"Oh, Arnold!" she whispered. It had come, the thing she feared to hear!
"May I go on? I have told you now the most important thing, and the rest matters little. Oh, Iris, may I go on and tell you all?"
"Go on," she said; "tell me all."
"As for telling you everything," He said with a little laugh, "that is no new thing. I have told you all that is in my mind for a year and more. It seems natural that I should tell you this too, even if it did not concern you at all, but some other girl; though that would be impossible. I love you, Iris; I love you--I should like to say nothing more. But I must tell you as well that I am quite a poor man; I am an absolute pauper; I have nothing at all--no money, no work, nothing. My studio and all must go back to her; and yet, Iris, in spite of this, I am so selfish as to tell you that I love you. I would give you, if I could, the most delightful palace in the world, and I offer you a share in the uncertain life of an artist, who does not know whether he has any genius, or whether he is fit even to be called an artist."
She gave him her hand with the frankness which was her chief charm, and with a look in her eyes so full of trust and truth that his heart sunk within him for very fear lest he should prove unworthy of so much confidence.
"Oh, Arnold," she said, "I think that I have loved you all along, ever since you began to write to me. And yet I never thought that love would come to me."
He led her into that bosky grove set with seats convenient for lovers, which lies romantically close to the Italian Restaurant, where they sell the cocoa and the ginger beer. There was no one in the place besides themselves, and here, among the falling leaves, and in a solitude as profound as on the top of a Dartmoor tor, Arnold told the story of his love again, and with greater coherence, though even more pa.s.sion.
"Oh," said Iris again, "how could you love me, Arnold--how could you love any girl so? It is a shame, Arnold; we are not worth so much.
Could any woman," she thought, "be worth the wealth of pa.s.sion and devotion which her lover poured out for her?"
"My tutor," he went on, "if you only knew what things you have taught me, a man of experience! If I admired you when I thought you must be a man, and pictured an old scholar full of books and wisdom, what could I do when I found that a young girl had written those letters? You gave mine back to me; did you think that I would ever part with yours?
And you owned--oh, Iris, what would not the finished woman of the world give to have the secret of your power?--you owned that you knew all my letters, every one, by heart. And after all, you will love me, your disciple and pupil, and a man who has his way to make from the very beginning and first round of the ladder. Think, Iris, first. Is it right to throw away so much upon a man who is worth so little?"
"But I am glad that you are poor. If you were rich I should have been afraid--oh, not of you, Arnold--never of you, but of your people. And, besides it is so good--oh, so very good for a young man--a young man of the best kind, not my cousin"s kind--to be poor. n.o.body ought ever to be allowed to become rich before he is fifty years of age at the very least. Because now you will have to work in earnest, and you will become a great artist--yes, a truly great artist, and we shall be proud of you."
"You shall make of me what you please, and what you can. For your sake, Iris, I wish I were another Raphael. You are my mistress and my queen. Bid me to die, and I will dare--Iris, I swear that the words of the extravagant old song are real to me."
"Nay," she said, "not your queen, but your servant always. Surely love cannot command. But, I think," she added softly, with a tender blush; "I think--nay, I am sure and certain that it can obey."
He stooped and kissed her fingers.
"My love," he murmured; "my love--my love!"
The shadows lengthened and the evening fell; but those two foolish people sat side by side, and hand in hand, and what they said further we need not write down, because to tell too much of what young lovers whisper to each other is a kind of sacrilege.
At last Arnold became aware that the sun was actually set, and he sprung to his feet.
They walked home again across the Suspension Bridge. In the western sky was hanging a huge bank of cloud all bathed in purple, red and gold; the river was ablaze; the barges floated in a golden haze; the light shone on their faces, and made them all glorious, like the face of Moses, for they, too, had stood--nay, they were still standing--at the very gates of Heaven.
"See, Iris," said the happy lover, "the day is done; your old life is finished; it has been a happy time, and it sets in glory and splendor.
The red light in the west is a happy omen of the day to come."
So he took her hand, and led her over the river, and then to his own studio in t.i.te Street. There, in the solemn twilight, he held her in his arms, and renewed the vows of love with kisses and fond caresses.
"Iris, my dear--my dear--you are mine and I am yours. What have I done to deserve this happy fate?"
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DISCOVERY.
At nine o"clock that evening, Mr. Emblem looked up from the chess board.
"Where is Mr. Arbuthnot this evening, my dear?" he asked.
It would be significant in some houses when a young man is expected every evening. Iris blushed, and said that perhaps he was not coming.
But he was, and his step was on the stair as she spoke.
"You are late, Mr. Arbuthnot," said Mr. Emblem, reproachfully, "you are late, sir, and somehow we get no music now until you come. Play us something, Iris. It is my move, Lala--"
Iris opened the piano and Arnold sat down beside her, and their eyes met. There was in each the consciousness of what had pa.s.sed.
"I shall speak to him to-night, Iris," Arnold whispered. "I have already written to my cousin. Do not be hurt if she does not call upon you."
"Nothing of that sort will hurt me," Iris said, being ignorant of social ways, and without the least ambition to rise in the world. "If your cousin does not call upon me I shall not be disappointed. Why should she want to know me? But I am sorry, Arnold, that she is angry with you."
Lala Roy just then found himself in presence of a most beautiful problem--white to move and checkmate in three moves. Mr. Emblem found the meshes of fate closing round him earlier than usual, and both bent their heads closely over the table.
"Checkmate!" said Lala Roy. "My friend, you have played badly this evening."
"I have played badly," Mr. Emblem replied, "because to-morrow will be an important day for Iris, and for myself. A day, Iris, that I have been looking forward to for eighteen years, ever since I got your father"s last letter, written upon his death-bed. It seems a long time, but like a lifetime," said the old man of seventy-five, "it is as nothing when it is gone. Eighteen years, and you were a little thing of three, child!"
"What is going to happen to me, grandfather, except that I shall be twenty-one?"
"We shall see to-morrow. Patience, my dear--patience."
He spread out his hands and laughed. What was going to happen to himself was a small thing compared with the restoration of Iris to her own.
"Mr. Emblem," said Arnold, "I also have something of importance to say."
"You, too, Mr. Arbuthnot? Cannot yours wait also until to-morrow?"
"No; it is too important. It cannot wait an hour."
"Well, sir"--Mr. Emblem pushed up his spectacles and leaned back in his chair--"well, Mr. Arbuthnot, let us have it."
"I think you may guess what I have to say, Mr. Emblem. I am sure that Lala Roy has already guessed it."
The philosopher inclined his head in a.s.sent.
"It is that I have this afternoon asked Iris to marry me, Mr. Emblem.
And she has consented."
"Have you consented, Iris, my dear?" said her grandfather.
She placed her hand in Arnold"s for reply.
"Do you think you know him well enough, my dear?" Mr. Emblem asked gravely, looking at her lover. "Marriage is a serious thing: it is a partnership for life. Children, think well before you venture on the happiness or ruin of your whole lives. And you are so young. What a pity--what a thousand pities that people were not ordained to marry at seventy or so!"