When he had read _her_ story through he began to rewrite it, departing as little as possible from the original. As soon as he had a chapter finished he would give it to her, for comparison, and criticism, if she chose to make any. She proved, however, a most charming critic, her shafts falling mainly upon herself, for she declared that her novel seemed unworthy of its elegant new dress. She conceived a shyness toward this quiet youth, and blushed when the striking situations and bold language of her tale came into the conversation. It was so different from his own work!
"It is too bold. I am sure it is," she said, repeatedly. "I ought to begin again. My plot has too much freedom, too little conventionality.
People will say a very strange girl must have written it."
And he would tell her that he did not think so; that the strength of her ideas was very great, and that the public would find excuses enough for anything that interested and entertained it. He even added that he wished he possessed her knowledge, her insight into life, her fearlessness to tread on any ground that her subject made desirable.
Between them they were doing very good work, without doubt. Mr. Weil took some of the completed chapters to Lawrence Gouger, who returned them with a smile that spoke volumes. Cutt & Slashem would take the story when it was ready, if the subsequent pages kept up to the mark of the first ones.
"Don"t forget your own book," said Gouger, in a note he enclosed for Roseleaf.
Mr. Weil was not backward in accepting the cordial invitation he had had to join the Ferns at dinner whenever he could make it convenient.
Besides this he called frequently at the wool office, and ingratiated himself into Mr. Fern"s good graces in many ways. Within a fortnight he knew all there was to be known about wool, in which he seemed to have conceived a great interest. In his talks with Roseleaf he spoke learnedly on this subject, referring to the foreign and domestic staples, like one who had made the matter a life study.
"What a queer thing trade is!" he exclaimed, on one of these occasions.
"Here we find a man who ought to adorn an atelier, or a seat in Congress, and yet is obliged to guide his entire existence by the price of such a confoundedly dull thing as the hair on a sheep"s back. He votes a certain political ticket on account of the att.i.tude of the party on Wool; he dines off mutton and lambs" tongues; he casts his lot with the Sheep at church. I don"t know but he would feel a genuine pleasure in having Wool pulled over his eyes. And still I am convinced that he never ought to have been in the Wool business at all, and that Boggs--what a drop--is right in his impression that it will eventually swamp him."
Roseleaf asked how Mr. Fern got into the trade in the first place.
"Well, as I understand it, Boggs was looking for a partner. Mrs. Fern had some cash and her husband wanted to put it into a good thing, from a financial standpoint. They did well while they were together. When Boggs pulled out they had a clear $200,000 apiece. Boggs--confound him!--has his yet; Fern hasn"t. He"s proud as the devil, and didn"t tell me this, by any means. It would break him up completely to have to go into bankruptcy. Really, I wish I could do something for him."
Roseleaf looked up inquiringly.
"Why, I"ve got a fair amount of money," explained Archie, "and perhaps a lift over these hard times might be the making of him. I"m not particularly a philanthropist, but I like this fellow wonderfully well for such a new acquaintance. I shall give him a delicate hint in a day or two, and if I can fix things without too much risk--we have to protect ourselves, you know--I am willing to do so."
This struck Shirley Roseleaf as rather odd. He had never thought about Mr. Weil in that way. Whether he was rich or poor had never entered his head. He began to wonder if he was very wealthy. He certainly lived well, and had no visible occupation of the sort the census takers call "gainful."
"It is an interesting family, though," pursued Archie, in his rambling way. "I wish I could get into it as you did, you rascal, and observe it at shorter range. Even the servants are worth studying. Look at that Hannibal; who can say that the African race is inferior when it produces such marvels! I can hardly take my eyes off the black paragon when he is present. How he pa.s.ses the soup--as if it were some heavenly decoction, made by the G.o.ds themselves and sent to earth by their favorite messenger! With what grace he opens the carriage door! with what majesty he mounts to his seat by the driver! I wonder if he has a sister. She would be worth a journey to see. I have met such women on their native soil, statuesque, slender, full-breasted, square-shouldered, with jars of water on their heads and clinking silver anklets. What a cursed thing is our American prejudice against color! No other people carries it to such an extent. In the Latin Quarter the West India blacks are prime favorites with the pretty grisettes."
The young man could not help a slight shiver at this information. He did not in the least agree with the sentiments his friend was advancing, but neither did he think it wise to contradict him.
"Then there is the little one--Miss Daisy"--continued Weil, branching suddenly into that topic. "So quiet, so self-abased, as if she would not for the world attract one glance that might be claimed by her elder sister, who is perfectly willing to be a monopolist of attention. A nice girl, sweet as a fresh-plucked lily. There must be treasures hidden under all that reticence. Still waters run deep, the silent swine devour the milk. I think I ought to investigate the child. If you are to have that aggregation of beauty known as Millicent, what prevents me from securing a slight hold in the affections of the junior?"
Roseleaf shook his head in a way that might have meant almost anything.
He never could tell how much in earnest his friend was when he took up a vein like this. Neither could he imagine little Daisy in the role of an entertainer for such a very wise man as Archie, not only much her senior but a thousand times her superior in knowledge and acquaintance with things that people talk about.
"Keep your eye on her--she will be worth watching," said Weil, with one of his laughs at the sober face before him. "She is worth almost as much to a rising author as the negro--not quite, but nearly. Then there is the pater-familias; is there anything in him? No, he will be of no service to you. And that brings us back to our superb Millicent, with whom you must now be wildly infatuated."
Roseleaf shook his head again.
"No--not yet," he said.
"But, what do you do all the time? How can you sit by the side of a pretty girl, and kiss her cheeks, and put your arm around her, and yet keep from falling in love?"
The younger man gasped at each of these suggestions, like one who has stepped into icy water and feels it gradually creeping upward.
"I have done none of those things," he faltered.
"None of them! Then I shall not let you stay here!" cried Archie. "What does the girl expect? That we are going to make her reputation in the literary world and get nothing for ourselves? I never heard such effrontery! She refuses to give you the least opportunity, does she--the jade!"
More and more confused grew the other at these expressions.
"You don"t understand--you are quite in error," he articulated.
"She--she has refused me nothing, because--because I have asked nothing."
Mr. Weil uttered a disheartened groan.
"But this will not do, my dear fellow!" he said. "How can you accomplish anything unless you make a beginning? Rewriting the story that she has written will not advance you one step on the path you profess such anxiety to tread. That is only an excuse--a make-believe--a pretence under which you have been given quarters in this house and allowed every chance in creation to learn your lesson. Are you afraid of her, or what is the matter? Does she overpower you with her beauty? Tell me where your difficulty lies."
But Shirley could hardly answer these apparently simple questions. He said he feared the trouble might be in the formality of the situation.
How could Mr. Weil expect, he asked, that a spontaneous case of love-making would develop from such a condition of things.
"Stuff!" cried Archie, with a grimace. "If you and she were members of a theatrical company, and were cast as a pair of lovers, you wouldn"t find so many pitfalls. You would go ahead and repeat the lines of your part, wouldn"t you? All you want is to do the same now."
"But what _are_ the "lines of my part?"" inquired the other, dolefully.
"Take her hand once in yours and they will come to you," retorted Weil.
Roseleaf reddened so much that Archie regretted the severity of his tone, and hastened to turn the conversation to something more agreeable.
He made up his mind, however, to have a talk with Miss Fern, and at the first opportunity he did so. It was on an afternoon when he knew Roseleaf was in the city, and he came to the point at once, after his own fashion.
"How are you and my young friend getting along?" he asked her.
"Oh, as well as possible," she responded. "I am learning to like him more and more. I really shall be sorry when his task is done."
Mr. Weil shrugged his shoulders.
"There"s a bit of selfishness in your words, Miss Fern," he said. "Have you forgotten that he is not here to be useful to _you_ alone; that you agreed to do what you could for _him_, as well?"
The girl cast down her pretty eyes in confusion.
"I am sure I have tried to be agreeable," she replied, gently.
"That is not enough," replied Archie, gravely. "What he needs is something--some one--to stir his blood, to awaken his fancy. I told you in the first place that you ought to make him fall in love with you--for literary reasons. He must feel a sensation stronger than mere friendship for a woman before he can write such a story as will bring him fame."
Miss Millicent did not grow more comfortable under this suggestion. She remarked, after a long wait, that she did not see how the end sought was to be accomplished. Love, she said, was not a mere expression, it was a deep, actual ent.i.ty. Two people, playing at love with each other, might afterwards find that they were experimenting with fire.
"I have heard," she continued, her fair cheeks growing crimson, "that there are women--"
Then she paused and could go no further. But he understood.
"There are women--thousands of them," he admitted, "who would willingly do what I ask. If it is necessary, he must go to them."
She wanted to say that she hoped it would not come to that--she wanted to convey to her companion the horror she felt for what she supposed his words implied--but she could not. It was so much easier to write of things than to talk of them to a man like him.
"Do you call it quite fair," he asked, "to claim all and give nothing?
He does not require much. Could you not let him take your hand, and--"
"And--"