"Psyche Dean, you"ve had an adventure! I see it in your face; so tell it at once, for we are stupid as owls here to-day," cried one of the sisterhood, as a bright-eyed girl entered with some precipitation.
"I dropped my portfolio, and a man picked it up, that"s all." replied Psyche, hurrying on her gray linen pinafore.
"That won"t do; I know something interesting happened, for you"ve been blushing, and you look brisker than usual this morning," said the first speaker, polishing off the ma.s.sive nose of her Homer.
"It wasn"t anything," began Psyche a little reluctantly. "I was coming up in a hurry when I ran against a man coming down in a hurry. My portfolio slipped, and my papers went flying all about the landing. Of course we both laughed and begged pardon, and I began to pick them up, but he wouldn"t let me; so I held the book while he collected the sketches. I saw him glance at them as he did so, and that made me blush, for they are wretched things, you know."
"Not a bit of it; they are capital, and you are a regular genius, as we all agree," cut in the Homeric Miss Cutter.
"Never tell people they are geniuses unless you wish to spoil them,"
returned Psyche severely. "Well, when the portfolio was put to rights I was going on, but he fell to picking up a little bunch of violets I had dropped; you know I always wear a posy into town to give me inspiration. I didn"t care for the dusty flowers, and told him so, and hurried away before any one came. At the top of the stairs I peeped over the railing, and there he was, gathering up every one of those half-dead violets as carefully as if they had been tea-roses."
"Psyche Dean, you have met your fate this day!" exclaimed a third damsel, with straw-colored tresses, and a good deal of weedy shrubbery in her hat, which gave an Ophelia-like expression to her sentimental countenance.
Psyche frowned and shook her head, as if half sorry she had told her little story.
"Was he handsome?" asked Miss Larkins, the believer in fate.
"I didn"t particularly observe."
"It was the red-headed man, whom we call t.i.tian: he"s always on the stairs."
"No, it wasn"t; his hair was brown and curly," cried Psyche, innocently falling into the trap.
"Like Peerybingle"s baby when its cap was taken off," quoted Miss d.i.c.kenson, who pined to drop the last two letters of her name.
"Was it Murillo, the black-eyed one?" asked the fair Cutter, for the girls had a name for all the att.i.tudinizers and promenaders whom they oftenest met.
"No, he had gray eyes, and very fine ones they were too," answered Psyche, adding, as if to herself, "he looked as I imagine Michael Angelo might have looked when young."
"Had he a broken nose, like the great Mike?" asked an irreverent damsel.
"If he had, no one would mind it, for his head is splendid; he took his hat off, so I had a fine view. He isn"t handsome, but he"ll _do_ something," said Psyche, prophetically, as she recalled the strong, ambitious face which she had often observed, but never mentioned before.
"Well, dear, considering that you didn"t "particularly look" at the man, you"ve given us a very good idea of his appearance. We"ll call him Michael Angelo, and he shall be your idol. I prefer stout old Rembrandt myself, and Larkie adores that dandified Raphael," said the lively Cutter, slapping away at Homer"s bald pate energetically, as she spoke.
"Raphael is a dear, but Rubens is more to my taste now," returned Miss Larkins. "He was in the hall yesterday talking with Sir Joshua, who had his inevitable umbrella, like a true Englishman. Just as I came up, the umbrella fell right before me. I started back; Sir Joshua laughed, but Rubens said, "Deuce take it!" and caught up the umbrella, giving me a never-to-be-forgotten look. It was perfectly thrilling."
"Which,--the umbrella, the speech, or the look?" asked Psyche, who was not sentimental.
"Ah, you have no soul for art in nature, and nature in art," sighed the amber-tressed Larkins. "I have, for I feed upon a glance, a tint, a curve, with exquisite delight. Rubens is adorable (_as a study_); that l.u.s.trous eye, that night of hair, that sumptuous cheek, are perfect. He only needs a cloak, lace collar, and slouching hat to be the genuine thing."
"This isn"t the genuine thing by any means. What _does_ it need?" said Psyche, looking with a despondent air at the head on her stand.
Many would have p.r.o.nounced it a clever thing; the nose was strictly Greek, the chin curved upward gracefully, the mouth was sweetly haughty, the brow cla.s.sically smooth and low, and the breezy hair well done. But something was wanting; Psyche felt that, and could have taken her Venus by the dimpled shoulders, and given her a hearty shake, if that would have put strength and spirit into the lifeless face.
"Now _I_ am perfectly satisfied with my Apollo, though you all insist that it is the image of Theodore Smythe. He says so himself, and a.s.sures me it will make a sensation when we exhibit," remarked Miss Larkins, complacently caressing the ambrosial locks of her Smythified Phebus.
"What shall you do if it does not?" asked Miss Cutter, with elegance.
"I shall feel that I have mistaken my sphere, shall drop my tools, veil my bust, and cast myself into the arms of Nature, since Art rejects me;" replied Miss Larkins, with a tragic gesture and an expression which strongly suggested that in her eyes nature meant Theodore.
"She must have capacious arms if she is to receive all Art"s rejected admirers. Shall I be one of them?"
Psyche put the question to herself as she turned to work, but somehow ambitious aspirations were not in a flourishing condition that morning; her heart was not in tune, and head and hands sympathized.
Nothing went well, for certain neglected home-duties had dogged her into town, and now worried her more than dust, or heat, or the ceaseless clatter of tongues. Tom, d.i.c.k, and Harry"s unmended hose persisted in dancing a spectral jig before her mental eye, mother"s querulous complaints spoilt the song she hummed to cheer herself, and little May"s wistful face put the G.o.ddess of beauty entirely out of countenance.
"It"s no use; I can"t work till the clay is wet again. Where is Giovanni?" she asked, throwing down her tools with a petulant gesture and a dejected air.
"He is probably playing truant in the empty upper rooms, as usual. I can"t wait for him any longer, so I"m doing his work myself," answered Miss d.i.c.kenson, who was tenderly winding a wet bandage round her Juno"s face, one side of which was so much plumper than the other that it looked as if the Queen of Olympus was being hydropathically treated for a severe fit of ague.
"I"ll go and find the little scamp; a run will do me good; so will a breath of air and a view of the park from the upper windows."
Doffing her ap.r.o.n, Psyche strolled away up an unfrequented staircase to the empty apartments, which seemed to be too high even for the lovers of High Art. On the western side they were shady and cool, and, leaning from one of the windows, Psyche watched the feathery tree-tops ruffled by the balmy wind, that brought spring odors from the hills, lying green and sunny far away. Silence and solitude were such pleasant companions that the girl forgot herself, till a shrill whistle disturbed her day-dreams, and reminded her what she came for.
Following the sound she found the little Italian errand-boy busily uncovering a clay model which stood in the middle of a scantily furnished room near by.
"He is not here; come and look; it is greatly beautiful," cried Giovanni, beckoning with an air of importance.
Psyche did look and speedily forgot both her errand and herself. It was the figure of a man, standing erect, and looking straight before him with a wonderfully lifelike expression. It was neither a mythological nor a historical character, Psyche thought, and was glad of it, being tired to death of G.o.ds and heroes. She soon ceased to wonder what it was, feeling only the indescribable charm of something higher than beauty. Small as her knowledge was, she could see and enjoy the power visible in every part of it; the accurate anatomy of the vigorous limbs, the grace of the pose, the strength and spirit in the countenance, clay though it was. A majestic figure, but the spell lay in the face, which, while it suggested the divine, was full of human truth and tenderness, for pain and pa.s.sion seemed to have pa.s.sed over it, and a humility half pathetic, a courage half heroic seemed to have been born from some great loss or woe.
How long she stood there Psyche did not know. Giovanni went away unseen, to fill his water-pail, and in the silence she just stood and looked. Her eyes kindled, her color rose, despondency and discontent vanished, and her soul was in her face, for she loved beauty pa.s.sionately, and all that was best and truest in her did honor to the genius of the unknown worker.
"If I could do a thing like that, I"d die happy!" she exclaimed impetuously, as a feeling of despair came over her at the thought of her own poor attempts.
"Who did it, Giovanni?" she asked, still looking up at the grand face with unsatisfied eyes.
"Paul Gage."
It was not the boy"s voice, and, with a start, Psyche turned to see her Michael Angelo, standing in the doorway, attentively observing her. Being too full of artless admiration to think of herself just yet, she neither blushed nor apologized, but looked straight at him, saying heartily,--
"You have done a wonderful piece of work, and I envy you more than I can tell!"
The enthusiasm in her face, the frankness of her manner, seemed to please him, for there was no affectation about either. He gave her a keen, kind glance out of the "fine gray eyes," a little bow, and a grateful smile, saying quietly,--"Then my Adam is not a failure in spite of his fall?"
Psyche turned from the sculptor to his model with increased admiration in her face, and earnestness in her voice, as she exclaimed delighted,--
"Adam! I might have known it was he. O sir, you have indeed succeeded, for you have given that figure the power and pathos of the first man who sinned and suffered, and began again."
"Then I am satisfied." That was all he said, but the look he gave his work was a very eloquent one, for it betrayed that he had paid the price of success in patience and privation, labor and hope.
"What can one do to learn your secret?" asked the girl wistfully, for there was nothing in the man"s manner to disturb her self-forgetful mood, but much to foster it, because to the solitary worker this confiding guest was as welcome as the doves who often hopped in at his window.
"Work and wait, and meantime feed heart, soul, and imagination with the best food one can get," he answered slowly, finding it impossible to give a receipt for genius.
"I can work and wait a long time to gain my end; but I don"t know where to find the food you speak of?" she answered, looking at him like a hungry child.
"I wish I could tell you, but each needs different fare, and each must look for it in different places."