For two years, now, no human mind in America had been able to adjust itself to the new heaven and the new earth which had sprung into lurid being at the thunderclap of war.
All things familiar had changed in the twinkling of an eye; all former things had pa.s.sed away, leaving the stunned brain of humanity dulled under the shock.
Slowly, by degrees, the world was beginning to realise that the civilisation of Christ was being menaced once again by a resurgence from that ancient land of legend where the wild Hun denned;--that again the endless hordes of barbarians were rushing in on Europe out of their Eastern fastnesses--hordes which filled the shrinking skies with their clamour, vaunting the might of Baal, cheering their antichrist, drenching the knees of their own red G.o.ds with the blood of little children.
It seemed impossible for Americans to understand that these things could be--were really true--that the horrors the papers printed were actualities happening to civilised people like themselves and their neighbours.
Out of their own mouths the German tribes thundered their own disgrace and condemnation, yet America sat dazed, incredulous, motionless.
Emperor and general, professor and junker, shouted at the top of their lungs the new creed, horrible as the Black Ma.s.s, reversing every precept taught by Christ.
Millions of Teuton mouths cheered fiercely for the new religion--Frightfulness; worshipped with frantic yells the new trinity--Wotan, Kaiser and Brute Strength.
Stunned, blinded, deafened, the Western World, still half-paralysed, stirred stiffly from its inertia. Slowly, mechanically, its arteries resumed their functions; the reflex, operating automatically, started trade again in its old channels; old habits were timidly resumed; minds groped backward, searching for severed threads which connected yesterday with to-day--groped, hunted, found nothing, and, perplexed, turned slowly toward the smoke-choked future for some reason for it all--some outlook.
There was no explanation, no outlook--nothing save dust and flame and the din of Teutonic hordes trampling to death the Son of Man.
So America moved about her worn, deep-trodden and familiar ways, her mind slowly clearing from the cataclysmic concussion, her power of vision gradually returning, adjusting itself, little by little, to this new heaven and new earth and this h.e.l.l entirely new.
The _Lusitania_ went down; the Great Republic merely quivered. Other ships followed; only a low murmur of pain came from the Western Colossus.
But now, after the second year, through the thickening nightmare the Great Republic groaned aloud; and a new note of menace sounded in her drugged and dreary voice.
And the thick ears of the Hun twitched and he paused, squatting belly-deep in blood, to listen.
Barres walked homeward. Somewhere along in the 40"s he turned eastward into one of those cross-streets originally built up of brownstone dwelling houses, and now in process of transformation into that architectural and commercial miscellany which marks the transition stage of the metropolis anywhere from Westchester to the sea.
Altered for business purposes, bas.e.m.e.nts displayed signs and merchandise of bootmakers, dealers in oriental porcelains, rare prints, silverware; parlour windows modified into bay windows, sheeted with plate-gla.s.s, exposed, perhaps, feminine headgear, or an expensive model gown or two, or the sign of a real-estate man, or of an upholsterer.
Above the parlour floors lived people of one sort or another; furnished and unfurnished rooms and suites prevailed; and the brownstone monotony was already indented along the building line by brand-new constructions of Indiana limestone, behind the glittering plate-gla.s.s of which were to be seen reticent displays of artistic furniture, modern and antique oil paintings, here and there the lace-curtained den of some superior ladies" hair-dresser, where beautifying also was accomplished at a price, alas!
Halfway between Sixth Avenue and Fifth, on the north side of the street, an enterprising architect had purchased half a dozen squatty, three-storied houses, set back from the sidewalk behind gra.s.s-plots.
These had been lavishly stuccoed and transformed into abodes for those irregulars in the army of life known as "artists."
In the rear the back fences had been levelled; six corresponding houses on the next street had been purchased; a sort of inner court established, with a common gra.s.s-plot planted with trees and embellished by a number of concrete works of art, battered statues, sundials, and well-curbs.
Always the army of civilisation trudges along screened, flanked, and tagged after by life"s irregulars, who cannot or will not conform to routine. And these are always roaming around seeking their own cantonments, where, for a while, they seem content to dwell at the end of one more aimless etape through the world--not in regulation barracks, but in regions too unconventional, too inconvenient to attract others.
Of this sort was the collection of squatty houses, forming a "community," where, in the neighbourhood of other irregulars, Garret Barres dwelt; and into the lighted entrance of which he now turned, still exhilarated by his meeting with Thessalie Dunois.
The architectural agglomeration was known as Dragon Court--a faence Fu-dog above the electric light over the green entrance door furnishing that priceless idea--a Fu-dog now veiled by mesh-wire to provide against the indiscretions of sparrows lured thither by housekeeping possibilities lurking among the dense screens of j.a.panese ivy covering the facade.
Larry Soane, the irresponsible superintendent, always turned gardener with April"s advent in Dragon Court, contributions from its denizens enabling him to pepper a few flower-beds with hyacinths and tulips, and later with geraniums. These former bulbs had now gratefully appeared in promising thickets, and Barres saw the dark form of the handsome, reckless-looking Irishman fussing over them in the lantern-lit dusk, while his little daughter, Dulcie, kneeling on the dim gra.s.s, caressed the first blue hyacinth blossom with thin, childish fingers.
Barres glanced into his letter-box behind the desk, above which a drop-light threw more shadows than illumination. Little Dulcie Soane was supposed to sit under it and emit information, deliver and receive letters, pay charges on packages, and generally supervise things when she was not attending school.
There were no letters for the young man. He examined a package, found it contained his collars from the laundry, tucked them under his left arm, and walked to the door looking out upon the dusky interior court.
"Soane," he said, "your garden begins to look very fine." He nodded pleasantly to Dulcie, and the child responded to his friendly greeting with the tired but dauntless smile of the young who are missing those golden years to which all childhood has a claim.
Dulcie"s three cats came strolling out of the dusk across the lamplit gra.s.s--a coal black one with sea-green eyes, known as "The Prophet,"
and his platonic mate, white as snow, and with magnificent azure-blue eyes which, in white cats, usually betokens total deafness. She was known as "The Houri" to the irregulars of Dragon Court. The third cat, unanimously but misleadingly christened "Strindberg" by the dwellers in Dragon Court, has already crooked her tortoise-sh.e.l.l tail and was tearing around in eccentric circles or darting halfway up trees in a manner characteristic, and, possibly accounting for the name, if not for the s.e.x.
"Thim cats of the kid"s," observed Soane, "do be scratchin" up the plants all night long--bad cess to thim! Barrin" thim three omadhauns yonder, I"d show ye a purty bed o" poisies, Misther Barres. But Sthrin"berg, G.o.d help her, is f"r diggin" through to China."
Dulcie impulsively caressed the Prophet, who turned his solemn, incandescent eyes on Barres. The Houri also looked at him, then, intoxicated by the soft spring evening, rolled lithely upon the new gra.s.s and lay there twitching her snowy tail and challenging the stars out of eyes that matched their brilliance.
Dulcie got up and walked slowly across the gra.s.s to where Barres stood:
"May I come to see you this evening?" she asked, diffidently, and with a swift, sidelong glance toward her father.
"Ah, then, don"t be worritin" him!" grumbled Soane. "Hasn"t Misther Barres enough to do, what with all thim idees he has slitherin" in his head, an" all the books an" learnin" an" picters he has to think of--whithout the likes of you at his heels every blessed minute, day an" night!----"
"But he always lets me--" she remonstrated.
"G"wan, now, and lave the poor gentleman be! Quit your futtherin" an"
muttherin". G"wan in the house, ye little scut, an" see what there is f"r ye to do!----"
"What"s the matter with you, Soane?" interrupted Barres good-humouredly.
"Of course she can come up if she wants to. Do you feel like paying me a visit, Dulcie, before you go to bed?"
"Yes," she nodded diffidently.
"Well, come ahead then, Sweetness! And whenever you want to come you say so. Your father knows well enough I like to have you."
He smiled at Dulcie; the child"s shy preference for his society always had amused him. Besides, she was always docile and obedient; and she was very sensitive, too, never outwearing her welcome in his studio, and always leaving without a murmur when, looking up from book or drawing he would exclaim cheerfully: "Now, Sweetness! Time"s up! Bed for yours, little lady!"
It had been a very gradual acquaintance between them--more than two years in developing. From his first pleasant nod to her when he first came to live in Dragon Court, it had progressed for a few months, conservatively on her part, and on his with a detached but kindly interest born of easy sympathy for youth and loneliness.
But he had no idea of the pa.s.sionate response he was stirring in the motherless, neglected child--of what hunger he was carelessly stimulating, what latent qualities and dormant characteristics he was arousing.
Her appearance, one evening, in her night-dress at his studio doorway, accompanied by her three cats, began to enlighten him in regard to her mental starvation. Tremulous, almost at the point of tears, she had asked for a book and permission to remain for a few moments in the studio. He had rung for Selinda, ordered fruit, cake, and a gla.s.s of milk, and had installed Dulcie upon the sofa with a lapful of books.
That was the beginning.
But Barres still did not entirely understand what particular magnet drew the child to his studio. The place was full of beautiful things, books, rugs, pictures, fine old furniture, cabinets glimmering with porcelains, ivories, jades, Chinese crystals. These all, in minutest detail, seemed to fascinate the girl. Yet, after giving her permission to enter whenever she desired, often while reading or absorbed in other affairs, he became conscious of being watched; and, glancing up, would frequently surprise her sitting there very silently, with an open book on her knees, and her strange grey eyes intently fixed on him.
Then he would always smile and say something friendly; and usually forget her the next moment in his absorption of whatever work he had under way.
Only one other man inhabiting Dragon Court ever took the trouble to notice or speak to the child--James Westmore, the sculptor. And he was very friendly in his vigorous, jolly, rather boisterous way, catching her up and tossing her about as gaily and irresponsibly as though she were a rag doll; and always telling her he was her adopted G.o.dfather and would have to chastise her if she ever deserved it. Also, he was always urging her to hurry and grow up, because he had a wedding present for her. And though Dulcie"s smile was friendly, and Westmore"s nonsense pleased the shy child, she merely submitted, never made any advance.
Barres"s menage was accomplished by two specimens of mankind, totally opposite in s.e.x and colour; Selinda, a blonde, slant-eyed, and very trim Finn, doing duty as maid; and Aristocrates W. Johnson, lately employed in the capacity of waiter on a dining-car by the New York Central Railroad--tall, dignified, graceful, and Ethiopian--who cooked as daintily as a debutante trifling with culinary duty, and served at table with the languid condescension of a dilettante and wealthy amateur of domestic arts.
Barres ascended the two low, easy flights of stairs and unlocked his door. Aristocrates, setting the table in the dining-room, approached gracefully and relieved his master of hat, coat, and stick.