"Oh, she didn"t rave and gush," cried Polly, in a whisper, afraid that the lady heard. "She said, Grandpapa, that Herr Bauricke is at Lucerne; just think, Grandpapa, the great Herr Bauricke!"
She took her mouth away from the old gentleman"s ear in order to look in his face.
"Polly, Polly," called Jasper from his seat on the farther end, "you are losing all this," as the train rounded a curve. "Do come back."
"Now, I"m glad of that," exclaimed Grandpapa, in a tone of the greatest satisfaction, "for I can ask him about the music masters in Dresden and get his advice, and be all prepared before we go there for the winter to secure the very best."
"And I can see him, and perhaps hear him play," breathed Polly, in an awestruck tone, quite lost to scenery and everything else. Jasper leaned forward and stared at her in amazement. Then he slipped out of his seat, and made his way up to them to find out what it was all about.
"How did she know?" he asked, as Polly told all she knew; "I"m just going to ask her." But the lady, who had caught s.n.a.t.c.hes of the conversation, though she hadn"t heard Mr. King"s part of it, very obligingly leaned forward in her seat and told all she knew.
And by the time this was done, they all knew that the information was in the American paper printed in Paris, and circulated all over the Continent, and that the lady had read it that very morning just before setting out.
"The only time I missed reading that paper," observed old Mr. King, regretfully.
"And he is staying at our very hotel," finished the lady, "for I have seen you, sir, with your party there."
"Another stroke of good luck," thought old Mr. King, "and quite easy to obtain the information I want as to a master for Polly and Jasper."
"Now then, children," he said to the two hanging on the conversation, "run back to your seats and enjoy the view. This news of ours will keep."
So Polly and Jasper ran back obediently, but every step of the toilsome ascent by which the car pushed its way to the wonderful heights above, Polly saw everything with the words, "Herr Bauricke is at _our_ hotel,"
ringing through her ears; and she sat as in a maze. Jasper was nearly as bad.
And then everybody was pouring out of the cars and rushing for the hotel on the summit; all but Mr. King"s party and a few others, who had their rooms engaged by telegraphing up. When they reached the big central hall there was a knot of Germans all talking together, and on the outside fringe of this knot, people were standing around and staring at the central figure. Suddenly some one darted away from this outer circle and dashed up to them. It was the lady from their hotel.
"I knew you"d want to know," she exclaimed breathlessly; "that"s Herr Bauricke himself--he came up on our train--just think of it!--the big man in the middle with the black beard." She pointed an excited finger at the knot of Germans.
Old Mr. King followed the course of the finger, and saw his "impertinent fellow who wasn"t worth minding."
XX
"I SHOULD MAKE HIM HAPPY," SAID PHRONSIE
Polly got Jasper away into a side corridor by a beseeching little pull on his sleeve. "Oh, just to think," she mourned, "I called that great man such unpleasant things--that he was big and fat, and--oh, oh!"
"Well, he _is_ big and fat," declared Jasper. "We can"t say he isn"t, Polly."
"But I meant it all against him," said Polly, shaking her head. "You know I did, Jasper," she added remorsefully.
"Yes, we neither of us liked him," said Jasper, "and that"s the honest truth, Polly."
"And to think it was that _great_ Herr Bauricke!" exclaimed Polly. Then her feelings overcame her, and she sank down on the cushioned seat in the angle.
Jasper sat down beside her. "I suppose it won"t do to say anything about people after this until we know them. Will it, Polly?"
"Jasper," declared Polly, clasping her hands, while the rosy colour flew over her cheek, "I"m never going to say a single--"
Just then the big form of Herr Bauricke loomed up before them, as he turned into the corridor.
Polly shrank up in her corner as small as she could, wishing she was as little as Phronsie, and could hop up and run away.
Herr Bauricke turned his sharp eyes on them for a moment, hesitated, then came directly up, and stopped in front of them. "I meant--I _in_tended to speak to your grandfader first. Dat not seem best _now_."
The great man was really talking to them, and Polly held her breath, not daring to look into his face, but keeping her gaze on his wonderful fingers. "My child," those wonderful fingers seized her own, and clasped them tightly, "you have great promise, mind you, you know only a leedle now, and you must work--_work--work_." He brought it out so sharply, that the last word was fairly shrill. "But I tink you will,"
he added kindly, dropping his tone. Then he laid her fingers gently in her lap.
"Oh, she does, sir," exclaimed Jasper, finding his tongue first, for Polly was beyond speaking. "Polly works all the time she can."
"Dat is right." Herr Bauricke bobbed his head in approval, so that his spectacles almost fell off. "I hear dat, in de music she play. No leedle girl play like dat, who doesn"t work. I will hear you sometime at de hotel," he added abruptly, "and tell you some tings dat will help you. To-morrow, maybe, when we go down from dis place, eh?"
"Oh, sir," exclaimed Polly, springing off from her cushion before Jasper could stop her. "You are _so_ good--but--but--I cannot," then her breath gave out, and she stood quite still.
"Eh?" exclaimed Herr Bauricke, and pushing up his spectacles to stare into her flushed and troubled face. "Perhaps I not make my meaning clear; I mean I _geef_ you of my time and my best _ad_vice. Now you understand--eh?" He included Jasper in his puzzled glance.
"Yes, sir," Jasper made haste to say. "We do understand; and it is so very good of you, and Polly will accept it, sir." "For father will make it all right with him as to the payment," he reflected easily.
"Ah, now," exclaimed Herr Bauricke, joyfully, a light beaming all over his fat face, "dat is someting like--to-morrow, den, we--"
"But, oh, sir," Polly interrupted, "I cannot," and she twisted her hands in distress. "I--I--didn"t like you, and I said so." Then she turned very pale, and her head drooped.
Jasper leaned over, and took her hand. "Neither did I, sir," he said.
"I was just as bad as Polly."
"You not tink me nice looking--so?" said Herr Bauricke. "Well, I not tink so myself, eeder. And I scare you maybe, wid dis," and he twisted his black beard with his long fingers. "Ah, so; well, we will forget all dis, leedle girl," and he bent down and took Polly"s other fingers that hung by her side. "And eef you not let me come to-morrow to your leedle music room, and tell you sometings to help you learn better, I shall know dat you no like me _now_--eh?"
"Oh, sir," Polly lifted her face, flooded with rosy colour up to her brown hair, "if you only will forgive me?"
"I no forgeef; I not remember at all," said Herr Bauricke, waving his long fingers in the air. "And I go to-morrow to help you, leedle girl,"
and he strode down the corridor.
Polly and Jasper rushed off, they scarcely knew how, to Grandpapa, to tell him the wonderful news,--to find him in a truly dreadful state of mind. When they had told their story, he was as much worse as could well be imagined.
"Impossible, impossible!" was all he could say, but he brought his hand down on the table before him with so much force that Jasper felt a strange sinking of heart. What could be the matter?
"Why, children, and you all" (for his whole party was before him), exclaimed Mr. King, "Herr Bauricke is that impertinent person who annoyed me this morning, and I called him "fellow" to his face!"
It was so very much worse than Jasper had dreamed, that he collapsed into the first chair, all Polly"s prospects melting off like dew before the sun.
"Hum!" Little Dr. Fisher was the first to speak. He took off his big spectacles and wiped them; then put them on his nose and adjusted them carefully, and glared around the group, his gaze resting on old Mr.
King"s face.
Polly, who had never seen Jasper give way like this, forgot her own distress, and rushed up to him. "Oh, don"t, Jasper," she begged.
"You see I can"t allow Herr Bauricke to give any lessons or advice to Polly after this," went on Mr. King, hastily. "Of course he would be paid; but, under the circ.u.mstances, it wouldn"t do, not in the least.
It is quite out of the question," he went on, as if some one had been contradicting him. But no one said a word.