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 pa.s.sing 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 G.o.d 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 appet.i.te that he was fighting, for appet.i.te 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 G.o.d"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 G.o.d 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 ma.s.ses 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 a.s.sociated 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 circ.u.mstances 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 pa.s.sed; 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."