"In tune?"
"With the rest of the Orchestra."
"Oh!" And Mr. Jack, who had already heard about the "Orchestra of Life," smiled a bit sadly. "That"s just it, my boy. And if we"re handed another instrument to play on than the one we WANT to play on, we"re apt to--to let fly a discord. Anyhow, I am. But"--he went on more lightly--"now, in your case, David, little as I know about the violin, I know enough to understand that you ought to be where you can take up your study of it again; where you can hear good music, and where you can be among those who know enough to appreciate what you do."
David"s eyes sparkled.
"And where there wouldn"t be any pulling weeds or hoeing dirt?"
"Well, I hadn"t thought of including either of those pastimes."
"My, but I would like that, Mr. Jack!--but THAT wouldn"t be WORK, so that couldn"t be what father meant." David"s face fell.
"Hm-m; well, I wouldn"t worry about the "work" part," laughed Mr. Jack, "particularly as you aren"t going to do it just now. There"s the money, you know,--and we haven"t got that."
"And it takes money?"
"Well--yes. You can"t get those things here in Hinsdale, you know; and it takes money, to get away, and to live away after you get there."
A sudden light transfigured David"s face.
"Mr. Jack, would gold do it?--lots of little round gold-pieces?"
"I think it would, David, if there were enough of them."
"Many as a hundred?"
"Sure--if they were big enough. Anyway, David, they"d start you, and I"m thinking you wouldn"t need but a start before you"d be coining gold-pieces of your own out of that violin of yours. But why? Anybody you know got as "many as a hundred" gold-pieces he wants to get rid of?"
For a moment David, his delighted thoughts flying to the gold-pieces in the chimney cupboard of his room, was tempted to tell his secret. Then he remembered the woman with the bread and the pail of milk, and decided not to. He would wait. When he knew Mr. Jack better--perhaps then he would tell; but not now. NOW Mr. Jack might think he was a thief, and that he could not bear. So he took up his violin and began to play; and in the charm of the music Mr. Jack seemed to forget the gold-pieces--which was exactly what David had intended should happen.
Not until David had said good-bye some time later, did he remember the purpose--the special purpose--for which he had come. He turned back with a radiant face.
"Oh, and Mr. Jack, I "most forgot," he cried. "I was going to tell you.
I saw you yesterday--I did, and I almost waved to you."
"Did you? Where were you?"
"Over there in the window--the tower window" he crowed jubilantly.
"Oh, you went again, then, I suppose, to see Miss Holbrook."
The man"s voice sounded so oddly cold and distant that David noticed it at once. He was reminded suddenly of the gate and the footbridge which Jill was forbidden to cross; but he dared not speak of it then--not when Mr. Jack looked like that. He did say, however:--
"Oh, but, Mr. Jack, it"s such a beautiful place! You don"t know what a beautiful place it is."
"Is it? Then, you like it so much?"
"Oh, so much! But--didn"t you ever--see it?"
"Why, yes, I believe I did, David, long ago," murmured Mr. Jack with what seemed to David amazing indifference.
"And did you see HER--my Lady of the Roses?"
"Why, y--yes--I believe so."
"And is THAT all you remember about it?" resented David, highly offended.
The man gave a laugh--a little short, hard laugh that David did not like.
"But, let me see; you said you almost waved, didn"t you? Why did n"t you, quite?" asked the man.
David drew himself suddenly erect. Instinctively he felt that his Lady of the Roses needed defense.
"Because SHE didn"t want me to; so I didn"t, of course," he rejoined with dignity. "She took away my handkerchief."
"I"ll warrant she did," muttered the man, behind his teeth. Aloud he only laughed again, as he turned away.
David went on down the steps, dissatisfied vaguely with himself, with Mr. Jack, and even with the Lady of the Roses.
CHAPTER XVI
DAVID"S CASTLE IN SPAIN
On his return from the House that Jack Built, David decided to count his gold-pieces. He got them out at once from behind the books, and stacked them up in little shining rows. As he had surmised, there were a hundred of them. There were, indeed, a hundred and six. He was pleased at that. One hundred and six were surely enough to give him a "start."
A start! David closed his eyes and pictured it. To go on with his violin, to hear good music, to be with people who understood what he said when he played! That was what Mr. Jack had said a "start" was. And this gold--these round shining bits of gold--could bring him this!
David swept the little piles into a jingling heap, and sprang to his feet with both fists full of his suddenly beloved wealth. With boyish glee he capered about the room, jingling the coins in his hands. Then, very soberly, he sat down again, and began to gather the gold to put away.
He would be wise--he would be sensible. He would watch his chance, and when it came he would go away. First, however, he would tell Mr. Jack and Joe, and the Lady of the Roses; yes, and the Hollys, too. Just now there seemed to be work, real work that he could do to help Mr. Holly.
But later, possibly when September came and school,--they had said he must go to school,--he would tell them then, and go away instead. He would see. By that time they would believe him, perhaps, when he showed the gold-pieces. They would not think he had--STOLEN them. It was August now; he would wait. But meanwhile he could think--he could always be thinking of the wonderful thing that this gold was one day to bring to him.
Even work, to David, did not seem work now. In the morning he was to rake hay behind the men with the cart. Yesterday he had not liked it very well; but now--nothing mattered now. And with a satisfied sigh David put his precious gold away again behind the books in the cupboard.
David found a new song in his violin the next morning. To be sure, he could not play it--much of it--until four o"clock in the afternoon came; for Mr. Holly did not like violins to be played in the morning, even on days that were not especially the Lord"s. There was too much work to do. So David could only s.n.a.t.c.h a strain or two very, very softly, while he was dressing; but that was enough to show him what a beautiful song it was going to be. He knew what it was, at once, too.
It was the gold-pieces, and what they would bring. All through the day it tripped through his consciousness, and danced tantalizingly just out of reach. Yet he was wonderfully happy, and the day seemed short in spite of the heat and the weariness.
At four o"clock he hurried home and put his violin quickly in tune. It came then--that dancing sprite of tantalization--and joyously abandoned itself to the strings of the violin, so that David knew, of a surety, what a beautiful song it was.
It was this song that sent him the next afternoon to see his Lady of the Roses. He found her this time out of doors in her garden.
Unceremoniously, as usual, he rushed headlong into her presence.
"Oh, Lady--Lady of the Roses," he panted. "I"ve found out, and I came quickly to tell you."
"Why, David, what--what do you mean?" Miss Holbrook looked unmistakably startled.