"It was a long ride to Mr. Harrison"s, and Roland did not speak until they were at his door. This professor was a blond, effusive, large man of enthusiastic temperament. He was delighted to listen to Mrs.
Tresham, and he saw possibilities for her that Signor Maria never would have contemplated; though when Roland told him what Maria had said he endorsed his opinion so far as to admit the excellence of such a training for a great prima donna.
"But Mrs. Tresham may learn just as well by experience as by method,"
he averred. "She sings as the people enjoy singing. She sings their songs. She has a powerful voice, which will grow stronger with use. I think Mr. Willis will give her an immediate engagement. Suppose we go and see. Willis is at the hall, I should say, about this time."
This seemed a practical and flattering offer, and Roland gladly accepted it. Willis Hall was soon reached. It was used only for popular concerts and very slight dramas in which there was a great deal of singing and dancing. It had a well-appointed stage and scenery, but the arrangement of the seats showed a general democracy and a great freedom of movement for the audience.
"Willis is always on the lookout for novelties," said Professor Harrison, "and I am sure these fishing songs will "fetch" such an audience as he has."
As he was speaking Mr. Willis approached. He listened to Professor Harrison"s opinion and kept his eyes on Denas while he did so. He thought her appearance taking, and was pleased to give her voice a trial. The hall was empty and very dull, but a piano was pulled forward to the front of the stage and Roland took his seat before it.
Denas was told to step to the front and sing to the two gentlemen in the gallery. They applauded her first song enthusiastically, and Denas sang each one better. But it was not their applause she listened to--it was the soft praises of Roland, his a.s.surances of her success, which stimulated her even beyond her natural power.
At the conclusion of the trial Mr. Willis offered Denas twelve pounds a week, and if she proved a favourite the sum was to be gradually increased. The sum, though but a pittance of Roland"s dreams, was at least a livelihood and an earnest of advance, and it was readily accepted. Then the little company sat down upon the empty stage and discussed the special songs and costumes in which Denas was to make her debut.
Never before in all his life had Roland found business so interesting.
He said to Denas, as they talked over the affair at their own fireside, that he thought he also had found his vocation. He felt at home on the stage. He never had felt at home in a bank or in a business office. He was determined to study, and create a few great characters, and become an actor. He felt the power; it was in him, he said complacently. "Now," he added, "Denas, if you become a great singer and I a great actor, we shall have the world at our feet. And I like actors and those kind of people. I feel at home with them. I like the life they lead--the jolly, come-day go-day, wandering kind of life. I never was meant for a respectable man of business. No: the stage! the stage! That is my real life. I am certain of it. I wonder I never thought of it before."
It had been arranged that Denas was to open with Neil Gow"s matchless song of "_Caller Herrin"!_" and her dress was of course that of an idealized Newhaven fisher-girl. Her short, many-coloured skirts, her trig latched shoon, her open throat, and beautiful bare arms lifted to the basket upon her head was a costume which suited her to admiration.
When she came stepping down the stage to the immortal notes, and her voice thrilled the house with the ringing musical "cry" that none hear and ever forget:
Cal-ler her-rin"! cal-ler her-rin"! cal-ler her-rin"!
the a.s.sembly broke into rapturous delight. It was a song not above their comprehension and their feeling. It was interpreted by one to whom the interpretation was as natural as breathing. She was recalled again, and again, and again, and the uproar of approval only ceased when the next singer advanced with a roll of music in his hand. He was a pale, sentimental young man whose forte was despairing love-songs, but
"The last links are broken That bound me to thee"
had little interest after Mademoiselle Denasia"s unique melody. For it was by this name Denas had consented to be known, the French prefix having but a very indefinite significance to her mind. Roland had told her that it meant a lady, and that all singers were either mademoiselle or madame, and that she was too young for madame, and the explanation had been satisfactory.
Certainly, if signs could be trusted Mademoiselle Denasia was likely to be a name in many mouths; for her second and third songs were even more startling in their success than "Caller Herrin"," and Mr. Willis would permit no further recalls.
"We must give them Denasia in small doses," he said, laughing; "she is too precious to make common," and Roland winced a moment at the familiar tone in which his wife"s name was spoken. But both alike were under a spell. The intoxicating cup of public applause was at their lips. Their brains were full of the wildest dreams, their hearts full of the wildest hopes. No consideration at that time could have turned their feet aside from the flower-covered, treacherous path they were so gayly treading.
Such a life would have simply been beyond the power of John and Joan Penelles to imagine. Its riot of dress and emotions and its sinful extravagance in every direction would have been to them an astounding revelation of the possibilities of life. As it was, their anxiety took mainly one direction: the uncertainty attending the marriage of their daughter. Denas had indeed said she was Roland"s wife, but the St.
Penfer _News_ implied a very different relationship; and John had all that superst.i.tious belief in a newspaper which is so often an attribute of ignorance.
At any rate, the want of authentic data about the marriage humiliated and made him miserable. Two more weeks had pa.s.sed since that eventful Sunday night service at St. Clair, and yet John had no a.s.surance of a more certain character to rely on. Three or four ill.u.s.trated papers had been received with "love from your daughter, Denas Tresham,"
written on the t.i.tle-page; but the claim thus made satisfied no one but Joan. Joan believed in the validity of the name, and handed around the sheets with a confidence few cared to in any degree dispute.
The third Sunday was an important one to the fisher-folk. There was to be a missionary sermon preached in the St. Clair chapel, and John and Joan went there. The chapel was crowded. Joan got a seat, but John lingered in the small vestibule within the door among the few brethren waiting for the strange preacher. It was the same person who had married Roland and Denas, and after he had shaken himself free from his dripping cloak he looked at the men around him, and his eyes fell upon John. And probably all the circ.u.mstances of that marriage were either well known or accurately divined, for he took the big fisherman by the hand and said cheerfully:
"John Penelles, I am glad, very glad indeed to meet you. I suppose you know that it was I who married your daughter?"
If a fixed star had fallen at John"s feet he could not have been more amazed. His large face lightened from within, he clasped firmly the preacher"s hand, but was so slow in forcing speech from his swelling heart that the preacher continued:
"Yes, they came to me, and I remembered your pretty child. I tied them true and fast, you may be sure of that, John."
"Where, sir?"
"In Plymouth Wesleyan chapel, to be sure."
"Thank G.o.d! Thank you too, sir! You might say so--some people here be slow to believe, sir, and it be breaking my heart, it be indeed, sir."
There was only a nod and smile in reply, but John was extremely happy. He tried to get near to Joan and tell her; but the aisles were full and the service was beginning. John held his own service, and the singing, and the prayer, and preaching were just a joyful accompaniment to the thanksgiving in his heart. At length the service was over, and the preacher lifted a number of slips of paper and began to read aloud the announcements made on them. Missionary meetings, tea meetings for missions, a bazaar at St. Penfer for missions, a Bible meeting, a cla.s.s meeting, and the service for that evening. Then, while the congregation were still expectant, he said in a clear, pleasant voice:
"I am requested also to say that on December the 17th, on Tuesday morning at nine o"clock, I united in the holy bands of marriage Denasia, the daughter of John Penelles, fisher of St. Penfer, to Roland Tresham, gentleman of that place. The ceremony was performed by me in the Wesleyan chapel at Plymouth; myself, my wife, and two daughters being witnesses to it. We will now sing the 444th hymn:
""Lord over all, if Thou hast made, Hast ransomed every soul of man.""
And all the congregation rose, and in the rising the conscious glance that pa.s.sed through the chapel was lost in a more general purpose. It was presumed, at least, that everyone was singing a prayer for the heathen. Only Joan Penelles made no effort to think of India or Africa. Her face, full of radiant a.s.surance, looked confidently over the crowd, seeking her husband"s mutual glance of pleasure. Her faith had been justified. Her girl was an honourable wife--the wife of a gentleman well known to all. She had no longer any need to hide the wounding look or doubtful word in a protesting att.i.tude, as painful to her as it was offensive to others.
Well, it is a very hard thing to rejoice with those that do rejoice; evidently in that little chapel it was easier for the worshippers to be sorry for the heathen than to be glad for their brother and sister Penelles. Never had John and Joan felt themselves so far away from the sympathy of their fellows. Only a few rough men who handled the nets with John, and who knew how hard the duty had been to him since his little girl went away, said a word of congratulation. But one and another of these, as they pa.s.sed John and Joan on their way home, said a hearty "Praise G.o.d, brother John," or a "G.o.d bless you both, "twas good news for you this morning." But, with or without sympathy, the happy father and mother walked to their house that day up-head and bravely. Their hearts had been miraculously lightened, and it was not until the burden had rolled away that they knew how woefully heavy it had been.
The next afternoon, when the wind was blowing inland too fiercely to permit boats to leave the harbour, a man who had been up the cliff brought back with him a letter for the Penelles. It was evidently from Denas. John looked at the postmark, "London," and turned it around and around till Joan was nervous. "Aw, then, John, do open it, and read what be inside--do, my dear!" And John read:
"DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER:--I have been intending to write to you every day, but I have been so happy that the days went away like a dream. I wish you knew my dear Roland as I do. He is the kindest of men, the most generous, the dearest in the whole world. He does nothing but try how to give me pleasure. He has bought me such lovely dresses, and rings, and bracelets, and he takes me everywhere. I never, never did think life could be so happy. I am going to have lessons too. I am to be taught how to sing and to do other things right, and your little Denas is the very happiest girl in the world. London is such a grand place, the very streets are all shows. Your loving daughter,
"DENAS TRESHAM.
"P. S.--Perhaps you may wonder where we were married. It was at Plymouth, by the Wesleyan preacher. Father knows him, I think.
D. T."
A dead silence followed the reading of the letter. Joan sat upright with a troubled face. She had been washing the dinner dishes; the towel lay across her lap, and her fingers pleated and unpleated the bit of coa.r.s.e linen. John laid his arms across his knees and dropped a stern face toward them. The bit of white paper was in his big brown fingers. He did not speak a word; his heart was full, his eyes were full, his tongue was heavy and dumb. Joan grew restless and hot with anger, for she was wounded in every sense.
"Aw, my dear, she be so happy with that man she do forget the days she was happy with you and me, John. She do forget all and everything. Aw, then, "tis a cruel, thoughtless letter. Cruel beyond words to tell--dreadful! aw, dreadful! G.o.d help us! And I do wish I could forget her! And I do be sorry she was ever born."
"Whist! whist! my old dear. She has gone into the wilderness. Our one little ewe lamb has gone into the wilderness, and aw, my dear, "twill keep us busy all night and day to send love and prayer enough after her. There be wolves there, Joan; wolves, my dear, ready to devour--and the man she loves, he be one of them. Poor little Denas!"
Then Joan went on with her housework, but John sat silent, bending down toward the letter. And by and by his white face glowed with a dull red colour, and he tore the letter up, tore it very slowly into narrow ribbon-like strips, and let them fall, one by one, at his feet.
He was in a mood Joan did not care to trouble. It reminded her of the day when he had felled Jacob Trenager. She was glad to see him rise and go to the inner room, glad to hear that he bolted the door after him. For in that temper it was better that John should complain to G.o.d than talk with any human being.
CHAPTER X.
A VISIT TO ST. PENFER.
"Oh, waly waly, but love be bonny A little while while it is new; But when "tis auld it waxeth cauld And fades away like morning dew."
--OLD SONG.
"Oh, and is all forgot-- All school days" friendship, childhood"s innocence?
Our s.e.x as well as I may chide you for it, Though I alone do feel the injury."
--SHAKESPEARE.