + +"And do you mean to say that you have no money left?" + +"Not a penny," he answered, desperately. + +"But where are the cake and fruit?" + +"Well," he said, laughingly, "I found the little Bruders famishing on +the sidewalk, and they got the best part of your supper." + +"What an escape I have had!" she exclaimed. "Do you think I should +have survived the night if I had eaten those strangely assorted +dainties, as in honor bound I would have done, since you brought them?" +Then with a face of comical severity she turned upon him and said: +"Mr. Fleet, you need some one to take care of you. What kind of economy +do you call this, sir, especially on the part of one who has burdened +himself with four helpless children?" + +There was a mingling of sense and seriousness in her raillery, which +he recognized, and he said, with a half-vexed laugh at himself: "Well, +really, Miss Ludolph, I suppose that I have not wholly regained my +wits since the fire. I throw myself on your mercy." (The same expression +he had used once before. She remembered it, and her face changed +instantly.) Turning hastily away to hide her feelings, she said, in +a rather husky voice, "When I was a wicked fool, I told you I had none; +but I think I am a little changed now." Then she added, sharply, "Please +don't stand there keeping our friends waiting"; and she led the way +into the lecture-room, now filled with tables and hungry people. + +Dennis was in a maze, and could scarcely understand her, she was so +different from the pensive lady, shrinking from rude contact with the +world, that he had expected to meet. He did not realize that there was +not a particle of weak sentimentality about her, and that, since now +pride was gone, her energetic spirit would make her as truly a leader +in scenes like these as in those with which she had been familiar. +Much less could he understand that she was hiding a heart brimming +over with love to him. + +He followed her, however, with much assumed humility. When in the +middle of the room, who should meet him squarely but Bill Cronk? + +"Hello!" he roared, giving Dennis a slap on his back that startled +even the hungry, apathetic people at the tables. + +Dennis was now almost desperate. Glad as he was to see Cronk, he felt +that he was gathering around him a company as incongruous as was the +supper he had brought home. If Yahcob Bunk or even the red-nosed +bartender had appeared, to claim him as brother, he would scarcely +have been surprised. He naturally thought that the Baroness Ludolph +might hesitate before entering such a circle of intimates. But he was +not guilty of the meanness of cutting a humble friend, even though he +saw the eyes of Christine resting on him. In his embarrassment, however, +he held out the washbasin in his confused effort to shake hands, and +said, heartily, "Why, Cronk, I am glad you came safely out of it." + +"Is this gentleman a friend of yours?" asked Christine, with inimitable +grace. + +"Yes!" said Dennis, firmly, though coloring somewhat. "He once rendered +me a great kindness--" + +"Well, miss, you bet your money on the right hoss that time," +interrupted Bill. "If I hain't a friend of his'n, I'd like to know where +you'll find one; though I did kick up like a cussed ole mule +when he knocked the bottle out of my hand. Like enough if he hadn't +I wouldn't be here." + +"Won't you present me, Mr. Fleet?" said Christine, with an amused +twinkle in her eye. + +"Mr. Cronk," said Dennis (who had now reached that state of mind when +one becomes reckless), "this lady is Miss Ludolph, and, I hope I may +venture to add, another friend of mine." + +She at once put out her hand, that seemed like a snowflake in the great +horny paw of the drover, and said, "Indeed, Mr. Cronk, I will permit +no one to claim stronger friendship to Mr. Fleet than mine." + +"I can take any friend of Mr. Fleet's to my buzzom at once," said Bill, +speaking figuratively, but Christine instinctively shrank nearer Dennis. +In talking with men, Bill used the off-hand vernacular of his calling, +but when addressing ladies, he evidently thought that a certain style +of metaphor bordering on sentiment was the proper thing. But Christine +said, "As a friend of Mr. Fleet's you shall join our party at once"; +and she led them to the further end of the room, where at a table sat +Dr. Arten, Professor and Mrs. Leonard, Ernst, and the little Bruders, +who at the prospect of more eating were wide awake again. After the +most hearty greetings they were seated, and she took her place by the +side of the little children in order to wait on them. Few more +remarkable groups sat down together, even in that time of chaos and +deprivation. Professor Leonard was without vest or collar, and sat +with coat buttoned tight up to his chin to hide the defect. He had +lost his scholarly gold-rimmed spectacles; and a wonderful pair of +goggles bestrode his nose in their place. Mrs. Leonard was lost in the +folds of an old delaine dress that was a mile too large, and her face +looked as if she had assisted actively in an Irish wake. Dr. Arten did +the honors at the head of the table in his dress coat and vest that +had once been white, though he no longer figured around in red flannel +drawers as he had done on the beach. The little round faces of the +Bruders seemed as if protruding from animated rag babies, while nothing +could dim the glory of Ernst's great spiritual eyes, as they gratefully +and wistfully followed Dennis's every movement. Cronk was in a very +dilapidated and famished state, and endured many and varied tortures +in his efforts to be polite while he bolted sandwiches at a rate that +threatened famine. Christine still wore the woollen dress she had so +hastily donned with Dennis's assistance on Sunday night, and the marks +of the fire were all over it. Around her neck the sparks had burned +a hole here and there, through which her white shoulders gleamed. While +she was self-possessed and assiduous in her attention to the little +children, there was a glow of excitement in her eyes which perhaps +Mrs. Leonard understood better than any one else, though the shrewd +old doctor was anything but blind. + +Dennis sat next to Christine in shirt-sleeves once white, but now, +through dust and smoke, of as many colors as Joseph's coat. He was too +weary to eat much, and there was a weight upon his spirits that he +could not throw off--the inevitable despondency that follows great +fatigue when the mind is not at rest. + +Christine darted away and brought him a huge mug of hot coffee. + +"Really, Miss Ludolph," he remonstrated, "you should not wait on me +in this style." + +"You may well feel honored, sir," said Mrs. Leonard. "It is not every +man that is waited on by a baroness." + +"The trouble with Christine is that she is too grateful," put in the +old doctor. + +"Now I should say that was scarcely possible in view of--" commenced +the professor, innocently. + +"I really hope Miss Ludolph will do nothing more from gratitude," +interrupted Dennis, in a low tone that showed decided annoyance. + +The doctor and Mrs. Leonard were ready to burst with suppressed +amusement, and Cronk, seeing something going on that he did not +understand, looked curiously around with a sandwich half-way to his +open mouth, while Ernst, believing from Dennis's tone that he was +wronged, turned his great eyes reproachfully from one to another. But +Christine was equal to the occasion. Lifting her head and looking round +with a free, clear glance she said, "And I say that men who meet this +great disaster with courage and fortitude, and hopefully set about +retrieving it, possess an inherent nobility such as no king or kaiser +could bestow, and, were I twenty times a baroness, I should esteem it +an honor to wait upon them." + +A round of applause followed this speech, in which Cronk joined +vociferously, and Mrs. Leonard whispered: "Oh, Christine, how +beautifully I learn from your face the difference between dignity and +pride! That was your same old proud look, changed and glorified into +something so much better." + +Dennis also saw her expression, and could not disguise his admiration, +but every moment he increasingly felt how desperately hard it would +be to give her up, now that she seemed to realize his very ideal of +womanhood. + +And Cronk, having satisfied the clamors of his appetite, began to be +fascinated in his rough way with her grace and beauty. Nudging Dennis +he asked in a loud whisper heard by all, which nearly caused Dr. Arten +to choke, "The young filly is a German lady, ain't she?" + +Dennis, much embarrassed, nodded assent. + +A happy thought struck Bill. Though impeded by the weight of an +indefinite number of sandwiches, he slowly rose and looked solemnly +round on the little group. Dennis trembled, for he feared some dreadful +bull on the part of his rough, though well-meaning friend, but Dr. +Arten, in a state of intense enjoyment, cried, "Mr. Cronk has the +floor." + +Lifting a can of coffee containing about a quart, the drover said +impressively, and with an attempt at great stateliness: + +"Beautiful ladies and honorable gentlemen here assembled, I would +respectfully ask you to drink to a toast in this harmless beverage: +_The United States of Ameriky!_ When the two great elemental +races--the sanguinary Yankee and the phlegmatic German--become one, +and, as represented in the blooded team before me" (waving his hand +majestically over the heads of Dennis and Christine), "pull in the +traces together, how will the ship of state go forward!" and his face +disappeared behind his huge flagon of coffee in the deepest pledge. +Bill thought he had uttered a very profound and elegant sentiment, but +his speech fell like a bombshell in the little company. + +"The very spirit of mischief is abroad to-day," Dennis groaned. And +Christine, with a face like a peony, snatched up the youngest little +Bruder, saying, "It is time these sleepy children were in bed"; but +the doctor and the Leonards went off again and again in uncontrollable +fits of laughter, in which Dennis could not refrain from joining, +though he wished the unlucky Cronk a thousand miles away. Bill put +down his mug, stared around in a surprised and nonplussed manner, and +then said, in a loud whisper, "I say, Fleet, was there any hitch in +what I said?" + +This set them off again, but Dennis answered good-naturedly, slapping +his friend on the shoulder, "Cronk, you would make a man laugh in the +face of fate." + +Bill took this as a compliment, and the strange party, thrown together +by an event that mingled all classes in the community, broke up and +went their several ways. + + + + +CHAPTER L + +EVERY BARRIER BURNED AWAY + + +Dennis was glad to escape, and went to a side door where he could cool +his hot cheeks in the night air. He fairly dreaded to meet Christine +again, and, even where the wind blew cold upon him, his cheeks grew +hotter and hotter, as he remembered what had occurred. He had been +there but a little time when a light hand fell on his arm, and he was +startled by her voice--"Mr. Fleet, are you very tired?" + +"Not in the least," he answered, eagerly. + +"You must be: it is wrong for me to think of it." + +"Miss Ludolph, please tell me what I can do for you?" + +She looked at him wistfully and said: "This is a time when loss and +disaster burden every heart, and I know it is a duty to try to maintain +a cheerful courage, and forget personal troubles. I have tried to-day, +and, with God's help, hope in time to succeed. While endeavoring to +wear in public a cheerful face, I may perhaps now, and to so true a +friend as yourself, show more of my real feelings. Is it too far--would +it take too long, to go to where my father died? His remains could not +have been removed." + +"Alas, Miss Ludolph," said Dennis, very gently, "there can be no visible +remains. The words of the Prayer Book are literally true in this +case--'Ashes to ashes.' But I can take you to the spot, and it is +natural that you should wish to go. Are you equal to the fatigue?" + +"I shall not feel it if you go with me, and then we can ride part of +the way, for I have a little money." (Dr. Arten had insisted on her +taking some.) "Wait for me a moment." + +She soon reappeared with her shawl cut in two equal parts. One she +insisted on folding and putting around him as a Scotsman wears his +plaid. "You will need it in the cool night wind," she said, and then +she took his arm in perfect trust, and they started. + +In the cars she gave him her money, and he said, "I will return my +fare to-morrow night." + +"What!" she replied, looking a little hurt. "After spending two dollars +on me, will you not take five cents in return?" + +"But I spent it foolishly." + +"You spent it like a generous man. Surely, Mr. Fleet, you did not +understand my badinage this evening. If I had not spoken to you in +that strain, I could not have spoken at all. You have been a brother +to me, and we should not stand on these little things." + +"That is it," thought he again. "She looks upon and trusts me as a +brother, and such I must try to be till she departs for her own land; +yet if she knew the agony of the effort she would scarcely ask it." + +But as they left the car, he said, "All that you would ask from a +brother, please ask from me." + +She put her hand in his, and said, "I now ask your support, sympathy, +and prayer, for I feel that I shall need all here." + +Still retaining her hand, he placed it on his arm and guided her most +carefully around the hot ruins and heaps of rubbish till they came to +where the Art Building had stood. The moon shone brightly down, lighting +up with weird and ghostly effect the few walls remaining. They were +utterly alone in the midst of a desolation sevenfold more impressing +than that of the desert. Pointing to the spot where, in the midst of his +treasures of art and idolized worldly possessions, Mr. Ludolph had +perished, she said, in a thrilling whisper, "My father's ashes are +there." + +"Yes." + +Her breath came quick and short, and her face was so pale and agonized +that he trembled for her, but he tightened his grasp on her hand, and +his tears fell with hers. + +"Oh, my father!" she cried, in a tone of unspeakable pathos, "can I +never, never see you again? Can I never tell you of the love of Jesus, +and the better and happier life beyond? Oh, how my heart yearns after +you! God forgive me if this is wrong, but I cannot help it!" + +"It is not wrong," said Dennis, brokenly. "Our Lord himself wept over +those He could not save." + +"It is all that I can do," she murmured, and, leaning her head on his +shoulder, a tempest of sobs shook her person. + +He supported her tenderly, and said, in accents of the deepest sympathy, +"Let every tear fall that will: they will do you good." At last, as +she became calmer, he added, "Remember that your great Elder Brother +has called the heavy laden to Him for rest." + +At last she raised her head, turned, and gave one long parting look, +and, as Dennis saw her face in the white moonlight, it was the face +of a pitying angel. A low "Farewell!" trembled from her lips, she +leaned heavily on his arm, they turned away, and seemingly the curtain +fell between father and child to rise no more. + +"Mr. Fleet," she said, pleadingly, "are you too tired to take me to +my old home on the north side?" + +"Miss Ludolph, I could go to the ends of the earth for you, but you +are not equal to this strain upon your feelings. Have mercy on +yourself." + +But she said, in a low, dreamy tone: "I wish to take leave to-night +of my old life--the strange, sad past with its mystery of evil; and +then I shall set my face resolutely toward a better life--a better +country. So bear with me, my true, kind friend, a little longer." + +"Believe me, my thought was all for you. All sense of fatigue has +passed away." + +Silently they made their way, till they stood where, a few short days +before, had been the elegant home that was full of sad and painful +memories to both. + +"There was my studio," she said in the same dreamy tone, "where I +indulged in my wild, ambitious dreams, and sought to grasp a little +fading circlet of laurel, while ignoring a heavenly and an immortal +crown. There," she continued, her pale face becoming crimson, even in +the white moonlight, "I most painfully wronged you, my most generous, +forgiving friend, and a noble revenge you took when you saved my life +and led me to a Saviour. May God reward you; but I humbly ask your +pardon--" + +"Please, Miss Ludolph, do not speak of that. I have buried it all. Do +not pain yourself by recalling that which I have forgiven and almost +forgotten. You are now my ideal of all that is noble and good, and in +my solitary artist life of the future you shall be my gentle yet potent +inspiration." + +"Why must your life be solitary in the future?" she asked, in a low +tone. + +He was very pale, and his arm trembled under her hand; at last he said, +in a hoarse voice, "Do not ask me. Why should I pain you by telling +you the truth?" + +"Is it the part of a true friend to refuse confidence?" she asked, +reproachfully. + +He turned his face away, that she might not see the evidences of the +bitter struggle within--the severest he had ever known; but at last +he spoke in the firm and quiet voice of victory. She had called him +brother, and trusted him as such. She had ventured out alone on a +sacred mission with him, as she might with a brother. She was dependent +on him, and burdened by a feeling of obligation. His high sense of +honor forbade that he should urge his suit under such circumstances. +If she could not accept, how painful beyond words would be the necessity +of refusal, and the impression had become almost fixed in his mind +that her regard for him was only sisterly and grateful in its character. + +"Yes, Miss Ludolph," he said, "my silence is the part of true +friendship--truer than you can ever know. May Heaven's richest blessings +go with you to your own land, and follow you through a long, happy +life." + +"My own land? This is my own land." + +"Do you not intend to go abroad at once, and enter upon your ancestral +estates as the Baroness Ludolph?" + +"Not if I can earn a livelihood in Chicago," she answered, most firmly. +"Mr. Fleet, all that nonsense has perished as utterly as this my former +home. It belongs to my old life, of which I have forever taken leave +to-night. My ancestral estate in Germany is but a petty affair, and +mortgaged beyond its real worth by my deceased uncle. All I possess, +all I value, is in this city. It was my father's ambition, and at one +time my own, to restore the ancient grandeur of the family with the +wealth acquired in this land. The plan lost its charms for me long +ago--I would not have gone if I could have helped it--and now it is +impossible. It has perished in flame and smoke. Mr. Fleet, you see +before you a simple American girl. I claim and wish to be known in no +other character. If nothing remains of my father's fortune I shall +teach either music or painting--" + +"Oh, Christine!" he interrupted, "forgive me for speaking to you under +the circumstances, but indeed I cannot help it. Is there hope for me?" + +She looked at him so earnestly as to remind him of her strange, steady +gaze when before he pleaded for her love near that same spot, but her +hand trembled in his like a fluttering, frightened bird. In a low, +eager tone she said, "And can you still truly love me after all the +shameful past?" + +"When have I ceased to love you?" + +With a little cry of ecstasy, like the note of joy that a weary bird +might utter as it flew to its mate, she put her arm around his neck, +buried her face on his shoulder, and said, "No _hope_ for you, Dennis, +but perfect _certainty,_ for now EVERY BARRIER IS BURNED AWAY!" + +What though the home before them is a deserted ruin? Love is joining +hands that shall build a fairer and better one, because filled with +that which only makes a home--love. + +What though all around are only dreary ruins, where the night wind is +sighing mournfully? Love has transformed that desert place into the +paradise of God; and, if such is its power in the wastes of earthly +desolation, what will be its might amid the perfect scenes of heaven? + +Our story is finished. + +It only remains to say that Christine stands high at court, but it is +a grander one than any of earth. She is allied to a noble, but to one +who has received his patent from no petty sovereign of this world. She +has lost sight of the transient laurel wreath which she sought to grasp +at such cost to herself and others, in view of the "crown of glory +that fadeth not away," and to this already, as an earnest Christian, +she has added starry jewels. + +Below is the Ludolph Hall in which sturdy independence led her to begin +her married life. But she is climbing the mountain at her husband's +side, and often her hands steady and help him. The ash-tree, twined +with the passion-flower, is not very far above them, and the villa, +beautiful within and without, is no vain dream of the future. But even +in happy youth their eyes of faith see in airy, golden outline their +heavenly home awaiting them. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Barriers Burned Away, by E. P. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Barriers Burned Away + +Author: E. P. Roe + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6627] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 5, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARRIERS BURNED AWAY *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +[Illustration: "HE MAY GET LOST IN THE STORM."] + +The Works of E. P. Roe + +VOLUME FIVE + +BARRIERS BURNED AWAY + +ILLUSTRATED + + + +NEW YORK + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by + +In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington + +COPYRIGHT, 1882 + +COPYRIGHT, 1885 + +COPYRIGHT, 1892 + +COPYRIGHT, 1900, + + + + +This Book + +IS REVERENTLY DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER + + + + +PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION + +I shall say but few words in regard to this first child of my +imagination. + +About one year ago our hearts were in deepest sympathy with our +fellow-citizens of Chicago, and it occurred to me that their losses, +sufferings, and fortitude might teach lessons after the echoes of the +appalling event had died away in the press; and that even the lurid +and destructive flames might reveal with greater vividness the need +and value of Christian faith. + +I spent some days among the smouldering ruins, and then began the +following simple story, which has grown into larger proportions than +I at first intended. But comparatively a small part of the narrative +is occupied with the fire, for its scenes are beyond description, and +too strange and terrible to be dwelt upon. Therefore the thread of my +story is carried rapidly through that period of unparalleled excitement +and disaster. + +Nearly all the scenes introduced are historical, and are employed to +give their terrible emphasis to that which is equally true in the +serenest and securest times. + +E. P. R. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I +LOVE UNKNOWN + +CHAPTER II +LOVE KNOWN + +CHAPTER III +LAUNCHED + +CHAPTER IV +COLD WATER + +CHAPTER V +A HORNET'S NEST + +CHAPTER VI +"STARVE THEN!" + +CHAPTER VII +A GOOD SAMARITAN + +CHAPTER VIII +YAHCOB BUNK + +CHAPTER IX +LAND AT LAST +CHAPTER X +THE NEW BROOM + +CHAPTER XI +TOO MUCH ALIKE + +CHAPTER XII +BLUE BLOOD + +CHAPTER XIII +VERY COLD + +CHAPTER XIV +SHE SPEAKS TO HIM + +CHAPTER XV +PROMOTED + +CHAPTER XVI +JUST IN TIME + +CHAPTER XVII +RESCUED + +CHAPTER XVIII +MISS LUDOLPH MAKES A DISCOVERY + +CHAPTER XIX +WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH HIM? + +CHAPTER XX +IS HE A GENTLEMAN? + +CHAPTER XXI +CHRISTINE'S IDEA OF CHRISTIANS + +CHAPTER XXII +EQUAL TO AN EMERGENCY + +CHAPTER XXIII +THE REVELATION + +CHAPTER XXIV +NIGHT THOUGHTS +CHAPTER XXV +DARKNESS +CHAPTER XXVI +MISS LUDOLPH COMMITS A THEFT + +CHAPTER XXVII +A MISERABLE TRIUMPH + +CHAPTER XXVIII +LIFE WITHOUT LOVE + +CHAPTER XXIX +DENNIS'S LOVE PUT TO PRACTICAL USE + +CHAPTER XXX +THE TWO HEIGHTS + +CHAPTER XXXI +BEGUILED + +CHAPTER XXXII +BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT + +CHAPTER XXXIII +THE TWO PICTURES + +CHAPTER XXXIV +REGRET + +CHAPTER XXXV +REMORSE + +CHAPTER XXXVI +AN APPARITION + +CHAPTER XXXVII +IF HE KNEW! + +CHAPTER XXXVIII +THE GATES OPEN + +CHAPTER XXXIX +SUSIE WlNTHROP APPEARS AGAIN + +CHAPTER XL +SUGGESTIVE PICTURES AND A PRIZE + +CHAPTER XLI +FIRE! FIRE! + +CHAPTER XLII +BARON LUDOLPH LEARNS THE TRUTH + +CHAPTER XLIII +"CHRISTINE, AWAKE! FOR YOUR LIFE!" + +CHAPTER XLIV +ON THE BEACH + +CHAPTER XLV +"PRAYER IS MIGHTY." CHRISTINE A CHRISTIAN + +CHAPTER XLVI +CHRISTINE'S GRAVE + +CHAPTER XLVII +SUSIE WINTHROP + +CHAPTER XLVIII +DR. ARTEN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING + +CHAPTER XLIX +BILL CRONK'S TOAST + +CHAPTER L +EVERY BARRIER BURNED AWAY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +LOVE UNKNOWN + + +From its long sweep over the unbroken prairie a heavier blast than +usual shook the slight frame house. The windows rattled in the +casements, as if shivering in their dumb way in the December storm. +So open and defective was the dwelling in its construction, that eddying +currents of cold air found admittance at various points--in some +instances carrying with them particles of the fine, sharp, hail-like +snow that the gale was driving before it in blinding fury. + +Seated at one of the windows, peering out into the gathering gloom of +the swiftly coming night, was a pale, faded woman with lustrous dark +eyes. An anxious light shone from them, as she tried in vain to catch +a glimpse of the darkening road that ran at a distance of about fifty +yards from the house. As the furious blast shook the frail tenement, +and circled round her in chilly currents from many a crack and crevice, +she gave a short, hacking cough, and drew a thin shawl closer about +her slight frame. + +The unwonted violence of the wind had its effect upon another occupant +of the room. From a bed in the corner near the stove came a feeble, +hollow voice--"Wife!" + +In a moment the woman was bending over the bed, and in a voice full +of patient tenderness answered, "Well, dear?" + +"Has he come?" + +"Not yet; but he MUST be here soon." + +The word MUST was emphasized in such a way as to mean doubt rather +than certainty, as if trying to assure her own mind of a matter about +which painful misgivings could not be banished. The quick ear of the +sick man caught the tone, and in a querulous voice he said, "Oh! if +he should not get here in time, it would be the last bitter drop in +my cup, now full and running over." + +"Dear husband, if human strength and love can accomplish it, he will +be here soon. But the storm is indeed frightful, and were the case +less urgent, I could almost wish he would not try to make his way +through it. But then we know what Dennis is; he never stops to consider +difficulties, but pushes right on; and if--if he doesn't--if it is +possible, he will be here before very long." + +In spite of herself, the mother's heart showed its anxiety, and, too +late for remedy, she saw the effect upon her husband. He raised himself +in bed with sudden and unwonted strength. His eyes grew wild and almost +fierce, and in a sharp, hurried voice, he said: "You don't think there +is danger? There is no fear of his getting lost? If I thought that I +would curse God and die." + +"Oh, Dennis, my husband, God forbid that you should speak thus! How can +you feel so toward our Best Friend?" + +"What kind of a friend has He been to me, pray? Has not my life been +one long series of misfortunes? Have I not been disappointed in all +my hopes? I once believed in God and tried to serve Him. But if, as +I have been taught, all this evil and misfortune was ordered and made +my inevitable lot by Him, He has not been my friend, but my enemy. +He's been against me, not for me." + +In the winter twilight the man's emaciated, unshorn face had the +ghostly, ashen hue of death. From cavernous sockets his eyes gleamed +with a terribly vindictive light, akin to insanity, and, in a harsh, +high voice, as unnatural as his appearance and words, he continued: +"Remember what I have gone through! what I have suffered! how often +the cup of success that I was raising to my lips has been dashed to the +ground!" + +"But, Dennis, think a moment." + +"Ah! haven't I thought till my heart is gall and my brain bursting? +Haven't I, while lying here, hopelessly dying, gone over my life again +and again? Haven't I lived over every disappointment, and taken every +step downward a thousand times? Remember the pleasant, plentiful home +I took you from, under the great elms in Connecticut. Your father did +not approve of your marrying a poor school-teacher. But you know that +then I had every prospect of getting the village academy, but with my +luck another got ahead of me. Then I determined to study law. What +hopes I had! I already grasped political honors that seemed within my +reach, for you know I was a ready speaker. If my friends could only +have seen that I was peculiarly fitted for public life and advanced +me sufficient means, I would have returned it tenfold. But no; I was +forced into other things for which I had no great aptness or knowledge, +and years of struggling poverty and repeated disappointment followed. +At last your father died and gave us enough to buy a cheap farm out +here. But why go over our experience in the West? My plan of making +sugar from the sorghum, which promised so brilliantly, has ended in +the most wretched failure of all. And now money has gone, health has +gone, and soon my miserable life will be over. Our boy must come back +from college, and you and the two little ones--what will you do?" and +the man covered his head with the blanket and wept aloud. His poor +wife, borne down by the torrent of his sorrow, was on her knees at his +bedside, with her face buried in her hands, weeping also. + +But suddenly he started up. His sobs ceased. His tears ceased to flow, +while his eyes grew hard and fierce, and his hands clenched. + +"But he was coming," he said. "He may get lost in the storm this bitter +winter night." + +He grasped his wife roughly by the arm. She was astonished at his +sudden strength, and raised a tearful, startled face to his. It was +well she could not see its terrible expression in the dusk; but she +shuddered as he hissed in her ear, "If this should happen--if my +miserable death is the cause of his death--if my accursed destiny +involves him, your staff and hope, in so horrible a fate, what have +I to do but curse God and die?" + +It seemed to the poor woman that her heart would burst with the agony +of that moment. As the storm had increased, a terrible dread had chilled +her very soul. Every louder blast than usual had caused her an internal +shiver, while for her husband's sake she had controlled herself +outwardly. Like a shipwrecked man who is clinging to a rock, that he +fears the tide will submerge, she had watched the snow rise from one +rail to another along the fence. When darkness set in it was half-way +up to the top rail, and she knew it was _drifting_. The thought of her +ruddy, active, joyous-hearted boy, whose affection and hopefulness had +been the broad track of sunlight on her hard path--the thought of his +lying white and still beneath one of these great banks, just where she +could never know till spring rains and suns revealed to an indifferent +stranger his sleeping-place--now nearly overwhelmed her also, and even +her faith wavered on the brink of the dark gulf of despair into which +her husband was sinking. Left to herself, she might have sunk for a +time, though her sincere belief in God's goodness and love would have +triumphed. But her womanly, unselfish nature, her long habit of +sustaining and comforting her husband, came to her aid. Breathing a +quick prayer to Heaven, which was scarcely more than a gasp and a glance +upward, she asked, hardly knowing what she said, "And what if he is +_not_ lost? What if God restores him safe and well?" + +She shuddered after she had thus spoken, for she saw that her husband's +belief in the hostility of God had reached almost the point of insanity. +If this test failed, would he not, in spite of all she could say or do, +curse God and die, as he had said? But she had been guided in her +words more than she knew. He that careth for the fall of the sparrow +had not forgotten His children in their sore extremity. + +The man in answer to her question relaxed his hold upon her arm, and +with a long breath fell back on his pillow. + +"Ah!" said he, "if I could only see him again safe and well, if I could +only leave you with him as your protector and support, I believe I +could forgive all the past and be reconciled even to my hard lot." + +"God gives you opportunity so to do, my father, for here I am safe and +sound." + +The soft snow had muffled the son's footsteps, and his approach had +been unnoted. Entering at the back door, and passing through the +kitchen, he had surprised his parents in the painful scene above +described. As he saw his mother's form in dim outline kneeling at the +bed, her face buried in its covering--as he heard his father's +significant words--the quick-witted youth realized the situation. While +he loved his father dearly, and honored him for his many good traits, +he was also conscious of his faults, especially this most serious one +now threatening such fatal consequences--that of charging to God the +failures and disappointments resulting from defects in his own +character. It seemed as if a merciful Providence was about to use this +awful dread of accident to the son--a calamity that rose far above and +overshadowed all the past--as the means of winning back the alienated +heart of this weak and erring man. + +The effect of the sudden presence in the sick-room was most marked. +The poor mother, who had shown such self-control and patient endurance +before, now gave way utterly, and clung for a few moments to her son's +neck with hysterical energy, then in strong reaction fainted away. The +strain upon her worn and overtaxed system had been too severe. + +At first the sick man could only look through the dusk at the outline +of his son with a bewildered stare, his mind too weak to comprehend +the truth. But soon he too was sobbing for joy. + +But when his wife suddenly became a lifeless weight in his son's arms, +who in wild alarm cried, "Mother, what is the matter? Speak to me! Oh! +I have killed her by my rash entrance," the sick man's manner changed, +and his eyes again became dry and hard, and even in the darkness had +a strange glitter. + +"Is your mother dead?" he asked, in a low, hoarse voice. + +"Oh, mother, speak to me!" cried the son, forgetting for a time his +father. + +For a moment there was death-like silence. Then the young man groped +for an old settle in the corner of the room, laid his mother tenderly +upon it, and sprang for a light, but as he passed his father's bed the +same strong grasp fell upon his arm that his mother had shuddered under +a little before, and the question was this time hissed in his ear, "Is +your mother dead?" For a moment he had no power to answer, and his +father continued: "What a fool I was to expect God to show mercy or +kindness to me or mine while I was above ground! You are only brought +home to suffer more than death in seeing your mother die. May that God +that has followed me all my life, not with blessings--" + +"Hush, father!" cried his son, in loud, commanding tones. "Hush, I +entreat," and in his desperation he actually put his hand over his +father's mouth. + +The poor woman must have been dead, indeed, had she long remained deaf +to the voice of her beloved son, and his loud tones partially revived +her. In a faint voice she called, "Dennis!" + +With hands suddenly relaxed, and hearts almost stilled in their beating, +father and son listened for a second. Again, a little louder, through +that dark and silent room, was heard the faint call, "Dennis!" + +Springing to her side, her son exclaimed, "Oh, mother, I am here; don't +leave us; in mercy don't leave us." + +"It was I she called," said his father. + +With unnatural strength he had tottered across the room, and taking +his wife's hand, cried, "Oh, Ethel, don't die! don't fill my already +full cup to overflowing with bitterness!" + +Their familiar voices were the best of remedies. After a moment she +sat up, and passing her hand across her brow as if to clear away +confusion of mind, said: "Don't be alarmed; it's only a faint turn. +I don't wonder though that you are frightened, for I never was so +before." + +Poor woman, amid all the emergencies of her hard lot, she had never +in the past given way so far. + +Then, becoming aware of her husband's position, she exclaimed: "Why, +Dennis, my husband, out of your bed? You will catch your death." +"Ah, wife, that matters little if you and Dennis live." + +"But it matters much to me," cried she, springing up. + +By this time her son had struck a light, and each was able to look on +the other's face. The unnatural strength, the result of excitement, was +fast leaving the sick man. The light revealed him helplessly leaning +on the couch where his wife had lain. His face was ashen in color, and +he was gasping for breath. Tenderly they carried him back to his bed, +and he was too weak now to do more than quietly lie upon it and gaze +at them. After replenishing the fire, and looking at the little ones +that were sleeping in the outer room, they shaded the lamp, and sat +down at his bedside, while the mother asked her son many eager questions +as to his escape. He told them how he had struggled through the snow +till almost exhausted, when he had been overtaken by a farmer with a +strong team, and thus enabled to make the journey in safety. + +As the sick man looked and listened, his face grew softer and more +quiet in its expression. + +Then the young man, remembering, said: "I bought the medicines you +wrote for, mother, at Bankville. This, the druggist said, would produce +quiet and sleep, and surely father needs it after the excitement of +the evening." + +The opiate was given, and soon the regular, quiet breathing of the +patient showed that it had taken effect. A plain but plentiful supper, +which the anxious mother had prepared hours before, was placed upon the +kitchen table, and the young man did ample justice to it; for, the +moment the cravings of his heart were satisfied in meeting his kindred +after absence, he became conscious of the keenest hunger. Toiling +through the snow for hours in the face of the December storm had taxed +his system to the utmost, and now he felt the need of food and rest. +After supper he honestly meant to watch at his father's bedside, while +his mother slept; but he had scarcely seated himself on the old settle, +when sleep, like an armed man, overpowered him, and in spite of all +his efforts he was soon bound in the dreamless slumber of healthful +youth. But with eyes so wide and lustrous that it seemed as if sleep +could never close them again, the wife and mother, pale and silent, +watched between her loved ones. The troubled expression was gone, for +the ranks of her little band had closed up, and all were about her in +one more brief rest in the forward and uncertain march of life. She +seemed looking intently at something far off--something better discerned +by the spiritual than by the natural eye. Disappointments had been +bitter, poverty hard and grinding, but she had learned to escape into +a large world that was fast becoming real to her strong imagination. +While her husband was indulging in chimerical visions of boundless +prosperity here on earth which he would bring to pass by some lucky +stroke of fortune or invention, she also was picturing to herself +grander things which God would realize to her _beyond_ time and +earth. When alone, in moments of rest from incessant toil, she would +take down the great family Bible, and with her finger on some +description of the "new heavens and new earth," as the connecting link +between the promise and her strong realization of it, she would look +away with that intent gaze. The new world, purged from sin and sorrow, +would rise before her with more than Edenlike loveliness. Her spirit +would revel in its shadowy walks and sunny glades, and as the crowning +joy she would meet her Lord and Saviour in some secluded place, and +sit listening at His feet like Mary of old. Thus, in the strong illusion +of her imagination, Christ's words seemed addressed directly to her, +while she looked up into His face with rapt attention. Instead of +_reading_ her Lord's familiar sayings, she seemed to _listen_ to them as +did the early disciples. After a little time she would close the Bible +and go back to her hard practical life, awed yet strengthened, and with +a hopeful expression, like that which must have rested on the disciples' +faces on coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +LOVE KNOWN + + +Hour after hour passed. The storm was dying away, and at times, through +broken rifts in the clouds, stars would gleam out. Instead of the +continued roar and rush, the wind blew in gusts at longer intervals, +and nature seemed like a passionate child that had cried itself to +sleep. The fitful blasts were the involuntary sobs that heave the +breast, till at last quiet and peace take the place of stormy anger. + +It seemed as if the silent watcher never could withdraw her gaze from +the beautiful world of her vision. Never had it seemed so near and +real before, and she was unconscious of the lapse of time. Suddenly +she heard her name called--"Ethel!" + +If the voice had come from the imaginary world present to her fancy, +it could not have startled her more for a moment. Then she realized +that it was her husband who spoke. He had called her name in his sleep, +and yet it seemed a call of God. At once it flashed through her mind +that in dreaming of a glorious and happy future she was forgetting him +and his need. + +She turned the light upon his face. Never had he looked so pale and +wan, and she realized that he might be near his end. In an agony of +self-reproach and yearning tenderness she kneeled at his bedside and +prayed as she never had prayed before. Could he go home? Could he be +received, feeling toward his Father as he did? He had talked of +forgiving, when he stood so sorely in need of Christ's forgiveness; +and she had been forgetting that need, when every moment might involve +her husband's salvation. Out of his sleep he had called her to his +help. Perhaps God had used his unconscious lips to summon her. With +a faith naturally strong, but greatly increased by the vision of the +night, she went, as it were, directly into the presence of her Lord, +and entreated in behalf of her husband. + +As she thus knelt at the bedside, with her face buried in the covering, +she felt a hand placed softly on her head, and again her husband's +voice called, "Ethel!" + +She looked up and saw that he was awake now, his eyes fixed on her +with an expression of softness and tenderness that she had not seen +for many a long day. The old restless, anxious light had gone. + +"What were you doing, Ethel?" he asked. "Praying that you might see +that God loved you--that you might be reconciled to Him." + +Two great tears gathered in the man's eyes. His lips quivered a moment, +then he said, brokenly, "Surely God must love me, or He would never +have given me--a wife--who would watch and pray for me--the long +winter night." + +"Oh, Dennis, forgive me; I cannot deceive you; for a time I forgot +you, I forgot everything, and just wandered through Paradise alone. +But in your sleep you called me to your help, and now it seems as if +I could not be happy even there without you. I pray you, in Christ's +stead, be reconciled to God," she pleaded, falling into the familiar +language of Scripture, as she often did under strong emotion. Then, +in low, thrilling words, she portrayed to him the "new earth" of her +vision, wherein "God shall wipe away all tears, and there shall be no +more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more +pain." She showed him that all might still be well--that eternity was +long enough to make up for the ills of our brief troubled life here. +But his mind seemed preoccupied. These future joys did not take that +hold upon him that she earnestly desired. His eyes seemed to grow dim +in tender, tearful wistfulness, rather than become inspired with +immortal hopes. At last he spoke: + +"Ethel, it seemed as if I heard some one calling me. I woke up--and +there you--were praying--for me. I heard my name--I heard God's +name--and I knew that you were interceding for me. It seemed to break +my hard heart right up like the fountains of the great deep to see you +there--praying for me--in the cold, cold room." (The room was not +cold; it was not the winter's chill that he was feeling, but a chill +that comes over the heart even in the tropical summer.) "Then, as you +prayed, a great light seemed to shine into my soul. I saw that I had +been charging God unjustly with all my failures and misfortunes, when +I had to thank myself for them. Like a wilful child, I had been acting +as if God had but to carry out my wild schemes. I remembered all my +unreasonable murmurings and anger; I remembered the dreadful words I +was on the point of uttering tonight, and for a moment it seemed as +if the pit would open and swallow me up." + +He paused for breath, and then went on: + +"But as my despairing eyes glanced restlessly around, they fell upon +the face of my son, noble and beautiful even in sleep, and I remembered +how God had brought him safely back. Then your low, pleading tone fixed +my attention again. It seemed to me that God's love must be better and +stronger than human love, and yet you had loved me through all my folly +and weakness; so perhaps had He. Then I felt that such a prayer as you +were offering could not remain unheard, you seemed to pray so earnestly. +I felt that I ought to pray myself, and I commenced calling out in my +heart, 'God be merciful to me--a sinner.' Then while I prayed, I +seemed to see my Saviour's face right above your bowed head. Oh, how +reproachfully He looked at me! and yet His expression was full of love, +too. It was just such a look, I think, that He fixed on Peter when he +denied Him. Then it seemed that I fell down at His feet and wept +bitterly, and as I did so the look of reproach passed away, and only +an expression of love and forgiveness remained. A sudden peace came +into my soul which I cannot describe; a rush of tears into my eyes; +and when I had wiped them away, I saw only your bowed form +praying--praying on for me. And, Ethel dear, my patient, much-enduring +wife, I believe God has answered your prayer. I feel that I am a new +man." + +"God be praised!" exclaimed his wife, with streaming eyes. Then in a +sudden rush of tenderness she clasped her husband to her heart, her +strong love seeming like the echo of God's love, the earnest here on +earth of that above, where all barriers shall pass away. + +The sound of their voices toward the last had awakened their son, and +he now stood beside them with wet eyes and heaving breast. + +When the wife rose from her embrace, she saw that her husband was very +weak. For a few moments he gasped for breath. Then, getting a little +easier, he looked up and saw his son, and exclaimed: "Thank God--my +boy--thank God--you are here. Ah, my son--I have learned much--since +we spoke together last. I have seen that--I have much more--need of +forgiveness than--to forgive. Thanks to your--mother's prayers--I +believe--I feel sure that I am forgiven." + +"More thanks to God's love, Dennis," said his wife. "God wanted to +forgive you all the time more than we wanted Him to. Thank God, who +is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us. He is +longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish." + +"Those are sweet words, wife, and I have found them true." + +For a little time they sat with clasped hands, their hearts too full +to speak. Faint streaks along the eastern horizon showed that the dawn +was near. The sick man gave a slight shiver, and passed his hands +across his eyes as if to clear away a mist, and then said, feebly: +"Dennis, my son--won't you turn up the lamp a little--and fix the fire? +The room seems getting so cold--and dark." + +The wife looked at her son in quick alarm. The stove was red-hot, and +the lamp, no longer shaded, stood openly on the table. + +The son saw that he must take the lead in the last sad scene, for in +the presence of death the heart of the loving, constant woman clung +to her husband as never before. Throwing herself on her knees by his +side, she cried with loud, choking sobs, "Oh, Dennis--husband--I +fear--you are leaving me!" + +"Is this death?" he asked of his son, in an awed tone. + +"I fear it is, father," said the young man, gently. + +After a moment his father said, composedly: "I think you are right. +I feel that--my end is near, Ethel--darling--for my sake--try to be +calm--during the last few moments I am with you." + +A few stifled sobs and the room was still. + +"I have but little time to--put my house--in order--and if I had +months--I could not do it. Dennis, I leave you--little else--than +debts--embarrassments, and the record of many failures. You must +do--the best you can. I am not able to advise you. Only never love this +world as I have. It will disappoint you. And, _whatever happens, +never lose faith in the goodness of God_. This has been my bane. +It has poisoned my life here, and, had it not been for this dear wife, +it would have been my destruction here-after. For long years--only her +patient love--has stood between me and a miserable end. Next to God--I +commit her and your little sisters to your care. Be true to this most +sacred trust. + +"Ethel, dear, my more than wife--my good angel--what shall I say to +you?" and the man's lip quivered, and for a time he could say no more. +But the unwonted composure had come into his wife's manner. The eyes +were gaining that intent look which was their expression when picturing +to herself scenes in the life beyond. + +"Oh, Dennis, we seem just on the confines of a glorious world--it is +so near, so real--it seems as if but a step would take us all into it. +Oh! if you could but see its beauties, its glories--if you could hear +the music, you would not fear to enter. It seems as if we were there +together now." + +"Oh, Ethel, come back, come back," cried her husband, piteously. "I +am not worthy of all that. I have no heart for glory now. I can see +only my Saviour's face looking--at me--with love and forgiveness. +That is heaven enough for me--and when you come--my cup will be more +than full. And now--farewell--for a little while." + +For a few moments they clung to each other. Then the little girls were +brought, and their father pressed his cold lips to their warm, fresh +young faces. They wondered at a scene they could not understand, and +were tearful because of the tears of others. + +He was now going very fast. Suddenly he turned to his son and said, +"Dennis, repeat to me that verse, 'This is a faithful saying--'" + +With a voice hoarse and broken by emotion, his son complied: "This is +a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus +came into the world to save sinners." + +"Of whom I am chief," said his father, emphatically. "And yet"--his face +lighting up with a wan smile, like a sudden ray of light falling +on a clouded landscape before the sun sinks below the horizon--"and +yet forgiven." + +By and by he again whispered, "Forgiven!" Then his eyes closed, and +all was still. They thought he was gone. But as they stood over him +in awed, breathless silence, his lips again moved. Bending down, they +heard in faint, far-away tones, like an echo from the _other side, +"Forgiven!"_ + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LAUNCHED + + +Scarcely was the last word spoken when a sudden glory filled the room. +So brilliant was the light that mother and son were startled. Then +they saw what had been unnoted before, that day had broken, and that +the sun, emerging from a single dark cloud, was shining, full-orbed, +into the apartment with a light that, reflected from myriads of snowy +crystals, was doubly luminous. Nevertheless it seemed to them a good +omen, an earnest, an emblem of the purer, whiter light into which the +cleansed and pardoned spirit had entered. The snow-wrapped prairie was +indeed pure and bright, but it was _cold_. The Father's embrace, +receiving home the long-absent, erring, but forgiven child, would be +warm indeed. + +Though the bereaved wife believed that a brighter dawn than that which +made the world resplendent around her had come to her husband, still +a sense of desolation came over her which only those can understand +who have known a loss like hers. For years he had filled the greater +part of time, thought, and heart. As she saw her first and only love, +the companion of a life which, though hard, still had the light and +solace of mutual affection--as she saw him so still, and realized that +she would hear him speak no more--_complain_ no more (for even the +weaknesses of those we love are sadly missed after death)--a flood +of that natural sorrow which Christianity consoles, but was never +designed to prevent, overwhelmed her, and she gave way utterly. + +Her son took her in his arms and held her silently, believing that +unspoken sympathy was worth more at such a time than any words. + +After the convulsive sobbing had somewhat ceased, he struck the right +chord by saying: "Mother, father is not lost to us. He himself said +good-by only for a little while. Then you have us to love and think +of; and remember, what could we do without you?" + +The unselfish woman would have tried to rise from a bed of death to +do anything needed by her loved ones, and this reminder of those still +dependent on her care proved the most potent of restoratives. She at +once arose and said: "Dennis, you are right. It is indeed wrong for +me to give way thus, when I have so much to be thankful for--so much +to live for. But, O Dennis! you cannot understand this separation of +husband and wife, for God said, 'They twain shall be one flesh'; and +it seems as if half my very life had gone--as if half my heart had +been wrenched away, and only a bleeding fragment left." + +The patter of feet was heard on the kitchen floor, the door opened, +and two little figures in white trailing nightgowns entered. At first +they looked in shy wonder and perplexity at their tall brother, whom +they had not seen for months, but at his familiar voice, recalling +many a romp and merry time together, they rushed to his arms as of old. + +Then they drew near the bed to give their father his accustomed morning +kiss; but, as they approached, he seemed so still that awe began to +creep over their little faces. A dim recollection of the farewell kiss +given a few hours before, when they were scarcely awake, recurred to +them. + +"Father," said the elder (about five), "we want to give you good- +morning kiss." + +Seldom had their father been so sick or irritable but that he reached +out his arms to his little ones and gave them a warm embrace, that did +him more good than he realized. The influence of trusting children is +sometimes the most subtile oil that can be thrown on the troubled +waters of life. + +But as the little ones saw that their father made no response to their +approach and appeal, they timidly drew a step nearer, and looked into +his wasted, yet peaceful face, with its closed eyes and motionless +repose, and then, turning to their mother, said in a loud whisper, +with faces full of perplexity and trouble, "Is papa asleep?" + +The little figures in their white drapery, standing beside their dead +father, waiting to perform the usual, well-remembered household rite, +proved a scene too touching for the poor mother's self-control, and +again she gave way to a burst of sorrow. But her son, true to his +resolution to be the stay and strength of the family, hastened to the +children, and, taking them by the hand, said gently: "Yes, little ones, +papa is asleep. It may be a long time before he wakes, but he surely +will by and by, and then he will never be sick any more. Come, we will +go into the other room and sing a pretty hymn about papa's sleep." + +The thought of hearing their brother sing lured them away at once, for +he had a mellow tenor voice that seemed to the little girls sweeter +than a bird's. A moment later the widow's heart was comforted by hearing +those words that have been balm for so many wounds: + + "Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep! + From which none ever wakes to weep." + +Then, putting on his sisters' flannel wrappers, he set them down by +the fire, telling stories in the meantime to divert their thoughts +from the scene they had just witnessed. + +Thus no horror of death was suffered to enter their young minds. They +were not brought face to face with a dreadful mystery which they could +not understand, but which would have a sinister effect for life. +Gradually they would learn the truth, but still the first impression +would remain, and their father's death would ever be to them a sleep +from which he would wake by and by, "never to be sick any more." + +Dennis set about preparations for their simple morning meal so deftly +and easily as to show that it was no unaccustomed task. A sister older +than himself had died while yet an infant, leaving a heartache till +he came--God's best remedy. Then two sisters had died after his day, +and he had been compelled to be to his mother daughter as well as son, +to make himself useful in every household task. His father had been +wrapped up in useless inventions, vain enterprises, and was much away. +So mother and son were constantly together. He had early become a great +comfort and help to her, God blessing her in this vital respect, though +her lot seemed hard in other ways. Thus, while he had the heart and +courage of a man, he also had the quick, supple hand and gentle bearing +of a woman, when occasion required. As proof of his skill, a tempting +meal from the simplest materials was placed smoking on the table, and +the little girls were soon chatting contentedly over their breakfast. +In the meantime the wife within had drawn near her dead husband and +taken his cold hand. For a while she dwelt on the past in strong and +tearful agony, then, in accordance with long-established habit, her +thoughts went forward into the future. In imagination she was present +at her husband's reception in heaven. The narrow, meagre room melted +away, and her feet seemed to stand on the "golden pavement." The +jubilant clash of heavenly cymbals thrilled her heart. She seemed +taking part in a triumphal march led by celestial minstrelsy toward +the throne. She saw her husband mount its white, glistening steps, so +changed, and yet so like his former self when full of love, youth, and +hope. He appeared overwhelmed with a sense of unworthiness, but his +reception was all the more kind and reassuring. Then as he departed +from the royal presence, crowned with God's love and favor forever, +though he had all heaven before him, he seemed looking for her as that +he longed for most, and her strong effort to reach his side aroused +her from her revery as from a dream. But her vision had strengthened +her, as was ever the case, and the bitterness of grief was passed. +Imprinting a long kiss on her husband's cold forehead, she joined her +family in the outer room with calm and quiet mien. Her son saw and +understood the change in his mother's manner, and from long experience +knew its cause. + +We need not dwell on what followed--preparations for burial, the +funeral, the return to a home from which one who had filled so large +a place had gone--a home on which rested the shadow of death. These +are old, familiar scenes, acted over and over every day, and yet in +the little households where they occur there is a terrible sense of +novelty as if they then happened for the first time. The family feel +as if they were passing through a chaotic period--the old world breaking +up and vanishing, and a new formation and combination of all the +elements that make up life taking place. + +Many changes followed. Their farm was sold. Part of a small house in +the village of Bankville was rented as their future residence. A very +small annuity from some property in the East, left by Mrs. Fleet's +father, was, with Dennis's labor, all the family had to depend on +now--a meagre prospect. + +But Dennis was very sanguine; for in this respect he had his father's +temperament. The world was all before him, and Chicago, the young and +giant city of the West, seemed an Eldorado, where fortune, and perhaps +fame, might soon be won. He would not only place the family beyond +want, but surround them with every luxury. + +Dennis, wise and apt as far as his knowledge went, was in some respects +as simple and ignorant as a child. There were many phases and conditions +of society of which he had never dreamed. Of the ways of the rich and +fashionable, of the character of artificial life, he had not the +remotest experience. He could not see or understand the distinctions +and barriers that to the world are more impassable than those of +ignorance, stupidity, and even gross immorality. He would learn, to +his infinite surprise, that even in a Western democratic city men would +be welcomed in society whose hand no pure woman or honorable man ought +to touch, while he, a gentleman by birth, education, and especially +character, would not be recognized at all. He would discover that +wealth and the indorsement of a few fashionable people, though all +else were lacking, would be a better passport than the noblest qualities +and fine abilities. As we follow him from the seclusion of his simple +country home into the complicated life of the world, all this will +become apparent. + +Long and earnest was the conversation between mother and son before +they separated. Pure and noble were the maxims that she sought to +instil into his mind. They may not have been worldly wise, but they +were heavenly wise. Though some of her advice in the letter might avail +little, since she knew less of the world than did her son, still in +its spirit it contained the best of all wisdom, profitable for this +life and the life to come. But she sent him forth to seek his fortune +and theirs with less solicitude than most mothers have just cause to +feel, for she knew that he had Christian principle, and had passed +through discipline that had sobered and matured him far beyond his +years. She saw, however, in every word and act his father's sanguine +temperament. He was expecting much, hoping far more, and she feared +that he also was destined to many a bitter disappointment. Still she +believed that he possessed a good strong substratum of common-sense, +and this combined with the lessons of faith and patience taught of God +would prove the ballast his father had lacked. + +She sought to modify his towering hopes and rose-colored visions, but +to little purpose. Young, buoyant, in splendid health, with a surplus +of warm blood tingling in every vein, how could he take a prudent, +distrustful view of the world? It seemed to beckon him smilingly into +any path of success he might choose. Had not many won the victory? and +who ever felt braver and more determined than he, with the needs of +the dear ones at home added to his own incentives and ambitions? So, +with many embraces, lingering kisses, and farewell words, that lost +not their meaning though said over and over again, they parted. The +stage carried him to the nearest railway station, and the express train +bore him rapidly toward the great city where he expected to find all +that a man's heart most craves on earth. + +Sanguine as his father, constant as his mother, with a nature that +would go right or wrong with tremendous energy, as direction might be +given it, he was destined to live no tame, colorless life, but would +either enjoy much, or else suffer much. To his young heart, swelling +with hopes, burning with zeal to distinguish himself and provide for +those he was leaving, even the bleak, snow-clad prairie seemed an arena +in which he might accomplish a vague something. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +COLD WATER + + +The train, somewhat impeded by snow, landed Dennis in Chicago at about +nine in the evening. In his pocket he had ten dollars--ample seed corn, +he believed, for a golden harvest. This large sum was expected to +provide for him till he should find a situation and receive the first +instalment of salary. He would inform his employer, when he found him, +how he was situated, and ask to be paid early and often. + +Without a misgiving he shouldered the little trunk that contained his +worldly effects, and stalked off to a neighboring hotel, that, from +its small proportions, suggested a modest bill. With a highly important +man-of-the-world manner he scrawled his name in an illegible, +student-like hand on the dingy, dog-eared register. With a gracious, +condescending air he ordered the filthy, tobacco-stained porter to +take his trunk to his room. + +The bar-room was the only place provided for strangers. Regarding the +bar with a holy horror, he got away from it as far as possible, and +seated himself by the stove, on which simmered a kettle of hot water +for the concoction of punches, apparently more in demand at that hotel +than beds. Becoming disgusted with the profanity and obscenity +downstairs, he sought refuge in the cold, miserable little room assigned +to him. Putting on his overcoat, he wrapped himself up in a coverlet +and threw himself down on the outside of the bed. + +The night passed slowly. He was too uncomfortable, too excited, to +sleep. The scenes of the past blended confusedly with visions of the +future, and it was nearly morning when he fell into an unquiet slumber. + +When at last aroused by the shriek of a locomotive, he found that the +sun was up and shining on the blotched and broken wall above him. A +few minutes sufficed for his toilet, and yet, with his black curling +hair, noble forehead, and dark, silken upper lip, many an exquisite +would have envied the result. + +His plan was simple enough--dictated indeed by the necessities of the +case. He must at once find a situation in which he could earn sufficient +to support his mother and sisters and himself. Thence he could look +around till he found the calling that promised most. Having left college +and given up his chosen profession of the law, he had resolved to adopt +any honest pursuit that seemed to lead most quickly to fortune. + +Too impatient to eat his breakfast, he sallied forth into the great +city, knowing not a soul in it. His only recommendations and credentials +were his young, honest face, and a letter from his minister, saying +that he was a member of the church in Bankville, "in good and regular +standing," and, "as far as he knew, a most worthy young man"--rather +meagre capital amid the competitions of a large city. But, with courage +bold and high, he strode off toward the business part of the town. + +As he passed the depot it occurred to him that an opening might exist +there. It would be a good post of observation, and perhaps he would +be able to slip home oftener. So he stopped and asked the man in the +ticket-office, blandly, "Do you wish to employ a young man in connection +with this depot or road in any capacity?" + +The ticket-man stared at him a moment through his window, frowned, and +curtly said, "No!" and then went on counting what seemed to poor Dennis +millions of money. The man had no right to say yes or no, since he was +a mere official, occupying his own little niche, with no authority +beyond. But an inveterate feud seemed to exist between this man and +the public. He acted as if the world in general, instead of any one +in particular, had greatly wronged him. It might be a meek woman with +a baby, or a bold, red-faced drover, a delicately-gloved or horny hand +that reached him the change, but it was all the same. He knitted his +brows, pursed up his mouth, and dealt with all in a quick, jerking +way, as if he could not bear the sight of them, and wanted to be rid +of them as soon as possible. Still these seem just the peculiarities +that find favor with railroad corporations, and the man would probably +vent his spite against the public throughout his natural life. + +From him, however, Dennis received his first dash of cold water, which +he minded but little, and went on his way with a good-natured laugh +at the crusty old fellow. + +He was soon in the business part of the city. Applying at a large +dry-good store, he was told that they wanted a cash boy; "but he would +not do; one a quarter his size would answer." + +"Then I will go where they want the other three-fourths and pay +accordingly," said Dennis, and stalked out. + +He continued applying at every promising place, but to no purpose. It +was midwinter; trade was dull; and with clerks idling about the shops +employers were in no mood to add to their number. + +At last he found a place where an assistant book-keeper was wanted. +Dennis's heart leaped within him, but sank again as he remembered how +little he knew of the art. "But I can learn quickly," he thought to +himself. + +The man looked carelessly at his poor little letter, and then said, +in a business-like tone, "Show me a specimen of your handwriting." + +Poor Dennis had never written a good hand, but at college had learned +to write a miserable scrawl, in rapidly taking notes of lectures. +Moreover, he was excited, and could not do himself justice. Even from his +sanguine heart hope ebbed away; but he took the pen and scratched +a line or two, of which he himself was ashamed. The man looked at them +with an expression of mild disgust, and then said, "Mr. Jones, hand +me your ledger." + +The head book-keeper passed the volume to his employer, who showed +Dennis entries looking as from copper-plate, and quietly remarked: +"The young man we employ must write like that, and thoroughly understand +book-keeping. Good-morning, sir." + +Dennis walked out, feeling almost as crestfallen as if he had been +convicted of stealing, but the noon-day sun was shining in the sky, +the streets were full of life and bustle, and hope revived. + +"I shall find the right niche before long," he said to himself, and +trudged on. + +Some time after he entered a retail dry-goods store. + +"Yes, they wanted a young man there, but he was rather old." + +Still the merchant saw that Dennis was fine-looking, would appear well +behind the counter, and make a taking salesman with the ladies, he +stopped to parley a moment more. + +"Do you understand the business?" + +"No, sir; but I can soon learn, for I am young and strong." + +"Strength is not what is needed, but experience. Ours is not the kind +of work for Paddies." + +"Well, sir," said Dennis, rather shortly, "I'm not a Paddy." + +The dapper little retailer frowned slightly at Dennis's tone, and +continued: "You spoke as if main strength was the principal thing. +Have you had any experience at all?" + +"No, sir." + +But seeing intelligence in the young man's face, and scenting a sharp +bargain, he said, "Why, then, you would have to begin at tho very +beginning, and learn the name of everything, its quality, etc." + +"Yes, sir; but I would do my very best." + +"Of course, of course, but nothing can take the place of experience. +I expect, under the circumstances, you would look for very little +remuneration the first year?" + +"How much could you give?" + +The man named a sum that would not have supported Dennis alone. + +He replied that, though his services might not be worth more than that, +he was so situated that he could not take a very small salary. + +"Then bring something besides ignorance to the market," said the man, +turning on his heel. + +Dennis was now hungry, tired, and disappointed. Indeed the calls of +appetite became so clamorous that he sought a cheap restaurant. After +demolishing a huge plate of such viands as could be had at little cost, +he sat brooding over a cup of coffee for an hour or more. The world +wore a different aspect from that which it had presented in the morning, +and he was lost in a sort of dull, painful wonder. + +But the abundant meal and slight element of coffee that colored the +lukewarm water quite heartened him again. He resolved to go back to +his hotel and find a more quiet and comfortable place in which to lodge +until something permanent offered. He made what he considered sufficient +inquiry as to the right direction, and resolved to save even the carfare +of five cents by walking the distance. + +But whether he had not understood the directions rightly, or whether, +brooding over the events of the day, his mind had been too preoccupied +to heed them, he found to his great disgust, after walking two or three +miles, that he had gone away from his destination instead of toward +it. Angry with himself, out of humor with all the world, he began to +give way to the latent obstinacy of his nature. Though everything went +"contrairy," there was one thing under his control--himself--and he +would make that do the bidding of his will. + +Turning on his heel, he resolved with dogged resolution to walk back +the whole distance. He would teach himself a lesson. It was fine +business, just when he needed his wits so sorely, to commence blundering +in this style. No wonder he had failed during the day; he deserved to +fail in other respects, since in this one he had not shown the good +sense of a child. + +When people are "out of sorts," and things are going wrong, the +disposition to blame somebody or something is almost universal. But +we think that it will be found a safe general rule, that the nobler +the nature, the less worthy of blame, the greater the tendency to blame +self rather than anything else. Poor Dennis had no great cause for +bitter reproaches, and yet he plodded on with an intense feeling of +self-disgust. + +To think that after New-England schools and three years in college he +should write such a hand and have no definite knowledge of book-keeping! +"What have I learned, I'd like to know?" he muttered. Then to go and +lose his way like a country bumpkin! and he gnawed his lips with +vexation. + +The street-cars glided often and invitingly by, but he would not even +look at them. + +At last, foot-sore and fairly aching with cold and fatigue, he reached +the little hotel, which appeared more miserable, obscure, and profane +than ever. But a tempting fiend seemed to have got into the gin and +whiskey bottles behind the red-nosed bartender. To his morbid fancy +and eyes, half-blinded with wind and cold, they appeared to wink, +beckon, and suggest: "Drink and be merry; drink and forget your +troubles. We can make you feel as rich and glorious as a prince, in +ten minutes." + +For the first time in his life Dennis felt a strong temptation to drink +for the sake of the effects. When was a man ever weak that the devil +did not charge down upon him? + +But the evil and ruin wrought in one case proved another's safeguard, +for the door opened and a miserable wreck of a man entered. As Dennis +looked at his blotched, sodden face, trembling hand, shuffling gait, +and general air of wretchedness, embodying and suggesting the worst +ills of humanity, he decided not to drink for the sake of the effects. + +Then came another rush of self-disgust that he had ever entertained +such a temptation, and he flung himself off supperless to bed. + +As he bowed that night he could not pray as usual. For anger, passion +with one's self, as well as with any one else, renders true prayer +impossible. But he went through the form, and then wrapped himself up +as before. The wearied body soon mastered the perturbed mind, and he +fell into a heavy sleep that lasted till morning. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A HORNET'S NEST + + +Dennis awoke greatly refreshed and strengthened. For half an hour he +lay quietly thinking over the scenes of the preceding day; something +of his old anger returned, but he compressed his lips, and, with a +face expressing the most resolute purpose, determined that the day +before him should tell a different story. Every faculty and energy he +possessed should be skilfully bent to the attainment of his objects. +Wise deliberation should precede everything. He would write a few lines +to his mother, decide as to a lodging-place, and then seek better +success in another part of the city. He went to the bar and inquired +as to his bill, and found that so far as bed and meals were concerned, +such as they were, he could not find anything cheaper in the city, the +house evidently not depending on these for its revenue. Disgusted as +he was with his surroundings, he resolved to lose no time in looking +for a new boarding-place, but, after writing to his mother, to start +off at once in search of something permanent. He was in no mood to +consult personal wishes, and the saving of time and money settled the +question. + +Where should he write? There was no place save a desk at the end of +the bar. Looking askance at the half-filled, villanous-smelling bottle +at his elbow, he wrote in a hand stiff and unnatural (for he had +resolved to change his scrawl to a business hand at once), the following +note: + +"CHICAGO, ILL., Jan. 10th. + +"DEAR MOTHER--I arrived safely, and am very well. I did not, yesterday, +find a situation suited to my taste, but expect better success to-day. +I am just on the point of starting out on my search, and when settled +will write you full particulars. Many kisses for yourself and the +little girls. Your affectionate son, DENNIS." + +"There! there is nothing in that to worry mother, and soon I shall +have good news for her." (If he had seen its reception, he would have +learned his mistake. The intuitions of love are keen, and this formal +negative note in the constrained hand told more of his disappointment +than any words could have done. While he knew it not, his mother was +suffering with him. In reply she wrote a letter full of general +sympathy, intending to be more specific when he gave her his +confidence.) + +Dennis folded the letter most carefully and mailed it--for he was now +doing the least thing with the utmost precision--with the air of one +who meant to find out the right thing to do, and then to do it to a +hair-breadth. Nothing should go wrong that day. So at an early hour +he again sallied forth. + +Not far from the hotel there was a new grocery store about to be opened +by two young men, formerly clerks, but now setting up for themselves. +They stood at the door receiving a cart-load of goods as Dennis +approached. He had made up his mind to ask at every opportunity, and +to take the first thing that promised fairly; he would also be very +polite. Touching his hat to the young men--a little act pleasing to +them in their newly acquired dignity as heads of a firm which as yet +had no subordinates--Dennis asked if they would need any assistance. +Graciously replying to his salutations, they answered, yes; they wanted +a young man. + +Dennis explained that he was from the country, and showed the +ministerial letter. The young grocers looked wise over it, seemed +pleased, said they wanted a young fellow from the country, that was +not up to city tricks. Chicago was a hard place on young men--spoiled +most of them. Glad he was a member of the church. They were not, but +believed a man must be mighty good to be one. As the young man they +hired must sleep in the store, they wanted one they could trust, and +would prefer a church member. + +The salary they offered was not large, but pretty fair in view of his +having so much to learn, and it was intimated, that if business was +good, and he suited, it would be increased. The point uppermost in +their minds was to find some one with whom they could trust their store +and goods, and this young man from the country, with a letter from a +minister, seemed a godsend. + +They engaged him, but just as he was starting, with heart swelling +with self-satisfaction and joy, one of the firm asked, carelessly, +"Where are you staying?'" + +"At Gavin's Hotel." + +The man turned sharply, and looked most suspiciously at him, and then +at his partner, who gave a low whistle of surprise, and also eyed the +young man for a moment askance. Then the men stepped aside, and there +was a brief whispered consultation. Dennis's heart sank within him. +He saw that something was wrong, but what, he had not the least idea. +The elder member of the embryo firm now stepped up and said, decidedly, +"Good-morning, young man; we shall not need your services." + +"What do you mean?" cried Dennis, in a voice of mingled dismay and +indignation. + +The man's face was growing red with anger, but he said, coldly, "You +had better move on. _We_ understand." + +"But _I_ don't understand, your course toward me is most unjust." + +"Look here, young man, we are too old birds to be caught by any such +light chaff as you have about you. You are a pretty church member, you +are! You are a smart one, you are; nice boy, just from the country; +suppose you do not know that Gavin's Hotel is the worst gambling hole +in the city, and every other man that goes there a known thief. Come, +you had better move on if you do not want to get into trouble. You +will make nothing here." + +"But I tell you, gentlemen--" cried Dennis, eagerly. + +"_You_ may tell what you please. _We_ tell you that we would not believe +any one from that den under oath. Now you leave!" + +The last words were loud and threatening. The attention of passers-by +was drawn toward them, and Dennis saw that further words were useless. +In the minds of shrewd but narrow business men, not over-honest +themselves, more acquainted with the trickery of the world than with +its virtues, suspicion against any one is fatal, and most assuredly +so against a stranger with appearances unfavorable. + +With heart wellnigh bursting with anger, disappointment, and shame, +Dennis hastened away. He had been regarded as a thief, or at best a +blackleg, seeking the position for some sinister purpose. This was the +opening scene of the day on which he had determined that no mistakes +should be made, and here at the outset he had allowed himself to be +identified with a place of notorious ill-repute. + +Reaching the hotel, he rushed upstairs, got his trunk, and then turned +fiercely on the red-nosed bartender-"Why did you not tell me the +character of this place?" + +"What kind of a place is it?" asked that functionary, coolly, arms +akimbo. + +"You know well enough. You knew I was not one of your sort." + +"You don't mean to say that this is a bad place, do you?" said the +barkeeper, in mock solemnity. + +"Yes, the worst in Chicago. There is your money." + +"Hold on here, my small chicken; there is some money, but not enough +by a jugful. I want five dollars out of you before you take that trunk +off." + +"Why, this is sheer robbery," exclaimed Dennis. + +"Oh, no; just keeping up the reputation of the house. You say it is +the worst in Chicago: must try and keep up our reputation." + +"Little fear of that; I will not pay it;" and Dennis started for his +trunk. + +"Here, let that trunk alone; and if yer don't give me that five dollars +cussed quick, I'll put a head on yer;" and he of the red nose put his +hands on the bar in readiness to spring over. + +"I say, young feller," said a good-natured loafer standing by, "you +had better gin him the five dollars; for Barney is the worst one in +all Chicago to put a head on a man." + +"And will you stand by and see this outrage?" said Dennis, appealing +to him. + +"Oh, gosh!" said the man, "I've got quarrels 'nough of my own without +getting my head broke for fellers I don't know." + +Dennis was almost speechless from indignation. Conscious of strength, +his strong impulse for a moment was to spring at the throat of the +barkeeper and vent his rage on him. There is a latent tiger in every +man. But a hand seemed to hold him back, and a sober second thought +came over him. What! Dennis Fleet, the son of Ethel Fleet, brawling, +fighting in a bar-room, a gambling-den, and going out to seek a +situation that required confidence and fair-appearing, all blackened, +bruised, and bleeding! As the truth flashed upon him in strong revulsion +of feeling he fairly turned pale and sick. + +"There's the money," said he, hoarsely, "and God forgive you." + +In a moment he had taken his trunk and was gone. The barkeeper stared +after him, and then looked at the money with a troubled and perplexed +face. + +"Wal," said he, "I'm used enough to havin' folk ask God to damn me, +but I'm blessed if I ever had one ask Him to forgive me, before. I be +hanged," said he, after a moment, as the thought grew upon him--"I +be hanged if I wouldn't give him back the money if he hadn't gone so +quick." + +With heart full of shame and bitterness, Dennis hastened down the +street. At the corner he met a policeman, and told him his story. All +the satisfaction he got was, "You ought not to go to such a place. But +you're lucky if they only took five dollars from you; they don't +let off many as easy as that." + +"Can I have no redress?" + +"Now look here; it's a pretty ticklish thing to interfere with them +fellers. It'll cost you plaguy sight more'n that, and blood, too, like +enough. If you'll take my advice, you won't stir up that hornet's +nest." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"STARVE THEN!" + + +Dennis now followed the natural impulse to go to some distant part of +the city, entirely away from the region that had become so hateful to +him. + +Putting the trunk on the front of a street-car, he rode on till he was +in the heart of the south-side district, the great business centre. +He took his trunk into a roomy hardware store, and asked if he might +leave it there a while. Receiving a good-natured permission, he next +started off in search of a quiet, cheap boarding-place. His heart was +heavy, and yet he felt thankful to have escaped as he had, for the +thought of what might have been his experience if Barney had tried to +fulfil his threat sickened him. The rough was as strong as he, and +scenes of violence were his delight and daily experience. He rather +gloried in a black eye, for he always gave two in exchange, and his +own bruised, swollen member paved the way gracefully for the telling +of his exploits, as it awakened inquiry from the lesser lights among +whom he shone. But what would Dennis have done among the merchants +with "a head on him," as the barkeeper understood the phrase? He would +have had to return home, and that he felt would be worse than death. +In fact, he had come nearer to a desperate struggle than he knew, for +Barney rarely resisted so inviting an opportunity to indulge his +pugilistic turn, and had he not seen the policeman going by just at +that time, there would have been no idle threats in the case. + +Dennis set his teeth with dogged resolution, determined if necessary, +to persevere in his search till he dropped in the street. But as he +remembered that he had less than five dollars left, and no prospect +of earning another, his heart grew like lead. + +He spent several weary hours in the vain search for a boarding-house. +He had little to guide him save short answers from policemen. The +places were either too expensive, or so coarse and low that he could +not bring himself to endure them. In some cases he detected that they +were accompanied by worse evils than gambling. Almost in despair, +tired, and very hungry (for severe indeed must be the troubles that +will affect the appetite of healthful youth on a cold winter day), he +stopped at a small German restaurant and hotel. A round-faced, jolly +Teuton served him with a large plate of cheap viands, which he devoured +so quickly that the man, when asked for more, stared at him for a +moment, and then stolidly obeyed. + +"What do you ask for a small room and bed for a night?" said Dennis. + +"Zwei shillen," said the waiter, with a grin; "dot ish, if you don't +vant as pig ped as dinner. Ve haf zwei shillen for bed, and zwei shillen +for efery meal--von dollar a day--sheap!" + +The place was comparatively clean. A geranium or two bloomed in the +window, and lager instead of fiery whiskey seemed the principal beverage +vended. Dennis went out and made inquiries, and every one in the +neighborhood spoke of it as a quiet, respectable place, though +frequented only by laboring people. "That is nothing against it," +thought Dennis. "I will venture to stay there for a night or two, for +I must lose no more time in looking for a situation." + +He took his trunk there, and then spent the rest of the day in +unavailing search. He found nothing that gave any promise at all. In +the evening he went to a large hotel and looked over the files of +papers. He found a few advertisements for clerks and experts of various +kinds, but more from those seeking places. But he noted down everything +hopeful, and resolved that he would examine the morning papers by +daylight for anything new in that line, and be the first on hand. His +new quarters, though plain and meagre, were at least clean. Too weary +to think or even to feel more than a dull ache in his heart, he slept +heavily till the dawn of the following day. Poor fellow! it seemed to +him that he had lived years in those two days. + +He was up by daylight, and found a few more advertisements that looked +as if they might lead to something. As early as it was possible to see +the parties, he was on the ground, but others were there as soon as +himself. They had the advantage of some knowledge and experience in +the duties required, and this decided the question. Some spoke kindly, +and suggested that he was better fitted for teaching than for business. + +"But where am I to find a position at this season of the year, when +every place is filled?" asked Dennis. "It might be weeks before I could +get anything to do, and I must have employment at once." + +They were sorry, hoped he would do well, turned away, and went on doing +well for themselves; but the majority merely satisfied themselves that +he would not answer their purpose, and bade him a brief, business-like +good-morning. And yet the fine young face, so troubled and anxious, +haunted a good many of those who summarily dismissed him. But "business +is business." + +The day passed in fruitless inquiry. Now and then he seemed on the +point of succeeding, but only disappointment resulted. There were at +that season of the year few situations offering where a salary +sufficient for maintenance was paid, and for these skilled laborers +were required. Dennis possessed no training for any one calling save +perhaps that of teacher. He had merely the fragment of a good general +education, tending toward one of the learned professions. He had fine +abilities, and undoubtedly would in time have stood high as a lawyer. +But now that he was suddenly called upon to provide bread for himself +and those he loved, there was not a single thing of which he could +say, "I understand this, sir, and can give you satisfaction." + +He knew that if he could get a chance at almost anything, he could +soon learn enough to make himself more useful than the majority +employed, for few had his will and motive to work. But the point was +to find some one who would pay sufficient for his own and his mother's +support while he learned. + +It is under just such circumstances that so many men, and especially +women, make shipwreck. Thrown suddenly upon their own resources, they +bring to the great labor-market of the world general intelligence, and +also general ignorance. With a smattering of almost everything, they +do not know practically how to do _one thing well_. Skilled hands, +though backed by neither heart nor brains, push them aside. Take the +young men or the young women of any well-to-do town or village, and +make them suddenly dependent upon their own efforts, and how many could +compete in any one thing with those already engaged in supplying the +market? And yet just such helpless young creatures are every day +compelled to shift for themselves. If to these unfortunates the paths +of honest industry seem hedged and thorny, not so those of sin. They +are easy enough at first, if any little difficulty with conscience can +be overcome; and the devil, and fallen humanity doing his work, stand +ready to push the wavering into them. + +At the close of the next day, spent in weary search, Dennis met a +temptation to which many would have yielded. As a last resort he had +been going around among the hotels, willing to take even the situation +of porter, if nothing better offered. The day was fast closing, when, +worn out and dejected, he entered a first-class house, and made his +usual inquiry. The proprietor looked at him for a moment, slapped him +on the back, and said: "Yes, you are the man I want, I reckon. Do you +drink? No! might have known that from your face. Don't want a man that +drinks for this place. Come along with me, then. Will give you two and +a half a day if you suit, and pay you every night. I pay my help +promptly; they ain't near so apt to steal from you then." + +And the man hurried away, followed by Dennis with beating heart and +flushed, wondering face. Descending a flight of stairs, they entered +a brilliantly lighted basement, which was nothing less than a large, +elegantly arranged bar-*room, with card and lunch-tables, and +easy-chairs for the guests to smoke and tipple in at their leisure. +All along one side of this room, resplendent with cut glass and polished +silver, ran the bar. The light fell warm and mellow on the various +kinds of liquor, that were so arranged as to be most tempting to the +thirsty souls frequenting the place. + +Stepping up to the bulky man behind the bar the landlord said: "There, +Mr. Swig, is a young man who will fill capitally the place of the chap +we dismissed to-day for getting tight. You may bet your life from his +face that he don't drink. You can break him in in a few days, and you +won't want a better assistant." + +For a moment a desperate wish passed through Dennis's mind, "Oh, that +wrong were right!" Then, indignant with himself, he spoke up, firmly--"I +think I have a word to say in this matter." + +"Well, say on, then; what's the trouble?" + +"I cannot do this kind of work." + +"You will find plenty harder." + +"None harder for one believing as I do. I will starve before I will +do this work." + +The man stared at him for a moment, and then coolly replied, "Starve +then!" and turned on his heel and walked away. + +Dennis also rushed from the place, followed by the coarse, jeering +laugh of those who witnessed the scene. In his morbid, suffering state +their voices seemed those of mocking demons. + +The night had now fallen. He was too tired and discouraged to look any +further. Wearily he plodded up the street, facing the bitter blast +filled with snow that had begun to fall. + +This then was the verdict of the world--"Starve!" This was the only +prospect it offered--that same brave world which had so smilingly +beckoned him on to great achievements and unbounded success but a few +days since--"Starve!" Every blast that swept around the corners howled +in his ears, "Starve!" Every warmly clad person hurrying unheedingly +by seemed to say by his indifference, "Starve! who cares? there is no +place for you, nothing for you to do." + +The hard, stern resolution of the past few days, not to yield an inch, +to persist in hewing his way through every difficulty, began to flag. +His very soul seemed crushed within him. Even upon the threshold of +his life, in his strong, joyous youth, the world had become to him +what it literally was that night, a cold, wintry, stormy place, with +a black, lowering sky and hard, frozen earth. + +His father's old temptation recurred to him with sudden and great +power. "Perhaps father was right," he mused. "God was against him, and +is also against me, his son. Does He not visit the iniquity of the +fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation? Not +but that He will save us at last, if we ask Him, but there seems some +great wrong that must be severely punished here. Or else if God does +not care much about our present life, thinking only of the hereafter, +there must be some blind fate or luck that crushes some and lifts up +others." + +Thus Dennis, too sad and morbid to take a just view of anything, plodded +on till he reached his boarding-place, and stealing in as if he had +no business to be there, or anywhere else, sat down in a dusky corner +behind the stove, and was soon lost to surrounding life in his own +miserable thoughts. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A GOOD SAMARITAN + + +Dennis was too good a Christian, and had received too deep a lesson +in his father's case, to become bitter, angry, and defiant, even if +he had believed that God was against him. He would have felt that it +was simply his duty to submit--to endure patiently. Somehow Until +to-day his heart had refused to believe that God could be against any +of His creatures. In fact, it was his general impression that God had +everything to do with his being a good Christian, but very little with +his getting a good place. The defect in his religion, and that of his +mother, too, was that both separated the spiritual life of the soul +too widely from the present life with its material, yet essential, +cares and needs. At this point they, like multitudes of others, fell +short of their full privilege, and enjoyment of God's goodness. His +mother had cheered and sustained her hard lot by hopes and visions of +the better life beyond--by anticipating joys to come. She had never +fully learned how God's love, like the sunlight, could shine upon and +brighten the thorny, rocky way, and cause the thorns to blossom, and +delicate fragrant flowers to grow in the crevices and bloom in shaded +nooks among the sharp stones. She must wait for her consolation. She +must look out of her darkness to the light that shone through the +portals of the tomb, forgetting that God caused His servants to sing +at midnight, in the inner prison, the deepest dungeon, though scourged +and bleeding. + +Unconsciously her son had imbibed the same ideas. + +Most devoutly he asked every day to be kept from sin, that he might +grow in the Christian life; but he did not ask or expect, save in a +vague, general way, that help which a wise, good, earthly father would +give to a young, inexperienced child, struggling with the hard, +practical difficulties of this world. As the days grew darker and more +full of disappointment, he had asked with increasing earnestness that +he might be kept from sin--from falling before the many and peculiar +temptations that assailed him; and we have seen how God answered his +prayer, and kept him where so many would have fallen. But God meant +to show him that His goodness extended further than he thought, and +that He cared for His children's well-being now as truly as in the +hereafter, when He gathered them home into His immediate presence. But +Dennis could not see this now. As far as he thought at all on the +subject, he had the vague feeling that God was either trying his faith +or meting out some righteous judgment, and he must do the best he +could, and only see to it that he did not sin and give way morally. + +Yet, in the thick night of his earthly prospects, Dennis still loved +and trusted God. He reasoned justly, that if at last brought to such +a place as heaven, no matter what he suffered here, he had only cause +for unbounded gratitude. And he felt sure that all would be right in +the end, but now feared that his life would be like his father's, a +tissue of disappointments, and that he, an unsuccessful voyager, +storm-tossed and shipwrecked, would be thrown upon the heavenly shore +by some dark-crested billow of misfortune. + +Thus Dennis sat lost in gloomy musings, but too wearied in mind and +body to follow any line of thought long. A few stern facts kept looming +up before him, like rocks on which a ship is drifting. He had less +than a dollar in his pocket. It was Friday night. If he did not get +anything to do on Saturday, how was he going to live through Sunday +and the days that followed? Then his dependent mother and sisters rose +up before him. They seemed to his morbid fancy hungry and cold, and +their famine-pinched faces full of reproach. His head bowed lower, and +he became the very picture of dejection. + +He was startled by a big, hearty voice at his side, exclaiming: "What +makes yer so down in the mouth? Come, take a drink, and cheer up!" + +Raising his eyes, he saw a round, red face, like a harvest moon, shining +full upon him. It was somewhat kindly in its expression, in keeping +with the words. Rough as was the courtesy, it went straight to the +lonely, discouraged heart of the young man, and with moistened eyes +he said, "I thank you for speaking to me in a tone that has a little +human touch in it, for the last man that spoke to me left an echo in +my ear that I would gladly get out of it." + +"Bad luck to him, then! Give us yer hand; there!" with a grip like a +vise. "Bill Cronk never went back on a man he took to. I tell yer what, +stranger," said he, becoming confidential, "when I saw yer glowering +and blinking here in the corner as if yer was listening to yer own +funeral sermon, I be ---- if I could take a comfortable drink. Come, +now, take a good swig of old rye, and see how things will mellow up." + +Our good Samaritan in this case was a very profane and disreputable +one, as many are in this medley world. He had a great, kindly nature, +that was crawling and grovelling in all sorts of low, unseemly places, +instead of growing straight up toward heaven. + +"I hope you will think me none the less friendly if I decline," said +Dennis. "I would drink with you as quick as with any man living, but +it is a thing I never do." + +"Oh, you're temperance, are yer? Well, I don't think none the wuss of +yer for standing by yer colors. Between us, it would be better for me +if I was a little more so. Hang it all! I take a drop too much now and +then. But what is a fellow to do, roughing it up and down the world +like me? I should often get lonely and mope in the corner as you did, +if I didn't get up steam. When I am down in the mouth I take a drink +to 'liven me up, and when I feel good I take a drink to make me feel +better. When I wouldn't take a drink on my own hook, I meet somebody +that I'd ought to drink with. It is astonishing how many occasions +there are to drink, 'specially when a man's travelling, like me." + +"No fear but what the devil will make occasions enough," said Dennis. + +"What has the devil got to do with it?" asked the man, gruffly. + +Just then the miserable wretch entered who, appearing opportunely in +Gavin's Hotel, had cured Dennis of his desire to drink, when weary and +despondent, for the sake of the effects. For a moment they looked at +the blear-eyed, trembling wreck of a man, and then Dennis asked, "Had +God any hand in making that man what he is?" + +"I should say not," said Bill Cronk, emphatically. + +"Well, I should say the devil had," said Dennis; "and there behind the +bar are the means used--the best tool he has, it seems to me; for with +it he gets hold of men with some heart and soul in them, like you." + +The man winced under the words that both conscience and experience +told him were true; at the same time he was propitiated by Dennis's +good opinion of him. He gave a big, good-natured laugh, slapped Dennis +on the shoulder, and said: "Wal, stranger, p'raps you're right. 'Tain't +every temperance lecturer though that has an awful example come in +just at the right time so slick. But you've stood by yer colors, and +we won't quarrel. Tell us, now, if it ain't private, what you're so +chopfallen about." + +Dennis told his story, as grateful for this rough sympathy as a thirsty +traveller would be in finding a spring though surrounded by thorns and +rocks. + +The round, jolly face actually grew long and serious through interest +in the young man's tribulations. + +After scratching a shaggy but practical head for a few moments, Bill +spoke as follows: + +"Seems to me the case is just this: here you are, a young blooded colt, +not broken to either saddle or thills--here you are whinnying around a +market where they want nothing but dray-hosses. People look shy at +you--usually do at a strange hoss. Few know good p'ints when they see +'em. When they find you ain't broke in to nothin', they want you to +work for nothin'. I see how you can't do this. And yet fodder is runnin' +short, and you must do somethin'." + +Bill, having dealt in live-stock all his life, naturally clothed his +thoughts in language drawn from familiar objects, and Dennis, miserable +as he was, half smiled at the close parallel run between him and a +young, useless colt; but he only said, "I don't think there is a +cart-horse in all Chicago that feels more broken down and dispirited +than I do to-night." + +"That may all be, too," said Bill; "but you'd feel a little oats mighty +quick, and a cart-hoss wouldn't. But I know the p'ints, whether it's +a man or a hoss; you'd take kindly to work of the right sort, and it +would pay any one to take you at yer own terms, but you can't make 'em +see it. If I was in a situation to take you, I'd do it in a minute. +Hang it all! I can't do much for you, either. I took a drop too much +in Cleveland t'other night, and some of the folks in the house looked +over my pocket-book and left me just enough to get home with." + +Dennis shook his head reproachfully and was about to speak. + +"I know what you're going to say," said Bill, heading off another +temperance lecture. "I'll take a drink by and by, and think over what +you've said, for I can't think much until I get a little steam up. But +now we must try and see some way out of the fog for you;" and again +in absence of the wonted steam he scratched the shaggy head vigorously. + +"Seems to me the best thing for you is to do as I did when I first +broke the home pasture and started out on a rampage. I just grabbed +the fust job that come along, good, bad, or indifferent--always kept +doing something. You can look for a bird in the bush quite well when +you've got one in the hand as when you hain't. To be sure I wasn't as +squeamish as you are. I'd jumped at the offer you had this afternoon; +but I reckon I'd taken toll too often to be very profitable. But in +this way I always kept a-goin'--never got down underfoot so the stronger +ones could tread on me. When it comes to that, I want to die. Now if +you've got plenty of clear grit--Leetle disposed to show the white +feather though, to-night, ain't yer?" + +Dennis flushed up, and was about to speak, almost angrily. + +"There! there!" said his new friend. "I said yer wasn't a cart-hoss: +one touch of the spur and up goes tail and ears, and then look out. +Are yer ashamed to do any kind of honest work? I mean kinder pious +work, that hasn't any smack of the devil you're so afraid of in it?" + +"No! work is just what I want." + +"Would you black boots, now?" + +Dennis winced, thought a moment, and then, with a manly flush, said, +"Yes, before I would take a cent of charity from any living soul." + +"Give us yer hand again. You're the kind of critter I like to invest +in; for you'd improve on a feller's hands. No fear about you; the only +thing is to get you in harness before a load that will pay to haul." + +Suddenly he got up, strode to the bar-room door, looked out into the +night, and came back again. + +"I think I know of a way in which you can make two or three dollars +to-morrow." + +"How?" exclaimed Dennis, his whole face lighting up with hope. + +"Go to a hardware store, invest in a big wooden snow-shovel, and clean +off sidewalks before stores. You can pick up a good many quarters +before night, like enough." + +"I will do it," said Dennis, heartily, "and thank you warmly for the +suggestion, and for your kindly interest generally," and he looked up +and felt himself another man. + +"Gosh! but it takes mighty few oats to set you up! But come, and let +us have a little plain, substantial fodder. I will drink nothing but +coffee, to-night, out of compliment to you." + +Cheered, comforted, and hopeful, Dennis sat down with his good +Samaritan, and made a hearty supper, after which they parted with a +strong friendly grip, and sincere good wishes, Cronk, the drover, going +on further west, and Dennis to the rest he so sorely needed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +YAHCOB BUNK + + +Before retiring, Dennis as usual took his Bible from his trunk to read +a chapter. He was now in a very different mood from that of a few hours +ago. The suggestion of his bar-room acquaintance was a light upon his +way. And with one of Dennis's age and temperament, even a small hope +is potent. He was eager for the coming day, in order to try the +experiment of wringing bread and opportunity for further search out +of the wintry snows. + +But that which had done him the most good--more than he realized--was +the kindness he had received, rough though it was--the sympathy and +companionship of another human being; for if he had been cast away on +a desert island he could not have been more isolated than in the great +city, with its indifferent multitudes. + +Moreover the generous supper was not without its decided influence; +and with it he had drunk a cup of good coffee, that nectar of the gods, +whose subtile, delicate influence is felt in body and brain, in every +fibre of the nature not deadened and blunted by stronger and coarser +stimulants. He who leaves out physical causes in accounting for mental +and moral states, will usually come wide of the mark. But while giving +the influences above referred to their due force, so far from ignoring, +we would acknowledge with emphasis, the chief cause of man's ability +to receive and appreciate all the highest phases of truth and good, +namely, God's help asked for and given. Prayer was a habit with Dennis. +He asked God with childlike faith for the bestowment of every Christian +grace, and those who knew him best saw that he had no reason to +complain that his prayers were unanswered. + +But now, at a time when he would most appreciate it, God was about to +reveal to him a truth that would be a rich source of help and comfort +through life, and a sudden burst of sunshine upon his dark way at the +present hour. He was to be shown how he might look to heaven for help +and guidance in respect to his present and earthly interests, as truly +as in his spiritual life. + +As he opened his Bible his eyes caught the words of our Lord--"Launch +out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught." + +Then Peter's answer--"Master, we have toiled all the night and have +taken nothing: nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net." + +The result--"They inclosed a great multitude of fishes." + +With these words light broke in upon his mind. "If our Lord," he mused, +"helped His first disciples catch fish, why should He not help me find +a good place?" Then unbelief suggested, "It was not for the sake of +the fish; they were only means to a higher end." + +But Dennis, who had plenty of good common-sense, at once answered +this objection: "Neither do I want position and money for low, selfish +purposes. My ends are the best and purest, for I am seeking my own +honest living and the support of my mother and sisters--the very +imperative duties that God is now imposing on me. Would God reveal a +duty and no way of performing it?" + +Then came the thought: "Have I asked Him to help me? Have I not been +seeking in my own wisdom, and trusting in my own strength? and this +too when my ignorance of business, the dull season of the year, and +everything was against me, when I specially needed help. Little wonder +that I have fared as I have." + +Turning the leaves of his Bible rapidly, he began searching for +instances of God's interference in behalf of the temporal interests +of His servants--for passages where earthly prosperity was promised +or given. After an hour he closed the Bible with a long breath of +wonder, and said to himself "Why, God seems to care as much for the +well-being and happiness of his children here as He will when He has +us all about Him in the home above. I've been blind for twenty-one +years to one of the grandest truths of this Book." + +Then, as the thought grew upon him, he exclaimed, joyously, "Take +heart, Dennis Fleet: God is on your side in the struggle for an honest +success in this life as truly as in your fight against sin and the +devil." + +It was long before he slept that night, but a truth had been revealed +that rested and strengthened him more than the heavy slumbers after +the weary days that had preceded. + +The dawn of the winter morning was cold and faint when Dennis appeared +in the bar-room the next day. The jolly-faced Teuton was making the +fire, stopping often to blow his cold fingers, and wasting enough good +breath to have kindled a furnace. His rubicund visage, surrounded by +shaggy hair and beard of yellow, here appeared in the dust and smoke +he was making like the sun rising in a fog. + +"Hillo!" he said, on seeing Dennis; "vat you oop dis early for? Don't +vant anoder dinner yet, I hope?" + +"I will take that in good time," said Dennis; "and shall want a bigger +one than that which so astonished you at first." + +"Oh, my eyes!" said the German; "den I go and tell de cook to pegin to +get him right avay." + +Laughing good-naturedly, Dennis went to the door and looked out. On +sidewalk and street the snow lay six or eight inches deep, untrodden, +white and spotless, even in the heart of the great city. "How different +this snow will look by night," thought he; "how soiled and black! +Perhaps very many come to this city in the morning of life like this +snow, pure and unstained; but after being here awhile they become like +this snow when it has been tossed about and trodden under every careless +foot. God grant that, however poor and unsuccessful I may remain, such +pollution may never be my fate." + +But feeling that he had no time for moralizing if he would secure bread +for the coming day of rest, he turned and said to the factotum of the +bar-room, "How much will you give to have the snow cleared off the +sidewalk in front of your house?" + +"Zwei shillen." + +"Then I will earn my breakfast before I eat it, if you will lend me +a shovel." + +"I dought you vas a shentlemans," said the German, staring at him. + +"So I am; just the shentlemans that will clean off your sidewalk for +zwei shillen, if you will let him." + +"You vant to do him for exercise?" + +"No; for zwei shillings." + +"I dought you vas a shentlemans," said the man, still staring in stolid +wonder at Dennis. + +"Didn't you ever know of a gentleman who came from Germany to this +country and was glad to do anything for an honest living?" + +"Often and often I haf. You see von here," said the man, with a grin. +"Well, I am just that kind of a gentleman. Now if you will lend me a +shovel I will clean off your sidewalk for two shillings, and be a great +deal more thankful than if you had given me the money for nothing." +"Little fear of dot," said the man, with another grin. "Vel, you are +der queerest Yankee in Chicago, you are; I dink you are 'bout haf +Sherman. I tells you vat--here, vat's your name?--if you glean off dot +sidewalk goot, you shall haf preakfast and dinner, much as you eat, +vidout von shent to pay. I don't care if der cook is cooking all day. +I like your--vat you call him?--shpunk." + +"It's a bargain," said Dennis; "and if I can make a few more like it +to-day, I shall be rich." + +"You may vel say dot. I vill go into der market and see if dere's +enough for me to keep my bart of der bargain goot." + +For half an hour Dennis worked away lustily, and then called his +task-master and said, "Will you accept the job?" + +Surveying with surprise the large space cleared, and looking in vain +for reason to find fault, he said: "I say nothin' agin him. I hope you +vill eat your dinner as quick. Now come in to your preakfast." + +He pretended to be perfectly aghast at Dennis's onslaught on the +buckwheat cakes, and rolled up his eyes despairingly as each new plate +was emptied. + +Having finished, Dennis gave him a nod, and said, "Wait till +dinner-time." + +"Ah! dere vill be von famine," said the German, in a tone of anguish, +wringing his hands. + +Having procured the needful implement, Dennis started out, and, though +there was considerable competition, found plenty to do, and shovelled +away with little cessation till one o'clock. Then, counting his gains, +he found that he had paid for his shovel, secured breakfast and dinner, +and had a balance on hand of two dollars and fifty cents, and he had +nearly half a day yet before him. He felt rich--nay, more than that, +he felt like a man who, sinking in a shoreless ocean, suddenly catches +a plank that bears him up until land appears in the distance. + +"This is what comes of asking God to help a fellow," said he to himself. +"Strange, too, that He should answer my prayer in part before I asked, +by causing that queer jumble of good and evil, Bill Cronk, to suggest +to me this way of turning an honest penny. I wish Bill was as good a +friend to himself as he is to others. I fear that he will go to the +dogs. Bless me! the gnawings of hunger are bad enough, but what must +be those of conscience? I think I can astonish my German friend to-day +as never before;" and, shouldering his shovel, he walked back to dinner, +feeling like a prince bearing aloft the insignia of his power. + +When he entered the bar and lunch room, he saw that something was +wrong. The landlord met him, instead of his jolly, satirical friend. + +Now the owner of the place was a wizen-faced, dried-up old anatomy, +who seemed utterly exhaling away in tobacco smoke, while his assistant +was becoming spherical under the expansive power of lager. It was his +custom to sit up and smoke most of the night, and therefore he was +down late in the morning. When he appeared his assistant told him of +the bargain he had made with Dennis as a good joke. But old Hans hadn't +any faculty for jokes. Dollars and cents and his big meerschaum made +up the two elements of his life. The thought of losing zwei shillings +or zwei cents by Dennis, or any one else, caused him anguish, and +instead of laughing, his fun-loving assistant was aghast at seeing him +fall into a passion. + +"You be von big fule. Vat for we keep mens here who haf no money? You +should gleared him off, instead of making pargains for him to eat us +out of der house." + +"We haf his trunk," said Jacob, for that was his name. + +"Nothin' in it," growled Hans, yet somewhat mollified by this fact. +When Dennis appeared, he put the case without any circumlocution: "I +makes my livin' by keepin' dis house. I can no make my livin' unless +efrypodies bays me. I haf reason to dink dot you haf no moneys. Vat +ish de druf? 'Gause if you haf none, you can no longer stay here." + +"Have I not paid for everything I have had so far?" said Dennis. + +"Dot is not der question. Haf you got any moneys?" + +"What is your bill in advance up to Monday morning?" + +"Zwei dollar and a quarter, if you dake preakfast." +"Deduct breakfast and dinner to-day for clearing off the sidewalk." + +"Dot ish too much; you did it in half-hour." + +"Well, it would have taken you three. But a bargain is a bargain, the +world over. Did not you promise it?"--to Jacob. + +"Yah! und you shall haf him, too, if I be der loser. Yahcob Bunk ish +not der man to go pack on his vort." + +"Vel, den," said old Hans, "von dollar sheventy-five to Monday morning." + +"There's the money; now let me have my dinner, for I am in a hurry." + +At the sight of money Hans at once became the most obsequious of hosts, +and so would remain while it lasted. But Dennis saw that the moment +it was gone his purchased courtesy would change, and he trembled at +his narrow escape from being thrust out into the wintry streets, +friendless, penniless, to beg or starve--equally hard alternatives to +his mind. + +"Come, Yahcob, thou snail, give der shentlemans his dinner," said Hans. + +Jacob, who had been looking on with heavy, stolid face, now brightened +up on seeing that all was right, and gave Dennis a double portion of +the steaming pot-pie, and a huge mug of coffee. When Dennis had finished +these and crowned his repast with a big dumpling, Jacob came to him +with a face as long and serious as his harvest moon of a visage could +be made, and said: "Dere ish nodding more in Chicago; you haf gleaned +it out. Ve must vait dill der evenin' drain gomes pefore ve haf supper." + +"That will be time enough for me," said Dennis, laughing--for he could +laugh to-day at little things--and started off again with his shovel. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LAND AT LAST + + +During the latter part of a busy afternoon, Dennis came to a spacious, +elegant store before which the snow lay untouched save as trodden by +passers-by. Over the high arched doorway was the legend in gilt letters, +"Art Building"; and as far as a mere warehouse for beautiful things +could deserve the title, this place did, for it was crowded with +engravings, paintings, bronzes, statuary, and every variety of ornament. +With delighted eyes and lingering steps he had passed slowly through +this store a few days previous in his search, but had received the +usual cool negative. He had gone reluctantly out into the cold street +again as Adam went out of Paradise. + +A large florid-looking man with a light curling mustache now stood in +the doorway. His appearance was unmistakably that of a German of the +highest and most cultivated type. And yet, when he spoke, his English +was so good that you detected only a foreign accent. Strong vexation +was stamped upon his face as he looked at the snowy, untidy sidewalk. + +"Mr. Schwartz," he asked of one of his clerks, "was Pat here this +morning?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Was he perfectly straight?" + +"I cannot say that he was, sir." + +"He is off on a spree again. Send him to me the moment he returns." + +"Shall I clear your sidewalk?" said Dennis, stepping up and touching +his hat respectfully. + +"Yes," said the gentleman, scarcely looking at him; "and when you have +finished come to the office for your money;" and then he walked back +into the store with a frowning brow. + +Though Dennis was now pretty thoroughly fatigued with the hard day's +work, he entered on this task with a good will as the closing labor +of the day, hoping, from the wide space to be cleared, to receive +proportionate recompense. And yet his despatch was not so great as +usual, for in spite of himself his eyes were continually wandering to +the large show-windows, from which smiled down upon him summer +landscapes, and lovely faces that seemed all the more beautiful in +contrast with the bleak and darkening street. + +He was rudely startled from one of his stolen glances at a sweet, +girlish face that seemed peering archly at him from a corner. His ears +were assailed by the loud tones and strong brogue of "Pat," returning +thus late to his neglected duties. + +"Bad luck to yez! what yez doin' here?" + +"Clearing the sidewalk," said Dennis, laconically. + +"Give me that shovel, or I'll knock bloody blazes out of yez." + +Dennis at once stood on the defensive, and raised his tool +threateningly. At the same time seeing a policeman, he called out, +"Will you please cause this drunken fellow to move on?" + +The officer was about to comply, when the Irishman, with a snort like +that of a mad bull, rushed to the door of the art building, wrenched +it open, and, leaving it so, tore down the long store, crying, "Misther +Ludolph! Misther Ludolph! here's a bloody spalpane a-doin' my work." + +He had scarcely got half-way to the office before there was a crash +followed by a general commotion. + +Pat, in his blind rage, and with steps uncertain from the effects of +whiskey, had struck a valuable marble, and it lay broken on the floor. +This catastrophe sobered him, and he stood looking in dismay at the +destruction he had wrought. His employer, the gentleman whom Dennis +had seen at the door, now appeared upon the scene in a towering passion, +and scrupled not to heap maledictions upon the head of the unfortunate +Hibernian. + +"What do you mean by rushing through the store in this mad style?" he +demanded. + +"There's an impudent fellow outside a-doin' my work," said Pat. + +"Why didn't you do it yourself, instead of going off to the gin-mills +this morning? Didn't I warn you? Didn't I tell you your last spree +should be the last in my employ? Now begone, you drunken idiot! and +if you ever show your face on these premises again I'll have you +arrested and compel payment for this marble, and it will take every +cent you have in the world, and more too." + +"Ah! Misther Ludolph, if ye'll only give me one more--" + +"I tell you be off! or I will call the policeman at once." + +"But Bridget and the childer will starve." + +"What are Bridget and the children to me? If you won't take care of +them, you can't expect other people to. Begone!" said his employer, +advancing threateningly and stamping his foot. + +Pat looked around in vain for help: the clerks were but fainter echoes +of their master. + +Seeing his case to be hopeless, he turned about then hurried away, his +big red face distorted by many contending emotions. Nor did he stop +until he reached one of the fatal "gin-mills," where he soon drowned +memory and trouble in huge potations of the fiery element that was +destroying him and bringing wretchedness to "Bridget and the childer." + +Again Dennis had a lesson on drinking for the effects. + +He rapidly completed his work and entered the store. A clerk handed +him fifty cents. + +"May I see Mr. Ludolph a moment?" he asked. + +"Yes," replied the clerk, "he is in the inner office there; but I guess +you won't find him very smooth this evening," looking at the same time +suggestively toward the broken marble. + +But Mr. Ludolph was not in as bad a humor as was imagined. This thrifty +Teuton had not lost much by the mishap of the afternoon, for a month +or two of wages was due Pat, and this kept back would pay in the main +for the injury he had done. His whole soul being bent on the acquirement +of money, for reasons that will be explained further on, his momentary +passion soon passed away when he found he had sustained no material +injury. To Dennis's knock he responded in his usual tone, "Come in!" +and Dennis stood in a warm, lighted, cosey office, where the object +of his quest sat writing rapidly with his back to the door. Dennis +waited respectfully till the facile pen glided through the sentence, +and then Mr. Ludolph looked up. Dennis's bearing and appearance were +so unmistakably those of a gentleman that Mr. Ludolph, not +recognizing him as the person who had cleared his sidewalk, rose +courteously and said, "Did you wish to see me?" + +"Yes, sir," replied Dennis; "I understand that you dismissed a person +in your employ this afternoon. I would respectfully apply for his +place, if it is not promised." + +The gentleman smiled and said: "You are mistaken, I think. I discharged +a drunken Irishman, who had been porter and man-of-all-work about the +store, this afternoon; but I have no place vacant, young sir, that you +would care to fill." + +"If you think me competent to fill the position of porter and your +man-of-all-work, I would be very glad to obtain it; that is, if it +will support me and those dependent on me." + +The merchant muttered to himself, "I thought he was a gentleman." + +Then, as this was a business matter of some importance, he caused +Dennis to stand full in the light, while he withdrew somewhat in the +shadow, and gave it his attention with characteristic shrewdness and +caution. + +"You seem rather above the situation you ask for," he said. + +"I am not above it in circumstances," said Dennis, "and it certainly +is better than shovelling snow all day." + +"Are you the man that just cleaned my sidewalk?" + +"I am, sir." + +"You must be aware that your general appearance is very different from +that of the man discharged to-day, and from those seeking the menial +place in question. Can you explain this fact satisfactorily?" + +"I can readily explain it, and I hope satisfactorily. At any rate I +shall be perfectly open;" and Dennis told him briefly, but plainly, +just how he was situated. + +As the keen man of the world watched with the closest scrutiny the +honest young face, he believed every word. Accustomed to deal with all +classes of men from childhood, he had learned to read them as the open +page of a book. + +He asked coolly, however, "Have you no recommendations?" + +Dennis produced the ministerial letter, which Mr. Ludolph glanced at +with good-natured contempt. + +"This is all right," he said; "superstition is an excellent thing for +some minds. I managed Pat a year through his priest, and then he got +beyond the priest and me too." + +This undisguised contempt of all that he held sacred, and the classing +of true faith with gross superstition, pained Dennis; and his face +showed it, though he said nothing. + +"There," said the gentleman, "I did not mean to hurt your feelings, +but to the educated in our land these things seem very childish." + +"I should serve you none the worse," said Dennis, with quiet dignity, +"if I believed that the duty I owed to you I owed also to God." + +Mr. Ludolph looked as if a new idea had struck him, smiled, and said: +"Most people's religion, as far as my experience has gone, is not of +this practical kind. But I believe that I can trust you, and your face +and story are worth much more to me than this letter. A scamp might +possess that as well as an honest youth like you. Now, as to terms: +I will give you forty dollars a month for the first two months, and +then, if you develop and take well to the work, I will give you sixty." + +Dennis thought that this, with close economy, would enable him to live +and support his mother and sisters, and he accepted the terms. + +"Moreover, to show the advantage of telling a straightforward story, +you may sleep in the store: the building will be safer for having some +one in it. I will pay you at the end of every week as long as you suit, +so that you can commence sending something to your mother immediately. +You see that I take an interest in you," said the shrewd man, "and +expect you to take an interest in my business, and work for me as for +yourself." + +Simple, honest Dennis could not see that Mr. Ludolph cared infinitely +more for himself than for all the world combined, and made it his +life-study to get the most out of it with the least cost to himself. +Under the words that seemed so kind and considerate, the young man's +heart swelled with the strong and grateful purpose to spare himself +in no way in the service of such an employer. The wily man saw this, +and smiled to himself over the credulity of mankind. + +"Have you enough to last till next Saturday night?" he asked. + +"I will make it last," said Dennis, sturdily. + +"That is right," said Mr. Ludolph. "Stand on your own feet if you can. +I never give any more help than will barely enable a man to help +himself"--a maxim which had the advantage not only of being sound, but +of according exactly with his disposition. + +After a moment's thought, Mr. Ludolph spoke in a tone so sharp, and +a manner so stern, that Dennis was startled. + +"Mark me, young man, I wish a plain understanding in one respect: you +take Pat's place, and I expect you to do Pat's work. I wish no trouble +to arise from your being above your business." + +"You will have none," said Dennis, quietly and firmly. + +"All right, then. Mr. Schwartz will show you about closing up the +store. Be here early Monday morning, and remember that all depends +upon yourself." + +In the depths of his grateful heart Dennis felt how much the success +of that day and every day of life depended on God. + +Mr. Ludolph put on his coat and gloves and went out with Dennis into +the store. + +"Gentlemen," said he to his clerks, "this young man, Dennis Fleet by +name, will take the place of Pat Murphy, discharged to-day. Mr. +Schwartz, will you show him what it is necessary to do to-night? He +will be here on Monday morning at the usual time for opening the store, +and after that will sleep in the building." + +The clerks looked at him for a moment, as they might at a new piece +of furniture, or a labor-saving machine, and then coolly finished their +duties, and followed their employer. Mr. Schwartz showed him about +closing the store, taking care of the furnace, etc., and Dennis saw +that his place was no sinecure. Still it was not work, but its lack, +that he dreaded, and his movements were so eager and earnest that a +faint expression of surprise and curiosity tinged the broad, stolid +face of Mr. Schwartz; but he only buttoned his coat to the chin and +muttered, "New broom," and went his way homeward, leaving Dennis to +go his. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE NEW BROOM + + +The following Sabbath was a bright winter day without, but bright +summer in Dennis's heart. He inquired his way to a neighboring church, +and every word of prayer, praise, and truth fell on a glad, grateful +spirit. Returning, he wrote a long letter to his mother, telling her +all he had passed through, especially dwelling on the truth he had +discovered of God's wish to make this life happy and successful, as +well as the life beyond. + +In closing, he wrote: "Here I am, Dennis Fleet, who a few days since +thought the world scarcely large enough for what I meant to do, standing +contentedly and gratefully in Pat Murphy's shoes. I will not conceal +from you, speaking figuratively (the fates forbid that it should be +literally true), that I hope to outgrow them, and arrive at something +better before many months pass. In the meantime I am indeed thankful +for the means of winning honest bread for us all. It is quite a +come-down from the classics and law to the position of porter and man +of-all-work in a picture and music store, but if God means me to rise +He can lead me upward from my lowly standpoint as well as from the +most favored that I could have chosen for myself. I have learned that +if I will _trust Him_ and do present duty thoroughly, He will not forget +me." + +On Monday morning, half an hour before the specified time, Dennis stood +at the store. Impatiently he walked up and down before what would +become the scene of joys and sorrows such as he had never before +experienced. But we will not anticipate. + +In due time Mr. Schwartz appeared. He gave Dennis a cool nod, and said, +"Glad to see you so prompt," then muttered again to himself, "New +broom." + +In Mr. Schwartz's slow, plodding soul the fire of enthusiasm had never +burned. He was eminently conservative, and looked with wary suspicion +on anything that appeared like earnestness. In the midst of a driving, +bustling Western city, he stuck in the mud of his German phlegm, like +a snag in the swift current of the Mississippi. Yet Mr. Ludolph found +him a most valuable assistant. He kept things straight. Under his +minute supervision everything had to be right on Saturday night as +well as on Monday morning, on the 31st of December as well as on the +1st of January. He was one who through life would be satisfied with +a subordinate position, conscious of the lack of enterprise needful +to push his own way in the world. His painstaking, methodical spirit +was just the kind to pervade a large warehouse like that he had in +charge, and prevent loss and confusion in the multiplicity of objects +it contained. Pat's careless Irish ways had vexed his soul beyond +words, and now Dennis's eager manner suggested a hare-brained Yankee +youth who would raise a dust for a week and then be off at something +else. He was therefore cool and curt, seeking by frostiness of manner +to nip the budding enthusiasm that annoyed him. + +Dennis heeded him not, but bent every faculty to the mastery of the +duties required of him. He was to mop out the store with damp cloths, +so as to raise no dust, to look after the furnace and graduate the +heat throughout the building, to receive boxes, to assist in packing +and unpacking pianos and other musical instruments that occupied part +of the upper floors, and to make himself generally useful. So far from +being an easy position, it was one that required great strength and +despatch, and these had been Pat's qualities save when drink got the +better of him. For one of his age, Dennis was very strong, and his +experience in helping his mother in household duties had made him quick +and dexterous, where most young men would have been awkward and slow. +After a day or two Mr. Schwartz relaxed his grimness somewhat, for if +Dennis worked eagerly he also worked well for a beginner. Still it +would require several years of well-doing to satisfy old Schwartz that +all was right. But Mr. Ludolph, with his quick insight into character, +watched this "new broom" a few days, and then congratulated himself +on gaining another decided help toward the object nearest his heart. + +The other clerks were of German descent, and under Mr. Schwartz's rigid +system each one filled his appropriate niche, and performed carefully +the duties assigned. + +Even to Dennis's uncultivated eye there was an inartistic formality +about the whole establishment. His sense of this was at first but a +feeling--a vague impression that grew upon him without his quite knowing +why. He soon discovered, however, that everything was arranged squarely, +according to system, order, and not with a view of placing in the best +lights and shadows the beautiful things to be sold. He saw that Mr. +Ludolph was annoyed by the same defect. One bright day, when everything +stood out with glaring distinctness, he seemed provoked beyond measure +by this inartistic rigidity, and stormed through the store at a great +rate. + +"This art building and everybody and everything in it look as if they +had swallowed a ramrod," snarled he. "Mr. Schwartz, can't you teach +the young men to throw a little ease and grace into the arrangement +of the articles under their charge?" + +Mr. Schwartz looked at him with a blank, impassive face, and his +employer felt that he might as well ask an elephant to teach dancing. + +Turning suddenly on a stolid youth, he exclaimed, "By the gods! if you +have not arranged all the statuettes on your counter in straight lines, +and half of them with their backs toward the door at which our customers +enter! Here, gather round me while I give you some ideas of +arrangement." + + +The clerks gathered around him, while with hands of skill and taste +he placed everything artistically. The effect of a little transposition +was marvellous, and Mr. Schwartz acknowledged that the groups looked +doubly pretty and inviting. Dennis stood at a respectful distance, but +was a close observer. He was the only one who gained much benefit from +the lesson, because the only one capable of receiving it. With quick, +appreciative eye he saw the grouping needful to produce the desired +effect. + +As Mr. Ludolph looked up he caught Dennis's intelligent gaze. + +"That is right, Fleet," he said; "you learn, too, if you can, and when +you are dusting around see if you cannot combine a little order and +grace." + +From that day forward the hand and taste of Dennis Fleet gradually, +and almost imperceptibly at first, gave a new aspect and created a +new atmosphere in the "Art Building." But at first he was kept busy +enough at his humble routine duties. Every one felt and expressed a +little surprise at his getting into harness so quickly, but Mr. +Schwartz's influence was not conducive to conversation or emotions, +however faint. All went forward quietly and orderly, like well-oiled +machinery. Customers received every attention, and though many no doubt +had the undefined feeling that something was wrong in the arrangement +of the store, each found an abundance of beautiful things suited to his +taste and purse, and so trade was good, even though the holiday season +was over. + +As for Dennis, he was to a certain extent in Paradise. Nature had given +him a deep, earnest love of the beautiful, and a keen perception of it. + +Though his days were busy indeed, he found time gradually to study +every pretty thing in the store. Though much was mystery to him as +yet, he felt that he had crossed the threshold of a beautiful world--the +world of art. When a boy in New England he had taken drawing-lessons, +and had shown remarkable aptness. While at college, also, he had given +some attention to drawing and coloring, but circumstances had prevented +him from following the bent of his taste. Now the passion awoke with +tenfold force, and he had not been in his place a week before he began +to make sketches of little things that pleased him. Some of the pictures +and bronzes became almost dear because of the pleasure and inspiration +that they occasioned, and at their sale his feeling was akin to regret. +Early in the morning, when refreshed and brightened by the night's +rest, he would walk through the store as through fairy-land, and, +forgetting that he was a humble servitor, would feel as if all were +his. But in fact was not his possession truer than that of many whose +palace walls glow with every rich gem of art, and yet whose eyes are +blind and their hearts dull to the beauty they have paid for? + +A few days after his arrival, a little incident occurred that was hard +and practical enough, and might justly cause him to feel that he +occupied a humble place, not only in the world of art, but in the world +in general. There had been a day of rain, slush, and mud. One of the +younger clerks had been sent out on an errand, and came in well +splashed. Drawing off his boots, he threw them to Dennis, saying: "Here +you, Fleet! black my boots as quick as you can. I must go out again." + +Dennis reddened, and for a moment drew himself up as if he had been +struck. The young man saw it and said, in a loud, coarse tone that +could be heard by several customers: "Vat! you above your biz? I thought +it vould be so." + +Dennis acted with decision. He meant to have the matter settled at +once. Picking up the muddy boots, he marched straight into Mr. Ludolph's +office. That gentleman looked up, impatient at interruption, and saw +his man-of-all-work standing before him with the splashed boots dangling +in his hands. + +"'Well, what is it?" asked he, sharply. + +"Mr. Berder threw me those boots and told me to black them. Is this +a part of my duty here?" said Dennis, in a firm, quiet tone. + +"Curse it all!" said Mr. Ludolph, with much irritation; "I thought +there would be trouble with your uppishness." + +"There shall be no trouble whatever," said Dennis; "but I prefer to +take my orders from you, and not from Mr. Berder. If you say this is +expected, the disagreeable task shall be done as well as I can do it." + +Mr. Ludolph looked sharply at the young man for a moment and hesitated. +In his heart he felt that he was speaking to a gentleman, and that it +was not the thing to ask of him such menial work. But his irritation +and desire to crush out anything like insubordination prevailed. Still, +rather than directly order it, he appealed to the custom of the past, +and stepping to the door of the office he called: "Mr. Schwartz, come +here! Did Pat black the shoes of the _gentlemen_ of this store?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"You took Pat Murphy's place, did you not?" + +"Yes, sir," said Dennis. + +"It seems to me, then, that this settles the question," said Mr. +Ludolph, coolly, turning to his writing; but he furtively and carefully +watched Dennis's course. + +Determined to show that he was not above his business, that he accepted +the bitter with the sweet, Dennis went upstairs to his room, got +blacking and brush, and taking his station in a corner where Mr. Ludolph +could plainly see him through the glass doors of his office, he polished +away as vigorously as if that were his only calling. Mr. Ludolph looked +and smiled. His was a nature that could be pleased with a small triumph +like this. But the other clerks, seeing Mr. Berder's success, and +determining to do their part, also, in taking Dennis, "down a peg," +as they expressed it, brought their boots, too, and Mr. Berder came +with his again in the afternoon. Dennis cleaned and polished away in +full view of Mr. Ludolph, who began to realize with vexation that his +man-of-all-work would have little time for the duties of the store if +he were installed general bootblack of the establishment. But, after +this, cold and snow kept the streets dry and clean for some time, and +the matter passed on without further notice. Boots were seldom brought +to him, and when they were, they were cleaned without a word. In the +meantime, his ability and faithfulness in the discharge of his regular +duties, and in some slight degree his taste and judgment, began to be +recognized, and Mr. Ludolph congratulated himself that in giving Dennis +Pat Murphy's place he had made a decided change for the better. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TOO MUCH ALIKE + + +One of the duties that Dennis enjoyed most was the opening of new +goods. With the curiosity and pleasure of a child he would unpack the +treasures of art consigned to his employer, and when a number of boxes +were left at the front door he was eager to see their contents. During +his first three weeks at the store, there had not been many such +arrivals of goods and pictures. But now new things were coming in; and, +above all, Mr. Ludolph was daily expecting pictures imported +directly from Europe. + +One afternoon early in February a large flat box was brought to the +store. Mr. Ludolph examined its marks, smiled, and told Dennis to open +it with great care, cutting every nail with a chisel. There was little +need of cautioning him, for he would have bruised his right hand rather +than mar one line of beauty. + +The "Art Building" contained two or three small showrooms, where the +more valuable pictures could be exhibited in a good light. Into one +of these the large box was carried, and most carefully opened. The two +clerks who were helping Dennis laughed at his eager interest, and +called him under their breath a "green 'un." Mr. Schwartz looked upon +him as a mild sort of lunatic. But Mr. Ludolph, who stood near, to see +if the picture was safe and right, watched him with some curiosity. +His manner was certainly very different from Pat Murphy's at such a +time, and his interest both amused and pleased his employer. + +When at last the picture was lifted from the box and placed on a large +easel, all exclaimed at its beauty save Dennis. On looking at him, +they saw that his eyes had filled with tears, and his lips were +quivering so that he could not have spoken. + +"Is she a relation of yours?" asked Mr. Schwartz, in a matter-of-fact +tone. + +A loud laugh followed this sally from such an unusual source. Dennis +turned on his heel, left the room, and busied himself with duties in +a distant part of the store the rest of the day. It seemed to him that +they were like savages bartering away gold and pearls, whose value +they could not understand; much less could they realize his possession +of a nature of exquisite sensibility to beauty. + +When all were gone he returned to the room, and sat down before the +picture in rapt attention. It was indeed a fine work of art, finished +in that painstaking manner characteristic of the Germans. + +The painting was a winter scene in Germany. In the far background rose +wooded and snow-clad hills. Nearer in the perspective was a bold bluff, +surmounted by a half-ruined castle. At the base of the bluff flowed +a river, now a smooth glare of ice, and in the distance figures were +wheeling about upon skates. In the immediate foreground were two +persons. One was a lovely young girl, dressed in black velvet trimmed +with ermine. The basque fitted closely to her person, revealing its +graceful outlines, and was evidently adapted to the active sport in +which she was engaged. While the rich warm blood mantled her cheeks, +the snow was not whiter than her temples and brow. Down her shoulders +flowed a profusion of wavy hair, scattered threads of which glistened +like gold in the slanting rays of the sun. Her eyes, of a deep violet, +were turned, in sympathy with the scorn of the full, smiling mouth, +upon the figure of a young man kneeling before her, making awkward +attempts to fasten her skate to the trim little foot. It was evident +that the favor was too much for him, and that his fluttering heart +made his hands trembling and unskilful. But the expression of the +maiden's face clearly indicated that her heart was as cold toward him +as the ice on which he kneeled. + +The extreme beauty of the picture and its exquisite finish fascinated +Dennis, while the girl's face jarred upon his feelings like a musical +discord. After gazing fixedly for a long time, he said, "What possessed +the man to paint such a lovely face and make its expression only that +of scorn, pride, and heartless merriment?" + +All the long night the face haunted and troubled him. He saw it in his +dreams. It had for him a strong interest that he could not +understand--that strange fascination which a very beautiful thing that +has been marred and wronged has for some natures. So powerful was this +impression upon his sensitive nature that he caught himself saying, +as of a living being, "Oh, that I could give to that face the expression +God meant it to have!" + +And then he laughed at his own folly. His watchfulness caused him to +oversleep the next morning, and he was later than usual in getting +through the routine duties of the store. At length, about nine o'clock, +dusty and begrimed from mopping, feeding the furnace, etc., he stood +with duster and brush in hand before the painting that had so disturbed +his rest. He was in his shirt-sleeves, and in careful economy had a +large coarse apron of ticking girded about his person. His black, +dishevelled locks looked like an inverted crow's nest, and altogether +he was unpresentable, appearing more like the presiding divinity of +a dust-heap than of an "Art Building." + +After gazing a few moments on the scornful, beautiful face that might +have obtained its haughty patrician lineaments from the old barons of +the ruined castle just above, he seemed to grow conscious of this +himself, and shrunk behind the picture half ashamed, as if the fair +girl could see him. + +While engaged in cleaning off some stains and marks upon the frame, +he did not hear a light footstep in the room. Finishing his task, he +stepped out from behind the picture with the purpose of leaving the +apartment, when a vision met his gaze which startled him to that degree +that he dropped his brush and duster upon the floor, and stood +transfixed. There before him, in flesh and blood it seemed, stood the +lady of the picture--the same dress, the same beautiful blond face, +and, above all, the same expression. He was made conscious of his +absurd position by a suppressed titter from the clerks at the door, +and a broad laugh from Mr. Ludolph. The beautiful face turned toward +him for a moment, and he felt himself looked over from head to foot. +At first there was an expression of vexation at the interruption, and +then, as if from the ludicrousness of his appearance, the old laughing, +scornful look returned. Casting a quick, furtive glance at the picture, +which seemed to satisfy him, Dennis, with hot cheeks, gathered up his +tools and beat a hasty retreat. As he passed out, Mr. Ludolph asked, +good naturedly, "Why, Fleet, what is the matter?" + +"Indeed, sir, I hardly know," answered the bewildered youth, "but it +seems to me that I have lost my wits since that picture came. For a +moment I thought that the lady on the canvas had stepped out upon the +floor." + +"Now that you speak of it," exclaimed Mr. Ludolph, advancing into the +room, "there is a striking resemblance." + + +"Nonsense! father," Dennis heard the young lady say; "you are too old +to flatter. As for that hare-brained youth of the dust-brush, he looked +as if he might have the failing of poor Pat, and not always be able +to see straight." + +At this Dennis's cheeks grew hotter still, while a low laugh from one +or two of the clerks near showed that they were enjoying his +embarrassment. + +Dennis hastened away to his room, and it was well that he did not hear +the conversation that followed. + +"Oh, no!" responded Mr. Ludolph, "that is not Dennis's failing. He is +a member of a church in 'good and regular standing.' He will be one +of the 'pillars' by and by." + +"You are always having a fling at superstition and the superstitious," +said his daughter, laughingly. "Is that the reason you installed him +in Pat's place?" + +"Can you doubt it, my dear?" replied her father, in mock solemnity. + +"Well," said she, "I think your new factotum fails decidedly in good +manners, if nothing else. He stared most impudently at me when he came +out from behind the picture. I should have reprimanded him myself if +I had not been so full of laughter at his ridiculous appearance." + +"That's the joke of it. It was as good as a play to see him. I never +saw a man more startled and confused. He evidently thought for a moment, +as he said, that the girl in the painting had stepped out upon the +floor, and that you were she." + +"How absurd!" exclaimed his daughter. + +"Yes; and now that I think of it, he glanced from you to the picture, +to satisfy himself that his senses were not deceiving him, before he +started to come away." + +"I cannot see any special resemblance," she replied, at the same time +inwardly pleased that she should be thought like the beautiful creature +on the canvas. + +"But there is a strong resemblance," persisted her father, "especially +in general effect. I will prove it to you. There is old Schwartz; he +is not troubled with imagination, but sees things just as they are. +He would look at you, my dainty daughter, as if you were a bale of +wool, and judge as composedly and accurately." + +"I fear, my father," replied she, smilingly, "that you have conspired +with him to pull the entire bale over my eyes. But let him come." + +By this time Dennis had returned, and commenced dusting some pictures +near the entrance, where he could see and hear. He felt impelled by +a curiosity that he could not resist. Moreover he had a little natural +vanity in wishing to show that he was not such a guy, after all. It +was hard for him to remember that he stood in Pat Murphy's position. +What difference did it make to the lady whether such as he was a fright +or not? + +Mr. Schwartz entered, and at Mr. Ludolph's bidding looked at the living +and the painted girl. In his slow, sententious tones, one could not +help feeling that he was telling just how things appeared to him. The +young lady stood beside the painting and unconsciously assumed the +expression of her fair shadow. Indeed it seemed an expression but too +habitual to her face. + +"Yes," he said, "there is a decided resemblance--close in dress--close +in complexion--color of hair much the same--eyes much alike--Miss +Ludolph not quite so tall," etc. Then with an awkward attempt at a +compliment, like an elephant trying to execute a quickstep, he +continued: + +"If I may be permitted to be so bold as to speak--express an opinion--I +should beg leave to say that Miss Ludolph favors herself--more +favored--is better-looking," he blurted out at last, backing out of +the door at the same time, with his brow bathed in perspiration from +the throes of this great and unwonted effort at gallantry. + +"Bah!" said Dennis to himself, "the old mole left out the very chief +thing in tracing the likeness--the expression! See her now as she +listens to his awkward attempt at compliment. She is looking at him +with the same scornful, laughing face that the girl in the picture +wears toward the bungling admirer at her feet. He is right in one thing +though, she is better-looking." + +But the moment Mr. Schwartz's bulky figure vanished from the doorway, +Miss Ludolph caught the critical, intelligent gaze of Dennis Fleet, +and the expression of her face changed instantly to a frown. But, to +do her justice, it was more in vexation with herself than with him. +Her innate delicacy of feeling showed her that it looked like small +vanity to be standing there while comparisons like the above were +instituted. Her manner at once became cold, observant, and thoroughly +self-possessed. She stepped out into the store, and by a few keen, +critical glances seemed to take in its whole effect. Again +disapprobation clouded her fair brow, and she pronounced audibly but +one word--"Stiff." + +Then she passed into her father's private office. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BLUE BLOOD + + +Dennis's mind was a chaos of conflicting feelings. The picture had +deeply interested him, and so did the beautiful girl that it by strange +coincidence so strongly resembled. It could not be otherwise with one +of his beauty-loving nature. And yet the impression made by the face +in the painting--of something wrong, discordant--was felt more +decidedly in respect to the living face. + +But before he had time to realize what had just passed the lady and +her father appeared at the door of the office, and he heard the latter +say: "I know you are right, my dear. It's all wrong. The arrangement +of the store is as stiff and methodical as if we were engaged in selling +mathematical instruments. But I have not time to attend to the matter, +and there is not one in the store that has the least idea of artistic +combination, unless it is Fleet. I have noticed some encouraging +symptoms in him." + +"What! he of the duster and mop? I fear our case is desperate, then, +if he is our best hope." + +Dennis's cheeks were burning again; but, turning his back, he rubbed +away harder than ever at a Greek god that he was polishing. But they +gave him no thought. Speaking with a sudden animation the young lady +said, "Father, I have a great mind to try it myself--that is, if you +are willing." + +"But, my daughter, I could not permit you to be engaged in any such +employment before our customers." + +"Certainly not! I would come early in the morning, before art-customers +are stirring. I really should enjoy the task greatly, if I had any one +to help me who could in some faint degree comprehend the effects I +wished to produce. The long spring mornings soon to come would be just +the time for it. To what better use could I put my taste and knowledge +of art than in helping you and furthering our plan for life?" + +Mr. Ludolph hesitated between his pride and his strong desire to gain +the advantages which the acceptance of this offer would secure. Finally +he said: "We will think about it. I am expecting a great many new and +beautiful things early in the spring, and no doubt it would be well +then to rearrange the store completely, and break up the rigid system +into which we have fallen. In the meantime I appreciate your offer, +and thank you warmly." + +Dennis's heart leaped within him at the thought of instruction from +such a teacher, and he longed to offer his services. But he rightly +judged that the proposal would be regarded as an impertinence at that +time. The successor of Pat Murphy was not expected to know anything +of art, or have any appreciation of it. So he bent his head lower, but +gave Jupiter Olympus such a rubbing down as the god had deserved long +ago. In a moment more Miss Ludolph passed him on her way out of the +store, noticing him no more than she did his dust-brush. + +Mr. Ludolph was the younger son of a noble but impoverished German +family, and was intensely proud of his patrician blood. His parents, +knowing that he would have to make his own way in the world, had sent +him, while a mere boy, to this country, and placed him in charge of +a distant relative, who was engaged in the picture-trade in New York. +He had here learned to speak English in his youth with the fluency and +accuracy of a native, but had never become Americanized, so much family +pride had he inherited, and $o strongly did he cling to the traditions +of his own land. + +He showed great business ability in his chosen calling, especially +displaying remarkable judgment in the selection of works of art. So +unusual was his skill in this direction, that when twenty-one years +old he was sent abroad to purchase pictures. For several years he +travelled through Europe. He became quite cosmopolitan in character, +and for a time enjoyed life abundantly. His very business brought him +in contact with artists and men of culture, while his taste and love +of beauty were daily gratified. He had abundant means, and money could +open many doors of pleasure to one who, like him, was in vigorous +health and untroubled by a conscience. Moreover, he was able to spend +much time in his beloved Germany, and while there the great ambition +of his life entered his heart. His elder brother, who was living +inexclusive pride and narrow economy on the ancient but diminished +ancestral estate, ever received him graciously. This brother had +married, but had not been blessed or cursed with children, for the +German baron, with his limited finances, could never decide in what +light to regard them. Too poor to mingle with his equals, too proud +to stoop to those whom he regarded as inferiors, he had lived much +alone, and grown narrower and more bigoted in his family pride day by +day. Indeed, that he was Baron Ludolph, was the one great fact of his +life. He spent hours in conning over yellow, musty records of the +ancient grandeur of his house, and would gloat over heroic deeds of +ancestors he never thought of imitating. In brief, he was like a small +barnacle on an old and water-logged ship, that once had made many a +gallant and prosperous voyage richly freighted, but now had drifted +into shallow water and was falling to decay. He made a suggestion, +however, to his younger brother, that wakened the ambition of the +latter's stronger nature, and set him about what became his controlling +purpose, his life-work. + +"Make a fortune in America," said his brother, "and come back and +restore the ancient wealth and glory of your family." + +The seed fell into receptive soil, and from that day the art and +pleasure loving citizen of the world became an earnest man with a +purpose. But as he chose his purpose mainly from selfish motives it +did not become an ennobling one. He now gave double attention to +business and practical economy. He at once formed the project of +starting in business for himself, and of putting the large profits +resulting from his judicious selection of pictures into his own pocket. +He made the most careful arrangements, and secured agencies that he +could trust in the purchase of pictures after he should return to the +United States. + +During his stay in Paris, on his way back, an event occurred that had +a most untoward influence on his plans and hopes. He fell desperately +in love with a beautiful French woman. Like himself, she was poor, but +of patrician blood, and was very fascinating. She attracted him by her +extreme beauty and brilliancy. She was very shrewd, and could seem +anything she chose, being a perfect actress in the false, hollow life +of the world. In accordance with Parisian ideas, she wanted a husband +to pay her bills, to be a sort of protector and base of general +operations. Here was a man who promised well, fine-looking, and, if +not rich, capable of making large sums of money. + +She insinuated herself into his confidence, and appeared to share his +enthusiasm for the darling project of his life. He felt that, with +such a beautiful and sympathetic woman to spur him on and share his +success, earth would be a Paradise indeed; and she assured him, in +many delicate and bewitching ways, that it would. In brief, he married +her; and then learned, in bitterness, anger, and disgust, that she had +totally deceived him. To his passionate love she returned indifference; +to his desire for economy, unbounded extravagance, contracting debts +which he must pay to avoid disgrace. She showed an utter unwillingness +to leave the gayety of Paris, laughing in his face at his plan of life, +and assuring him that she would never live in so stupid a place as +Germany. His love died hard. He made every appeal to her that affection +prompted. He tried entreaty, tenderness, coldness, anger, but all in +vain. Selfish to the core, loving him not, utterly unscrupulous, she +trod upon his quivering heart as recklessly as upon the stones of the +street. Soon he saw that, in spite of his vigilance, he was in danger +of being betrayed in all respects. Then he grew hard and fierce. The +whole of his strong German nature was aroused. In a tone and manner +that startled and frightened her, he said: "_We_ sail for New York in +three days. Be ready. If you prove unfaithful to me--if you seek to +desert me, I will _kill_ you. I swear it--not by God, for I don't +believe in Him. If He existed, such creatures as you would not. But I +swear it by my family pride and name, which are dearer to me than life, +if you leave a stain upon them you shall _die_. You need not seek to +escape me. I would follow you through the world. I would kill you on the +crowded street--anywhere, even though I died myself the next moment. And +now look well to your steps." + +The glitter of his eye was as cold and remorseless as the sheen of +steel. She saw that he meant and would do just what he said. + +The woman had one good point--at least, it turned out to be such in +this case. She was a coward naturally, and her bad life made her dread +nothing so much as death. Her former flippant indifference to his +remonstrances now changed into abject fear. He saw her weak side, +learned his power, and from that time forward kept her within bounds +by a judicious system of terrorism. + +He took her to New York and commanded her to appear the charming woman +she could if she chose. She obeyed, and rather enjoyed the excitement +and deceit. His friends were delighted with her, but he received their +congratulations with a grim, quiet smile. At times, though, when she +was entertaining them with all grace, beauty, and sweetness, the thought +of what she was seemed only a horrid dream. But he had merely to catch +her eye, with its gleam of fear and hate, to know the truth. + +He felt that he could not trust to the continuance of her good behavior, +and was anxious to get away among strangers as soon as possible. He +therefore closed his business relations in New York. Though she had +crippled him greatly by her extravagance, he had been able to bring +out a fair stock of good pictures, and a large number of articles of +virtue, selected with his usual taste. The old firm, finding that +they could not keep him, offered all the goods he wanted on commission. +So +in a few weeks he started for Chicago, the most promising city of the +West, as he believed, and established himself there in a modest way. +Still the chances were even against him, for he had involved himself +heavily, and drawn to the utmost on his credit in starting. If he could +not sell largely the first year, he was a broken man. For months the +balance wavered, and he lived with financial ruin on one side, and +domestic ruin on the other. But, with a heart of ice and nerves of +steel, he kept his hand on the helm. + +His beautiful collection, though in an unpretentious store, at last +attracted attention, and after some little time it became _the_ thing in +the fashionable world to go there, and from that time forward his +fortune was made. + +When his wife became a mother, there was a faint hope in Mr. Ludolph's +heart that this event might awaken the woman within her, if aught of +the true woman existed. He tried to treat her with more kindness, but +found it would not answer. She mistook it for weakness on his part. +From first to last she acted in the most heartless manner, and treated +the child with shameless neglect. This banished from her husband even +the shadow of regard, and he cursed her to her face. Thenceforth will +and ambition controlled his life and hers, and with an iron hand he +held her in check. She saw that she was in the power of a desperate +man, who would sacrifice her in a moment if she thwarted him. +Through cowardly fear she remained his reluctant but abject slave, +pricking him with the pins and needles of petty annoyances, when she +would have pierced him to the heart had she dared. This monstrous state +of affairs could not last forever, and, had not death terminated the +unnatural relation, some terrible catastrophe would no doubt have +occurred. Having contracted a western fever, she soon became delirious, +and passed away in this unconscious state, to the intense joy and +relief of her husband. + +But the child lived, thrived, and developed into the graceful girl +whose beauty surpassed, as we have seen, even the painter's ideal. Her +father at first cared little for the infant, but secured it every +attention. As it developed into a pretty girl, however, with winning +ways, and rich promise, he gradually associated her with his hopes and +plans, till at last she became an essential part of his ambition. + +His plan now was briefly this: He would entangle himself with no +alliances or intimate associations in America, nor would he permit his +daughter to do so. His only object in staying here was the accumulation +of a large fortune, and to this for a few years he would bend every +energy of mind and body. As soon as he felt that he had sufficient means +to live in such style as befitted the ancient and honorable name +of his family, he would return to Germany, buy all he could of the +ancestral estate that from time to time had been parted with, and +restore his house to its former grandeur. He himself would then seek +a marriage connection that would strengthen his social position, while +his daughter also should make a brilliant alliance with some member +of the nobility. Mr. Ludolph was a handsome, well-preserved man; he +had been most successful in business, and was now more rapidly than +ever accumulating that which is truly a power with Europeans of blue +blood, as with democratic Americans. Moreover, his daughter's beauty +promised to be such that, when enhanced by every worldly advantage, +it might well command attention in the highest circles. He sought with +scrupulous care to give her just the education that would enable her +to shine as a star among the high-born. Art, music, and knowledge of +literature, especially the German, were the main things to which her +attention was directed, and in her father, with his richly stored mind, +faultless taste, and cultured voice, she had an instructor such as +rarely falls to the lot of the most favored. + +When Christine Ludolph was about sixteen years of age, events occurred +which might have greatly marred her father's plans. She secretly formed +a most unfortunate attachment, which came near resulting in a +clandestine marriage. Although the world would have judged her harshly, +and the marriage could only have been exceedingly disastrous to her +future life, the motherless girl was not very much to blame. Even among +the mature there is a proverbial blindness in these matters. She was +immature, misled by her imagination, and the victim of uncurbed romantic +fancies. But, after all, the chief incentive to her folly was a natural +craving for the love and sympathy which she had never found in her own +home. To her chilled young heart these gifts were so sweet and +satisfying that she was in no mood to criticise the donor, even had +her knowledge of the world enabled her to do so. Thus far, in his care +of Christine, Mr. Ludolph had conformed to the foreign ideas of +seclusion and repression, and the poor girl, unguided, unguarded by +kind womanly counsel, was utterly unsophisticated, and she might have +easily become the prey of the unscrupulous man whose chief incentive +had been her father's wealth. Mr. Ludolph fortunately discovered the +state of affairs in time to prevent gossip. Under his remorseless +logic, bitter satire, and ridicule her young dream was torn to shreds. +The man whom she had surrounded with a halo of romance was shown to +be worthless and commonplace. Her idol had chiefly been a creature of +the imagination, and when the bald, repulsive truth concerning him had +been proved to her in such a way that she could not escape conviction, +she was equally disgusted with him and herself. + +For some weeks Mr. Ludolph treated his daughter with cold distrust. +"She will be like her mother, I suppose," he thought. "Already she has +begun to deceive me and to imperil everything by her folly;" and his +heart was full of bitterness toward his child. Thus the poor girl dwelt +in a chilled and blighting atmosphere at a time when she most sorely +needed kindness and wise guidance. + +She was very unhappy, for she saw that her father had lost all +confidence in her. She fairly turned sick when she thought of the past. +She had lived in the world of romance and mystery; she had loved with +all her girlish power; and, however wrongly and unjustly, by the +inevitable laws of association she connected the words "love" and +"romance" with one whom she now detested and loathed. Within a week +after her miserable experience she became as utter a sceptic in regard +to human love, and happiness flowing from it, as her father had taught +her to be respecting God and the joy of believing. Though seemingly +a fair young girl, her father had made her worse than a pagan. She +believed in nothing save art and her father's wisdom. He seemed to +embody the culture and worldly philosophy that now became, in her +judgment, the only things worth living for. To gain his confidence +became her great desire. But this had received a severe shock. Mr. +Ludolph had lost all faith in everything save money and his own will. +Religion was to him a gross superstition, and woman's virtue and truth, +poetic fictions. + +He watched Christine narrowly, and said just enough to draw out the +workings of her mind. He then decided to tell his plan for life, and +give her strong additional motives for doing his will. The picture he +portrayed of the future dazzled her proud, ambitious spirit, and opened +to her fancy what then seemed the only path to happiness. She entered +into his projects with honest enthusiasm, and bound herself by the +most solemn promises to aid in carrying them out. But in bitterness +he remembered one who had promised with seeming enthusiasm before, and +he distrusted his daughter, watching her with lynx-eyed vigilance. + +But gradually he began to believe in her somewhat, as he saw her looking +forward with increasing eagerness to the heaven of German fashionable +life, wherein she, rich, admired, allied by marriage to some powerful +noble family, should shine a queen in the world of art. + +"I have joined her aspirations to mine," he said, in self-gratulation. +"I have blended our ambitions and sources of hope and enjoyment, and +that is better than all her promises." + +When Dennis saw first the face that was so beautiful and yet so marred +by pride and selfishness, Christine was about nineteen years old, and +yet as mature in some respects as a woman of thirty. She had the perfect +self-possession that familiarity with the best society gives. Mr. +Ludolph was now too shrewd to seek safety in seclusion. He went with +his daughter into the highest circles of the city, and Christine had +crowds of admirers and many offers. All this she enjoyed, but took it +coolly as her right, with the air of a Greek goddess accepting the +incense that rose in her temple. She was too proud and refined to flirt +in the ordinary sense of the word, and no one could complain that she +gave much encouragement. But this state of things was all the more +stimulating, and each one believed, with confidence in his peculiar +attractions, that he might succeed where all others had failed. Miss +Ludolph's admirers were unaware that they had a rival in some as yet +unknown German nobleman. At last it passed into a proverb that the +beautiful and brilliant girl who was so free and courtly in society +was as cold and unsusceptible as one of her father's statues. + +Thus it would seem that when circumstances brought the threads of these +two lives near each other, Dennis's and Christine's, the most impassable +barriers rose between them, and that the threads could never be woven +together, or the lives blended. She was the daughter of the wealthy, +aristocratic Mr. Ludolph; he was her father's porter. + +Next to the love of art, pride and worldly ambition were her strongest +characteristics. She was an unbeliever in God and religion, not from +conviction, but from training. She knew very little about either, and +what light she had came to her through false mediums. She did not even +believe in that which in many young hearts is religion's shadow, love +and romance, nor did her father take a more worldly and practical view +of life than she. + +In marked contrast we have seen the character of Dennis Fleet, drawing +its inspiration from such different sources. + +Could two human beings be more widely separated--separated in that +which divides more surely than continents and seas? + +Could Dennis have seen her warped, deformed moral nature, as clearly +as her beautiful face and form, he would have shrunk from her; but +while recognizing defects, he shared the common delusion, that the +lovely outward form and face must enshrine much that is noble and ready +to blossom into good, if the right motives can be presented. + +As for Christine, she had one chance for life, one chance for heaven. +She was _young_. Her nature had not so hardened and crystallized in evil +as to be beyond new and happier influences. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +VERY COLD + + +When Dennis entered Mr. Ludolph's store Christine was absent on a visit +to New York. On her return she resumed her old routine. At this time +she and her father were occupying a suite of rooms at a fashionable +hotel. Her school-days were over, Mr. Ludolph preferring to complete +her education himself in accordance with his peculiar views and tastes. +She was just passing into her twentieth year, and looked upon the world +from the vantage points of health, beauty, wealth, accomplishments of +the highest order, and the best social standing. Assurance of a long +and brilliant career possessed her mind, while pride and beauty were +like a coronet upon her brow. She was the world's ideal of a queen. + +And yet she was not truly happy. There was ever a vague sense of unrest +and dissatisfaction at heart. She saw that her father was proud and +ambitious in regard to her, but she instinctively felt that he neither +loved nor trusted her to any great extent. She seemed to be living in +a palace of ice, and at times felt that she was turning into ice +herself; but her very humanity and womanhood, deadened and warped +though they were, cried out against the _cold_ of a life without God or +love. In the depths of her soul she felt that something was wrong, but +what, she could not understand. It seemed that she had everything that +heart could wish, and that she ought to be satisfied. + +She had at last concluded that her restlessness was the prompting of +a lofty ambition, and that if she chose she could win world-wide +celebrity as an artist. This, with the whole force of her strong nature, +she had determined to do, and for over two years had worked with an +energy akin to enthusiasm. She had resolved that painting should be +the solid structure of her success, and music its ornament. + +Nor were her dreams altogether chimerical, for she had remarkable +talent in her chosen field of effort, and had been taught to use the +brush and pencil from childhood. She could imitate with skill and +taste, and express with great accuracy the musical thought of the +composer; but she could not create new effects, and this had already +begun to trouble her. She worked hard and patiently, determined to +succeed. So great had been her application that her father saw the +need of rest and change, and therefore her visit to New York. She had +now returned strengthened, and eager for her former studies, and resumed +them with tenfold zest. + +The plan of rearranging the store on artistic principles daily grew +in favor with her. It was just the exercise of taste she delighted in, +and she hoped some day to indulge it on palace walls that would be her +own. Her father's pride caused him to hesitate for some time, but she +said: "Why, Chicago is not our home; we shall soon be thousands of +miles away. You know how little we really care for the opinions of the +people here: it is only our own pride and opinion that we need consult. +I see nothing lowering or unfeminine in the work. I shall scarcely +touch a thing myself, merely direct; for surely among all in your +employ there must be one or two pairs of hands not so utterly awkward +but that they can follow plain instructions. My taste shall do it all. +We are both early risers, and the whole change can be made before the +store is opened. Moreover," she added (with an expression indicating +that she would have little difficulty in ruling her future German +castle, and its lord also), "this is an affair of our own. Those you +employ ought to understand by this time that it is neither wise nor +safe to talk of our business outside." + +After a moment's thought she concluded: "I really think that the proper +arrangement of everything in the store as to light, display, and effect, +so that people of taste will be pleased when they enter, would add +thousands of dollars to your sales; and this rigid system of old +Schwartz's, which annoys us both beyond endurance, will be broken up." + +Won over by arguments that accorded with his inclinations, Mr. Ludolph +gave his daughter permission to carry out the plan in her own way. + +She usually accompanied her father to the store in the morning. He, +after a brief glance around, would go to his private office and attend +to correspondence. She would do whatever her mood prompted. Sometimes +she would sit down for a half-hour before one picture; again she would +examine most critically a statue or a statuette. Whenever new music +was received, she looked it over and carried off such pieces as pleased +her fancy. + +She evidently was a privileged character, and no one save her father +exercised the slightest control over her movements. She treated all +the clerks, save old Schwartz, as if they were animated machines; and +by a quiet order, as if she had touched a spring, would set them in +motion to do her bidding. The young men in the store were of German +descent, and rather heavy and undemonstrative. Mr. Schwartz's system +of order and repression had pretty thoroughly quenched them. They were +educated to the niches they filled, and seemed to have no thought +beyond; therefore they were all unruffled at Miss Ludolph's air of +absolute sovereignty. Mr. Schwartz was as obsequious as the rest, but, +as second to her father in power, was permitted some slight familiarity. +In fact this heavy, stolid prime-minister both amused and annoyed her, +and she treated him with the caprice of a child toward an elephant +--at times giving him the sugar-plum of a compliment, and oftener +pricking him with the pin of some caustic remark. To him she was the +perfection of womankind--her reserved, dispassionate manner, her steady, +unwearied prosecution of a purpose, being just the qualities that he +most honored; and he worshipped her reverently at a distance, like an +old astrologer adoring some particularly bright fixed star. No whisking +comets or changing satellites for old Schwartz. + +As for Dennis, she treated him as she probably had treated Pat Murphy, +and for several days had no occasion to notice him at all. In fact he +kept out of her way, choosing at first to observe rather than be +observed. She became an artistic study to him, for her every movement +was grace itself, except that there was no softness or gentleness in +her manner. Her face fascinated him by its beauty, though its expression +troubled him--it was so unlike his mother's, so unlike what he felt +a woman's ought to be. But her eager interest in that which was becoming +so dear to him--art--would have covered a multitude of sins in his +eyes, and with a heart abounding in faith and hope, not yet diminished +by hard experience, he believed that the undeveloped angel existed +within her. But he remembered her frown when she had first noticed his +observation of her. The shrewd Yankee youth saw that her pride would +not brook even a curious glance. But while he kept at a most respectful +distance he felt that there was no such wide gulf between them as she +imagined. By birth and education he was as truly entitled to her +acquaintance as the young men who sometimes came into the store with +her and whom she met in society. Position and wealth were alone wanting, +and in spite of his hard experience and lowly work he felt that there +must be some way for him, as for others, to win these. + +He longed for the society of ladies, as every right-feeling young man +does, and to one of his nature the grace and beauty of woman +were peculiarly attractive. If, before she came, the lovely faces of the +pictures had filled the place with a sort of witchery, and created +about him an atmosphere in which his artist-soul was awakening into +life and growth, how much more would it be true of this living vision +of beauty that glided in and out every day! + +"She does not notice me," he at first said to himself, "any more than +do these lovely shadows upon the canvas. But why need I care? I can +study both them and her, and thus educate my eye, and I hope my hand, +to imitate and perhaps surpass their perfections in time." + +But this cool, philosophic mood did not last long. It might answer +very well in regard to the pictures on the walls, but there was a +magnetism about this living, breathing woman that soon caused him to +long for the privilege of being near her and speaking to her of that +subject that interested them both so deeply. Though he had never seen +any of her paintings to know them, he soon saw that she was no novice +in such matters and that she looked at works of art with the eye of +a connoisseur. In revery he had many a spirited conversation with her, +and he trusted that some day his dreams would become real. He had the +romantic hope that if she should discover his taste and strong love +of art she might at first bestow upon him a patronizing interest which +would gradually grow into respect and acknowledged equality. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +SHE SPEAKS TO HIM + + +After the plan for the re-arrangement of the store had been determined +upon, Miss Ludolph began to study its topography. She went regularly +through the building, examining closely every part and space, sometimes +sketching a few outlines in a little gilt book. Apparently she was +seeking by her taste to make the show-rooms pictures in themselves, +wherein all the parts should blend harmoniously, and create one +beautiful effect. Dennis saw what was coming. The carrying-out of the +plan he had heard discussed, and he wished with intense longing that +he might be her assistant. But she would as soon have thought of sending +for Pat Murphy. She intended to select one of the older clerks to aid +her. Still Dennis hoped that by some strange and happy turn of fortune +part of this work might fall to him. + +Every spare moment of early morning and evening he spent in sketching +and studying, but he sadly felt the need of instruction, and of money +to buy materials. He was merely groping his way as best he might; and +he felt that Miss Ludolph could teach him so much, if she would only +condescend to the task! He was willing to be a very humble learner at +first. If in some way he could only make known his readiness to pick +up the crumbs of knowledge that she might be willing out of kindness +to scatter in his path, he might expect something from ordinary good +nature. + +But a week or two passed without his receiving so much as a glance +from those cold blue eyes that rested so critically on all before them; +and on an unlucky day in March all hope of help from her vanished. +Under the influence of spring the streets were again becoming muddy, +and his duties as bootblack increased daily. He had arranged to perform +this menial task in a remote corner of the store, as much out of sight +as possible. The duty had become still more disagreeable since the +young lady haunted the place, for he feared she would learn to associate +him only with the dust-brush and blacking-brush. + +Just behind where he usually stood, a good picture had been hung, under +Mr. Schwartz's system, simply because it accurately fitted the space. +It was in a wretched light, and could never be seen or appreciated +there. Miss Ludolph in her investigations and plannings discovered +this at a time most unfortunate for poor Dennis. While polishing away +one morning, he suddenly became conscious that she was approaching. +It seemed that she was looking directly at him, and was about to speak. +His heart thumped like a trip-hammer, his cheeks burned, and a blur +came over his eyes, for he was diffident in ladies' presence. Therefore +he stood before her the picture of confusion, with a big boot poised +in one hand, and the polishing-brush in the other. With the instincts +of a gentleman, however, he made an awkward bow, feeling, though, that +under the circumstances his politeness could only appear ridiculous. +And he was right. It was evident from the young lady's face that her +keen perception of the ridiculous was thoroughly aroused. But for the +sake of her own dignity (she cared not a jot for him), she bit her lip +to control her desire to laugh in his face, and said, rather sharply, +"Will you stand out of my way?" + +_She had spoken to him._ + +He was so mortified and confused that in his effort to obey he partially +fell over a bronze sheep, designed to ornament some pastoral scene, +and the heel of Mr. Schwartz's heavy boot came down with a thump that +made everything ring. There was a titter from some of the clerks. Mr. +Ludolph, who was following his daughter, exclaimed, "What's the matter, +Fleet? You seem rather unsteady, this morning, for a church member." + +For a moment he had the general appearance usually ascribed to the +sheep, his unlucky stumbling-block. But by a strong effort he recovered +himself. Deigning no reply, he set his teeth, compressed his lips, +picked up the boot, and polished away as before, trying to look and +feel regardless of all the world. In fact there was as much pride in +his face as there had ever been in hers. But, not noticing him, she +said to her father: "Here is a specimen. Look where this picture is +hung. In bootblack corner I should term it. It would not sell here in +a thousand years, for what little light there is would be obscured +much of the time by somebody's big boots and the artist in charge. It +has evidently been placed here in view of one principle +alone--dimensions; its length and breadth according with the space in +the corner. You will see what a change I will bring about in a month +or two, after my plans are matured;" and then she strolled to another +part of the store. But, before leaving, Miss Ludolph happened to glance +at Dennis's face, and was much struck by its expression. Surely Pat +Murphy never would or could look like that. For the first time the +thought entered her mind that Dennis might be of a different clay and +character from Pat. But the next moment his expression of pride and +offended dignity, in such close juxtaposition to the big boot he was +twirling almost savagely around, again appealed to her sense of the +ludicrous, and she turned away with a broad smile. Dennis, looking up, +saw the smile and guessed the cause; and when, a moment after, Mr. +Schwartz appeared, asking in his loud, blunt way, "My boots ready?" +he felt like flinging both at his head, and leaving the store forever. +Handing them to him without a word, he hastened upstairs, for he felt +that he must be alone. + +At first his impulse was strong to rebel--to assert that by birth and +education he was a gentleman, and must be treated as such, or he would +go elsewhere. But, as the tumult in his mind calmed, the case became +as clear to him as a sum in addition. He had voluntarily taken Pat +Murphy's place, and why should he complain at Pat's treatment? He had +pledged his word that there should be no trouble from his being above +his business, and he resolved to keep his word till Providence gave +him better work to do. He bathed his hot face in cool water, breathed +a brief prayer for strength and patience, and went back to his tasks +strong and calm. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +PROMOTED + + +Late in the afternoon of the same day (which was Saturday), as Mr. +Ludolph was passing out of the store on his way home, he noticed the +table that he had arranged artistically some little time before as a +lesson to his clerks. Gradually it had fallen back into its old straight +lines and rigid appearance. He seemed greatly annoyed. + +"What is the use of re-arranging the store?" he muttered. "They will +have it all back again on the general principle of a ramrod in a little +while. But we have put our hands to this work, and it shall be carried +through, even if I discharge half of these wooden-heads." + +Then calling the clerk in charge, he said, "Look here, Mr. Berder, I +grouped the articles on this counter for you once, did I not?" +"Yes, sir." + +"Let me find them Monday morning just as I arranged them on that +occasion." + +The young man looked as blank and dismayed as if he had been ordered +to swallow them all before Monday morning. + +He went to work and jumbled them up as if that were grouping them, and +then asked one or two of the other clerks what they thought of it. +They shook their heads, and said it looked worse than before. + +"I vill study over him all day to-morrow, and den vill come early +Monday and fix him;" and the perplexed youth took himself off. + +Dennis felt almost sure that he could arrange it as Mr. Ludolph had +done, or with something of the same effect, but did not like to offer +his services, not knowing how they would be received, for Mr. Berder +had taken special delight in snubbing him. + +After the duties of the store were over, Dennis wrote to his mother +a warm, bright, filial letter, portraying the scene of the day in its +comic light, making all manner of fun of himself, that he might hide +the fact that he had suffered. But he did not hide it, as a return +letter proved, for it was full of sympathy and indignation that +_her_ son should be so treated, but also full of praise for his +Christian manliness and patience. + +"And now, my son," she wrote, "let me tell you of at least two +results of your steady, faithful performance of your present humble +duties. The money you send so regularly is more than sufficient for +our simple wants. We have every comfort, and I am laying something by +for sickness and trouble, for both are pretty sure to come before long +in this world. In the second place, you have given me that which is +far better than money--comfort and strength. I feel more and more that +we can lean upon you as our earthly support, and not find you a 'broken +reed.' While so many sons are breaking their mothers' hearts, you are +filling mine with hope and joy. I am no prophetess, my son, but from +the sure word of God I predict for you much happiness and prosperity +for thus cheering and providing for your widowed mother. Mark my words. +God has tried you and not found you wanting. He will soon give you +better work to do--work more in keeping With your character and +ability." + +This prediction was fulfilled before Dennis received the letter +containing it, and it happened on this wise. + +Early on Monday morning Mr. Berder appeared and attempted the hopeless +task of grouping the articles on his table in accordance with Mr. +Ludolph's orders. After an hour's work he exclaimed in despair, "I +cannot do him to save my life." + +Dennis at a distance, with a half-amused, half-pitying face, had watched +Mr. Berder's wonderful combinations, and when Rip Van Winkle was placed +between two togated Roman senators, and Ichabod Crane arranged as if +making love to a Greek goddess, he came near laughing outright. But +when Mr. Berder spoke he approached and said, kindly and respectfully, +"Will you let me try to help you?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Berder; "you cannot make dings vorse." +Acting upon this ungracious permission, Dennis folded his arms and +studied the table for five minutes. + +"Come," said Mr. Berder, "standing dere and looking so vise as an owl +von't help matters. Mr. Ludolph vill be here soon." + +"I am not losing time," said Dennis; and a moment proved he was not, +for, having formed a general plan of arrangement, he went rapidly to +work, and in a quarter of an hour could challenge Mr. Ludolph or any +other critic to find serious fault. + +"There! I could do better if I had more time, but I must go to my +sweeping and dusting, or Mr. Schwartz will be down on me, and he is +pretty heavy, you know. I never saw such a man--he can see a grain of +dust half across the store." + +Mr. Berder had looked at Dennis's quick, skilful motions in blank +amazement, and then broke out into an unwonted panegyric for him: "I +say, Vleet, dot's capital! Where you learn him?" Then in a paroxysm +of generosity he added, "Dere's a quarter for you." + +"No, I thank you," said Dennis, "I did not do it for money." + +"Vat did der fool do it for, den, I'd like to know?" muttered Mr. +Berder, the philosophy of bid life resuming its former control. "Saved +a quarter, anyhow, and, vat's more, know vere to go next dime der old +man comes down on me." + +A little after nine Mr. and Miss Ludolph came in, and paused at the +table. Dennis, unnoticed, stood behind Benjamin Franklin and Joan of +Arc, placed lovingly together on another counter, face to face, as if +in mutual admiration, and from his hiding-place watched the scene +before him with intense anxiety. One thought only filled his mind--Would +they approve or condemn his taste? for he had arranged the table on +a plan of his own. His heart gave a glad bound when Mr. Ludolph said: +"Why, Berder, this is excellent. To be sure you have taken your own +method, and followed your own taste, but I find no fault with that, +when you produce an effect like this." + +"I declare, father," chimed in Miss Ludolph, "this table pleases me +greatly. It is a little oasis in this great desert of a store. Mr. +Berder, I compliment you on your taste. You shall help me rearrange, +artistically, everything in the building." + +Dennis, in his agitation, came near precipitating Benjamin Franklin +into the arms of Joan of Arc, a position scarcely in keeping with +either character. + +"Yes, Christine, that is true," continued Mr. Ludolph, "Mr. Berder +will be just the one to help you, and I am glad you have found one +competent. By all the furies! just compare this table with the one +next to it, where the Past, Present, and Future have not the slightest +regard for each other, and satyrs and angels, philosophers and bandits, +are mixed up about as closely as in real life. Here, Berder, try you +hand at this counter also; and you, young men, gather round and see +the difference when _art_, instead of mathematics, rules the world of +art. If this thing goes on, we shall have the golden age back again in +the store." + +Mr. Berder, though somewhat confused, had received all his compliments +with bows and smiles. But Dennis, after his thrill of joy at having +pleased Mr. and Miss Ludolph's fastidious taste, felt himself reddening +with honest indignation that Mr. Berder should carry off all his laurels +before his face. But he resolved to say nothing, knowing that time +would right him. When Mr. Ludolph asked the young men to step forward, +he came with the others. + +"That's right, Fleet," said Mr. Ludolph, again, "you can get a useful +hint, too, like enough." + +"Nonsense, father," said Miss Ludolph, in a tone not so low but that +Dennis heard it; "why spoil a good sweeper and duster by putting uppish +notions in his head? He keeps the store cleaner than any man you ever +had, and I don't soil my dresses as I used to." + +Dennis's color heightened a little, and his lips closed more firmly, +but he gave no other sign that he heard this limitation of his hope +and ambition. But it cut him rather deep. The best he could ever do, +then, in her view, was to keep her dresses from being soiled. + +In the meantime Mr. Berder had shown great embarrassment at Mr. +Ludolph's unexpected request. After a few moments of awkward hesitation +he stammered out that he could do it better alone. The suspicion of +keen Mr. Ludolph was at once aroused and he persisted: "Oh, come, Mr. +Berder, we don't expect you to do your best in a moment, but a person +of your taste can certainly make a great change for the better in the +table before you." + +In sheer desperation the entrapped youth attempted the task, but he +had not bungled five minutes before Mr. Ludolph said, sharply, "Mr. +Berder, you did not arrange this table." + +"Vell," whined Mr. Berder, "I didn't say dot I did." + +"You caused me to believe that you did," said Mr. Ludolph, his brow +growing dark. "Now, one question, and I wish the truth: Who did +arrange this table?" + +"Vleet, dere, helped me," gasped Mr. Berder. + +"_Helped_ you? Mr. Fleet, step forward, if you please, for I intend to +have the truth of this matter. How much help did Mr. Berder give you in +arranging this table?" + +"None, sir," said Dennis, looking straight into Mr. Ludolph's eyes. + +All looked with great surprise at Dennis, especially Miss Ludolph, who +regarded him most curiously. "How different he appears from Pat Murphy!" +she again thought. + +"Some one has told a lie, now," said Mr. Ludolph, sternly. "Mr. Fleet, +I shall put you to the same test that Berder failed in. Arrange that +counter sufficiently well to prove that it was your hands that arranged +this." + +Dennis stepped forward promptly, but with a pale face and compressed +lips. Feeling that both honor and success were at stake, he grouped +and combined everything as before, as far as the articles would permit, +having no time to originate a new plan. As he worked, the clerks gazed +in open astonishment, Mr. Ludolph looked significantly at his daughter, +while she watched him with something of the same wonder which we have +when one of the lower animals shows human sagacity and skill. + +Mr. Ludolph was Napoleonic in other respects than his ambition and +selfishness. He was shrewd enough to "promote on the field for +meritorious services." Therefore, as Dennis's task approached +completion, he said: "That will do, Mr. Fleet, you can finish the work +at your leisure. Mr. Berder, you are discharged from this day for +deception. I would have borne with your incompetency if you had been +truthful. But I never trust any one who has deceived me once," he said, +so sternly that even Christine's cheek paled. "Mr. Schwartz will settle +with you, and let me never see or hear from you again. Mr. Fleet, I +promote you to Mr. Berder's counter and pay." + +Thus this man of the world, without a thought of pity, mercy, or kindly +feeling in either case, gave one of his clerks a new impetus toward +the devil, and another an important lift toward better things, and +then went his way, congratulating himself that all things had worked +together for his good, that morning, though where he would find another +Dennis Fleet to fill Pat's place, again vacant, he did not know. + +But Miss Ludolph looked at Dennis somewhat kindly, and with a little +honest admiration in her face. He was very different from what she had +as a matter of course supposed him to be, and had just done in a quiet, +manly way a thing most pleasing to her, so she said with a smile that +seemed perfectly heavenly to him, "_You_ are above blacking boots, sir." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +JUST IN TIME + + +At the close of the day on which Dennis received his promotion, and +his horizon was widened so unexpectedly, Mr. Ludolph, in passing out, +noticed him engaged as usual on one of Pat Murphy's old tasks. He +stopped and spoke kindly, "Well, Fleet, where am I going to find a man +to fill your place made vacant to-day?" + +"Would you be willing to listen to a suggestion from me?" + +"Certainly." + +"If a young boy was employed to black boots, run errands, and attend +to minor matters, I think that by industry I might for a while fill +both positions. In a short time the furnace will require no further +attention. I am a very early riser, and think that by a little good +management I can keep the store in order and still be on hand to attend +to my counter when customers are about." + +Mr. Ludolph was much pleased with the proposition, and said, promptly, +"You may try it, Fleet, and I will pay you accordingly. Do you know +of a boy who will answer?" + +"I think I do, sir. There is a German lad in my mission class who has +interested me very much. His father is really a superior artist, but +is throwing himself away with drink, and his mother is engaged in an +almost hopeless effort to support the family. They have seen much +better days, and their life seems very hard in contrast with the past." + +"Can we trust such a boy? Their very necessities may lead to theft." + +"They are not of the thieving sort, sir. I am satisfied that they would +all starve rather than touch a penny that did not belong to them." + +"Very well, then, let him come and see me; but I will hold you +responsible for him." + +Mr. Ludolph, being in a good humor, was disposed to banter Dennis, so +he added: "Do you find time to be a missionary, also? Are you not in +danger of becoming a 'Jack at all trades'?" + +"I am not entitled to the first character, and hope to shun the latter. +I merely teach a dozen boys in a mission school on Sundays." + +"When you ought to be taking a good long nap, or a row on the lake for +fresh air and recreation." + +"I should be dishonest if I spent my Sabbaths in that way." + +"How so?" + +"I should give the lie to my profession and belief. I must drop the +name of Christian when I live for myself." + + +"And if you should drop it, do you think you would be much the loser?" + +"Yes, sir," said Dennis, with quiet emphasis. + +"You are expecting great reward, in some sort of Paradise, for your +mission work, etc.?" + +"Nothing done for God is forgotten or unrewarded." + +"Believing that, it seems to me that you are looking after self-interest +as much as the rest of us," said his employer, with a shrewd smile. + +Looking straight into Mr. Ludolph's eyes, Dennis said, earnestly: +"Without boasting, I think that I can say that I try to serve you +faithfully. If you could see my heart, I am sure you would find that +gratitude for your kindness is a part of my motive, as well as my +wages. In the same manner, while I do not lose sight of the rich rewards +God promises and daily gives for the little I can do for Him, I am +certain that I can do much out of simple gratitude and love, and ask +no reward." + +"Ignorance is certainly bliss in your case, young man. Stick to your +harmless superstition as long as you can." + +And he walked away, muttering: "Delusion, delusion! I have not said +a word or done a thing for him in which I had not in view my interests +only, and yet the poor young fool sees in the main disinterested +kindness. Little trouble have the wily priests in imposing on such +victims, and so they get their hard-earned wages and set them +propagating the delusion in mission schools, when mind and body need +change and rest. Suppose there is a Supreme Being in the universe, +what a monstrous absurdity to imagine that He would trouble Himself +to reward this Yankee youth for teaching a dozen ragamuffins in a +tenement-house mission school!" + +Thus Mr. Ludolph's soliloquy proved that his own pride and selfishness +had destroyed the faculty by which he could see God. The blind are not +more oblivious to color than he was to those divine qualities which +are designed to win and enchain the heart. A man may sadly mutilate +his own soul. + +At a dainty dinner-table Mr. Ludolph and his daughter discussed the +events of the day. + +"I am glad," said the latter, "that he is willing to fill Pat's place, +for he keeps everything so clean. A dusty, slovenly store is my +abomination. Then it shows that he has no silly, uppish notions so +common to these Americans." (Though born here, Miss Ludolph never +thought herself other than a German lady of rank.) "But I do not wish +to see him blacking boots again. Yet he is an odd genius. How comical +he looked bowing to me with one of Mr. Schwartz's big boots describing +a graceful curve on a level with his head. Let old Schwartz black his +own boots. He ought to as a punishment for carrying around so much +leather. This Fleet must have seen better days. He is like all Yankees, +however, sharp after the dollar, though he seems more willing to work +for it than most of them." + +"I'll wager you a pair of gloves," said her father, "that they get a +good percentage of it down at the mission school. He is just the subject +for a cunning priest, because he sincerely believes in their foolery. +He belongs to a tribe now nearly extinct, I imagine--the martyrs, who +in old-fashioned times died for all sorts of delusions." + +"How time mellows and changes everything! There is something heroic +and worthy of art in the ancient martyrdoms, while nothing is more +repulsive than modern fanaticism. It is a shame, though, that this +young man, with mother and sisters to support, should be robbed of his +hard earnings as was Pat Murphy by his priest, and I will try to open +his eyes some day." + +"I predict for you no success." + +"Why so?--he seems intelligent." + +"I have not studied character all my life in vain. He would regard +you, my fair daughter, as the devil in the form of an angel of light +tempting him." + +"He had better not be so plain-spoken as yourself." + +"Oh, no need of Fleet's speaking; his face is like the page of an open +book." + +"Indeed! a face like a sign-board is a most unfortunate one, I should +think." + +"Most fortunate for us. I wish I could read every one as I can Fleet." + +"You trust no one, I believe, father." + +"I believe what I see and know." + +"I wish I had your power of seeing and knowing. But how did he get his +artistic knowledge and taste?" + +"That I have not inquired into fully, as yet. I think he has an unusual +native aptness for these things, and gains hints and instruction where +others would see nothing. And, as you say, in the better days past he +may have had some advantages." + +"Well," said she, caressing the greyhound beside her, "if Wolf here +should go to the piano and execute an opera, I should not be more +astonished than I was this morning." + +And then their conversation glided off on other topics. + +After dessert, Mr. Ludolph lighted a cigar and sat down to the evening +paper, while his daughter evoked from the piano true after-dinner +music--light, brilliant, mirth-inspiring. Then both adjourned to their +private billiard-room. + +The scene of our story now changes from Mr. Ludolph's luxurious +apartments in one of the most fashionable hotels in the city to a +forlorn attic in De Koven Street. It is the scene of a struggle as +desperate, as heroic, against as tremendous odds, as was ever carried +on in the days of the Crusades. But as the foremost figure in this +long, weary conflict was not an armed and panoplied knight, but merely +a poor German woman, only God and the angels took much interest in it. +Still upon this evening she was almost vanquished. She seemed to have +but one vantage-point left on earth. For a wonder, her husband was +comparatively sober, and sat brooding with his head in his hands over +the stove where a fire was slowly dying out. The last coal they had +was fast turning to ashes. From a cradle came a low, wailing cry. It +was that of hunger. On an old chest in a dusky corner sat a boy about +thirteen. Though all else was in shadow, his large eyes shone with +unnatural brightness, and followed his mother's feeble efforts at the +washtub with that expression of premature sadness so pathetic in +childhood. Under a rickety deal table three other and smaller children +were devouring some crusts of bread in a ravenous way, like +half-famished young animals. In a few moments they came out and clamored +for more, addressing--not their father; no intuitive turning to him +for support--but the poor, over-tasked mother. The boy came out of his +corner and tried to draw them off and interest them in something else, +but they were like a pack of hungry little wolves. The boy's face was +almost as sharp and famine-pinched as his mother's, but he seemed to +have lost all thought of himself in his sorrowful regard for her. As +the younger children clamored and dragged upon her, the point of +endurance was passed, and the poor woman gave way. With a despairing +cry she sank upon a chair and covered her face with her apron. + +"Oh, mine Gott, Oh, mine Gott," she cried, "I can do not von more +stroke if ve all die." + +In a moment her son had his arms around her neck, and said: "Oh, moder, +don't cry, don't cry. Mr. Fleet said God would surely help us in time +of trouble if we would only ask Him." + +"I've ask Him, and ask Him, but der help don't come. I can do no more;" +and a tempest of despairing sobs shook her gaunt frame. + +The boy seemed to have got past tears, and just fixed his large eyes, +full of reproach and sorrow, on his father. + +The man rose and turned his bloodshot eyes slowly around the room. The +whole scene, with its meaning, seemed to dawn upon him. His mind was +not so clouded by the fumes of liquor but that he could comprehend the +supreme misery of the situation. He heard his children crying--fairly +howling for bread. He saw the wife he had sworn to love and honor, +where she had fallen in her unequal conflict, brave, but overpowered. +He remembered the wealthy burgher's blooming, courted daughter, whom +he had lured away to marry him, a poor artist. He remembered how, in +spite of her father's commands and her mother's tears, she had left +home and luxury to follow him throughout the world because of her faith +in him and love for him--how under her inspiration he had risen to +great promise as an artist, till fame and fortune became almost +a certainty, and then, under the debasing influence of his terrible +appetite, he had dragged her down and down, till now he saw +her--prematurely old, broken in health, broken in heart--fall helplessly +before the hard drudgery that she no longer had strength to perform. +With a sickening horror he remembered that he had taken even the +pittance she had wrung from that washtub, to feed, not his children, +but his accursed appetite for drink. Even his purple, bloated face +grew livid as all the past rushed upon him, and despair laid an icy +hand upon his heart. + +A desperate purpose formed itself within his mind. + +Turning to the wall where hung a noble picture, a lovely landscape, +whose rich coloring, warm sunlight, and rural peace formed a sharp, +strange contrast with the meagre, famine-stricken apartment, he was +about to take it down from its fastening when his hand was arrested +by a word--"Father!" + +He turned, and saw his son looking at him with his great eyes full of +horror and alarm, as if he were committing a murder. + +"I tell you I must, and I vill," said he, savagely. + +His wife looked up, sprang to his side, and with her hands upon his +arm, said, "No, Berthold, you must not, you shall not sell dot picture." + +He silently pointed to his children crying for bread. + +"Take der dress off my back to sell, but not dot picture. Ve may as +vell die before him goes, for we certainly vill after. Dot is de only +ding left of der happy past. Dot, in Gott's hands, is my only hope for +der future. Dot picture dells you vat you vas, vat you might be still +if you vould only let drink alone. Many's der veary day, many's der +long night, I've prayed dot dot picture vould vin you back to your +former self, ven tears and sufferings vere in vain. Leave him, and +some day he vill tell you so plain vat you are, and vot you can be, +dot you break der horrid spell dot chains you, and your artist-soul +come again. Leave him, our only hope, and sole bar against despair and +death. I vill go and beg a dousand times before dot picture's sold; +for if he goes, your artist-soul no more come back, and you're lost, +and ve all are lost." + +The man hesitated. His good angel was pleading with him, but in vain. + +Stamping his foot with rage and despair, he shouted, hoarsely, "It is +too late I am lost now." + +And he tore the picture from its fastening. His wife sank back against +the wall with a groan as if her very soul were departing. + +But before his rash steps could leave the desolation he had made, he +was confronted by the tall form of Dennis Fleet. + +The man stared at him for a moment as if he had been an apparition, +and then said, in a hard tone, "Let me pass!" + +Dennis had knocked for some time, but such was the excitement within +no one had regarded the sound. He had, therefore, heard the wife's +appeal and its answer, and from what he knew of the family from his +mission scholar, the boy Ernst, comprehended the situation in the main. +When, therefore, matters reached the crisis, he opened the door and +met the infatuated man as he was about to throw away the last relic +of his former self and happier life. With great tact he appeared as +if he knew nothing, and quietly taking a chair he sat down with his +back against the door, thus barring egress. In a pleasant, affable +tone, he said: "Mr. Bruder, I came to see you on a little business +to-night. As I was in something of a hurry, and no one appeared to +hear my knock, I took the liberty of coming in." + +The hungry little ones looked at him with their round eyes of childish +curiosity, and for a time ceased their clamors. The wife sank into a +chair and bowed her head in her hands with the indifference of despair. +Hope had gone. A gleam of joy lighted up Ernst's pale face at the sight +of his beloved teacher, and he stepped over to his mother and commenced +whispering in her ear, but she heeded him not. The man's face wore a +sullen, dangerous, yet irresolute expression. It was evident that he +half believed that Dennis was knowingly trying to thwart him, and such +was his mad frenzy that he was ready for any desperate deed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +RESCUED + + +In a tone of suppressed excitement, which he tried in vain to render +steady, Mr. Bruder said: "You haf der advantage of me, sir. I know not +your name. Vat is more, I am not fit for bissiness dis night. Indeed, +I haf important bissiness elsewhere. You must excuse me," he added, +sternly, advancing toward the door with the picture. + +"Pardon me, Mr. Bruder," said Dennis, politely. "I throw myself entirely +on your courtesy, and must ask as a very great favor that you will not +take away that picture till I see it, for that, in part, is what I +came for. I am in the picture trade myself, and think I am a tolerably +fair judge of paintings. I heard accidentally you had a fine one, and +from the glimpse I catch of it, I think I have not been misinformed. +If it is for sale, perhaps I can do as well by you as any one else. +I am employed in Mr. Ludolph's great store, the 'Art Building.' You +probably know all about the place." + +"Yes, I know him," said the man, calming down somewhat. + +"And now, sir," said Dennis, with a gentle, winning courtesy impossible +to resist, "will you do me the favor of showing me your picture?" + +He treated poor Bruder as a gentleman, and he, having really been one, +was naturally inclined to return like courtesy. Therefore he said, +"Oh, certainly, since you vish to see him. I suppose I might as vell +sell him to you as any von else." + +Mr. Bruder was a man of violent impulses, and his mad excitement was +fast leaving him under Dennis's cool, business-like manner. To gain +time was now the great desideratum. + +The picture having been replaced upon the wall, Mr. Bruder held the +lamp so as to throw upon it as good a light as possible. + +Dennis folded his arms calmly and commenced its study. He had meant +to act a part---to pretend deep interest and desire for long critical +study---that he might secure more time, but in a few moments he became +honestly absorbed in the beautiful and exquisitely finished landscape. + +The poor man watched him keenly. Old associations and feelings, +seemingly long dead, awoke. As he saw Dennis manifest every mark of +true and growing appreciation, he perceived that his picture was being +studied by a discriminating person. Then his artist-nature began to +quicken into life again. His eyes glowed, and glanced rapidly from +Dennis to the painting, back and forth, following up the judgment on +each and every part which he saw written in the young man's face. As +he watched, something like hope and exultation began to light up his +sullen, heavy features; thought and feeling began to spiritualize and +ennoble what but a little before had been so coarse and repulsive. + +Ernst was looking at Dennis in rapt awe, as at a messenger from heaven. + +The poor wife, who had listened in a dull apathy to the conversation, +raised her head in sudden and intelligent interest when the picture +was replaced upon the wall. It seemed that her every hope was bound +up in that. As she saw Dennis and her husband standing before it---as +she saw the face of the latter begin to assume something of its former +look---her whole soul came into her great blue eyes, and she watched +as if more than life were at stake. + +If that meagre apartment, with its inmates, their contrasts of +character, their expressive faces, could have then been portrayed, it +would have made a picture with power to move the coldest heart. + +At last Dennis drew a long breath, turned and gave his hand to the +man, saying with hearty emphasis, "Mr. Bruder, you are an artist." + +The poor man lifted his face to heaven with the same expression of joy +and gratitude that had rested on it long, long years ago, when his +first real work of merit had received similar praise. + +His wife saw and remembered it, and, with an ecstatic cry that thrilled +Dennis's soul, exclaimed, "Ah! mine Gott be praised! mine Gott be +praised! his artist-soul come back!" and she threw herself on her +husband's neck, and clung to him with hysteric energy. The man melted +completely, and bowed his head upon his wife's shoulder, while his +whole frame shook with sobs. + +"I will be back in half an hour," said Dennis, hastily, brushing tears +from his own eyes. "Come with me, Ernst." + +At the foot of the stairs Dennis said: "Take this money, Ernst, and +buy bread, butter, tea, milk, and coal, also a nice large steak, for +I am going to take supper with you to-night. I will stay here and +watch, for your father must not be permitted to go out." + +"Oh, Gott bless you! Gott bless you!" said the boy, and he hurried +away to do his errand. + +Dennis walked up and down before the door on guard. Ernst soon returned, +and carried the welcome food upstairs. After a little time he stole +down again and said: "Father's quiet and queer like. Mother has given +the children a good supper and put them to bed. Better come now." + +"In a few moments more; you go back and sit down quietly and say +nothing." + +After a little Dennis went up and knocked at the door. Mrs. Bruder +opened it, and held out her hand. Her quivering lips refused to speak, +but her eyes filled with grateful tears. The children were tucked away +in bed. Ernst crouched by the fire, eating some bread and butter, for +he was cold and half-famished. Mr. Bruder sat in the dusky corner with +his head in his hands, the picture of dejection. But, as Dennis entered, +he rose and came forward. He tried to speak, but for a moment could +not. At last he said, hoarsely: "Mr. Vleet, you haf done me and mine +a great kindness. No matter vat the result is, I dank you as I never +danked any living being. I believe Gott sent you, but I fear too late. +You see before you a miserable wreck. For months and years I haf been +a brute, a devil. Dot picture dere show you vat I vas, vat I might haf +been. You see vat I am," he added, with an expression of intense +loathing. "I see him all to-night as if written in letters of fire, +and if dere is a vorse hell dan der von I feel vithin my soul, Gott +only knows how I am to endure him." + +"Mr. Bruder, you say I have done you a favor." + +"Gott knows you haf." + +"I want you to do me one in return. I want you to let me be your +friend," said Dennis, holding out his hand. + +The man trembled, hesitated; at last he said, brokenly, "I am not +fit--to touch--your hand." + +"Mr. Bruder," said Dennis, gently, "I hope that I am a Christian." + +"Still more, den, I am unfit efer to be in your presence." + +"What! am I greater than my Master? Did not Christ take the hand of +every poor, struggling man on earth that would let Him? Come, Mr. +Bruder, if you have any real gratitude for the little I have done to +show my interest in you and yours, grant me my request." + +"Do you really mean him?" he gasped. "Do you really vant to be drunken +old Berthold Bruder's friend?" + +"God is my witness, I do," said Dennis, still holding out his hand. + +The poor fellow drew a few short, heavy breaths, and then grasped +Dennis's hand, and clung to it with the force of a drowning man. +"Oh!" said he, after a few moments of deep emotion, "I feel dot I haf +a plank under me now." + +"God grant that yon may soon feel that you are on the Rock Christ +Jesus," said Dennis, solemnly. + +Fearing the reaction of too great and prolonged emotion, Dennis now +did everything in his power to calm and quiet his new-found friends. +He told them that he boarded at a restaurant, and he asked if he might +take supper with them. + +"Him is yours already," said Mr. Bruder. + +"No, it isn't," said Dennis--"not after I have given it to you. But +I want to talk to you about several matters, for I think you can be +of great service to me;" and he told them of his experience during the +day; that he had been promoted, and that he wanted Ernst to come and +aid him in his duties. Then he touched on the matter nearest his heart +--his own wish to be an artist, his need of instruction--and told how +by his increase of pay he had now the means of taking lessons, while +still able to support his mother and sisters. + +"And now, Mr. Bruder, I feel that I have been very fortunate in making +your acquaintance. You have the touch and tone that I should be +overjoyed to acquire. Will you give me lessons?" + +"Yes, morning, noon, and night, vithout von shent of pay." + +"That will not do. I'll not take one on those terms." + +"I vill do vatever you want me to," said the man, simply, "I vish I +could be led and vatched over as a little child." + +Dennis saw his pathetic self-distrust, and it touched him deeply. + +"As your friend," he said, with emphasis, "I will not advise you to +do anything that I would not do myself." + +So they arranged that Ernst should go to the store in the morning, and +that Dennis should come three nights in the week for lessons. + +All made a hearty supper save Mr. Bruder. He had reached that desperate +stage when his diseased stomach craved drink only. But a strong cup +of tea, and some bread that he washed down with it, heartened him a +little, and it was evident that he felt better. The light of a faint +hope was dawning in his face. + +Dennis knew something of the physical as well as moral Struggle before +the poor man, and knew that after all it was exceedingly problematical +whether he could be saved. Before he went away he told Mrs. Bruder to +make her husband some very strong coffee in the morning, and to let +him drink it through the day. As for Bruder, he had resolved to die +rather than touch another drop of liquor. + +But how many poor victims of appetite have been haunted to the grave +by such resolves--shattered and gone almost as soon as made! + +After a long, earnest talk, in which much of the past was revealed on +both sides, Dennis drew a small Testament from is pocket and said: +"Mr. Bruder, I wish to direct your thoughts to a better Friend than +I am or can be. Will you let me read you something about Him?" + +"Yes, and dank you. But choose someding strong--suited to me." + +Dennis read something strong--the story of the Demoniac of Gadara, and +left him "sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind." + +"Mr. Bruder, permit me as your _friend_ to say that I think that is the +only safe place for you. Your better self, your true manhood, has been +overpowered by the demon of intemperance. I do not undervalue human will +and purpose, but I think you need a divine, all-powerful Deliverer." + +"I know you are right," said Mr. Bruder. "I haf resolved ofer and +ofer again, only to do vorse, and sink deeper at der next temptation, +till at last I gave up trying. Unless I am sustained by some strength +greater dan mine, I haf no hope. I feel dot your human sympathy and +kindness vill be a great help to me, and somehow I dake him as an +earnest dot Gott vil be kind to me too." + +"Oh, Mr. Fleet!" he continued, as Dennis rose to go, "how much I owe +to you! I vas in hell on earth ven you came. I vould haf been in hell +beneath before morning. I proposed, from the proceeds of dot picture, +to indulge in von more delirium, and den seek to quench all in der +vaters of der lake." + +Dennis shuddered, but said: "And I believe that God purposes that you +should have a good life here, and a happy life in heaven. Co-work with +Him." + +"If He vill help me, I'll try," said the man, humbly. "Good-night, and +Gott bless you;" and he almost crushed Dennis's hand. + +As the young man turned to Mrs. Bruder, he was much struck by her +appearance: she was very pale, and a wonderful light shone from her +eyes. She took his hand in both of hers, and looked at him for a moment +with an expression he could never forget, and then slowly pointed +heavenward without a word. + +Dennis hastened away, much overcome by his own feelings. But the silent, +deserted streets seemed luminous, such was the joy of his heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +MISS LUDOLPH MAKES A DISCOVERY + + +Several hours were measured off by the clock of a neighboring steeple +before Dennis's excited mind was sufficiently calm to permit sleep, +and even then he often started up from some fantastic dream in which +the Bruders and Mr. and Miss Ludolph acted strange parts. At last he +seemed to hear exquisite music. As the song rose and fell, it thrilled +him with delight. Suddenly it appeared to break into a thousand pieces, +and fall scattering on the ground, like a broken string of pearls, and +this musical trash, as it were, awoke him. The sun was shining brightly +into the room, and all the air seemed vibrating with sweet sounds. He +started up and realized that he had greatly overslept. Much vexed, he +began to dress in haste, when he was startled by a brilliant prelude +on the piano, and a voice of wonderful power and sweetness struck into +an air that he had never heard before. Soon the whole building was +resonant with music, and Dennis stood spellbound till the strange, +rich sounds died away, as before, in a few instrumental notes that had +seemed in his dream like the song breaking into glittering fragments. + +"It must be Miss Ludolph," thought Dennis. "And can she sing like that? +What an angel true faith would make of her! Oh, how could I oversleep +so!" And he dressed in breathless haste. In going down to the second +floor, he found a piano open and new music upon it, which Miss Ludolph +had evidently been trying; but she was not there. Yet a peculiar +delicate perfume which the young lady always used pervaded the place, +even as her song had seemed to pulsate through the air after it had +ceased. She could not be far off. Stepping to a picture show-room over +the front door, Dennis found her sitting quietly before a large +painting, sketching one of the figures in it. + +"I learned from my father that you were a very early riser," she said, +looking up for a moment, and then resuming her work. "I fear there is +some mistake about it. If we are ever to get through rearranging the +store you will have to curtail your morning naps." + +"I most sincerely beg your pardon. I never overslept so before. But +I was out late last night, and passed through a most painful scene, +that so disturbed me that I could not sleep till nearly morning, and +I find to my great vexation that I have overslept. I promise you it +shall not happen again." + +"I am not sure of that, if you are out late in Chicago, and passing +through painful scenes. I should say that this city was a peculiarly +bad place for a young man to be out late in." + +"It was an experience wholly unexpected to me, and I hope it may never +occur again. It was a scene of trouble that I had no hand in making, +but which even humanity would not permit me to leave at once." + +"Not a scene of measles or smallpox, I hope. I am told that your mission +people are indulging in these things most of the time. You have not +been exposed to any contagious disease?" + +"I assure you I have not." + +"Very well; be ready to assist me to-morrow morning, for we have no +slight task before us, and I wish to complete it as soon as possible. +I shall be here at half-past six, and do not promise to sing you awake +every morning. Were you not a little startled to hear such unwonted +sounds echoing through the prosaic old store?" + +"I was indeed. At first I could not believe that it was a human voice." + +"That is rather an equivocal compliment." + +"I did not mean to speak in compliment at all, but to say in all +sincerity that I have seldom heard such heavenly music." + +"Perhaps you have never heard very much of any kind, or else your +imagination overshadows your other faculties. In fact I think it does, +for did you not at first regard me as a painted lady who had stepped +from the canvas to the floor?" + +"I confess that I was greatly confused and startled." + +"In what respect did you see such a close resemblance?" + +Dennis hesitated. + +"Are you not able to tell?" asked she. + +"Yes," said Dennis, with heightened color, "but I do not like to say." + +"But I wish you to say," said she, with a slightly imperious tone. + +"Well, then, since you wish me to speak frankly, it was your expression. +As you stood by the picture you unconsciously assumed the look and +manner of the painted girl. And all the evening and morning I had been +troubling over the picture and wondering how an artist could paint so +lovely a face, and make it express only scorn and pride. It seemed to +me that such a face ought to have been put to nobler uses." + +Miss Ludolph bit her lip and looked a little annoyed, but turning to +Dennis she said, with some curiosity: "You are not a bit like the man +who preceded you. How did you come to take his place?" + +"I am poor, and will gratefully do any honest work rather than beg or +starve." + +"I wish all the poor were of the same mind, but, from the way they +drag on us who have something to give, I think the rule is usually the +other way. Very well, that will answer; since you have asked papa to +let you continue to do Pat's duties, you had better be about them, +though it is not so late as you think;" and she turned to her sketching +in such a way as to quietly dismiss him. + +She evidently regarded him with some interest and curiosity, as a +unique specimen of the genus homo, and, looking upon him as a humble +dependant, was inclined to speak to him freely and draw him out for +her amusement. + +On going downstairs he saw that Mr. Ludolph was writing in his office. +He was an early riser, and sometimes, entering the side door by a pass +key before the store was opened, would secure an extra hour for +business. He shook his head at Dennis, but said nothing. + +By movements wonderfully quick and dexterous Dennis went through his +wonted tasks, and at eight o'clock, the usual hour, the store was ready +for opening. + +Mr. Ludolph often caught glimpses of him as he darted to and fro, his +cheeks glowing, and every act suggesting superabundant life. + +He sighed and said: "After all, that young fellow is to be envied. He +is getting more out of existence than most of us. He enjoys everything, +and does even hard work with a zest that makes it play. There will be +no keeping him down, for he seems possessed by the concentrated vim +of this driving Yankee nation. Then he has a world of delusions besides +that seem grand realities. Well, it is a sad thing to grow old and +wise." + +Indeed it is, in Mr. Ludolph's style. + +When Dennis opened the front door, there was Ernst cowering in the +March winds, and fairly trembling in the flutter of his hopes and +fears. Dennis gave him a hearty grasp of the hand and drew him in, +saying, "Don't be afraid; I'll take care of you." + +The boy's heart clung to him as the vine tendril clasps the oak, and, +upheld by Dennis's strength, he entered what was to him wonderland +indeed. + +Mr. Ludolph looked him over as he and his daughter passed out on their +return to breakfast, and said, "He will answer if he is strong enough." + +He saw nothing in that child's face to fear. + +Dennis assured him with a significant glance, which Mr. Ludolph +understood as referring to better fare, that "he would grow strong +fast now." + +Miss Ludolph was at once interested in the boy's pale face and large, +spiritual eyes; and she resolved to sketch them before good living had +destroyed the artistic effect. + +Under kindly instruction, the boy took readily to his duties, and +promised soon to become very helpful. At noon Dennis took him out to +lunch, and the poor, half-starved lad feasted as he had not for many +a long day. + +The afternoon mail brought Dennis his mother's letter, and he wondered +that her prediction should be fulfilled even before it reached him, +and thus again his faith was strengthened. He smiled and said to +himself, "Mother lives so near the heavenly land that she seems to get +the news thence before any one else." + +During the day a lady who was talking to Mr. Ludolph turned and said +to Dennis: "How prettily you have arranged this table! Let me see; I +think I will take that little group of bronzes. They make a very nice +effect together." + +Dennis, with his heart swelling that he had arrived at the dignity of +salesman, with much politeness, which evidently pleased the lady, +assured her that they would be sent promptly to her address. + +Mr. Ludolph looked on as if all was a matter of course while she was +present, but afterward said: "You are on the right track, Fleet. You +now see the practical result of a little thought and grace in +arrangement. In matters of art, people will pay almost as much for +these as for the things themselves. The lady would not have bought +those bronzes under Berder's system. When things are grouped rightly, +people see just what they want, and buy the _effect_ as well as the +articles;" and with this judicious praise Mr. Ludolph passed on, better +pleased with himself even than with Dennis. + +But, as old Bill Cronk had intimated, such a peck of oats was almost +too much for Dennis, and he felt that he was in danger of becoming too +highly elated. + +After closing the store, he wrote a brief but graphic letter to his +mother, describing his promotion, and expressing much sympathy for +poor Berder. Regarding himself as on the crest of prosperity's wave, +he felt a strong commiseration for every degree and condition of +troubled humanity, and even could sigh over unlucky Berder's deserved +tribulations. + +About eight o'clock he started to see his new friends in De Koven +Street, and take his lesson in drawing. They welcomed him warmly, for +they evidently looked upon him as the one who might save them from the +engulfing waves of misfortune and evil. + +The children were very different from the clamorous little wolves of +the night before. No longer hungry, they were happy in the corner, +with some rude playthings, talking and cooing together like a flock +of young birds. Ernst was washing the tea-things, while his mother +cared for the baby, recalling to Dennis, with a rush of tender memories, +his mother and his boyhood tasks. Mr. Bruder still sat in the dusky +corner. The day had been a hard one for him. Having nothing to do in +the present, he had lived the miserable past over and over again. At +times his strength almost gave way, but his wife would say, "Be patient! +your friend Mr. Fleet will be in soon." + +From a few hints of what had passed, Dennis saw the trouble at once. +Mr. Bruder must have occupation. After a few kindly generalities, they +two got together, as congenial spirits, before the rescued picture; +and soon both were absorbed in the mysteries of the divine art. + +As the wife looked at the kindling, interested face of her husband, +she murmured to herself over and over again, like the sweet refrain +of a song, "His artist-soul haf come back; it truly haf." + +The lesson that night could be no more than a talk on general principles +and rules. But Mr. Bruder soon found that he had an apt scholar, and +Dennis's enthusiasm kindled his own flagging zeal, and the artist-soul +awakening within him, as his wife believed, longed to express itself +as of old in glowing colors. + +Moreover, his ambition was renewed in this promising pupil. Naturally +generous, and understanding his noble profession, he felt his poor +benumbed heart stir and glow at the thought of aiding this eager +aspirant to become what he had hoped to be. He might live again in the +richer and better-guided genius of his scholar. + +"I will send you by Ernst in the morning some sketching paper, +materials, and canvas, and you can prepare some studies for me. I will +let him bring some drawings and colorings that I have made of late in +odd moments, and you can see about how advanced I am, and what faults +I have fallen into while groping my own way. And I am going to send +you some canvas, also, for I am quite sure that if you paint a picture +Mr. Ludolph will buy it." + +The man's face brightened visibly at this. + +"Will you let your friend make a suggestion?" continued Dennis. + +"You can command me," said Mr. Bruder, with emphasis. + +"No; friends never do that; but I would like to suggest that at first +you take some simple subject, that you can soon finish, and leave +efforts that require more time for the future. That picture there shows +what you can do, and you need to work now more from the commercial +standpoint than the artist's." + +After a moment's thought, the man said, "You are right. As I look +around dis room, and see our needs, I see dat you are right. Do' I +meant to attempt someding difficult, to show Mr. Ludolph vat I could +do." + +"That will all come in good time; and now, my friend, good-night." + +The next day was far more tolerable for poor Bruder, because he was +occupied, and he found it much easier to resist the clamors of appetite. + +Dennis's sketches interested him greatly, for, though they showed the +natural defects of one who had received little instruction, both power +and originality were manifest in their execution. + +"He, too, can be an artist, if he vill," was his emphatic comment, +after looking them over. + +He prepared one study, to be continued under his own eye, and another +for Dennis to work at alone. Afterward he sat down to something for +himself. He thought a few moments, and then outlined rapidly as his +subject the figure of a man dashing a wineglass to the ground. + +As he worked, his wife smiled encouragement to him as of old, and often +looked upward in thankfulness to Heaven. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH HIM? + + +The sun was just tingeing the eastern horizon with light when Dennis +sprang from his bed on the following morning. He vowed that Miss Ludolph +should never have cause to complain of him again; for, great as was +the luxury of being awakened by such exquisite music, it was one that +he could not afford. + +It must be confessed that he gave a little more care than usual that +morning to his toilet; but his resources were very limited. Still, as +nature had done so much for him, he could not complain. By half-past +six his duties in the store were accomplished, and brushed and furbished +up as far as possible, he stood outside the door awaiting his fair +task-mistress. Sometimes he wondered at the strange fascination she +exercised over him, but generally ended by ascribing it to her beauty +and love of art. + +A little after the time appointed she appeared with her father, and +seemed pleased at Dennis's readiness for work. + +"I shall not have to sing you awake this morning," she said, "and I +am glad, for I am in a mood for business." + +She was attired in a close-fitting walking-dress that set off her +graceful person finely. It was evident that her energetic nature would +permit no statuesque repose while Dennis worked, but that she had come +prepared for active measures. + +She had inherited a good constitution, which, under her father's +direction, had been strengthened and confirmed by due regard to hygienic +rules. Therefore she had reached the stage of early womanhood abounding +in vitality and capable of great endurance. Active, graceful motion +was as natural to her as it is for a swallow to be on the wing. The +moment she dropped her book, palette, or pencil, she was on her feet, +her healthful nature seeming like a mountain brook, that, checked for +a time in its flow, soon overleaps its bounds and speeds on more swiftly +than ever. But the strange part of this superabundant activity was, +that she never seemed to do anything in an abrupt way, as from mere +impulse. Every act glided into another smoothly and gracefully. Her +lithe, willowy figure, neither slight nor stout, was peculiarly adapted +to her style of movement. She delighted in the game of billiards, for +the quick movements and varied attitudes permitted, and the precision +required, were all suited to her taste; and she had gained such +marvellous skill that even her father, with his practiced hand, was +scarcely her match. + +As she tripped lightly up the long winding stairs to the show-room +over the front door where their labors were to begin, she appeared to +Dennis the very embodiment of grace and beauty. And yet she seemed so +cold and self-centred, so devoid of warm human interest in the great +world of love, joy, and suffering, that she repelled while she +fascinated. + +"If the blood should come into the cheeks of one of her father's +statues, and the white marble eyes turn to violet blue, and the snowy +hair to wavy gold, and it should spring from its pedestal into just +such life, it would be more like her than any woman I ever saw," thought +Dennis, as he stood for a moment or two waiting to do her bidding. + +Her plans had been thoroughly matured, and she acted with decision. +Pointing to the side opposite the door--the side which would naturally +strike the eye of the visitor first--she said, "I wish all the pictures +taken down from that wall and placed around the room so that I can see +them." + +She began as an absolute dictator, intending to give no hint of her +plans and purposes except as conveyed by clear, terse orders. But these +had so intelligent and appreciative an interpreter in Dennis, that +gradually her attention was drawn to him as well as to his work. + +He had his step-ladder ready, and with a celerity decidedly pleasing, +soon placed the pictures safely on the floor, so that she could still +see them and judge of their character. Though his dexterous manner and +careful handling of the pictures were gratifying, it must be confessed +that his supple form, the graceful and varied attitudes he unconsciously +assumed in his work, pleased her more, and she secretly began to study +him as an artistic subject, as he had studied her. + +In her complacency she said: "So far, very well, Mr. Fleet. I +congratulate myself that I have you to assist me, instead of that +awkward fraud, Mr. Berder." + +"And I assure you, Miss Ludolph, that I have longed intensely for this +privilege ever since I knew your purpose." + +"You may have cause to repent, like many another whose wishes have +been gratified; for your privilege will involve a great deal of hard +work." + +"The more the better," said Dennis, warmly. + +"How so? I should think you had more to do now than you would care +about." + +"Work is no burden to one of my years and strength, provided it is +suited to one's tastes. Moreover, I confess that I hope to derive great +advantages from this labor." + +"In what way?" she asked, with a slight frown, imagining that he +thought of extra pay. + +"Because unconsciously you will give me instruction, and I hope that +you are not unwilling that I should gain such hints and suggestions +as I can from the display of your taste that I must witness." + +"Not at all," said she, laughing. "I see that you are ambitious to +learn your business and rise in the store." + +"I am ambitious to gain a knowledge of one of the noblest callings." + +"What is that?" + +"Art." + +"What!" said she, with a half-scornful smile; "are you a disciple of +art?" + +"Yes; why not?" + +"Well, I do not wish to hurt your feelings, but, to tell you the honest +truth, it seems but the other day that you were Pat Murphy." + +"But am I a Pat Murphy?" he asked, with gentle dignity. + +"No, Mr. Fleet; I will do you the justice to say that I think you very +much above your station." + +"I am sufficiently a democrat, Miss Ludolph, to believe that a man can +be a man in any honest work." + +"And I, Mr. Fleet, am not in the least degree a democrat." + +Which fact she proceeded to prove by ordering him about for the next +hour like the most absolute little despot that ever queened it over +a servile province in the dark ages. Bat it was rather difficult to +keep up this style of dictatorship with Dennis. He seemed so intelligent +and polite that she often had it to her tongue to ask his opinion on +certain points. Toward the last she did so, and the opinion he gave, +she admitted to herself, was judicious; but for a purpose of her own +she disregarded it, and took a different way. + +Dennis at once saw through her plan of arrangement. In the centre of +that side of the room which he had cleared, she caused him to hang one +of the largest and finest pictures, which, under Mr. Schwartz's +management, had been placed in a corner. Around the central painting +all the others were to be grouped, according to color, subject, and +merit. At the same time each wall was to have a character of its own. +Such a task as this would require no little thought, study, and +comparison; and Miss Ludolph was one to see delicate points of +difference which most observers would not notice. It was her purpose +to make the room bloom out naturally like a great flower. This careful +selection of pictures was necessarily slow, and Dennis rejoiced that +their united work would not soon be over. + +To her surprise she often saw his eyes instinctively turning to the +same picture that she was about to select, and perceived that he had +divined her plan without a word of explanation, and that his taste was +constantly according with hers in producing the desired effects. Though +all this filled her with astonishment, she revealed no sign of it to +him. At eight she said: "That will do for to-day. We have made a good +beginning--better indeed than I had hoped. But how is it, Mr. Fleet, +since you are such an uncompromising democrat, that you permit a young +lady to order you about in this style?" + +Dennis smiled and said: "It seems perfectly natural for you to speak +in this way, and it does not appear offensive as it might in another. +Moreover, I have voluntarily taken this position and am in honor bound +to accept all it involves." + +"But which was the controlling motive of your mind?" + +"Well, a few seem born to command, and it is a pleasure to obey," said +Dennis, paying a strong but honest compliment to the natural little +autocrat. + +"Indeed, Mr. Fleet, do church members flatter?" said she, secretly +much pleased. + +"I did not mean to flatter," said he, flushing. "They who have power +should use it like the All-powerful--gently, considerately." + +It was her turn to flush now, and she said, "Oh, I perceive, the +compliment was the sugar-coating of the little homily to follow." + +"I have no such diplomacy as you credit me with," said Dennis, looking +straight into her eyes with honest frankness. "I merely spoke my passing +thought." + +"But he has fine eyes," said she to herself, and then she said to him: +"Very well, I certainly will give you credit for being superior to +your position. Be ready again to-morrow at the same hour;" and with +a smile somewhat kindly she vanished. + +Somehow she seemed to take the light out of the room with her. The +pictures suddenly looked tame and ordinary, and everything commonplace. +Here was an effect not exactly artistic, which he could not understand. +He sighed, he scarcely knew why. + +But the day's duties came with a rush, and soon he was utterly absorbed +in them. + +That evening Dennis was much cheered by Mr. Bruder's comments on his +sketches. + +"Considering de advantages you haf had, an de little time you can give, +dey are very goot. You haf fallen into de natural faults of dose who +work alone, but we can soon cure dese. Now here is some vork dat I +vant you to do under my eye, and dat study on outlining you can take +home. Moreover, I can give you some lessons in outlining from my own +picture;" and Mr. Bruder showed him what he had done. + +Dennis saw in the clear, vigorous profile the artist's thought, and +congratulated himself that his teacher was a master in his profession. + +For two hours they worked and talked, and Dennis felt that every such +lesson would be a long step forward. + +Poor Bruder looked more and more like himself every day, but God only +knew how he had to struggle. + +"I don't know how him vill end," he said. "I pray nearly every minute, +but sometimes I feel dat I must drink even do' I die dat moment." + +It was disease as well as appetite that he was fighting, for appetite +indulged beyond a certain point becomes disease. + +His wife's face was different also--the sharp look of misery fading +out of it. Dennis noticed the changes, and thought to himself, while +walking home: "After all, the highest art is to bring out on the living +face all we can of God's lost image. How beautiful the changes in these +two poor people's faces! and the best part of it is, that they are the +reflex of changes going on in the soul, the imperishable part." + +Then, in quick and natural transition, his mind reverted to Christine +Ludolph; and the thought of her face, which God had fashioned so fair, +but which was already sadly marred by sin, becoming fixed and rigid +in pride and selfishness, was as painful as if, according to an old +legend, her lithe, active form should gradually turn to stone. But if +the reverse could ever be true--if the beautifying Christian graces +could dwell within her soul and light up her face--as lamps illumining +some rare and quaint transparency, the resulting loveliness would +realize the artist's fondest ideal. + +Musing thus, what wonder that he vowed then and there, under the +starlight, to pray and work for her till the new life should illumine +her heart. Little dreamed Christine, as she slept that night, that the +first link of a chain which might bind her to heaven had been forged. + +The dawn was late and lowering on the following morning. Great masses +of clouds swept across the sky, and soon the rain was falling in gusty +torrents. Dennis rose and hastened through his duties as before, and +was ready at the hour appointed, but had little hope of seeing Miss +Ludolph. Still he opened the door and looked up the street. To his +surprise he saw her coming, attended by her father's valet. Only part +of her glowing face was visible, for she was incased from head to foot +in a light and delicate suit of rubber. + +Dennis opened the door, and she stepped quickly in, scattering spray +on every side like a sea-nymph. The young man looked at her with +open-eyed admiration and surprise, which both amused and pleased her. + +"True enough," she thought, "his face is like a signboard." + +She seemed to him, as she threw off her wet coverings, like an exquisite +flower, that, lifted by the breeze after a storm, scatters the +burdensome rain-drops on every side and stands up more beautiful and +blooming than ever. + +"You were not expecting me, I imagine," she said. + +"Well, I must admit I scarcely did, and yet I could not help looking +for you." + +"Isn't that a distinction without a difference?" she asked, with a +pleasant smile, for she was gratified at not finding the store closed +and dark. + +"I am very glad you have come," he replied, flushing slightly with +pleasure, "for it would have been a long, dreary morning if you had +not." + +Dennis thought he referred to the lack of occupation. He did not know, +nor did she notice, that he meant the lack of herself. + +"Well," said she, "I am glad you like the work, for you destined to +have enough of it." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +IS HE A GENTLEMAN? + + +The days and weeks that followed were to Dennis such as only come once +in a lifetime, and not in every lifetime either. A true, pure love was +growing up within his heart--growing as the little child develops in +strength and pleasurable life, and yet unconsciously to itself. It +seemed as if some strong magician's wand had touched the world or him. +Everything was transfigured, and no wonderland was more full of interest +than that in which he existed. His life was a waking dream, in which +nothing was distinct or definite, but all things abounded in hope and +happy suggestion. He compared it afterward to a tropical island of the +Pacific, a blissful fragment of life by itself, utterly distinct from +the hard, struggling years that preceded, and the painful awakening +that followed. + +Even the place of his daily toil was pervaded by a beautiful presence. +For many days he and Christine worked together, and at last her eyes +had rested on, or her fingers had touched, nearly everything in the +store, and therefore all was associated with her. Throughout their +labors his quick sympathy and appreciation made him almost hands and +feet to her, and she regarded him as a miracle of helpfulness--one +of those humble, useful creatures who are born to wait upon and +interpret the wishes of the rich and great. His admiring glances +disturbed her not and raised no suspicion in her mind. She had been +accustomed to such for years, and took them as a matter of course. + +She treated the young men whom she met in society with a courtly ease +and freedom, but her smiles and repartee ever seemed like brilliant +moonlight that had no warmth; and, while no restraint appeared, she +still kept all at a distance. There was a marked difference in her +intercourse with Dennis. Regarding him as too humble ever to presume +upon her frankness, she daily spoke more freely, and more truly acted +out herself before him. She was happy and in her element among the +beautiful works of art they were arranging, and in this atmosphere her +womanly nature, chilled and dwarfed though it was, would often manifest +itself in ways sweet and unexpected. Under no other circumstances could +she have appeared so well. She as often spoke to herself in racy comment +on what was before her as to Dennis, and ever and anon would make some +pleasant remark to him, as she might throw a dainty morsel to her +greyhound Wolf, looking wistfully at her while she dined. At the same +time it must be confessed that she had a growing respect for him, as +she daily saw some new proof of his intelligence and taste; but both +education and disposition inclined her instinctively to the old feudal +idea that even genius, if poor, must wait a humble servitor on wealth +and rank, and where a New England girl would have been saying to +herself, "This gifted, educated man is my equal, and, whether I want +to or not, I ought to treat him as such," she was not troubled at all. +To her, he was her father's clerk and man-of-all-work, a most useful, +trusted, and agreeable servant, and she was kind to him as such. Indeed +the little autocrat was kind to every one that pleased her. She was +a benign queen to obedient subjects, but woe to those who were +otherwise. + +To Dennis, however, though he realized it not, she was becoming as the +very apple of his eye. He was learning to regard her with a deeper +interest because of the very defects that he plainly recognized. While +on the one hand he had the enthusiastic love caused by his admiration +for her, on the other he felt the tenderer and greater love which was +the result of pity. He tried to account for his feelings toward her +by the usual sophistries of unconscious lovers. It was friendship; it +was artistic interest in her beauty; it was the absorbing, unselfish +regard of a Christian for one providentially commended to him to be +led out of darkness into light. How could he help thinking of one for +whom he prayed night and morning and every hour in the day? It was all +this, but he was soon to learn that it was a great deal more. And so +the days of occupation and companionship passed; the spell worked on +with increasing and bewildering power, and the crisis could not be +delayed much longer. + +One morning in the latter part of April she seemed more gracious than +usual. Their labors were drawing to a close, and, as he had proved so +tasteful and efficient in the store, she concluded that he might be +equally useful in other ways and places. She could command him at the +store, but not in respect to a task that she had in view; so she adopted +a little feminine artifice as old as the time when Eve handed Adam the +apple, and she looked at him in such a way that he could not refuse. + +Blind, honest Dennis, it is needless to say, saw nothing of this little +strategy of which he was destined to be the happy, willing victim, +and his love expanded and bloomed under the genial light of her presence +and kindness, like the flowers of the convolvulus in a bright dawn of +June. She brought her general graciousness to a definite and blissful +climax by saying, when about to go home, "Well, Mr. Fleet, you have +done better than usual to-day, and I certainly must give you credit +for possessing more taste than any young man of my acquaintance." + +Dennis's heart gave as great a bound as if the laurel crown of all the +Olympic games had been placed upon his brow. + +"I am now going to ask a favor," she continued. + +"You may command me, Miss Ludolph," interrupted Dennis. + +"No, not in this case," she replied. "Whatever you do will be regarded +as a personal favor to me. At the same time it will afford you scope +for such display of your taste as will secure many compliments." + +"If I am able to satisfy _you_ I shall be more than compensated," said +Dennis with a bow. + +She smiled and thought to herself, "That isn't bad for a porter and +man-of-all-work," and explained as follows: + +"Some young ladies and gentlemen have decided upon giving an +entertainment, consisting of music, tableaux, and statuary. Now, in +regard to the two latter parts, we need above all things some person +of taste like yourself, whose critical eye and dexterous hand will +insure everything to be just right. You will be a sort of general stage +manager and superintendent, you know. I feel sure you will be all the +more willing to enter upon this work when you know that the proceeds +are to go toward the Church of the Holy Virgin. This is going to be +a very select affair, and the tickets are five dollars each." + +"Is it a Protestant church?" asked Dennis, in some trepidation. + +"Oh, certainly," she answered, with a peculiar smile, "an Episcopal +church." + +"It seems a strange name for a Protestant church," said Dennis. "It +is enough for me that you wish it; at the same time it certainly is +a pleasure to contribute what little I can to aid any Christian +organization." + +"Come, Mr. Fleet, you are narrow," she said, with a controversial +twinkle in her eye. "Why not toward a Catholic church?" + +"I fear that all people with decided religious opinions are sometimes +regarded as narrow," he answered, with a smile. + +"That is an inadequate answer to my question," she said; "but I will +not find fault since you have so good-naturedly acceded to my request. +Come to No. -- Wabash Avenue at three this afternoon. Papa gives you +leave of absence." + +She vanished, and figuratively the sun went down to Dennis, and he was +in twilight till he should see her again. He looked forward to the +afternoon with almost feverish eagerness, for several reasons. It would +be his first introduction to "good society," for as such the +unsophisticated youth regarded the prospect. He had the natural longing +of a young, healthful nature for the companionship of those of his own +age and culture, and his life in the great city had often been very +lonely. He expected, as a matter of course, to be treated as an equal +at the artistic entertainment in which he was to participate. In his +business relations at the store he had taken a subordinate position +and made up his mind to the logical consequences. But now that he was +invited to a private house, and would appear there possessing all the +qualities of a gentleman, he surely would be treated as one. "Is not +this Chicago, whose citizens were nearly all poor a few years ago?" +he thought; "and surely, if what Miss Ludolph says is true, I have +advantages in my taste over most poor young men." Moreover, it was his +ideal of an entertainment, where art and music should take the place +of the coarser pleasures of eating, drinking, and dancing. Chief of +all, Christine would be there, and even he in his blindness became a +little uneasy and self-conscious as he realized how this thought towered +above the others. + +She had given him a list of the things he was to bring with him in the +afternoon, and he occupied every spare moment in getting them ready. +At a quarter past two he summoned the carman of the store, and they +loaded up the miscellaneous cargo needed for the coming mysteries, and +by three all were before the large elegant mansion to which he had +been directed. Dennis rang the bell and was shown by a servant into +the front parlor, where he found Miss Ludolph, Miss Brown, a tall, +haughty brunette, and the young lady of the house, Miss Winthrop, a +bright, sunny-faced blonde, and two or three other young ladies of no +special coloring or character, being indebted mainly to their toilets +for their attractions. Dennis bowed to Miss Ludolph, and then turned +toward the other ladies, expecting as a matter of course to be +introduced. No introduction came, but his expectant manner was so +obvious that Miss Ludolph colored and looked annoyed, and the other +young ladies tittered outright. + +Advancing a step or two she said, coldly, "Mr. Fleet, you may help +Mapes carry the things into the back parlor, and then we will direct +you as to the arrangement." + +Dennis crimsoned painfully. At first he was too confused to think, and +merely obeyed mechanically. Then came the impulse to say boldly that +this kind of thing might answer at the store, but not here, and he +nearly carried it out; but soon followed the sober second thought, +that such action would bring a blight over all his prospects, and +involve the loss of his position at the store. Such giving way to +passion would injure only himself. They would laugh, and merely suffer +a momentary annoyance; to him and his the result would be most +disastrous. Why should he let those who cared not a jot for him cause +such sad injury? + +By the time he had carried his first armful into the back parlor, he +had resolved for his mother and sisters' sakes that he would go through +the following scenes as well as he could, and then turn his back on +society till he could enter it a recognized gentleman; and with +compressed lips and flashing eye he mentally vowed that that day should +soon come. + +As he was unpacking his materials he could not help hearing the +conversation in the front parlor. + +"Did you ever see such presumption?" exclaimed Miss Brown. "He evidently +expected to be introduced, and that we should rise and courtesy +all around." + +"He must have seen better days, for he certainly appeared like a +gentleman," said Miss Winthrop. + +"I should hardly give that title to a man who swept a store out every +morning" replied Miss Brown. + +"No, indeed!" chorused the three colorless young ladies. + +"I know nothing about this young man," said Miss Winthrop, ruffling +her plumage somewhat for an argument, of which she was fond; "but, as +a case in hand, suppose a highly educated and refined man for some +reason swept a store out every morning, what would you call him?" and +she looked around as if she had given a poser. + +The colorless young ladies looked blank--their natural expression. + +"Nonsense!" said the positive Miss Brown; "such men don't sweep stores. +He may have passed current in some country village, but that is not +our set." + +"But the case is certainly supposable," retorted Miss Winthrop, more +intent upon her argument than upon Dennis. "Come, what does the Countess +say?" she asked, turning to Christine; for that was the familiar name +by which she went among her young companions. + +"The case is not supposable, but actual," she answered, so distinctly +that it seemed that she meant Dennis to hear. "As far as I have any +means of judging, he is a refined, educated man, and I have learned +from papa that his motive in sweeping the store is the support of his +mother and sisters--certainly a very worthy one. To your question, +Susie, I answer unhesitatingly that in accordance with your American +principles and professions he is a gentleman, and you ought to treat +him as such. But you Americans are sometimes wonderfully inconsistent, +and there is often a marvellously wide margin between your boasted +equality and the reality. Now in Europe these questions have been +settled for ages, and birth and rank define a person's position +accurately." + +"I do not believe in equality," said Miss Brown, with a toss of her +head. (Her father was a mighty brewer, but he and hers were in character +and antecedents something like the froth on their own beer.) + +Miss Winthrop was a little embarrassed at finding her supposed case +a real one, for it might involve some practical action on her part. +Many an ardent advocate of the people in theory gives them practically +the cold shoulder, and is content to stay on the summit of Mt. Olympus. +She was a girl of good impulses and strong convictions of abstract +right, but rarely had either the courage or the opportunity to carry +them out. She was of the old Boston family of Winthrops, and therefore +could meet Miss Ludolph on her own ground in the way of pedigree. + +But, however Dennis fared, she felt that she must look after her +argument, and, having conquered theoretically as far as America was +concerned, determined to carry war into Europe, so she said: "Are you +not mistaken in saying that birth and rank only settle position abroad? +Some of the most honored names there are or were untitled." + +"Oh, certainly, but they were persons of great genius, and _genius_ is +the highest patent of nobility. But I leave you republicans to settle +this question to suit yourselves. I am going to look after the +preparations for this evening, as I have set my heart on a success +that shall ring through the city." + +But they all flocked after her into the back parlor, now doubly +interesting as it contained an object of curiosity in Dennis Fleet--a +veritable gentleman who swept a store. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +CHRISTINE'S IDEA OF CHRISTIANS + + +The large apartment where the amateur performers expected to win their +laurels was now filled with all the paraphernalia needed to produce +musical, artistic, and scenic effects. Much had been gathered before +Dennis's arrival, and his cart-load added all that was necessary. +Everything seemed in inextricable confusion. + +"The idea of having anything here to-night!" exclaimed Miss Winthrop. +"It will take us a week to get things arranged." + +"The thing is hopeless," said the blank young ladies. + +Even Christine looked somewhat dismayed, but she said, "Remember we +have till half-past eight." + +"I will call two or three of the servants," said Miss Brown. + +"I beg of you do not, at least not yet," exclaimed Christine. "What +will their clumsy hands do in work like this, but mar everything. I +have great faith in Mr. Fleet's abilities," she continued, turning +toward Dennis, with an enchanting smile, and resuming the tactics of +the morning. Though the smile went to Dennis's heart like a fiery +arrow, his pride, thoroughly aroused, made him cold and self-possessed. +He naturally assumed the manner possible only to the true gentleman +who, though wronged, chooses not to show his feelings save by a grave, +quiet dignity. In view of their action and manner, he consciously felt +himself their superior; and this impression, like an atmosphere, was +felt by them also. As they looked upon his tall, erect form, manly +bearing, and large dark eyes, in which still lurked the fire of an +honest indignation, they felt the impossibility of ordering him about +like Mapes the carman. They regarded him for a moment in awkward +silence, not knowing what to do or say. Even haughty Christine was +embarrassed, for the stronger spirit was present and thoroughly aroused, +and it overpowered the weaker natures. Christine had never seen Dennis +look like that, and did not know that he could. He was so different +from the eager, humble servitor that heretofore had interpreted her +very wishes, even before they were spoken! Moreover, the success of +their entertainment now depended upon him, and she felt that he was +in a mood requiring delicate treatment, and that she could not order +him around in the role to which she had assigned him. And yet if she +had known him, she might, for he had made up his mind to go through +even the most menial service with proud humility, and then be careful +not to be so caught again; and, when Dennis had resolved upon a thing, +that settled the question so far as he was concerned. Seeing Christine's +hesitation and embarrassment, he stepped forward and said: "Miss +Ludolph, if you will indicate _your_ wishes I will carry them out as +rapidly as possible. I can soon bring order out of this confusion; and +you must have some plan of arrangement." + +She gave him a quick, grateful glance, that thawed more of his ice +than he cared to have melt so quickly. + +"Of course we have," said she. "This is but the nervous hesitation +before the shock of a battle that has all been planned on paper. Here +is our programme." + +"All battles do not go forward in the field as planned on paper, if +my feeble memory serves me," said Miss Winthrop, maliciously. + +"I grant you that," said Christine, quietly, "and you need not tax +your memory so greatly to prove it." + +She was now very kind and gracious to Dennis, believing that to be the +best policy. It usually is, but she received no special proof of it +from him: he listened alike to request, suggestion, and compliment. +There was nothing sullen or morose in his appearance, nothing resentful +or rude. With the utmost respect he heard all she said, and carried +out her wishes with that deft, graceful promptness in which he had few +equals. At the same time his manner was that of one who thoroughly +respected himself--that of a refined and cultivated person, who, having +become committed to a disagreeable part, performed it with only the +protest of dignified silence. + +As his first step, he cleared a space for action, and arranged +everything to be in view when needed. The rapidity with which order +emerged from confusion was marvellous to the young ladies. + +Then he took their programme, studied it a few moments, and compared +it with the pictures of the scenes they wished to imitate. He then +arranged for these one after another, placing everything needed within +reach, and where it could readily be seen, making the combinations +beforehand as far as possible. As he worked so intelligently and +skilfully, requiring so few explanations, the young ladies exchanged +significant glances, and strolled into the front parlor. They must +express an opinion. + +"I declare, Christine," said Miss Winthrop, "it is a shame that you +did not introduce him, for he is a gentleman. He works like a captive +prince." + +"How romantic!" gushed the colorless young ladies. + +"Nonsense!" said Miss Brown; "I hate to see any one in his position +putting on such airs." + +As soon as she had seen Dennis fairly at work just like her mother's +servants, or her father's men, she felt that he ought to be treated +as such--riches being Miss Brown's patent of nobility; and she resolved +if possible to lower his ridiculous pride, as she regarded it. Miss +Brown was a very handsome, stylish girl of a certain type, but she no +more understood Dennis's feelings than she did Sanscrit. + +Christine said nothing, but admitted to herself, with a secret wonder, +that Dennis awakened in her a respect, a sort of fear, that no other +man had inspired, save her father. There was something in his manner, +though altogether respectful, that made her feel that he was not to +be trifled with. This impression was decidedly heightened when, a few +moments later, Miss Brown, pursuant of her resolution to lower Dennis's +pride, ordered him in an offensive manner to do something for her that +had no connection with the entertainment. At first he acted as if he +had not heard her, but his rising color showed that he had. In spite +of warning glances from Christine and Miss Winthrop, she repeated her +request in a loud, imperious tone. + +Dennis drew himself up to his full height, and, turning his dark eyes +full upon her, said, firmly, "I am ever ready to _offer_ any service +that a gentleman can to a lady, but surely I am not your footman." + +"Your pride is ridiculous, sir. You are here to help, and will be paid +for it. This is my house, and I expect persons of your position, while +in it, to do as they are bidden." + +"Since such are the rules and principles of your house, permit me at +once to leave you in full possession;" and he was about to retire with +a manner as cold as Mr. Ludolph himself could have assumed, and as +haughty, when a light hand fell upon his arm. Looking down he met the +deep blue eyes of Christine Ludolph lifted pleadingly to his. + +"Mr. Fleet, you need not do what is asked. It is not right to require +it. In fact we all owe you an apology." Then, in a low, quick tone, +she added, "Will you not stay as a favor to me?" + +She felt his arm tremble under her hand, there was a moment's +hesitation, then he replied, in the same manner, "Miss Ludolph, _you_ +can command me on _this_ occasion" (there was no promise for the +future); and then he turned to his work as if resolved to see and know +nothing else till the ordeal ended. + +In spite of herself Christine blushed, but taking Miss Brown by the arm +she led her aside and gave her a vigorous lecture. + +"Are you sane?" she said. "Do you not remember that nearly a thousand +dollars' worth of tickets are sold, and that the people will be here +by half-past eight, and at nine we must appear? Even after what he has +done, if you should drive him away the thing would be a failure, and +we should be the ridiculous town-talk for a year." + +"But I hate--" + +"No matter what you hate. Treat him as you please tomorrow. We need +him now;" and so the petted, wilful girl, spoiled by money and flattery, +was kept under restraint. + +A great deal of preparation was required for the last two pieces on +the programme, and the young ladies grouped themselves not far off +while Dennis worked. Christine explained from time to time as the +natural leader of the party. Still an awkward silence followed the +scene above described. This restraint could not long endure, and one +of the colorless young ladies asked a question that led to more than +she intended, and indeed, more than she understood. + +"Christine, what do you do with yourself Sundays? Your pew is not +occupied once in an age." + +"I usually paint most of the day, and ride out with papa in the +afternoon when it is pleasant." + +"Why, you are a perfect little heathen!" they all exclaimed in chorus. + +"Yes, I suppose I am worse than a pagan," she said, "for I not only +do not believe in your superstitions, but have none of my own." + +"What do you believe in, then?" asked Miss Winthrop. + +"Art, music, fame, power." + +She announced her creed so coolly and decidedly that Dennis lifted a +startled face to hers. She saw his grieved, astonished expression, and +it amused her very much. Henceforth she spoke as much for his benefit +as for theirs. + +"If you would be equally honest," she continued, "you would find that +your creeds also are very different from the one in the prayer-book." + +"And what would mine be, pray," asked one of the colorless young ladies. + +"I will sum it up in one sentence, Miss Jones--'Keep in the fashion.'" + +"I think that you are very unjust. I'm sure I go to church regularly, +and attend a great many services in Lent and on Saints' days. I've +been confirmed, and all that." + +"Yes, it is the thing to do in your set. Now, here is Miss Winthrop, +a Presbyterian, who manifests quite another religious phase." + +"Pray what is mine?" asked that lady, laughing. + +"Oh, you want hair-splitting in regard to the high doctrines--clear, +brilliant arguments, cutting like sharp, merciless steel into the +beliefs of other denominations. Then, after your ism has been glorified +for an hour on Sunday morning, and all other isms pierced and lashed, +you descend from your intellectual heights, eat a good dinner, take +a nap, and live like the rest of us till the next Sabbath, when (if +it is a fine day) you climb some other theological peak, far beyond +the limits of perpetual snow, and there take another bird's-eye view +of something that might be found very different if you were nearer to +it." + +"And what is my phase?" asked Miss Brown. + +"Oh, you are an out-and-out sinner, and do just what you please, in +spite of priest or prayer-book," said Christine, with a laugh in which +all the ladies joined. + +"Well," said Miss Brown, "I do not think that I am worse than the rest +of you." + +"Not in the least," replied Christine. "We all have some form of +religion, or none at all, as it accords with our peculiar tastes." + +"And you mean to say that having a religion or not is a mere matter +of taste?" asked Miss Winthrop. + +"Yes, I should say it was, and practically that it _is_. You ladies, and +nearly all that I have met, seem to choose a style of religion suited to +your tastes; and the tastes of many incline them to have no religion at +all." + +"Why, Miss Ludolph!" exclaimed Miss Winthrop, her cheeks glowing with +honest dissent and zeal for the truth; "our religion is taken from the +Bible. Do you not believe in the Bible?" + +"No! not in the sense in which you ask the question; nor you either, +my charming Miss Winthrop." + +"Indeed I do, every word of it," said the orthodox young lady, hotly. + +"Let me test you. Miss Brown, have you such a book in the house? Oh, +yes, here is an elegantly bound copy, but looking as if never opened. +And now, Miss Winthrop, this city is full of all sorts of horrid people, +living in alleys and tenement houses. They are poor, half-naked, hungry, +and sometimes starving. Many are in prison, and more ought to be; many +are strangers, more utterly alone and lonely in our crowded streets +than on a desert island. They are suffering from varieties of disgusting +disease, and having a hard time generally. How many hungry people have +you fed? How many strangers (I do not mean distinguished ones from +abroad) have you taken in and comforted? How many of the naked have +you clothed? And how long is your list of the sick and imprisoned that +you have visited, my luxurious little lady?" + +A real pallor overspread Miss Winthrop's sunny face, for she saw what +was coming, but she answered, honestly, "I have done practically nothing +of all this." Then she added: "Papa and mamma are not willing that I +should visit such places and people. I have asked that I might, but +they always discourage me, and tell of the awful experiences of those +who do." + +"Then they don't believe the Bible, either," said Christine; "for if +they did they would insist on your doing it; and if you believed you +would do all this in spite of them; for see what is written here; the +very Being that you worship and dedicate your churches to will say, +because of your not doing this, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into +everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.' And this is +but one of many similar passages. Now all this is a monstrous fable +to me. The idea of any such experiences awaiting my light-hearted +little Sybarite here!" + +Miss Winthrop had buried her face in her hands, and was trembling from +head to foot. The words of God never seemed so real and true before +as now when uttered by an unbeliever. + +"I don't believe there is any such place or things," said Miss Brown, +bluntly. + +"There spake my mature and thoughtful friend who is not to be imposed +upon," said Christine, with a touch of irony in her tone. + +Dennis had listened in sad wonder. Such words of cynical unbelief were +in dark, terrible contrast with the fair young face. He saw the mind +and training of her father in all she said, but he bitterly condemned +the worldly, inconsistent life of multitudes in the church who do more +to confirm unbelievers than all their sophistries. But as she went on, +seemingly having the argument all her own way, his whole soul burned +to meet and refute her fatal views. For her own sake and the others' +as well as for the dishonored name of his Lord, he must in some way +turn the tide. Though regarded as a humble servitor, having no right +to take part in the conversation, he determined that his hands must +lift up the standard of truth if no others would or could. To his joy +he found that the programme would soon give him the coveted opportunity. + +Christine went on with a voice as smooth and musical as the flow of +a stream over a glacier. + +"I have read the Bible several times, and that is more than all of you +can say, I think. It is a wonderful book, and has been the inspiration +of some of our best art. There are parts that I enjoy reading very +much for their sublimity and peculiarity. But who pretends to live as +this old and partially obsolete book teaches? Take my father, for +instance. All the gentlemen in the church that I know of can do, and +are accustomed to do, just what he does, and some I think do much +worse; and yet he is an infidel, as you would term him. And as to the +ladies, not the Bible, but fashion rules them with a rod of iron. I +have cut free from it all, and art shall be my religion and the +inspiration of my life." + +As Christine talked on, the twilight deepened, and Dennis worked with +increasing eagerness. + +"After all," she continued, "it is only history repeating itself. The +educated mind to-day stands in the same attitude toward Christianity +as that of the cultured mind of Greece and Rome toward the older +mythology in the second century. Then as now the form of religion was +kept up, but belief in its truth was fast dying out. The cities abounded +in gorgeous temples, and were thronged with worshippers, but they +sacrificed at the dictates of fashion, custom, and law, not of faith. +So our cities are adorned with splendid churches, and fashion and the +tastes of the congregation decide as to the form of service. The sects +differ widely with each other, and all differ with the Bible. The +ancients gave no more respect to what was regarded as the will of their +imaginary deities than do modern Christians to the precepts of the +Bible. People went to the ceremonies, got through with them, and then +did what they pleased; and so they do now. + +"Take for instance one of your commonest doctrines, that of prayer; +the majority have no practical belief in it. My father has taken me, +and out of curiosity I have attended several prayer meetings. The +merest fraction of the congregation are present at the best of times, +and if the night is stormy the number out is ridiculously small. Yet +all profess to believe that the Lord of heaven and earth will be +present, and that it is His will that they should be. Your Bible teaches +that the Being who controls completely the destiny of every person +will be in the midst of those gathered in His name, to hear and answer +their petitions. If this is true, then no earthly ruler was every so +neglected and insulted, so generally ignored, as this very Deity to +whom you ascribe unlimited power, and from whom you say you receive +life and everything. An eastern despot would take off the heads of +those who treated him in such a style; and a republican politician +would scoff at the idea of giving office to such lukewarm followers. +Why, here in Christian Chicago the will of God is no more heeded by +the majority than that of the Emperor of China, and the Bible might +as well be the Koran. Looking at these facts from my impartial +standpoint, I am driven to one of two alternatives: either you regard +your God as so kind and good, so merciful, that you can trespass on +His forbearance to any extent, and treat Him with a neglect and an +indifference that none would manifest toward the pettiest earthly +potentate, and still all will be well; or else you have no real +practical belief in your religion. Though not very charitably inclined, +I cannot think quite so meanly of human nature as to take the former +view, so I am driven to the latter. For surely no man who wished to +live and prosper, no woman who loved her husband and children, could +so coolly and continually disregard the Deity in whom they profess to +believe, with the old Greek poet, that they 'live, move, and have their +being.'" + +The twilight deepened, and Christine continued, her words, portraying +the decline of faith, according ominously with the increasing gloom. + +"Why, in order to see the truth of what I am saying, look at the emblem +of your faith--the Cross. All its historical associations are those +of self-denial, and suffering for others. The Founder of your faith +endured death upon it. He was a great, good man like Socrates, though +no doubt a mistaken enthusiast. But what He meant He said plainly and +clearly, as, for instance, 'Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come +after Me cannot be My disciple.' I admit that in the past He had a +wonderful following. In the ages of martyrdom multitudes left all, and +endured all that He did, for His sake. But so there have been other +great leaders with equally devoted followers. But in this practical +age religious enthusiasm has but little chance. What crosses do the +members of the Church of the Holy Virgin take up? and what are borne +by your great rich church, Miss Winthrop? The shrewd people of this +day manage better, and put their crosses on the top of the church. I +suppose they reason that the stone tower can carry it for the whole +congregation, on the principle of a labor-saving machine. But, honestly, +your modern disciples are no more like their Master than one of the +pale, slim, white-kidded gentlemen who will be here to-night is like +Richard Coeur de Lion as he led a charge against the Moslems. Your +cross is dwindling to a mere pretty ornament--an emblem of a past that +is fast fading from men's memories. It will never have the power to +inspire the heart again, as when the Crusaders--" + +At that moment their eyes were blinded by a sudden, dazzling light. +There was a general and startled exclamation, and then, awe-struck and +silent, they gazed as if spellbound upon a luminous cross blazing +before them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +EQUAL TO AN EMERGENCY + + +The fiery cross that so awed Christine and her little group of auditors +was to be the closing scene of the evening entertainment. It was of +metal, and by a skilful adjustment of jets was made to appear as if +all aflame. While the others were intent on Christine's words, and +she in the interest of her theme had quite forgotten him, Dennis made +all his arrangements, and at the critical point narrated in the +preceding chapter he turned on the gas with the most startling effect. +It seemed a living, vivid refutation of Christine's words, and even +she turned pale. After a moment, for the emblem to make its full +impression, Dennis stepped out before them all, his face lighted up +by the luminous cross. They admitted that no crusader could look more +earnest and brave than he. + +"Miss Ludolph," he said, in a firm, yet respectful tone, "I should +evermore be unworthy of your respect and confidence--what is more, I +should be false to myself, false to my faith--should I remain silent +in view of what I have been compelled to hear. That sacred emblem has +not spent its meaning, or its power. Millions to-day would die for +the sake of Him who suffered on it. Many even of those weak, +inconsistent ones that you have so justly condemned would part with +life rather than with the faint hope that centres there," pointing to +the radiant symbol. + +"You are rude, sir," said Christine, her face pale, but her eyes +flashing in turn. + +"No, he is right! he is right!" exclaimed Miss Winthrop, springing up +with tears in her eyes. "Undeserving as I am of the name of Christian, +I would die, I know I would die, before I would give up my poor little +hope--though I confess you make me fear that it is a false one. But +it's the best I have, and I mean it shall be better. I think a good +touch of persecution, that would bring people out, would do the church +more good than anything else. + +"Pardon me, Miss Ludolph," continued Dennis; "but I appeal to your +sense of justice. Could I be a true man and be silent, believing what +I do? Could I hear the name of my Best Friend thus spoken of, and say +not one word in His behalf?" + +"But I spoke most highly of the Christ of the Bible." + +"You spoke of Him as a great, good, but mistaken _man_, an enthusiast. +To me He is the mighty God, my Divine Saviour, to whom I owe infinitely +more than life. You know that I mean no disrespect to you," he added, +with gentle but manly courtesy. "I regret more deeply than words can +express that you honestly think as you do. But if I as honestly believe +the Bible, am I not acting as you said a true follower ought? For I +assure you it is a heavier cross than you can ever know to speak thus +unbidden where I am regarded only as a serving-man. But should I not be +false and cowardly if I held my peace? And if you afterward should know +that I claimed the name of Christian, would you not despise me as you +remembered this scene?" + +Christine bit her lip and hesitated, but her sense of justice prevailed, +and she said, "I not only pardon you, but commend your course in view +of your evident sincerity." + +Dennis replied by a low bow. + +At this moment there was a loud ring at the door. + +"There come the gentlemen," exclaimed Miss Brown. "I am so glad! Oh, +dear! what a long, uncomfortable preachment we have had! Now for some +fun!" + +The colorless young ladies had stared first at Christine, and then at +the cross, in blank amazement. + +At the word "gentlemen" they were all on the alert and ready for _real_ +life; but Miss Winthrop left the room for a short time. + +A handsome, lively youth entered, scattering bows and compliments on +every side with the off-hand ease of an accomplished society man. He +paid no heed to Dennis, evidently regarding him as the showman. + +"Well, ladies, you have done your part," he said; "your arrangements +seem complete." + +"Yes, Mr. Mellen; but where is our tenor?" asked Christine. "We have +only three-quarters of an hour for music rehearsal, before we must +retire to dress for our parts." + +"Bad news for you, Miss Ludolph," said Mr. Mellen, coming to her side; +"Archer is sick and can't come." + +"Can't come?" they all exclaimed in dismayed chorus. + +"What is the matter?" asked Miss Winthrop, anxiously, coming in at +that moment. + +"Matter enough," said Miss Brown, poutingly; "that horrid Archer has +gone and got sick, I do believe he did it on purpose. He did not know +his parts near as well as he ought, and he has taken this way to get +out of it." + +"But he promised me he would study them all the morning," said +Christine. "Oh, I am so sorry! What shall we do? Our entertainment +seems fated to be a failure;" and she spoke in a tone of deep +disappointment. + +"I assure you I feel the deepest sympathy for you," said Mr. Mellen, +looking tenderly at Christine, "but I did my best. I tried to drag +Archer here out of his sick-bed, and then I ran around among some other +good singers that I know, but none would venture. They said the music +was difficult, and would require much practice, and that now is +impossible." + +"Oh, isn't it too bad?" mourned Miss Winthrop. "The programme is all +printed, and the people will be so disappointed! We can't have that +splendid duet that you and Mr. Archer were to sing, Christine. I have +a score of friends who were coming to hear that alone." + +"Oh, as for that matter, half our music is spoiled," said Christine, +dejectedly. "Well, this is the last time I attempt anything of the +kind. How in the world we are going to get out of this scrape I do not +know. The tickets are so high, and so much has been said, that the +people are expecting a great deal, and there is every prospect of a +most lame and impotent conclusion." + +A general gloom settled upon the faces of all. At this moment Dennis +stepped forward hesitatingly and said to Christine, "Have you the music +that Mr. Archer was to sing?" + +"Certainly! do you suppose it was of the kind that he could +extemporize?" said Miss Brown, pertly. + +"Will you let me see it? If you are willing, perhaps I can assist you +in this matter." + +All turned toward him with a look of great surprise. + +"What do you think of that from the man who sweeps Mr. Ludolph's store?" +asked Miss Brown, in a loud whisper. + +"I think the fellow is as presuming as he is ignorant," said Mr. Mellen, +so plainly that all heard him. + +"It is not presuming, sir, to offer a kindness where it is needed," +said Dennis, with dignity, "and my ignorance is not yet proved. The +presumption is all on your part." + +Mr. Mellen flushed and was about to answer angrily when Miss Winthrop +said hastily, but in a kindly tone, "But really, Mr. Fleet, much of +our music is new and very difficult." + +"But it is written, is it not?" asked Dennis, with a smile. + +Christine looked at him in silent wonder. What would he not do next? +But she was sorry that he had spoken, for she foresaw only mortification +for him. + +"Oh, give him the music by all means," said Miss Brown, expecting to +enjoy his blundering attempts to sing what was far beyond him. "There, +I will play the accompaniment. It's not the tune of Old Hundred that +you are to sing now, young man, remember." + +Dennis glanced over the music, and she began to play a loud, difficult +piece. + +He turned to Miss Ludolph, and said: "I fear you have given me the +wrong music. Miss Brown is playing something not written here." + +They exchanged significant glances, and Miss Winthrop said, "Play the +right music, Miss Brown." + +She struck into the music that Dennis held, but played it so out of +time that no one could sing it. Dennis laid down his sheets on the +piano and said quietly, though with flushed face: "I did not mean to +be obtrusive. You all seemed greatly disappointed at Mr. Archer's +absence and the results, and I thought that in view of the emergency +it would not be presumption to offer my services. But it seems that +I am mistaken." + +"No, it is not presumption," said Miss Winthrop. "It was true kindness +and courtesy, which has been ill requited. But you see, to be frank, +Mr. Fleet, we all fear that you do not realize what you are +undertaking." + +"Must I of necessity be an ignoramus because, as Miss Brown says, I +sweep a store?" + +"Let me play the accompaniment," said Christine, with the decided +manner that few resisted, and she went correctly through the difficult +and brilliant passage. Dennis followed his part with both eye and ear, +and then said, "Perhaps I had better sing my part alone first, and +then you can correct any mistakes." + +There was a flutter of expectation, a wink from Mr. Mellen, and an +audible titter from Miss Brown. + +"Certainly" said Miss Ludolph, who thought to herself, "If he will +make a fool of himself, he may"; and she played the brief prelude. + +Then prompt at the proper moment, true to time and note, Dennis's rich, +powerful tenor voice startled and then entranced them all. He sung the +entire passage through with only such mistakes as resulted from his +nervousness and embarrassment. + +At the close, all exclaimed in admiration save Miss Brown, who bit her +lip in ill-concealed vexation, and said, with a half-sneer, "Really, +Mr. What-is-your-name, you are almost equal to Blind Tom." + +"You do Blind Tom great injustice," said Dennis. "I read my music." + +"But how did you learn to read music in that style?" asked Christine. + +"Of course it took me years to do so. But no one could join our musical +club at college who could not read anything placed before him." + +"It must have been small and select, then." + +"It was." + +"How often had you sung that piece before?" asked Miss Brown. + +"I never saw it before," answered Dennis. + +"Why, it is just out," said Christine. + +"Well, ladies and gentlemen, our troubles are over at last," said Miss +Winthrop. "Mr. Fleet seems a good genius--equal to any emergency. If +he can sing that difficult passage, he can sing anything else we have. +We had better run over our parts, and then to our toilets." + +One of the colorless young ladies played the accompaniments, her music +making a sort of neutral tint, against which their rich and varied +voices came out with better effect. They sung rapidly through the +programme, Dennis sustaining his parts correctly and with taste. He +could read like the page of an open book any music placed before him, +and years of practice enabled him to sing true and with confidence. +As he sung one thing after another with perfect ease, their wonder +grew; and when, in the final duet with Christine, they both came out +strongly, their splendid, thoroughly-trained voices blending in perfect +harmony, they were rewarded with a spontaneous burst of applause, in +which even Miss Brown was compelled to join. + +Christine said nothing, but gave Dennis a quick, grateful glance, which +amply repaid him for the martyrdom she had led him into that afternoon. + +He acknowledged the plaudits of the others with a slight, cool bow, +but her thanks with a warm flush of pleasure, and then turned to +complete his arrangements as if nothing had happened. There was not +the slightest show of exultation or of a purpose to demand equality, +in view of what had taken place. His old manner returned, and he acted +as if they were all strangers to him. They exchanged significant, +wondering glances, and after a brief consultation retired to the +dining-room, where coffee and sandwiches were waiting. Miss Winthrop +and Christine sincerely hoped that Miss Brown would invite Dennis out, +but she did not, and since it was her house, as she had said, they +could not interfere. Dennis heard the clatter of knives and forks, and +saw that he was again slighted; but he did not care now. Indeed, in +the light of the sacred emblem before which he had stood, he had learned +patience. He remembered how the rich and great of the world had treated +his Master. Then, too, Christine's kind, grateful glance seemed to +fall upon him like a warm ray of sunlight. + +When they had finished and were about to dress for their parts, Miss +Brown put her head within the door and said, "You will find some lunch +in the dining-room." + +Dennis paid no heed to her, but he heard Miss Winthrop say: "Really, +Miss Brown, that is too bad after what he has done and shown himself +to be. I wonder that he does not leave the house." + +"He will not do that until he is no longer needed," said Christine. + +"Then he may as soon as he chooses," said Miss Brown. She was a girl +of violent prejudices, and from her very nature would instinctively +dislike such a person as Dennis Fleet. + +"Well," said Miss Winthrop, "he is a gentleman, and he gave the +strongest proof of it when he quietly and modestly withdrew after +achieving a success that would have turned any one's head, and that +ought to have secured him full recognition." + +"I told you he was a gentleman," said Christine, briefly, "and I +consider myself a judge;" and then their voices passed out of hearing. + +Dennis, having arranged everything so that he could place his hands +readily upon it, found that he had half an hour to spare. He said to +himself: "Miss Ludolph is wrong. I shall leave the house for a short +time. I am a most unromantic individual; for, no matter what or how +I feel, I do get hungry. But I am sure Miss Brown's coffee and +sandwiches would choke me. I have already swallowed too much from her +to care for any more, so here's for a restaurant." + +Miss Winthrop hastened through her toilet in order that she might come +down and speak to Dennis while he was alone. She wished to thank him +for his course and his vindication of the truth, and to assure him +that she both respected him and would treat him as a true gentleman. +She went into the back parlor, but he was not there; then she passed +to the dining-room, but found only servants clearing away and preparing +for the grand supper of the evening. + +In quick alarm she asked, "Where is Mr. Fleet?" + +"Is it the man in the back parlor, mum? He's just after goin' out." + +"Oh, girls!" exclaimed Miss Winthrop, rushing upstairs, "Mr. Fleet has +gone." + +And there was general consternation. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE REVELATION + + +The toilets of the young ladies were nearly completed, but, without +waiting to add another touch, all hastened to the place where they had +left Dennis. One of the colorless young ladies appeared upon the scene +with a shawl around her bare shoulders, and a great deal of color on +one cheek, and none on the other as yet; but this slight discrepancy +was unnoted in the dire calamity they feared. + +Many were the exclamations and lamentations. + +"Why, the people will be here in fifteen minutes," said Miss Winthrop, +in a nervous tremor. + +"Did he leave no word?" asked Miss Brown of the servants. + +"No word, mum," was the dismal echo. + +"What shall we do?" they said, looking at one another with blank faces; +but none could answer. + +"I do hate such proud, freakish people. There is no managing or +depending on them," said Miss Brown, spitefully. + +Miss Winthrop bit her lips to keep from saying to her hostess what +would be more true than polite. There was a flash of anger in +Christine's dark blue eyes, and she said, coldly: "I imagine that you +have finished the business this time, Miss Brown. But I confess that +I am greatly surprised, for he said I could depend upon him for +to-night." + +"So you can," said Dennis, coming in behind them. "I am sorry you have +had this needless alarm. But the fact is, I am a plain, ordinary mortal, +and live in a very material way." + +"There was plenty of lunch in the dining-room," said Miss Brown, tartly. +"You need not have gone out and made all this trouble." + +"Pardon me for slighting your hospitality," said Dennis, with slight +emphasis on the word. + +Again significant glances were exchanged. Miss Brown darted a black +look at Dennis, and left the room. + +"I can assure you, ladies," added he, "that all is ready. I can lay +my hand in a moment on whatever is needed. Therefore you need give +yourselves no further anxiety." + +There was a general stampede for the dressing-rooms, but Miss Winthrop +lingered. When Dennis was alone she went up to him and frankly gave +her hand, saying: "Mr. Fleet, I wish to thank you for your course +to-day. Between Miss Ludolph's unwitting sermon and your brave and +unexpected vindication of our faith, I hope to become more deserving +of the name of Christian. You are a gentleman, sir, in the truest and +best sense of the word, and as such it will ever be a pleasure to +welcome you at my father's house;" and she gave him her card. + +A flush of grateful surprise and pleasure mantled Dennis's face, but +before he could speak she was gone. + +The audience were soon thronging in. By half-past eight the performers +were all in the back parlor, and there was a brilliant army of actors +and actresses in varied and fanciful costume, many coming to the house +dressed for their parts. There were gods and goddesses, shepherds and +shepherdesses, angels, crusaders, who would take leave of languishing +ladies, living statuary, and tableaux of all sorts. Dennis was much +shocked at the manner in which ladies exposed themselves in the name +of art and for the sake of effect. Christine seemed perfectly Greek +and pagan in this respect, yet there was that in her manner that forbade +a wanton glance. But, as he observed the carriage of the men around +him, he was more than satisfied that no plea of art could justify the +"style," and felt assured that every pure-minded woman would take the +same view if she realized the truth. Under the name of fashion and art +much is done in society that would be simply monstrous on ordinary +occasions. + +The music, as far as possible, was in character with the scenes. The +entertainment went forward with great applause. Every one was radiant; +and the subtile, exhilarating spirit of assured success glowed in every +eye, and gave a richer tone and coloring to everything. + +Christine appeared in several and varied characters, and Dennis had +eyes only for her. The others he glanced over critically as the artist +in charge, and then dismissed them from his thoughts; but on Christine +his eyes rested in a spell-bound admiration that both amused and pleased +her. She loved power of every kind, and when she read approval in the +trained and critical eye of Dennis Fleet she knew that all the audience +were applauding. + +But Dennis had little time for musing, so great was the strain upon +him to prevent confusion. His voice excited great surprise and applause, +many inquiring vainly who he was. When he and Christine sung together +the audience were perfectly carried away, and stormed and applauded +without stint. Indeed, it seemed that they could not be satisfied. The +call was so urgent that several asked Christine to sing again, and she +did so alone. For ten minutes she held the audience perfectly entranced, +and no one more so than Dennis. Usually she was too cold in all that +she did, but now in her excitement she far surpassed herself, and he +acknowledged that he had never heard such music before. + +The very soul of song seemed breathed into her, and every nook and +corner of the house appeared to vibrate with melody. Even the servants +in distant rooms said that it seemed that an angel was singing. After +she ceased, the audience sat spellbound for a moment, and then followed +prolonged thunders of applause, the portly brewer, Mr. Brown himself, +leading off again and again. + +"Now let the tenor sing alone," he said, for, though a coarse man, he +was hearty and good-natured. + +The audience emphatically echoed his wish, but Dennis as decidedly +shook his head. + +Then came a cry, "Miss Ludolph and the tenor again"; and the audience +took it up with a clamor that would not be denied. + +Christine looked inquiringly at Dennis, and he replied in a low tone, +"You command me this evening." + +Again she thanked him with her eyes, and from a music stand near +chose a magnificent duet from Mendelssohn, in which he must sing several +difficult solos. + +"Act your pleasure. I am familiar with it," he said, smiling at the +way she had circumvented him in his refusal to sing alone. + +Christine sat down and played her own accompaniment, while Dennis stood +at her side. He determined to do his best and prove that though he +swept a store he could also do something else. Many of the strains +were plaintive, and his deep and unconscious feeling for his fair +companion in song gave to his voice a depth, and at times a pathos, +that both thrilled and _touched_ the heart, and there were not a few wet +eyes in the audience. Unconsciously to himself and all around, he was +singing his love; and even Christine, though much preoccupied with her +part, wondered at the effect upon herself, and recognized the deep +impression made upon the audience. + +As the last notes died away the sliding-doors were closed. + +Dennis had achieved a greater success than Christine, because, singing +from the heart, he had touched the heart. His applause could be read +in moist eyes and expressive faces rather than in noisy hands. She saw +and understood the result. A sad, disappointed look came into her face, +and she said in a low, plaintive tone, as if it were wrung from her: +"There must be something wrong about me. I fear I shall never reach +true art. I can only win admiration, never touch the heart." + +Dennis was about to speak eagerly, when they were overwhelmed by the +rush and confusion attendant on the breaking up of the entertainment. +Part of the older guests at once left for their homes, and the rest +stayed for supper. The parlors were to be cleared as soon as possible +for dancing. Christine was joined by her father, who had sat in the +audience, scarcely believing his eyes, much less his ears. Was that +the young man who was blacking old Schwartz's boots the other day? + +His daughter was overwhelmed with compliments, but she took them very +coolly and quietly, for her heart was full of bitterness. That which +her ambitious spirit most desired she could not reach, and to the +degree that she loved art was her disappointment keen. She almost +envied poor Dennis, but she knew not the secret of his success; nor +did he, either, in truth. His old manner returned, and he busied himself +in rapidly packing up everything that he had brought. Mr. Ludolph, who +had received a brief explanation from Christine, came and said, kindly, +"Why, Fleet, you have blossomed out strongly to-day." + +"Indeed, sir, I think I have never had a more rigorous pruning," was +the reply. + +When the story had been told Mr. Ludolph in full, he understood the +remark. Christine was waiting for the crowd to disperse somewhat, in +order to speak to Dennis also, for her sense of justice and her genuine +admiration impelled her to warm and sincere acknowledgment. But at +that moment Mr. Mellen came in, exclaiming, "Miss Ludolph, they are +all waiting for you to lead the dance, for to you is given this honor +by acclamation, and I plead your promise to be my partner"; and he +carried her off, she meaning to return as soon as possible, and +supposing Dennis would remain. + +A moment after, light, airy music was heard in the front parlor, +followed by the rhythmical cadence of light feet and the rustle of +silks like a breeze through a forest. + +For some reason as she went away Dennis's heart sank within him. +Reaction followed the strong excitements of the day, and a strange +sense of weariness and despondency crept over him. The gay music in +the other room seemed plaintive and far away, and the tripping feet +sounded like the patter of rain on autumn leaves. The very lights +appeared to burn dimmer, and the color to fade out of his life. +Mechanically he packed up the few remaining articles, to be called for +in the morning, and then leaned heavily against a pillar, intending +to rest a moment before going out into the night alone. + +Some one pushed back the sliding-door a little and passed into the +room. Through the opening he caught a glimpse of the gay scene +within. Suddenly Christine appeared floating lightly through the waltz +in +her +gauzy drapery, as if in a white, misty cloud. Through the narrow opening +she seemed a radiant, living portrait. But her partner whirled her out +of the line of vision. Thus in the mazes of the dance she kept appearing +and disappearing, flashing in sight one moment, leaving a blank in the +crowded room the next. + +"So it will ever be, I suppose," he said to himself, bitterly; "chance +and stolen glimpses my only privilege." + +Again she appeared, smiling archly on the man whose arm clasped her +waist. + +A frown black as night gathered on Dennis's brow; then a sudden pallor +overspread his face to his very lips. The revelation had come! Then +for the first time he knew--knew it as if written in letters of fire +before him--that he loved Christine Ludolph. + +At first the knowledge stunned and bewildered him, and his mind was +a confused blur; then as she appeared again, smiling upon and in the +embrace of another man, a sharp sword seemed to pierce his heart. + +Dennis was no faint shadow of a man who had frittered away in numberless +flirtations what little heart he originally had. He belonged to the +male species, with something of the pristine vigor of the first man, +who said of the one woman of all the world, "This is now bone of my +bones, and flesh of my flesh"; and one whom he had first seen but a +few short months since now seemed to belong to him by the highest and +divinest right. But could he ever claim his own? + +In his morbid, wearied state, there seemed a "great gulf fixed" between +them. For a moment he fairly felt faint and sick, as if he had received +a wound. He was startled by hearing Miss Winthrop say at his side: +"Mr. Fleet, you will not leave yet. I have many friends wishing an +introduction to you. What is the matter? You look as if you were ill." + +At her voice he flushed painfully. He was so vividly conscious of his +love himself that he felt that every one else must be able to see it, +and darkness and solitude now seemed a refuge. Recovering himself by +a great effort he said, "Pardon me, I do--I am not well--nothing is +the matter--a little rest and I shall be myself again." + +"No wonder. You have been taxed every way beyond mortal endurance, and +I think that it is a shame the way you have been treated. Pray do not +judge Chicago society altogether by what you have seen here. Let me +get you some refreshment, and then I will acquaint you with some people +who can recognize a gentleman when they meet him." + +"No, Miss Winthrop," said Dennis, courteously but firmly; "you are not +in your own home, and by staying I should not be accepting your +hospitality. I appreciate your kindness deeply, and thank your friends +who have expressed a willingness to make my acquaintance. It would not +be right to stay longer in this house than is necessary. I do not feel +resentful. I have no room in my memory for Miss Brown and her actions, +but at the same time self-respect requires that I go at once;" and he +took his hat. + +"I am not surprised that you feel as you do. But give me the pleasure +of welcoming you at my own home as soon as possible," she said, and +gave her hand to him in parting. + +Dennis took it respectfully and bowed low, saying, "I shall not +willingly deny myself so great a pleasure." and was gone. + +Christine came in a few moments later, and found only servants clearing +the room for dancing. + +"Where is Mr. Fleet?" she asked. + +"Gone, mum." + +"Yes," said Miss Winthrop, coming in at the same time; "he has gone +now in very truth; and I don't think the power exists that could lead +him to darken these doors again. I doubt if I ever come myself. I never +saw a clearer instance of--of--well--_shoddy_." + +"It seems to me that you Christians are as proud as any of us." + +"Isn't there a difference between pride and self-respect? I am satisfied +that if Miss Brown were in trouble, or poor, Mr. Fleet would be the +first to help her. Oh, Christine, we have treated him shamefully!" + +"You seem to take a wonderful interest in this unknown knight in rusty +armor." (Dennis's dress was decidedly threadbare.) + +"I do," said the impulsive girl, frankly, "because he is wonderfully +interesting. What man of all the large audience present to-night could +have acted the part he did? I am satisfied that that man is by birth +and education a gentleman. Are you ready, with your aristocratic +notions, to recognize chiefly Miss Brown's title to position? What +could her coat-of-arms be but the dollar symbol and the beer-barrel?" + +"Come, remember she is our hostess." + +"You are right; I should not speak so here; but my indignation gets +the better of me." + +"Would you invite him to your house?" + +"Certainly. I have asked him; and what is more, he has promised to +come. Supposing that he is poor, are not many of your noblemen as poor +as poverty? My parlors shall be haunted only by men of ability and +character." + +"You are not going to shut out this little heathen," said Christine, +putting her arm about her friend. + +"Never!" said Miss Winthrop, returning the embrace with double warmth. +Then she added, sadly: "You are not an unbeliever from conviction and +knowledge, Christine, but from training and association. While I admire +and honor your father as a splendid and gifted man, I regret his and +your scepticism more deeply than you can ever know." + +"Well, Susie," said Christine, with a smile, "if they shut out such +as you from your Paradise, I do not wish to go there." + +"If, with my clear knowledge of the conditions of entrance, I _shut +myself out_, I shall have no right to complain," said Miss Winthrop, +sadly. + +But the absence of two such belles could not long remain unnoted; and, +having been discovered, they were pounced upon by half a dozen young +gentlemen, clamorous for the honor of their hands in the "German." + +In spite of herself, Christine was vexed and annoyed. Dennis had seemed, +in his obscurity, a nice little bit of personal property, that she +could use and order about as she pleased. He had been so subservient +and eager to do her will, that she had never thought of him otherwise +than as her "humble servant." But now her own hand had suddenly given +him the role of a fine gentleman. Christine was too logical to think +of continuing to order about a man who could sing Mendelssohn's music +as Dennis had done. + +She congratulated herself that the arrangement of the store was nearly +completed, and that only one show-room was unfinished. + +"I suppose he will be very dignified when we meet again," she thought +to herself. "I should not be at all surprised if my impulsive little +friend Susie loses her heart to him. Well, I suppose she can to any +one she chooses. As for me, rich or poor, stupid or gifted, the men +of this land are all alike;" and with a half-sigh she plunged resolutely +into the gayeties of the evening, as if to escape from herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +NIGHT THOUGHTS + + +Dennis passed out of the heavy, massive entrance to the wealthy brewer's +mansion with a sense of relief as if escaping from prison. The duskiness +and solitude of the street seemed a grateful refuge, and the night +wind was to his flushed face like a cool hand laid on a feverish brow. +He was indeed glad to be alone, for his was one of those deep, earnest +natures that cannot rush to the world in garrulous confidence when +disturbed and perplexed. There are many sincere but shallow people who +must tell of and talk away every passing emotion. Not of the abundance +of their hearts, for abundance there is not, but of the uppermost thing +in their hearts their mouths must speak, even though the subjects be +of the delicate nature that would naturally be hidden. Such mental +constitutions are at least healthful. Concealed trouble never preys +upon them like the canker in the bud. Everything comes to the surface +and is thrown off. + +But at first Dennis scarcely dared to recognize the truth himself, and +the thought of telling even his mother was repugnant. For half an hour +he walked the streets in a sort of stupor. He was conscious only of +a heavy, aching heart and a wearied, confused brain. All the time, +however, he knew an event had occurred that must for good or evil +affect his entire existence; but he shrank with nervous dread from +grappling with the problem. As the cold air refreshed and revived him, +his strong, practical mind took up the question almost without volition, +and by reason of his morbid, wearied state, only the dark and +discouraging side was presented. The awakening to his love was a very +different thing to Dennis, and to the majority in this troubled world, +from the blissful consciousness of Adam when for the first time he saw +the fair being whom he might woo at his leisure, amid embowering roses, +without fear or thought of a rival. + +To Dennis the fact of his love, so far from promising to be the source +of delightful romance and enchantment, clearly showed itself to be the +hardest and most practical question of a life full of such questions. +In his strong and growing excitement he spoke to himself as to a second +person: "Oh, I see it all now. Poor, blind fool that I was, to think +that by coveting and securing every possible moment in her presence +I was only learning to love art! As I saw her to-night, so radiant and +beautiful, and yet in the embrace of another man, and that man evidently +an ardent admirer, what was art to me? As well might a starving man +seek to satisfy himself by wandering through an old Greek temple as +for me to turn to art alone. One crumb of warm, manifested love from +her would be worth more than all the cold, abstract beauty in the +universe. And yet what chance have I? What can I hope for more than +a passing thought and a little kindly, condescending interest? Clerk +and man-of-all-work in a store, poor and heavily burdened, the idea +of my loving one of the most wealthy, admired, and aristocratic ladies +in Chicago! It is all very well in story-books for peasants to fall +in love with princesses, but in practical Chicago the fact of my +attachment to Miss Ludolph would be regarded as one of the richest +jokes of the season, and by Mr. Ludolph as such a proof of rusticity +and folly as would at once secure my return to pastoral life." + +Then hope whispered, "But you can achieve position and wealth as others +have done, and then can speak your mind from the standpoint of +equality." + +But Dennis was in a mood to see only the hopeless side that night, and +exclaimed almost aloud: "Nonsense! Can it be even imagined that she, +besieged by the most gifted and rich of the city, will wait for a poor +unknown admirer? Mr. Mellen, I understand, approaches her from every +vantage-ground save that of a noble character; but in the fashionable +world how little thought is given to this draw back!" and in his +perturbation he strode rapidly and aimlessly on, finding some relief +in mere physical activity. + +Suddenly his hasty steps ceased, and even in the dusk of the street +his face gleamed out distinctly, so great was its pallor. Like a ray +of light, a passage from the Word of God revealed to him his situation +in a new aspect. It seemed to him almost that some one had whispered +the words in his ear, so distinctly did they present themselves--"Be +ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." + +Slowly and painfully he said to himself, as if recognizing the most +hopeless barrier that had yet been dwelt upon, "Christine Ludolph is +an infidel." + +Not only the voice of reason, and of the practical world, but also the +voice of God seemed to forbid his love; and the conviction that he +must give it all up became a clear as it was painful. The poor fellow +leaned his head against the shaggy bark of an elm in a shadowy square +which the street-lamps could but faintly penetrate. The night wind +swayed the budding branches of the great tree, and they sighed over +him as if in sympathy. + +The struggle within his soul was indeed bitter, for, though thus far +he had spoken hopelessly, he had not been altogether hopeless; but now +that conscience raised its impassable wall high as heaven, which he +must not break through, his pain was so great as to almost unman him, +and such tears as only men can weep fell from his eyes. In anguish he +exclaimed, "That which might have been the chief blessing of life has +become my greatest misfortune." + +Above him the gale caused two fraying limbs to appear to moan in echo +of the suffering beneath. + +"This then must be the end of my prayers in her behalf--my ardent +hope and purpose to lead her to the truth--she to walk through honored, +sunny paths to everlasting shame and night, and I through dark and +painful ways to light and peace, if in this bitter test I remain +faithful. Surely there _is_ much to try one's faith. And yet it must be +so as far as human foresight can judge." + +Then a great pity for her swelled his heart, for he felt that her case +was the saddest after all, and his tears flowed faster than ever. + +Human voices now startled him--some late revellers passing homeward. +The tears and emotion, of which we never think of being ashamed when +alone with Nature and its Author, he dreaded to have seen by his +fellows, and hastily wiping his eyes, he slunk into the deeper shadow +of the tree, and they passed on. Then, an old trait asserting itself, +he condemned his own weakness. Stepping from the sheltering trunk +against which he was leaning, he stood strong and erect. + +The winds were hushed as if expectant in the branches above. + +"Dennis Fleet," he said, "you must put your foot on this folly here +and now." + +He bared his head and looked upward. + +"O God," he said, solemnly, "if this is contrary to Thy will--Thy will +be done." + +He paused a moment reverently, and then turned on his heel and strode +resolutely homeward. + +A gust of wind crashed the branches overhead together like the clash +of cymbals in victory. + +The early spring dawn was tingeing the eastern horizon before the gay +revel ceased and the mansion of the rich brewer was darkened. All the +long night, light, airy music had caused late passers-by to pause a +moment to listen, and to pity or envy the throng within, as disposition +dictated. Mr. Brown was a man who prided himself on lavish and rather +coarse hospitality. A table groaning under costly dishes and every +variety of liquor was the crowning feature, the blissful climax of all +his entertainments; and society from its highest circles furnished an +abundance of anxious candidates for his suppers, who ate and criticised, +drank to and disparaged, their plebeian host. + +Mrs. Brown was heavy in every sense of the word, and with her huge +person draped with acres of silk, and festooned with miles of +point-lace, she waddled about and smiled and nodded good-naturedly at +everybody and everything. + +It was just the place for a fashionable revel, where the gross, repulsive +features of coarse excess are veiled and masked somewhat by +the glamour of outward courtesy and good-breeding. + +At first Christine entered into the dance with great zest and a decided +sense of relief. She was disappointed and out of sorts with herself. +Again she had failed in the object of her intense ambition, and though +conscious that, through the excitement of the occasion, she had sung +better than ever before, yet she plainly saw in the different results +of her singing and that of Dennis Fleet that there was a depth in the +human heart which she could not reach. She could secure only admiration, +superficial applause. The sphere of the true artist who can touch and +sway the popular heart seemed beyond her ability. By voice or pencil +she had never yet attained it. She had too much mind to mistake the +character of the admiration she excited, and was far too ambitious to +be satisfied with the mere praise bestowed on a highly accomplished +girl. She aspired, determined, to be among the first, and to be a +second-rate imitator in the world of art was to her the agony of a +disappointed life. And yet to imitate with accuracy and skill, not +with sympathy, was the only power she had as yet developed. She saw +the limitations of her success more clearly than did any one else, and +chafed bitterly at the invisible bounds she could not pass. + +The excitement of the dance enabled her to banish thoughts that were +both painful and humiliating. Moreover, to a nature so active and full +of physical vigor, the swift, grace motion was a source of keen +enjoyment. + +But when after supper many of the ladies were silly, and the gentlemen +were either stupid or excited, according to the action of the "invisible +spirit of wine" upon their several constitutions--when after many +glasses of champagne Mr. Mellen began to effervesce in frothy +sentimentality and a style of love-making simply nauseating to one of +Christine's nature--she looked around for her father in order to escape +from the scenes that were becoming revolting. + +Though of earth only in all the sources of her life and hopes, she was +not earthy. If her spirit could not soar and sing in the sky, it also +could not grovel in the mire of gross materiality. Some little time, +therefore, before the company broke up, on the plea of not feeling +well she lured her father away from his wine and cigars and a knot of +gentlemen who were beginning to talk a little incoherently. Making +their adieux amid many protestations against their early departure, +they drove homeward. + +"How did you enjoy yourself?" asked her father. + +"Very much in the early part of the evening, not at all in the latter +part. To sum up, I am disgusted with Mr. Mellen and these Browns in +general, and myself in particular." + +"What is the matter with Mr. Mellen? I understand that the intriguing +mammas consider him the largest game in the city." + +"When hunting degenerates into the chase and capture of insects, you +may style him game. Between his champagne and silly love-making, he +was as bad as a dose of ipecac." + +Christine spoke freely to her father of her admirers, usually making +them the themes of satire and jest. + +"And what is the trouble with our entertainers?" + +"I am sorry to speak so of any one whose hospitality I have accepted, +but unless it is your wish I hope never to accept it again. They all +smell of their beer. Everything is so coarse, lavish, and ostentatious. +They tell you as through a brazen trumpet on every side, 'We are rich.'" +"They give magnificent suppers," said Mr. Ludolph, in apology. + +"More correctly, the French cook they employ gives them. I do not +object to the nicest of suppers, but prefer that the Browns be not on +the _carte de menu_. From the moment our artistic programme ended, +and the entertainment fell into their hands, it began to degenerate +into an orgy. Nothing but the instinctive restraints of good-breeding +prevents such occasions from ending in a drunken revel." + +"You are severe. Mr. Brown's social effort is not a bad type of the +entertainments that prevail in fashionable life." + +"Well, it may be true, but they never seemed to me so lacking in good +taste and refinement before. Wait till we dispense choice viands and +wines to choicer spirits in our own land, and I will guarantee a +marvellously wide difference. Then the eye, the ear, the mind, shall +be feasted, as well as the lower sense." + +"Well, I do not see why you should be disgusted with yourself. I am +sure that you covered yourself with glory, and were the belle of the +occasion." + +"That is no great honor, considering the occasion. Father, strange as +it may seem to you, I envied your man-of-all-work to-night. Did you +not mark the effect of his singing?" + +"Yes, and felt it in a way that I cannot explain to myself. His tones +seemed to thrill, and stir my very heart. I have not been so affected +by music for years. At first I thought it was surprise at hearing him +sing at all, but I soon found that it was something in the music +itself." + +"And that something I fear I can never grasp--never attain." + +"Why, my dear, they applauded you to the echo." + +"I would rather see one moist eye as the tribute to my singing than +to be deafened by noisy applause. I fear I shall never reach high art. +Men's hearts sleep when I do my best." + +"I think you are slightly mistaken there, judging from your train of +admirers," said Mr. Ludolph, turning off a disagreeable subject with +a jest. The shrewd man of the world guessed the secret of her failure. +She herself must feel, before she could touch feeling. But he had +systematically sought to chill and benumb her nature, meaning it to +awake at just the time, and under just the circumstances, that should +accord with his controlling ambition. Then reverting to Dennis, he +continued: "It won't answer for Fleet to sweep the store any longer +after the part he played to-night. Indeed, I doubt if he would be +willing to. Not only he, but the world will know that he is capable +of better things. What has occurred will awaken inquiry, and may soon +secure him good business offers. I do not intend to part readily with +so capable a young fellow. He does well whatever is required, and +therefore I shall promote him as fast as is prudent. I think I can +make him of great use to me." + +"That is another thing that provokes me," said Christine. "Only +yesterday morning he seemed such a useful, humble creature, and last +evening through my own folly he developed into a fine gentleman; and +I shall have to say, 'By your leave, sir'; 'Will you please do +this'?--If I dare ask anything at all." + +"I am not so sure of that," said her father. "My impression is that +Fleet has too much good sense to put on airs in the store. But I will +give him more congenial work; and as one of the young gentleman clerks, +we can ask him up now and then to sing with us. I should much enjoy +trying some of our German music with him." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DARKNESS + + +The next morning Christine did not appear at the late breakfast at +which her father with contracted brow and capricious appetite sat +alone. Among the other unexpected results of the preceding day she had +taken a very severe cold, and this, with the reaction from fatigue and +excitement, caused her to feel so seriously ill that she found it +impossible to rise. Her father looked at her, and was alarmed; for her +cheeks were flushed with fever, her head was aching sadly, and she +appeared as if threatened with one of those dangerous diseases whose +earlier symptoms are so obscure and yet so much alike. She tried to +smile, but her lip quivered, and she turned her face to the wall. + +The philosophy of Mr. Ludolph and his daughter was evidently adapted +to fair weather and smooth sailing. Sickness, disease, and the possible +results, were things that both dreaded more than they ever confessed +to each other. It was most natural that they should, for only in health +or life could they enjoy or hope for anything. By their own belief +their horizon was narrowed down to time and earth, and they could look +for nothing beyond. In Mr. Ludolph's imperious, resolute nature, +sickness always awakened anger as well as anxiety. It seemed like an +enemy threatening his dearest hopes and most cherished ambition, +therefore the heavy frown upon his brow as he pushed away the scarcely +tasted breakfast. + +To Christine the thought of death was simply horrible, and with the +whole strength of her will she ever sought to banish it. To her it +meant corruption, dust, nothingness. With a few drawbacks she had +enjoyed life abundantly, and she clung to it with the tenacity of one +who believed it was all. With the exception of some slight passing +indisposition, both she and her father had been seldom ill; and for +a number of years now they had voyaged on over smooth, sunny seas of +prosperity. + +Christine's sudden prostration on the morning following the +entertainment was a painful surprise to both. + +"I will have Dr. Arten call at once," he said, at parting, "and will +come up from the store early in the day to see you;" and Christine was +left alone with her French maid. + +Her mind was too clouded and disturbed by fever to think coherently, +and yet a vague sense of danger--trouble--oppressed her, and while she +lay in a half-unconscious state between sleeping and waking, a thousand +fantastic visions presented themselves. But in them all the fiery Cross +and Dennis Fleet took some part. At times the Cross seemed to blaze +and threaten to burn her to a cinder, while he stood by with stern, +accusing face. The light from the Cross made him luminous also, and +the glare was so terrible that she would start up with a cry of fear. +Again, they would both recede till in the far distance they shone like +a faint star, and then the black darkness that gathered round her was +more dreadful than the light, and with her eyes closed she would reach +out her hot hands for the light to return. Once or twice it shone upon +her with soft, mellow light, and Dennis stood pointing to it, pleading +so earnestly and tenderly that tears gathered in her eyes. Then all +was again blurred and distorted. + +Within an hour after her father left, she found Dr. Arten feeling her +pulse and examining her symptoms. With a great effort she roused +herself, and, looking at the doctor with an eager inquiring face, said; +"Doctor, tell me the truth. What is the matter?" + +He tried to smile and evade her question, but she would not let him. + +"Well, really, Miss Ludolph," he said, "we can hardly tell yet what +is the matter. You have evidently caught a very severe cold, and I +hope that is all. When I come this evening I may be able to speak more +definitely. In the meantime I will give you something to soothe and +reduce your fever!" + +The French maid followed the doctor out, leaving the door ajar in her +haste, and in an audible whisper said: "I say, docteur, is it not ze +smallpox? Zere is so much around. Tell me true, for I must leave zis +very minute." + +"Hush, you fool!" said the doctor, and they passed out of hearing. +A sickening dread made Christine's heart almost stand still. When the +woman returned her mistress watched her most narrowly and asked, "What +did the doctor say to you?" + +The maid replied in French that he had said she must be still and not +talk. + +"But you asked him if I had the smallpox. What did he say?" + +"Ah, mademoiselle, you make one grand meestake. I ask for a small box +to keep your medicine in, zat it make no smell." + +From the woman's lie, and from the fact that she was redolent with +camphor, and that she kept as far away as possible, near the windows, +Christine gathered a most painful confirmation of her fears. For a +time she lay almost paralyzed by dread. + +Then as the medicine relieved her of fever and unclouded her mind, +thought and conscience awoke with terrible and resistless power. As +never before she realized what cold, dark depths were just beneath her +gay, pleasure-loving life, and how suddenly skies radiant with the +richer promise of the future could become black and threatening. +Never had earthly life seemed so attractive, never had her own prospects +seemed so brilliant, and her hopes of fame, wealth, and happiness in +her future German villa more dazzling, than now when they stood out +against the dark background of her fears. + +"If, instead of going forward to all this delight, I become an object +of terror and loathing even before I die, and something that must be +hidden out of sight as soon as possible after, what conceivable fate +could be worse? That such a thing is possible proves this to be a +dreadful and defective world, with all its sources of pleasure. Surely +if there were a God he would banish such horrible evils. + +"There is no God--there can't be any--at least none such as the Bible +reveals. How often I have said this to myself! how often my father has +said it to me! and yet the thought of Him torments me often even when +well. + +"Why does this thought come so persistently now? I settled it long +ago, under father's proof, that I did not believe in Him or the +superstitions connected with His name. Why doesn't the question stay +settled? Other superstitions do not trouble me. Why should that Cross +continually haunt me? Why should the _man_ who died thereon have the +power to be continually speaking to me through His words that I have +read? I believe in Socrates as much as I do in Him, and yet I recall the +Greek sage's words with an effort, and cannot escape from the +Nazarene's. All is mystery and chaos and danger. We human creatures +are like frothy bubbles that glisten and dance for a moment on a swift +black tide that seems flowing forever, and yet nowhere." + +Then her thoughts recurred to Dennis. + +"That young Fleet seemed to believe implicitly in what he said +yesterday, and he lives up to what he believes. I would give the world +for his delusion, were it only for its comforting and sustaining power +for this life. If he were very ill, he would be imagining himself on +the threshold of some sort of heaven or paradise, and would be calm +and perhaps even happy, while I am so supremely wretched I find that +I have nothing--absolutely nothing to sustain me--not even the memory +of good deeds. I have not even lived the unselfish life that Socrates +recommends, much less the holy life of the Bible. I have pleased myself. +Well, believing as I have been taught, that seemed the most sensible +course. Why doesn't it seem so now?" + +Thus tossed on a sea of uncertainty and fear, Christine, in darkness +and weakness, grappled with those mighty questions which only He can +put to rest who said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in +God, believe also in Me." + +Dennis walked resolutely home. He felt himself adamant in his stern +resolution. He at least had the deathlike peace that follows decision. +The agony of conflict was over for a time, and, as he thought, forever. + +From mere exhaustion he slept heavily, and on the following day with +white face and compressed lips entered on his work. And work it now +became indeed; for the old glamour was all gone, and life looked as +practical and hard as the stones of the street. Even the pictures on +the walls seemed to him but things for sale, representing money values; +and money appeared the beginning, middle, and ending of the world's +creed. Like the unsubstantial mirage had vanished the beautiful, happy +life of the past few weeks. Around him were the rocks and sands of the +desert, through which he must toil with weary, bleeding feet till he +reached the land watered by the river of life. Reason and duty, as he +believed, forbade the existence of this foolish passion, and he must +and would destroy it; but in his anguish he felt as if he had resolved +to torture himself to death. + +"And she will never know what I suffer--never know the wealth of heart +I have lavished upon her. I am glad she will not, for the knowledge +of my love would make no more impression on her cold, proud nature +than a drop of warm summer rain falling on the brow of yonder marble +statue of Diana. She would only be amazed at my presumption. She feels +that she shines down on me like the sun, and that I am a poor little +satellite that she could blot out altogether by causing her father to +turn me into the street again, which undoubtedly would be done should +I reveal my feelings." + +And he was right. + +"Come!" said he to himself, breaking from his painful revery, "no +weakness! You have your way to make in the world, and your work to do. +God will help you, and no creature shall hinder you;" and he plunged +resolutely into his duties. + +Mr. Ludolph was late in reaching the store that morning, and Dennis +found himself secretly hoping, in spite of himself, that Christine +would accompany him. His will and heart were now in distinct opposition, +and the latter would not obey orders. + +When Mr. Ludolph appeared, it was with a frowning, clouded brow. Without +a word he passed into his private office, but seemed so restless and +troubled in his manner that Dennis felt something was wrong. Why should +he take such an interest in this man? Why should he care? The other +clerks did not: not one save himself had noticed anything different. +Poor Dennis was to learn that he had a disease of many and varied +symptoms. + +After something over an hour had passed, Mr. Ludolph started from his +desk, took his hat and cane as with the purpose of going out--a very +unusual thing at that time. But, as he was passing down the store, he +met Dr. Arten opposite Dennis's counter. + +"Well?" said Mr. Ludolph, impatiently. + +"I will call again this evening," said the doctor, prudently +non-committal. "Your daughter has caught a very severe cold. I hope +it is nothing more than a cold, but so many troublesome diseases +commence with these obscure symptoms that we have to wait till further +developments reveal the true nature of the case." + +"You doctors make no headway in banishing disease from the world," +snarled Mr. Ludolph. "There is smallpox around, is there not?" + +"Yes, I am sorry to say there is a great deal of it, but if you remember +the history of that one disease, I think you will admit your remark +to be unfair." + +"I beg your pardon, doctor, but I am anxious, and all out of sorts, +as I ever am in sickness" (when affecting himself--he might justly +have added). "It seems such a senseless, useless evil in the world. +The idea of you Christians believing a benevolent Being rules the +world, and that He permits smallpox. Can it be possible that my daughter +has contracted this loathsome horror?" "Well, it is possible, but I +hope not at all probable. We doctors are compelled to look at the +practical rather than the theological side of the question. It is +possible for any one to have this disease. Has your daughter been +vaccinated?" + +"No!" growled Mr. Ludolph. "I don't believe in vaccination. It is as +apt to vitiate the system as to protect it." + +"I am sorry for that," said the doctor, looking grave. + +Keen Mr. Ludolph saw and read his physician's expression accurately. +Seizing his hand he said, eagerly: "Pardon me, doctor; you can +understand a father's feelings. Watch this case night and day. Spare +no pains, and be assured I will regret no expense"; and he hastened +away to his daughter's bedside. + +No prisoner at the bar ever listened with more interest than Dennis. +If it had been his own case they were discussing it would not have +touched him half so nearly. + +But a moment before, Christine in her pride, wealth, and beauty seemed +destined to go through life as in a triumphant march. Now he saw her +to be a weak human creature, threatened as sorely as the poorest and +humblest. Her glorious beauty, even her life, might pass away in Le +Grand Hotel as surely as in a tenement house. The very thought thrilled +him with fear. Then a great pity rushed into his soul like a tide, +sweeping everything before it. His stern resolution to stifle and +trample upon his love melted like a snow-wreath, and every interest +of life centred in the darkened room where Christine tossed and moaned +in the deeper darkness of uncertainty and doubt. The longing to go to +her with comfort and help was so intense that it required the utmost +effort of reason and will to prevent such rash action. He trembled at +himself--at the strength of his feelings--and saw that though he might +control outward action his heart had gone from him beyond remedy, and +that his love, so long unrecognized, was now like the principal source +of the Jordan, that springs from the earth a full-grown river, and +that he could not help it. + +Mr. Ludolph found little comfort at his daughter's bedside. Sending +her maid away, who was glad to go, Christine told what she had +overheard. Smallpox seemed in the mind of every one, but this was not +strange since it was so prevalent in the city. + +"Oh, father, what shall I do--what shall I do, if this should be the +case? Janette will leave me, and there will be no one to take care of +me. I know I shall die, and I might as well as to be made hideous by +this horrible disease. No, I would rather live, on any terms; for to +die is to be nothing. Oh, father, are you sure the Bible is all false? +There is so much in it to comfort the sick. If I could only believe +in such a life hereafter as Susie Winthrop does, I would as soon die +as not." + +"No," said Mr. Ludolph, firmly, "your only chance is to get well. There +is no use in deceiving ourselves. I have secured the services of the +most skilful of physicians, and will see that you have every attention. +So try to be as calm as possible, and co-operate with every effort to +baffle and banish disease. After all it may be nothing more than a +severe cold." + +So then in very truth this world was all. In bitterness and dread she +realized how slight was her hold upon it. To her healthful body pain +was a rare experience, but now her head and every bone ached, and the +slightest movement caused increased suffering. But her mental trouble +was by far the greatest. Often she murmured to herself, "Oh, that I +had been trained to the grossest superstitions, so that I might not +look down into this black bottomless gulf that unbelief opens at my +feet!" and she tossed and moaned most piteously. + +Mr. Ludolph returned to the store in an exceedingly worried and anxious +state. As he entered he caught Dennis's eager, questioning gaze, and +a thought struck him: "Perhaps this young fellow, through his mission +school, may know of some good, trustworthy woman who would act as +nurse"; and coming to Dennis he explained the situation, and then asked +if he knew of any one, or could find a suitable person. + +Dennis listened eagerly, thought a moment, and then said, with a flushed +face and in a low tone: "I think my mother would be willing to come. +She has had the smallpox and would not be afraid." + +"But would she be willing?" + +"I think I could persuade her," said Dennis. + +Mr. Ludolph thought a moment, then said: "I think she would be the one +of all others, for she must be very much of a lady, and I would not +like to put my daughter in charge of a common, coarse woman. You may +rest assured that I would reward her liberally." + +"She would not come for money, sir." + +"What then?" + +Dennis flushed how more deeply than before. He had been speaking for +his mother from his own point of view, and now he hardly knew what to +say, for he was not good at evasion. But he told the truth, if not all +the truth. "We feel very grateful to you for the means of support, and +a chance in life when the world was very dark. You have since promoted +me--" + +"Nonsense!" said Mr. Ludolph, somewhat touched, though; "you have +earned every dollar you have received, and your coming has been of +advantage to me also. But if your mother will meet this need, should +it occur, neither of you will have cause to regret it"; and he passed +on to his office, but soon after went away again and did not return +that day. + +To Dennis the hours dragged on like years, full of suspense and mental +tumult. At times he would bow his head behind his counter, and pray +in tearful fervor for the object of his constant thought. The day was +rainy, and the store empty of customers, for which he was most thankful, +as he would have made the poorest of salesmen. At last the hour for +closing arrived, and he was left to himself. In the solitude of his +own room he once more looked the situation fairly in the face. With +his head bowed in his hands he reflected: "Last night I _thought_ +to tear this love from my heart, but to-night I find that this would +be to tear out my heart itself. I cannot do it. It is my strongest +conviction that I can no more stop loving her than I can stop living. +Unconsciously this love has grown until now it is my master, and it +is folly to make any more resolves, only to be as weak as water when +I least expect it. What shall I do?" + +Motionless, unconscious of the lapse of time, he remained hour after +hour absorbed in painful thought. Circumstances, reason, the Bible, +all seemed to frown upon his love; but, though it appeared to be +hopeless, his whole nature revolted against the idea of its being +wrong. + +"It cannot be wrong to love, purely and unselfishly," he muttered. +"Such love as mine seems to carry its own conviction of right with +it--an inner consciousness that seems so strong and certain as to be +beyond argument--beyond everything; and yet if God's Word is against +it I must be wrong, and my heart is misleading me." + +Again in unbroken silence an hour passed away. Then the thought struck +him: "It is not contrary to God's action! He so loved the +world--unbelievers and all--as to give His best and dearest! Can it +be wrong to be God-like?" + +"It is not wise, it is not safe," prudence whispered, "to give a +worldly, unbelieving spirit the power to influence you that she will +have who is first in your heart. What true congeniality can there be? +What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? or what part +hath he that believeth with an infidel? As the most intimate friend +and companion in life, you should seek one who truly can be _one_ +with you in all things, and most assuredly so in this vital respect." + +"Ah," thought Dennis, "that would have been very good advice to give +awhile ago. If from the first I could have understood my feelings and +danger, I might have steeled my heart against the influences that have +brought me to this. But the mischief is done. The words that now, in +spite of myself, continually run in my mind, are, 'What God hath joined +together let not man put asunder.' It seems as if some resistless power +had joined my soul to hers, and I find no strength within myself to +break the bond. I am not usually irresolute; I think I have principle; +and yet I feel that I should not dare make the most solemn vow against +this love. I should be all the more weak because conscience does not +condemn me. It seems to have a light that reason and knowledge know +not of. And yet I wish I could be more sure. I wish I could say to +myself, I may be loving hopelessly, but not sinfully. I would take the +risk. Indeed I cannot help taking it. Oh, that I could find light, +clear and unmistakable!" + +He rose, turned up his light, and opened the Pauline precepts. These +words struck his eyes, "Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be +loosed." Then, above, the words, "How knowest thou, O man, whether +thou shalt save thy wife, even though she be an unbeliever?" + +"Am I not bound--bound by that which is God's link in the chain? It +does not seem as if the legal contract could change or strengthen my +feelings materially, and while honoring the inviolable rite of marriage, +which is God's law and society's safety, I know that nothing can more +surely bind me to her, so that the spirit, the vital part of the +passage, applies to me. Then if through this love I could save her--if +by prayer and effort I could bring her feet into the paths of life-- +I should feel repaid for all that I could possibly suffer. She may slight +my human love with its human consummation, but God will not let a life +of prayer and true love be wasted, and she may learn here, or know +hereafter, that though the world laid many rich gifts at her feet I +brought the best of all." + +He looked out, and saw that the early spring dawn was tingeing the +horizon. + +"A good omen," he said aloud. "Perhaps the night of this trouble is +past, and the dawn is coming. I am convinced that it is not wrong; and +I am resolved to make the almost desperate attempt. A mysterious hope, +coming from I know not where or what, seems to beckon and encourage +me forward." + +Dennis was young. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +MISS LUDOLPH COMMITS A THEFT + + +Mr. Ludolph on his return found Christine suffering from a nervous +horror of the smallpox. From the indiscreet and callous maid, intent +on her own safety, and preparing to palliate the cowardice of her +flight should her fears prove true, Christine learned that the city +was full of this loathsome disease, and her feelings were harrowed by +exaggerated instances of its virulent and contagious character. + +"But you will surely stay with me," pleaded Christine. + +"Mademoiselle could not expect zat." + +"Heartless!" muttered Christine. Then she said: "Won't you go for Susie +Winthrop? Oh, how I would like to see her now!" + +"She vould not come; no von vould come who knew." + +Christine wrung her hands and cried, "Oh, I shall die alone and deserted +of all!" + +"No, you shall not," said her father, entering at that moment; "so do +not give way, my dear.--Leave the room, stupid!" (to the maid, who +again gladly escaped, resolving not to re-enter till the case was +decided). "I have secured the best of physicians, and the best of +nurses, and by to-night or to-morrow morning we shall know about what +to expect. I cannot help hoping still that it is only a severe cold." +And he told her of Dennis's offer of his mother's services. + +"I am sure I should like her, for somehow I picture to myself a kind, +motherly person. What useful creatures those Fleets are! They are on +hand in emergencies when one so needs help. It seemed very nice to +have young Fleet my humble servant; but really, father, he +deserves promotion." + +"He shall have it, and I doubt not will be just as ready to do your +bidding as ever. It is only commonplace people whose heads are turned +by a little prosperity. Fleet knew he was a gentleman before he came +to the store." + +"Father, if I should have the smallpox and live, would my beaut--would +I become a fright?" + +"Not necessarily. Let us hope for the best. Make the most of the world, +and never endure evils till they come, are my maxims. Half of suffering +is anticipation of possible or probable evil." + +"Father," said Christine, abruptly, "I believe you are right, you +_must_ be right, and have given me the best comfort and hope that +truthfully can be given. But this is a strange, cruel world. We seem +the sport of circumstances, the victims of hard, remorseless laws. One +bad person can frightfully injure another person" (a spasm distorted +her father's face). "What accidents may occur! Worst of all are those +horrible, subtle, contagious diseases which, none can see or +guard against! Then to suffer, die, corrupt--faugh! To what a disgusting +end, to what a lame and impotent conclusion, does the noble creature, +man, come! My whole nature revolts at it. For instance, here am I a +young girl, capable of the highest enjoyment, with everything to live +for, and lured forward by the highest hopes and expectations; and yet, +in spite of all the safeguards you can place around me, my path is in +the midst of dangers, and now perhaps I am to be rendered hideous, if +not killed outright, by a disease the very thought of which fills me +with loathing. What I fear _has_ happened, and may happen again. And +what compensation is there for it all?--what can enable one to bear it +all? Oh, that I could believe in a God and a future happier life!" + +"And what kind of a God would He be who, having the power to prevent, +permits, or orders, as the Bible teaches, all these evils? I am a man +of the world, and pretend to nothing saint-like or chivalric, but do +you think I am capable of going to Mr. Winthrop and striking down his +daughter Susie with a loathsome disease? And yet if a minister or +priest should come here he would begin to talk about the mysterious +providence, and submission to God's will. If I am to have a God, I +want one at least better than myself." + +"You _must_ be right," said Christine, with a weary moan. "There is no +God, and if there were, in view of what you say, I could only hate and +fear Him. How chaotic the world is! But it is hard." After a moment she +added, shudderingly: "_It is horrible_. I did not think of these things +when well." + +"Get well and forget them again, my dear. It is the best you can do." + +"If I get well," said Christine, almost fiercely, "I shall get the +most I can out of life, cost what it may;" and she turned her face to +the wall. + +A logical result of his teaching, but for some reason it awakened in +Mr. Ludolph a vague foreboding. + +The hours dragged on, and late in the afternoon the hard-driven +physician appeared, examined his patient, and seemed relieved. + +"If there is no change for the worse," he said, cheerily, "if no new +symptoms develop by to-morrow, I can pronounce this merely a severe +cold, caused by the state of the system and too sudden check of +perspiration;" and the doctor gave and opiate and bowed himself out. + +Long and heavily Christine slept. The night that Dennis filled with +agonizing prayer and thought was to her a blank. While he in his strong +Christian love brought heaven nearer to her, while he resolved on that +which would give her a chance for life, happy life, here and hereafter, +she was utterly unconscious. No vision or presentiment of good, like +a struggling ray of light, found access to her darkened spirit. So +heavy was the stupor induced by the opiate, that her sleep seemed like +the blank she so feared, when her brilliant, ambitious life should end +in nothingness. + +So I suppose God's love meditates good, and resolves on life and joy +for us, while our hearts are sleeping, dead to Him, benumbed and +paralyzed so that only His love can awaken them. Like a vague yet +hope-inspiring dream, this truth often enters the minds of those who +are wrapped in the spiritual lethargy that may end in death. God wakes, +watches, loves, and purposes good for them. When we are most +unconscious, perhaps another effect for our salvation has been resolved +upon in the councils of heaven. + +But ambition more than love, earthly hopes rather than heavenly, kept +Mr. Ludolph an anxious watcher at Christine's side that night. A smile +of satisfaction illumined his somewhat haggard face as he saw the fever +pass away and the dew of natural moisture come out on Christine's brow, +but there was no thankful glance upward. Immunity from loathsome disease +was due only to chance and the physician's skill, by his creed. + +The sun was shining brightly when Christine awoke and by a faint call +startled her father from a doze in the great armchair. + +"How do you feel, my dear?" he asked. + +She languidly rubbed her heavy eyes, and said she thought she was +better--she felt no pain. The opiate had not yet lost its effect. But +soon she greatly revived, and when the doctor came he found her +decidedly better, and concluded that she was merely suffering from a +severe cold, and would soon regain her usual health. + +Father and daughter were greatly relieved, and their spirits rose. + +"I really feel as if I ought to thank somebody," said Christine. "I +am not going to thank the doctor, for I know what a bill is coming, +so I will thank you. It was very kind of you to sit up the long night +with me." + +Even Mr. Ludolph had to remember that he had in his anxiety thought +as much of himself as of her. + +"Another lease of life," said Christine, dreamily looking into the +future; "and, as I said last night, I mean to make the most of it." + +"I can best guide you in doing that," said her father, looking into +his daughter's face with keen scrutiny. + +"I believe you, and intend to give you the chance. When can we leave +this detested land, this city of shops and speculators? To think that +I, Christine Ludolph, am sick, idle, and perhaps have endangered all +by reason of foolish exposure in a brewer's tawdry, money-splashed +house! Come, father when is the next scene in the brief drama to open? +I am impatient to go _home_ to our beloved Germany and enter on real +life." + +"Well, my dear, if all goes well, we can enter on our true career a +year from next fall--a short year and a half. Do not blame the delay, +for it will enable us to live in Germany in almost royal style. I never +was making money so rapidly as now. I have invested in that which +cannot depreciate, and thus far has advanced beyond belief--buildings +in the business part of the city. Rents are paying me from twenty to +a hundred per cent. At the same time I could sell out in a month. So +you see you have only to co-operate with me--to preserve health and +strength--to enjoy all that money can insure; and money can buy almost +everything." + +Christine's eyes sparkled as the future opened before her, and she +said, with emphasis, "If _I_ could preserve health and strength, I would +live a thousand years." + +"You can do much toward it. Every chance is in favor of prudence and +wise action;" and, much relieved, her father went to the store. + +Business had accumulated, and in complete absorption he gave himself +to it. With an anxiety beyond expression, Dennis, flushed and trembling, +ventured to approach. Merely glancing to see who it was, Mr. Ludolph, +with his head bent over his writing, said, "Miss Ludolph is better-- +no fear of smallpox, I think--you need not write to your mother--greatly +obliged." + +It was well for Dennis that his employer did not look up. The open +face of Mr. Ludolph's clerk expressed more than friendly interest in +his daughter's health. The young man went to his tasks with a mountain +of fear lifted from his heart. + +But the thought of the beloved one lying alone and sick at the hotel +seemed very pathetic to him. Love filled his heart with more sympathy +for Christine upon her luxurious couch, in rapid convalescence, than +for all the hopeless suffering of Chicago. What could he do for her? +She seemed so far off, so high and distant, that he could not reach +her. If he ventured to send anything, prudence whispered that she would +regard it as an impertinence. But love can climb every steep place, +and prudence is not its grand-vizier. + +Going by a fruit-store in the afternoon he saw some fine strawberries, +the first in from the South. He bought a basket, decorated it with +German ivy obtained at a flower-stand, and spirited it upstairs to his +room as if it were the most dangerous of contraband. In a disguised +hand he wrote on a card, "For Miss Ludolph." Calling Ernst, who had +little to do at that hour of the day, he said: "Ernst, my boy, take +this parcel to Le Grand Hotel, and say it is for Miss Christine Ludolph. +Tell them to send it right up, but on no account--remember, on no +account--tell any one who sent it. Carry it carefully in just this +manner." + +Ernst was soon at his destination, eager to do anything for his friend. + +After all, the day had proved a long one for Christine. Unaccustomed +to the restraints of sickness, she found the enforced inaction very +wearisome. Mind and body both seemed weak. The sources of chief +enjoyment when well seemed powerless to contribute much now. In silken +robe she reclined in an arm-chair, or languidly sauntered about the +room. She took up a book only to throw it down again. Her pencil fared +no +better. Ennui gave to her fair young face the expression of one who +had tried the world for a century and found it wanting. She was leaning +her elbow on the window-sill, gazing vacantly into the street, when +Ernst appeared. + +"Janette," she said, suddenly, "do you see that boy? He is employed +at the store. Go bring him up here; I want him;" and with more animation +than she had shown that day she got out materials for a sketch. + +"I must get that boy's face," she said, "before good living destroys +all his artistic merit." + +Ernst was unwilling to come, but the maid almost dragged him up. + +"What have you got there?" asked Miss Ludolph, with a reassuring smile. + +"Something for Miss Ludolph," stammered the boy, looking very much +embarrassed. + +Christine carefully opened the parcel and then exclaimed with delight: +"Strawberries, as I live! the very ambrosia of the gods. Papa sent +them, did he not?" + +"No," said the boy, hanging his head. + +"Who did, then?" said Christine, looking at him keenly. + +He shuffled uneasily, but made no answer. + +"Come, I insist on knowing," she cried, her wilful spirit and curiosity +both aroused. + +The boy was pale and frightened, and she was mentally taking notes of +his face. But he said, doggedly, "I can't tell." + +"But I say you must. Don't you know that I am Miss Ludolph?" + +"I don't care what you do to me," said the little fellow, beginning +to cry, "I won't tell." + +"Why won't you tell, my boy?" said Christine, cunningly, in a wheedling +tone of voice. + +Before he knew it, the frightened, bewildered boy fell into the trap, +and he sobbed, "Because Mr. Fleet told me not to, and I wouldn't disobey +him to save my life." + +A look of surprise, and then a broad smile, stole over the young girl's +face--at the gift, the messenger, and at him who sent it. It was indeed +a fresh and unexpected little episode, breaking the monotony of the +day--as fresh and pleasing to her as one of the luscious berries so +grateful to her parched mouth. + +"You need not tell me," she said, soothingly, "if Mr. Fleet told you +not to." + +The boy saw the smile, and in a moment realized that he had been tricked +out of the forbidden knowledge. + +His little face glowed with honest indignation, and looking straight +at Miss Ludolph, with his great eyes flashing through the tears, he +said, "You stole that from me." + +Even she colored a little and bit her lip under the merited charge. +But all this made him all the more interesting as an art study, and +she was now sketching away rapidly. She coolly replied, however, "You +don't know the world very well yet, my little man." + +The boy said nothing, but stood regarding her with his unnaturally +large eyes filled with anger, reproach, and wonder. + +"Oh," thought Christine, "if I could only paint that expression!" + +"You seem a great friend of Mr. Fleet," she said, studying and sketching +him as if he had been an inanimate object. + +The boy made no answer. + +"Perhaps you do not know that I am a friend--friendly," she added, +correcting herself, "to Mr. Fleet also." + +"Mr. Fleet never likes to have his friends do wrong," said the boy, +doubtingly. + +Again she colored a little, for Ernst's pure and reproachful face made +her feel that she had done a mean thing, but she laughed said: "You +see I am not in his mission class, and have never had the instruction +that you have. But, after all, why do you think Mr. Fleet better than +other people?" + +"By what he does." + +"That is a fair test; what has he done?" + +"He saved us all from starving, and worse than starving." + +Then with feminine tact she drew from him his story, and it was told +with deep feeling and the natural pathos of childhood, and his gratitude +caused him to dwell with a simple eloquence on the part Dennis had +taken, while his rich and loved German accent made it all the more +interesting to Christine. She dropped her pencil, and, when he finished, +her eyes, that were seldom moistened by the dew of sympathy, were wet. + +"Good-by, my child," she said, in a voice so kind and sweet that it +seemed as if another person had spoken. "You shall come again, and +then I shall finish my sketch. When I get well I shall go to see your +father's picture. Do not be afraid; neither you nor Mr. Fleet will +fare the worse for the strawberries, and you may tell him that they +have done me much good." + +When Dennis, wondering at Ernst's long absence, heard from him his +story, his mind was in a strange tumult, and yet the result of his +effort seemed favorable. But he learned more fully than ever that +Christine was not perfect, and that her faultless beauty and taste +were but the fair mask of a deformed spirit. But he dwelt in hope on +the feeling she had shown at Ernst's story. + +"She seemed to have two hearts," said the boy--"a good, kind one way +inside the cold, hard outside one." + +"That is about the truth," thought Dennis. "Good-night, Ernst. I don't +blame you, my boy, for you did the best you could." + +He had done better than Dennis knew. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +A MISERABLE TRIUMPH + + +After Ernst's departure Christine reclined wearily in her chair, quite +exhausted by even the slight effort she had made, but her thoughts +were busy. + +"What a unique character that Dennis Fleet is! And yet, in view of +what he believes and professes, he is both natural and consistent. He +seems humble only in station, and that is not his fault. Everything +he does seems marked by unusual good taste and intelligence. His earlier +position and treatment in the store must have been very galling. I can +hardly believe that the gentleman I sang Mendelssohn's music with the +other evening was the same that I laughed at as he blacked old +Schwartz's boots. And yet he saw me laugh, and blacked the boots, +conscious that he was a gentleman. It must have been very hard. And +yet I would rather do such work myself than live on charity, and so +undoubtedly he felt. It is very fortunate that we nearly finished the +rearrangement of the pictures before all this occurred, for I could +not order him about now as I have done. The fact is, I like servants, +not dignified helpers; and knowing what I do, even if he would permit +it, I could not speak to him as formerly. But he did show wonderful +taste and skill in his help. See now that little ivy-twined basket of +luscious fruit: it looks just like him. If he were only rich and titled, +what a genuine nobleman he would make! He is among the few men who do +not weary or disgust me; so many are coarse and commonplace. I cannot +understand it, but I, who fear and care for no one except my father, +almost feared him when under Miss Brown's insolence he looked as few +men can. What a jumble the world is! He sweeps the store, while +insignificant atoms of men are conspicuous in their littleness by +reason of high position. + +"It was very kind of him to send me this tasteful gift after the +miserable experience I caused him the other day. I suppose he does it +on the principle of returning good for evil, as his creed teaches. +Moreover, he seems grateful that father gave him employment, and a +chance to earn twice what he receives. He certainly must be promoted +at once. + +"Perhaps," thought she, smiling to herself, while a faint tinge of +color came into her cheeks--"perhaps, like so many others, he may be +inclined to be a little sentimental also, though he will never be as +silly as some of them. + +"What a noble part he acted toward those Bruders! The heart of a pagan +could not fail to be touched by that poor little fellow's story, and +it has made me believe that I have more heart than I supposed. +Sometimes, especially when I hear or read of some such noble deed, I +catch glimpses of a life infinitely better than the one I know, like +the sun shining through a rift in the clouds; then they shut down +again, and father's practical wisdom seems the best there is. + +"At any rate," she said aloud, getting up and walking the floor with +something of the old restless energy, "I intend to live while I live, +and crowd into life's brief day all that I can. I thank Mr. Fleet for +a few sensations in what would otherwise have been a monotonous, dreary +afternoon." + +"What, strawberries!" said Mr. Ludolph, coming in. "Where did you get +these? They are the first I have seen." + +"Your man-of-all-work sent them to me," said Christine, daintily dipping +one after another in sugar. + +"Well, that is a good joke." + +"A most excellent one, which I am enjoying, and in which you may share. +Help yourself." + +"And what has led him to this extravagant favor?" + +"Consistency, I suppose. As a good Christian he would return good for +evil; and I certainly caused him many and varied tortures the other +day." + +"No, he is grateful; from first to last the callow youth has been +overwhelmed with gratitude that I have permitted him to be worth to +me double what I paid him." + +"Well, you have decided to promote him, have you not?" + +"Yes, he shall have charge of the hanging of new pictures, and the +general arrangement of the store, so as to keep up your tasteful and +artistic methods. Moreover, he shall meet customers at the door, and +direct them just where to find what they want. He is fine-looking, +polite, speaks English perfectly, and thus takes well. I can gradually +work him in as general salesman, without creating troublesome +jealousies." + +"What will old Schwartz say?" + +"Schwartz is good at finance and figures. I can trust him, and he must +relieve me more in this respect. He of course knows that this is the +more important work, and will feel honored. As to the others, if they +do not like it I can find plenty who will. Fleet's good fortune will +take him quite by surprise. He was performing his old humble duties +as briskly and contentedly as usual to-day." + +"I am surprised at that, for I should have supposed that he would have +been on his dignity somewhat, indicating by manner at least that the +time for a change had come. He can indicate a great deal by manner, +as you might have learned had you seen him under Miss Brown's insults +and my lack of courtesy. Well, it does me good to find one American +whose head is not turned by a little success. You are right though, +I think, father; that young fellow can be very useful to you, and a +decided help in hastening the time when we can leave this shop life, +and enter our true sphere. I am more impatient to go than words can +express, for life seems so brief and uncertain that we must grasp +things as soon as possible or we lose them forever. Heavens! what a +scare I have had! Everything seemed slipping from under my feet +yesterday, and I sinking I know not where. Surely by concentrating +every energy we can be ready to go by a year from next fall." + +"Yes, that is my plan now." + +On the following day Dennis was again promoted and his pay increased. +A man more of the Pat Murphy type was found to perform the coarse work +of the store. As Mr. Ludolph had said, Dennis could hardly realize his +good fortune. He felt like one lifted out of a narrow valley to a +breezy hillside. He was now given a vantage-point from which it seemed +that he could climb rapidly, and his heart was light as he thought of +what he would be able to do for his mother and sisters. Hope grew +sanguine as he saw how he would now have the means to pursue his beloved +art-studies to far greater advantage. But, above all, his promotion +brought him nearer the object of his all-absorbing passion. What he +feared would take him one or two years to accomplish he had gained in +a day. Hope whispered that perhaps it was through her influence in +some degree that he had obtained this advance. Could she have seen and +read his ardent glances? Lovers' hopes will grow like Jonah's gourd, +and die down as quickly. Words could not express his longing to see +her again, but for several days she did not come to the store. She +merely sent him word to complete the unfinished show-room in accordance +with the plan on which they had been working, leaving space on the +sides of the room opposite each other for two large pictures. Though +much disappointed, Dennis had carefully carried out her bidding. + +Every evening the moment his duties permitted he sought his instructor, +Mr. Bruder, and, with an eagerness that his friends could not +understand, sought to educate hand and eye. Dennis judged rightly that +mere business success would never open to him a way to the heart of +such a girl as Christine. His only hope of winning even her attention +was to excel in the world of art, where she hoped to shine as a queen. +Then to his untiring industry and eager attention he added real genius +for his tasks, and it was astonishing what progress he made. When at +the close of his daily lesson Dennis had taken his departure, Mr. +Bruder would shake his head, and cast up his eyes in wonder, and +exclaim: "Dot youth vill astonish de vorld yet. Never in all Germany +haf I seen such a scholar." + +Often till after midnight he would study in the solitude of his own +little room. And now, relieved of duties in the early morning, he +arranged an old easel in the attic of the store, a sort of general +lumber-room, yet with a good light for his purpose. Here he secured +two good hours daily, and often more, for painting; and his hand grew +skilful, and his eye true, under his earnest efforts. But his intense +application caused his body to grow thin and his face pale. + +Christine had rapidly recovered from her illness, her vital and elastic +constitution rebounding back into health and vigor like a bow rarely +bent. She, too, was working scarcely less eagerly than Dennis, and +preparing for a triumph which she hoped would be the earnest of the +fame she meant to achieve. She no longer came to the store with her +father in the morning, but spent the best and early hours of the day +in painting, riding out along the lake and in the park in the afternoon. +Occasionally she came to the store in the after part of the day, glanced +sharply round to see that her tasteful arrangement was kept up, and +ever seemed satisfied. + +Dennis was usually busy with customers at that time, and, though +conscious of her presence the moment she entered, found no excuse or +encouragement to approach. The best he ever received from her was a +slight smile and a cold bow of recognition, and in her haste and +self-absorption she did not always give these. She evidently +had something on her mind by which it was completely occupied. + +"She does not even think of me," sighed Dennis; "she evidently imagines +that there is an immeasurable distance between us yet." + +He was right; she did not think of him, and scarcely thought of any +one else, so absorbed was she in the hope of a great success that now +was almost sure. She had sent her thanks for the berries by her father, +which so frightened Dennis that he had ventured on no more such favors. +She had interceded for his promotion. Surely she had paid her debt, +and was at quits. So she would have been if he had only given her a +basket of strawberries, but having given his heart, and lifelong love, +he could scarcely be expected to be satisfied. But he vowed after each +blank day all the more resolutely that he would win her attention, +secure recognition of his equality, and so be in position for laying +siege to her heart. + +But a deadly blight suddenly came over all his hopes. + +One bright morning late in May two large flat boxes were brought to +the store. Dennis was busy with customers, and Mr. Schwartz said, in +his blunt, decided way, that he would see to the hanging of those +pictures. They were carried to the show-room in the rear of the store, +and Dennis at once concluded that they were something very fine, +designed to fill the spaces he had left, and was most anxious to see +them. Before he was disengaged they were lifted from their casing and +were standing side by side on the floor, opposite the entrance, the +warm rich morning light falling upon them with fine effect. Mr. Schwartz +seemed unusually excited and perplexed for him, and stared first at +one picture, then at the other, in a manner indicating that not their +beauty, but some other cause disturbed him. + +Dennis had scarcely had time to exclaim at the exquisite loveliness +and finish of the two paintings before Mr. Ludolph entered, accompanied +by Mr. Cornell, a well-known artist, Mr. French, proprietor of another +large picture-store, and several gentlemen of taste, but of lesser +note, whom Dennis had learned to know by sight as habitues of the +"Temple of Art." He also saw that Christine was advancing up the store +with a lady and gentleman. Feeling that his presence might be regarded +as obtrusive, he passed out, and was about to go away, when he heard +his name called. + +Looking up he saw Miss Winthrop holding out her hand, and in a moment +more she presented him to her father, who greeted him cordially. +Christine also gave him a brief smile, and said: "You need not go away. +Come and see the pictures." + +Quick-eyed Dennis observed that she was filled with suppressed +excitement. Her cheeks, usually but slightly tinged with pink, now by +turns glowed and were pale. Miss Winthrop seemed to share her +nervousness, though what so excited them he could not divine. The +paintings, beautiful as they were, could scarcely be the adequate +cause; and yet every eye was fastened on them. + +One seemed the exact counterpart of the other in frame and finish as +well as subject. A little in the background, upon a crag overhanging +the Rhine, was a castle, massive, frowning, and built more for security +and defence than comfort. The surrounding landscape was bold, wild, +and even gloomy. But in contrast with these rugged and sterner features, +was a scene of exquisite softness and tenderness. Beneath the shadow +of some great trees not far from the castle gate, a young crusader was +taking leave of his fair-haired bride. Her pale, tearful face, wherein +love and grief blent indescribably, would move the most callous heart, +while the struggle between emotion and the manly pride that would not +permit him to give way, in the young chieftain's features, was scarcely +less touching. Beautiful as were the accessories of the pictures, their +main point was to portray the natural, tender feeling induced by a +parting that might be forever. At first they all gazed quietly and +almost reverently at the vivid scene of human love and sorrow, save +old Schwartz, who fidgeted about as Dennis had never seen him before. +Clearly something was wrong. + +"Mr. Schwartz," said Mr. Ludolph, "you may hang the original picture +on the side as we enter, and the copy opposite. We would like to see +them up, and in a better light." + +"Dat's it," snorted Mr. Schwartz; "I'd like to know vich is vich." + +"You do not mean to say that you cannot tell them apart? The original +hung here some time, and you saw it every day." + +"I do mean to say him," said Mr. Schwartz, evidently much vexed with +himself. "I couldn't have believed dat any von in de vorld could so +impose on me. But de two pictures are just de same to a pin scratch +in frame, subject, and treatment, and to save my life I cannot tell +dem apart." + +Christine's face fairly glowed with triumph, and her eyes were all +aflame as she glanced at her friend. Miss Winthrop came and took her +cold, quivering hands into her own warm palms, but was scarcely less +excited. Dennis saw not this side scene, so intent was he on the +pictures. + +"Do you mean to say," said Mr. Cornell, stepping forward, "that one +of these paintings is a copy made here in Chicago, and that Mr. Schwartz +cannot tell it from the original?" + +"He says he cannot," said Mr. Ludolph. + +"And I'd like to see the von who can," said old Schwartz, gruffly. + +"Will you please point out the original," said one of the gentlemen, +"that we may learn to distinguish them? For my part they seem like the +twins whose mother knew them apart by pink and white ribbons, and when +the ribbons got mixed she could not tell which was which." + +Again Christine's eyes glowed with triumph. + +"Well, really, gentlemen," said Mr. Ludolph, "I would rather you would +discover the copy yourselves. Mr. Cornell, Mr. French, and some others, +I think, saw the original several times." + +"Look at Mr. Fleet," whispered Miss Winthrop to Christine. + +She looked, and her attention was riveted to him. Step by step, he had +drawn nearer, and his eyes were eagerly glancing from one picture to +the other as if following up a clew. Instinctively she felt that he +would solve the question, and her little hands clenched, and her brow +grew dark. + +"Really," said Mr. Cornell, "I did not know that we had an artist in +Chicago who could copy the work of one of the best European painters +so that there need be a moment's hesitancy in detecting differences, +but it seems I am mistaken. I am almost as puzzled as Mr. Schwartz." + +"The frames are exactly alike," said Mr. French. + +"There is a difference between the two pictures," said Mr. Cornell, +slowly. "I can feel it rather than see it. They seem alike, line for +line and feature for feature, in every part; and just where the +difference lies and in what it consists I cannot tell for the life of +me." + +With the manner of one who had settled a difficult problem, Dennis +gave a sigh of relief so audible that several glanced at him. + +"Perhaps Mr. Fleet from his superior knowledge and long experience can +settle this question," said Christine, sarcastically. + +All eyes were turned toward him. He flushed painfully, but said nothing. + +"Speak up," said Mr. Ludolph, good-naturedly, "if you have any opinion +to give." + +"I would not presume to give my opinion among so many more competent +judges." + +"Come, Mr. Fleet," said Christine, with a covert taunt in her tone, +"that is a cheap way of making a reputation. I fear the impression +will be given that you have no opinion." + +Dennis was now very pale, as he ever was under great excitement. The +old look came again that the young ladies remembered seeing at Miss +Brown's entertainment. + +"Come, speak up if you can," said Mr. Ludolph shortly. + +"Your porter, Mr. Ludolph?" said Mr. Cornell, remembering Dennis only +in that capacity. "Perhaps he has some private marks by which he can +enlighten us." + +Dennis now acted no longer as porter or clerk, but as a man among men. + +Stepping forward and looking Mr. Cornell full in the face he said: "I +can prove to you, sir, that your insinuation is false by simply stating +that I never saw those pictures before. The original had been removed +from the store before I came. I have had therefore no opportunity of +knowing the copy from the original. But the pictures are different, +and I can tell precisely wherein I think the difference lies." + +"Tell it then," said several voices. Christine stood a little back and +on one side, so that he could not see her face, or he would have +hesitated long before he spoke. In the firm, decided tones of one +thoroughly aroused and sure of his ground, he proceeded. + +"Suppose this the copy," said he, stepping to one of the pictures. +(Christine breathed hard and leaned heavily against her friend.) "I +know of but one in Chicago capable of such exquisite work, and he did +not do it; indeed he could not, though a master in art." + +"You refer to Mr. Bruder?" said Mr. Cornell. + +Dennis bowed and continued: "It is the work of one in whom the imitative +power is wonderfully developed; but one having never felt--or unable +to feel--the emotions here presented cannot portray them. This picture +is but the beautiful corpse of that one. While line for line, and +feature for feature, and even leaf for leaf on the trees is faithfully +exact, yet the soul, the deep, sorrowful tenderness that you feel in +that picture rather than see, is wanting in this. In that picture you +forget to blame or praise, to criticise at all, so deeply are your +sympathies touched. It seems as if in reality two human hearts were +being torn asunder before you. This you know to be an exquisite picture +only, and can coolly criticise and dwell on every part, and say how +admirably it is done." + +And Dennis bowed and retired. + +"By Jove, he is right," exclaimed Mr. Cornell; and approving faces and +nodding heads confirmed his judgment. But Dennis enjoyed not his +triumph, for as he turned he met Christine's look of agony and hate, +and like lightning it flashed through his mind, "She painted the +picture." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +LIFE WITHOUT LOVE + + +As Dennis realized the truth, and remembered what he had said, his +face was scarcely less full of pain than Christine's. He saw that her +whole soul was bent on an imitation that none could detect, and that +he had foiled her purpose. But Christine's wound was deeper than that. +She had been told again, clearly and correctly, that the sphere of +high, true art was beyond her reach. She felt that the verdict was +true, and her own judgment confirmed every word Dennis uttered. But +she had done her best; therefore her suffering was truly agony--the +pain and despair at failure in the most cherished hope of life. There +seemed a barrier which, from the very limitations of her being, she +could not pass. She did not fail from the lack of taste, culture, or +skill, but in that which was like a sixth sense--something she did not +possess. Lacking the power to touch and move the heart, she knew she +could never be a great artist. + +Abruptly and without a word she left the room and store, accompanied +by the Winthrops. Dennis felt as if he could bite his tongue out, and +Christine's face haunted him like a dreadful apparition. Wherever he +turned he saw it so distorted by pain, and almost hate, that it scarcely +seemed the same that had smiled on him as he entered at her invitation. + +"Truly God is against all this," groaned he, to himself; "and what I +in my weakness could not do He has accomplished by this unlooked-for +scene. She will now ever regard me with aversion." + +Dennis, like many another, thought he saw God's plan clearly from a +mere glimpse of a part of it. He at once reached this miserable +conclusion, and suffered as greatly as if it had been God's will, +instead of his own imagination. To wait and trust is often the latest +lesson we learn in life. + +Mr. Ludolph's guests, absorbed in the pictures, at first scarcely +noticed the departure of the others. + +Christine, with consummate skill and care, kept her relationship to +the picture unknown to all save the Winthrops, meaning not to +acknowledge it unless she succeeded. But in Dennis's startled and +pained face she saw that he had read her secret, and this fact also +annoyed her much. + +"I should like to know the artist who copied this painting," said Mr. +Cornell. + +"The artist is an amateur, and not willing to come before the public +at present," said Mr. Ludolph, so decidedly that no further questions +were asked. + +"I am much interested in that young clerk of yours," said Mr. French. +"He seems to understand himself. It is so hard to find a good +discriminating judge of pictures. Do you expect to keep him?" + +"Yes, I do," said Mr. Ludolph, with such emphasis that his rival in +trade pressed that point also no further. + +"Well, really, Mr. Ludolph," said one of the gentlemen, "you deal in +wonders, mysteries, and all sorts of astonishing things yere. We have +an unknown artist in Chicago deserving an ovation; you have in your +employ a prince of critics, and if I mistake not he is the same who +sang at Brown's some little time ago. Miss Brown told me that he was +your porter." + +"Yes, I took him as a stranger out of work and knew nothing of him. +But he proved to be an educated and accomplished man, who will doubtless +be of great use to me in time. Of course I promoted him when I found +him out." These last remarks were made for Mr. French's benefit rather +than for any one's else. He intended that his rival should knowingly +violate all courtesy if he sought to lure Dennis away. After admiring +the paintings and other things recently received, the gentlemen bowed +themselves out. + +On leaving the store Mr. Winthrop--feeling awkward in the presence of +the disappointed girl--had pleaded business, and bidden her adieu with +a warm grasp of the hand and many assurances that she had succeeded +beyond his belief. + +"I know you mean kindly in what you say," said Christine, while not +the slightest gleam lighted up her pale, sad face. "Good-by." + +She, too, was relieved, and wished to be alone. Miss Winthrop sought +to comfort her friend as they walked homeward. + +"Christine, you look really ill. I don't see why you take this matter +so to heart. You have achieved a success that would turn any head but +yours. I could not believe it possible had I not seen it. Your ambition +and ideal are so lofty that you will always make yourself miserable +by aiming at the impossible. As Mr. Fleet said, I do not believe there +is another in the city who could have done so well, and if you can do +that now, what may you not accomplish by a few years more of work?" + +"That's the terrible part of it," said Christine, with a long sigh. +"Susie, I have attained my growth. I can never be a real artist and +no one living can ever know the bitterness of my disappointment. I do +not believe in the immortality that you do, and this was my only chance +to live beyond the brief hour of my life. If I could only have won for +myself a place among the great names that the world will ever honor, +I might with more content let the candle of my existence flicker out +when it must. But I have learned to-day what I have often feared--that +Christine Ludolph must soon end in a forgotten handful of dust." + +"Oh, Christine, if you could only believe!" + +"I cannot. I tried in my last sickness, but vainly. I am more convinced +than ever of the correctness of my father's views." + +Miss Winthrop sighed deeply. "Why are you so despondent?" she at last +asked. + +As if half speaking to herself, Christine repeated the words, "'Painted +by one having never felt, or unable to feel, the emotions presented, +and therefore one who cannot portray them.' That is just the trouble. +I tried to speak in a language I do not know. Susie, I believe I am +about half ice. Sometimes I think I am like Undine, and have no soul. +I know I have no heart, in the sense that you have." "I live a very cold +sort of life," she continued, with a slight shudder. "I seem +surrounded by invisible barriers that I cannot pass. I can see, beyond, +what I want, but cannot reach it. Oh, Susie, if you knew what I suffered +when so ill! Everything seemed slipping from me. And yet why I should +so wish to live I hardly know, when my life is so narrowed down." + +"You see the disease, but not the remedy," sighed Susie. + +"What is the remedy?" + +"_Love_. Love to God, and I may add love for some good man." + +Christine stopped a moment and almost stamped her foot impatiently. + +"You discourage me more than any one else," she cried. "As to loving +God, how can I love merely a name? and, even if He existed, how could +I love a Being who left His world so full of vile evils? As to human +love, faugh! I have had enough of romantic attachments." + +"Do you never intend to marry?" + +"Susie, you are the friend of my soul, and I trust you and you only +with our secret. Yes, I expect to marry, but not in this land. You +know that in Germany my father will eventually be a noble, the +representative of one of the most ancient and honorable families. We +shall soon have sufficient wealth to resume our true position there. +A husband will then be found for me. I only stipulate that he shall +be able to give me position among the first, and gratify my bent for +art to the utmost" + +"Well, Christine, you are a strange girl, and your dream of the future +is stranger still." + +"Sometimes I think that all is a dream, and may end like one. Nothing +seems certain or real, or turns out as one expects. Think of it. A +nobody who swept my father's store the other day has this morning made +such havoc in my dream that I am sick at heart." + +"But you cannot blame Mr. Fleet. He did it unconsciously; he was goaded +on to do it. No _man_ could have done otherwise. You surely do not feel +hardly toward him?" + +"We do not naturally love the lips and bless the voice that tell us +of an incurable disease. Oh, no," she added, "why should I think of +him at all? He merely happened to point out what I half suspected +myself. And yet the peculiar way this stranger crosses my path from +time to time almost makes me superstitious." + +"And you seem to have peculiar power over him. He would have assuredly +left us in the lurch at our tableau party had it not been for you, and +I should not have blamed him. And to-day he seemed troubled and pained +beyond expression when he read from your face, as I imagine, that you +were the author of the picture." + +"Yes, I saw that he discovered the fact, and this provokes me also. +If he should speak his thoughts--" + +"I do not think he will. I am sure he will not if you caution him." + +"That I will not do; and I think on the whole he has too much sense +to speak carelessly of what he imagined he saw in a lady's face. And +now, Susie, good-by. I shall not inflict my miserable self longer upon +you to-day, and I am one who can best cure my wounds in solitude." + +"Do you cure them, Christine? or do you only cover them up? If I had +your creed nothing could cure my wounds. Time might deaden the pain, +and I forget them in other things, but I do not see where any cure +could come from. Oh, Christine! you did me good service when in the +deepening twilight of Miss Brown's parlor you showed me my useless, +unbelieving life. But I do believe now. The cross is radiant to me +now--more radiant than the one that so startled us then. Mr. Fleet's +words were true, I know, as I know my own existence. I could die for +my faith." + +Christine frowned and said, almost harshly: "I don't believe in a +religion so full of crosses and death. Why could not the all-powerful +Being you believe in take away the evil from the world?" + +"That is just what He came to do. In that very character he was pointed +out by His authorized forerunner: 'Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh +away the sin of the world.'" + +"Why does he not do it then?" asked Christine, petulantly. "Centuries +have passed. Patience itself is wearied out. He has had time enough, +if He ever meant or had the power to fulfil the promise. But the world +is as full of evil and suffering as ever. Susie, I would not disturb +your credulous faith, for it seems to do you good; but to me Christ +was a noble but mistaken man, dead and buried centuries ago. He can +do for me no more than Socrates. They vigorously attacked evil in their +day, but evil was too much for them, as it is for us. We must just get +the most we can out of life, and endure what we cannot prevent or +escape. An angel could not convert me to-day--no, not even Susie +Winthrop, and that is saying more still;" and with a hasty kiss she +vanished. + +Susie looked wistfully after her, and then bent her steps homeward +with a pitying face. + +Christine at once went to her own private room. Putting on a loose +wrapper she threw herself on a lounge, and buried her face in the +cushions. Her life seemed growing narrow and meagre. Hour after hour +passed, and the late afternoon sun was shining into her room when she +arose from her bitter revery, and summed up all in a few words spoken +aloud, as was her custom when alone. + +"Must I, after all, come down to the Epicurean philosophy, 'Let us +eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die'? I seem on a narrow +island, the ocean is all around me, and the tide is rising, _rising_. It +will cover _soon_ my standing-place, and then what becomes of Christine +Ludolph?" + +A look of anguish came into the fair young face, and a slight shudder +passed over her. She glanced around a room furnished in costly elegance. +She saw her lovely person in the mirror opposite, and exclaimed: "What +a mystery it all is! I have so much, and yet so utterly fail of having +that which contents. I have all that wealth can purchase; and multitudes +act as if that were enough. I know I am beautiful. I can see that +yonder for myself, as well as read it in admiring eyes. And yet my +maid is better contented than I, and the boy who blacks the boots +better satisfied with his lot than either of us. I am raised so high +that I can see how much more there is or might be beyond. I feel like +one led into a splendid vestibule, only to find that the palace is +wanting, or that it is a mean hovel. All that I have only mocks me, +and becomes a means of torture. All that I am and have ought to be, +might be, a mere prelude, an earnest and a preparation for something +better beyond. But I am told, and must believe, that this is all, and +I may lose this in a moment and forever. It is as if a noble strain +of music commenced sweetly, and then suddenly broken down into a few +discordant notes and ceased. It is like my picture--all very well; but +that which would speak to and move the heart, year after year, when +the mere beauty ceased to please--that life or something is wanting. +What were his words?--'This picture is but the beautiful corpse of +the other'; and my life is but a cold marble effigy of a true life. +And yet is there any true and better life? If there is nothing better +beyond, I have been carried forward too far. Miss Brown thoroughly +enjoys champagne and flirtations. Susie Winthrop is happy in her +superstition, as any one might be who could believe what she does. +But I have gone past the power of taking up these things, as I have +gone past my childhood's sports. And now what is there for me? My most +dear and cherished hope--a hope that shone above my life like a sun--has +been blown away by the breath of my father's clerk (it required no +greater power to bring me down to my true level), and I hoped to be +a queen among men, high-born, but crowned with the richer coronet of +genius. I, who hoped to win so high a place that men would speak of +me with honest praise, now and in all future time, must be contented +as a mere accomplished woman, deemed worthy perhaps in time to grace +some nobleman's halls who in the nice social scale abroad may stand +a little higher than myself. I meant to shine and dazzle, to stoop to +give in every case; but now I must take what I can get, with a humble +'Thank you';" and she clenched her little powerless hands in impotent +revolt at what seemed very cruel destiny. + +She appeared at the dinner-table outwardly calm and quiet. Her father +did not share in her bitter disappointment, and she saw that he did +not, and so felt more alone. He regarded her success as remarkable (as +it truly was), having never believed that she could copy a picture so +exactly as to deceive an ordinarily good observer. When, therefore, +old Schwartz and others were unable to distinguish between the pictures, +he was more than satisfied. He was sorry that Dennis had spoiled the +triumph, but could not blame him. At the same time he recognized in +Fleet another and most decided proof of intelligence on questions of +art, for he knew that his criticism was just. He believed that when +the true knight that his ambition would choose appeared, with golden +spurs and jewelled crest, then her deeper nature would awaken, and she +far surpass all previous effort. Moreover, he did not fully understand +or enter into her lofty ambition. To see her settled in life, titled, +rich, and a recognized leader in the aristocracy of his own land, was +his highest aspiration so far as she was concerned. + +He began, therefore, in a strain of compliment to cheer his daughter +and rally her courage; but she shook her head sadly, and said so +decidedly, "Father, let us change the subject," that with some surprise +at her feelings he yielded to her wish, thinking that a little time +and experience would moderate her ideas and banish the pain of +disappointment. It was a quiet meal, both being occupied by their own +thoughts. Soon after he was absorbed for the evening by his cigar and +some business papers. + +It was a mild, summer-like night, and a warm, gentle rain was falling. +Even in the midst of a great city the sweet odors of spring found their +way to the private parlor where Christine sat by the window, still +lost in painful thoughts. + +"Nature is full of hope, and the promise of coming life. So ought I +to be in this my spring-time. Why am I not? If I am sad and disappointed +in my spring, how dreary will be my autumn, when leaf after leaf of +beauty, health, and strength drops away!" + +A muffled figure, seemingly regardless of the rain, passed slowly down +the opposite side of the street. Though the person cast but a single +quick glance toward her window, and though the twilight was deepening, +something in the passer-by suggested Dennis Fleet. For a moment she +wished she could speak to him. She felt very lonely. Solitude had done +her no good. Her troubles only grew darker and more real as she brooded +over them. She instinctively felt that her father could not understand +her, and she had never been able to go to him for sympathy. He was not +the kind of person that any one would seek for such a purpose. Christine +was not inclined to confidence, and there was really no one who knew +her deeper feelings, and who could enter into her real hopes for life. +She was so proud and cold that few ever thought of giving her +confidence, much less of asking hers. + +Up to the time of her recent illness she had been strong, +self-confident, almost assured of success. At times she recognized +dimly that something was wrong; but she shut her eyes to the unwelcome +truth, and determined to succeed. But her sickness and fears at that +time, and now a failure that seemed to destroy the ambition of her +life, all united in greatly shaking her self-confidence. + +This evening, as never before, she was conscious of weakness and +dependence. With the instinct of one sinking, her spirit longed for +help and support. Then the thought suddenly occurred to her, "Perhaps +this young stranger, who so clearly pointed out the disease, may also +show the way to some remedy." + +But the figure had passed on. In a moment mere pride and conventionality +resumed sway, and she smiled bitterly, saying to herself, "What a weak +fool I am to-night! Of all things let me not become a romantic miss +again." + +She went to her piano and struck into a brilliant strain. For a few +moments the music was of a forced and defiant character, loud, gay, +but with no real or rollicking mirth in it, and it soon ceased. Then +in a sharp contrast came a sad, weird German ballad, and this was real. +In its pathos her burdened heart found expression, and whoever listened +then would not merely have admired, but would have felt. One song +followed another. All the pent-up feeling of the day seemed to find +natural flow in the plaintive minstrelsy of her own land. + +Suddenly she ceased and went to her window. The muffled figure stood +in the shadow of an angle in the attitude of a listener. A moment later +it vanished in the dusk toward the business part of the city. The quick +footsteps died away, and only the patter of the falling rain broke the +silence. Christine felt sure that it was Dennis. At first her feeling +was one of pleasure. His coming and evident interest took somewhat, +she scarcely knew why, from her sense of loneliness. Soon her pride +awoke, however, and she said: "He has no business here to watch and +listen. I will show him that, with all his taste and intelligence, we +have no ground in common on which he can presume." + +Her father had also listened to the music, and said to himself: +"Christine is growing a little sentimental. She takes this +disappointment too much to heart. I must touch her pride with the spur +a little, and that will make her ice and steel in a moment. It is no +slight task to keep a girl's heart safe till you want to use it. I will +wait till the practical daylight of to-morrow, and then she shall +look at the world through my eyes again." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +DENNIS'S LOVE PUT TO PRACTICAL USE + + +The day following his unlucky criticism of the pictures was one of +great despondency to Dennis. He had read in Christine's face that he +had wounded her sorely; and, though she knew it to be unintentional, +would it not prejudice her mind against him, and snap the slender +thread by which he hoped to draw across the gulf between them the cord, +and then the cable, that might in time unite their lives? + +In the evening his restless, troubled spirit drove him, in spite of +the rain, to seek to be at least nearer to her. He felt sure that in +the dusk and wrapped in his greatcoat he would not be noticed, but was +mistaken, as we have seen. He was rewarded, for he heard her sing as +never before, as he did not believe she could sing. For the first time +her rich, thoroughly trained voice had the sweetness and power of +feeling. To Dennis her song seemed like an appeal, a cry for help, and +his heart responded in the deepest sympathy. As he walked homeward he +said to himself: "She could be a true artist, perhaps a great one, for +she can feel. She has a heart. She has a taste and skill in touch that +few can surpass. I can scarcely believe the beautiful coloring and +faultless lines of that picture are her work." He long for a chance +to speak with her and explain. He felt that he had so much to say, and +in a thousand imaginary ways introduced the subject of her painting. +He hoped he might find her sketching in some of the rooms again. He +thought that he knew her better for having heard her sing, and that +he could speak to her quite frankly. + +The next day she came to the store, but passed him without the slightest +notice. He hoped she had not seen him, and, as she passed out, so +placed himself that she must see him, and secured for his pains only +a slight, cold inclination of the head. + +"It is as I feared," he said, bitterly. "She detests me for having +spoiled her triumph. She is not just," he added, angrily. "She has no +sense of justice, or she would not blame me. What a mean-spirited +craven I should have been had I shrunk away under her taunts yesterday. +Well, I can be proud too." + +When she came in again he did not raise his eyes, and when she passed +out he was in a distant part of the store. Christine saw no tall muffled +figure under her window again, though she had the curiosity to look. +That even this humble admirer, for whom she cared not a jot, should +show such independence rather nettled and annoyed her for a moment. +But she paid no more heed to him than to the other clerks. + +But what was the merest jar to Christine's vanity cost Dennis a +desperate struggle. It required no effort on her part to pass him by +without a glance. To him it was torture. In a few days she ceased to +think about him at all, and only remembered him in connection with her +disappointment. But she was restless, could settle down to no work, and +had lost her zest in her old pleasures. She tried to act as usual, +for she saw her father's eye was on her. He had not much indulgence +for any one's weaknesses save his own, and often by a little cold +satire would sting her to the very quick. On the other hand, his +admiration, openly expressed in a certain courtly gallantry, nourished +her pride but not her heart. Though she tried to keep up her usual +routine, her manner was forced before him and languid when alone. But +he said, "All this will pass away like a cold snap in spring, and the +old zest will come again in a few days." + +It did, but from a cause which he could not understand, and which his +daughter with consummate skill and care concealed. He thought it was +only the old enthusiasm rallying after a sharp frost of disappointment. + +Dennis's pride gave way before her cool and unstudied indifference. +It was clearly evident to him that he had no hold upon her life +whatever, and how to gain any he did not see. He became more and more +dejected. + +"She must have a heart, or I could not love her so; but it is so incased +in ice I fear I can never reach it." + +That something was wrong with Dennis any friend who cared for him at +all might see. The Bruders did, and, with the quick intuitions of +woman, Mrs. Bruder half guessed the cause. Mr. Bruder, seeing +preoccupation and sometimes weary apathy in Dennis's face, would say, +"Mr. Fleet is not well." + +Then, as even this slight notice of his different appearance seemed +to give pain, Mr. Bruder was patiently and kindly blind to his pupil's +inattention. + +Dennis faithfully kept up all his duties on Sunday as during the week; +but all was now hard work. Some little time after the unlucky morning +which he could never think of without an expression of pain, he went +to his mission class as usual. He heard his boys recite their lessons, +said a few poor lame words in explanation, and then leaned his head +listlessly and wearily on his hand. He was startled by hearing a sweet +voice say, "Well, Mr. Fleet, are you not going to welcome a new laborer +into your corner of the vineyard?" + +With a deep flush he saw that Miss Winthrop was in charge of the class +next to him, and that he had been oblivious to her presence nearly an +hour. He tried to apologize. But she interrupted him, saying: "Mr. +Fleet, you are not well. Any one can see that." + +Then Dennis blushed as if he had a raging fever, and she was perplexed. + +The closing exercises of the school now occupied them and then they +walked out together. + +"Mr. Fleet," she said, "you never accepted my invitation. We have not +seen you at our house. But perhaps your circle of friends is so large +that you do not wish to add to it." + +Dennis could not forbear a smile at the suggestion, but he said, in +apology, "I do not visit any one, save a gentleman from whom I am +taking lessons." + +"Do you mean to say that you have no friends at all in this great city?" + +"Well, I suppose that is nearly the truth; that is, in the sense you +use the term. My teacher and his wife--" + +"Nonsense! I mean friends of one's own age, people of the same culture +and status as yourself. I think we require such society, as truly as +we need food and air. I did not mean those whom business or duty brought +you in contact with, or who are friendly or grateful as a matter of +course." + +"I have made no progress since my introduction to society at Miss +Brown's," said Dennis. + +"But you had the sincere and cordial offer of introduction," said Miss +Winthrop, looking a little hurt. + +"I feel hardly fit for society," said Dennis, all out of sorts with +himself. "It seems that I can only blunder and give pain. But I am +indeed grateful for your kindness." + +Miss Winthrop looked into his worn, pale face, and instinctively knew +that something was wrong, and she felt real sympathy for the lonely +young man, isolated among thousands. She said, gently but decidedly: +"I did mean my invitation kindly, and I truly wished you to come. The +only proof you can give that you appreciate my courtesy is to accept +an invitation for to-morrow evening. I intend having a little musical +entertainment." + +Quick as light flashed the thought, "Christine will be there." He said, +promptly: "I will come, and thank you for the invitation. If I am +awkward, you must remember that I have never mingled in Chicago society, +and for a long time not in any." + +She smiled merrily at him, and said, "Don't do anything dreadful, Mr. +Fleet." + +He caught her mood, and asked what had brought her down from her +theological peak to such a valley of humiliation as a mission school. + +"You and Miss Ludolph" she answered, seriously. "Between you, you gave +me such a lesson that afternoon at Miss Brown's that I have led a +different life ever since. Christine made all as dark as despair, and +against that darkness you placed the fiery Cross. I have tried to cling +to the true cross ever since. Now He could not say to me, 'Inasmuch +as ye did it not.' And oh!" said she, turning to Dennis with a smile +full of the light of Heaven, "His service is so very sweet! I heard +last week that teachers were wanted at this mission school, so I came, +and am glad to find you a neighbor." + +Dennis's face also kindled at her enthusiasm, but after a moment grew +sad again. + +"I do not always give so lifeless a lesson as to-day," he said, in a +low voice. + +"Mr. Fleet, you are not well. I can see that you look worn and greatly +wearied. Are you not in some way overtaxing yourself?" + +Again that sensitive flush, but he only said: "I assure you I am well. +Perhaps I have worked a little hard. That is all." + +"Well, then, come to our house and play a little tomorrow evening," +she answered from the platform of a street car, and was borne away. + +Dennis went to his lonely room, full of self-reproach. + +"Does she find Christ's service so sweet, and do I find it so dull and +hard? Does human love alone constrain me, and not the love of Christ? +Truly I am growing weak. Every one says I look ill. I think I am, in +body and soul, and am ceasing to be a man; but with God's help I will +be one--and what is more, a Christian. I thank you, Miss Winthrop; you +have helped me more than I have helped you. I will accept your +invitation to go out into the world. I will no longer mope, brood, and +perish in the damp and shade of my own sick fancies. If I cannot win +her, I can at least be a man without her;" and he felt better and +stronger than he had done for a long time. The day was breaking again. + +In accordance with a custom that was growing with him ever since the +memorable evening when Bill Cronk befriended him, he laid the whole +matter before his Heavenly Father, as a child tells an earthly parent +all his heart. Then he added one simple prayer, "Guide me in all +things." + +The next day was brighter and better than its forerunners. "For some +reason I feel more like myself," he thought. After the excitement and +activity of a busy day, he said, "I can conquer this, if I must." + +But when he had made his simple toilet, and was on his way to Miss +Winthrop's residence, his heart began to flutter strangely, and he +knew the reason. Miss Winthrop welcomed him most cordially, and put +him at his ease in a moment, as only a true lady can. Then she turned +to receive other guests. He looked around. Christine was not there; +and his heart sank like lead. "She will not be here," he sighed. But +the guests had not ceased coming, and every new arrival caused a flutter +of hopes and fears. He both longed and dreaded to meet her. At last, +when he had almost given up seeing her, suddenly she appeared, advancing +up the parlor on her father's arm. Never had she seemed so dazzlingly +beautiful. He was just then talking to Mr. Winthrop, and for a few +moments that gentleman was perplexed at his incoherent answers and the +changes in his face. Having paid their respects to the daughter, Mr. +and Miss Ludolph came toward Mr. Winthrop, and of course Dennis had +to meet them. Having greeted them warmly, Mr. Winthrop said, "Of course +you do not need an introduction to Mr. Fleet." + +Dennis had shrunk a little into the background, and at first they had +not noticed him. Mr. Ludolph said, good-naturedly, "Glad to see you, +Mr. Fleet, and will be still more glad to hear your fine voice." + +But Christine merely bowed as to one with whom her acquaintance was +slight, and turned away. At first Dennis had blushed, and his heart +had fluttered like a young girl's; but, as she turned so coolly away, +his native pride and obstinacy were aroused. + +"She shall speak to me and do me justice," he muttered. "She must +understand that I spoke unconsciously on that miserable morning, and +am not to be blamed. As I am a man, I will speak boldly and secure +recognition." But as the little company mingled and conversed before +the music commenced, no opportunity offered. He determined to show +her, however, that he was no country boor, and with skill and taste +made himself agreeable. + +Christine furtively watched him. She was surprised to see him, as the +idea of meeting him in society as an equal had scarcely been suggested +before. But when she saw that he greeted one after another with grace +and ease, and that all seemed to enjoy his conversation, so that a +little knot of Miss Winthrop's most intelligent guests were about him +at last, she felt that it would be no great condescension on her part +to be a little more affable. In her heart, though, she had not forgiven +the unconscious words that had smitten to the ground her ambitious +hopes. + +Then again, his appearance deeply interested her. A suppressed +excitement and power, seen in the glow and fire of his dark eyes, and +felt in his tones, stirred her languid pulses. + +"He is no vapid society-man," she said to herself; and her artist eye +was gratified by the changes in his noble face. + +"Look at Fleet," whispered her father; "could you believe he was +sweeping the store the other day? Well, if we don't find out his worth +and get what we can from him, the world will. We ought to have had him +up to sing before this, but I have been so busy since your illness +that it slipped my mind." + +Miss Winthrop now led Christine to the piano, and she played a classical +piece of music in faultless taste. Then followed duets, solos, quartets, +choruses, and instrumental pieces, for nearly all present were musical +amateurs. Under the inspiration of this soul-stirring art, coldness +and formality melted away, and with jest and brilliant repartee, +alternating with song, there gathered around Miss Winthrop's piano +such a group as could never grace the parlors of Miss Brown. Sometimes +they would carry a new and difficult piece triumphantly through; again +they would break down, with much laughter and good-natured rallying. + +Dennis, as a stranger, held back at first; but those who remembered +his singing at the tableau party were clamorous to hear him again, and +they tested and tried his voice during the evening in many and varied +ways. But he held his own, and won greener laurels than ever. He did +his very best, for he was before one whom he would rather please than +all the world; moreover, her presence seemed to inspire him to do +better than when alone. Christine, like the others, could not help +listening with delight to his rich, clear tenor, and Mr. Ludolph was +undisguised in his admiration. + +"I declare, Mr. Fleet, I have been depriving myself of a good deal of +pleasure. I meant to have you up to sing with us before, but we have +been under such a press of business of late! But the first evening I +am disengaged you must surely come." + +Christine had noticed how quietly and almost indifferently Dennis had +taken the many compliments showered on him before, but now, when her +father spoke, his face flushed, and a sudden light came into his eyes. +Dennis had thought, "I can then see and speak to her." Every now and +then she caught his eager, questioning, and almost appealing glance, +but he made no advances. "He thinks I am angry because of his keen +criticism of my picture. For the sake of my own pride, I must not let +him think that I care so much about his opinion;" and Christine resolved +to let some of the ice thaw that had formed between them. Moreover, +in spite of herself, when she was thrown into his society, he greatly +interested her. He seemed to have just what she had not. He could meet +her on her own ground in matters of taste, and then, in contrast with +her cold, negative life, he was so earnest and positive. "Perhaps papa +spoke for us both," she thought, "and I have been depriving myself of +a pleasure also, for he certainly interests while most men only weary +me." + +Between ten and eleven supper was announced; not the prodigal abundance +under which the brewer's table had groaned, but a dainty, elegant +little affair, which inspired and promoted social feeling, though the +"spirit of wine" was absent. The eye was feasted as truly as the palate. +Christine had stood near Dennis as the last piece was sung, and he +turned and said in a low, eager tone, "May I have the pleasure of +waiting on you at supper?" + +She hesitated, but his look was so wistful that she could not well +refuse, so with a slight smile she bowed assent, and placed the tips +of her little gloved hand on his arm, which so trembled that she looked +inquiringly and curiously into his face. It was very pale, as was ever +the case when he felt deeply. He waited on her politely but silently +at first. She sat in an angle, somewhat apart from the others. As he +stood by her side, thinking how to refer to the morning in the +show-room, she said: "Mr. Fleet, you are not eating anything, and you +look as if you had been living on air of late--very unlike your +appearance when you so efficiently aided me in the rearrangement of +the store. I am delighted that you keep up the better order of things." +Dennis's answer was quite irrelevant. + +"Miss Ludolph," he said, abruptly, "I saw that I gave you pain that +morning in the show-room. If you only knew how the thought has pained +me!" + +Christine flushed almost angrily, but said, coldly, "Mr. Fleet, that +is a matter you can never understand, therefore we had better dismiss +the subject." + +But Dennis had determined to break the ice between them at any risk, +so he said, firmly but respectfully: "Miss Ludolph, I did understand +all, the moment I saw your face that day. I do understand how you have +felt since, better than you imagine." + +His manner and words were so assured that she raised a startled face +to his, but asked coldly and in an indifferent manner, "What can you +know of my feelings?" + +"I know," said Dennis, in a low tone, looking searchingly into her +face, from which cool composure was fast fading--"I know your dearest +hope was to be among the first in art. You staked that hope on your +success in a painting that required a power which you do not possess." +Christine became very pale, but from her eyes shone a light before +which most men would have quailed. But Dennis's love was so true and +strong that he could wound her for the sake of the healing and life +he hoped to bring, and he continued--"On that morning this cherished +hope for the future failed you, not because of my words, but because +your artist eye saw that my words were true. You have since been +unhappy--" + +"What right have _you_--you who were but a few days since--who are a +stranger--what right have you to speak thus to me?" + +"I know what you would say, Miss Ludolph," he answered, a slight flush +coming into his pale face. "Friends may be humble and yet true. But +am I not right?" + +"I have no claim on your friendship," said Christine, coldly. "But, +for the sake of argument, grant that you are right, what follows?" and +she looked at him more eagerly than she knew. She felt that he had +read her very soul and was deeply moved, and again the superstitious +feeling crept over her, "That young man is in some way connected with +my destiny." + +Dennis saw his power and proceeded rapidly, for he knew they might be +interrupted at any moment; and so they would have been had anything +less interesting than eating occupied the attention of others. + +"I saw in the picture what in your eyes and mine would be a fatal +defect--the lack of life and true feeling--the lack of power to live. +I did not know who painted it, but felt that any one who could paint +as well as that, and yet leave out the soul, as it were, had not the +power to put it in. No artist of such ability could willingly or +ignorantly have permitted such a defect." + +Christine's eyes sank, their fire faded out, and her face had the +pallor of one listening to her doom. This deeper feeling mastered the +momentary resentment against the hand that was wounding her, and she +forgot him, and all, in her pain and despair. + +In a low, earnest tone Dennis continued: "But since I have come to +know who the artist is, since I have studied the picture more fully, +and have taken the liberty of some observation"--Christine hung on +his lips breathlessly, and Dennis spoke slowly, marking the effect of +every word--"I have come to the decided belief that the lady who painted +that picture can reach the sphere of true and highest art." + +The light that stole into Christine's face under his slow, emphatic +words was like a rosy dawn in June; and the thought flashed through +Dennis's mind, "If an earthly hope can so light up her face, what will +be the effect of a heavenly one?" + +For a moment she sat as one entranced, looking at a picture far off +in the future. His words had been so earnest and assured that they +seemed reality. Suddenly she turned on him a look as grateful and happy +as the former one had been full of pain and anger, and said: "Ah, do +not deceive me, do not flatter. You cannot know the sweetness and power +of the hope you are inspiring. To be disappointed again would be death. +If you are trifling with me I will never forgive you," she added, in +sudden harshness, her brow darkening. + +"Nor should I deserve to be forgiven if I deceived you in a matter +that to you is so sacred." + +"But how--how am I to gain this magic power to make faces feel and +live on canvas?" + +"You must believe. You yourself must feel." + +She looked at him with darkening face, and then in a sudden burst of +passion said: "I don't believe; I can't feel. All this is mockery, +after all." + +"No!" said Dennis, in the deep, assured tone that ever calms and secures +attention. "This is not mockery. I speak the words of truth and +soberness. You do not believe, but that is not the same as cannot. And +permit me to contradict you when I say you _do_ feel. On this subject so +near your heart you feel most deeply--feel as I never knew any one feel +before. This proves you capable of feeling on other and higher subjects, +and what you feel your trained and skilful hand can portray. You felt on +the evening of that miserable day, and sang as I never heard you sing +before. Your tones then would move any heart, and my tears fell with the +rain in sympathy: I could not help it." + +Her bosom rose and fell tumultuously, and her breath came hard and +quick. + +"Oh, if I could believe you were right!" + +"I know I am right," he said, so decidedly that again hope grew rosy +and beautiful in her face. + +"Then again," he continued, eagerly, "see what an advantage you have +over the most of us. Your power of imitation is wonderful. _You can copy +anything you see._" + +"Good-evening, Miss Ludolph. Where have you been hiding? I have twice +made the tour of the supper-room in my search," broke in the voluble +Mr. Mellen. Then he gave Dennis a cool stare, who acted as if +unconscious of his presence. An expression of disgust flitted across +Christine's face at the interruption, or the person--perhaps both-- +and she was about to shake him off that Dennis might speak further, +when Miss Winthrop and others came up, and there was a general movement +back to the parlors. + +"Why, Christine, what is the matter?" asked her friend. "You look as +if you had a fever. What has Mr. Fleet been saying?" + +"Oh, we have had an argument on my hobby, art, and of course don't +agree, and so got excited in debate." + +Miss Winthrop glanced keenly at them and said, "I would like to have +heard it, for it was Greek meeting Greek." + +"To what art or _trade_ did Mr. Fleet refer?" asked Mr. Mellen, with an +insinuation that all understood. + +"One that you do not understand," said Christine, keenly. + +The petted and spoiled millionaire flushed angrily a moment, and then +said with a bow: "You are right, Miss Ludolph. Mr. Fleet is acquainted +with one or two arts that I have never had the pleasure of learning." + +"He has at least learned the art of being a gentleman," was the sharp +retort. + +The young man's face grew darker, and he said, "From the _sweeping_ +nature of your remarks, I perceive that Mr. Fleet is high in your +favor." + +"A poor pun made in poorer taste," was all the comfort he got from +Christine. + +Dennis was naturally of a very jealous disposition where his affections +were concerned. His own love took such entire possession of him that +he could not brook the interference of others, or sensibly consider +that they had the same privilege to woo, and win if possible, that he +had. Especially distasteful to him was this rich and favored youth, +whose presence awakened all his combativeness, which was by no means +small. + +Mr. Mellen's most inopportune interruption and covert taunts provoked +him beyond endurance. His face was fairly white with rage, and for a +moment he felt that he could stamp his rival out of existence. In the +low, concentrated voice of passion he said, "If Mr. Mellen should lose +his property, as many do, I gather from his remarks that he would still +keep up his idea of a gentleman on charity." + +Mr. Mellen flushed to the roots of his hair, his hands clenched. In +the flashing eyes and threatening faces of the young men those +witnessing the scene foresaw trouble. A light hand fell on Dennis's +arm, and Miss Winthrop said, "Mr. Fleet, I wish to show you a picture, +and ask your judgment in regard to it." + +Dennis understood the act, and in a moment more his face was crimson +with shame. + +"Miss Winthrop, you ought to send me home at once. I told you I was +unfit for society. Somehow I am not myself. I humbly ask your pardon." + +"So sincere a penitent shall receive absolution at once. You were +greatly provoked. I trust you for the future." + +"You may," was the emphatic answer. After that pledge Mr. Mellen might +have struck him and received no more response than from a marble statue. + +Mr. Mellen also took a sober second thought, remembering that he was +in a lady's parlor. He walked away with his ears tingling, for the +flattered youth had never had such an experience before. The few who +witnessed the scene smiled significantly, as did Christine half +contemptuously; but Miss Winthrop soon restored serenity, and +the remaining hours passed away in music and dancing. Christine did not +speak to Dennis again--that is, by word of mouth--but she thought of +him constantly, and their eyes often met;--on his part that same eager, +questioning look. She ever turned hers at once away. But his words +kept repeating themselves continually, especially his last sentence, +when the unlucky Mr. Mellen had broken in upon them--"You can copy +anything you see." + +"How noble and expressive of varied feeling his face is!" she thought, +watching it change under the playful badinage of Miss Winthrop. + +"How I would like to copy it! Well, you can--'You can copy anything +you see.'" Then like a flash came a suggestion--"You can make him +love you, and copy feeling, passion, life--from the _living_ face. +Whether I can believe or feel, myself, is very doubtful. This I can +do: he himself said so. I cannot love, myself--I must not; I do not +wish to now, but perhaps I can inspire love in him, and then make his +face a study. As to my believing, he can never know how utterly +impossible his faith is to me." + +Then conscience entered a mild protest against the cruelty of the +project. "Nonsense!" she said to herself; "most girls flirt for sport, +and it is a pity if I cannot with such a purpose in view. He will soon +get over a little puncture in his heart after I have sailed away to +my bright future beyond the sea, and perhaps Susie will comfort him;" +and she smiled at the thought. Dennis saw the smile and was entranced +by its loveliness. How little he guessed the cause! + +Having resolved, Christine acted promptly. When their eyes again met, +she gave him a slight smile. He caught it instantly and looked +bewildered, as if he could not believe his eyes. Again, when a little +later, at the urgent request of many, he sang alone for the first time, +and again moved his hearers deeply by the real feeling in his tones, +he turned from the applause of all, with that same questioning look, +to her. She smiled an encouragement that she had never given him before. +The warm blood flooded his face instantly. All thought that it was the +general chorus of praise. Christine knew that she had caused it, and +surprise and almost exultation came into her face. "I half believe he +loves me now," she said. She threw him a few more kindly smiles from +time to time, as one might throw some glittering things to an eager +child, and every moment assured her of her power. + +"I will try one more test," she said, and by a little effort she lured +to her side the offended Mr. Mellen, and appeared much pleased by his +attention. Then unmistakably the pain of jealousy was stamped on +Dennis's face, and she was satisfied. Shaking off the perplexed Mr. +Mellen again, she went to the recess of a window to hide her look of +exultation. + +"The poor victim loves me already," she said. "The mischief is done. +I have only to avail myself of what exists from no fault of mine, and +surely I ought to; otherwise the passion of the infatuated youth will +be utterly wasted, and do no one any good." + +Thus in a somewhat novel way Christine obtained a new master in +painting, and poor Dennis and his love were put to use somewhat as a +human subject might be if dissected alive. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE TWO HEIGHTS + + +Dennis went home in a strange tumult of hopes and fears, but hope +predominated, for evidently she cared little for Mr. Mellen. "The ice +is broken at last," he said. It was, but he was like to fall through +into a very cold bath, though he knew it not. He was far too excited +to sleep, and sat by his open window till the warm June night grew +pale with the light of coming day. + +Suddenly a bright thought struck him; a moment more and it became an +earnest purpose. "I think I can paint something that may express to +her what I dare not put in words." + +He immediately went up into the loft and prepared a large frame, so +proportioned that two pictures could be painted side by side, one +explanatory and an advance upon the other. He stretched his canvas +over this, and sketched and outlined rapidly under the inspiration of +his happy thought. + +Christine came with her father to the store, as had been her former +custom, and her face had its old expression. The listless, disappointed +look was gone. She passed on, not appearing to see him while with her +father, and Dennis's heart sank again. "She surely knew where to look +for me if she cared to look," he said to himself. Soon after he went +to the upper show-room to see to the hanging of a new picture. + +"I am so glad your taste, instead of old Schwartz's mathematics, has +charge of this department now," said a honeyed voice at his side. He +was startled greatly. + +"What is the matter? Are you nervous, Mr. Fleet? I had no idea that +a lady could so frighten you." + +He was blushing like a girl, but said, "I have read that something +within, rather than anything without, makes us cowards." + +"Ah, then you confess to a guilty conscience?" she replied, with a +twinkle in her eye. + +"I do not think I shall confess at all till I have a merciful +confessor," said Dennis, conscious of a deeper meaning than his light +words might convey. + +"'The quality of mercy is not strained,' therefore it is unfit for my +use. I'll none of it, but for each offence impose unlimited penance." + +"But suppose one must sin?" + +"He must take the consequences then. Even your humane religion teaches +that;" and with this parting arrow she vanished, leaving him too excited +to hang his picture straight. + +It all seemed a bewildering dream. Being so thoroughly taken by surprise +and off his guard, he had said far more than he meant. But had she +understood him? Yes, better than he had himself, and laughed at his +answers with their covert meanings. + +She spent the next two days in sketching and outlining his various +expressions as far as possible from memory. She would learn to catch +those evanescent lines--that something which makes the human face +eloquent, though the lips are silent. + +Dennis was in a maze, but he repeated to himself jubilantly again, +"The ice is broken." That evening at Mr. Bruder's he asked for studies +in ice. + +"Vy, dat is out of season," said Mr. Bruder, with a laugh. + +"No, now is just the time. It is a nice cool subject for this hot +weather. Please oblige me; for certain reasons I wish to be able to +paint ice perfectly." + +Arctic scenery was Mr. Bruder's forte, on which he specially prided +himself. He was too much of a gentleman to ask questions, and was +delighted to find the old zest returning in his pupil. They were soon +constructing bergs, caves, and grottoes of cold blue ice. Evening after +evening, while sufficient light lasted, they worked at this study. +Dennis's whole soul seemed bent on the formation of ice. After a month +of labor Mr. Bruder said, "I hope you vill get over dis by fall, or +ve all freeze to death." + +"One of these days I shall explain," said Dennis, smiling. + +The evening of the second day after the little rencounter in the +show-room, Mr. Ludolph sat enjoying his cigar, and Christine was at +the piano playing a difficult piece of music. + +"Come, father," she said, "here is a fine thing just from Germany. +There is a splendid tenor solo in it, and I want you to sing it for +me." + +"Pshaw!" said her father, "why did I not think of it before?" and he +rang the bell. "Here, Brandt, go down to the store, and if Mr. Fleet +is there ask him if he will come up to my rooms for a little while." + +Brandt met Dennis just starting for his painting lesson, but led him +a willing captive, to give Christine instruction unconsciously. + +She, whose strategy had brought it all about, smiled at her success. +It was not her father's tenor she wanted, but Dennis's face; and her +father should unknowingly work her will. The girl had learned so much +from the wily man of the world that she was becoming his master. + +Dennis came and entered with a thrill of delight what was to him +enchanted ground. Mr. Ludolph was affable, Christine kind, but she +looked more than she said. + +Dennis sang the solo, after one or two efforts, correctly. Then Mr. +Ludolph brought out a piece of music that he wished to try; Christine +found others; and before they knew it the evening had passed. Quite +a knot of delighted listeners gathered in the street opposite. This +Christine pointed out to her father with evident annoyance. + +"Well, my dear," he said, "hotel life in a crowded city renders escape +from such things impossible." + +But a purpose was growing in her mind of which she spoke soon after. +Throughout the evening she had studied Dennis's face as much as she +could without attracting notice, and the thought grew upon her that +at last she had found a path to the success she so craved. + +"You seem to have gone to work with your old interest," said her father, +as he came out of his room the next morning and found Christine at her +easel. + +"I shall try it again," she said, briefly. + +"That is right," said he. "The idea of being daunted by one partial +failure! I predict for you such success as will satisfy even your +fastidious taste." + +"We shall see," she said. "I hope, too." But she would not have her +father know on what grounds. He might regard the experiment as a +dangerous one for herself as well as for Dennis, and she decided to +keep her plan entirely secret. + +She now came to the store daily, and rarely went away without giving +Dennis a smile or word of recognition. But he noticed that she ever +did this in a casual manner, and in a way that would not attract +attention. He also took the hint, and never was obtrusive or +demonstrative, but it was harder work for his frank nature. When +unobserved, his glances grew more ardent day by day. So far from +checking these, she encouraged them, but, when in any way he sought +to put his feelings into words, she changed the subject instantly and +decidedly. This puzzled him, for he did not understand that looks could +be painted, but not words. The latter were of no use to her. But she +led him on skilfully, and, from the unbounded power his love gave her, +played upon his feelings as adroitly as she touched her grand piano. + +Soon after the company at Miss Winthrop's, she said to him, "You +received several invitations the other evening, did you not?" + +"Yes." + +"Accept them. Go into society. It will do you good." +Thus he soon found himself involved in a round of sociables, musicales, +and now and then a large party. Christine was usually present, radiant, +brilliant, the cynosure of all eyes, but ever coolly self-possessed. +At first she would greet him with distant politeness, or pretend not +to see him at all, but before the evening was over would manage to +give him a half-hour in which she would be kind and even gentle at +times, but very observant. Then for the rest of the evening he would +find no chance to approach. It appeared that she was deeply interested +in him, enjoyed his society, and was even becoming attached to him, +but that for some reason she determined that no one should notice this, +and that matters should only go so far. Poor Dennis could not know +that he was only her unconscious instructor in painting, paid solely +in the coin of false smiles and delusive hopes. At times, though, she +would torture him dreadfully. Selecting one of her many admirers, she +would seem to smile upon his suit, and poor Dennis would writhe in all +the agonies of jealousy, for he was very human, and had all the normal +feeling of a strong man. She would then watch his face grow pale and +his manner restless, as quietly and critically as an entomologist +regards the struggles of an insect beneath his microscope. Again, she +would come to him all grace and sweetness, and his fine face would +light up with hope and pleasure. She would say honeyed nothings, but +study him just as coolly in another aspect. + +Thus she kept him hot and cold by turns--now lifting him to the pinnacle +of hope, again casting him down into the valley of fear and doubt. +What she wanted of him was just what she had not--feeling, intense, +varied feeling, so that, while she remained ice, she could paint as +if she felt; and with a gifted woman's tact, and with the power of one +loved almost to idolatry, she caused every chord of his soul, now in +happy harmony, now in painful discord, to vibrate under her skilful +touch. But such a life was very wearing, and he was failing under it. +Moreover, he was robbing himself of sleep in the early morning, that +he might work on his picture in the loft of the store, for which he +asked of poor Mr. Bruder nothing but ice. + +Mrs. Bruder worried over him continually. + +"You vork too hart. Vat shall we do for you? Oh, my fren, if you love +us do not vork so hart," she would often say. But Dennis would only +smile and turn to her husband in his insatiable demand for painted +ice. At last Mr. Bruder said, "Mr. Fleet, you can paint ice, as far +as I see, as veil as myself." + +Then Dennis turned around short and said, "Now I want warm rosy light +and foliage; give me studies in these." + +"By de hammer of Thor, but you go to extremes." + +"You shall know all some day," said Dennis, entering on his new tasks +with increasing eagerness. + +But day by day he grew thinner and paler. Even Christine's heart +sometimes relented; for, absorbed as she was in her own work and +interests, she could not help noticing how sadly he differed from the +vigorous youth who had lifted the heavy pictures for her but a few +short weeks ago. But she quieted herself by the thought that he was +a better artistic subject, and that he would mend again when the cool +weather came. + +"Where shall we go for the two hot months?" asked her father the morning +after the Fourth. + +"I have a plan to propose," replied Christine. "Suppose we go to +housekeeping." + +"What!" said her father, dropping his knife and fork, and looking at +her in astonishment. "Go to all the expense of furnishing a house, +when we do not expect to stay here much more than a year? We should +hardly be settled before we left it." + +"Listen to me patiently till I finish, and then I will abide by your +decision. But I think you will give me credit for having a slight turn +for business as well as art. You remember Mr. Jones's beautiful house +on the north side, do you not? It stands on ---- Street, well back, +surrounded by a lawn and flowers. There is only one other house on the +block. Well, Mr. Jones is embarrassed, and his house is for sale. From +inquiry I am satisfied that a cash offer would obtain the property +cheaply. The furniture is good, and much of it elegant. What we do not +want--what will not accord with a tasteful refurnishing--can be sent +to an auction-room. At comparatively slight expense, if you can spare +Mr. Fleet to help me during the time when business is dull, I can make +the house such a gem of artistic elegance that it will be noted +throughout the city, and next fall some rich snob, seeking to vault +suddenly into social position, will give just what you are pleased to +ask. In the meantime we have a retired and delightful home. + +"Moreover, father," she continued, touching him on his weak side, "it +will be a good preparation for the more difficult and important work +of the same kind awaiting me in my own land." + +"Humph!" said Mr. Ludolph, meditatively, "there is more method in your +madness than I imagined. I will think of it, for it is too important +a step to be taken hastily." + +Mr. Ludolph did think of it, and, after attending to pressing matters +in the store, went over to see the property. A few days afterward he +came up to dinner and threw the deed for it into his daughter's lap. +She glanced it over, and her eyes grew luminous with delight and +triumph. + +"See how comfortable and happy I will make you in return for this +kindness," she said. + +"Oh, come," replied her father, laughing, "that is not the point. This +is a speculation, and your business reputation is at stake." + +"I will abide the test," she answered, with a significant nod. + +Christine desired the change for several reasons. There was a room in +the house that would just suit her as a studio. She detested the +publicity of a hotel. The furnishing of an elegant house was a form +of activity most pleasing to her energetic nature, and she felt a very +strong wish to try her skill in varied effect before her grand effort +in the Ludolph Hall of the future. + +But in addition to these motives was another, of which she did not +speak to her father. In the privacy of her own home she could pursue +that peculiar phase of art study in which she was absorbed. Her life +had now become a most exciting one. She ever seemed on the point of +obtaining the power to portray the eloquence of passion, feeling, but +there was a subtile something that still eluded her. She saw it daily, +and yet could not reproduce it. She seemed to get the features right, +and yet they were dead, or else the emotion was so exaggerated as to +suggest weak sentimentality, and this of all things disgusted her. +Every day she studied the expressive face of Dennis Fleet, the +mysterious power seemed nearer her grasp. Her effort was now gaining +all the excitement of a chase. She saw before her just what she wanted, +and it seemed that she had only to grasp her pencil or brush, and place +the fleeting expressions where they might always appeal to the sympathy +of the beholder. Nearly all her studies now were the human face and +form, mainly those of ladies, to disarm suspicion. Of course she took +no distinct likeness of Dennis. She sought only to paint what his face +expressed. At times she seemed about to succeed, and excitement brought +color to her cheek and fire to her eye that made her dazzlingly +beautiful to poor Dennis. Then she would smile upon him in such a +bewitching, encouraging way that it was little wonder his face lighted +up with all the glory of hope. + +If once more she could have him about her as when rearranging the +store, and, without the restraint of curious eyes, could play upon his +heart, then pass at once to her easel with the vivid impression of +what she saw, she might catch the coveted power, and become able to +portray, as if she felt, that which is the inspiration of all the +highest forms of art--feeling. + +That evening, Dennis, at Mr. Ludolph's request, came to the hotel to +try some new music. During the evening Mr. Ludolph was called out for +a little time. Availing himself of the opportunity, Dennis said, "You +seem to be working with all your old zest and hope." + +"Yes," she said, "with greater hope than ever before." + +"Won't you show me something that you are doing?" + +"No, not yet. I am determined that when you see work of mine again the +fatal defect which you pointed out shall be absent." + +His eyes and face became eloquent with the hope she inspired. Was her +heart, awakening from its long winter of doubt and indifference, +teaching her to paint? Had she recognized the truth of his assurance +that she must feel, and then she could portray feeling? and had she +read in his face and manner that which had created a kindred impulse +in her heart? He was about to speak, the ice of his reserve and prudence +fast melting under what seemed good evidence that her smiles and +kindness might be interpreted in accordance with his longings. She saw +and anticipated. + +"With all your cleverness, Mr. Fleet, I may prove you at fault, and +become able to portray what I do not feel or believe." + +"You mean to say that you work from your old standpoint merely?" asked +Dennis, feeling as if a sunny sky had suddenly darkened. + +"I do not say that at all, but that I do not work from yours." + +"And yet you hope to succeed?" "I think I am succeeding." + +Perplexity and disappointment were plainly written on his face. She, +with a merry and half-malicious laugh, turned to the piano, and sung: + + From Mount Olympus' snowy height + The gods look down on human life: + Beneath contending armies fight; + All undisturbed they watch the strife. + +Dennis looked at her earnestly, and after a moment said, "Will you +please play that accompaniment again?" + +She complied, and he sang: + + Your Mount Olympus' icy peak + Is barren waste, by cold winds swept: + Another height I gladly see, + Where God o'er human sorrow wept. + +She turned a startled and almost wistful face to him, for he had given +a very unexpected answer to her cold, selfish philosophy, which was +so apt and sudden as to seem almost inspired. + +"Do you refer to Christ's weeping over Jerusalem?" she asked. + +"Yes." + +She sat for a little time silent and thoughtful, and Dennis watched +her keenly. Suddenly her brow darkened, and she said, bitterly: +"Delusion! If He had been a God He would not have idly wept over sorrow. +He would have banished it." + +Dennis was about to reply eagerly, when Mr. Ludolph entered, and music +was resumed. But it was evident that Dennis's lines had disturbed the +fair sceptic's equanimity. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +BEGUILED + + +Dennis returned to his room greatly perplexed. There was something in +Christine's actions which he could not understand. From the time of +their first conversation at Miss Winthrop's, she had evidently felt +and acted differently. If her heart remained cold and untouched, if +as yet neither faith nor love had any existence therein, what was the +inspiring motive? Why should deep discouragement change suddenly to +assured hope? + +Then again her manner was equally inexplicable. From that same evening +she gave him more encouragement than he had even hoped to receive for +months, but yet he made no progress. She seemed to enjoy meeting him, +and constantly found opportunity to do so. Her eyes were continually +seeking his face, but there was something in her manner in this respect +that puzzled him more than anything else. She often seemed looking at +his face, rather than at _him_. At first Christine had been furtive +and careful in her observations, but as the habit grew upon her, and +her interest increased, she would sometimes gaze so steadily that poor +Dennis was deeply embarrassed. Becoming conscious of this, she would +herself color slightly, and be more careful for a time. + +In her eagerness for success, Christine did not realize how dangerous +an experiment she was trying. She could not look upon such a face as +Dennis Fleet's, eloquent with that which should never fail to touch +a woman's heart with sympathy, and then forget it when she chose. +Moreover, though she knew it not, in addition to her interest in him +as an art study, his strong, positive nature affected her cool, negative +one most pleasantly. His earnest manifested feeling fell like sunlight +on a heart benumbed with cold. + +Thus, under the stimulus of his presence, she found that she could +paint or sketch to much better purpose than when alone. This knowledge +made her rejoice in secret over the opportunity she could now have, +as Dennis again assisted her in hanging pictures, and affixing to the +walls ornaments of various kinds. + +Coming to him one morning in the store, she said, "I am going to ask +a favor of you again." + +Dennis looked as if she were conferring the greatest of favors. His +face always lighted up when she spoke to him. + +"It is very kind of you to ask so pleasantly for what you can command," +he said. + +"To something of the same effect you answered before, and the result +was the disagreeable experience at Miss Brown's." + +Dennis's brow contracted a little, but he said, heroically, "I will +go to Miss Brown's again if you wish it." + +"How self-sacrificing you are!" she replied, with a half-mischievous +smile. + +"Not as much so as you imagine," he answered, flushing slightly. + +"Well, set your mind at rest on that score. Though not very merciful, +as you know, I would put no poor soul through that ordeal again. In +this case you will only have to encounter one of the tormentors you +met on that occasion, and I will try to vouch for her better behavior." +Then she added, seriously: "I hope you will not think the task beneath +you. You do not seem to have much of the foolish pride that stands in +the way of so many Americans, and then"--looking at him with a pleading +face--"I have so set my heart upon it, and it would be such a +disappointment if you were unwilling!" + +"You need waste no more ammunition on one ready to surrender at +discretion," he said. + +"Very well; then I shall treat you with all the rigors of a prisoner +of war. I shall carry you away captive to my new castle on the north +side and put you at your old menial task of hanging pictures and +decorating in various ways. As eastern sovereigns built their palaces +and adorned their cities by the labors of those whom the fortunes of +war threw into their hands, so your skill and taste shall be useful +to me; and I, your head task-mistress," she added, with her insinuating +smile, "will be ever present to see that there is no idling, nothing +but monotonous toil. Had you not better have stood longer in the +defensive?" + +Dennis held out his hands in mock humility and said: "I am ready for +my chains. You shall see with what fortitude I endure my captivity." + +"It is well that you should show it somewhere, for you have not done +so in your resistance. But I parole you on your honor, to report at +such times as I shall indicate and papa can spare you;" and with a +smile and a lingering look that seemed, as before, directed to his +face rather than himself, she passed out. + +That peculiar look often puzzled him, and at times he would go to a +glass and see if there was anything wrong or unusual in his appearance. +But now his hopes rose higher than ever. She had been very gracious, +certainly, and invited intimate companionship. Dennis felt that she +must have read his feelings in his face and manner, and, to his +ingenuous nature, any encouragement seemed to promise all he hoped. + +For a week after this he scarcely saw her, for she was very busy making +preliminary arrangements for the occupation of her new home. But one +afternoon she suddenly appeared, and said, with affected severity, +"Report to-mor-row at nine A.M." + +Dennis bowed humbly. She gave him a pleasant smile over her shoulder, +and passed away as quickly as she had come. It seemed like a vision +to him, and only a trace of her favorite perfume (which indeed ever +seemed more an atmosphere than a perfume) remained as evidence that +she had been there. + +At five minutes before the time on the following day he appeared at +the new Ludolph mansion. From an open window Christine beckoned him +to enter, and welcomed him with characteristic words--"In view of your +foolish surrender to my power, remember that you have no rights that +I am bound to respect." + +"I throw myself on your mercy." + +"I have already told you that I do not possess that trait; so prepare +for the worst." + +She was dressed in some light summer fabric, and her rounded arms and +neck were partially bare. She looked so white and cool, so +self-possessed, and, with all her smiles, so devoid of warm human +feeling, that Dennis felt a sudden chill at heart. The ancient fable +of the sirens occurred to him. Might she not be luring him on to his +own destruction? At times he almost hoped that she loved him; again, +something in her manner caused him to doubt everything. But there were +not, as in the case of Ulysses and his crew, friendly hands to bind +and restrain, or to put wax in his ears, and soon the music of her +voice, the strong enchantment of the love she had inspired, banished +all thought of prudence. His passion was now becoming a species of +intoxication, a continued and feverish excitement, and its influence +was unhappy on mind and body. There was no rest, peace, or assurance +in it, and the uncertainty, the tantalizing inability to obtain a +definite satisfying word, and yet the apparent nearness of the prize, +wore upon him. Sometimes, when late at night he sat brooding over his +last interview, weighing with the nice scale of a lover's anxiety her +every look and even accent, his own haggard face would startle him. + +Then again her influence was not morally good, and his interest declined +in everything save what was connected with her. + +Conscience at times told him that he was more bent on gaining her love +for himself than in winning it for God. He satisfied himself by trying +to reason that when he had won her affection his power for good would +be greater, and thus, while he ever sought to look and suggest his own +love in nameless little ways, he made less and less effort to remind +her of a better love than even his. Moreover, she never encouraged any +approach to sacred themes, sometimes repelling it decidedly, and so, +though he would scarcely acknowledge it, the traitorous fear sprung +up, that in speaking of God's love he might mar his chances of speaking +of his own. + +In the retirement of his own room, his reveries grew longer, and his +prayers shorter and less inspired by faith and earnestness. At the +mission school, Susie Winthrop noticed with regret that the lesson was +often given in a listless, preoccupied manner; and even the little +boys themselves missed something in the teacher once so interesting +and animated. From witnessing his manner when with Christine, Miss +Winthrop had more than suspected his secret for some time, and she +felt at first a genuine sympathy for him, believing his love to be +hopeless. From the first she had found Dennis very fascinating, but +when she read his secret in his ardent glances toward Christine, she +became conscious that her interest was rather greater than passing +acquaintance warranted, and, like the good, sensible girl that she +was, fought to the death the incipient fancy. At first she felt that +he ought to know that Christine was pledged to a future that would +render his love vain. But her own feelings made her so exceedingly +sensitive that it was impossible to attempt so difficult and delicate +a task. Then, as Christine seemed to smile upon him, she said to +herself: "After all, what is their plan, but a plan, and to me a very +chimerical one? Perhaps Mr. Fleet can give Christine a far better +chance of happiness than her father's ambition. And, after all, these +are matters in which no third person can interfere." So, while remaining +as cordial as ever, she prudently managed to see very little of Dennis. + +As we have seen, under Christine's merry and half-bantering words (a +style of conversation often assumed with him), even the thought of +caution vanished. She led him over the moderately large and partially +furnished house. There were women cleaning, and mechanics at work on +some of the rooms. As they passed along she explained the nature of +the decorations she wished. They consisted largely of rich carvings +in wood, and unique frames. + +"I wish you to help me design these, and see that they are properly +put up, and to superintend the fresco-painters and mechanics in general. +Indeed, I think you are more truly my prime-minister than my captive." + +"Not less your captive," said Dennis, with a flush. + +She gave him a bewildering smile, and then studied its effect upon +him. He was in Elysium, and his eyes glowed with delight at her presence +and the prospect before him. At last she led him into two large +apartments on the second floor that opened into each other, and said, +"These are my rooms; that yonder is my studio," as was evident from +the large easel with canvas prepared upon it. + +They at once had to Dennis all the sacredness of a shrine. + +"I intend to make these rooms like two beautiful pictures," said +Christine, "and here shall be the chief display of your taste." + +Dennis could scarcely believe his ears, or realize that the cold, +beautiful girl who a few short months ago did not notice him now +voluntarily gave him such opportunities to urge his suit. The success +that a man most covets seemed assured, and his soul was intoxicated +with delight. He said, "You intimated that my tasks might be menial, +but I feel as I imagine a Greek artist must have done, when asked to +decorate the temple of a goddess." + +"I think I told you once before that your imagination overshadowed +your other faculties." + +Her words recalled the painted girl whom she by a strange coincidence +so strongly resembled. To his astonishment he saw the same striking +likeness again. Christine was looking at him with the laughing, scornful +expression that the German lady bent upon the awkward lover who kneeled +at her feet. His face darkened in an instant. + +"Have I offended you?" she asked, gently; "I remember now you did not +admire that picture." + +"I liked everything about it save the expression of the girl's face. +I think you will also remember that I said that such a face should be +put to nobler uses." + +Christine flushed slightly, and for a moment was positively afraid of +him. She saw that she must be more careful, for she was dealing with +one of quick eye and mind. At the same time her conscience reproached +her again. The more she saw of him the more she realized how sincere +and earnest he was; how different from ordinary society-men, to whom +an unsuccessful suit to a fair lady is a mere annoyance. But she was +not one to give up a purpose readily for the sake of conscience or +anything else, and certainly not now, when seemingly on the point of +success. So she said, with a slight laugh, "Do not compare me to any +of those old pagan myths again;" and having thus given a slight reason, +or excuse, for her unfortunate expression, she proceeded to beguile +him more thoroughly than ever by the subtile witchery of smiles, +glances, and words, that might mean everything or nothing. + +"You seem to have a study on your easel there," said Dennis, as they +stood together in the studio. "May I see it?" + +"No," said she; "you are to see nothing till you see a triumph in the +portrayal of feeling and lifelike earnestness that even your critical +eye cannot condemn." + +She justly feared that, should he see her work, he might discover her +plan; for, however she might disguise it, something suggesting himself +entered into all her studies. + +"I hope you will succeed, but doubt it." + +"Why?" she asked, quickly. + +"Because we cannot portray what we cannot feel. The stream cannot rise +higher than its fountain." Then he added, with heightened color and +some hesitation, "I fear--your heart is still sleeping"; and he watched +with deep anxiety how she would take the questioning remark. + +At first she flushed almost angrily; but, recovering self-possession +in a moment, she threw upon him an arch smile, suggesting all that a +lover could wish, and said: "Be careful, Mr. Fleet; you are seeking +to penetrate mysteries that we most jealously guard. You know that in +the ancient temple there was an inner sanctuary which none might enter." + +"Yes, _one_ might," said Dennis, significantly. + +With her long lashes she veiled the dark blue eyes that expressed +anything but tender feeling, and yet, so shaded, they appeared as a +lover would wish, and in a low tone she answered, "Well, he could not +enter when he would, only when permitted." + +She raised her eyes quickly to see the effect; and she did see an +effect that she would have given thousands to be able to transfer to +canvas. + +His face, above all she had ever seen, seemed designed to express +feeling, passion; and his wearing life had made it so thin, and his +eyes were so large and lustrous, that the spiritual greatly +predominated, and she felt as if she could almost see the throbs of +the strong, passionate heart. + +Apart from her artistic purposes, contact with such warm, intense life +had for Christine a growing fascination. She had not realized that in +kindling and fanning this flame of honest love to sevenfold power and +heat, she might be kindled herself. When, therefore, she saw the face +of Dennis Fleet eloquent with the deepest, strongest feeling that human +features can portray, another chord than the artistic one was touched, +and there was a low, faint thrill of that music which often becomes +the sweetest harmony of life. + +"And at some time in the future may I hope to enter?" he asked, +tremulously. + +She threw him another smile over her shoulder as she turned to her +easel--a smile that from a true woman would mean, You may, but which +from many would mean nothing, and said, vaguely, "What is life without +hope?" and then, as matters were going too fast and far, decisively +changed the subject. + +Seated at her easel she painted eagerly and rapidly, while he measured +the space over and around the fireplace with a view to its +ornamentation. She kept the conversation on the general subject of +art, and, though Dennis knew it not, every glance at his face was that +of a portrait-painter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT + + +Dennis went back to the store in a maze of hopes and fears, but hope +predominated. Christine could not be indifferent and treat him as she +did, if she had a particle of sincerity, and with a lover's faith he +would not believe her false, though he knew her to be so faulty. + +"At any rate," he said to himself, "in this new arrangement I have all +the opportunity a man could ask, and if I cannot develop her plainly +manifested interest into something more decisive by such companionship, +I may as well despair;" and he determined to avail himself of every +advantage within his reach in making the most of what he deemed a rare +stroke of fortune. His greatly increased salary enabled him to dress +with that taste and even elegance so pleasing to a lady's eye, and he +had withal acquired that ease and grace of manner which familiarity +with the best society bestows. + +It is also well to tell the reader that after some hesitation Dennis +had confided his feelings to his mother, and received from her the +warmest sympathy. To Ethel Fleet's unworldly nature, that he should +fall in love with and marry his employer's daughter seemed eminently +fitting, with just a spice of beautiful romance. And it was her son's +happiness and Christine's beauty that she thought of, not Mr. Ludolph's +money. In truth, such was her admiration for her son, she felt that +with all her wealth the young lady would receive a greater honor than +she conferred. Though Dennis wrote with the partiality of a lover, he +could not so portray Christine's character but that his mother felt +the deepest anxiety, and often sighed in sad foreboding of serious +trouble in the future. + +From Mrs. Fleet's knowledge of her son's passion, Christine, though +she knew it not, received another advantage of incalculable value. +Dennis had painted an excellent little cabinet likeness of her, and +sent it to his mother. In the quiet of the night she would sit down +before that picture, and by her strong imagination summon her ideal +of Christine, and then lead her directly to Christ, as parents brought +their children of old. Could such prayers and faith be in vain? Faith +is often sorely tried in this world, but never tried in vain. + +Day after day Dennis went to Mr. Ludolph's new home during the morning +hours, and Christine's spell worked with bewildering and increasing +power. While she tortured him with many doubts and fears, his hope +grew to be almost a certainty that he had at last made a place for +himself in her heart. Sometimes the whole story of his love trembled +on his lips, but she never permitted its utterance. That she determined +should be reserved for the climax. He usually met her alone, but noticed +that in the presence of others she was cool and undemonstrative. Mr. +Ludolph rarely saw them together, and, when he did, there was nothing +in his daughter's manner to awaken suspicion. This perfectly acted +indifference in the presence of others, and equally well acted regard +when alone, often puzzled Dennis sorely. But at last he concluded: +"She is wiser than I. She knows that I am in no condition now to make +proposals for her hand; therefore it is better that there should be +no recognized understanding between us;" and he resolved to be as +prudent as she. Then again she would so awaken his jealousy and fears +that he would feel that he must know his fate--that anything was better +than such torturing uncertainty. + +As for Christine, two processes were going on in her mind--one that +she recognized, and one that she did not. + +Her artistic aims were clear and definite. In the first place she meant +perfectly to master the human face as it expressed emotions, especially +such as were of a tender nature; and in the second place she intended +to paint a picture that in itself would make her famous. She chose a +most difficult and delicate subject--of the character she had ever +failed in--a declaration of love. + +When Dennis began to work again in her presence, the picture was well +advanced. + +In a grand old hall, whose sides were decorated with armor and weapons, +a young man stood pleading his cause with a lady whose hand he held. +The young girl's face was so averted that only a beautiful profile was +visible, but her form and attitude were grace itself. The lovers stood +in an angle of the hall near an open window, through which was seen +a fine landscape, a picture within a picture. But Christine meant to +concentrate all her power and skill on the young knight's face. This +should be eloquent with all the feeling and passion that the human +face could express, and she would insure its truthfulness to life +by copying life itself--the reality. Dennis Fleet was the human victim +that she was offering on the altar of her ambition. + +Much of the picture was merely in outline, but she finished the form +and features of the suppliant in all save the expression, and this she +meant to paint from his face whenever she was in the right mood and +could bring matters to a crisis. + +After he had been coming to the house two or three times a week for +nearly a month she felt that she was ready for the final scene, and +yet she dreaded it, she had staked so much hope upon it. It also +provoked her to find that she was really afraid of him. His was such +a strong, sincere nature, that she felt increasingly the wrong of +trifling with it. In vain she tried to quiet herself by saying, "I do +not care a straw for him, and he will soon get over his infatuation +on discovering the truth." + +But she had a lesson to learn as well as he, for as we have intimated, +unrecognized as yet, there was a process going on in her mind that in +time would make strange havoc in her cold philosophy. Her heart's long +winter was slowly breaking up; her girlish passion, intense as it was +foolish, proved that she had a heart. Everything had been against her. +Everything in her experience and education, and especially in her +father's strong character and prejudices, had combined to deaden and +to chill her; and had these influences continued, she would undoubtedly +have become as cold and hard as some whom we find in advanced life +with natures like the poles, where the ice gathers year after year, +but never melts. + +But in Dennis Fleet she met a nature as positive as she was becoming +negative. He was so warm and earnest that when she commenced to fan +his love into a stronger flame for purely artistic purposes, as she +vowed to herself, some sparks of the sacred fire fell on the cold altar +of her own heart and slowly began to kindle. + +But this awakening would not now be that of a child, but of a _woman_. +Therefore, Mr. Ludolph, beware! + +But she had yet much to learn in the hard, strange school of experience +before she would truly know herself or her own needs. + +Success in art, however, was still her ruling passion. And though +strange misgivings annoyed and perplexed her, though her respect for +Dennis daily increased, and at times a sudden pity and softness made +her little hands hesitate before giving an additional wrench to the +rack of uncertainty upon which she kept him; still, she would not for +the world have abandoned her purpose, and such compunctions were as +yet but the little back eddies of the strong current. + +One day, in the latter part of August, Christine felt herself in the +mood to give the finishing touch to the principal figure in her picture. +The day was somewhat hazy, the light subdued and favorable for artistic +work. Though she had prolonged Dennis's labors, to his secret delight +and great encouragement, she could not keep him employed much longer. + +She sent for him to come over in the afternoon. "Some brackets, +carvings, and pictures had come for her studio, and she wished him to +put them up," she said, coolly, as he entered. + +He had come glowing with hope and almost assurance, for, the last time +they had parted, she had dismissed him with unusual kindness. But here +was one of those capricious changes again that he could not understand. + +She took her seat at her easel, saying, with a nod and a smile, "I can +direct you here, for I am in a mood for work this afternoon." + +He bowed quietly and went on with his task. Her rather cool reception +oppressed him, and the tormenting question presented itself, for the +hundredth time, "Can she in any degree feel as I do?" He longed to +settle the matter by plain, straightforward action. + +Her maid knocked at the door, saying, "The mail, mademoiselle." + +A dainty note was handed her, which seemed decidedly pleasing, and +Dennis noticed as she read it that she wore on her finger a solitaire +diamond that he had not seen before. His latent jealousy was aroused. +She saw that her spell was working, and smiled. Soon she said: "Mr. +Fleet, you seem very grave. What is the matter?" + +He answered, curtly, "Nothing." + +She looked at him with a pretty, pained surprise. At the same time her +heart smote her. His face was so pale and thin, and indicated such +real suffering, that she pitied him more than ever. But she would have +suffered much herself for the sake of success, and she was not one to +hesitate long over the suffering of another. She compressed her lips +as she said, mentally: "Art is first, and these transient feelings are +secondary. There is little in the world but that has cost some one +deeply." She did not know how profound a truth this was. + +After a few moments Dennis said, in a tone that had a jealous tinge, +"Miss Ludolph, your correspondent seems to interest you deeply." + +"And you also, I think," she replied, with an arch smile; "and you +will be interested still more when you have read this;" and she offered +him the note. + +"I have no right--do not think me prying," said he, flushing. + +"I give the right. You know a lady can give many rights--if she +chooses," she added, significantly. + +He looked at her eagerly. + +Her eyes fell consciously, and her cheeks glowed with excitement, for +she felt that the critical moment had come. But instantly her proud, +resolute nature aroused as never before, and she determined to make +the most of the occasion, let the consequences be what they might. +Therefore she worked eagerly and watched him closely. Never had she +been so conscious of power. She felt inspired, capable of placing on +the canvas anything she chose. If in this mood she could succeed in +bringing into his face just the expression she desired, she could catch +it and fix it forever, and with it make a laurel (not a hymeneal) +wreath for her own brow. But what could Dennis know of all this? To +him the glowing cheek and eyes so lustrous told a different tale; and +hope--sweet, exquisite, almost assured--sprang up in his heart. + +And he meant that it should be assured. He would speak that day if it +were possible, and _know_ his happiness, instead of fondly believing and +hoping that all was sure. Then he would be as prudent and patient as she +desired. Thus Christine was destined to have her wish fulfilled. + +She continued: "The note is from a special friend of yours; indeed I +think you form a little mutual-admiration society, and you are spoken +of, so I think you had better read it." + +"I shall not read the note," said Dennis; "but you may tell me, if you +choose, what you think the writer will have no objection to my knowing." + +"And do you mean to suggest that you do not know who wrote the note? +I can inform you that you are to be invited to a moonlight sail and +musicale on the water. Is not that a chance for romance?" + +"And will _you_ go?" asked Dennis, eagerly. + +"Yes, if _you_ will," she said, in a low tone, giving him a sidelong +glance. + +This was too much for Dennis, the manner more than the words, and taken +together they would have led any earnest man to committal. He was about +to speak eagerly, but she was not quite ready. + +"Moreover," she continued, quickly, while Dennis stood before her with +cheeks alternately hot and pale, "this special friend who invites you +will be there. Now don't pretend ignorance of her name." + +"I suppose you mean Miss Winthrop," said Dennis, flushing. + +"Ah, you blush, do you? Well, it is my turn to ask pardon for seeming +curiosity." + +He drew a few steps nearer to her, and the expression she had so longed +to see came into his face. She looked at him earnestly with her whole +soul in her eyes. She would photograph him on memory, if possible. For +a moment or two he hesitated, embarrassed by her steady gaze, and +seemingly at a loss for words. Then, in a low, deep tone he said, "You, +better than any one, know that I have no cause to blush at the mention +of Miss Winthrop's name." + +She did not answer, but was painting rapidly. He thought this was due +to natural excitement expressing itself in nervous action. But she did +not discourage him, and this he felt was everything. With his heart +in his eyes and tones, he said: "Oh, Christine, what is the use of +wearing this transparent mask any longer? Your quick woman's eye +has seen for weeks the devoted love I cherish for you. I have heard much +of woman's intuitions. Perhaps you saw my love before I recognized it +myself, since your grace and beauty caused it to grow unconsciously +while I was your humble attendant. But, Christine, believe me, if you +will but utter in words what I fondly believe I have read in your +kindly glances and manner, though so delicately veiled--if you will +give me the strength and rest which come of assured hope--I know that +not far in the future I shall be able to place at your feet more than +mere wealth. I, too, hope to be an artist, and you have been my chief +inspiration. I could show you a picture now that would tell more of +what I mean than can my poor words. There is a richer and happier world +than you have yet known, and oh, how I have prayed that I might lead +you into it!" and in words of burning eloquence he proceeded to tell +the story of his love. + +She heard him as in a dream. She understood his words, remembered them +afterward, but so intent was she on her darling purpose that she heeded +them not. His voice sounded far away, and every power of mind and body +was concentrated to transfer his expression to the canvas before her. +Even he, blinded as he was by his emotions, occupied by the long pent-up +torrent of feeling that he was pouring into her unheeding ear, wondered +at her strange, dazzling beauty and peculiar manner. + +After speaking a moment or two, the blur over his eyes and the confusion +of his mind began to pass away, and he was perplexed beyond measure +at the way she was receiving the open declaration of his love. She was +painting through it all, not with the nervous, random stroke of one +who sought to hide excitement and embarrassment in occupation. She was +working earnestly, consciously, with precision, and, what was strangest +of all, she seemed so intent upon his face that his words, which would +have been such music to any woman that loved, were apparently unheard. +He stopped, but the break in his passionate flow of language was +unnoted. + +"Christine, listen to me!" he cried, in an agony of fear and perplexity. +The tone of his appeal might have stirred a marble bosom to pity, but +she only raised her left hand deprecatingly as if warding off an +interruption, while she worked with intense eagerness with her right. + +"Christine!" a frown contracted her brow for a second, but she worked +on. + +He looked at her as if fearing she had lost her reason, but there was +no madness in her swift, intelligent strokes. Then like a flash the +thought came to him: "It is my face, not myself, that she wants! This, +then, has been the secret of her new hope as an artist. She would not +feel, as I told her she must, but she would call out and copy my +emotion; and this scene, which means life or death to me, is to her +but a lesson in art, and I am no more than the human subject under the +surgeon's knife. But surely no anatomist is so cruel as to put in his +lancet before the man is dead." + +Every particle of color receded from his face, and he watched her +manner for the confirmation of his thought. + +Her face was indeed a study. A beautiful smile parted her lips, her +eyes glowed with the exultation of assured and almost accomplished +success, and she looked like an inspired priestess at a Greek oracle. + +But a bitterness beyond words was filling his heart. + +A few more skilful strokes, and she threw down her brush, crying in +ecstatic tones, "Eureka! Eureka!" as she stood before the painting in +rapt admiration. In an instant he stood by her side. With all the pride +of triumph she pointed to the picture, and said: "Criticise that, if +you can! Deny that there is soul, life, feeling there, if you dare! +Is that painting but a 'beautiful corpse'?" + +Dennis saw a figure and features suggesting his own, pleading with all +the eloquence of true love before the averted face of the maiden in +the picture. It was indeed a triumph, having all the power of the +reality. + +He passed his hand quickly across his forehead, as if to repel some +terrible delusion, while yet he whispered its reality to himself, in +silent, despairing confession: "Ah, my God! How cold she must be when +she can see any one look like that, and yet copy the expression as +from a painted face upon the wall!" + +Then, his own pride and indignation rising, he determined at once to +know the truth; whether he held any place in her heart, or whether the +picture was all, and he nothing. + +Drawing a step nearer, as if to examine more closely, he seized a brush +of paint and drew it over the face that had cost both him and Christine +so much, and then turned and looked at her. + +For a moment she stood paralyzed, so great seemed the disaster. Then +she turned on him in fury. "How dare you!" she exclaimed. + +Only equal anger, and the consciousness of right, could have sustained +any man under the lightning of her eyes. + +"Rather, let me ask, how dare you?" he replied, in the deep, +concentrated voice of passion; and lover and lady stood before the +ruined picture with blazing eyes. In the same low, stern voice he +continued, "I see the secret of your artistic hope now, Miss Ludolph, +but permit me to say that you have made your first and last success, +and there in that black stain, most appropriately black, is the result." + +She looked as if she could have torn him to atoms. + +"You have been false," he continued. "You have acted a lie before me +for weeks. You have deceived in that which is most sacred, and with +sacrilegious hands have trifled with that which every true man regards +as holy." + +She trembled beneath his stern, accusing words. Conscience echoed them, +anger and courage were fast deserting her in the presence of the aroused +and more powerful spirit of her wronged lover. But she said, petulantly, +"Nonsense! You know well that half the ladies of the city would have +flirted with you from mere vanity and love of power; my motive was +infinitely beyond this." + +Until now this had almost seemed sufficient reason to excuse her action, +but she distrusted it even to loathing as she saw the look of scorn +come out on his noble face. + +"And is that your best plea for falsehood? A moment since I loved you +with a devotion that you will never receive again. But now I despise +you." + +"Sir!" she cried, her face scarlet with shame and anger, "leave this +room!" + +"Yes, in a moment, and never again to enter it while Christine Ludolph +is as false in character as she is beautiful in person. But before I +go, you, in your pride and luxury, shall hear the truth for once. Not +only have you been false, but you have been what no true woman ever +can be--cruel as death. Your pencil has been a stiletto with which you +have slowly felt for my heart. You have dipped your brush in human +suffering as if it were common paint. Giotto stabbed a man and +mercifully took him off by a few quick pangs, that he might paint his +dying look. You, more cruel, accomplish your purpose by slow, +remorseless torture. Merciful Heaven only knows what I have suffered +since you smiled and frowned on me by turns, but I felt that if I could +only win your love I would gladly endure all. You falsely made me +believe that I had won it, and yet all the while you were dissecting +my heart, as a surgeon might a living subject. And now what have you +to offer to solace the bitterness of coming years? Do you not know +that such deeds make men bad, faithless, devilish? Never dream of +success till you are changed utterly. Only the noble in deed and in +truth can reach high and noble art." + +She sat before the disfigured picture with her face bowed in her hands. + +She thought he was gone, but still remained motionless like one doomed. +A few moments passed and she was startled by hearing his voice again. +It was no longer harsh and stern, but sad, grave, and pitiful. "Miss +Ludolph, may God forgive you." + +She trembled. Pride and better feeling were contending for the mastery. +After a few moments she sprang up and reached out her hands; but he +was gone now in very truth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE TWO PICTURES + + +When Christine saw that Dennis was not in the room, she rushed to a +window only in time to see his retreating form passing down the street. +For a moment she felt like one left alone to perish on a sinking wreck. +His words, so assured in their tones, seemed like those of a prophet. +Conscience echoed them, and a chill of fear came over her heart. What +if he were right? What if she had let the one golden opportunity of +her life pass? Even though she had stolen her inspiration from him +through guile and cruelty, had he not enabled her to accomplish more +than in all her life before? To what might he not have led her, if she +had put her hand frankly and truthfully in his? There are times when +to those most bewildered in mazes of error light breaks, clear and +unmistakable, defining right and wrong with terrible distinctness. +Such an hour was this to Christine. The law of God written on her heart +asserted itself, and she trembled at the guilty thing she saw herself +to be. But there seemed no remedy save in the one she had driven away, +never to return, as she believed. After a brief but painful revery she +exclaimed: "But what am I thinking of? What can he or any man of this +land be to me?" + +Then pride, her dominant trait, awoke as she recalled his words. + +"He despises me, does he? I will teach him that I belong to a sphere +he cannot touch--the poor infatuated youth! And did he dream that I, +Christine Ludolph, could give him my hand? He shall learn some day +that none in this land could receive that honor, and none save the +proudest in my own may hope for it. The idea of my giving up my ancient +and honorable name for the sake of this unknown Yankee youth." + +Bold, proud words that her heart did not echo. + +But pride and anger were now her controlling impulses, and with the +strong grasp of her resolute will she crushed back her gentler and +better feelings, and became more icy and hard than ever. + +By such choice and action, men and women commit moral suicide. + +With a cold, white face, and a burnished gleam in her eyes, she went +to the easel and commenced painting out the ominous black stain. + +"I'll prove him a false prophet also. I will be an artist without +passing through all his sentimental and superstitious phases that have +so amused me during the past weeks. I have seen his lovelorn face too +often not to be able to reproduce it and its various expressions." + +Her strokes were quick and almost fierce. + +"Mrs. Dennis Fleet, ha! ha! ha!" and her laugh was as harsh and +discordant as the feeling that prompted it. + +Again, a little later: "He despises me! Well, he is the first man that +ever dared to say that;" and her face was flushed and dark with anger. + + +Dennis at first walked rapidly from the scene of his bitter +disappointment, but his steps soon grew slow and feeble. The point of +endurance was passed. Body and mind acting and reacting on each other +had been taxed beyond their powers, and both were giving way. He felt +that they were, and struggled to reach the store before the crisis +should come. Weak and trembling, he mounted the steps, but fell fainting +across the threshold. One of the clerks saw him fall and gave the +alarm. Mr. Ludolph, Mr. Schwartz, and others hastened to the spot. +Dennis was carried to his room, and a messenger was despatched for Dr. +Arten. Ernst, with flying feet, and wild, frightened face, soon reached +his home in De Koven Street, and startled his father and mother with +the tidings. + +The child feared that Dennis was dead, his face was so thin and white. +Leaving the children in Ernst's care, both Mr. and Mrs. Bruder, prompted +by their strong gratitude to Dennis, rushed through the streets as if +distracted. Their intense anxiety and warm German feeling caused them +to heed no more the curious glances cast after them than would a man +swimming for life note the ripple he made. + +When Dennis regained consciousness, they, and Mr. Ludolph and Dr. +Arten, were around him. At first his mind was confused, and he could +not understand it all. + +"Where am I?" he asked, feebly, "and what has happened?" + +"Do not be alarmed; you have only had a faint turn," said the doctor. + +"Oh, Mr. Fleet, you vork too hart, you vork too hart; I knew dis vould +come," sobbed Mrs. Bruder. + +"Why, his duties in the store have not been so onerous of late," said +Mr. Ludolph, in some surprise. + +"It is not der vork in der store, but he vork nearly all night too. +Den he haf had trouble, I know he haf. Do he say no vort about him?" + +Dennis gave Mrs. Bruder a sudden warning look, and then, through the +strong instinct to guard his secret, roused himself. + +"Is it anything serious, doctor?" he asked. + +The physician looked grave, and said, "Your pulse and whole appearance +indicate great exhaustion and physical depression, and I also fear +that fever may set in." + +"I think you are right," said Dennis. "I feel as if I were going to +be ill. My mind has a tendency to wander. Mr. Ludolph, will you permit +me to go home? If I am to be sick, I want to be with my mother." + +Mr. Ludolph looked inquiringly at the doctor, who said significantly, +in a low tone, "I think it would be as well." + +"Certainly, Fleet," said his employer; "though I hope it is only a +temporary indisposition, and that you will be back in a few days. You +must try and get a good night's rest, and so be prepared for the journey +in the morning." + +"With your permission I will go at once. A train leaves now in an hour, +and by morning I can be at home." + +"I scarcely think it prudent," began the doctor. + +"Oh, certainly not to-night," said Mr. Ludolph, also. + +"Pardon me, I must go at once," interrupted Dennis, briefly and so +decidedly that the gentlemen looked at each other and said no more. + +"Mr. Bruder," he continued, "I must be indebted to you for a real proof +of your friendship. In that drawer you will find my money. The key is +in my pocketbook. Will you get a carriage and take me to the depot at +once? and can you be so kind as to go on home with me? I cannot trust +myself alone. Mrs. Bruder, will you pack up what you think I need?" +His faithful friends hastened to do his bidding. + +"Mr. Ludolph, you have been very kind to me. I am sorry this has +occurred, but cannot help it. I thank you gratefully, and will now +trespass on your valuable time no longer." + +Mr. Ludolph, feeling that he could be of no further use, said: "You +will be back in a week, Fleet. Courage. Good-by." + +Dennis turned eagerly to the doctor and said: "Can you not give me +something that will reduce the fever and keep me sane a little longer? +I know that I am going to be delirious, but would reach the refuge of +home first." + +A prescription was given and immediately procured, and the doctor went +away shaking his head. + +"This is the way people commit suicide. They know no more about, or +pay no more heed to, the laws of health than the laws of China. Here +is the result: This young fellow has worked in a way that would break +down a cast-iron machine, and now may never see Chicago again." + +But Dennis might have worked even in his intense way for months and +years without serious harm, had not a fair white hand kept him on the +rack of uncertainty and fear. + +Not work, but worry, makes havoc of health. + +In the gray dawn Ethel Fleet, summoned from her rest, received her +son, weak, unconscious, muttering in delirium, and not recognizing +even her familiar face. He was indeed a sad, painful contrast to the +ruddy, buoyant youth who had left her a few short months before, +abounding in hope and life. But she comforted herself with the thought +that neither sin nor shame had brought him home. + +We need not dwell on the weary weeks that followed. Dennis had every +advantage that could result from good medical skill and the most +faithful nursing. But we believe that his life lay rather in his +mother's prayers of faith. In her strong realization of the spiritual +world she would go continually into the very presence of Jesus, and +say, "Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick"; or, like parents of old, she +would seem by her importunity to bring the Divine Physician to his +very bedside. + +Mr. Bruder, too, insisted on remaining, and watched with the unwearied +faithfulness of one who felt that he owed to Dennis far more than life. +It was indeed touching to see this man, once so desperate and depraved, +now almost as patient and gentle as the mother herself, sitting by his +unconscious friend, often turning his eyes heavenward and muttering +in deep guttural German as sincere a prayer as ever passed human lips, +that Dennis might be spared. + +The hand of God seemed about to take him from them, but their strong, +loving faith laid hold of that hand, and put upon it the restraint +that only reverent, believing prayer can. Dennis lived. After many +days delirium ceased, and the confused mind became clear. But during +his delirium Ethel and Mr. Bruder learned from the oft-repeated words, +"Cruel, cruel Christine!" the nature of the wound that had nearly +destroyed his life. + +Mr. Ludolph was late in reaching his home on the evening after Dennis +was taken sick. Christine sat in the dusk on the ivy-shaded piazza, +awaiting him. He said, abruptly, "What have you been doing to Fleet, +over here?" + +For a second her heart stood still, and she was glad the increasing +gloom disguised her face. By a great effort she replied, in a cool, +matter-of-fact tone: "I do not understand your question. Mr. Fleet was +here this afternoon, and gave some finishing touches to my studio. I +do not think I shall need him any more." + +Her quiet, indifferent voice would have disarmed suspicion itself. + +"It is well you do not, for he seems to have received some 'finishing +touches' himself. He fell across the threshold of the store in a dead +faint, and has gone home, threatened with a serious illness." + +Even her resolute will could not prevent a sharp, startled exclamation. + +"What is the matter?" said her father, hastily; "you are not going to +faint also, are you?" + +"No," said Christine, quietly again; "but I am tired and nervous, and +you told your news so abruptly! Why, it seemed but a moment ago he was +here at work, and now he is dangerously ill. What an uncertain stumbling +forward in the dark life is!" + +This was a style of moralizing peculiarly distasteful to Mr. +Ludolph--all the more repugnant because it seemed true, and brought +home in Dennis's experience. Anything that interfered with his plans +and interests, even though it might be God's providence, always angered +him. And now he was irritated at the loss of one of his best clerks, +just as he was becoming of great value; so he said, sharply: "I hope +you are not leaning toward the silly cant of mysterious providence. +Life is uncertain stumbling only to fools who can't see the chances +that fortune throws in their way, or recognize the plain laws of health +and success. This young Fleet has been putting two days' work in one +for the past four months, and now perhaps his work is done forever, +for the doctor looked very grave over him." + +Again the shadow of night proved most friendly to Christine. Her face +had a frightened, guilty look that it was well her father did not see, +or he would have wrung from her the whole story. She felt the chill +of a terrible dread at heart. If he should die, her conscience would +give a fearful verdict against her. She stood trembling, feeling almost +powerless to move. + +"Come," said her father, sharply, "I am hungry and tired." + +"I will ring for lights and supper," said Christine hastily, and then +fled to her own room. + +When she appeared, her father was sitting at the table impatiently +awaiting her. But her face was so white, and there was such an +expression in her eyes, that he started and said, "What is the matter?" + +His question irritated her, and she replied as sharply as he had spoken. + +"I told you I was tired, and I don't feel well. I have been a month +in constant effort to get this house in order, and I am worn out, I +suppose." + +He looked at her keenly, but said more kindly, "Here, my dear, take +this wine"; and he poured out a glass of old port. + +She drank it eagerly, for she felt she must have something that would +give her life, warmth, and courage. In a way she could not understand, +her heart sank within her. + +But she saw her father was watching her, and knew she must act +skillfully to deceive him. Rallied and strengthened by the generous +wine, her resolute will was soon on its throne again, and Mr. Ludolph +with all his keen insight was no match for her. In a matter-of-fact +tone she said: + +"I do not see how we have worked Mr. Fleet to death. Does he charge +anything of the kind?7' + +"Oh, no! but he too seems possessed with the idea of becoming an artist. +That drunken old Bruder, whom he appears to have reformed, was giving +him lessons, and after working all day he would study much of the night +and paint as soon as the light permitted in the morning. He might have +made something if he had had a judicious friend to guide him" ("And +such you might have been," whispered her conscience), "but now he drops +away like untimely fruit." + +"It is a pity," said she, coolly, and changed the subject, as if she +had dismissed it from her mind. + +Mr. Ludolph believed that Dennis was no more to his daughter than a +useful clerk. + +The next morning Christine rose pale and listless. + +Her father said, "I will arrange my business so that we can go off on +a trip in a few days." + +When left alone she sat down at her easel and tried to restore the +expression that had so delighted her on the preceding day. But she +could not. Indeed she was greatly vexed to find that her tendency was +to paint his stern and scornful look, which had made a deeper impression +on her mind than any she had even seen on his face, because so +unexpected and novel. She became irritated with herself, and cried, +fiercely: "Shame on your weakness! You are unworthy of your blood and +ancestry. I will reproduce that face as it was before he so insolently +destroyed it;" and she bent over her easel with an expression not at +all in harmony with her work. Unconsciously she made a strange contrast, +with her severe, hard face and compressed lips, to the look of love +and pleading she sought to paint. For several days she wrought with +resolute purpose, but found that her inspiration was gone. + +At last she threw down her brush in despair, and cried: "I cannot catch +it again. The wretch either smiles or frowns upon me. I fear he was +right: I have made my first and last success;" and she leaned her head +sullenly and despairingly on her hand. Again the whole scene passed +before her, and she dwelt upon every word, as she was beginning often +to do now, in painful revery. When she came to the words, "I too mean +to be an artist. I could show you a picture that would tell you far +more of what I mean than can my poor words" she started up, and, hastily +arraying herself for the street, was soon on her way to the Art +Building. + +No one heeded her movements there, and she went directly upstairs to +his room. Though simple and plain, it had unmistakably been the abode +of a gentleman and a person of taste. It was partially dismantled, and +in disorder from his hasty departure, and she found nothing which +satisfied her quest there. She hastened away, glad to escape from a +place where everything seemed full of mute reproach, and next bent her +steps to the top floor of the building. In a part half-filled with +antiquated lumber, and seldom entered, she saw near a window facing +the east an easel with canvas upon it. She was startled at the throbbing +of her heart. + +"It is only climbing these long stairs," she said; but her words were +belied by the hesitating manner and eager face with which she approached +and removed the covering from the canvas. + +She gazed a moment and then put out her hand for something by which +to steady herself. His chair was near, and she sank into it, exclaiming: +"He has indeed painted more than he--more than any one--could put into +words. He has the genius that I have not. All here is striking and +original;" and she sat with her eyes riveted to a painting that had +revealed to her--herself. + +Here was the secret of Dennis's toil and early work. Here were the +results of his insatiable demand for the incongruous elements of ice +and sunlight. + +Side by side were two emblematic pictures. In the first there opened +before Christine a grotto of ice. The light was thin and cold but very +clear. Stalactites hung glittering from the vaulted roof. Stalagmites +in strange fantastic forms rose to meet them. Vivid brightness and +beauty were on every side, but of that kind that threw a chill on the +beholder. All was of cold blue ice, and so natural was it that the eye +seemed to penetrate its clear crystal. To the right was an opening in +the grotto, through which was caught a glimpse of a summer landscape, +a vivid contrast to the icy cave. + +But the main features of the picture were two figures. Sleeping on a +couch of ice was the form of a young girl. The flow of the drapery, +the contour of the form, was grace itself, and yet all was ice. But +the face was the most wonderful achievement. Christine saw her own +features, as beautiful as in her vainest moments she had ever dared +to hope. So perfect was the portrait that the delicate blue veins +branched across the temple in veiled distinctness. It was a face that +lacked but two things, life and love; and yet in spite of all its +beauty the want of these was painfully felt--all the more painfully, +even as a lovely face in death awakens a deeper sadness and regret. + +One little icy hand grasped a laurel wreath, also of ice. The other +hand hung listless, half open, and from it had dropped a brush that +formed a small stalagmite at her side. + +Bending over her in most striking contrast was the figure of a young +man, all instinct with life, power, and feeling. Though the face was +turned away, Dennis had suggested his own form and manner. His left +hand was extended toward the sleeping maiden, as if to awaken her, +while with the right he pointed toward the opening through which was +seen the summer landscape, and his whole attitude indicated an eager +wish to rescue her. This was the first picture. + +The second one was still more suggestive. At the entrance of the grotto, +which looked more cold than ever, in its partial shadow, Christine saw +herself again, but how changed! She now had a beauty which she could +not believe in--could not understand. + +The icy hue and rigidity were all gone. She stood in the warm sunlight, +and seemed all warmth and life. Her face glowed with feeling, yet was +full of peace. + +Instead of the barren ice, flowers were at her feet, and fruitful trees +bent over her. Birds were seen flitting through their branches. The +bended boughs, her flowing costume, and the tress of golden hair lifted +from her temple, all showed that the summer wind was blowing. + +Everything, in contrast with the frozen, death-like cave, indicated +life, activity. Near her, a plane-tree, which in nature's language is +the emblem of genius, towered into the sky; around its trunk twined +the passion-flower, meaning, in Flora's tongue, "Holy love"; while +just above her head, sipping the nectar from an open blossom, was a +bright-hued butterfly, the symbol of immortality. By her side stood +the same tall, manly form, with face still averted. He was pointing, +and her eyes, softened, and yet lustrous and happy, were following +where a path wound through a long vista, in alternate light and shadow, +to a gate, that in the distance looked like a pearl. Above and beyond +it, in airy outline, rose the walls and towers of the Holy City, the +New Jerusalem. + +For a long time she sat in rapt attention. Moment by moment the +paintings in their meaning grew upon her. At last her eyes filled with +tears, her bosom rose and fell with an emotion most unwonted, and in +low tones she murmured: "Heavenly delusion! and taught with the logic +I most dearly love. Oh, that I could believe it! I would give ten +thousand years of the life I am leading to know that it is true. Is +there, can there be a path that leads through light or shade to a final +and heavenly home? If this is true, in spite of all my father's keen +and seemingly convincing arguments, what a terrible mistake our life +is!" + +Then her thoughts reverted to the artist. + +"What have I done in driving him away with contempt in his heart for +me? I can no more affect haughty superiority to the man who painted +those pictures. Though he could not be my lover, what a friend he might +have been! I fear I shall never find his equal. Oh, this world of chaos +and confusion! What is right? What is best? _What is truth?_ He might +have taught me. But the skilful hand that portrayed those wonderful +scenes may soon turn to dust, and I shall go to my grave burdened with +the thought that I have quenched the brightest genius that will ever +shine upon me;" and she clasped her hands in an agony of regret. + +Then came the thought of securing the pictures. Dropping a veil over +her red eyes, she went down and got some large sheets of paper, and +by fastening them together made a secure covering. Then she carried +the light frame with the canvas to the second floor, and, summoning +Ernst, started homeward with her treasure. The boy obeyed with +reluctance. Since the time she had surprised him out of his secret in +regard to the strawberries, he had never liked her, and now he felt +that in some way she was the cause of the sickness of his dearest +friend. Christine could not bear the reproach of his large, truthful +eyes, and their walk was a silent one. At parting she handed him a +banknote, but he shook his head. + +"Have you heard from Mr. Fleet?" she asked, with a flush. + +The boy's lip quivered at the mention of that name, and he answered, +hastily: "Fader wrote moder Mr. Fleet was no better. I fear he die;" +and in an agony of grief he turned and ran sobbing away. + +From under her veil Christine's tears were falling fast also, and she +entered her elegant home as if it had been a prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +REGRET + + +The next day was the Sabbath, and a long, dreary one it was to +Christine. But late in the afternoon Susie Winthrop came with a pale, +troubled face. + +"Oh, Christine, have you heard the news?" she exclaimed. + +Christine's heart stood still with fear, but by a great effort she +said, composedly, "What news?" + +"Mr. Fleet has gone home very ill; indeed, he is not expected to live." + +For a moment she did not answer, and when she did it was with a voice +unnaturally hard and cold: "Have you heard what is the matter?" + +Miss Winthrop wondered at her manner, but replied, "Brain fever, I am +told." + +"Is he delirious?" asked Christine, in a low tone. + +"Yes, all the time. Ernst, the little office-boy, told me he did not +know his own mother. It seems that the boy's father is with Mrs. Fleet, +helping take care of him." + +Christine's face was averted and so colorless that it seemed like +marble. + +"Oh, Christine, don't you care?" said Susie, springing up and coming +toward her. + +"Why should I care?" was the quick answer. + +Susie could not know that it was in reality but an incoherent cry of +pain--the blind, desperate effort of pride to shield itself. But the +tone checked her steps and filled her face with reproach. + +"Perhaps you have more reason to care than you choose to admit," she +said, pointedly. + +Christine flushed, but said, coldly: "Of course I feel an interest in +the fate of Mr. Fleet, as I do in that of every passing acquaintance. +I feel very sorry for him and his friends"; but never was sympathy +expressed in a voice more unnaturally frigid. + +Susie looked at her keenly, and again saw the tell-tale flush rising +to her cheek. She was puzzled, but saw that her friend had no confidence +to give, and she said, with a voice growing somewhat cold also: "Well, +really, Christine, I thought you capable of seeing as much as the rest +of us in such matters, but I must be mistaken, if you only recognized +in Dennis Fleet a passing acquaintance. Well, if he dies I doubt if +either you or I look upon his equal again. Under right influences he +might have been one of the first and most useful men of his day. But +they need not tell me it was overwork that killed him. I know it was +trouble of some kind." + +Christine was very pale, but said nothing; and Susie, pained and +mystified that the confidence of other days was refused, bade her +friend a rather cold and abrupt adieu. + +Left alone, Christine bowed her white face in her hands and sat so +still that it seemed as if life had deserted her. In her morbid state +she began to fancy herself the victim of some terrible fatality. Her +heart had bounded when Susie Winthrop was announced, believing that +from her she would gain sympathy; but in strange perversity she had +hidden her trouble from her friend, and permitted her to go away in +coldness. Christine could see as quickly and as far as any, and from +the first had noted that Dennis was very interesting to her friend. +Until of late she had not cared, but now for some reason the fact was +not pleasing, and she felt a sudden reluctance to speak to Susie of +him. + +Now that she was alone a deeper sense of isolation came over her than +she had ever felt before. Her one confidential friend had departed, +chilled and hurt. She made friends but slowly, and, having once become +estranged, from her very nature she found it almost impossible to make +the first advances toward reconciliation. + +Soon she heard her father's steps, and fled to her room to nerve herself +for the part she must act before him. But she was far from successful; +her pale face and abstracted manner awakened his attention and his +surmises as to the cause. Having an engagement out, he soon left her +to welcome solitude; for when she was in trouble he was no source of +help or comfort. + +Monday dragged wearily to a close. She tried to work, but could not. +She took up the most exciting book she could find, only to throw it +down in despair. Forever before the canvas or the page would rise a +pale thin face, at times stern and scornful, again full of reproach, +and then of pleading. + +Even at night her rest was disturbed, and in dreams she heard the +mutterings of his delirium, in which he continually charged her with +his death. At times she would take his picture from its place of +concealment, and look at it with such feelings as would be awakened +by a promise of some priceless thing now beyond reach forever. Then +she would become irritated with herself, and say, angrily: "What is +this man to me? Why am I worrying about one who never could be much +more to me living than dead? I will forget the whole miserable affair." + +But she could not forget. Tuesday morning came, but no relief. "Whether +he lives or dies he will follow me to my grave!" she cried. "From the +time I first spoke to him there has seemed no escape, and in strange, +unexpected ways he constantly crosses my path!" + +She felt that she must have some relief from the oppression on her +spirit. Suddenly she thought of Ernst, and at once went to the store +and asked if he had heard anything later. He had not, but thought that +his mother would receive a letter that day. + +"I want to see your father's picture, and will go home that way, if +you will give me the number." + +The boy hesitated, but at last complied with her wish. + +A little later Christine knocked at Mr. Bruder's door. There was no +response, though she heard a stifled sound within. After a little she +knocked more loudly. Then the door slowly opened, and Mrs. Bruder stood +before her. Her eyes were very red, and she held in her hand an open +letter. Christine expected to find more of a lady than was apparent +at first glance in the hard-working woman before her, so she said, "My +good woman, will you tell Mrs. Bruder I would like to see her?" + +"Dis is Mrs. Bruder," was the answer. + +Then Christine noticed the letter, and the half-effaced traces of +emotion, and her heart misgave her; but she nerved herself to say, "I +came to see your husband's picture." + +"It is dere," was the brief reply. + +Christine began to expatiate on its beauty, though perhaps for the +first time she looked at a fine picture without really seeing it. She +was at a loss how to introduce the object of her visit, but at last +said, "Your husband is away?" + +"Yes." + +"He is taking care of one of my father's--of Mr. Fleet, I am told. +Have you heard from him as to Mr. Fleet's health?" + +"Dis is Miss Ludolph?" + +"Yes." + +"You can no read Sherman?" + +"Oh, yes, I can. German is my native tongue." + +"Strange dot him should be so." + +"Why?" + +"Der Shermans haf hearts." + +Christine flushed deeply, but Mrs. Bruder without a word put her +husband's letter into her hand, and Christine read eagerly what, +translated, is as follows: + +"MY DEAR WIFE--Perhaps before this reaches you our best friend, our +human savior, will be in heaven. There is a heaven, I believe as I +never did before; and when Mrs. Fleet prays the gate seems to open, +and the glory to stream right down upon us. But I fear now that not +even her prayers can keep him. Only once he knew her; then he smiled +and said, 'Mother, it is all right,' and dropped asleep. Soon fever +came on again, and he is sinking fast. The doctor shakes his head and +gives no hope. My heart is breaking. Marguerite, Mr. Fleet is not dying +a natural death; he has been slain. I understand all his manner now, +all his desperate hard work. He loved one above him in wealth--none +could be above him in other respects--and that one was Miss Ludolph. +I suspected it, though till delirious, he scarcely ever mentioned her +name. But now I believe she played with his heart--the noblest that +ever beat--and then threw it away, as if it were a toy instead of the +richest offering ever made to a woman. Proud fool that she was; she +has done more mischief than a thousand such frivolous lives as hers +can atone for. I can write no more; my heart is breaking with grief +and indignation." + +As Christine read she suffered her veil to drop over her face. When +she looked up she saw that Mrs. Bruder's gaze was fixed upon her as +upon the murderer of her best friend. She drew her veil closer about +her face, laid the letter down, and left the room without a word. She +felt so guilty and miserable on her way home that it would scarcely +have surprised her had a policeman arrested her for the crime with +which her own conscience, as well as Mr. Bruder's letter, charged her; +and yet her pride revolted at it all. + +"Why should this affair take so miserable a form with me?" she said. +"To most it ends with a few sentimental sighs on one side, and as a +good joke on the other. All seems to go wrong of late, and I am destined +to have everything save happiness and the success upon which I set my +heart. There is no more cruel mockery than to give one all save the +very thing one wants; and, in seeking to grasp that, I have brought +down upon myself this wretched, blighting experience. On this chaotic +world! The idea of there being a God! Why, I could make a better world +myself!" and she reached her home in such a morbid, unhappy state, +that none in the great city need have envied the rich and flattered +girl. Mechanically she dressed and came down to dinner. + +During the afternoon Ernst, while out on an errand, had slipped home +and heard the sad news. He returned to Mr. Ludolph's office crying. +To the question, "What is the matter?" he had answered, "Oh, Mr. Fleet +is dying; he is dead by dis time!" + +Mr. Ludolph was sadly shocked and pained, for as far as he could like +anybody besides himself and daughter, he had been prepossessed in favor +of his useful and intelligent clerk, and he was greatly annoyed at the +thought of losing him. He returned full of the subject, and the first +words with which he greeted Christine were, "Well, Fleet will hang no +more pictures for you, and sing no more songs." + +She staggered into a chair and sat before him pale and panting, for +she thought he meant that death had taken place. + +"Why, what is the matter?" cried he. + +She stared at him gaspingly, but said nothing. + +"Here, drink this," he said, hastily pouring out a glass of wine. + +She took it eagerly. After a moment he said: "Christine, I do not +understand all this. I was merely saying that my clerk, Mr. Fleet, was +not expected--" + +The point of endurance and guarded self-control was past, and she +cried, half-hysterically: "Am I never to escape that man? Must every +one I meet speak to me as if I had murdered him?" + +Then she added, almost fiercely: "Living or dead, never speak to me +of him again! I am no longer a child, but a woman, and as such I insist +that his name be dropped between us forever!" + +Her father gave a low exclamation of surprise, and said, "What! was +he one of the victims?" (this being his term for Christine's rejected +suitors). + +"No," said she; "I am the victim. He will soon be at rest, while I +shall be tormented to the grave by--" She hardly knew what to say, so +mingled and chaotic were her feelings. Her hands clenched, and with +a stamp of her foot she hastily left the room. + +Mr. Ludolph could hardly believe his eyes. Could this passionate, +thoroughly aroused woman be his cold, self-contained daughter? He could +not understand, as so many cannot, that such natures when aroused are +tenfold more intense than those whom little things excite. A long and +peculiar train of circumstances, a morbid and overwrought physical +condition, led to this outburst from Christine, which was as much a +cause of surprise to herself afterward as to her father. He judged +correctly that a great deal had occurred between Dennis and herself +of which he had no knowledge, and again his confidence in her was +thoroughly shaken. + +At first he determined to question her and extort the truth. But when, +an hour later, she quietly entered the parlor, he saw at a glance that +the cold, proud, self-possessed woman before him would not submit to +the treatment accepted by the little Christine of former days. The +wily man read from her manner and the expression of her eye that he +might with her consent lead, but could not command without awakening +a nature as imperious as his own. + +He was angry, but he had time to think. Prudence had given a decided +voice in favor of caution. + +He saw what she did not recognize herself, that her heart had been +greatly touched, and in his secret soul he was not sorry now to +believe that Dennis was dying. + +"Father," said Christine, abruptly, "how soon can we start on our +eastern trip?" + +"Well, if you particularly wish it," he replied, "I can leave by the +evening train to-morrow." + +"I do wish it very much," said Christine, earnestly, "and will be +ready." + +After an evening of silence and constraint they separated for the +night. + +Mr. Ludolph sat for a long time sipping his wine after she had gone. + +"After all it will turn out for the best," he said. "Fleet will probably +die, and then will be out of the way. Or, if he lives, I can easily +guard against him, and it will go no further. If she had been bewitched +by a man like Mr. Mellen, the matter would have been more difficult. + +"In truth," he continued, after a little, "now that her weak woman's +heart is occupied by an impossible lover, there is no danger from +possible ones;" and the man of the world went complacently to his rest, +believing that what he regarded as the game of life was entirely in +his own hands. + +The next evening the night express bore Christine from the scene of +the events she sought to escape; but she was to learn, in common with +the great host of the sinning and suffering, how little change of place +has to do with change of feeling. We take memory and character with +us from land to land, from youth to age, from this world to the other, +from time through eternity. Sad, then, is the lot of those who ever +carry the elements of their own torture with them. + +It was Christine's purpose, and she had her father's consent, to make +a long visit in New York, and, in the gayety and excitement of the +metropolis, to forget her late wretched experience. + +As it was still early in September, they resolved to stop at West Point +and participate in the gayest season of that fashionable watering-place. +At this time the hotels are thronged with summer tourists returning +homeward from the more northern resorts. Though the broad piazzas of +Cozzens's great hotel were crowded by the _elite_ of the city, there was +a hum of admiration as Christine first made her round on her father's +arm; and in the evening, when the spacious parlor was cleared for +dancing, officers from the post and civilians alike eagerly sought +her hand, and hundreds of admiring eyes followed as she swept through +the mazes of the dance, the embodiment of grace and beauty. She was +very gay, and her repartee was often brilliant, but a close observer +would have seen something forced and unnatural in all. Such an observer +was her father. He saw that the sparkle of her eyes had no more heart +and happiness in it than that of the diamonds on her bosom, and that +with the whole strength of her resolute nature she was laboring to +repel thought and memory. But, as he witnessed the admiration she +excited on every side, he became more determined than ever that his +fair daughter should shine a star of the first magnitude in the +_salons_ of Europe. At a late hour, and wearied past the power +of thought, she gladly sought refuge in the blank of sleep. + +The next morning they drove out early, before the sun was high and +warm. It was a glorious autumn day. Recent rains had purified the +atmosphere, so that the unrivalled scenery of the Hudson stood out in +clear and grand outline. + +As Christine looked about her she felt a thrill of almost delight--the +first sensation of the kind since that moment of exultation which +Dennis had inspired, but which he had also turned to the bitterness +of disaster and humiliation. She was keenly alive to beauty, and she +saw it on every side. The Ludolph family had ever lived among the +mountains on the Rhine, and the heart of this latest child of the race +yearned over the rugged scenery before her with hereditary affection, +which had grown stronger with each successive generation. + +The dew, like innumerable pearls, gemmed the grass in the park-like +lawn of the hotel, and the slanting rays of the sun flecked the +luxuriant foliage. Never before had this passion for the beautiful in +nature been so gratified, and all the artist feeling within her awoke. + +On reaching the street the carriage turned southward, and, after passing +the village of Highland Falls, entered on one of the most beautiful +drives in America. At times the road led under overarching forest-trees, +shaded and dim with that delicious twilight which only myriads of +fluttering leaves can make. Again it would wind around some bold +headland, and the broad expanse of the Hudson would shine out dotted +with white sails. Then through a vista its waters would sparkle, +suggesting an exquisite cabinet picture. On the right the thickly-wooded +mountains rose like emerald walls, with here and there along their +base a quiet farmhouse. With kindling eye and glowing cheeks she drank +in view after view, and at last exclaimed, "If there were only a few +old castles scattered among these Highlands, this would be the very +perfection of scenery." + +Her father watched her closely, and with much satisfaction. + +"After all, her wound is slight," he thought, "and new scenes and +circumstances will soon cause her to forget." + +Furtively, but continually, he bent his eyes upon her, as if to read +her very soul. A dreamy, happy expression rested on her face, as if +a scene were present to her fancy even more to her taste than the one +her eyes dwelt upon. In fact she was living over that evening at Miss +Winthrop's, when Dennis had told her that she could reach truest and +highest art--that she could feel--could copy anything she saw; and +exhilarated by the fresh morning air, inspired by the scenery, she +felt for the moment, as never before, that it might all be true. + +Was he who gave those blissful assurances also exerting a subtile, +unrecognized power over her? Certainly within the last few weeks she +had been subject to strange moods and reveries. But the first dawning +of a woman's love is like the aurora, with its strange, fitful flashes. +The phenomena have never been satisfactorily explained. + +But, as Mr. Ludolph watched complacently and admiringly, her expression +suddenly changed, and a frightened, guilty look came into her face. +The glow upon her cheeks gave place to extreme pallor, and she glanced +nervously around as if fearing something, then caught her father's +eye, and was conscious of his scrutiny. She at once became cold and +self-possessed, and sat at his side pale and quiet till the ride ended. +But he saw from the troubled gleam of her eyes that beneath that calm +exterior were tumult and suffering. Few in this life are so guilty and +wretched as not to have moments of forgetfulness, when the happier +past comes back and they are oblivious of the painful present. Such +a brief respite Christine enjoyed during part of her morning ride. The +grand and swiftly varying scenery crowded her mind with pleasant images, +which had been followed by a delicious revery. She felt herself to be +a true priestess of Nature, capable of understanding and interpreting +her voices and hidden meanings--of catching her evanescent beauty and +fixing it on the glowing canvas. The strong consciousness of such power +was indeed sweet and intoxicating. Her mind naturally reverted to him +who had most clearly asserted her possession of it. + +"He, too, would have equal appreciation of this scenery," she said to +herself. + +Then came the sudden remembrance, shrivelling her pretty dreams as the +lightning scorches and withers. + +"_He--he is dead!--he must be by this time!_" + +And dread and guilt and something else which she did not define, but +which seemed more like a sense of great loss, lay heavy at her heart. +No wonder her father was perplexed and provoked by the sad change in +her face. At first he was inclined to remonstrate and put spurs to her +pride. But there was a dignity about the lady at his side, even though +she was his daughter, that embarrassed and restrained him. Moreover, +though he understood much and suspected far more--more indeed than the +truth--there was nothing acknowledged or tangible that he could lay +hold of, and she meant that it should be so. For reasons she did not +understand she felt a disinclination to tell her troubles to Susie +Winthrop, and she was most resolute in her purpose never to permit her +father to speak on the subject. + +If Mr. Ludolph had been as coarse and ignorant as he was hard and +selfish, he would have gone to work at the case with sledge-hammer +dexterity, as many parents have done, making sad, brutal havoc in +delicate womanly natures with which they were no more fit to deal than +a blacksmith with hair-springs. But though he longed to speak, and +bring his remorseless logic to bear, Christine's manner raised a barrier +which a man of his fine culture could not readily pass. + +She joined her father at a late breakfast, smiling and brilliant, but +her gayety was clearly forced. The morning was spent in sketching, she +seeming to crave constant occupation or excitement. + +In the afternoon father and daughter drove up the river to the military +grounds to witness a drill. Mr. Ludolph did his best to rally Christine, +pointing out everything of interest. First, the grand old ruin of Fort +Putnam frowned down upon them. This had been the one feature wanting, +and Christine felt that she could ask nothing more. Her wonder and +admiration grew as the road wound along the immediate bluff and around +the plain by the river fortifications. But when she stood on the piazza +of the West Point Hotel, and looked up through the Highlands toward +Newburgh, tears came to her eyes, and she trembled with excitement. +From her recent experiences her nerves were morbidly sensitive. But +her father could only look and wonder, she seemed so changed to him. + +"And is the Rhine like this?" she asked. + +"Well, the best I can say is, that to a German and a Ludolph it seems +just as beautiful," he replied. + +"Surely," said she, slowly and in half-soliloquy, "if one could live +always amid such scenes as these, the Elysium of the gods or the heaven +of the Christians would offer few temptations." + +"And among just such scenes you shall live after a short year passes," +he answered, warmly and confidently. But with anger he missed the +wonted sparkle of her eyes when these cherished plans were broached. + +In bitterness Christine said to herself: "A few weeks since this thought +would have filled me with delight. Why does it not now?" + +Silently they drove to the parade-ground. At the sally-port of the +distant barracks bayonets were gleaming. There was a burst of martial +music, then each class at the Academy--four companies--came out upon +the grassy plain upon the double-quick. Their motions were light and +swift, and yet so accurately timed that each company seemed one perfect +piece of mechanism. A cadet stood at a certain point with a small color +flying. Abreast of this their advance was checked as suddenly as if +they had been turned to stone, and the entire corps was in line. Then +followed a series of skilful manoeuvres, in which Christine was much +interested, and her old eager manner returned. + +"I like the army," she exclaimed; "the precision and inflexible routine +would just suit me. I wish there was war, and I a man, that I might +enter into the glorious excitements." + +Luxurious Mr. Ludolph had no tastes in that direction, and, shrugging +his shoulders, said: "How about the hardships, wounds, and chances of +an obscure death? These are the rule in a campaign; the glorious +excitements the exceptions." + +"I did not think of those," she said, shrinking against the cushions. +"Everything seems to have so many miserable drawbacks!" + +The pageantry over, the driver turned and drove northward through the +most superb scenery. + +"Where are we going?" asked Christine. + +"To the cemetery," was the reply. + +"No, no! not there!" she exclaimed, nervously. + +"Nonsense! Why not?" remonstrated her father. + +"I don't wish to go there!" she cried, excitedly. "Please turn around." + +Her father reluctantly gave the order, but added, "Christine, you +certainly indulge in strange moods and whims of late." + +She was silent a moment, and then she began a running fire of questions +about the Academy, that left no space for explanations. + +That evening she danced as resolutely as ever, and by her beauty and +brilliant repartee threw around her many bewildering spells that even +the veterans of the Point could scarcely resist. + +But when alone in her own room she looked at her white face in the +mirror, and murmured in tones full of unutterable dread and remorse, +"He is dead--he must be dead by this time!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +REMORSE + + +Christine had a peculiar experience while at West Point. She saw on +every side what would have brought her the choicest enjoyment, had her +mind been at rest. To her artist nature, and with her passion and power +for sketching, the Highlands on the Hudson were paradise. But though +she saw in profusion what once would have delighted her, and what she +now felt ought to be the source of almost unmingled happiness, she was +still thoroughly wretched. It was the old fable of Tantalus repeating +itself. Her sin and its results had destroyed her receptive power. The +world offered her pleasures on every side; she longed to enjoy them, +but could not, for her heart was preoccupied--filled and overflowing +with fear, remorse, and a sorrow she could not define. + +A vain, shallow girl might soon have forgotten such an experience as +Christine had passed through. Such a creature would have been +sentimental or hysterical for a little time, according to temperament, +and then with the old zest have gone to flirting with some new victim. +There are belles so weak and wicked that they would rather plume +themselves on the fact that one had died from love of them. But in +justice to all such it should be said that they rarely have mind enough +to realize the evil they do. Their vanity overshadows every other +faculty, and almost destroys those sweet, pitiful, unselfish qualities +which make a true woman what a true man most reverences next to God. + +Christine was proud and ambitious to the last degree, but she had not +this small vanity. She did not appreciate the situation fully, but she +was unsparing in her self-condemnation. + +If Dennis had been an ordinary man, and interested her no more than +had other admirers, and had she given him no more encouragement, she +would have shrugged her shoulders over the result and said she was +very sorry he had made such a fool of himself. + +But as she went over the past (and this now she often did), she saw +that he was unusually gifted; nay, more, the picture she discovered +in the loft of the store proved him possessed of genius of a high +order. And such a man she had deceived, tortured, and even killed! +This was the verdict of her own conscience, the assertion of his own +lips. She remembered the wearing life of alternate hope and fear she +had caused him. She remembered how eagerly he hung on her smiles and +sugared nothings, and how her equally causeless frowns would darken +all the world to him. She saw day after day how she had developed in +a strong, true heart, with its native power to love unimpaired, the +most intense passion, and all that her own lesser light might burn a +little more brightly. Then, with her burning face buried in her hands, +she would recall the bitter, shameful consummation. Worse than all, +waking or sleeping, she continually saw a pale, thin face, that even +in death looked upon her with unutterable reproach. In addition to the +misery caused by her remorse, there was a deeper bitterness still. +Within the depths of her soul a voice told her that the picture was +true; that he might have awakened her, and led her out into the warmth +and light of a happy life--a life which she felt ought to be possible, +but which as yet had been but a vague and tantalizing dream. Now the +world seemed to her utter chaos--a place of innumerable paths leading +nowhere; and her own hands had broken the clew that might have brought +her to something assured and satisfactory. She was very wretched, for +her life seemed but a little point between disappointment on one side +and the blackness of death and nothingness on the other. The very +beauty of the landscapes about her often increased her pain. She felt +that a few weeks ago she would have enjoyed them keenly, and found in +their transference to canvas a source of unfailing pleasure. With a +conscious blush she thought that if he were present to encourage, to +stimulate her, by the very vitality of his earnest, loving nature, she +would be in the enjoyment of paradise itself. In a word, she saw the +heaven she could not enter. + +To the degree that she had mind, heart, conscience, and an intense +desire for true happiness, she was unhappy. Dress, dancing, the passing +admiration of society, the pleasures of a merely fashionable life, +seemed less and less satisfactory. She was beyond them, as children +outgrow their toys, because she had a native superiority to them, and +yet they seemed her best resource. She had all her old longing to +pursue her art studies, and everything about her stimulated her to +this, but her heart and hand appeared paralyzed. She was in just that +condition, mental and moral, in which she could do nothing well. + +And so the days passed in futile efforts to forget--to drown in almost +reckless gayety--the voices of conscience and memory. But she only +remembered all the more vividly; she only saw the miserable truth all +the more clearly. She suffered more in her torturing consciousness +than Dennis in his wild delirium. + +After they had been at the hotel about a week, Mr. Ludolph received +letters that made his speedy return necessary. On the same day the +family of his old New York partner arrived at the house on their return +from the Catskills. Mrs. Von Brakhiem gladly received Christine under +her care, feeling that the addition of such a bright star would make +her little constellation one of the most brilliant in the fashionable +world. + +The ladies of the house were now immersed in the excitement of an +amateur concert. Mrs. Von Brakhiem, bent upon shining among the +foremost, though with a borrowed lustre, assigned Christine a most +prominent part. She half shrank from it, for it recalled unpleasant +memories; but she could not decline without explanations, and so entered +into the affair with a sort of recklessness. + +The large parlors were filled with chairs, which were soon occupied, +and it was evident that in point of attraction elegant toilets would +vie with the music. Christine came down on her father's arm, dressed +like a princess, and, though her diamonds were few, such were their +size and brilliancy that they seemed on fire. Every eye followed Mrs. +Von Brakhiem's party, and that good lady took half the admiration to +herself. + +A superior tenor, with an unpronounceable foreign name, had come up +from New York to grace the occasion. But personally he lacked every +grace himself, his fine voice being the one thing that redeemed him +from utter insignificance in mind and appearance. Nevertheless he was +vain beyond measure, and made the most of himself on all occasions. + +The music was fine, for the amateurs, feeling that they had a critical +audience, did their best. Christine chose three brilliant, difficult, +but heartless pieces as her contribution to the entertainment (she +would not trust herself with anything else); and with something +approaching reckless gayety she sought to hide the bitterness at her +heart. Her splendid voice and exquisite touch doubled the admiration +her beauty and diamonds had excited, and Mrs. Von Brakhiem basked in +still stronger reflected light. She took every opportunity to make it +known that she was Miss Ludolph's chaperon. + +After her first effort, the "distinguished" tenor from New York opened +his eyes widely at her; at her second, he put up his eyeglass in +something like astonishment; and the close of her last song found him +nervously rummaging a music portfolio in the corner. + +But for Christine the law of association had become too strong, and +the prolonged applause recalled the evening at Miss Brown's when the +same sounds had deafened her, but when turning from it all she had +seen Dennis Fleet standing in rapt attention, his lips parted, his +eyes glowing with such an honest admiration that even then it was worth +more to her than all the clamor. Then, by the same law of association, +she again saw that eager, earnest face, changed pale, dead--dead!--and +she the cause. Regardless of the compliments lavished upon her, she +buried her face in her hands and trembled from head to foot. + +But the irrepressible tenor had found what he wanted, and now came +forward asking that Miss Ludolph would sing a duet with him. + +She lifted a wan and startled face. Must the torturing similarity and +still more torturing contrast of the two occasions be continued? But +she saw her father regarding her sternly--saw that she was becoming +the subject of curious glances and whispered surmises. Her pride was +aroused at once, and, goaded on by it, she said, "Oh, certainly; I am +not feeling well, but it does not signify." + +"And den," put in the tenor, "dis is von grand occazeon to _you_, for it +is so unfrequent dat I find any von vorthy to sing dis style of music +vith _me_." + +"What is the music?" asked Christine, coldly. + +To her horror she found it the same selection from Mendelssohn that +she had sung with Dennis. + +"No," she said, sharply, "I cannot sing that." + +"Pardon me, my daughter, you can sing it admirably if you choose," +interposed her father. + +She turned to him imploringly, but his face was inflexible, and his +eyes had an incensed look. For a moment she, too, was angry. Had he +no mercy? She was about to decline coldly, but her friends were very +urgent and clamorous--"Please do," "Don't disappoint us," echoing on +every side. The tenor was so surprised and puzzled at her insensibility +to the honor he had conferred, that, to prevent a scene she could not +explain, she went to the piano as if led to the stake. + +But the strain was too great upon her in her suffering state. The +familiar notes recalled so vividly the one who once before had sung +them at her side that she turned almost expecting to see him--but saw +only the vain little animated music-machine, who with many contortions +was producing the harmony. "Just this mockery my life will ever be," +she thought; "all that I am, the best I can do, will always be connected +with something insignificant and commonplace. The rich, impassioned +voice of the _man_ who sang these words, and who might have taught me to +sing the song of a new and happier life, I have silenced forever." + +The thought overpowered her. Just then her part recurred, but her voice +died away in a miserable quaver, and again she buried her face in her +hands. Suddenly she sprang from the piano, darted through the low-cut +open window near, and a moment later ordered her startled maid from +the room, turned the key, and was alone. + +Her father explained coldly to the astonished audience and the +half-paralyzed tenor (who still stood with his mouth open) that his +daughter was not at all well that evening, and ought not to have +appeared at all. This Mrs. Von Brakhiem took up and repeated with +endless variations. But the evidences of sheer mental distress on the +part of Christine had been too clear, and countless were the whispered +surmises of the fashionable gossips in explanation. + +Mrs. Von Brakhiem herself, burning with curiosity, soon retired, that +she might receive from her lovely charge some gushing confidences, +which she expected, as a matter of course, would be poured into what +she chose to regard as her sympathizing ear. But she knocked in vain +at Christine's door. + +Later Mr. Ludolph knocked. There was no answer. + +"Christine!" he called. + +After some delay a broken voice answered, "You cannot enter--I am not +well--I have retired." + +He turned on his heel and strode away, and that night drank more brandy +and water than was good for him. + +As for Christine, warped and chilled though her nature had been, she +was still a woman, she was still young, and, though she knew it not, +she had heard the voice which had spoken her heart into life. Through +a chain of circumstances for which she was partly to blame, she had +been made to suffer as she had not believed was possible. The terrible +words of Mr. Bruder's letter rang continually in her ears--"Mrs. Fleet +is not dying a natural death; he has been, slain." + +For many long, weary days the conviction had been growing upon her +that she had indeed slain him and mortally wounded herself. Until +to-night she had kept herself outwardly under restraint, but now the +long pent-up feeling gave way, and she sobbed as if her heart would +break--sobbed till the power to weep was gone. If now some kind, +judicious friend had shown her that she was not so guilty as she deemed +herself; that, however, frightful the consequences of such acts, she +was really not to blame for what she did not intend and could not +foresee; more than all, if she could only have known that her worst +fears about Dennis were not to be realized, and that he was now +recovering, she might at once have entered on a new and happier life. +But there was no such friend, no such knowledge, and her wounded spirit +was thrown back upon itself. + +At last, robed as she had been for the evening, she fell asleep +from sheer exhaustion and grief--for grief induces sleep. + +The gems that shone in her dishevelled hair; that rose and fell as at +long intervals her bosom heaved with convulsive sobs, like the fitful +gusts of a storm that is dying away; the costly fabrics she wore--made +sad mockery in their contrast with the pale, tear-stained, suffering +face. The hardest heart might have pitied her--yes, even the wholly +ambitious heart of her father, incensed as he was that a plebeian +stranger of this land should have caused such distress. + +When Christine awoke, her pride awoke also. With bitterness of spirit +she recalled the events of the past evening. But a new phase of feeling +now began to manifest itself. + +After her passionate outburst she was much calmer. In this respect the +unimpeded flow of feeling had done her good, and, as intimated, if +kindness and sympathy could now have added their gentle ministrations, +she might have been the better for it all her life. But, left to +herself, she again yielded to the sway of her old and worst traits. +Chief among these was pride; and under the influence of this passion +and the acute suffering of her unsoothed, unguided spirit, she began +to rebel in impotent anger. She grew hard, cynical, and reckless. Her +father's lack of sympathy and consideration alienated her heart even +from him. Left literally alone in the world, her naturally reserved +nature shut itself up more closely than ever. Even her only friend, +Susie Winthrop, drifted away. One other, who might have been--But she +could think of him only with a shudder now. All the rest seemed +indifferent, or censorious, or, worse still, to be using her, like +Mrs. Von Brakhiem and even her own father, as a stepping-stone to their +personal ambition. Christine could not see that she was to blame for +this isolation. She did not understand that cold, selfish natures, +like her own and her father's, could not surround themselves with warm, +generous friends. She saw only the fact. But with flashing eyes she +resolved that her heart's secrets should not be pried into a +hair-breadth further; that she would be used only so far as she chose. +She would, in short, "face out" the events of the past evening simply +and solely on the ground that she had not been well, and permit no +questions to be asked. + +Cold and self-possessed, she came down to a late breakfast. Mrs. Von +Brakhiem, and others who had been introduced, joined her, but nothing +could penetrate through the nice polished armor of her courteous +reserve. Her father looked at her keenly, but she coolly returned his +gaze. + +When alone with her soon afterward, he turned and said, sharply, "What +does all this mean?" + +She looked around as if some one else were near. + +"Were you addressing me?" she asked, coldly. + +"Yes, of course I am," said her father, impatiently. + +"From your tone and manner, I supposed you must be speaking to some +one else." + +"Nonsense! I was speaking to you. What does all this mean?" + +She turned on him an indescribable look, and after a moment said in +a slow, meaning tone, "Have you not heard my explanation, sir?" + +Such was her manner, he felt he could as easily strike her as say +another word. + +Muttering an oath, he turned on his heel and left her to herself. + +The next morning her father bade her "Good-by." In parting he said, +meaningly, "Christine, beware!" + +Again she turned upon him that peculiar look, and replied in a low, +firm tone: "That recommendation applies to you, also. Let us both +beware, lest we repent at leisure." + +The wily man, skilled in character, was now thoroughly convinced that +in his daughter he was dealing with a nature very different from his +wife's--that he was now confronted by a spirit as proud and imperious +as his own. He clearly saw that force, threatening, sternness would +not answer in this case, and that if he carried his points it must be +through skill and cunning. By some means he must ever gain her consent +and co-operation. + +His manner changed. Instinctively she divined the cause; and hers did +not. Therefore father and daughter parted as father and daughter ought +never to part. + +After his departure she was to remain at West Point till the season +closed, and then accompany Mrs. Von Brakhiem to New York, where she +was to make as long a visit as she chose;--and she chose to make a +long one. In the scenery, and the society of the officers at West +Point, and the excitements of the metropolis, she found more to occupy +her thoughts than she could have done at Chicago. She went deliberately +to work to kill time and snatch from it such fleeting pleasures as she +might. + +They stayed in the country till the pomp and glory of October began +to illumine the mountains, and then (to Christine's regret) went to +the city. There she entered into every amusement and dissipation that +her tastes permitted, and found much pleasure in frequent visits to +the Central Park, although it seemed tame and artificial after the +wild grandeur of the mountains. It was well that her nature was so +high-toned that she found enjoyment in only what was refined or +intellectual. Had it been otherwise she might soon have taken, in her +morbid, reckless state, a path to swift and remediless ruin, as many +a poor creature all at war with happiness and truth has done. And thus +in a giddy whirl of excitement (Mrs. Von Brakhiem's normal condition) +the days and weeks passed, till at last, thoroughly satiated and jaded, +she concluded to return home, for the sake of change and quiet, if +nothing else. Mrs. Von Brakhiem parted with her regretfully. Where +would she find such another ally in her determined struggle to be +talked about and envied a little more than some other pushing, jostling +votaries of fashion? + +In languor or sleep Christine made the journey, and in the dusk of a +winter's day her father drove her to their beautiful home, which from +association was now almost hateful to her. Still she was too weary to +think or suffer much. They met each other very politely, and their +intercourse assumed at once its wonted character of high-bred courtesy, +though perhaps it was a little more void of manifested sympathy and +affection than before. + +Several days elapsed in languid apathy, the natural reaction of past +excitement; then an event occurred which most thoroughly aroused her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +AN APPARITION + + +Mr. Ludolph had hoped to hear on his return that Dennis was dead. That +would end all difficulties. Mr. Schwartz did not know;--he was not at +last accounts. Ernst was summoned. With a bright, hopeful face he +stated that his mother had just received a letter saying Dennis was +a little better. He was much surprised at his employer's heavy frown. + +"He will live," mused Mr. Ludolph; "and now shall I permit him to +return to my employ, or discharge him?" + +His brow contracted in lines of thought that suggested shrewdness, +cunning, nothing manly, and warily he judged. + +"If I do not take him, he will go to Mr. French with certainty. He had +better return, for then both he and Christine will be more thoroughly +under my surveillance. + +"Curses on Christine's waywardness! There may be no resisting her, and +my best chance will be in managing him. This I could not do if he were +in the store of my rival;" and so for unconscious Dennis this +important question was decided. + +At last, as we have said, his delirium ceased, and the quiet light of +reason came into his eyes. He looked at his mother and smiled, but was +too weak even to reach out his hand. + +The doctor, coming in soon after, declared danger past, and that all +depended now on good nursing. Little fear of his wanting that! + +"Ah, mine Gott be praised! mine Gott be praised!" exclaimed Mr. Bruder, +who had to leave the room to prevent an explosion of his grateful, +happy feelings that might have proved too rude a tempest for Dennis +in his weak state. He was next seen striding across the fields to a +neighboring grove, ejaculating as he went. When he returned his eyes +shone with a great peace and joy, and he had evidently been with Him +who had cast out the demon from his heart. + +Day after day Dennis rallied. Unlike poor Christine, he had beneath +him the two strongest levers, love and prayer, and steadily they lifted +him up to health and strength and comparative peace. At last he was +able to sit up and walk about feebly, and Mr. Bruder returned rejoicing +to his family. As he wrung Dennis's hand at parting, he said, in rather +a hoarse voice: "If any von tell me Gott is not goot and heareth not +prayer, den I tell him he von grand heathen. Oh! but we vill velcome +you soon. Ve vill haf de grandest supper, de grandest songs, de +grandest--" but just here Mr. Bruder thought it prudent to pull his +big fur cap over his eyes, and make a rush for the stage. + +As if by tacit understanding, Christine's name had not been mentioned +during Dennis's recovery. But one evening, after the little girls had +been put to bed, and the lamp shaded, he sat in the dimly lighted room, +looking fixedly for a long time at the glowing embers. His mother was +moving quietly about, putting away the tea-things, clearing up after +the children's play; but as she worked she furtively watched him. At +last coming to his side she pushed back the hair that seemed so dark +in contrast with the thin, white face and said, gently, "You are +thinking of Miss Ludolph, Dennis." + +He had some blood yet, for that was not the glow of the fire that +suffused his cheek; but he only answered, quietly, "Yes, mother." + +Do you think you can forget her?" + +"I don't know." + +"Prayer is a mighty thing, my son." + +"But perhaps it is not God's will that I should ever win her," said +Dennis, despondently. + +"Then surely it is not yours, my child." + +"No, mother," said Dennis, with bowed head and low tone, "but yet I +am human and weak." + +"You would still wish that it were His will?" + +"Yes; I could not help it." + +"But you would submit?" + +"Yes, with His help I would," firmly. + +"That is sufficient, my boy; I have such confidence in God that I know +this matter will result in a way to secure you the greatest happiness +in the end." + +But after a little time he sighed, wearily, "Yet how hard it is to +wait till the great plan is worked out!" + +Solemnly she quoted-"God will render to every man according to his +deeds. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory +and honor and immortality, eternal life." + +Braced by the stirring words of inspiration, strengthened by his +mother's faith, he looked up after a moment and said, earnestly, "At +any rate I will try to be a _man in your sense of the word_, and that is +saying a great deal." + +She beamed at him through her spectacles over her knitting-needles; +and he thought, as he gazed fondly at her, that in spite of her quaint, +old-fashioned garb, and homely occupation, she appeared more truly a +saint than any painted on cathedral windows. + +He soon noticed that his mother had grown feeble, and he determined +to take her with him on his return, believing that, by his care, and +the wise use of tonics, he could restore her to her wonted strength. +His increased salary now justified the step. + +Early in November his physician said he might return to business if +he would be prudent. He gladly availed himself of the permission, for +he longed to be employed again. + +The clerks all welcomed him warmly, for his good-nature had disarmed +jealousy at his rapid rise. But in the greeting of Mr. Ludolph he +missed something of the cordiality he expected. + +"Perhaps she has told him," thought he; and at once his own manner +became tinged with a certain coldness and dignity. He determined that +both father and daughter should think of him only with respect. + +At the Bruders' the millennium came with Dennis. Metaphorically the +fatted calf was killed; their plain little room was trimmed with +evergreens, and when he entered he was greeted by such a jubilant, +triumphant chorus of welcomes as almost took away his breath. What +little he had left was suddenly squeezed out of him; for Mrs. Bruden, +dropping her frying-pan and dish-cloth, rushed upon him, exclaiming, +"Ah! mine fren! mine fren! De goot Gott be praised;" and she gave him +an embrace that made his bones ache. + +Mr. Bruder stalked about the room repeating with explosive energy, +like minute-guns, "Praise Gott! Praise Gott!" Ernst, his great eyes +dimmed with happy tears, clung to Dennis's hand, as if he would make +sure, by sense of touch as well as sight, that he had regained his +beloved teacher. The little Bruders were equally jubilant, though from +rather mixed motives. Dennis's arrival was very well, but they could +not keep their round eyes long off the preparations for such a supper +as never before had blessed their brief career. + +"Truly," thought Dennis, as he looked around upon the happy family, +and contrasted its appearance with that which it had presented when +he first saw it, "my small investment of kindness and effort in this +case has returned large interest. I think it pays to do good." + +The evening was one of almost unmingled happiness, even to his sore, +disappointed heart, and passed into memory as among the sunniest places +of his life. + +He found a pleasant little cottage over on the West side, part of which +he rented for his mother and sisters. + +With Mr. Ludolph's permission he went after them, and installed them +in it. Thus he had what he had needed all along--a home, a resting-place +for body and soul, under the watchful eye of love. + +About this time Dr. Arten met him, stared a moment, then clapped him +on the back in his hearty way, saying, "Well, well, young man! you +have cause to be thankful, and not to the doctors, either." + +"I think I am," said Dennis, smiling. + +Suddenly the doctor looked grave, and asked in a stern voice, "Are you +a heathen, or a good Christian?" + +"I hope not the former," replied Dennis, a little startled. + +"Then don't go and commit suicide again. Don't you know flesh and blood +can only stand so much? When an intelligent young fellow like you goes +beyond that, he is committing suicide. Bless your soul, my ambitious +friend, the ten commandments ain't all the law of God. His laws are +also written all over this long body of yours, and you came near paying +a pretty penalty for breaking them. You won't get off the second time." + +"You are right, doctor; I now see that I acted very wrongly." + +"'Bring forth fruits meet for repentance.' I am rich enough to give +sound advice," said the brusque old physician, passing on. + +"Stop a moment, doctor," cried Dennis, "I want you to see my mother." + +"What is the matter with her? She been breaking the commandments, too?" + +"Oh, no!" exclaimed Dennis. "She is not a bit of a heathen." + +"I am not so sure about that. I know many eminent saints in the church +who will eat lobster salad for supper, and then send for the doctor +and minister before morning. There is a precious twaddle about +'mysterious Providence.' Providence isn't half so mysterious as people +make out. The doctor is expected to look serious and sympathetic, and +call their law-breaking and its penalty by some outlandish Latin name +that no one can understand. I give 'em the square truth, and tell 'em +they've been breaking the commandments." + +Dennis could not forbear smiling at the doctor's rough handling of +humbug, even in one of its most respectable guises. Then, remembering +his mother, he added, gravely: "I am truly anxious about my mother, +she has grown so feeble. I want, and yet dread, the truth." + +The bantering manner of the good old doctor changed at once, and he +said, kindly, "I'll come, my boy, within a few days, though I am nearly +run off my feet." + +He went off, muttering, "Why don't the people send for some of the +youngsters that sit kicking up their heels in their offices all day?" + +Dennis soon fell into the routine of work and rapidly grew stronger. +But his face had acquired a gravity, a something in expression that +only experience gives, which made him appear older by ten years. All +trace of the boy had gone, and his countenance was now that of the +man, and of one who had suffered. + +As soon as he recovered sufficient strength to act with decision, he +indignantly tried to banish Christine's image from his memory. But he +found this impossible. Though at times his eyes would flash, in view +of her treatment, they would soon grow gentle and tender, and he found +himself excusing and extenuating, by the most special pleadings, that +which he had justly condemned. + +One evening his mother startled him out of a long revery, in which he +had almost vindicated Christine, by saying, "A very pleasant smile has +been gradually dawning on your face, my son." + +"Mother," replied he, hesitatingly, "perhaps I have judged Miss Ludolph +harshly." + +"Your love, not your reason, has evidently been pleading for her." + +"Well, mother, I suppose you are right." + +"So I suppose the Divine love pleads for the weak and sinful," said +Mrs. Fleet, dreamily. + +"That is a very pleasant thought, mother, for sometimes it seems that +my love could make black white." + +"That the Divine love has done, but at infinite cost to itself." + +"Oh that my love at any cost to itself could lead her into the new +life of the believer!" said Dennis, in a low, earnest tone. + +"Your love is like the Divine in being unselfish, but remember the +vital differences and take heed. God _can_ change the nature of the +imperfect creature that He loves. You cannot. His love is infinite +in its strength and patience. You are human. The proud, selfish, +unbelieving Miss Ludolph (pardon mother's plain words) could not make +you happy. To the degree that you were loyal to God, you would be +unhappy, and I should surely dread such a union. The whole tone of +your moral character would have to be greatly lowered to permit even +peace." + +"But, mother," said Dennis, almost impatiently, "in view of my +unconquerable love, it is nearly the same as if I were married to her +now." + +"No, my son, I think not. I know your pretty theory on this subject, +but it seems more pretty than true. Marriage makes a vital difference. +It is the closest union that we can voluntarily form on earth, and is +the emblem of the spiritual oneness of the believer's soul with Christ. +We may be led through circumstances, as you have been, to love one +with whom we should not form such a union. Indeed, in the true and +mystic meaning of the rite, you could not marry Christine Ludolph. The +Bible declares that man and wife shall be one. Unless she changes, +unless you change (and that God forbid), this could not be. You would +be divided, separated in the deepest essentials of your life here, and +in every respect hereafter. Again, while God loves every sinful man +and woman, He does not take them to His heart till they cry out to Him +for strength to abandon the destroying evil He hates. There are +no unchanged, unrenewed hearts in heaven." + +"Oh, mother, how inexorable is your logic!" said Dennis, breathing +heavily. + +"Truth in the end is ever more merciful than falsehood," she answered, +gently. + +After a little, he said, with a heavy sigh, "Mother, you are right, +and I am very weak and foolish." + +She looked at him with unutterable tenderness. She could not crush out +all hope, and so whispered, as before: "Prayer is mighty, my child. +It is not wrong for you to love. It is your duty, as well as privilege, +to pray for her. Trust your Heavenly Father, do His will, and He will +solve this question in the very best way." + +Dennis turned to his mother in sudden and passionate earnestness, and +said: "Your prayers are mighty, mother, I truly believe. Oh, pray +for her--for my sake as well as hers. Looking from the human side, I am +hopeless. It is only God's almighty power that can make us, as you +say, truly one. I fear that now she is only a heartless, fashionable +girl. Yet, if she is only this, I do not see how I came to love her +as I do. But my trust now is in your prayers to God." + +"And in your own also: the great Father loves you, too, my son. If He +chooses that the dross in her character should be burned away, and +your two lives fused, there are in His providence just the fiery trials, +just the circumstances that will bring it about." (Was she unconsciously +uttering a prophecy?) "The crucible of affliction, the test of some +great emergency, will often develop a seemingly weak and frivolous +girl into noble life, where there is real gold of latent worth to be +acted on." + +"Christine Ludolph is anything but weak and frivolous," said he. "Her +character is strong, and I think most decided in its present bent. But +as you say, if the Divine Alchemist wills it, He can change even the +dross to gold, and turn unbelief to faith." + +Hope, Christine! There is light coming, though as yet you cannot see +it. There are angels of mercy flying toward you, though you cannot +hear the rustle of their wings. The dark curtain of death and despair +can never shut down upon a life linked to heaven by such true, strong +prayer. And yet the logical results of wrong-doing will work themselves +out, sin must be punished and faith sorely tried. + +Dennis heard incidentally that Christine was absent on a visit to New +York, but he knew nothing of the time of her return. + +He now bent himself steadily and resolutely to the mastering of his +business, and under Mr. Bruder's direction resumed his art studies, +though now in such moderation as Dr. Arten would commend. + +He also entered on an artistic effort that would tax his powers and +genius to the very utmost, of which more anon. + +By the time Christine returned, he was quite himself again, though +much paler and thinner than when he first entered the store. + +After Christine had been at home nearly a week, her father, to rouse +her out of her listlessness, said one morning: "We have recently +received quite a remarkable painting from Europe. You will find it in +the upper show-room, and had better come down to-day to see it, for +it may be sold soon. I think you would like to copy one or two figures +in it." + +The lassitude from her New York dissipation was passing away, and her +active nature beginning to assert itself again. She started up and +said, "Wait five minutes and I will get sketching materials and go +down with you." + +By reason of her interdict, made at West Point, so earnestly, and +indeed fiercely, and confirmed by her manner, her father had never +mentioned the name of Dennis Fleet. The very fact that no one had +spoken of him since that dreadful day when tidings came in on every +side that he could not live was confirmation in her mind that he was +dead. + +She dreaded going to the store, especially for the first time, for +everything would irresistibly remind her of him whom she could not +think of now without a pang. But as the ordeal must come, why, the +sooner it was over the better. So a few moments later her hand was on +her father's arm, and they were on their way to the Art Building as +in happier days. + +Mr. Ludolph went to his office, and Christine, looking neither to the +right nor to the left, ascended to the upper show-room, and at once +sought to engage every faculty in making the sketch her father had +suggested. Since Dennis was not, as she believed, either on the earth +or elsewhere, she tried to take up life again as it had been before +he came, and to act as if he had never been. + +Hopeless task! In that familiar place, where they had begun the +rearrangement of the store, everything spoke of him. She saw his glowing +cheeks; again his dark, eager eyes followed her every movement and +interpreted her wishes even before she could speak. Some of the pictures +on the walls his hands had handled, and in her strong fancy his lithe +form seemed moving the ladder to take them down again, while she, with +heart and mind at rest, looked with growing curiosity and interest on +her humble helper. + +What changes had occurred within a short half-year! She shuddered at +the thought that one who was then so instinct with life and happiness +could now be dust and nothingness, and she the cause. + +Association and conscience were again too powerful. She was becoming +nervous and full of a strange unrest, so she concluded to finish her +sketch at another time. As she was gathering up her materials she heard +some one enter the room. + +She was in such a morbid, unstrung state that the least thing startled +her. But imagine if you can her wonder and terror as she saw Dennis +Fleet--the dead and buried, as she fully believed--enter, carrying a +picture as of old, and looking as of old, save that he was paler and +thinner. Was it an apparition? or, as she had read, had she dwelt so +long on this trouble that her mind and imagination were becoming +disordered and able to place their wild creations before her as +realities? + +Her sketching materials fell clattering to the floor, and after one +sharp exclamation of alarm she stood as if transfixed, with parted +lips and dilated eyes, panting like a frightened bird. + +If a sculptor had wished to portray the form and attitude of one +startled by the supernatural, never could he have found a more fitting +model than Christine at this moment. + +As she had been seated a little on one side Dennis had not seen her +at first; but, on recognizing her so unexpectedly, he was scarcely +less startled than she, and the valuable picture he was carrying nearly +met sudden destruction. But he had no such reason as Christine for the +continuance of his surprise, and, at once recovering himself, he set +the picture against the wall. + +This made the illusion still more strange and terrible to Christine. +There was the dead before her, doing just as she had been +imagining--just what he had done at her bidding months before. + +Dennis was greatly puzzled by her look of alarm and distress. Then he +thought that perhaps she feared he would break out in bitter and angry +invectives again, and he advanced toward her to assure her of the +contrary. + +Slowly and instinctively she retreated and put up her hands with a +deprecatory gesture. + +"She cannot endure the sight of me," thought he, but at once he said, +with dignified courtesy: "Miss Ludolph, you have nothing to fear from +me, that you should regard me in that manner. You need not shrink as +if from contagion. We can treat each other as courteous strangers, at +least." + +"I--I--I--thought you were dead!" she gasped, in a loud whisper. + +Dennis's cheek grew paler than it had been in all his sickness, and +then as suddenly became dark with anger. His eyes were terrible in +their indignation as he advanced a few paces almost fiercely. She +trembled violently and shrunk further away. + +"You thought I was dead?" he asked, sternly. + +"Ye-e-s," in the same unnatural whisper. + +"What!" he exclaimed, in short and bitter emphasis, "do you mean to +say that you never cared even to ask whether I lived or died in my +long, weary illness?--that you were so supremely indifferent to my +fate that you could not articulate one sentence of inquiry? Surely +this is the very sublimity of heartlessness; this is to be callous +beyond one's power of imagination. It seems to me that I would feel +as much interest as that in any human being I had once known. If even +a dog had licked my hand in good-will, and afterward I had seen it, +wounded or sick, creep off into covert, the next time I passed that +way I would step aside to see whether the poor creature had lived or +died. But after all the wealth of affection that I lavished upon you, +after toiling and almost dying in my vain effort to touch your marble +heart, you have not even the humanity to ask if I am above ground!" + +The illusion had now passed from Christine's mind, and with it her +alarm. The true state of the case was rapidly dawning upon her, and +she was about to speak eagerly; but in his strong indignation he +continued, impetuously: "You thought I was dead! The wish probably was +father to the thought. My presumption deserved no better fate. But +permit me to tell you, though all unbidden, I did not die. With God's +blessing I expect to live to a good old age, and intend that but few +years shall pass before my name is as well known and honored as the +ancient one of Ludolph;" and he turned on his heel and strode from the +room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +IF HE KNEW! + + +For a little time after Dennis's angry tread died away, Christine sat +almost paralyzed by surprise and deeper emotion. Her mind, though +usually clear and rapid in its action, was too confused to realize the +truth. Suddenly she sprang up, gathered together her sketching +materials, and drawing a thick veil over her face sped through the +store, through the streets, to the refuge of her own room. She must +be alone. + +Hastily throwing aside her wrappings, she began to walk up and down +in her excitement. Her listlessness was gone now in very truth, and +her eye and cheek glowed as never before. As if it had become the great +vivifying principle of her own life, she kept repeating continually +in a low, ecstatic tone, "He lives! he lives! he is not dead; his blood +is not upon my conscience!" + +At last she sat down in her luxurious chair before the window to think +it all over--to commune with herself--often the habit of the reserved +and solitary. From the disjointed sentences she let fall, from the +reflection of her excited face in yonder glass, we gather quite +correctly the workings of her mind. Her first words were, "Thank heaven! +thank something or other, I have not blotted out that true, strong +genius." + +Again--"What untold wretchedness I might have saved myself if I had +only asked the question, in a casual way, 'How is Mr. Fleet?' Christine +Ludolph, with all your pride and imagined superiority, you can be very +foolish. + +"How he hates and despises me now! little wonder!" + +"But if he knew!" + +"Knew what? Why could you not ask after him, as after any other sick +man? You have had a score or so of offers, and did not trouble yourself +as to the fate of the lovelorn swains. Seems to me your conscience has +been very tender in this case. And the fact that he misjudges you, +thinks you callous, heartless, and is angry, troubles you beyond +measure." + +"When before were you so sensitive to the opinion of clerks and +trades-people, or even the proudest suitors for your hand? But in this +case you must cry out, in a tone of sentimental agony, 'Oh, if he only +knew I'" + +"Knew what?" + +Her face in yonder mirror has a strange, introverted expression, as +if she were scanning her own soul. Her brow contracts with thought and +perplexity. + +Gradually a warm, beautiful light steals into her face, transforming +it as from the scowl of a winter morning into a dawn of June; her eyes +become gentle and tender. A rich color comes out upon her cheeks, +spreads up her temples, mantles her brow, and pours a crimson torrent +down her snowy neck. Suddenly she drops her burning face into her +hands, and hides a vision one would gladly look longer upon. But see, +even her little ears have become as red as coral. + +The bleakest landscape in the world brightens into something like +beauty when the sun shines upon it. So love, the richer, sweeter light +of the soul, make the plainest face almost beautiful; but when it +changed Christine Ludolph's faultless, yet too cold and classical, +features into those of a loving woman's, it suggested a beauty scarcely +human. + +A moment later there came a faint whisper: "I fear--I almost fear I +love him." Then she lifted a startled, frightened face and looked +timidly around as if, in truth, walls had ears. + +Reassured by the consciousness of solitude, her head dropped on her +wrist and her revery went forward. Her eyes became dreamy, and a +half-smile played upon her lips as she recalled proof after proof of +his affection, for she knew the cruel words of the last interview were +the result of misunderstanding. + +But suddenly she darted from her seat and began pacing the room in the +strongest perturbation. + +"Mocked again!" she cried; "the same cruel fate! my old miserable +experience in a new aspect! With everything within my reach, save the +one thing I want, I possess the means of all kinds of happiness except +that which makes me happy. In every possible way I am pledged to a +career and future in which he can take no part. Though my heart is +full of the strangest, sweetest chaos, and I do not truly understand +myself, yet I am satisfied that this is not a school-girl's fancy. But +my father would regard it as the old farce repeated. Already he suspects +and frowns upon the matter. I should have to break with him utterly +and forever. I should have to give up all my ambitious plans and +towering hopes of life abroad. A plain Mrs. in this city of shops is +a poor substitute for a countess's coronet and a villa on the Rhine." + +Her cheek flushed, and her lip curled. + +"That indeed would be the very extravagance of romance, and how could +I, least of all, who so long have scoffed at such things, explain my +action? These mushroom shopkeepers, who were all nobodies the other +day, elevate their eyebrows when a merchant's daughter marries her +father's clerk. But when would the wonder cease if a German lady of +rank followed suit? + +"Then again my word, my honor, every sacred pledge I could give, forbids +such folly. + +"Would to heaven I had never seen him, for this unfortunate fancy of +mine must be crushed in its inception; strangled before it comes to +master me as it has mastered him." + +After a long and weary sigh she continued: "Well, everything is +favorable for a complete and final break between us. He believes me +heartless and wicked to the last degree. I cannot undeceive him without +showing more than he should know. I have only to avoid him, to say +nothing, and we drift apart. + +"If we could only have been friends he might have helped me so much! +but that now is clearly impossible--yes, for both of us. + +"Truly one of these American poets was right: + +"'For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these--It +might have been.' + +"But thanks to the immortal gods, as the pious heathen used to say, +his blood is not on my hands, and this has taken a mountain off my +heart. Thus relieved I can perhaps forget all the miserable business. +Fate forbids that I, as it has forbidden that many another high-born +woman, should marry where she might have loved." + +If Christine's heart was wronged, her pride was highly gratified by +this conclusion. Here was a new and strong resemblance between herself +and the great. In mind she recalled the titled unfortunates who had +"loved where they could not marry," and with the air and feeling of +a martyr to ancestral grandeur she pensively added her name to the +list. + +With her conscience freed from its burden of remorse, with the +knowledge, so sweet to every woman, that she might accept this happiness +if she would, in spite of her airs of martyrdom, the world had changed +greatly for the better, and with the natural buoyancy of youth she +reacted into quite a cheerful and hopeful state. + +Her father noticed this on his return to dinner in the evening, and +sought to learn its cause. He asked, "How did you make out with your +sketch?" + +"I made a beginning," she answered, with some little color rising to +her cheek. + +"Perhaps you were interrupted?" + +"Why did you not tell me that Mr. Fleet had recovered?" she asked, +abruptly. + +"Why, did you think he was dead?" + +"Yes." + +Mr. Ludolph indulged in a hearty laugh (he knew the power of ridicule). + +"Well, that is excellent!" he said. "You thought the callow youth had +died on account of your hardness of heart; and this explains your +rather peculiar moods and tenses of late. Let me assure you that a +Yankee never dies from such a cause." + +Mr. Ludolph determined if possible to break down her reserve and let +in the garish light, which he knew to be most fatal to all romantic +fancies, that ever thrive best in the twilight of secrecy. But she was +on the alert now, and in relief of mind had regained her poise and the +power to mask her feeling. So she said in a tone tinged with cold +indifference, "You may be right, but I had good reason to believe to +the contrary, and, as I am not altogether without a conscience, you +might have saved much pain by merely mentioning the fact of his +recovery." + +"But you had adjured me with frightful solemnity never to mention his +name again," said her father, still laughing. + +Christine colored and bit her lip. She had forgotten for the moment +this awkward fact. + +"I was nervous, sick, and not myself that day, and every one I met +could speak of nothing but Mr. Fleet." + +"Well, really," he said, "in the long list of the victims that you +have wounded if not slain, I never supposed my clerk and quondam +man-of-all-work would prove so serious a case." + +"A truce to your bantering, father! Mr. Fleet is humble only in station, +not in character, not in ability. You know I have never been very +tender with the 'victims,' as you designate them, of the Mellen stamp; +but Mr. Fleet is a man, in the best sense of the word, and one that +I have wronged. Now that the folly is past I may as well explain to +you some things that have appeared strange. I think I can truly say +that I have given those gentlemen who have honored, or rather annoyed +me, by their unwished-for regard, very little encouragement. Therefore, +I was not responsible for any follies they might commit. But for +artistic reasons I did encourage Mr. Fleet's infatuation. You remember +how I failed in making a copy of that picture. In my determination to +succeed, I hit upon the rather novel expedient of inspiring and copying +the genuine thing. You know my imitative power is better than my +imagination, and I thought that by often witnessing the expression of +feeling and passion, I might learn to portray it without the +disagreeable necessity of passing through any such experiences myself. +But the experiment, as you know, did not work well. These living +subjects are hard to manage, and, as I have said, I am troubled by a +conscience." + +Mr. Ludolph's eyes sparkled, and a look of genuine admiration lighted +up his features. + +"Brava!" he cried; "your plan was worthy of you and of your ancestry. +It was a real stroke of genius. You were too tender-hearted, otherwise +it would have been perfect. What are the lives of a dozen such young +fellows compared with the development and perfection of such a woman +as you bid fair to be?" + +Christine had displayed in this transaction just the qualities that +her father most admired. But even she was shocked at his callousness, +and lifted a somewhat startled face to his. + +"Your estimate of human life is rather low," she said. + +"Not at all. Is not one perfect plant better than a dozen imperfect +ones? The gardener often pulls up the crowding and inferior ones to +throw them about the roots of the strongest, that in their death and +decay they may nourish it to the highest development. The application +of this principle is evident. They secure most in this world who have +the skill and power to grasp most." + +"But how about the rights of others? Conscious men and women are not +plants." + +"Let them be on their guard then. Every one is for himself in this +world. That can be plainly seen through the thin disguises that some +try to assume. After all, half the people we meet are little better +than summer weeds." + +Christine almost shuddered to think that the one bound to her by closest +ties cherished such sentiments toward the world, and probably, to a +certain extent, toward herself, but she only said, quietly: "I can +hardly subscribe to your philosophy as yet, though I fear I act upon +it too often. Still it does not apply to Mr. Fleet. He is gifted in +no ordinary degree, and doubtless will stand high here in his own land +in time. And now, as explanation has been made, with your permission +we will drop this subject out of our conversation as before." + +"Well," said Mr. Ludolph to himself, between sips of his favorite Rhine +wine, "I have gained much light on the subject to-night, and I must +confess that, even with my rather wide experience, the whole thing is +a decided novelty. If Christine were only less troubled with conscience, +over-fastidiousness, or whatever it is--if she were more moderate in +her ambition as an artist, and could be satisfied with power and +admiration, as other women are--what a star she might become in the +fashionable world of Europe! But, for some reason, I never feel sure +of her. Her spirit is so wilful and obstinate, and she seems so full +of vague longing after an ideal, impossible world, that I live in +constant dread that she may be led into some folly fatal to my ambition. +This Fleet is a most dangerous fellow. I wish I were well rid of him; +still, matters are not so bad as I feared--that is, if she told me the +whole truth, which I am inclined to doubt. But I had better keep him +in my employ during the few months we still remain in this land, as +I can watch over him, and guard against his influence better than if +he were beyond my control. But no more promotion or encouragement does +he get from me." + +Janette, Christine's French maid, passed the open door. The thought +struck Mr. Ludolph that he might secure an ally in her. + +The unscrupulous creature was summoned, and agreed for no very large +sum to become a spy upon Christine, and report anything looking toward +friendly relations with Dennis Fleet. + +"The game is still in my hands," said the wary man. "I will yet steer +my richly-freighted argosy up the Rhine. Here's to Christine, the belle +of the German court!" and he filled a slender Venetian glass to the +brim, drained it, and then retired. + +Christine, on reaching her room, muttered to herself: "He now knows +all that I mean he ever shall. We are one in our ambition, if nothing +else, and therefore our relations must be to a certain degree +confidential and amicable. And now forget you have a conscience, forget +you have a heart, and, above all things, forget that you have ever +seen or known Dennis Fleet." + +Thus the influence of a false education, a proud, selfish, ambitious +life, decided her choice. She plunged as resolutely into the whirl of +fashionable gayety about her as she had in the dissipations of New +York, determined to forget the past, and kill the time that must +intervene before she could sail away to her brilliant future in Germany. + +But she gradually learned that, if conscience had robbed her of peace +before, something else disturbed her now, and rendered her efforts +futile. She found that there was a principle at work in her heart +stronger even than her resolute will. In spite of her purpose to the +contrary, she caught herself continually thinking of Dennis, and +indulging in strange, delicious reveries in regard to him. + +At last she ceased to shun the store as she had done at first, but with +increasing frequency found some necessity for going there. + +After the interview in the show-room, Dennis was driven to the bitter +conclusion that Christine was utterly heartless, and cared not a jot +for him. His impression was confirmed by the fact that she shunned the +store, and that he soon heard of her as a belle and leader in the +ultra-fashionable world. He, too, bitterly lamented that he had ever +seen her, and was struggling with all the power of his will to forget +her. He fiercely resolved that, since she wished him dead, she should +become dead to him. + +Almost immediately after his return he had discovered that the two +emblematical pictures had been removed from the loft over the store. +He remembered that he had spoken of them to Christine, and from Ernst +he gathered that she herself had taken them away. It was possible, he +believed, that she had made them the subject of ridicule. At best she +must have destroyed them in order to blot out all trace of a +disagreeable episode. Whatever may have been their fate, they had, as +he thought, failed in their purpose, and were worthless to him, and +he was far too proud to make inquiries. + +As the weeks passed on, he apparently succeeded better than she. There +was nothing in her character, as she then appeared, that appealed to +anything gentle or generous. She seemed so proud, so strong and resolute +in her choice of evil, so devoid of the true womanly nature, as he had +learned to reverence it in his mother, that he could not pity, much +less respect her, and even his love could scarcely survive under such +circumstances. + +When she began coming to the store again, though his heart beat thick +and fast at her presence, he turned his back and seemed not to see +her, or made some errand to a remote part of the building. At first +she thought this might be accident, but she soon found it a resolute +purpose to ignore her very existence. By reason of a trait peculiar +to Christine, this was only the more stimulating. She craved all the +more that which was seemingly denied. + +Accustomed to every gratification, to see all yield to her wishes, and +especially to find gentlemen almost powerless to resist her beauty, +she came to regard this one stern, averted face as infinitely more +attractive than all the rest in the world. + +"That he so steadily avoids me proves that he is anything but +indifferent," she said to herself one day. + +She condemned her visits to the store, and often reproached herself +with folly in going; but a secret powerful magnetism drew her thither +in spite of herself. + +Dennis, too, soon noticed that she came often, and the fact awakened +a faint hope within him. He learned that his love was not dead, but +only chilled and chained by circumstances and his own strong will. +True, apart from the fact of her coming, she gave him no encouragement. +She was as distant and seemingly oblivious of his existence as he of +hers, but love can gather hope from a marvellously little thing. + +But one day Christine detected her father watching her movements with +the keenest scrutiny, and after that she came more and more rarely. +The hope that for a moment had tinged the darkness surrounding Dennis +died away like the meteor's transient light. + +He went into society very little after his illness, and shunned large +companies. He preferred to spend his evenings with his mother and in +study. The Winthrops were gone, having removed to their old home in +Boston, and he had not formed very intimate acquaintances elsewhere. +Moreover, his limited circle, though of the best and most refined, was +not one in which Christine often appeared. + +But one evening his cheek paled and his heart fluttered as he saw her +entering the parlors of a lady by whom he had been invited to meet a +few friends. For some little time he studiously avoided her, but at +last his hostess, with well-meant zeal, formally presented him. + +They bowed very politely and very coldly. The lady surmised that +Christine did not care about the acquaintance of her father's clerk, +and so brought them no more together. But Christine was pained by +Dennis's icy manner, and saw that she was thoroughly misunderstood. +When asked to sing, she chose a rather significant ditty: + + "Ripple, sparkle, rapid stream, + Let your dancing wavelets gleam + Quiveringly and bright; + Children think the surface glow + Reaches to the depth below, + Hidden from the light. + + "Human faces often seem + Like the sparkle of the stream, + In the social glare; + Some assert, in wisdom's guise, + (Look they not with children's eyes?) + All is surface there." + +As she rose from the piano her glance met his with something like +meaning in it, he imagined. He started, flushed, and his face became +full of eager questioning. But her father was on the watch also, and, +placing his daughter's hand within his arm, he led her into the front +parlor, and soon after they pleaded another engagement and vanished +altogether. + +No chance for explanation came, and soon a new and all-absorbing anxiety +filled Dennis's heart, and the shadow of the greatest sorrow that he +had yet experienced daily drew nearer. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +THE GATES OPEN + + +At Dennis's request, Dr. Arten called and carefully inquired into Mrs. +Fleet's symptoms. Her son stood anxiously by awaiting the result of +the examination. At last the physician said, cheerily: "There is no +immediate occasion for alarm here. I am sorry to say that your mother's +lungs are far from strong, but they may carry her through many +comfortable years yet. I will prescribe tonics, and you may hope for +the best. But mark this well, she must avoid exposure. A severe cold +might be most serious in its consequences." + +How easy to say, "Do not take cold!" How many whose lives were at stake +have sought to obey the warning, but all in vain! Under Dr. Arten's +tonics, Mrs. Fleet grew stronger, and Dennis rejoiced over the +improvement. But, in one of the sudden changes attendant on the breaking +up of winter, the dreaded cold was taken, and it soon developed into +acute pneumonia. + +For a few days she was very ill, and Dennis never left her side. In +the intervals of pain and fever she would smile at him and whisper: +"The harbor is near. This rough weather cannot last much longer." + +"Mother, do not leave us; we cannot spare you," ever pleaded her son. + +Contrary to her expectations, however, she rallied, but continued in +a very feeble state. Dennis was able to resume his duties in the store, +and he hoped and tried to believe that the warm spring and summer days +soon to come would renew his mother's strength. But every day she grew +feebler, and Dr. Arten shook his head. + +The Bruders were very kind, and it was astonishing how much Mrs. Bruder, +though burdened with her large family, found time to do. If Mrs. Fleet +had been her own mother she could not have bestowed upon her more +loving solicitude. Mr. Bruder was devotion itself. He removed his easel +to an attic-room in Mrs. Fleet's house; and every hour of Dennis's +absence heard him say: "Vat I do for you now? I feel no goot unless +I do someding." + +Some little time after Mrs. Fleet was taken sick a mystery arose. The +most exquisite flowers and fruits were left at the house from time to +time, marked in a bold, manly hand, "For Mrs. Fleet." But all efforts +to discover their source failed. + +The reader will guess that Christine was the donor, and Dennis hoped +it--though, he admitted to himself, with little reason. + +Mrs. Fleet had not much pain. She seemed gently wafted as by an ebbing +tide away from time and earth, Kindly but firmly she sought to prepare +Dennis's mind for the change soon to take place. At first he could not +endure its mention, but she said, earnestly: "My son, I am not dying. +I am just entering on the true, real, eternal life--a life which is +as much beyond this poor feeble existence as the sun is brighter than +a glow-worm. I shall soon clasp my dear husband to my heart again, +and, oh, ecstasy! I shall soon in reality see the Saviour whom I now +see almost continually in vision." + +Then again she would turn toward her earthly treasures with unutterable +yearning and tenderness. + +"Oh, that I could gather you up in my arms and take you all with me!" +she would often exclaim. Many times during the day she would call the +little girls from their play and kiss their wondering faces. + +One evening Dennis came home and found a vase of flowers with a green +background of mint at his mother's bedside. Their delicate fragrance +greeted him as soon as he entered. As he sat by her side holding her +hand, he said, softly: "Mother, are not these sprays of mint rather +unusual in a bouquet? Has the plant any special meaning? I have noticed +it before mingled with these mysterious flowers." + +She smiled and answered, "When I was a girl its language was, 'Let us +be friends again.'" + +"Do you think--can it be possible that _she_ sends them?" said he, in a +low, hesitating tone. + +"Prayer is mighty, my son." + +"And have you been praying for her all this time, mother?" + +"Yes, and will continue to do so to the last." + +"Oh, mother! I have lost hope. My heart has been full of bitterness +toward her, and I have felt that God was against it all." + +"God is not against her learning to know Him, which is life. Jesus has +loved her all the time, and she has wronged Him more than she has you." + +Dennis bowed his head on his mother's hand, and she felt hot tears +fall upon it. At last he murmured: "You are indeed going to heaven +soon, dear mother, for your language is not of earth. When will such +a spirit dwell within me?" + +"Again remember your mother's words," she answered, gently; "prayer +is mighty." + +"Mother," said he, with a sudden earnestness, "do you think you can +pray for us in heaven?" + +"I know of no reason to the contrary." + +"Then I know you will, and the belief will ever be a source of hope +and strength." + +Mrs. Fleet was now passing through the land of Beulah. To her strong +spiritual vision, the glories of the other shore seemed present, and +at times she thought that she really heard music; again it would seem +as if her Saviour had entered the plain little room, as He did the +humble home at Bethany. + +Her thoughts ran much on Christine. One day she wrote, feebly: + +"Would Miss Ludolph be willing to come and see a dying woman? + ETHEL FLEET." + +Mr. Bruder carried it, but most unfortunately Christine was out, so +that her maid, ever on the alert to earn the price of her treachery, +received it. It was slightly sealed. She opened it, and saw from its +contents that it must be given to Mr. Ludolph. He with a frown committed +it to the flames. + +"I have written to her," she whispered to her son in the evening, "and +think she will come to see me." + +Dennis was sleepless that night, through his hope and eager expectation. +The following day, and the next passed, and she came not. + +"I was right," exclaimed he, bitterly. "She is utterly heartless. It +was not she who sent the flowers. Who that is human would have refused +such a request! Waste no more thought upon her, for she is unworthy, +and it is all in vain." "No!" said Mrs. Fleet in sudden energy. "It +is not in vain. Have I not prayed again and again? and shall I doubt +God?" + +"Your faith is stronger than mine," he answered, in deep despondency. + +"God's time is not always ours," she answered, gently. + +But an angry fire lurked in Dennis's eyes, and he muttered to himself +as he went to his room: "She has snapped the last slender cord that +bound me to her. I could endure almost anything myself, but that she +should refuse to visit my dying mother proves her a monster, with all +her beauty." + +As he was leaving the house in the morning, his mother whispered, +gently, "Who was it that said, 'Father, forgive them, they know not what +they do?'" + +"Ah, but she does know," said he, bitterly. "I can forgive nearly +everything against myself, but not slights to you." + +"The time will come when you will forgive everything, my son." + +"Not till there is acknowledgment and sorrow for the wrong," answered +he, sternly. Then with a sudden burst of tenderness he added: "Good-by, +darling mother. I will try to do anything you wish, even though it is +impossible;" but his love, through Janette's treachery, suffered the +deepest wound it had yet received. + +Christine of her own accord had almost decided to call upon Mrs. Fleet, +but before she could carry out her purpose while hastily coming +downstairs one day, she sprained her ankle, and was confined to her +room some little time. + +She sent Janette with orders for the flowers, who, at once surmising +their destination, said to the florist that she was Miss Ludolph's +confidential maid, and would carry them to those for whom they were +designed. He, thinking it "all right," gave them to her, and she took +them to a Frenchman in the same trade whom she knew, and sold them at +half-price, giving him a significant sign to ask no questions. To the +same market she brought the fruit; so from that time they ceased as +mysteriously as they had appeared at Mrs. Fleet's bedside. + +But Dennis was so anxious, and his mother was now failing so rapidly, +that he scarcely noted this fact. The warm spring days seemed rather +to enervate than to strengthen her. He longed to stay with her +constantly, but his daily labor was necessary to secure the comforts +needful to an invalid. Every morning he bade her a most tender adieu, +and during the day often sent Ernst to inquire how she was. + +One evening Christine ventured to send Janette on the same errand and +impatiently awaited her return. At last she came, appearing as if +flushed and angry. + +"Whom did you see?" asked Christine, eagerly. + +"I saw Mr. Fleet himself." + +"Well, what did he say?" + +"He bite his lip, frown, and say, 'Zere is no answer,' and turn on his +heel into ze house." + +It was now Christine's turn to be angry. "What!" she exclaimed, "does +his Bible teach him to forget and forgive nothing? Can it be that he, +like the rest of them, believes and acts on only such parts as are to +his mood?" + +"I don't know nothing about him," said the maid, "only I don't want +to go zere again." + +"You need not," was the brief reply. + +After a long, bitter revery, she sighed: "Ah, well, thus we drift +apart. But it is just as well, for apart we must ever be." + +One morning early in May Mrs. Fleet was very weak, and Dennis left her +with painful misgivings. During the morning he sent Ernst to see how +she was, and he soon returned, with wild face, crying, "Come home +quick!" + +Breaking abruptly from his startled customer, Dennis soon reached his +mother's side. Mr. and Mrs. Bruder were sobbing at the foot of the +bed, and the girls were pleading piteously on either side--"Oh, mother! +please don't go away!" + +"Hush!" said Dennis, solemnly. Awed by his manner, all became +comparatively silent. He bent over the bed, and said, "Mother, you are +leaving us." + +The voice of her beloved son rallied the dying woman's wandering mind. +After a moment she recognized him, smiled faintly, and whispered: "Yes, +I think I am--kiss me--good-by. Bring--the children. Jesus--take +care--my little--lambs. Good-by--true--honest friends--meet me--heaven. +Dennis--these children--your charge--bring them home--to me. Pray for +_her_. I don't know--why--she seems very--near to me. Farewell--my +good--true--son--mother's blessing--God's blessing--ever rest--on you." + +Her eyes closed, and she fell into a gentle sleep. + +"She vake no more in dis vorld," said Mrs. Bruder, in an awed tone. + +Mr. Bruder, unable to control his feelings any longer, hurried from +the room. His wife, with streaming eyes, silently dressed the little +girls, and took them home with her, crying piteously all the way for +mamma. + +Pale, tearless, motionless, Dennis sat, hour after hour holding his +mother's hand. He noted that her pulse grew more and more feeble. At +last the sun in setting broke through the clouds that had obscured it +all day, and filled the room with a sudden glory. + +To Dennis's great surprise, his mother's eyes opened wide, with the +strange, far-off look they ever had when she was picturing to herself +the unknown world. + +Her lips moved. He bent over her and caught the words: "Hark! hear!--It +never was so sweet before. See the angels--thronging toward me--they +never came so near before." + +Then a smile of joy and welcome lighted up her wan features, and she +whispered, "Oh, Dennis, husband--are we once more united?" + +Suddenly there was a look of ecstasy such as her son had never seen +on any human face, and she cried almost aloud, "Jesus--my Saviour!" +and received, as it were, directly into His arms, she passed from +earth. + +We touch briefly on the scenes that followed. Dennis took the body of +his mother to her old home, and buried it under the wide-spreading elm +in the village churchyard, where as a happy child and blooming maiden +she had often sat between the services. It was his purpose to remove +the remains of his father and place them by her side as soon as he +could afford it. + +His little sisters accompanied him east, and he found a home for them +with a sister of his mother, who was a good, kind, Christian lady. +Dennis's salary was not large, but sufficient to insure that his sisters +would be no burden to his aunt, who was in rather straitened +circumstances. He also arranged that the small annuity should be paid +for their benefit. + +It was hard parting from his sisters, whose little hearts seemed +breaking at what appeared to them to be a new bereavement. + +"How can I leave them!" he exclaimed, with tears falling fast from his +eyes. + +"They are children," said his aunt, soothingly, "and will forget their +troubles in a few days." + +And so it proved; but Dennis, with a sore heart, and feeling very +lonely, returned to Chicago. + +When at last Christine got out again, she learned from Ernst at the +store that Dennis's mother had died, and that he had taken the remains +and his sisters east. In his sorrow he seemed doubly interesting to +her. + +"How I wish it were in my power to cheer and comfort him!" she sighed, +"and yet I fear my ability to do this is less than that of any one +else. In very truth he seems to despise and hate me now. The barriers +between us grow stronger and higher every day. How different it all +might have been if--. But what is the use of these wretched 'ifs'? +What is the use of resisting this blind, remorseless fate that brings +happiness to one and crushes another?" + +Wearily and despondingly she rode back to the elegant home in which +she found so little enjoyment. + +Whom should she met there but Mrs. Von Brakhiem from New York, bound +westward with a gay party on a trip to the Rocky Mountains and +California? They had stopped to spend a few days in Chicago, and were +determined to take Christine on with them. Her father strongly seconded +the plan. Though Christine surmised his motive, she did not care to +resist. Since she would soon be separated from Dennis forever, the +less she saw of him the less would be the pain. Moreover, her sore and +heavy heart welcomed any change that would cause forgetfulness; and +so it was speedily arranged. + +Mrs. Von Brakhiem and her party quite took possession of the Ludolph +mansion, and often made it echo with gayety. + +On the evening of the day that Dennis buried his mother, Ernst went over +at Mr. Ludolph's request to carry a message. He found the house +the scene of a fashionable revel. There were music and dancing in the +parlors, and from the dining-room the clink of glasses and loud peals +of laughter proved that this was not Christine's ideal of an +entertainment as she had portrayed it to her father on a former +occasion. In truth, she had little to do with the affair; it was quite +impromptu, and Mr. Ludolph and Mrs. Von Brakhiem were responsible for +it. + +But Ernst could not know this, and to him it seemed shocking. The +simple funeral service taking place on that day in the distant New +England village had never been absent from his thoughts a moment. Since +early morning he had gone about with his little face composed to +funereal gravity. + +His simple, warm-hearted parents felt that they could only show proper +respect for the occasion by the deepest gloom. Their rooms were arranged +in stiff and formal manner, with crape here and there. All unnecessary +work ceased, and the children, forbidden to play, were dressed in +mourning as far as possible, and made to sit in solemn and dreadful +state all day. It would not have surprised Ernst if the whole city had +gone into mourning. Therefore the revelry at the Ludolph mansion seemed +to him heartless and awful beyond measure, and nearly the first things +he told Dennis on the latter's return was that they had had "a great +dancing and drinking party, the night of the funeral, at Mr. Ludolph's." +Then, trying to find some explanation for what seemed to him such a +strange and wicked thing, he suggested, "Perhaps they meant it for a +wake." + +Poor little Ernst's ideas of the world, outside of his home, had been +gathered from a very low neighborhood. + +He also handed Dennis a letter that Mr. Ludolph requested should be +given him on his return. It read as follows: + + "CHICAGO, May 6, 1871. + +"I have been compelled to supply your place in your absence: therefore +your services will be no longer needed at this store. Inclosed you +will find a check for the small balance still due you, + AUGUST LUDOLPH." + +Dennis's brow grew very dark, and in bitter soliloquy he said, half +aloud, as he strode up and down his little room in great agitation: +"And so it all ends! The girl at whose side my mother would have watched +in the most dangerous and loathsome of diseases; the woman of ice whom +I sought to melt and render human by as warm, true love as ever man +lavished on one who rewarded his affection--this beautiful monster +will not even visit my mother when dying; she holds a revel on the day +of the funeral; and now, through her influence no doubt, I am robbed +of the chance of winning honest bread. She cannot even endure the sight +of the man who once told her the unvarnished truth. Poor as you deem +me, Christine Ludolph, with God's help not many years shall pass before +it will be condescension on my part to recognize you." + +He would not even go to the store again. The Bruders, having heard +what had occurred, took Ernst away also; but Dennis soon found him a +better situation elsewhere. + +The day on which Dennis returned, Christine was speeding in a palace-car +toward the Rocky Mountains, outwardly gay, determined to enjoy herself +and carry out her reckless purpose to get the most possible out of +life, cost what it might. + +If she had been a shallow girl, thoughtless and vain, with only mind +enough to take in the events of the passing moment, she might have +bought many fleeting pleasures with her abundant wealth. But this she +was not, with all her faults, and wherever she went, in the midst of +gayest scenes, and in the presence of the grandest and most inspiring +scenery, thought and memory, like two spectres that no spell could lay, +haunted her and robbed her of peace and any approach to happiness. +Though possessing the means of gratifying every whim, though restrained +by no scruples from doing what she chose, she felt that all around +were getting more from life than she. + +During her absence she experienced a sudden and severe attack of +illness. Her friends were much alarmed about her, and she far more +about herself. All her old terror returned. In one respect she was +like her mother; she had no physical courage, but shrank with +inexpressible dread from danger, pain, and death. Again the blackness +of darkness gathered round her, and not one in the gay pleasure party +could say a word to comfort her. + +She recovered, and soon regained her usual health, but her +self-confidence was more thoroughly shaken. She felt like one in a +little cockle-shell boat out upon a shoreless ocean. While the +treacherous sea remained calm, all might be well, but she knew that +a storm would soon arise, and that she must go down, beyond remedy. +Again she had been taught how suddenly, how unexpectedly, that storm +might rise. + +Dennis resolved at once to enter on the career of an artist. He sold +to Mr. French, at a moderate price, some paintings and sketches he had +made. He rented a small room that became his studio, +sleeping-apartment--in brief, his home, and then went to work with all +the ordinary incentives to success intensified by his purpose to reach +a social height that would compel Christine to look upward if their +acquaintance were renewed. + +Disappointment in love is one of the severest tests of character in +man or woman. Some sink into weak sentimentality, and mope and languish; +some become listless, apathetic, and float down the current of existence +like driftwood. Men are often harsh and cynical, and rail at the sex +to which their mothers and sisters belong. Sometimes a man inflicts +a wellnigh fatal wound and leaves his victim to cure it as best she +may. From that time forth she may be like the wronged Indian, who slays +as many white men as he can. Not a few, on finding they cannot enter +the beautiful paradise of happy love, plunge into imbruting vice, and +drown not only their disappointment but themselves in dissipation. +Their course is like that of some who deem that the best way to cure +a wound or end a disease is to kill the patient as soon as possible. +If women have true metal in them (and they usually have) they become +unselfishly devoted to others, and by gentle, self-denying ways seek +to impart to those about them the happiness denied to themselves. + +But with all manly young men the instinct of Dennis is perhaps the +most common. They will rise, shine, and dazzle the eyes that once +looked scornfully or indifferently at them. + +As he worked patiently at his noble calling this smaller ambition was +gradually lost in the nobler, broader one, to be a true artist and a +good man. + +During his illness some gentlemen of large wealth and liberality, who +wished to stimulate and develop the native artistic talent of their +city, offered a prize of two thousand dollars for the finest picture +painted during the year, the artist also having the privilege of selling +his work. + +On his return after his illness Dennis heard of this, and determined +to be one of the competitors. He applied to Mr. Cornell, who had the +matter in charge, for permission to enter the lists, which that +gentleman granted rather doubtfully. He had known Dennis only as a +critic, not as an artist. But having gained his point, Dennis went +earnestly to work on the emblematic painting he had resolved upon, and +with what success the following chapters will show. + +His mother's sickness and death, of course, put a complete shop to his +artistic labors for a time, but when entering on his new career, he +gave himself wholly to this effort. + +The time for exhibition and decision was fixed--Saturday morning October +7, 1871. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +SUSIE WINTHROP APPEARS AGAIN + + +Our story passes rapidly over the scenes and events of the summer and +fall of '71. Another heavy blow fell upon Dennis in the loss of his +old friend and instructor, Mr. Bruder. + +By prayer and effort, his own and others, he was saved morally and +spiritually, but he had been greatly shattered by past excess. He was +attacked by typhoid fever, and after a few days' illness died. Recovery +from this disease depends largely upon strength and purity of +constitution. But every one of the innumerable glasses of liquor that +poor Bruder had swallowed had helped to rob him of these, and so there +was no power to resist. + +Under her husband's improved finances, Mrs. Bruder had removed to +comfortable lodgings in Harrison Street, and these she determined to +keep if possible, dreading for the sake of her children the influences +of +a crowded tenement house. Dennis stood by her, a stanch and helpful +friend; Ernst was earning a good little sum weekly, and by her needle +and washtub the patient woman continued the hard battle of life with +fair prospects of success. + +Dennis's studio was on the south side, at the top of a tall building +overlooking the lake. Even before the early summer sun rose above the +shining waves he was at his easel, and so accomplished what is a fair +day's work before many of his profession had left their beds. Though +he worked hard and long, he still worked judiciously. Bent upon +accomplishing what was almost impossible within the limited time +remaining, he determined that, with all his labor, Dr. Arten should +never charge him with suicidal tendencies again. Therefore he trained +himself mentally and morally for his struggle as the athlete trains +himself physically. + +He believed in the truth, too little recognized among brain-workers, +that men can develop themselves into splendid mental conditions, wherein +they can accomplish almost double their ordinary amount of labor. + +The year allotted to the competitors for the prize to be given in +October was all too short for such a work as he had attempted, and +through his own, his mother's, and Mr. Bruder's illness, he had lost +a third of the time, but in the careful and skilful manner indicated +he was trying to make it up. He had a long conversation with shrewd +old Dr. Arten, who began to take a decided interest in him. He also +read several books on hygiene. Thus he worked under the guidance of +reason, science, Christian principle, instead of mere impulse, as is +too often the case with genius. + +In the absorption of his task he withdrew utterly from society, and, +with the exception of his mission class, Christian worship on the +Sabbath, and attendance on a little prayer-meeting in a neglected +quarter during the week, he permitted no other demands upon his time +and thoughts. + +His pictures had sold for sufficient to provide for his sisters and +enable him to live, with close economy, till after the prize was given, +and then, if he did not gain it (of which he was not at all sure), his +painting would sell for enough to meet future needs. + +And so we leave him for a time earnestly at work. He was like a ship +that had been driven hither and thither, tempest-tossed and in danger. +At last, under a clear sky and in smooth water, it finds its true +bearings, and steadily pursues its homeward voyage. + +The Christine whom he had first learned to love in happy +unconsciousness, while they arranged the store together, became a +glorified, artistic ideal. The Christine whom he had learned to know +as false and heartless was now to him a strange, fascinating, unwomanly +creature, beautiful only as the Sirens were beautiful, that he might +wreck himself body and soul before her unpitying eyes. He sought to +banish all thought of her. + +Christine returned about midsummer. She was compelled to note, as she +neared her native city, that of all the objects it contained Dennis +Fleet was uppermost in her thoughts. She longed to go to the store and +see him once more, even though it should be only at a distance, with +not even the shadow of recognition between them. She condemned it all +as folly, and worse than vain, but that made no difference to her +heart, which would have its way. + +Almost trembling with excitement she entered the Art Building the next +day, and glanced around with a timidity that was in marked contrast +to her usual cold and critical regard. But, as the reader knows, Dennis +Fleet was not to be seen. From time to time she went again, but neither +he nor Ernst appeared. She feared that for some reason he had gone, +and determined to learn the truth. Throwing off the strange timidity +and restraint that ever embarrassed her where he was concerned, she +said to Mr. Schwartz one day: "I don't like the way that picture is +hung. Where is Mr. Fleet? I believe he has charge of that department." + +"Why, bless you! Miss Ludolph," replied Mr. Schwartz, with a look of +surprise, "Mr. Ludolph discharged him over two months ago." + +"Discharged him! what for?" + +"For being away too much, I heard," said old Schwartz, with a shrug +indicating that that might be the reason and might not. + +Christine came to the store but rarely thereafter, for it had lost its +chief element of interest. That evening she said to her father, "You +have discharged Mr. Fleet?" + +"Yes," was the brief answer. + +"May I ask the reason?" + +"He was away too much." + +"That is not the real reason," she said, turning suddenly upon him. +"Father, what is the use of treating me as a child? What is the use +of trying to lock things up and keep them from me? I intend to go to +Germany with you this fall, and that is sufficient." + +With a courtly smile Mr. Ludolph replied, "And I have lived long enough, +my daughter, to know that what people _intend_, and what they _do_ are +two very different things." + +She flushed angrily and said: "It was most unjust to discharge him as +you did. Do you not remember that he offered his mother's services as +nurse when I was dreading the smallpox?" + +"You are astonishingly grateful in this case," said her father, with +a meaning that Christine understood too well; "but, if you will read +the records of the Ludolph race, you will find that its representatives +have often been compelled to do things somewhat arbitrarily. Since you +have been gone, I have received letters announcing the death of my +brother and his wife. I am now Baron Ludolph!" + +But Christine was too angry and too deeply wounded to note this +information, which at one time would have elated her beyond measure. +She coldly said, "It is a pity that noblemen are compelled to aught +but noble deeds"; and, with this parting arrow, she left him. + +Even her father winced, and then with a heavy frown said, "It is well +that this Yankee youth has vanished; still, the utmost vigilance is +required." + +Again he saw the treacherous maid and promised increased reward if she +would be watchful, and inform him of every movement of Christine. + +In the unobtrusive ways that her sensitive pride permitted, Christine +tried to find out what had become of Dennis, but vainly. She offered +her maid a large reward if she would discover him, but she had been +promised a larger sum not to find him, and so did not. The impression +was given that he had left the city, and Christine feared, with a +sickening dread, that she would never see him again. But one evening +Mr. Cornell stated a fact in a casual way that startled both Mr. and +Miss Ludolph. + +He was calling at their house, and they were discussing the coming +exhibition of the pictures which would compete for the prize. + +"By the way, your former clerk and porter is among the competitors; +at least he entered the lists last spring, but I have lost sight of +him since. I imagine he has given it up, and betaken himself to tasks +more within the range of his ability." + +The eyes of father and daughter met, but she turned to Mr. Cornell, +and said, coolly, though with a face somewhat flushed, "And has Chicago +so much artistic talent that a real genius has no chance here?" + +"I was not aware that Mr. Fleet was a genius," answered Mr. Cornell. + +"I think that he will satisfy you on that point, and that you will +hear from him before the exhibition takes place." + +Mr. Ludolph hastily changed the subject, but he had forebodings as to +the future. + +Christine went to her room, and thought for a long time; suddenly she +arose, exclaiming, "He told me his story once on canvas; I will now +tell him mine." + +She at once stretched the canvas on a frame for a small picture, and +placed it on an easel, that she might commence with dawn of day. + +During the following weeks she worked scarcely less earnestly and +patiently than Dennis. The door was locked when she painted, and before +she left the studio the picture was hidden. + +She meant to send it anonymously, so that not even her father should +know its authorship. She hoped that Dennis would recognize it. + +When she was in the street her eyes began to have an eager, wistful +look, as if she was seeking some one. She often went to galleries, and +other resorts of artists, but in vain, for she never met him, though +at times the distance between them was less than between Evangeline +and her lover, when she heard the dip of his oar in her dream. Though +she knew that if she met him she would probably give not one encouraging +glance, yet the instinct of her heart was just as strong. + +Mr. Ludolph told the maid that she must find out what Christine was +painting, and she tried to that degree that she wakened suspicion. + +On one occasion Christine turned suddenly on her, and said: "What do +you mean? If I find you false--if I have even good reason to suspect +you--I will turn you into the street, though it be at midnight!" + +And the maid learned, as did Mr. Ludolph, that she was not dealing +with a child. + +During Monday, October 2, Dennis was employed all the long day in +giving the finishing touches to his picture. It was not worked up as +finely as he could have wished; time did not permit this. But he had +brought out his thought vividly, and his drawings were full of power. +On the following Saturday the prize would be given. + +In the evening he walked out for air and exercise. As he was passing +one of the large hotels, he heard his name called. Turning, he saw on +the steps, radiant with welcome, his old friend, Susie Winthrop. Her +hand was on the arm of a tall gentleman, who seemed to have eyes for her +only. But in her old impulsive way she ran down the steps, and +gave Dennis a grasp of the hand that did his lonely heart good. Then, +leading him to the scholarly-looking gentleman, who was gazing through +his glasses in mild surprise, she said: "Professor Leonard, my husband, +Mr. Fleet. This is the Dennis Fleet I have told you about so often." + +"Oh-h," said the professor, in prolonged accents, while a genial light +shone through his gold spectacles. "Mr. Fleet, we are old acquaintances, +though we have never met before. If I were a jealous man, you are the +only one I should fear." + +"And we mean to make you wofully jealous to-night, for I intend to +have Mr. Fleet dine with us and spend the evening. Wo, I will take no +excuse, no denial. This infatuated man will do whatever I bid him, and +he is a sort of Greek athlete. If you do not come right along I shall +command him to lay violent hands on you and drag you ignominiously in." + +Dennis was only too glad to accept, but merely wished to make a better +toilet. + +"I have just come from my studio," he said. + +"And you wish to go and divest yourself of all artistic flavor and +become commonplace. Do you imagine I will permit it? No! so march in +as my captive. Who ever heard of disputing the will of a bride? This +man" (pointing up to the tall professor) "never dreams of it." + +Dennis learned that she was on her wedding trip, and saw that she was +happily married, and proud of her professor, as he of her. + +With feminine tact she drew his story from him, and yet it was but a +meagre, partial story, like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out, +for he tried to be wholly silent on his love and disappointment. But +in no respect did he deceive Mrs. Leonard. Her husband went away for +a little time. In his absence she asked, abruptly, "Have you seen Miss +Ludolph lately?" + +"No!" said Dennis, with a tell-tale flush. Seeing her look of sympathy, +and knowing her to be such a true friend, the impulsive young man gave +his confidence almost before he knew it. She was just the one to inspire +trust, and he was very lonely, having had no one to whom he could speak +his deeper feelings since his mother died. + +"Miss Ludolph wronged me in a way that a man finds it hard to forget +or forgive," he said, in a low, bitter tone; "but I should have tried +to do both had she not treated my mother most inhumanly;" and he told +his story over again with Hamlet in. + +Mrs. Leonard listened with breathless interest, and then said: "She +is a strange girl, and that plan of making you her unconscious model +is just like her, though it was both cruel and wicked. And yet Mr. +Fleet, with shame for my sex I admit it, how many would have flirted +with you to the same degree from mere vanity and love of excitement! +I have seen Miss Ludolph, and I cannot understand her. We are no longer +the friends we once were, but I cannot think her utterly heartless. +She is bent upon becoming a great artist at any cost, and I sometimes +think she would sacrifice herself as readily as any one else for this +purpose. She looks to me as if she had suffered, and she has lost much +of her old haughty, cold manner, save when something calls it out. +Even in the drawing-room she was abstracted, as if her thoughts were +far away. You are a man of honor, and it is due that you should know +the following facts. Indeed I do not think that they are a secret any +longer, and at any rate they will soon be known. If Mr. Ludolph were +in Germany he would be a noble. It is his intention to go there this +fall, and take his wealth and Christine with him, and assert his +ancestral titles and position. Christine could not marry in this land +without incurring her father's curse, and I think she has no disposition +to do that--her ambition is fully in accord with his." + +"Yes," said Dennis, bitterly, "and where other women have hearts, she +has ambition only." + +The professor returned and the subject was dropped. + +Dennis said, on taking his leave: "I did not expect to show any one +my picture till it was placed on exhibition with the others, but, if +you care to see it, you may to-morrow. Perhaps you can make some +suggestions that will help me." + +They eagerly accepted the invitation, and came the following morning. +Dennis watched them with much solicitude. When once they understood +his thought, their delight and admiration knew no bounds. The professor +turned and stared at him as if he were an entirely different person +from the unpretending youth who had been introduced on the preceding +evening. + +"If you do not get the prize," he said, sententiously, "you have a +great deal of artistic talent in Chicago." + +"'A Daniel come to judgment!'" cried his wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +SUGGESTIVE PICTURES AND A PRIZE + + +At last the day of the exhibition dawned. Dennis had sent his picture, +directed to Mr. Cornell, with his own name in an envelope nailed to +its back. No one was to know who the artists were till after the +decision was given. Christine had sent hers also, but no name whatever +was in the envelope attached to it. + +At an early hour, the doors were thrown open for all who chose to come. +The committee of critics had ample time given them for their decision, +and at one o'clock this was to be announced. + +Although Dennis went rather early, he found that Christine was there +before him. She stood with Professor and Mrs. Leonard, Mr. Cornell, +and her father, before his picture, fie could only see her side face, +and she was glancing from the printed explanation in the catalogue to +the painting. Mrs. Leonard was also at her side, seeing to it that no +point was unnoted. Christine's manner betrayed intense interest and +excitement, and with cause, for again Dennis had spoken to her deepest +soul in the language she best loved and understood. + +As before, she saw two emblematic pictures within one frame merely +separated by a plain band of gold. + +The first presented a chateau of almost palatial proportions, heavy, +ornate, but stiff and quite devoid of beauty. It appeared to be the +abode of wealth and ancestral greatness. + +Everything about the place indicated lavish expenditure. The walks and +trees were straight and formal, the flowers that bloomed here and +there, large and gaudy. A parrot hung in a gilded cage against a column +of the piazza. No wild songsters fluttered in the trees, or were on +the wing. Hills shut the place in and gave it a narrow, restricted +appearance, and the sky overhead was hard and brazen. On the lawn stood +a graceful mountain ash, and beneath it were two figures. The first +was that of a man, and evidently the master of the place. His appearance +and manner chiefly indicated pride, haughtiness, and also sensuality. +He had broken a spray from the ash-tree, and with a condescending air +was in the act of handing it to a lady, in the portraiture of whom +Dennis had truly displayed great skill. She was very beautiful, and +yet there was nothing good or noble in her face. Her proud features +showed mingled shame and reluctance to receive the gift in the manner +it was bestowed, and yet she was receiving it. The significance of the +mountain ash is "Grandeur." The whole scene was the portrayal, in the +beautiful language of art, of a worldly, ambitious marriage, where the +man seeks mere beauty, and the woman wealth and position, love having +no existence. + +It possessed an eloquence that Christine could not resist, and she +fairly loathed the alliance she knew her father would expect her to +make after their arrival in Germany, though once she had looked forward +to it with eagerness as the stepping-stone to her highest ambition. + +The second picture was a beautiful contrast. Instead of the brazen +glare of the first, the air was full of glimmering lights and shades, +and the sky of a deep transparent blue. Far up a mountain side, on an +overhanging cliff, grew the same graceful ash-tree, but its branches +were entwined with vines of the passion-flower that hung around in +slender streamers. On a jutting rock, with precarious footing, stood +a young man reaching up to grasp a branch, his glance bold and hopeful, +and his whole manner full of daring and power. He had evidently had +a hard climb to reach his present position; his hat was gone; his dress +was light and simple and adapted to the severest effort. + +But the chief figure in this picture also was that of a young girl who +stood near, her right hand clasping his left, and steadying and +sustaining him in his perilous footing. The wind was in her golden +hair, and swept to one side her light, airy costume. Her pure, noble +face was lilted up toward _him_, rather than toward the spray he sought +to grasp, and an eager, happy light shone from her eyes. She had +evidently climbed _with_ him to their present vantage-point, and now her +little hand secured and strengthened him as he sought to grasp, for her, +success and prosperity joined with unselfish love. The graceful +wind-flowers tossed their delicate blossoms around their feet, and above +them an eagle wheeled in its majestic flight. + +Below and opposite them on a breezy hillside stood a modern villa, as +tasteful in its architecture as the former had been stiff and heavy. +A fountain played upon the lawn, and behind it a cascade broke into +silver spray and mist. High above this beautiful earthly home, in the +clear, pure air rose a palace-like structure in shadowy, golden outline, +indicating that after the dwelling-place of time came the grander, the +perfect mansion above. + +Christine looked till her eyes were blinded with tears, and then dropped +her veil. In the features of the lady in each case she had not failed +to trace a faint likeness, sufficient to make it clear to herself. She +said in a low, plaintive tone, with quivering lips, "Mr. Fleet painted +that picture." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Leonard, looking at her with no little wonder and +perplexity. + +By a great effort Christine recovered herself and said, "You know how +deeply fine paintings always affect me." + +Dennis of course knew nothing of Christine's feelings. He could only +see that his picture had produced a profound effect on her, and that +she had eyes for nothing else. But he overheard Mr. Cornell say, "It +is indeed a remarkable painting" + +"Do you know its author?" asked Mr. Ludolph, with a heavy frown. + +"No, I do not. It is still a mystery" + +"Will it take the prize, do you think?" + +"I am not at liberty to give an opinion as yet," replied Mr. Cornell, +with a smile. "There is another picture here, almost if not quite as +fine, though much smaller and simpler;" and he took Mr. Ludolph off +to show him that. + +Dennis was now recognized by Mrs. Leonard and her husband, who came +forward and greeted him cordially, and they started on a tour of the +gallery together. Though his heart beat fast, he completely ignored +Christine's presence, and responded coldly to Mr. Ludolph's slight bow. + +Christine, on being aware of his presence, furtively devoured him with +her eyes. The refining influences of his life were evident in his face +and bearing, and she realized her ideal of what a man ought to be. +Eagerly she watched till he should discover her painting where it hung +opposite his own, and at last she was amply rewarded for all her toil. +He stopped suddenly and stood as if spellbound. + +The picture was very simple, and few accessories entered into it. Upon +a barren rock of an island stood a woman gazing far out at sea, where +in the distance a ship was sailing _away_. Though every part had been +worked up with exquisite finish, the whole force and power of the +painting lay in the expression of the woman's face, which was an +indescribable mingling of longing and despair. Here also Christine had +traced a faint resemblance to herself, though the woman was middle-aged +and haggard, with famine in her cheeks. + +As Dennis looked and wondered, the thought flashed into his mind, "Could +_she_ have painted that?" He turned suddenly toward her and was +convinced that she had done so; for she was looking at him with +something of the same expression, or at least he fancied so. She blushed +deeply and turned hastily away. He was greatly agitated, but in view of +the eyes that were upon him controlled himself and remained outwardly +calm. + +Mr. Ludolph also was convinced that his daughter had painted the +picture, and he frowned more heavily than before. He turned a dark +look on her, and found her regarding Dennis in a manner that caused +him to grind his teeth with rage. But he could only sit down and watch +the course of events. + +The people were now thronging in. The gentlemen who made up the prize, +with their committee of award, of which Mr. Cornell was chairman, were +also present. Most critically they examined each picture till at last +their choice narrowed down to the two paintings above described. But +it soon became evident that their choice would fall upon the larger +one, and Dennis saw that he was to be the victor. To his surprise +Christine seemed utterly indifferent as to the result of their decision. +He could not know that the prize had no place in her thoughts when she +painted her picture. She had found her reward in its effect on him. + +At one o'clock Mr. Cornell came forward and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, +and especially do I address that group of liberal citizens who are so +generously seeking to encourage art in our great and prosperous city, +it gives me pleasure to inform you that your munificence has brought +forth rich fruit, for here are many paintings that would do credit to +any gallery. We hesitated a little time between two very superior +pictures, but at last we have decided that the larger one is worthy +of the prize. The smaller picture is one of great merit; its treatment +is unusually fine, though the subject is not new. + +"The two emblematic pictures in some parts show crude and hasty work; +indeed some minor parts are quite unfinished. The artist evidently has +not had sufficient time. But the leading features are well wrought +out, and the power and originality of the entire effort so impress us +that, as I have said, we render our decision in its favor. That all +may know our verdict to be fair, we state on our honor that we do not +know by whom a single painting present was executed. Dr. Arten, as the +largest contributor toward the prize, you are appointed to bestow it. +On the back of the picture you will find an envelope containing the +name of the artist, whom we all shall delight to honor." + +Amid breathless expectation, Dr. Arten stepped forward, took down the +envelope, and read in a loud, trumpet-voice-- + +"DENNIS FLEET." + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +FIRE! FIRE! + + +"Will Dennis Fleet come forward?" cried Dr. Arten. Very pale, and +trembling with excitement, Dennis stepped out before them all. + +"Take heart, my young friend; I am not about to read your +death-warrant," said the doctor, cheerily. "Permit me to present you +with this check for two thousand dollars, and express to you what is +of more value to the true artist, our esteem and appreciation of your +merit. May your brush ever continue to be employed in the presentation +of such noble, elevating thoughts." + +And the good doctor, quite overcome by this unusual flight of eloquence, +blew his nose vigorously and wiped from his spectacles the moisture +with which his own eyes had bedewed them. + +Dennis responded with a low bow, and was about to retire; but his few +friends, and indeed all who knew him, pressed forward with their +congratulations. + +Foremost among these were the professor and his wife. Tears of delight +fairly shone in Mrs. Leonard's eyes as she shook his hand again and +again. Many others also trooped up for an introduction, till he was +quite bewildered by strange names, and compliments that seemed stranger +still. + +Suddenly a low, well-known voice at his side sent a thrill to his heart +and a rush of crimson to his face. + +"Will Mr. Fleet deign to receive my congratulations also?" + +He turned and met the deep blue eyes of Christine Ludolph lifted timidly +to his. But at once the association that had long been uppermost in +regard to her--the memory of her supposed treatment of his +mother--flashed across him, and he replied, with cold and almost stately +courtesy, "The least praise or notice from Miss Ludolph would be a +most unexpected favor." + +She thought from his manner that he might as well have said +"unwelcome favor," and with a sad, disappointed look she turned away. + +Even in the excitement and triumph of the moment, Dennis was oppressed +by the thought that he had not spoken as wisely as he might. Almost +abruptly he broke away and escaped to the solitude of his own room. + +He did not think about his success. The prize lay forgotten in his +pocketbook. He sat in his arm-chair and stared apparently at vacancy, +but in reality at the picture that he was sure Christine had painted. +He went over and over again with the nicest scrutiny all her actions +in the gallery, and now reproached himself bitterly for the repelling +answer he had given when she spoke to him. He tried to regain his old +anger and hardness in view of her wrongs to him and his, but could +not. The tell-tale picture, and traces of sorrow and suffering in her +face in accord with it, had disarmed him. He said to himself, and half +believed, that he was letting his imagination run away with his reason, +but could not help it. At last he seized his hat and hastened to the +hotel where Mrs. Leonard was staying. She at once launched out into +a eulogistic strain descriptive of her enjoyment of the affair. + +"I never was so proud of Chicago," she exclaimed. "It is the greatest +city in the world. Only the other day her streets were prairies. I +believe my husband expected to find buffalo and Indians just outside +the town. But see! already, by its liberality and attention to art, +it begins to vie with some of our oldest cities. But what is the matter? +You look so worried." + +"Oh, nothing," said Dennis, coming out of his troubled, abstracted +manner. + +With her quick intuition, Mrs. Leonard at once divined his thoughts, +and said soon after, when her husband's back was turned: "All I can +say is, that she was deeply, most deeply affected by your picture, but +she said nothing to me, more than to express her admiration. My friend, +you had better forget her. They sail for Europe very soon; and, besides, +she is not worthy of you." + +"I only wish I could forget her, and am angry with myself but I cannot," +he replied, and soon after said "good-night." + +Wandering aimlessly through the streets, he almost unconsciously made +his way to the north side, where the Ludolph mansion was situated. Then +a strong impulse to Go to it came over him, and for the first time +since the far-off day when, stunned and wounded by his bitter +disappointment, he had gone away apparently to die, he found himself +at the familiar place. The gas was burning in Mr. Ludolph's library. +He went around on the side street (for the house was on a corner), and +a light shone from what he knew to be Christine's studio. She +undoubtedly was there. Even such proximity excited him strangely, and +in his morbid state he felt that he could almost kiss the feeble rays +that shimmered out into the darkened street. In his secret soul he +utterly condemned his folly, but promised himself that he would be +weak no longer after that one night. The excitements of the day had +thrown him off his balance. + +Suddenly he heard, sweet and clear, though softened by distance and +intervening obstacles, the same weird, pathetic ballad that had so +moved him when Christine sang it at Le Grand Hotel, on the evening +after he had pointed out the fatal defect in her picture. At short +intervals, kindred and plaintive songs followed. + +"There is nothing exultant or hopeful about those strains," he said +to himself. "For some reason she is not happy. Oh, that I might have +one frank conversation with her and find out the whole truth! But it +seems that I might just as well ask for a near look at yonder star +that glimmers so distantly. For some reason I cannot believe her so +utterly heartless as she has seemed; and then mother has prayed. Can +it all end as a miserable dream?" + +Late at night the music ceased, and the room was darkened. + +Little dreamed Christine that her plaintive minstrelsy had fallen on +so sympathetic an ear, and that the man who seemingly had repelled her +slightest acquaintance had shivered long hours in the cold, dark street. + +So the divine Friend waits and watches, while we, in ignorance and +unbelief, pay no heed. Stranger far, He waits and watches when we know, +but yet, unrelenting, ignore His presence. + +With heavy steps, Dennis wearily plodded homeward. He was oppressed +by that deep despondency which follows great fatigue and excitement. + +In the southwest he saw a brilliant light. He heard the alarm-bells, +and knew there was a fire, but to have aroused him that night it +must have come scorchingly close. He reached his dark little room, threw +himself dressed on the couch, and slept till nearly noon of the next +day. + +When he awoke, and realized how the first hours of the Sabbath had +passed, he started up much vexed with himself, and after a brief +retrospect said: "Such excitements as those of yesterday are little +better than a debauch, and I must shun them hereafter. God has blessed +and succeeded me, and it is but a poor return I am making. However my +unfortunate attachment may end, nothing is gained by moping around in +the hours of night. Henceforth let there be an end of such folly." + +He made a careful toilet and sat down to his Sabbath-school lesson. + +To his delight he again met Mrs. Leonard, who came to visit her +old mission class. She smiled most approvingly, and quoted, "He that is +faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." + +He went home with her, and in the evening they all went to church +together. + +He cried unto the Lord for strength and help, and almost lost +consciousness of the service in his earnest prayer for true manhood +and courage to go forward to what he feared would be a sad and lonely +life. And the answer came; for a sense of power and readiness to do +God's will, and withal a strange hopefulness, inspired him. Trusting +in the Divine strength, he felt that he could meet his future now, +whatever it might be. + +Again the alarm-bells were ringing, and there was a light on the +southwest. + +"There seems to be a fire over there in the direction of my poor German +friend's house. You remember Mrs. Bruder. I will go and call on them, +I think. At any rate I should call, for it is owing to her husband +that I won the prize;" and they parted at the church-door. + +Christine had left the picture-gallery soon after Dennis's abrupt +departure. Her gay friends had tried in vain to rally her, and rather +wondered at her manner, but said, "She is so full of moods of late, +you can never know what to expect." + +Her father, with a few indifferent words, left her for his place of +business. His hope still was to prevent her meeting Dennis, and to +keep up the estrangement that existed. + +Christine went home and spent the long hours in bitter revery, which +at last she summed up by saying, "I have stamped out his love by my +folly, and now his words, 'I despise you,' express the whole wretched +truth." Then clenching her little hands she added, with livid lips and +a look of scorn: "Since I can never help him (and therefore no one) +win earthly greatness, I will never be the humble recipient of it from +another. Since his second picture cannot be true of my experience, +neither shall the first." + +And she was one to keep such a resolve. The evening was spent, as we +know, in singing alone in her studio, this being her favorite, indeed +her only way, of giving expression to her feelings. Very late she +sought her bed to find but little sleep. + +The day of rest brought no rest to her, suggested no hope, no sacred +privilege of seeking Divine help to bear up under life's burdens. To +her it was a relic of superstition, at which she chafed as interfering +with the usual routine of affairs. She awoke with a headache, and a +long miserable day she found it. Sabbath night she determined to have +sleep, and therefore took an opiate and retired early. + +Mr. Ludolph sat in his library trying to construct some plan by which +Christine could be sent to Germany at once. + +When Dennis reached the neighborhood of the fire he found it much +larger than he supposed, and when he entered Harrison Street, near +Mrs. Bruder's home, he discovered that only prompt action could save +the family. The streets were fast becoming choked with fugitives and +teams, and the confusion threatened to develop into panic and wide +spread danger. The fire was but a block away when he rushed upstairs +to the floor which the Bruders occupied. From the way in which blazing +brands were flying he knew that there were was not a moment to spare. + +He found Mrs. Bruder startled, anxious, but in no way comprehending +the situation. + +"Quick!" cried Dennis. "Wake and dress the children--pack up what you +can lay your hands on and carry--you have no time to do anything more." + +"Ah! mine Gott! vat you mean?" + +"Do as I say--there's no time to explain. Here, Ernst, help me;" and +Dennis snatched up one child and commenced dressing it before it could +fairly wake. Ernst took up another and followed his example. Mrs. +Bruder, recovering from her bewilderment, hastily gathered a few things +together, saying in the meantime, "Surely you don't dink our home burn +up?" + +"Yes, my poor friend, in five minutes more we must all be out of this +building." + +"Oh, den come dis minute! Let me save de schilder;" and, throwing a +blanket around the youngest, the frightened woman rushed downstairs, +followed by Ernst and his little brother, while Dennis hastened with +the last child and the bundle. + +Their escape was none too prompt, for the blazing embers were falling +to such a degree in the direct line of the fire as to render that +position very perilous. But though their progress was necessarily slow, +from the condition of the streets, the breadth of the fire was not +great at this spot, and they soon reached a point to the west and +windward that was safe. Putting the family in charge of Ernst, and +telling them to continue westward, Dennis rushed back, feeling that +many lives depend upon stout hands and brave hearts that night. Moreover +he was in that state of mind which made him court rather than shun +danger. + +He had hardly left his humble friends before Mrs. Bruder stopped, put +her hand on her heart and cried: "Oh, Ernst! Oh, Gott forgive me! dot +I should forget him--your fader's picture. I must go back." + +"Oh, moder, no! you are more to us than the picture" The woman's eyes +were wild and excited, and she cried, vehemently: "Dot picture saved +mine Berthold life--yes, more, more, him brought back his artist soul. +Vithout him ve vould all be vorse dan dead. I can no live vidout him. +Stay here"; and with the speed of the wind the devoted wife rushed +back to the burning street, up the stairs, already crackling and +blazing, to where the lovely landscape smiled peacefully in the dreadful +glare, with its last rich glow of beauty. She tore it from its +fastenings, pressed her lips fervently against it, regained the street, +but with dress on fire. She staggered forward a few steps in the hot +stifling air and smoke, and then fell upon her burden. Spreading her +arms over it, to protect it even in death, the mother's heart went out +in agony toward her children. + +"Ah, merciful Gott! take care of dem," she sighed, and the prayer and +the spirit that breathed it went up to heaven together. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +BARON LUDOLPH LEARNS THE TRUTH + + +With eyes ablaze with excitement, Dennis plunged into the region just +before the main line of fire, knowing that there the danger would be +greatest. None realized the rapidity of its advance. At the door of +a tenement-house he found a pale, thin, half-clad woman tugging at a +sewing-machine. + +"Madam," cried Dennis, "you have no time to waste over that burden if +you wish to escape." + +"What is the use of escaping without it?" she answered, sullenly. "It +is the only way I have of making a living." + +"Give it to me then, and follow as fast as you can." Shouldering what +meant to the poor creature shelter, clothing, and bread, he led the +way to the southeast, out of the line of fire. It was a long, hard +struggle, but they got through safely. + +"How can I ever pay you?" cried the grateful woman. + +But he did not stay to answer, and now determined to make his way to +the west and windward of the fire, as he could then judge better of +the chances of its spreading. He thought it safer to go around and back +of the flames, as they now seemed much wider, and nearer the south +branch of the Chicago River. + +He found that he could cross the burned district a little to the +southwest, for the small wooden houses were swept so utterly away that +there were no heated, blazing ruins to contend with. He also saw that +he could do better by making quite a wide circuit, as he thus avoided +streets choked by fugitives. Beaching a point near the river on the +west side of the fire, he climbed a high pile of lumber, and then +discovered to his horror that the fire had caught in several places +on the south side, and that the nearest bridges were burning. + +To those not familiar with the topography of the city, it should be +stated that it is separated by the Chicago River, a slow, narrow stream, +into three main divisions, known as the south, the north, and the west +side. + +By a triumph of engineering, the former mouth of this river at the +lake is now its source, the main stream being turned back upon itself, +and dividing into two branches at a point a little over half a mile +from the lake, one flowing to the southwest into the Illinois, and the +other from the northwest into the main stream. + +The south division includes all the territory bounded on the east by the +lake, on the north by the main river and on the west by the south +branch. The north division includes the area bounded on the east by +the lake, on the south by the main river, and on the west by the north +branch, while the west division embraces all that part of the city +west of the two branches. The fire originated in De Koven Street, the +southeastern part of the west side, and it was carried steadily to the +north and east by an increasing gale. The south side, with all its +magnificent buildings, was soon directly in the line of the fire. + +When Dennis saw that the flames had crossed the south branch, and were +burning furiously beyond, he knew that the best part of the city was +threatened with destruction. He hastened to the Washington Street +tunnel, where he found a vast throng, carrying all sorts of burdens, +rushing either way. He plunged in with the rest, and soon found himself +hustled hither and thither by a surging mass of humanity. A little +piping voice that seemed under his feet cried: "O mamma! mamma! Where +are you? I'm gettin' lost." + +"Here I am, my child," answered a voice some steps in advance and +Dennis saw a lady carrying another child; but the rushing tide would +not let her wait--all, in the place where they were wedged, being +carried right along. Stooping down, he put the little girl on his +shoulder where she could see her mother, and so they pressed on. +Suddenly, in the very midst of the tunnel, the gas ceased, by reason +of the destruction of the works, and utter darkness filled the place. + +There was a loud cry of consternation, and then a momentary and dreadful +silence, which would have been the preface of a fatal panic, had not +Dennis cried out, in a ringing voice, "All keep to the right!" + +This cry was taken up and repeated on every hand, and side by side, +to right and left, the two living streams of humanity, with steady +tramp! tramp! rushed past each other. + +When they emerged into the glare of the south side Dennis gave the +child to its mother and said, "Madam, your only chance is to escape +in that direction," pointing northwest. + +He then tried to make his way to the hotel where Professor and Mrs. +Leonard were staying, but it was in the midst of an unapproachable sea +of fire. If they had not escaped some little time before, they had +already perished. He then tried to make his way to the windward toward +his own room. His two thousand dollars and all his possessions were +there, and the instinct of self-preservation caused him to think it +was time to look after his own. But progress was now very difficult. +The streets were choked by drays, carriages, furniture, trunks, and +every degree and condition of humanity. Besides, his steps were often +stayed by thrilling scenes and the need of a helping hand. In order +to make his way faster he took a street nearer the fire, from which +the people had mostly been driven. As he was hurrying along with his +hat drawn over his eyes to avoid the sparks that were driven about +like fiery hail, he suddenly heard a piercing shriek. Looking up he +saw the figure of a woman at the third story window of a fine mansion +that was already burning, though not so rapidly as those in the direct +line of the fire. He with a number of others stopped at the sound. + +"Who will volunteer with me to save that woman?" cried he. + +"Wal, stranger, you can reckon on this old stager for one," answered +a familiar voice. + +Dennis turned and recognized his old friend, the Good Samaritan. + +"Why, Cronk," he cried, "don't you know me? Don't you remember the +young man you saved from starving by suggesting the snow-shovel +business?" + +"Hello! my young colt. How are you? give us yer hand. But come, don't +let's stop to talk about snow in this hell of a place with that young +filly whinnying up there." + +"Right!" cried Dennis. "Let us find a ladder and rope; quick--" + +At a paint-shop around the corner a ladder was found that reached to +the second story, and some one procured a rope. + +"A thousand dollars," cried another familiar voice, "to the man who +saves that woman!" + +Looking round, Dennis saw the burly form of Mr. Brown, the brewer, his +features distorted by agony and fear; then glancing up he discovered +in the red glare upon her face that the woman was no other than his +daughter. She had come to spend the night with a friend, and, being +a sound sleeper, had not escaped with the family. + +"Who wants yer thousand dollars?" replied Bill Cronk's gruff voice. +"D'ye s'pose we'd hang out here over the bottomless pit for any such +trifle as that? We want to save the gal." + +Before Cronk had ended his characteristic speech, Dennis was half-way +up the ladder. He entered the second story, only to be driven back by +fire and smoke. + +"A pole of some kind!" he cried. + +The thills of a broken-down buggy supplied this, but the flames had +already reached Miss Brown. Being a girl of a good deal of nerve and +physical courage, however, she tore off her outer clothing with her +own hands. Dennis now passed her the rope on the end of the buggy-thill +and told her to fasten it to something in the room that would support +her weight, and lower herself to the second story. She fastened it, +but did not seem to know how to lower herself. Dennis tried the rope, +found it would sustain his weight; then, bringing into use an art +learned in his college gymnasium, he over-handed rapidly till he stood +at Miss Brown's side. Drawing up the rope he fastened her to it and +lowered her to the ladder, where Bill Cronk caught her, and in a moment +more she was in her father's arms, who at once shielded her from +exposure with his overcoat. Dennis followed the rope down, and had +hardly got away before the building fell in. + +"Is not this Mr. Fleet?" asked Miss Brown. + +"Yes." + +"How can we ever repay you?" + +"By learning to respect honest men, even though they are not rich, +Miss Brown." + +"Did you know who it was when you saved me?" + +"Yes." + +"Mr. Fleet, I sincerely ask your pardon." + +But before Dennis could reply they were compelled to fly for their +lives. + +Mr. Brown shouted as he ran, "Call at the house or place of business +of Thomas Brown, and the money will be ready." + +But Thomas Brown would have found it hard work to rake a thousand +dollars out of the ashes of either place the following day. The riches +in which he trusted had taken wings. + +Cronk and Dennis kept together for a short distance, and the latter +saw that his friend had been drinking. Their steps led them near a +large liquor-store which a party of men and boys were sacking. One of +these, half intoxicated, handed Bill a bottle of whiskey, but as the +drover was lifting it to his lips Dennis struck it to the ground. Cronk +was in a rage instantly. + +"What the ---- did you do that for?" he growled. + +"I would do that and more too to save your life. If you get drunk +to-night you are a lost man," answered Dennis, earnestly. + +"Who's a-goin' ter get drunk, I'd like ter know? You feel yer oats too +much to-night. No man or horse can kick over the traces with me;" and +he went off in the unreasoning anger of a half-drunken man. But he +carried all his generous impulses with him, for a few minutes after, +seeing a man lying in a most dangerous position, he ran up and shook +him, crying, "I say, stranger, get up, or yer ribs will soon be +roasted." + +"Lemme 'lone," was the maudlin answer. "I've had drink 'nuff. 'Tain't +mornin' yet." + +"Hi, there!" cried a warning voice, and Cronk started back just in +time to escape a blazing wall that fell across the street. The stupefied +man he had sought to arouse was hopelessly buried. Cronk, having got +out of danger, stood and scratched his head, his favorite way of +assisting reflection. + +"That's just what that young critter Fleet meant. What a cussed ole +mule I was to kick up so! Ten chances to one but it will happen to me +afore mornin'. Look here, Bill Cronk, you jist p'int out of this fiery +furnace. You know yer failin', and there's too long and black a score +agin you in t'other world for you to go to-night;" and Bill made a bee +line for the west side. + +Struggling off to windward through the choked streets for a little +distance, Dennis ascended the side stairs of a tall building, in order +to get more accurately the bearings of the fire. He now for the first +time realized its magnitude, and was appalled. It appeared as if the +whole south side must go. At certain points the very heavens seemed +on fire. The sparks filled the air like flakes of fiery snow, and great +blazing fragments of roofs, and boards from lumber yards, sailed over +his head, with the ill-omened glare of meteors. The rush and roar of +the wind and flames were like the thunder of Niagara, and to this awful +monotone accompaniment was added a Babel of sounds--shrieks, and shouts +of human voices, the sharp crash of falling buildings, and ever and +anon heavy detonations, as the fire reached explosive material. As he +looked down into the white upturned faces in the thronged streets, it +seemed to him as if the people might be gathering for the last great +day. Above all the uproar, the court-house bell could be heard, with +its heavy, solemn clangor, no longer ringing alarm, but the city's +knell. + +But he saw that if he reached his own little room in time to save +anything he must hasten. His course lay near the Art Building, the +place so thronged with associations to him. An irresistible impulse +drew him to it. It was evident that it must soon go, for an immense +building to the southwest, on the same block, was burning, and the +walls were already swaying. + +Suddenly a man rushed past him, and Mr. Ludolph put his pass key in +the side door. + +"Mr. Ludolph, it is not safe to enter," said Dennis. + +"What are you doing here with your ill-omened face?" retorted his old +employer, turning toward him a countenance terrible in its expression. +As we have seen, anything that threatened Mr. Ludolph's interests, +even that which most men bow before, as sickness and disaster, only +awakened his anger; and his face was black with passion and distorted +with rage. + +The door yielded, and he passed in. + +"Come back, quick, Mr. Ludolph, or you are lost!" cried Dennis at the +door. + +"I will get certain papers, though the heavens fall!" yelled back the +infuriated man, with an oath. + +Dennis heard an awful rushing sound in the air. He drew his hat over +his face as he ran, crouching. Hot bricks rained around him, but +fortunately he escaped. + +When he turned to look, the Art Building was a crushed and blazing +ruin. Sweet girlish faces that had smiled upon him from the walls, +beautiful classical faces that had inspired his artist soul, stern +Roman faces, that had made the past seem real, the human faces of gods +and goddesses that made mythology seem not wholly a myth, and the white +marble faces of the statuary, that ever reminded him of Christine, +were now all blackened and defaced forever. But not of these he thought, +as he shudderingly covered his eyes with his hands to shut out the +vision; but of that terrible face that in the darkness had yelled +defiance to Heaven. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +"CHRISTINE, AWAKE! FOR YOUR LIFE!" + + +Dennis was too much stunned and bewildered to do more than instinctively +work his way to the windward as the only point of safety, but the fire +was now becoming so broad in its sweep that to do this was difficult. +The awful event he had witnessed seemed partially to paralyze him; for +he knew that the oath, hot as the scorching flames, was scarcely uttered +before Mr. Ludolph's lips were closed forever. He and his ambitious +dream perished in a moment, and he was summoned to the other world to +learn what his proud reason scoffed at in this. + +For a block or more Dennis was passively borne alone by the rushing +mob. Suddenly a voice seemed to shout almost in his ear, "The north +side is burning!" and he started as from a dream. The thought of +Christine flashed upon him, perishing perhaps in the flames. He +remembered that now she had no protector, and that he for the moment +had forgotten her; though in truth he had never imagined that she could +be imperilled by the burning of the north side. + +In an agony of fear and anxiety he put forth every effort of which he +was capable, and tore through the crowd as if mad. There was no way +of getting across the river now save by the La Salle Street tunnel. +Into this dark passage he plunged with multitudes of others. It was +indeed as near Pandemonium as any earthly condition could be. Driven +forward by the swiftly pursuing flames, hemmed in on every side, a +shrieking, frenzied, terror-stricken throng rushed into the black +cavern. Every moral grade was represented there. Those who led abandoned +lives were plainly recognizable, their guilty consciences finding +expression in their livid faces. These jostled the refined and delicate +lady, who, in the awful democracy of the hour, brushed against thief +and harlot. Little children wailed for their lost parents, and many +were trampled underfoot. Parents cried for their children, women +shrieked for their husbands, some praying, many cursing with oaths as +hot as the flames that crackled near. Multitudes were in no other +costumes than those in which they had sprung from their beds. Altogether +it was a strange, incongruous, writhing mass of humanity, such as the +world had never looked upon, pouring into what might seem, in its +horrors, the mouth of hell. + +As Dennis entered the utter darkness, a confused roar smote his ear +that might have appalled the stoutest heart, but he was now oblivious +to everything save Christine's danger. With set teeth he put his +shoulder against the living mass and pushed with the strongest till +he emerged into the glare of the north side. Here, escaping somewhat +from the throng, he made his way rapidly to the Ludolph mansion, which +to his joy he found was still considerably to the windward of the fire. +But he saw that from the southwest another line of flame was bearing +down upon it. + +The front door was locked, and the house utterly dark. He rang the +bell furiously, but there was no response. He walked around under the +window and shouted, but the place remained as dark and silent as a +tomb. He pounded on the door, but its massive thickness scarcely +admitted of a reverberation. + +"They must have escaped," he said; "but, merciful heaven! there must +be no uncertainty in this case. What shall I do?" + +The windows of the lower story were all strongly guarded and hopeless, +but one opening on the balcony of Christine's studio seemed practicable +if it could be reached. A half-grown elm swayed its graceful branches +over the balcony, and Dennis knew the tough and fibrous nature of this +tree. In the New England woods of his early home he had learned to +climb for nuts like a squirrel, and so with no great difficulty he +mounted the trunk and dropped from an overhanging branch to the point +he sought. The window was down at the top, but the lower sash was +fastened. He could see the catch by the light of the fire. He broke +the pane of glass nearest it, hoping that the crash might awaken +Christine, if she were still there. But after the clatter died away +there was no sound. He then noisily raised the sash and stepped in. + +What a rush of memories came over him as he looked around the familiar +place! There was the spot on which he had stood and asked for the love +that he had valued more than life. There stood the easel on which, +through Christine's gifted touch, his painted face had pleaded with +scarcely less eloquence, till he blotted it out with his own hand. In +memory of it all his heart again failed him, and he sighed, "She will +never love me." + +But there was no time for sentiment. He called loudly: "Miss Ludolph, +awake! awake! for your life!" + +There was no answer. "She must be gone," he said. The front room, +facing toward the west, he knew to be her sleeping-apartment. Going +through the passage, he knocked loudly, and called again; but in the +silence that followed he heard his own watch tick, and his heart beat. +He pushed the door open with the feeling of one profaning a shrine, +and looked timidly in. Even in that thrilling hour of peril and anxiety, +his eye was enraptured by the beauty of the room. Not only was it +furnished with the utmost luxuriance, but everything spoke of a quaint +and cultured taste, from the curious marble clock and bronze on the +mantel, even to the pattern of the Turkey carpet on which the glare +of the fire, as it glinted through the shutters, played faintly. One +of the most marked features, however, was an exquisite life-size statue +of Diana at the foot of the bed, grasping her bow with one hand, and +in the act of seizing an arrow with the other, as if aroused to +self-defence. When Dennis first saw it, he was so startled by its +lifelike attitude that he stepped back into the passage. But, with all +the beauty of the room, it was utterly pagan; not a single thing +suggested Christian faith or a knowledge of the true God. With the +exception of its modern air, it might just as well have been the +resting-place of a Greek or Roman maiden of rank. + +Reassured, he timidly advanced again, and then for the first time, +between the two marble statuettes holding back the curtains of the +bed, saw Christine, but looking more white and deathlike than the +marble itself. + +She lay with her face toward him. Her hair of gold, unconfined, streamed +over the pillow; one fair round arm, from which her night-robe had +slipped back, was clasped around her head, and a flickering ray of +light, finding access at the window, played upon her face and neck +with the strangest and most weird effect. + +So deep was her slumber that she seemed dead, and Dennis, in his +overwrought state, thought that she was. For a moment his heart stood +still, and his tongue was paralyzed. A distant explosion aroused him. +Approaching softly he said, in an awed whisper (he seemed powerless +to speak louder), "Miss Ludolph!--Christine!" + +But the light of the coming fire played and flickered over the still, +white face, that never before had seemed so strangely beautiful. + +"Miss Ludolph!--Oh, Christine, awake!" cried Dennis, louder. + +To his wonder and unbounded perplexity, he saw the hitherto motionless +lips wreathe themselves into a lovely smile, but otherwise there was +no response, and the ghostly light played and flickered on, dancing +on temple, brow, and snowy throat, and clasping the white arm in wavy +circlets of gold. It was all so weird and strange that he was growing +superstitious, and losing faith in his own senses. He could not know +that she was under the influence of an opiate, and that his voice of +all others could, like a faint echo, find access to her mind so deeply +sunk in lethargy. + +But a louder and nearer explosion, like a warning voice, made him +wholly desperate; and he roughly seized her hand, determining to dispel +the illusion, and learn the truth at once. + +Christine's blue eyes opened wide with a bewildered stare; a look of +the wildest terror came into them, and she started up and shrieked, +"Father! father!" + +Then turning toward the as yet unknown invader, she cried, piteously: +"Oh, spare my life! Take everything; I will give you anything you ask, +only spare my life." + +She evidently thought herself addressing a ruthless robber. + +Dennis retreated toward the door the moment she awakened; and this +somewhat reassured her. + +In the firm, quiet tone that always calms excitement he replied, "I +only ask you to give me your confidence, Miss Ludolph, and to join +with me, Dennis Fleet, in my effort to save your life." + +"Dennis Fleet! Dennis Fleet! save my life! Oh, ye gods, what does it +all mean?" and she passed her hand in bewilderment across her brow, +as if to brush away the wild fancies of a dream. + +"Miss Ludolph, as you love your life arouse yourself and escape! The +city is burning!" + +"I don't believe it!" she cried, in an agony of terror and anger. +"Leave the room! How dare you! You are not Dennis Fleet; he is a white +man, and you are black! You are an impostor! Leave quick, or my father +will come and take your life! Father! father!" + +Dennis without a word stepped to the window, tore aside the curtain, +threw open the shutters, and the fire filled the room with the glare +of noonday. At that moment an explosion occurred which shook the very +earth. Everything rattled, and a beautiful porcelain vase fell +crashing to the floor. + +Christine shrieked and covered her face with her hands. + +Dennis approached the bedside, and said in a gentle, firm tone that +she knew to be his: "Miss Ludolph, I _am_ Mr. Fleet. My face is +blackened through smoke and dust, as is every one's out in the streets +to-night. You know something of me, and I think you know nothing +dishonorable. Can you not trust me? Indeed you must; your life depends +upon it!" + +"Oh, pardon me, Mr. Fleet!" she cried, eagerly. "I am not worthy of +this, but now that I know you, I do trust you from the depth of my +soul!" + +"Prove it then by doing just as I bid you," he replied, in a voice so +firm and prompt that it seemed almost stern. Retreating to the door, +he continued: "I give you just five minutes in which to make your +toilet and gather a light bundle of your choicest valuables. Dress in +woollen throughout, and dress warmly. I will see that the servants are +aroused. Your father is on the south side, and cannot reach you. You +must trust in God and what I can do for you." + +"I must trust to you _alone_," she said. "Please send my maid to me." + +Mr. Ludolph had sipped his wine during the evening, and his servants +had sipped, in no dainty way, something stronger, and therefore had +not awakened readily. But the uproar in the streets had aroused them, +and Dennis found them scuttling down the upper stairs in a half-clad +state, each bearing a large bundle, which had been made up without +regard to _meum_ and _tuum_. + +"Och, murther! is the world burning up?" cried the cook. + +"Be still, ye howlin' fool," said the cool and travelled maid. "It's +only von big fire!" + +"Go to your mistress and help her, quick!" cried Dennis. + +"Go to my meestress! I go to de street and save my life." + +"Oh, Janette!" cried Christine. "Come and help me!" + +"I am meeserable zat I cannot. I must bid mademoiselle quick adieu," +said the heartless creature, still keeping up the veneer of French +politeness. + +Dennis looked through the upper rooms and was satisfied that they were +empty. Suddenly a piercing shriek from Christine sent him flying to +her room. As he ran he heard her cry, "Oh, Mr. Fleet! come! help!" + +To go back a little (for on that awful night events marched as rapidly +as the flames, and the experience of years was crowded into hours, and +that of hours into moments), Christine had sought as best she could +to obey Dennis's directions, but she was sadly helpless, having been +trained to a foolish dependence on her maid. She had accomplished but +little when she heard a heavy step in the room. Looking up, she saw +a strange man regarding her with an evil eye. + +"What do you want?" she faltered. + +"You, for one thing, and all you have got, for another," was the brutal +reply. + +"Leave this room!" she cried, in a voice she vainly tried to render +firm. + +"Not just yet," he answered, with a satanic grin. She sought to escape +by him with the loud cry that Dennis heard, but the ruffian planted +his big grimy hand in the delicate frill of her night-robe where it +clasped her throat, and with a coarse laugh said: "Not so fast, my +dainty!" + +Trembling and half fainting (for she had no physical courage), she +cried for Dennis, and never did knightly heart respond with more brave +and loving throb to the cry of helpless woman than his. He came with +almost the impetus of a thunderbolt, and the man, startled, looked +around, and catching a glimpse of Dennis's blazing eyes, dropped his +hold on Christine, and shrank and cowered from the blow he could not +avert. Before his hand could instinctively reach the pistol it sought, +there was a thud, and he fell like a log to the floor. Then, springing +upon him, Dennis took away his weapons, and, seizing him by the collar +of his coat, dragged him backward downstairs and thrust him into the +street. Pointing his own pistol at him, he said, "If you trouble us +again, I will shoot you like a dog!" + +The villain slunk off, and finding some kindred spirits sacking a +liquor-store not far off, he joined the orgy, seeking to drown his +rage in rum, and he succeeded so effectually that he lay in the gutter +soon after. The escaping multitude trampled over him, and soon the +fire blotted out his miserable existence, as it did that of so many +who rendered themselves powerless by drink. + +When Dennis returned he found Christine panting helplessly on a chair. + +"Oh, dress! dress!" he cried. "We have not a moment to spare." + +The sparks and cinders were falling about the house, a perfect storm +of fire. The roof was already blazing, and smoke was pouring down the +stairs. + +At his suggestion she had at first laid out a heavy woollen dress and +Scotch plaid shawl. She nervously sought to put on the dress, but her +trembling fingers could not fasten it over her wildly throbbing bosom. +Dennis saw that in the terrible emergency he must act the part of a +brother or husband, and springing forward he assisted her with the +dexterity he had learned in childhood. + +Just then a blazing piece of roof, borne on the wings of the gale, +crashed through the window, and in a moment the apartment, that had +seemed like a beautiful casket for a still more exquisite jewel, was +in flames. + +Hastily wrapping Christine in the blanket shawl, he snatched her, +crying and wringing her hands, into the street. + +Holding his hand she ran two or three blocks with all the speed her +wild terror prompted; then her strength began to fail, and she pantingly +cried that she could run no longer. But this rapid rush carried them +out of immediate peril, and brought them into the flying throng pressing +their way northward and westward. Wedged into the multitude they could +only move on with it in the desperate struggle forward. But fire was +falling about them like a meteoric shower. + +Suddenly Christine uttered a sharp cry of pain. She had stepped on a +burning cinder, and then realized for the first time, in her excitement, +that her feet were bare. + +"Oh, what shall I do?" she cried piteously, limping and leaning heavily +on Dennis's arm. + +"Indeed, Miss Ludolph, from my heart I pity you." + +"Can you save me? Oh, do you think you can save me?" she moaned, in +an agony of fear. + +"Yes, I feel sure I can. At any rate I shall not leave you;" and taking +her a little out of the jostling crowd he kneeled and bound up the +burned foot with his handkerchief. A little further on they came to +a shoe-store with doors open and owners gone. Almost carrying Christine +into it, for her other foot was cut and bleeding, he snatched down a +pair of boy's stout gaiters, and wiping with another handkerchief the +blood and dust from her tender little feet, he made the handkerchiefs +answer for stockings, and drew the shoes on over them. + +In the brief moment so occupied, Christine said, with tears in her +eyes: "Mr. Fleet, how kind you are! How little I deserve all this!" + +He looked up with a happy smile, and she little knew that her few words +amply repaid him. + +There was a crash in the direction of the fire. With a cry of fear, +Christine put out her hands and clung to him. + +"Oh, we shall perish! Are you not afraid?" + +"I tremble for you, Miss Ludolph." + +"Not for yourself?" + +"No! why should I? I am safe. Heaven and mother are just beyond this +tempest." + +"I would give worlds for your belief." +"Come, quick!" cried he, and they joined the fugitives, and for a +half-hour pressed forward as fast as was possible through the choked +streets, Dennis merely saying an encouraging word now and then. Suddenly +she felt herself carried to one side, and falling to the ground with +him. In a moment he lifted her up, and she saw with sickening terror +an infuriated dray-horse plunging through the crowd, striking down +men, women, and children. + +"Are you hurt?" he asked, gently, passing his arm around her and helping +her forward, that they might not lose a single step. + +"Awful! Awful!" she said, in a low, shuddering tone. + +The dreadful scenes and the danger were beginning to overpower her. + +A little further on they reached an avenue to the northwest through +which Dennis hoped to escape. But they could make but little headway +through the dense masses of drays, carriages, and human beings, and +at last everything came to a deadlock. Their only hope was to stand +in their place till the living mass moved on again. + +Strange, grotesque, and sad beyond measure were the scenes by which +they were surrounded. By the side of the aristocratic Christine, now +Baroness Ludolph, stood a stout Irishwoman, hugging a grunting, +squealing pig to her breast. A little in advance a hook-nosed spinster +carried in a cage a hook nosed parrot that kept discordantly crying, +"Polly want a cracker." At Dennis's left a delicate lady of the highest +social standing clasped to her bare bosom a babe that slept as +peacefully as in the luxurious nursery at home. At her side was a +little girl carrying as tenderly a large wax doll. A diamond necklace +sparkled like a circlet of fire around the lady's neck. Her husband +had gone to the south side, and she had had but time to snatch this +and her children. A crowd of obscene and profane rowdies stood just +behind them, and with brutal jest and coarse laughter they passed +around a whiskey-bottle. One of these roughs caught a glimpse of the +diamond necklace, and was putting forth his blackened hand to grasp +it, when Dennis pointed the captured pistol at him and said, "This is +law now!" + +The fellow slunk back. + +Just before them was a dray with a corpse half covered with a blanket. +The family sat around crying and wringing their hands, and the driver +stood in his seat, cursing and gesticulating for those in advance to +move on. Some moments passed, but there was no progress. Dennis became +very anxious, for the fire was rapidly approaching, and the sparks +were falling like hail. Every few moments some woman's dress was ablaze, +or some one was struck by the flying brands, and shrieks for help were +heard on every side. Christine, being clad in woollen, escaped this +peril in part. She stood at Dennis's side trembling like a leaf, with +her hands over her face to shut out the terrible sights. + +At last the driver, fearing for his life, jumped off his dray and left +all to their fate. But a figure took his place that thrilled Dennis's +heart with horror. + +There on the high seat stood Susie Winthrop--rather Mrs. Leonard. The +light of insanity glowed in her eyes; her long hair swept away to the +north, and turning toward the fiery tempest she bent forward as if +looking for some one. But after a moment she sadly shook her head, as +if she had sought in vain. Suddenly she reached out her white arms +toward the fire, and sang, clear and sweet above the horrid din: + + "O burning flakes of fiery snow, + Bury me too, bury me deep; + My lover sleeps thy banks below; + Fall on me, that I may sleep!" + +At this moment a blazing brand fell upon the horses' heads; they +startled forward, and the crazed lady fell over on the corpse below. +The animals being thoroughly terrified turned sharp around on the +sidewalk, and tore their way right toward the fire, trampling down +those in their track, and so vanished with their strangely assorted +load. + +Dennis, fearing to stay any longer where he was, determined to follow +in their wake and find a street leading to the north less choked, even +though it might be nearer the fire, and so with his trembling companion +he pressed forward again. + +Two blocks below he found one comparatively clear, but in terrible +proximity to the conflagration. Indeed, the houses were burning on +each side, but the street seemed clear of flame. He thought that by +swiftly running they could get through. But Christine's strength was +fast failing her, and just as they reached the middle of the block a +tall brick building fell across the street before them! Thus their +only path of escape was blocked by a blazing mass of ruins that it +would have been death to cross. + +They seemed hemmed in on every side, and Dennis groaned in agony. + +Christine looked for a moment at the impassable fiery barrier, then +at Dennis, in whose face and manner she read unutterable sympathy for +herself, and the truth flashed upon her. + +With a piercing shriek she fainted dead away in his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +ON THE BEACH + + +In the situation of supreme peril described in the last chapter, Dennis +stood a second helpless and hopeless. Christine rested a heavy burden +in his arms, happily unconscious. Breathing an agonized prayer to +heaven, he looked around for any possibility of escape. Just then an +express-wagon was driven furiously toward them, its driver seeking his +way out by the same path that Dennis had chosen. As he reached them +the man saw the hopeless obstruction, and wheeled his horses. As he +did so, quick as thought, Dennis threw Christine into the bottom of +the wagon, and, clinging to it, climbed into it himself. He turned +her face downward from the fire, and, covering his own, he crouched +beside her, trusting all now to God. + +The driver urged his horses toward the lake, believing that his only +chance. They tore away through the blazing streets. The poor man was +soon swept from his seat and perished, but his horses rushed madly on +till they plunged into the lake. + +At the sound of water Dennis lifted his head and gave a cry of joy. +It seemed that the hand of God had snatched them from death. Gently +he lifted Christine out upon the sands and commenced bathing her face +from the water that broke in spray at his feet. She soon revived and +looked around. In a voice full of awe and wonder she whispered, "Ah! +there is another world and another life, after all." + +"Indeed there is, Miss Ludolph," said Dennis, supporting her on his +arm and bending over her, "but, thanks to a merciful Providence, you +are still in this one." + +"How is it?" she said, with a bewildered air. "I do not understand. +The last I remember, we were surrounded by fire, you were despairing, +and it seemed that I died." + +"You fainted, Miss Ludolph. But God as by a miracle brought us out of +the furnace, and for the present we are safe." After she had +sufficiently rallied from her excessive exhaustion and terror, he told +her how they escaped. + +"I see no God in it all," she said; "only a most fortunate opportunity, +of which you, with great nerve and presence of mind, availed yourself. +To you alone, again and again this dreadful night, I owe my life." + +"God uses us as His instruments to do His will. The light will come +to you by and by, and you will learn a better wisdom." + +"In this awful conflagration the light has come. On every side I see +as in letters of fire, 'There is no God.' If it were otherwise these +scenes would be impossible. And any being permitting or causing the +evils and crimes this dreadful night has witnessed, I shall fear and +hate beyond the power of language to express." + +She uttered these words sitting on the sands with multitudes of others, +her face (from which Dennis had washed the dust and smoke) looking in +the glare so wan and white that he feared, with a sickening dread, +that through exposure, terror, or some of the many dangers by which +they were surrounded, she might pass into the future world with all +her unbelief and spiritual darkness. He yearned over her with a +solicitude and pity that he could not express. She seemed so +near--indeed he could feel her form tremble, as she kneeled beside +her, and supported her by his arm--and yet, in view of her faithless +state, how widely were they separated! Should any one of the many +perils about them quench the little candle of her life, which even now +flickered faintly, where in the wide universe could he hope to meet +her again? God can no doubt console His children and make up to them +every loss, but the passionate heart, with its intense human love, +clings to its idol none the less. Dennis saw that the fire would +probably hem them in on the beach for the remainder of the night and +the following day. He determined therefore in every way possible to +beguile the weary, perilous hours, and, if she would permit it, to +lead her thoughts heavenward. Hence arose from time to time +conversations, to which, with joy, he found Christine no longer averse. +Indeed, she often introduced them. + +Chafing her hands, he said in accents of the deepest sympathy, "How +I pity you, Miss Ludolph! It must indeed be terrible to possess your +thoughtful mind, to realize these scenes so keenly, and yet have no +faith in a Divine Friend. I cannot explain to you the mystery of +evil--why it came, or why it exists. Who can? I am but one of God's +little children, and only know with certainty that my Heavenly Father +loves and will take care of me." + +"How do you know it?" she asked, eagerly. + +"In several ways. Mainly because I feel it." + +"It all seems so vague and unreal," she sighed, dreamily. "There is +nothing certain, assured. There is no test by which I can at once know +the truth." + +"That does not prevent the truth from existing. That some are blind +is no proof that color does not exist." + +"But how can you be sure there is a God? You never saw Him." + +"I do not see the heat that scorches us, but I feel it, and know it +exists." + +"But I feel the heat the same as yourself, and I have no consciousness +of a Divine Being." + +"That does not take away my consciousness that He is my Saviour and +Friend. As yet you are spiritually dead. If you were physically dead, +you would not feel the heat of this fire." + +"Oh, it is all mystery--darkness," she cried, piteously. + +The sun had now risen quite above the waters of the lake, but seen +through the lurid smoke which swept over its face, it seemed like one +of the great red cinders that were continually sailing over their +heads. In the frightful glare, the transition from night to day had +scarcely been noted. The long, narrow beach was occupied by thousands +of fugitives, who were hemmed in on every side. On the south was the +river, skirted with fire, while opposite, on the west, the heat was +almost intolerable; on the east were the cold waves of the lake, and +on the north a burning pier that they could not cross. Their only hope +was to cling to that narrow line where fire and water mingled, and +with one element to fight the other. Here again was seen the mingling +of all classes which the streets and every place of refuge witnessed. +Judges, physicians, statesmen, clergymen, bankers, were jostled by +roughs and thieves. The laborer sat on the sand with his family, side +by side with the millionaire and his household. The poor debauched +woman of the town moaned and shivered in her scant clothing, at a slight +remove from the most refined Christian lady. In the unparalleled +disaster, all social distinctions were lost, levelled like the beach +on which the fugitives cowered. From some groups was heard the voice +of prayer; from others, bitter wailings and passionate cries for lost +members of the family; others had saved quantities of vile whiskey, +if nothing else, and made the scene more ghastly by orgies that seemed +not of earth. Added to the liquor were the mad excitement and +recklessness which often seize the depraved classes on such occasions. +They committed excesses that cannot be mentioned-these drunken, howling, +fighting wretches. Obscene epithets and words fell around like blows. +And yet all were so occupied with their own misfortunes, sufferings, +and danger, as scarcely to heed their neighbors, unless these became +very violent. + +Upon this heterogeneous mass of humanity the fire rained down almost +as we imagine it to have fallen upon the doomed cities of the plain, +and the hot breath of the flames scorched the exposed cheek and crisped +even eyebrows and hair. Sparks, flakes, cinders, pieces of roof, and +fiery pebbles seemed to fill the air, and often cries and shrieks +announced that furniture and bedding which had been dragged thither, +and even the clothing of women and children, were burning. Added to +all the other terrors of the scene was the presence of large numbers +of horses and cattle, snorting and plunging in their fright and pain. + +But the sound that smote Dennis's heart with the deepest commiseration +was the continuous wail of helpless little children, many of them +utterly separated from parents and friends, and in the very agony of +fear. + +He greatly dreaded the effect of these upon Christine, knowing how, +in the luxurious past, she had been shielded from every rough +experience. But she at length rallied into something like composure. +Her constitution was elastic and full of vitality, and after escaping +from immediate danger she again began to hope. Moreover, to a degree +that even she could not understand, his presence was a source of +strength and courage, and her heart clung to him with desperate +earnestness, believing him the sole barrier against immediate death, +and (what she dreaded scarcely less) a lonely, wretched existence, +should her life be spared. + +Though he never lost sight of her for a moment, and kept continually +wetting her hair and person, he found time to render assistance to +others, and, by carrying his hat full of water here and there, +extinguished many a dangerous spark. He also, again and again, snatched +up little children from under the trampling hoofs of frightened horses. + +As she watched him, so self-forgetful and fearless, she realized more +and more vividly that he was sustained and animated by some mighty +principle that she knew nothing of, and could not understand. The +impression grew upon her that he was right and she wrong. Though it +all remained in mystery and doubt, she could not resist the logic of +true Christian action. + +But as the day advanced the flames grew hotter, and their breath more +withering. About noon Dennis noticed that some shanties on the sand +near them were in danger of catching fire and perilling all in that +vicinity. Therefore he said, "Miss Ludolph, stay here where I leave +you for a little time, so that I may know just where to find you." + +"Oh, do not leave me!" she pleaded: "I have no one in the wide world +to help me except you." + +"I shall not be beyond call. You see those shanties there; if possible +we must keep them from burning, or the fire will come too near for +safety." Then, starting forward, he cried, "Who will volunteer to keep +the fire back? All must see that if those buildings burn we shall be +in danger." + +Several men stepped forward, and with hats and anything that would +hold water they began to wet the old rookeries. But the fiery storm +swooped steadily down on them, and their efforts were as futile as if +they had tried to beat back the wind. Suddenly a mass of flame +leaped upon the buildings, and in a moment they were all ablaze. + +"Into the lake, quick!" cried Dennis, and all rushed for the cool +waters. + +Lifting Christine from the sand, and passing his arm around her +trembling, shivering form, he plunged through the breakers, and the +crowd pressed after him. Indeed they pushed him so far out in the cold +waves that he nearly lost his footing, and for a few moments Christine +lost hers altogether, and added her cries to those of the +terror-stricken multitude. But pushing in a little nearer the shore, +he held her firmly and said with the confidence that again inspired +hope: "Courage, Miss Ludolph. With God's help I will save you yet." + +Even as she clung to him in the water, she looked into his face. He +was regarding her so kindly, so pitifully, that a great and generous +impulse, the richest, ripest fruit of her human love, throbbed at her +heart, and faltered from her lips--"Mr. Fleet, I am not worthy of +this risk on your part. If you will leave me you can save your own +life, and your life is worth so much more than mine!" + +True and deep must have been the affection that could lead Christine +Ludolph to say such words to any human being. There was a time when, +in her creed, all the world existed but to minister to her. But she +was not sorry to see the look of pained surprise which came into +Dennis's face and to hear him say, very sadly: "Miss Ludolph, I did +not imagine that you could think me capable of that. I had the good +fortune to rescue Miss Brown last night, at greater peril than this, +and do you think I would leave you?" + +"You are a true knight, Mr. Fleet," she said, humbly, "and the need +or danger of every defenceless woman is alike a sacred claim upon you." + +Dennis was about to intimate that, though this was true in knightly +creed, still among all the women in the world there might be a +preference, when a score of horses, driven before the fire, and goaded +by the burning cinders, rushed down the beach, into the water, right +among the human fugitives. + +Again went up the cry of agony and terror. Some were no doubt stricken +down not to rise again. In the melee Dennis pushed out into deeper +water, where the frantic animals could not plunge upon him. A child +floated near, and he snatched it up. As soon as the poor brutes became +quiet, clasping Christine with his right arm and holding up the child +with the other, he waded into shallow water. + +The peril was now perhaps at its height, and all were obliged to wet +their heads, to keep even their hair from singeing. Those on the beach +threw water on each other without cessation. Many a choice bit of +property--it might be a piano, or an express-wagon loaded with the +richest furs and driven to the beach as a place of fancied security--now +caught fire, and added to the heat and consternation. + +When this hour of extreme danger had passed, standing with the cold +billows of the lake breaking round him, and the billows of fire still +rolling overhead, Dennis began to sing in his loud, clear voice: + + "Jesus, lover of my soul, + Let me to thy bosom fly, + While the billows near me roll, + While the tempest still is high." + +Voice after voice joined in, some loud and strong, but others weak and +trembling--the pitiful cry of poor terror-stricken women to the only +One who it seemed could help them in their bitter extremity. Never +before were those beautiful words sung in such accents of clinging, +touching faith. Its sweet cadence was heard above the roar of the +flames and the breakers. + +Christine could only cling weeping to Dennis. + +When the hymn ceased, in harshest discord the voice of a half-drunken +man grated on their ears. + +"An' what in bloody blazes does yer Jasus burn us all up for, I'd like +to know. Sure an' he's no right to send us to hell before our time." + +"Oh, hush! hush!" cried a dozen voices, shocked and pained. + +"Divil a bit will I hush, sure; an' haven't I as good a right to have +me say as that singin' parson!" + +"You are an Irishman, are you not?" said Dennis, now venturing out of +the water. + +"Yis! what have ye got to say agin it?" asked the man, belligerent at +once. + +"Did you ever know an Irishman refuse to do what a lady asked of him?" + +"Faith no, and I niver will." + +"Then this lady, who is sick and suffering, asks you to please keep +still, and I will be still also; so that's fair." + +The Irishman scratched his head a moment, and said in a quieter tone, +"Since ye spake so civil and dacent, I'll do as ye sez; and here's to +the leddy's health;" and he finished a bottle of whiskey, which he +soon laid him out on the beach. + +"Thank you! Thank you!" said grateful voices on every side. + +Dennis found the mother of the child and gave it to her; and then +causing Christine to sit down near the water, where he could easily +throw it on her, he stood at her side, vigilant and almost tender in +his solicitude. Her tears were falling very fast, and he presently +stooped down and said, gently, "Miss Ludolph, I think the worst of the +danger is over." + +"Oh, Mr. Fleet!" she whispered, "dreadful as it may seem to you, the +words of that drunken brute there are nearer the language of my heart +than those of your sweet hymn. How can a good God permit such creatures +and evils to exist?" + +"Again I must say to you," said Dennis, "that I cannot explain the +mystery of evil. But I know this, God is superior to it; He will at +last triumph over it. The Bible reveals Him to us as able and as seeking +to deliver all who will trust Him and work with Him, and those who +venture out upon His promises find them true. Miss Ludolph, this is +not merely a matter of theory, argument, and belief. It is more truly +a matter of experience. The Bible invites, 'Oh, taste and see that the +Lord is good.' I have tasted and know He is. I have trusted Him for +years, and He never failed me." + +"You certainly have been sustained throughout this dreadful scene by +a principle that I cannot understand, but I would give all the world +to possess it." + +"You may possess it, Miss Ludolph." + +"How? how?" she asked, eagerly. + +"Do you wish to believe as I do?" + +"Yes, indeed; and yet my heart rebels against a God who permits, even +if He does not cause, all this evil." + +"Does it rebel against a Being who from first to last tries to save +men from evil?" + +"Tries! tries! what an expression to apply to a God! Why does He not +do it in every case?" + +"Because multitudes will not let Him." + +"Oh, that is worse still! Surely, Mr. Fleet, you let your reason have +nothing to do with your faith. How can a poor and weak being like +myself prevent an Almighty one from doing what He pleases?" + +"I am stronger than you, Miss Ludolph, and yet I could not have saved +you to-night unless you had first trusted me, and then done everything +in your power to further my efforts." + +"But your power is human and limited, and you say God is all-powerful." + +"Yes, but it is His plan and purpose never to save us against our will. +He has made us in His own image and endowed us with reason, conscience, +and a will to choose between good and evil. He appeals to these noble +faculties from first to last. He has given us hearts, and seeks to +win them by revealing His love to us. More than all, His Spirit, +present in the world, uses every form of truth in persuading and making +us willing to become His true children. So you see that neither on the +one hand does God gather us up like drift-wood nor does He on the other +drag us at His chariot wheels, unwilling captives, as did those who, +at various times, have sought to overrun the world by force. God seeks +to conquer the world by the might of the truth, by the might of love." + +Christine was hanging with the most eager interest on his words. +Suddenly his eyes, which had expressed such a kindly and almost tender +interest in her, blazed with indignation, and he darted up the beach. +Turning around she saw, at some little distance, a young woman most +scantily clad, clinging desperately to a bundle which a large, coarse +man was trying to wrench from her. The wretch, finding that he could +not loosen her hold, struck her in the face with such force that she +fell stunned upon the ground, and the bundle flew out of her hand. +He eagerly snatched it up, believing it to contain jewelry. Before +he could escape he was confronted by an unexpected enemy. But Dennis +was in a passion, and withal weak and exhausted, while his adversary +was cool, and an adept in the pugilistic art. The two men fought +savagely, and Christine, forgetting herself in her instinctive desire +to help Dennis, was rushing to his side, crying, "If there is a man +here worthy of the name, let him strike for the right!" but before she +and others could reach the combatants the thief had planted his fist +on Dennis's temple. Though the latter partially parried the blow, it +fell with such force as to extend him senseless on the earth. The +villain, with a shout of derision, snatched up the bundle and dashed +off apparently toward the fire. There was but a feeble attempt made +to follow him. Few understood the case, and indeed scenes of violence +and terror had become so common that the majority had grown apathetic, +save in respect to their personal well-being. + +Christine lifted the pale face, down which the blood was trickling, +into her lap, and cried, in a tone of indescribable anguish, "Oh, he +is dead! he is dead!" + +"Oh, no, miss; he is not dead, I guess," said a good-natured voice +near. "Let me bring a hatful of water from the lake, and that'll bring +him to." + +And so it did. Dennis opened his eyes, put his hand to his head, and +then looked around. But when he saw Christine bending over him with +tearful eyes, and realized how tenderly she had pillowed his aching +head, he started up with a deep flush of pleasure, and said: "Do not +be alarmed, Miss Ludolph; I was only stunned for a moment. Where is +the thief?" + +"Oh, they let him escape," said Christine, indignantly. + +"Shame!" cried Dennis, regaining his feet rather unsteadily. + +"Wal, stranger, a good many wrongs to-night must go unrighted." + +The poor girl who had been robbed sat on the sands swaying backing and +forth, wringing her hands, and crying that she had lost everything. + +"Well, my poor friend, that is about the case with the most of us. We +may be thankful that we have our lives. Here is my coat," for her +shoulders and neck were bare; "and if you will come down to the lake +this lady," pointing to Christine, "will bathe the place where the +brute struck you." + +"Shall I not give up my shawl to some of these poor creatures?" asked +Christine. + +"No, Miss Ludolph, I do not know how long we may be kept here; but I +fear we shall suffer as much from cold as from heat, and your life +might depend upon keeping warm." + +"I will do whatever you bid me," she said, looking gratefully at him. + +"That is the way to feel and act toward God," he said, gently. + +But with sudden impetuosity she answered: "I cannot see what He has +just permitted to happen before my eyes. Right has not triumphed, but +the foulest wrong." + +"You do not see the end, Miss Ludolph." + +"But I must judge from what I see." + +After she had bathed the poor girl's face, comforted and reassured +her, Dennis took up the conversation again and found Christine eager +to listen. Pausing every few moments to throw water over his companion, +he said: "Faith is beyond reason, beyond knowledge, though not contrary +to them. You are judging as we do not judge about the commonest +affairs--from a few isolated, mysterious facts, instead of carefully +looking the subject all over. You pass by what is plain and well +understood to what is obscure, and from that point seek to understand +Christianity. Every science has its obscure points and mysteries, but +who begins with those to learn the science? Can you ignore the fact +that millions of highly intelligent people, with every motive to know +the truth, have satisfied themselves as to the reality of our faith? +Our Bible system of truth may contain much that is obscure, even as +the starry vault has distances that no eye or telescope can penetrate, +and as this little earth has mysteries that science cannot solve, but +there is enough known and understood to satisfy us perfectly. Let me +assure you, Miss Ludolph, that Christianity rests on broad truths, and +is sustained by arguments that no candid mind can resist after patiently +considering them." + +She shook her head, silenced perhaps, but not satisfied. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +"PRAYER IS MIGHTY"--CHRISTINE A CHRISTIAN + + +The day was now declining, and the fire in that part of the city +opposite them had so spent itself that they were beginning to have a +little respite from immediate danger. The fiery storm of sparks and +cinders was falling mostly to the northward. + +Dennis now ventured to sit down almost for the first time, for he was +wearied beyond endurance. The tremendous danger and excitements, and +the consciousness of peril to the one most dear to him, had kept him +alert long after he ought to have had rest, but overtaxed nature now +asserted its rights, and the moment the sharp spur of danger was removed +he was overpowered by sleep. + +Christine spoke to him as he sat near, but even to her (a thing he +could not have imagined possible) he returned an incoherent reply. + +"My poor friend, you do indeed need rest," said she, in kindest accents. + +He heard her voice like a sweet and distant harmony in a dream, swayed +a moment, and would have fallen over in utter unconsciousness on the +sands, had she not glided to his side and caught his head upon her lap. + +In the heavy stupor that follows the utmost exhaustion, Dennis slept +hour after hour. The rest of the day was a perfect blank to him. But +Christine, partially covering and shading his face with the edge of +her shawl, bent over him as patient in watching as he had been brave +in her deliverance. It was beautiful to see the features once so cold +and haughty, now sweet with more than womanly tenderness. There upon +that desolate beach, cold, hungry, homeless, shelterless, she was +happier than she had been for months. But she trembled as she thought +of the future; everything was so uncertain. She seemed involved in a +labyrinth of dangers and difficulties from which she could see no +escape. She knew that both store and home had gone, and probably most, +if not all, of her father's fortune. She felt that these losses might +greatly modify his plans, and really hoped that they would lead him +to remain in this country. She felt almost sure that he would not go +back to Germany a poor man, and to remain in America was to give her +a chance of happiness, and happiness now meant life with him over whom +she bent. For a long time she had felt that she could give up all the +world for him, but now existence would scarcely be endurable without +him. In proportion to the slowness with which her love had been kindled +was its intensity--the steady, concentrated passion of a strong, +resolute nature, for the first time fully aroused. All indecision +passed from her mind, and she was ready to respond whenever he should +speak; but woman's silence sealed her lips, and more than maiden +delicacy masked her heart. While she bent over him with an expression +that, had he opened his eyes, might have caused him to imagine for a +moment that his sleep had been death, and he had wakened in heaven, +yet he must needs awake to find that the look and manner of earth had +returned. Her sensitive pride made her guarded even in expressing her +gratitude, and she purposed to slip his head off upon her shawl whenever +he showed signs of awakening, so that he might believe that the earth +only had been his resting-place. + +But now in his unconsciousness, and unnoted by all around, indeed more +completely isolated by the universal misery and apathy about her than +she could have been in her own home, with a delicious sense of security, +she bent her eyes upon him, and toyed daintily with the curling locks +on his brow. Whatever the future might be, nothing should rob her of +the strange, unexpected happiness of this opportunity to be near him, +purchased at such cost. + +As she sat there and saw the fire rush and roar away to the northward, +and the sun decline over the ruins of her earthly fortune, she thought +more deeply and earnestly of life than ever before. The long, heavy +sleep induced by the opiate had now taken away all sense of drowsiness, +and never had her mind been clearer. In the light of the terrible +conflagration many things stood out with a distinctness that impressed +her as nothing had ever done before. Wealth and rank had shrivelled +to their true proportions, and she said, half aloud:-- + +"That which can vanish in a night in flame and smoke cannot belong to +us, is not a part of us. All that has come out of the crucible of this +fire is my character, myself. It is the same with Mr. Fleet; but +comparing his character with mine, how much richer he is! What if there +is a future life, and we enter into it with no other possession than +our character? and that which is called soul or spirit is driven forth +from earth and the body as we have just been from our wealth and homes? +I can no longer coolly and contemptuously ignore as superstition what +he believes. He is not superstitious, but calm, fearless, and seemingly +assured of something that as yet I cannot understand. One would think +that there must be reality in his belief, for it sustains him and +others in the greatest of trials. The hymn he sang was like a magnet +introduced among steel filings mingled with this sand. The mere earth +cannot move, but the steel is instinct with life. So, while many of +us could not respond, others seemed inspired at the name of Jesus with +new hope and courage, and cried to the Nazarene as if He could hear +them. Why don't people cry for help to other good men who lived in the +dim past, and whose lives and deeds are half myth and half truth? why +to this one man only? for educated Catholics no longer pray to the +saints." + +Then her thoughts reverted to Mr. Ludolph. + +"Poor father!" said she; "how will he endure these changes? We have +not felt and acted toward each other as we ought. He is now probably +anxious beyond measure, fearing that I perished in my sleep, and so +I should have done, had it not been for this more than friend that I +have so wronged. Oh, that I could make amends! I wonder--oh, I wonder +if he has any spark of love left for me? He seems kind, even tender, +but he is so to every one--he saved Miss Brown--" + +But here a most violent interruption took place. Christine, in the +complete absorption of her thoughts, had not noticed that a group of +rough men and women near by, who had been drinking all day, had now +become intoxicated and violent. They were pushing and staggering, +howling and fighting, in reckless disregard of the comfort of others, +and before she knew it she was in the midst of a drunken brawl. One +rough fellow struck against her, and another trod on Dennis, who started +up with a cry of pain. In a moment he comprehended the situation, and, +snatching up Christine and the shawl, he pushed his way out of the +melee with his right arm, the wretches striking at him and one another +aimlessly in their fury; while both men and women used language that +was worse than their blows. After a brief struggle, Dennis and Christine +extricated themselves, and made their way northward up the beach till +they found a place where the people seemed quiet. + +Dennis's sudden awakening had revealed to him that his head had been +pillowed, and it seemed such a kind and thoughtful act on Christine's +part that he could scarcely believe it; at the same time he was full +of shame and self-reproach that by his sleep he had left her unguarded, +and he said: "Miss Ludolph, I hope you will pardon you recreant knight, +who slept while you were in danger; but really I could not help it." + +"It is I who must ask pardon," replied Christine, warmly. "After your +superhuman exertions, your very life depended on rest. But I made a +wretched watcher--indeed I have lost confidence in myself every way. +To tell the truth, Mr. Fleet, I was lost in thought, and with your +permission I would like to ask you further about two things you said +this morning. You asserted that you knew God loved you, and that +Christianity was sustained by arguments that no candid mind could +resist. What are those arguments? and how can you know such a comforting +thing as the love of God?" + +His eyes lighted up in his intense delight that she should again +voluntarily recur to this subject, and he hoped that God was leading +her to a knowledge of Him, and that he, in answer to his own and his +mother's prayers, might be partially instrumental in bringing the +light. Therefore he said, earnestly: "Miss Ludolph, this is scarcely +the time and place to go over the evidences of Christianity. When in +happy security I hope you may do this at your leisure, and am sure you +will be convinced, for I believe that you honestly wish the truth. But +there is no need that you should wait and look forward into the +uncertain future for this priceless knowledge. The father will not +keep his child waiting who tries to find him. God is not far from any +one of us. When our Lord was on earth, He never repulsed those who +sought Him in sincerity, and He is the true manifestation of God. + +"Moreover," he continued, reverently, "God is now on earth as truly +as when Christ walked the waves of Galilee, or stood with the +life-giving word upon His lips at the grave of His friend Lazarus. The +mighty Spirit of God now dwells among men to persuade, help, and lead +them into all truth, and I believe He is guiding you. This Divine +Spirit can act as directly on your mind as did Christ's healing hand +when He touched blind eyes and they saw, and palsied bodies and they +sprung into joyous activity." + +Under his eager, earnest words, Christine's eyes also lighted up with +hope, but after a moment her face became very sad, and she said, +wearily, "Mystery! mystery! you are speaking a language that I do not +understand." + +"Can you not understand this: 'For God so loved the world, that He +gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not +perish, but have everlasting life'? and that the Bible tells us that +His Son did, in very truth, die that we might live?" + +"Yes, yes, I know that the Bible seems to teach all that, but there +must be some mistake about it. Why should an all-powerful God take +such a costly, indirect way of accomplishing His purpose when a word +would suffice?" + +"We will not discuss God's reasons; I think they are beyond us. But +imagining the Bible story to be true, even though you do not believe +it, is not the love of God revealed to us through His son, Jesus +Christ?" + +"Yes, it is the very extravagance of disinterested love, So much so +that my reason revolts at it. It is contrary to all my ideas of Deity +and power." + +"Pardon me, Miss Ludolph, for saying it, but I think your ideas of +Deity are borrowed more from mythology and human greatness than from +the Bible. Let your reason stand aside a moment; this is not contrary +to it, but beyond it. Imagining the Bible story true, can you not wish +it true? If the man who died on Calvary out of love for you I and for +us all is also God, would you fear to trust yourself to Him? Could +you distrust One who loved you well enough to die for you?" + +"No! no, indeed! if I only could believe it, no! But how can I ever +be sure it is true? I am sure of nothing. I am not sure there is a +God. I am not sure the Bible is more than human in its character. I +feel as if my feet stood out upon those shifting waves, and as if there +were nothing certain or stable." + +"But in part you know the truth, Miss Ludolph, though you do not believe +it, and I believe that the God of whom we have spoken _can directly +reveal Himself to you_ and make His truth as real to you as it is to +me." + +"Mr. Fleet," cried Christine, "if I could believe as you do, I should +be the happiest of the happy, for I should feel that, however much I +suffered in this brief life, in the existence beyond I should be more +than compensated;" and covering her tearful face with her hands she +moaned, as if it were wrung from her, "I have suffered so much, and +there seemed no remedy!" + +Dennis's feelings were also deeply touched, and the dew of sympathy +gathered in his own eyes. In the gentlest accents be said, "Oh, that +you could trust that merciful, mighty One who invites all the heavy +laden to come to Him for rest!" + +She looked up and saw his sympathy, and was greatly moved. In faltering +tones she said: "You feel for me, Mr. Fleet. You do not condemn me in +my blindness and unbelief. I cannot trust Him, because I am not sure +He exists. If there was such a God I would gladly devote my whole being +to Him; but I trust _you_, and will do anything you say." + +"Will you kneel on these sands with me in prayer to Him?" he asked, +earnestly. + +She hesitated, trembled, but at last said, "Yes." + +He took her hand as if they were brother and sister, and they kneeled +together on the desolate beach. The glow of sunset was lost in the +redder glow of the fire that smouldered all over the ruins, and still +raged in the northwest, and the smoke and gathering gloom involved +them in obscurity. + +Though the weary, apathetic fugitives regarded them not, we believe +that angelic forms gathered round, and that the heart of the Divine +Father yearned toward His children. + +When they rose, after a simple prayer from Dennis, in which he pleaded +almost as a child might with an earthly father, Christine trembled +like a leaf, and was very pale, but her face grew tearless, quiet, and +very sad. Dennis still held her hand in the warm, strong grasp of +sympathy. Gently she withdrew it, and said, in a low, despairing tone: +"It is all in vain. There is no answer. Your voice has been lost in +the winds and waves." + +"Wait the King's time," said he, reverently. + +"You addressed him as Father. Would a good father keep his child +waiting?" + +"Yes, sometimes He does; He is also King." + +After a moment she turned to him the saddest face he ever looked upon, +and said, gently, again giving him her hand, "Mr. Fleet, you have done +your best for me, and I thank you all the same." + +He was obliged to turn away to hide his feelings. Silently they again +sat down on the beach together. Weariness and something like despair +began to tell on Christine, and Dennis trembled when he thought of the +long night of exposure before her. He bent his face into his hands and +prayed as he had never prayed before. She looked at him wistfully, and +knew he was pleading for her; but she now believed it was all in vain. +The feeling grew upon her that belief or unbelief was a matter of +education and temperament, and that the feelings of which Dennis spoke +were but the deceptive emotions of our agitated hearts. To that degree +that the Divine love seemed visionary and hopeless, she longed for him +to speak of his own, if in truth it still existed, that she could +understand and believe in. If during what remained of life she could +only drink the sweetness of that, she felt it was the best she could +hope for--and then the blank of nothingness. + +But he prayed on, and with something of his mother's faith seemed at +last, as it were, in the personal presence of Christ. With an +importunity that would not be denied, he entreated for her who despaired +at his side. + +At last, putting her hand lightly on his arm, she said: "Mr. Fleet, +waste no more time on me. From the groans I hear, some poor woman is +sick or hurt. Perhaps you can do some real good by seeing to her needs." + +He rose quietly, feeling that in some way God would answer, and that +he must patiently wait. + +Going up the beach a short distance he found a German woman lying just +on the edge of the water. In answer to his questions, he learned from +her broken English that she was sick and in pain. A sudden thought +struck him. In seeking to help another, might not Christine find help +herself, and in the performance of a good deed, might not the Author +of all good reveal Himself? Returning to her, he said: "Miss Ludolph, +the poor woman you have heard is sick and alone. She is German, and +you can speak to her and comfort her as only a woman can." + +Christine went at once, though with little confidence in her powers. +Indeed it was, perhaps, the first visit of charity and mercy she had +ever made. But she would have done anything he asked, and determined +to do her best. She helped the poor creature further up from the water, +and then, taking her hands, spoke to her soothingly and gently in her +native tongue. + +"Heaven and all the angels bless your sweet face for taking pity on +a poor lone body, and so they will too," is the free rendering of her +grateful German. + +"Would you please say a little prayer for a lone, sick body?" she +asked, after a little while. + +Christine hesitated a moment, and then thought: "Why not? if it will +be of any comfort to the poor thing. It can do neither of us harm." + +Dennis saw her kneel at the woman's side, lift her white face to heaven, +and her lips move. Her attitude was unmistakably that of prayer. He +could scarcely believe his eyes. + +Her petition was brief and characteristic: "O God--if there is a +God--help this poor creature!" + +Then Dennis saw her start up and glance around in a strange, bewildered +manner. Suddenly she clasped her hands and looked up with an ecstatic, +thrilling cry: "There is! there is! God lives and loves me, I feel, +I know, and therefore I may hope and live." Turning to the still raging +flames, she exclaimed: "Burn on with your fiery billows, I do not fear +you now! I am safe, safe forever! Oh, how can I ever love and praise +Thee enough!" + +Then, springing to Dennis's side, she took both his hands in hers, and +said: "Mr. Fleet, you have saved my life again and again, and I am, +oh, how grateful! but in leading me to this knowledge you have made +me your debtor for evermore. God does live, and I believe now He loves +even me." + +As the glare of the fire fell on her face, he was awed and speechless +at its expression. From its ecstatic joy and purity it seemed that the +light of heaven, instead of her burning home, was illumining it. + +At last he said, brokenly, "Thank God! thank God! my many, many prayers +are answered!" + +The look of love and gratitude she gave him will only find its +counterpart in heaven, when the saved beam upon those who led them to +the Saviour. The whole of her strong womanly soul, thoroughly aroused, +was in her face, and it shone like that of an angel. + +To Dennis, with the force of fulfilled prophecy, recurred his mother's +words, and unconsciously he spoke them aloud: "PRAYER is MIGHTY." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +CHRISTINE'S GRAVE + + +After a moment Christine returned to her charge and said, gently, "I +think I can take better care of you now." + +The poor woman looked at her in a bewildered way, half fearing she had +lost her senses. But there was that in Christine's tone and manner now +that went like sunlight and warmth to the heart, and in broadest German +the grateful creature was soon blessing her again and again, and +Christine felt that she was blessed beyond even her wildest dreams. + +Dennis now felt that she must have food and rest. She appeared, in the +ghostly light of the distant flames, so pale and spirit-like, that he +almost feared she would slip away to heaven at once, and he began +looking for some one stronger, older, and more suitable, to take her +place. At a little distance further north he at last found a stout +German woman sitting with her two children on a large feather bed, the +sole relic of her household goods. Dennis acquainted her with the case, +and she soon took the matter out of his and Christine's hands in a +very satisfactory way. + +To the south and west opportunity of escape was utterly cut off; +eastward were the waters of the lake, so that their only chance was +to push northward. After making their way slowly for a short distance +among the thickly scattered groups and the varied articles that had +been dragged to the shore for safety, Dennis thought he heard a familiar +voice. + +"Dr. Arten!" he cried. + +"Hallo! who wants me?" answered the good old physician, bustling up +in rather incongruous costume, consisting of a dress coat, white vest, +red flannel drawers, and a very soiled pair of slippers. + +"Oh, doctor! the very sight of you inspires hope and courage." + +"Surely a young fellow like you can be in no want of those articles?" + +"If he is lacking," cried Christine, "it must be for the reason that +he has given hope and courage to every one he has met, and so has +robbed himself." + +"Heigho!" exclaimed the doctor, "you here?" + +"Yes, thanks to the heroism of Mr. Fleet." + +"Fleet, is that all you have saved from the fire?" asked the doctor, +with a humorous twinkle, pointing to Christine. + +"I am well satisfied," said Dennis, quietly, but with rising color. + +"I should have perished, had not Mr. Fleet come to my rescue," continued +Christine, warmly, glad of an opportunity to express a little of her +gratitude. + +The doctor turned his genial, humorous eye on her and said: "Don't be +too grateful, Miss Ludolph; he is a young man, and only did his duty. +Now if I had been so fortunate you might have been as grateful as you +pleased." + +It was Christine's turn to grow rather rosier than even the red fire +warranted, but she said, "You would have your joke, doctor, if the +world were burning up." + +"Yes, and after it burned up," he replied. "What do you think of that, +Miss Ludolph, with your German scepticism?" + +Tears came in Christine's eyes, and she said, in a low tone, "I am +glad to say that I have lost my German scepticism in the fire also." + +"What!" cried the doctor, seizing both her hands in his hearty way. +"Will you accept of our Christian superstition?" + +"I think I have accepted your glorious Christian truth, and the thought +makes me very happy." + +"Well, now I can almost say, Praise God for the fire, though old Dr. +Arten must commence again where the youngsters are who kick up their +heels in their office all day." + +With professional instinct he slipped his finger on Christine's pulse, +then rummaged in his pocket and soon drew out some powders, and in his +brusque way made her take one. + +"Oh, how bitter!" she exclaimed. + +"That is the way the ladies treat me," began the merry bachelor: "not +an ounce of gratitude when I save their lives. But let a young fellow +like Fleet come along and get them out of danger by mere brute strength, +instead of my delicate, skilful way, and language breaks down with their +thanks. Very well, I shall have compensation--I shall present +my bill before long. And now, young man, since you have set out to +rescue my little friend here, you had better carry the matter through, +for several reasons which I need not urge. Your best chance is to make +your way northward, and then continue around the west, where you can +find food and shelter;" and with a hearty grasp of the hand, the brave, +genial old man wished them "God speed!" + +Dennis told him of the poor German woman, and then pushed on in the +direction indicated. But Christine was growing weak and exhausted. At +last they reached the Catholic cemetery. It was crowded with fugitives +and the fire to the northwest still cut off all escape, even if +Christine's strength had permitted further exertion. It was now +approaching midnight, and she said, wearily: "Mr. Fleet, I am very +sorry, but I fear I cannot take another step. The powder Dr. Arten +gave me strengthened me for a time, but its effect is passing away, +and I feel almost paralyzed with fatigue. I am not afraid to stay here, +or indeed anywhere now." + +"It seems a very hard necessity that you should have to remain in such +a place, Miss Ludolph, but I see no help for it. We are certainly as +well off as thousands of others, and so I suppose ought not to +complain." + +"I feel as if I could never complain again, Mr. Fleet. I only hope my +father is as safe and as well as we are. I cannot tell you how my heart +goes out toward him now that I see everything in a different light. +I have not been a true daughter, and I do long to make amends. He +surely has escaped, don't you think?" + +"Mr. Ludolph was possessed of unusual sagacity and prudence," said +Dennis, evasively. "What any man could do, he could. And now, +Miss Ludolph, I will try to find you a resting-place. There are such +crowds here that I think we had better go nearer that side, where early +in the evening the fire drove people away." + +The cemetery had not been used of late years, and many of the bodies +had been removed. This caused excavations here and there, and one of +these from which the gathered leaves and grass had been burned, Dennis +thought might answer for Christine's couch, as in the hollow of this +vacant and nearly filled grave she would be quite sheltered from the +wind, and the sand was still warm from the effects of the fire. To his +surprise she made no objection. + +"I am so weary that I can rest anywhere," she said, "and a grave is +not to me what it was once." + +He arranged her shawl so that it might be mattress, pillow, and +covering, and wrapped her up. + +"And how will you endure the long, cold hours, my friend?" she asked, +looking up most sympathetically. + +"Thanks to your kindness, I had such a good sleep this afternoon that +I feel strong and rested," he replied, with a smile. + +"I fear you say so to put my mind at rest;" but even as she spoke her +eyes closed and she went to sleep like a tired and trusting child. As +with Dennis a few hours before, the limit of nature's endurance had +been reached, and the wealthy, high-born Miss Ludolph, who on Sabbath +night had slept in the midst of artistic elegance and luxury, now, on +Monday night, rested in a vacant grave under the open and +storm-gathering sky. Soon--to be accurate, at two o'clock on the morning +of Tuesday--rain began to fall. But, with all the discomfort it brought, +never had rain been more welcome. + +Christine shivered in her sleep, and Dennis looked around vainly for +some additional covering. The thronging fugitives were all in a similar +plight, and their only course was simply to endure till some path of +escape opened. + +The night was indeed a long one to him. At first excitement and +happiness kept him awake and unconscious of time and discomfort. But +he soon felt how weary and hungry he was, for he had eaten nothing +since his slight supper on Sabbath evening. The heat of the fire +perceptibly lessened as the rain began falling, and without his coat +Dennis was soon chilled to the bone. On every side he heard moans of +discomfort, and he knew that he had far more reason to endure patiently +than many near him. He tried to keep himself warm by walking around, +but at last he grew too weary for that, and sat, a patient, cowering +watcher, at the head of Christine's weird couch, listening sadly at +times to the pitiful crying of little children and the sighs and groans +of older sufferers. + +At last the light of welcome day streaked the eastern horizon, and +Christine opened her eyes in a bewildered way, but, on seeing him +swaying backward and forward with half-closed eyes, sprang up and said, +"And have you sat and watched there all the long night?" + +"I hope you feel rested and better, Miss Ludolph," he replied, startled +from drowsiness by her voice. + +"It has been raining, too. I fear you are wet through. Oh, how much +you must have suffered on my account!" + +"I imagine you are as wet as I am, Miss Ludolph. This has been a very +democratic experience for you. We are all about alike in this strange +camping-ground." + +"No; your kindness made me quite comfortable. Indeed, I never slept +better. And you, without any coat or shelter, have watched patiently +hour after hour." + +"Well, you did as much for me yesterday afternoon, so we are quits." + +"I think there is a great difference," she said. "And remember what +a watcher I made; I let those drunken creatures run over you." + +"I don't see how you could have helped it," said he, laughing. "That +you should have cared for me as you did was a favor that I never +expected," he added, blushing. + +She blushed too, but made no reply; at the same time she was vexed +with herself that she did not. Dennis, with a lover's blindness, +misunderstood her silence, and thought that, as a friend, she was more +grateful than he could wish, but he must speak in no other character. + +Then he remembered that it would be dishonorable to urge his suit under +the circumstances; it would be a source of inexpressible pain to her, +with her strong sense of obligation, to put aside expressions of his +deeper regard, and he resolved to avoid if possible any manifestations +of his feelings. While she was dependent upon him he would act the +part of a brother toward her, and if his human love could never find +its consummation, he would bear his loss as patiently as possible. But +in spite of himself a tinge of sadness and restraint came into his +manner, and Christine sighed to herself, "If _he_ only knew, and _I_ +only knew, just the truth, how much happier we might be!" There was a +general movement now in the strangely assorted multitude. The fire had +swept everything away so completely on the north side that there were +not hot blazing ruins to prevent crossing. Accordingly men came pouring +over, looking for their families. On every side were cries of joy on +recognition of those whom fear and terrible forebodings had buried under +the blackened remains of once happy homes. But mingled with exclamations +of joy were sobs and wails of anguish, as some now realized in the +lapsing hours that absent members of the household were lost. + +Christine looked in vain for her father; at last Dennis said: "Miss +Ludolph, do you feel equal to the effort of crossing to the west side? +You must be faint with hunger, and there only can we hope for help." + +"Oh, yes! let us go at once, for your sake as well as mine;" for she +saw that his long fasting and great fatigue had made him very haggard. + +They urged their way across the burned district as fast as their +exhausted state would permit, carefully avoiding burning brands that +still lay in the street. + +"I hope you will have patience with me in my slow progress," said +Christine, "for I feel as I imagine Rip Van Winkle must have done, +after his twenty years' nap." + +"I think you have borne up heroically, Miss Ludolph," said Dennis, +warmly. + +"Oh, no! I am not in the least heroic, but I confess that I am very +hungry. I never knew what hunger was before. Well, I can now appreciate +what must often be the condition of the poor, and hope not to be so +forgetful of them hereafter." + +"I am glad to hear you say that you are hungry, Miss Ludolph, for it +proves that with care you will rally after this dreadful exposure, and +be your former self." + +"Ah! Mr. Fleet, I hope I shall never be my old self again. I shudder +when I think what I was when you awakened me that dreadful night." + +"But I have feared," said he, ever avoiding any reference to his own +services, "that, though you might escape the fire, the exposure would +be greater than you could endure. I trembled for you last night when +it began to rain, but could find no additional covering." + +"No brother could be kinder or more thoughtful of me," she said, turning +upon him a glad, grateful face. + +"That is it," thought Dennis. "She hints to me what must be our +relationship. She is the Baroness Ludolph, and is pledged to a future +that I cannot share." + +But as he saw her gratitude, he resolved all the more resolutely not +to put it to the hard test of refusing his love. A little later he +unconsciously sighed wearily, and she looked at him wistfully. + +"Oh, that I _knew_ if he felt toward me as he once did!" she said to +herself. + +They now reached the unscathed streets of the west side, which were +already thronged with fugitives as hungry and gaunt as themselves. +Mingling with this great strange tide of weak, begrimed, hollow-eyed +humanity, they at last reached Dr. Goodwin's beautiful church. Here +already had begun the noble charity dispensed from that place during +the days of want and suffering that followed. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +SUSIE WINTHROP + + +Waiting with multitudes of others, Christine and Dennis at last received +an army biscuit (hardtack in the soldier's vernacular) and a tin-cup +of what resembled coffee. To him it was very touching to see how eagerly +she received this coarse fare, proving that she was indeed almost +famished. Too weak to stand, they sat down near the door on the +sidewalk. A kind lady presently came and said, "If you have no place to +go you will find it more comfortable in the church." + +They gladly availed themselves of her permission, as the thronged +street was anything but pleasant. + +"Mr. Fleet," said Christine, "I am now going to take care of you in +return for your care last night," and she led him up to a secluded +part of the church by the organ, arranged some cushions on a seat, and +then continued: "As I have obeyed you, so you must now be equally +docile. Don't you dare move from that place till I call you;" and she +left him. + +He was indeed wearied beyond expression, and most grateful for a chance +to rest. This refuge and the way it was secured seemed almost a heavenly +experience, and he thought with deepest longing, "If we could always +take care of each other, I should be perhaps too well satisfied with +this earthly life." + +When after a little time Christine returned he was sleeping as heavily +as he had done before upon the beach, but the smile his last thought +occasioned still rested on his face. + +For some little time she also sat near and rested, and her eyes sought +his face as if a story were written there that she never could finish. +Then she went to make inquiries after her father. But no one to whom +she spoke knew anything about him. + +Bread and other provisions were constantly arriving, but not fast +enough to meet the needs of famishing thousands. Though not feeling +very strong she offered her services, and was soon busily engaged. All +present were strangers to her, but, when they learned from the inquiries +for her father that she was Miss Ludolph, she was treated with deference +and sympathy. But she assumed nothing, and as her strength permitted, +during the day, she was ready for any task, even the humblest. She +handed food around among the hungry, eager applicants, with such a +sweet and pitying face that she heard many a murmured blessing. Her +efforts were all the more appreciated as all saw that she too had +passed through the fire and had suffered deeply. At last a kind, +motherly lady said: "My dear, you look ready to drop. Here, take this," +and she poured out a glass of wine and gave her a sandwich; "now, go +and find some quiet nook and rest. It's your duty." + +"I have a friend who has suffered almost everything in saving me. He +is asleep now, but he has had scarcely anything to eat for nearly three +days, and I know he will be very hungry when he wakes." + +"Nothing to eat for three days! Why, you must take him a whole loaf, +and this, and this," cried the good lady, about to provision Dennis +for a month. + +"Oh, no," said Christine, with a smile, "so much would not be good for +him. If you will give me three or four sandwiches, and let me come for +some coffee when he wakes, it will be sufficient;" and she carried +what now seemed treasures to where Dennis was sleeping, and sat down +with a happy look in her face. + +The day had been full of sweet, trustful thoughts. She was conscious +of a presence within her heart and all around that she knew was Divine, +and in spite of her anxiety about her father and the uncertainty of +the future, she had a rest and contentment of mind that she had never +experienced before. Then she felt such a genuine sympathy for the +sufferers about her, and found them so grateful when she spoke to them +gently and kindly, that she wondered she had never before discovered +the joy of ministering to others. She was entering a new world, and, +though there might be suffering in it, the antidote was ever near, and +the pleasures promised to grow richer, fuller, more satisfying, till +they developed into the perfect happiness of heaven. But every Christian +joy that was like a sweet surprise--every thrilling hope that pointed +to endless progress in all that is best and noblest in life, instead +of the sudden blank and nothingness that threatened but yesterday--and, +above all, the animating consciousness of the Divine love which kept +her murmuring, "My Saviour, my good, kind Heavenly Father," all reminded +her of him who had been instrumental in bringing about the wondrous +change. Often during the day she would go and look at him, and could +Dennis only have opened his eyes at such a moment, and caught her +expression, no words would have been needed to assure him of his +happiness. + +The low afternoon sun shone in gold and crimson on his brow and face +through the stained windows before he gave signs of waking, and then +she hurried away to get the coffee hot from the urn. + +She had hardly gone before he arose greatly refreshed and strengthened, +but so famished that a roast ox would have seemed but a comfortable +meal. His eye at once caught the sandwiches placed temptingly near. + +"That is Miss Ludolph's work," he said; "I wonder if she has saved any +for herself." He was about to go and geek her when she met him with +the coffee. + +"Go back," she said; "how dare you disobey orders?" + +"I was coming to find you." + +"Well, that is the best excuse you could have made, but I am here; so +sit down and drink this coffee and devour these sandwiches." + +"Not unless you share them with me." + +"Insubordinate! See here," and she took out her more dainty provision +from behind a seat and sat down opposite, in such a pretty, +companionable way that he in his admiration and pleasure forgot his +sandwiches. + +"What is the matter?" she asked. "You are to eat the sandwiches, not +me." + +"A very proper hint, Miss Ludolph; one might well be inclined to make +the mistake." + +"Now that is a compliment worthy of the king of the Cannibal Islands." + +"Miss Ludolph," said Dennis, looking at her earnestly, "you do indeed +seem happy." + +A ray of light slanting through a yellow diamond of glass fell with +a sudden glory upon her face, and in a tone of almost ecstasy she said: +"Oh, I am so glad and grateful, when I realize what might have been, +and what is! It seems that I have lost so little in this fire in +comparison with what I have gained. And but for you I might have lost +everything. How rich this first day of life, real, true life, has been! +My Heavenly Father has been so kind to me that I cannot express it. +And then to think how I have wronged Him all these years!" + +"You have indeed learned the secret of true eternal happiness, Miss +Ludolph." + +"I believe it--I feel sure of it. All trouble, all pain will one day +pass away forever; and sometimes I feel as if I must sing for joy. I +do so long to see my father and tell him. I fear he won't believe it +at first, but I can pray as you did, and it seems as if my Saviour +would not deny me anything. And now, Mr. Fleet, when you have finished +your lunch, I am going to ask one more favor, and then will dub you +truest knight that ever served defenceless woman. You will find my +father for me, for I believe you can do anything." + +Even in the shadow where he sat she caught the pained expression of +his face. + +She started up and grasped his arm. + +"You know something," she said; then added: "Do not be afraid to find +my father now. When he knows what services you have rendered me, all +estrangement, if any existed, will pass away." + +But he averted his face, and she saw tears gathering in his eyes. + +"Mr. Fleet," she gasped, "do you know anything I do not?" + +He could hide the truth no longer. Indeed it was time she should learn +it. Turning and taking her trembling hand, he looked at her so sadly +and kindly that she at once knew her father was dead. + +"Oh, my father!" she cried, in a tone of anguish that he could never +forget, "you will never, never know. All day I have been longing to +prove to you the truth of Christianity by my loving, patient tenderness, +but you have died, and will never know," she moaned, shudderingly. + +He still held her hand--indeed she clung to his as to something that +might help sustain her in the dark, bitter hour. + +"Poor, poor father!" she cried; "I never treated him as I ought, and +now he will never know the wealth of love I was hoping to lavish on +him." Then, looking at Dennis almost reproachfully, she said: "Could +you not save him? You saved so many others." + +"Indeed I could not, Miss Ludolph; I tried, and nearly lost my life +in the effort. The great hotel behind the store fell and crushed all +in a moment." + +She shuddered, but at last whispered, "Why have you kept this so long +from me?" + +"How could I tell you when the blow would have been death? Even now +you can scarcely bear it." + +"My little beginning of faith is sorely tried. Heavenly Spirit," she +cried, "guide me through this darkness, and let not doubt and unbelief +cloud my mind again." + +"Such prayer will be answered," said Dennis, in a deep, low tone. + +They sat in the twilight in silence. He still held her hand, and she +was sobbing more gently and quietly. Suddenly she asked, "Is it wrong +thus to grieve over the breaking of an earthly tie?" + +"No, not if you will say as did your Lord in His agony, 'Oh, my Father, +Thy will be done.'" + +"I will try," she said, softly, "but it is hard." + +"He is a merciful and faithful High Priest. For in that He Himself +hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor them that are +tempted." + +"Do you know that I think my change in feeling makes me grieve all the +more deeply? Until to-day I never loved my father as I ought. It is +the curse of unbelief to deaden everything good in the heart. Oh, I +do feel such a great, unspeakable pity for him!" + +"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that +fear Him." + +"Is that in the Bible?" she asked. + +"Yes." + +"It is very sweet. He indeed must be my refuge now, for I am alone in +the world." + +"He has said, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' I have passed +through this sorrow so recently myself that I can sympathize with you +as a fellow-sufferer." + +"True, true, you have," she answered. "Is that the reason that Christ +suffered with us--that we might know He sympathized with us?" + +"Yes." + +"How unspeakably comforting is such sympathy, both human and divine! +Tell me about your mother." + +"I fear I cannot without being unmanned. She was one of Heaven's +favorites, and I owe everything to her. I can tell you one thing, +though, she prayed for you continually--even with her dying lips, when +my faith had broken down." + +This touched Christine very deeply. At last she said, "I shall see her +some day." + +"I wish you had seen her," he continued very sadly, looking as if at +a scene far away. + +"You cannot wish it more than I. Indeed I would have called on her, +had it not been for an unfortunate accident." + +He looked at her with some surprise, as if not understanding her remark, +but said, "She greatly wished to see you before she died." + +"Oh, I wish I had known it!" + +"Did you not know it?" he asked, in a startled manner. + +"No, but I felt grateful to her, for I understood that she offered to +take care of me in case I had the smallpox. I wanted to visit her very +much, and at last thought I would venture to do so, but just then I +sprained my ankle. I sent my maid to inquire, but fear she didn't do +my errand very well," added Christine, looking down. + +"She never came, Miss Ludolph." Then he continued, eagerly: "I fear +I have done you a great wrong. A little time before my mother died, +she wrote you a line saying that she was dying and would like to see +you. I did not know you could not come--I thought you would not." + +Crimson with shame and humiliation, Christine buried her burning cheeks +in her hands and murmured, "I never received it." + +"And did you send the exquisite flowers and fruit?" he asked. "Ah, I +see that you did. I am so glad--so very glad that I was mistaken! I +sincerely ask your pardon for my unjust thoughts." + +"It is I who should ask pardon, and for a long time I have earnestly +wished that I might find opportunity to do so. My conduct has been +simply monstrous, but of late it has seemed worse than the reality. +Everything has been against me. If you only knew--but--" (and her head +bowed lower). Then she added, hastily, "My maid has been false, and +I must have appeared more heartless than ever." But, with biter shame +and sorrow, she remembered who must have been the inspirer of the +treachery, and, though she never spoke of it again, she feared that +Dennis suspected it also. It was one of those painful things that must +be buried, even as the grave closes over the frail, perishing body. + +Let those who are tempted to a wicked, dishonorable deed remember that, +even after they are gone, the knowledge of it may come to those who +loved them, like an incurable wound. + +Dennis's resolution not to speak till Christine should be no longer +dependent on him was fast melting away, as he learned that she had not +been so callous and forgetful as she had seemed. But before he could +add another word, a wild, sweet, mournful voice was heard singing: + + "O fiery storm, wilt never cease? + Thy burning hail falls on my heart; + Bury me deep, that I in peace + May rest where death no more can part." + +In awed, startled tones they both exclaimed, "SUSIE WINTHROP!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +DOCTOR ARTEN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING + + +Hastening down into the body of the church, Dennis and Christine found +Mrs. Leonard lying on some cushions in a pew. She was scantily clad, +her sweet face scorched and blackened, and her beautiful hair almost +crisped away. + +Her husband was bending over her in an agony of mingled grief and joy. +She had just been brought in from wandering aimlessly and alone quite +out upon the prairie, singing in a low, plaintive way to herself words +suggested by the sudden disaster that had temporarily robbed her of +husband, of reason, and almost of life. + +Dennis afterward learned from Professor Leonard that when first aroused +they had escaped from the hotel, but, not realizing the danger, he had +stepped back a moment at her request to get something she valued very +much, and they had become separated. + +"And thus at last I find the poor child," he cried, with a look of +agony. + +Mrs. Leonard did not know any of them, but continued her low, plaintive +singing. + +Dr. Arten, who had found his way to the church as one of the centres, +was soon in attendance, his benevolent face becoming the very embodiment +of pity. The crowd were pushed back, and with other kind ladies +Christine took charge of her poor unconscious friend, and all was done +that skill and tender love could suggest. At last, under the doctor's +opiates, her low, weird singing ceased, and she slept, her husband +holding her hand. The thronging fugitives were kept a little away, and +Dr. Arten slept near, to be within call. + +A lady asked Christine to go home with her, but she thanked her and +said, "No, I would rather remain in the church near my friends." + +Dennis saw that she was greatly wearied. Taking her hand, he said: +"Miss Ludolph, it is my turn to take care of you again. See, our friends +are preparing a place there for the ladies to sleep. Please go to rest +at once, for you do indeed need it." + +"I am very tired, but I know I could not sleep. How strange this life +is! All day, the world, in spite of what has happened, seemed growing +brighter. Now with the night has come the deeper darkness of sorrow. +On every side pain and suffering seem to predominate, and to me there +will ever be so much mystery in events like my father's death and my +friend Susie's experience, that I know it will be hard to maintain a +childlike faith." + +"God will help you to trust; you will not be left to struggle alone. +Then remember you are His child, and earthly parents do much that +little children cannot understand." + +With a faint smile she answered: "I fear I shall be one of those +troublesome children that are ever asking why. All day it has seemed +so easy to be a Christian, but already I learn that there will be times +when I shall have to cling to my Saviour, instead of being carried +forward in His arms. Indeed, I almost fear that I shall lose Him in +the darkness." + +"But He will not lose you," replied Dennis. "Since you are not sleepy, +let me tell you a short Bible story." + +"Oh, do, please do, just as if I were a little child." + +"It is in the New Testament. Jesus had sent His disciples in a boat +across the sea of Galilee, while He should go up alone on a mountain +to pray. The night came, and with it a storm swept down against the +disciples. The smooth sea was lashed into great foam-crested waves +which broke over their little ship. They tugged hour after hour at +the oars, but in vain. The night grew darker, the wind more contrary, +the waves higher and more threatening, their arms wearied, and they +may have feared that they would perish alone and without remedy in the +black midnight. But we read that 'He saw them toiling in rowing,' +though they knew it not. From the distant mountain side 'He saw +them'--marked every weary stroke of the oar, and every throb of fear. +But at last, when they were most ready to welcome Him, when none could +say, 'We should have rowed through the storm alone,' He came to them +walking safely on the dark waves that threatened them with death, and +said, 'Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid.' Then they gladly +received Him into the ship, and immediately the rough waves were hushed, +and the keel of the boat grated on the beach toward which they had +vainly rowed. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped Him, +saying, 'Of a truth thou art the Son of God.' + +"Now it was on the evening of that very night that these same disciples +had engaged in a scene of festivity. They had stood in the sunset on +the mountain slope, and seen their Lord feed many thousand. Then all +was peace, safety, and good cheer. Life changed as quickly for them +as for you, but did not their Divine Master see them as truly in the +stormy night as in the sunlight? Did He leave them to perish? + +"He is watching you, Miss Ludolph, for He is ever the same; and before +this stormy night of your sorrow passes away you will hear His voice, +saying, 'Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid.'" + +"Already I hear it," she said, in a low, glad voice, smiling through +her tears. "I can, I do trust Him, and the conflicting winds of doubt +and fear are becoming still. Among all these homeless people there +must be many sad, discouraged hearts. You have helped me so much; can +you not say a word or sing something that will help them?" + +Dennis thought a moment, and then, in a sweet, clear voice that +penetrated every part of the large building, sang: + + "Father in Heaven, the night is around us, + Terror and danger our portion have been; + We cry unto Thee, oh, save and defend us, + Comfort the trembling, and pardon our sin. + + "Hearts that are heavy, look onward and upward; + Though wild was the storm that wrecked your loved homes, + Faith lifts your sad glances hopefully heavenward, + To mansions prepared with glory-crowned domes. + + "Hearts that are breaking, whose lov'd ones have vanished, + Swept down in the seething ocean of fire, + E'en now they may rest where pain is all banished, + And join their glad songs with the heavenly choir. + + "Hearts that are groaning with life's weary burden, + Who fear to go forward, to sorrow a prey; + Jesus invites you--'Oh, come, heavy laden'; + Leave sin at His feet, bear mercy away." + +After the first line there was a breathless hush; but, when he closed, +low sobbings might be heard from many of the women, and in the dim +light not a few tears shone in the eyes of manhood. Dennis's voice was +sympathetic in its character, and he had the power of throwing into +it much feeling. + +Christine was weeping quietly, but her tears now were like the warm +spring rain as it falls on the precious seed. At last she said, "You +have done these people much good." + +"To you belongs all the credit, for it was at your suggestion I sang." + +She shook her head, and then said, "Good-night, my friend, I shall +never forget this day with its mingled experience; but I think, I hope, +I shall never doubt God again;" and she went to her rest. + +The light of the next day brought to view many hard realities, and +chief among these was the bread question. Dennis was up with the dawn, +and by eager inquiries sought to comprehend the situation. Some were +gloomy and discouraged, some apathetic, and some determined, courageous, +and hopeful; and to this last class he belonged. + +Most thankful that he had come out of the fiery ordeal unscathed, he +resolved to contribute his quota toward a new and better Chicago. +Young, and sanguine in temperament, he already saw the city rise from +its ashes in statelier proportions and richer prosperity. With a thrill +of exultation he heard the report that some Napoleonic business men +had already telegraphed for building material, and were even now +excavating the hot ruins. + +Christine had hardly joined him as he stood at the door when a gentleman +entered and asked, "Who here are willing and able to work for fair +wages?" + +"I am at your service," said Dennis, stepping forward promptly. + +"You are a gentleman, sir," said the speaker, impressed with the fact +by Dennis's bearing, though his hat and coat were gone; "I need laborers +who can handle the pick and shovel." + +"I will work for less, then, till I can handle these tools as well as +a laborer. There is no reason why I should eat the bread of charity +a day longer, especially when so many need it more than I." + +"I said you were a gentleman; I now say you are a man, and that to me +means a great deal more," said the energetic stranger. "You shall have +two dollars a day with the rest." + +He turned to Christine and said, almost proudly, "The supper you have +to-night shall be yours also." + +"That is," she replied, with a smile, "I shall live on your charity +instead of that of some one else." + +His face grew sad at once, but he answered, as he went away, "I could +not give you charity, Miss Ludolph." + +Christine saw that she had pained him, and was much vexed with herself. +But his remark added to the hope and almost belief that she still held +her old place in his heart, and she resolved to make amends in the +evening for her unlucky speech. + +With a smile she said to herself: "If he only knew that I would prefer +the coarsest, scantiest fare provided by him to the most costly banquet, +he would not have gone away with that long face. How rich life would +be if I could commence it with him, and we struggle up together! Oh, +Heaven, grant," she sighed, looking earnestly upward, "that through +these wonderful, terrible changes, I may climb the mountain at his +side, as he so graphically portrayed it in his picture!" + +Mrs. Leonard still slept, and her husband in an agony of anxiety watched +at her side. At last, a little before midday, she opened her eyes and +said, in her natural tone: "Why, John, I must have greatly overslept. +Where am I?" and then, as her husband fairly sobbed for joy, she started +up and said, hurriedly: "What is the matter? What has happened?" + +"Oh, be calm!" whispered Christine to the professor. "Everything depends +on keeping her quiet." Then she bent over her friend, and said: "Do +not be alarmed, Susie; you are now safe and well, and so is your +husband. But you have been ill, and for his sake and your own you must +keep quiet." + +She turned inquiringly to her husband, who said, more calmly, "It is +all true, and if you can only be careful we can go back to Boston as +well as ever." + +"I will do anything you say, John; but why am I in a church?" + +"You were taken sick in the street, and this was the nearest place to +bring you." + +"Oh, dear! I have had such strange, dreadful dreams. I am so glad they +were only dreams, and you are here with me;" and she lay quietly holding +her husband's hands and looking contentedly in his face. It was evident +she was herself again, and much better. + +Dr. Arten soon after came and said, cheerily, "All right! all right! +will have you out in a day or two as good as new, and then, Miss +Ludolph, you will see how much more grateful she is to the old doctor +than you were." + +"You must present your bill," replied Christine, with a smile. + +"May I?" retorted the doctor, wiping his lips. + +"Oh, I don't know about that," cried Christine; adding, quickly, "when +I welcome you to my own home you may." + +"An old maid's hall, I suppose." + +"It will be an orphan's home, at least," said Christine, softly and +sadly. + +Tears filled the old man's eyes, and putting his arm around her he +drew her to him, saying, as he stroked her drooping head: "Poor child! +poor child! I did not know. But you shall never want a protector while +the old doctor is above ground. As far as possible I will be a father +to you;" and Christine knew she had found a friend as true and strong +as steel, and she buried her face on his shoulder and cried as +trustingly as his own child might have done. + +"Oh, Christine!" cried Mrs. Leonard, "I am so sorry for you!" + +At the voice of her old friend she at once rallied, and, trying to +smile through her tears, said, "God has been so much better to me than +I deserved that I have only gratitude when I think of myself; but my +poor father--" and again she covered her face and wept. + +"Christine, come here," said Mrs. Leonard, softly, and she put her +arms around the weeping girl. "You spoke of God's being good to you. +Have you in truth found and learned to trust Him?" + +"Yes," she replied, eagerly, joy and peace coming out in her face like +the sun shining through clouds and rain. Then with bowed head she +whispered low: "The one I wronged on earth led me to the One I wronged +in heaven, and both have forgiven me. Oh, I am so glad, so happy!" + +"Then you have seen Mr. Fleet." + +"Yes, he saved my life again and again, but in teaching me how to find +my Saviour, he has done far more for me." + +"And you will not wrong him any more, will you, Christine? He has loved +you so long and faithfully." + +In reply she lifted an eager face to her friend and said, "Do you think +he can love me still after my treatment of him?" + +"Give him a chance to tell you," said Mrs. Leonard, with a +half-mischievous smile. "Has he not shown his feelings?" + +"He has treated me more as a brother might have done, and yet he is +so very respectful and deferential--I hope--but I am not perfectly +sure--and then he seems under some restraint." + +Mrs. Leonard said, musingly: "He knows that you are Baroness Ludolph. +I told him last week, for I thought he ought to know, and the fact of +your approaching departure for Europe has been no secret of late. He +thinks you are pledged to a future in which he cannot share; and in +your grateful, dependent condition he would not cause you the pain of +refusing him. I think that is just where he stands," she concluded, +with a woman's mastery of the science of love, and taking almost as +much interest in her friend's affair as she had felt in her own. To +most ladies this subject has a peculiar fascination, and, having settled +their own matters, they enter with scarcely less zest on the task of +helping others arrange theirs. Mrs. Leonard rallied faster under the +excitement of this new interest than from the doctor's remedies. + +After a few moments' thought Christine said, decidedly: "All that +nonsense about the Baroness Ludolph is past forever--burned up in the +fire with many things of more value. I have been fed too long on the +husks of human greatness and ambition to want any more of them. They +never did satisfy me, and in the light and heat of the terrific ordeal +through which I have just passed they shrivelled into utter nothingness. +I want something that I cannot lose in a whiff of smoke and flame, and +I think I have found it. Henceforth I claim no other character than +that of a simple Christian girl." Then bowing her head on her friend's +shoulder she added, in a whisper, "If I could climb to true greatness +by Mr. Fleet's side, as he portrayed it in his picture, it seems to +me heaven would begin at once." + +The doctor, who had taken the professor aside, now joined them, and +said: "Mrs. Leonard, you have only to take reasonable care of yourself, +and you will soon recover from this shock and exposure. I wish all my +patients were doing as well." + +She replied with a smile, taking her husband's hand: "Since I have +found my old Greek here, with his learned spectacles, I am quite myself, +and I feel as if I were only playing invalid." + +"You may have slept in a church before," said the doctor, with a twinkle +in his eye, "and you must do so again. But no one will thunder at you +from the pulpit this time, so I leave you in peace and security, and +to-night will be within call." + +Christine followed him to the lobby of the church, when the +irrepressible joker could not forbear saying: "Now let me give you a +little paternal advice. Don't be too grateful to that young Fleet. He +only did his duty, and of course doesn't deserve any special--" + +Christine, with flushing cheeks, interrupted him as if she had not +heard: "Doctor, how good and kind you are! Here you are off without +any rest to look after the sick and suffering, and you seem to bring +health and hope wherever you go." + +"Yes, yes; but I send my bill in too--mind that." (Some of his poorer +patients never received any, and he, when twitted of the fact, would +mutter, roughly, "Business oversight--can't attend to everything.") + +Christine looked for a moment at the face so inspiring in its hearty +benevolence, and with an impulse, so unlike the cold, haughty girl of +old, sprang forward, threw her arms around his neck, and gave him a +kiss which he declared afterward was like a mild stroke of lightning, +and said, "And there is the first instalment of what I owe you." + +The old gentleman looked as if he decidedly liked the currency, and +with moistened eyes that he vainly tried to render humorous, he raised +his finger impressively in parting, and said, "Don't you ever get out +of debt to me." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +BILL CRONK'S TOAST + + +After all, it was a long day to Christine. Tears would start from her +eyes at the thought of her father, but she realized that the only thing +for her to do was to shroud his memory in a great, forgiving pity, and +put it away forever. She could only turn from the mystery of his life +and death--the mystery of evil--to Him who taketh away the sin of the +world. There was no darkness in that direction. She busied herself +with Mrs. Leonard, and the distribution of food to others, till six +o'clock, and then she stood near the door to watch till her true knight +should appear in his shirt-sleeves, with a shovel on his shoulder, and +an old burned, tattered felt hat on his head, instead of jewelled crest +and heron plume. + +Dennis had gone to his work not very hopeful. He knew Christine would +be his grateful friend while she lived, and would perhaps even regard +him as a brother, but all this might be and still she be unable to +respond to his deeper feelings. Moreover, he knew she was Baroness +Ludolph, and might be heiress of such titles and estates in Germany +as would require that she should go at once to secure them; and so she +seemed clearly to pass beyond his sphere. + +As he shovelled the hot bricks and cinders hour after hour among other +laborers, the distance between himself and the Baroness Ludolph seemed +to increase; and when, begrimed and weary, he sat down to eat his +dinner of a single sandwich saved from breakfast (for as yet he had +no money), the ruins around him were quite in keeping with his feelings. +He thought most regretfully of his two thousand dollars and burned +picture. The brave, resolute spirit of the morning had deserted him. +He did not realize that few men have lived who could be brave and +hopeful when weary and hungry, and fewer still, when, in addition, +they doubted the favor of the lady of their love. + +The work of the afternoon seemed desperately hard and long, but with +dogged persistency Dennis held his own with the others till six, and +in common with them received his two dollars. Whether Christine would +accept the supper he brought or not, he determined to fulfil his promise +and bring one. Wearily he trudged off to the west side, in order to +find a store. No one who met him would have imagined that this plodding +laborer was the artist who the week before had won the prize and title +of genius. + +If he had been purchasing a supper for himself, he would doubtless +have been sensible about it; but one that the Baroness Ludolph might +share was a different matter. He bought some very rich cake, a can of +peaches, a box of sardines, some fruit, and then his money gave out! +But, with these incongruous and indigestible articles made up into one +large bundle, he started for the church. He had gone but a little way +when some one rushed upon him, and little Ernst clasped him round the +neck and fairly cried for joy. Sitting on the sidewalk near were the +other little Bruders, looking as forlorn and dirty as three motherless +children could. Dennis stopped and sat down beside them (for he was +too tired to stand), while Ernst told his story--how their mother had +left them, and how she had been found so burned that she was recognized +only by a ring (which he had) and a bit of the picture preserved under +her body. They had been looking ever since to find him, and had slept +where they could. + +As Ernst sobbingly told his story the other children cried in doleful +chorus, and Dennis's tears fell fast too, as he realized how his humble +friend had perished. He remembered her kindness to his mother and +little sisters, and his heart acknowledged the claim of these poor +little orphans. Prudence whispered, "You cannot afford to burden +yourself with all these children," and pride added, "What a figure you +will make in presenting yourself before the Baroness Ludolph with all +these children at your heels!" But he put such thoughts resolutely +aside, and spoke like a brother; and when one of the children sobbed, +"We so hungry!" out came the Baroness Ludolph's fruit and cake, and +nothing remained for Christine but the sardines and peaches, since +these could not well be opened in the street. The little Bruders having +devoured what seemed to them the ambrosia of the gods, he took the +youngest in his arms, Ernst following with the others; and so they +slowly made their way to the church where Christine was now anxiously +waiting, with many surmises and forebodings at Dennis's delay. + +At last, in the dusk, the little group appeared at the church-door, +and she exclaimed, "What has kept you so, Mr. Fleet?" + +He determined to put the best face on the situation, and indulge in +no heroics, so he said, "You could not expect such a body of infantry +as this to march rapidly." + +"What!" she exclaimed, "have you brought all the lost children in the +city back with you?" + +"No, only those that fell properly to my care;" and in a few words he +told their story. + +"And do you, without a cent in the world, mean to assume the burden +of these four children?" she asked, in accents of surprise. + +He could not see her face, but his heart sank within him, for he thought +that to her it would seem quixotic and become another barrier between +them; but he answered, firmly: "Yes, till God, who has imposed the +burden, removes it, and enables me to place them among friends in a +good home. Mrs. Bruder, before she died, wrote to her family in Germany, +telling her whole story. Relatives may take the children; if not, some +way will be provided." + +"Mr. Fleet, I wonder at you," was her answer. "Give me that child, and +you bring the others." + +He wondered at her as he saw her take the child and imprint a kiss on +the sleepy, dirty face; and Ernst, who had been eying her askance, +crept timidly nearer when he saw the kiss, and whispered, "Perhaps her +old outside heart has been burned away." + +They followed to a lobby of the lecture-room, and here she procured +a damp towel and proceeded to remove the tear and dust stains from the +round and wondering faces of the children. Having restored them to +something of their original color, she took them away to supper, saying +to Dennis, with a decided nod, "You stay here till I come for you." + +Something in her manner reminded him of the same little autocrat who +had ordered him about when they arranged the store together. She soon +returned with a basin of water and a towel, saying: "See what a luxury +you secure by obeying orders. Now give an account of yourself, as every +lady's knight should on his return. How have you spent the day?" + +He could not forbear laughing as he said: "My employment has been +almost ludicrously incongruous with the title by which you honor me. +I have been shovelling brick and mortar with other laborers." + +"All day?" + +"All day." + +Her glance became so tender and wistful that he forgot to wash his +hands in looking at her, and felt for the moment as if he could shovel +rubbish forever, if such could be his reward. + +Seemingly by an effort, she regained her brusque manner, which he did +not know was but the mask she was trying to wear, and said, quickly: +"What is the matter? Why don't you wash your face?" + +"You told me to give an account of myself," he retorted, at the same +time showing rising color in his dust-begrimed face. + +"Well, one of your ability can do two things at once. What have you +got in that bundle?" + +"You may have forgotten, but I promised to bring you home something +that you chose to regard as charity." + +"If I was so ungracious, you ought to have rewarded me by bringing me +a broken brick. Will you let me see what you brought?" but without +waiting for permission she pounced upon the bundle and dragged out the +peaches and sardines. + +He, having washed and partially wiped his face, was now able to display +more of his embarrassment, and added, apologetically: "That is not all +I had. I also bought some cake and fruit, and then my money gave out." + +"And do you mean to say that you have no money left?" + +"Not a penny," he answered, desperately. + +"But where are the cake and fruit?" + +"Well," he said, laughingly, "I found the little Bruders famishing on +the sidewalk, and they got the best part of your supper." + +"What an escape I have had!" she exclaimed. "Do you think I should +have survived the night if I had eaten those strangely assorted +dainties, as in honor bound I would have done, since you brought them?" +Then with a face of comical severity she turned upon him and said: +"Mr. Fleet, you need some one to take care of you. What kind of economy +do you call this, sir, especially on the part of one who has burdened +himself with four helpless children?" + +There was a mingling of sense and seriousness in her raillery, which +he recognized, and he said, with a half-vexed laugh at himself: "Well, +really, Miss Ludolph, I suppose that I have not wholly regained my +wits since the fire. I throw myself on your mercy." (The same expression +he had used once before. She remembered it, and her face changed +instantly.) Turning hastily away to hide her feelings, she said, in +a rather husky voice, "When I was a wicked fool, I told you I had none; +but I think I am a little changed now." Then she added, sharply, "Please +don't stand there keeping our friends waiting"; and she led the way +into the lecture-room, now filled with tables and hungry people. + +Dennis was in a maze, and could scarcely understand her, she was so +different from the pensive lady, shrinking from rude contact with the +world, that he had expected to meet. He did not realize that there was +not a particle of weak sentimentality about her, and that, since now +pride was gone, her energetic spirit would make her as truly a leader +in scenes like these as in those with which she had been familiar. +Much less could he understand that she was hiding a heart brimming +over with love to him. + +He followed her, however, with much assumed humility. When in the +middle of the room, who should meet him squarely but Bill Cronk? + +"Hello!" he roared, giving Dennis a slap on his back that startled +even the hungry, apathetic people at the tables. + +Dennis was now almost desperate. Glad as he was to see Cronk, he felt +that he was gathering around him a company as incongruous as was the +supper he had brought home. If Yahcob Bunk or even the red-nosed +bartender had appeared, to claim him as brother, he would scarcely +have been surprised. He naturally thought that the Baroness Ludolph +might hesitate before entering such a circle of intimates. But he was +not guilty of the meanness of cutting a humble friend, even though he +saw the eyes of Christine resting on him. In his embarrassment, however, +he held out the washbasin in his confused effort to shake hands, and +said, heartily, "Why, Cronk, I am glad you came safely out of it." + +"Is this gentleman a friend of yours?" asked Christine, with inimitable +grace. + +"Yes!" said Dennis, firmly, though coloring somewhat. "He once rendered +me a great kindness--" + +"Well, miss, you bet your money on the right hoss that time," +interrupted Bill. "If I hain't a friend of his'n, I'd like to know where +you'll find one; though I did kick up like a cussed ole mule +when he knocked the bottle out of my hand. Like enough if he hadn't +I wouldn't be here." + +"Won't you present me, Mr. Fleet?" said Christine, with an amused +twinkle in her eye. + +"Mr. Cronk," said Dennis (who had now reached that state of mind when +one becomes reckless), "this lady is Miss Ludolph, and, I hope I may +venture to add, another friend of mine." + +She at once put out her hand, that seemed like a snowflake in the great +horny paw of the drover, and said, "Indeed, Mr. Cronk, I will permit +no one to claim stronger friendship to Mr. Fleet than mine." + +"I can take any friend of Mr. Fleet's to my buzzom at once," said Bill, +speaking figuratively, but Christine instinctively shrank nearer Dennis. +In talking with men, Bill used the off-hand vernacular of his calling, +but when addressing ladies, he evidently thought that a certain style +of metaphor bordering on sentiment was the proper thing. But Christine +said, "As a friend of Mr. Fleet's you shall join our party at once"; +and she led them to the further end of the room, where at a table sat +Dr. Arten, Professor and Mrs. Leonard, Ernst, and the little Bruders, +who at the prospect of more eating were wide awake again. After the +most hearty greetings they were seated, and she took her place by the +side of the little children in order to wait on them. Few more +remarkable groups sat down together, even in that time of chaos and +deprivation. Professor Leonard was without vest or collar, and sat +with coat buttoned tight up to his chin to hide the defect. He had +lost his scholarly gold-rimmed spectacles; and a wonderful pair of +goggles bestrode his nose in their place. Mrs. Leonard was lost in the +folds of an old delaine dress that was a mile too large, and her face +looked as if she had assisted actively in an Irish wake. Dr. Arten did +the honors at the head of the table in his dress coat and vest that +had once been white, though he no longer figured around in red flannel +drawers as he had done on the beach. The little round faces of the +Bruders seemed as if protruding from animated rag babies, while nothing +could dim the glory of Ernst's great spiritual eyes, as they gratefully +and wistfully followed Dennis's every movement. Cronk was in a very +dilapidated and famished state, and endured many and varied tortures +in his efforts to be polite while he bolted sandwiches at a rate that +threatened famine. Christine still wore the woollen dress she had so +hastily donned with Dennis's assistance on Sunday night, and the marks +of the fire were all over it. Around her neck the sparks had burned +a hole here and there, through which her white shoulders gleamed. While +she was self-possessed and assiduous in her attention to the little +children, there was a glow of excitement in her eyes which perhaps +Mrs. Leonard understood better than any one else, though the shrewd +old doctor was anything but blind. + +Dennis sat next to Christine in shirt-sleeves once white, but now, +through dust and smoke, of as many colors as Joseph's coat. He was too +weary to eat much, and there was a weight upon his spirits that he +could not throw off--the inevitable despondency that follows great +fatigue when the mind is not at rest. + +Christine darted away and brought him a huge mug of hot coffee. + +"Really, Miss Ludolph," he remonstrated, "you should not wait on me +in this style." + +"You may well feel honored, sir," said Mrs. Leonard. "It is not every +man that is waited on by a baroness." + +"The trouble with Christine is that she is too grateful," put in the +old doctor. + +"Now I should say that was scarcely possible in view of--" commenced +the professor, innocently. + +"I really hope Miss Ludolph will do nothing more from gratitude," +interrupted Dennis, in a low tone that showed decided annoyance. + +The doctor and Mrs. Leonard were ready to burst with suppressed +amusement, and Cronk, seeing something going on that he did not +understand, looked curiously around with a sandwich half-way to his +open mouth, while Ernst, believing from Dennis's tone that he was +wronged, turned his great eyes reproachfully from one to another. But +Christine was equal to the occasion. Lifting her head and looking round +with a free, clear glance she said, "And I say that men who meet this +great disaster with courage and fortitude, and hopefully set about +retrieving it, possess an inherent nobility such as no king or kaiser +could bestow, and, were I twenty times a baroness, I should esteem it +an honor to wait upon them." + +A round of applause followed this speech, in which Cronk joined +vociferously, and Mrs. Leonard whispered: "Oh, Christine, how +beautifully I learn from your face the difference between dignity and +pride! That was your same old proud look, changed and glorified into +something so much better." + +Dennis also saw her expression, and could not disguise his admiration, +but every moment he increasingly felt how desperately hard it would +be to give her up, now that she seemed to realize his very ideal of +womanhood. + +And Cronk, having satisfied the clamors of his appetite, began to be +fascinated in his rough way with her grace and beauty. Nudging Dennis +he asked in a loud whisper heard by all, which nearly caused Dr. Arten +to choke, "The young filly is a German lady, ain't she?" + +Dennis, much embarrassed, nodded assent. + +A happy thought struck Bill. Though impeded by the weight of an +indefinite number of sandwiches, he slowly rose and looked solemnly +round on the little group. Dennis trembled, for he feared some dreadful +bull on the part of his rough, though well-meaning friend, but Dr. +Arten, in a state of intense enjoyment, cried, "Mr. Cronk has the +floor." + +Lifting a can of coffee containing about a quart, the drover said +impressively, and with an attempt at great stateliness: + +"Beautiful ladies and honorable gentlemen here assembled, I would +respectfully ask you to drink to a toast in this harmless beverage: +_The United States of Ameriky!_ When the two great elemental +races--the sanguinary Yankee and the phlegmatic German--become one, +and, as represented in the blooded team before me" (waving his hand +majestically over the heads of Dennis and Christine), "pull in the +traces together, how will the ship of state go forward!" and his face +disappeared behind his huge flagon of coffee in the deepest pledge. +Bill thought he had uttered a very profound and elegant sentiment, but +his speech fell like a bombshell in the little company. + +"The very spirit of mischief is abroad to-day," Dennis groaned. And +Christine, with a face like a peony, snatched up the youngest little +Bruder, saying, "It is time these sleepy children were in bed"; but +the doctor and the Leonards went off again and again in uncontrollable +fits of laughter, in which Dennis could not refrain from joining, +though he wished the unlucky Cronk a thousand miles away. Bill put +down his mug, stared around in a surprised and nonplussed manner, and +then said, in a loud whisper, "I say, Fleet, was there any hitch in +what I said?" + +This set them off again, but Dennis answered good-naturedly, slapping +his friend on the shoulder, "Cronk, you would make a man laugh in the +face of fate." + +Bill took this as a compliment, and the strange party, thrown together +by an event that mingled all classes in the community, broke up and +went their several ways. + + + + +CHAPTER L + +EVERY BARRIER BURNED AWAY + + +Dennis was glad to escape, and went to a side door where he could cool +his hot cheeks in the night air. He fairly dreaded to meet Christine +again, and, even where the wind blew cold upon him, his cheeks grew +hotter and hotter, as he remembered what had occurred. He had been +there but a little time when a light hand fell on his arm, and he was +startled by her voice--"Mr. Fleet, are you very tired?" + +"Not in the least," he answered, eagerly. + +"You must be: it is wrong for me to think of it." + +"Miss Ludolph, please tell me what I can do for you?" + +She looked at him wistfully and said: "This is a time when loss and +disaster burden every heart, and I know it is a duty to try to maintain +a cheerful courage, and forget personal troubles. I have tried to-day, +and, with God's help, hope in time to succeed. While endeavoring to +wear in public a cheerful face, I may perhaps now, and to so true a +friend as yourself, show more of my real feelings. Is it too far--would +it take too long, to go to where my father died? His remains could not +have been removed." + +"Alas, Miss Ludolph," said Dennis, very gently, "there can be no visible +remains. The words of the Prayer Book are literally true in this +case--'Ashes to ashes.' But I can take you to the spot, and it is +natural that you should wish to go. Are you equal to the fatigue?" + +"I shall not feel it if you go with me, and then we can ride part of +the way, for I have a little money." (Dr. Arten had insisted on her +taking some.) "Wait for me a moment." + +She soon reappeared with her shawl cut in two equal parts. One she +insisted on folding and putting around him as a Scotsman wears his +plaid. "You will need it in the cool night wind," she said, and then +she took his arm in perfect trust, and they started. + +In the cars she gave him her money, and he said, "I will return my +fare to-morrow night." + +"What!" she replied, looking a little hurt. "After spending two dollars +on me, will you not take five cents in return?" + +"But I spent it foolishly." + +"You spent it like a generous man. Surely, Mr. Fleet, you did not +understand my badinage this evening. If I had not spoken to you in +that strain, I could not have spoken at all. You have been a brother +to me, and we should not stand on these little things." + +"That is it," thought he again. "She looks upon and trusts me as a +brother, and such I must try to be till she departs for her own land; +yet if she knew the agony of the effort she would scarcely ask it." + +But as they left the car, he said, "All that you would ask from a +brother, please ask from me." + +She put her hand in his, and said, "I now ask your support, sympathy, +and prayer, for I feel that I shall need all here." + +Still retaining her hand, he placed it on his arm and guided her most +carefully around the hot ruins and heaps of rubbish till they came to +where the Art Building had stood. The moon shone brightly down, lighting +up with weird and ghostly effect the few walls remaining. They were +utterly alone in the midst of a desolation sevenfold more impressing +than that of the desert. Pointing to the spot where, in the midst of his +treasures of art and idolized worldly possessions, Mr. Ludolph had +perished, she said, in a thrilling whisper, "My father's ashes are +there." + +"Yes." + +Her breath came quick and short, and her face was so pale and agonized +that he trembled for her, but he tightened his grasp on her hand, and +his tears fell with hers. + +"Oh, my father!" she cried, in a tone of unspeakable pathos, "can I +never, never see you again? Can I never tell you of the love of Jesus, +and the better and happier life beyond? Oh, how my heart yearns after +you! God forgive me if this is wrong, but I cannot help it!" + +"It is not wrong," said Dennis, brokenly. "Our Lord himself wept over +those He could not save." + +"It is all that I can do," she murmured, and, leaning her head on his +shoulder, a tempest of sobs shook her person. + +He supported her tenderly, and said, in accents of the deepest sympathy, +"Let every tear fall that will: they will do you good." At last, as +she became calmer, he added, "Remember that your great Elder Brother +has called the heavy laden to Him for rest." + +At last she raised her head, turned, and gave one long parting look, +and, as Dennis saw her face in the white moonlight, it was the face +of a pitying angel. A low "Farewell!" trembled from her lips, she +leaned heavily on his arm, they turned away, and seemingly the curtain +fell between father and child to rise no more. + +"Mr. Fleet," she said, pleadingly, "are you too tired to take me to +my old home on the north side?" + +"Miss Ludolph, I could go to the ends of the earth for you, but you +are not equal to this strain upon your feelings. Have mercy on +yourself." + +But she said, in a low, dreamy tone: "I wish to take leave to-night +of my old life--the strange, sad past with its mystery of evil; and +then I shall set my face resolutely toward a better life--a better +country. So bear with me, my true, kind friend, a little longer." + +"Believe me, my thought was all for you. All sense of fatigue has +passed away." + +Silently they made their way, till they stood where, a few short days +before, had been the elegant home that was full of sad and painful +memories to both. + +"There was my studio," she said in the same dreamy tone, "where I +indulged in my wild, ambitious dreams, and sought to grasp a little +fading circlet of laurel, while ignoring a heavenly and an immortal +crown. There," she continued, her pale face becoming crimson, even in +the white moonlight, "I most painfully wronged you, my most generous, +forgiving friend, and a noble revenge you took when you saved my life +and led me to a Saviour. May God reward you; but I humbly ask your +pardon--" + +"Please, Miss Ludolph, do not speak of that. I have buried it all. Do +not pain yourself by recalling that which I have forgiven and almost +forgotten. You are now my ideal of all that is noble and good, and in +my solitary artist life of the future you shall be my gentle yet potent +inspiration." + +"Why must your life be solitary in the future?" she asked, in a low +tone. + +He was very pale, and his arm trembled under her hand; at last he said, +in a hoarse voice, "Do not ask me. Why should I pain you by telling +you the truth?" + +"Is it the part of a true friend to refuse confidence?" she asked, +reproachfully. + +He turned his face away, that she might not see the evidences of the +bitter struggle within--the severest he had ever known; but at last +he spoke in the firm and quiet voice of victory. She had called him +brother, and trusted him as such. She had ventured out alone on a +sacred mission with him, as she might with a brother. She was dependent +on him, and burdened by a feeling of obligation. His high sense of +honor forbade that he should urge his suit under such circumstances. +If she could not accept, how painful beyond words would be the necessity +of refusal, and the impression had become almost fixed in his mind +that her regard for him was only sisterly and grateful in its character. + +"Yes, Miss Ludolph," he said, "my silence is the part of true +friendship--truer than you can ever know. May Heaven's richest blessings +go with you to your own land, and follow you through a long, happy +life." + +"My own land? This is my own land." + +"Do you not intend to go abroad at once, and enter upon your ancestral +estates as the Baroness Ludolph?" + +"Not if I can earn a livelihood in Chicago," she answered, most firmly. +"Mr. Fleet, all that nonsense has perished as utterly as this my former +home. It belongs to my old life, of which I have forever taken leave +to-night. My ancestral estate in Germany is but a petty affair, and +mortgaged beyond its real worth by my deceased uncle. All I possess, +all I value, is in this city. It was my father's ambition, and at one +time my own, to restore the ancient grandeur of the family with the +wealth acquired in this land. The plan lost its charms for me long +ago--I would not have gone if I could have helped it--and now it is +impossible. It has perished in flame and smoke. Mr. Fleet, you see +before you a simple American girl. I claim and wish to be known in no +other character. If nothing remains of my father's fortune I shall +teach either music or painting--" + +"Oh, Christine!" he interrupted, "forgive me for speaking to you under +the circumstances, but indeed I cannot help it. Is there hope for me?" + +She looked at him so earnestly as to remind him of her strange, steady +gaze when before he pleaded for her love near that same spot, but her +hand trembled in his like a fluttering, frightened bird. In a low, +eager tone she said, "And can you still truly love me after all the +shameful past?" + +"When have I ceased to love you?" + +With a little cry of ecstasy, like the note of joy that a weary bird +might utter as it flew to its mate, she put her arm around his neck, +buried her face on his shoulder, and said, "No _hope_ for you, Dennis, +but perfect _certainty,_ for now EVERY BARRIER IS BURNED AWAY!" + +What though the home before them is a deserted ruin? Love is joining +hands that shall build a fairer and better one, because filled with +that which only makes a home--love. + +What though all around are only dreary ruins, where the night wind is +sighing mournfully? Love has transformed that desert place into the +paradise of God; and, if such is its power in the wastes of earthly +desolation, what will be its might amid the perfect scenes of heaven? + +Our story is finished. + +It only remains to say that Christine stands high at court, but it is +a grander one than any of earth. She is allied to a noble, but to one +who has received his patent from no petty sovereign of this world. She +has lost sight of the transient laurel wreath which she sought to grasp +at such cost to herself and others, in view of the "crown of glory +that fadeth not away," and to this already, as an earnest Christian, +she has added starry jewels. + +Below is the Ludolph Hall in which sturdy independence led her to begin +her married life. But she is climbing the mountain at her husband's +side, and often her hands steady and help him. The ash-tree, twined +with the passion-flower, is not very far above them, and the villa, +beautiful within and without, is no vain dream of the future. But even +in happy youth their eyes of faith see in airy, golden outline their +heavenly home awaiting them. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Barriers Burned Away, by E. P. Roe + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARRIERS BURNED AWAY *** + +This file should be named brrbw10.txt or brrbw10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, brrbw11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, brrbw10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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