Von Barwig comforted her as well as he could, and when the girl quieted down she told him her story. It was conventional enough. She had run away from home and married a young fellow she met in a Harlem dance hall. She knew nothing of his people or of his early life. She simply married him, and now he had deserted her after the arrival of her child. There was nothing uncommon or strange either in her story or her way of telling it. Von Barwig had heard such stories hundreds of times, but to him the pathos of the situation lay in the inability of the young mother to feed the crying child owing to her distracted mental condition. Further, the fact that she was sufficiently acquainted with the laws of physiology to realise this truth showed Von Barwig that the girl had received a better education than most of her cla.s.s.
"Have you money?" he asked her.
"A little," the girl replied listlessly. "Oh, G.o.d, if the child would only stop crying," she said as she kissed and fondled the babe. Then she sighed. "I feel better now," she said, "much better. Perhaps in a little while I shall be myself again." Von Barwig handed her a five dollar bill.
"You will buy the little fellow something with the compliments of a stranger. What do you call him?" he said quickly, for he saw that his generous action had brought tears to the girl"s eyes and he wanted to prevent her crying. "He"s a fine little chap," he added.
"It"s a girl," she said, the ghost of a smile coming into her face.
"Her name is Annie. I"ll take this for her sake. Thank you, sir, thank you!"
"A little girl," he said in his low, gentle voice; "a little girl! I had a little girl once," and he stifled the sob that came into his throat. The girl heard this sob and squeezed his hand gently in sympathy.
"Let me tell you a story, my child, it may help you to bear the burden of life, as your story has helped me!"
Von Barwig reseated himself by the girl"s side and recounted to her the whole story of his miserable unhappy existence from beginning to end.
This stranger was the only one to whom he had ever told it all. The girl was intensely interested, and it had the desired effect of taking her thoughts off her own misery. When Von Barwig took his leave of her an hour or so later, the colour had come into her waxen cheeks and she was quietly nursing her baby.
"I have been asleep," he said to himself, "but I am awake now. Life is all about me; I must not be blind to it again!"
As Von Barwig turned the corner of Houston Street and the Bowery, he glanced at the clock in the watchmaker"s on the corner. It was eleven o"clock. He did not go to the Museum that night.
"Are you quite sure there is no letter for me, Joles?" Helene asked anxiously, as she came in late that night.
"Quite sure, miss."
Helene thought a moment. "It"s very strange," she said. "I"ve written to him so many times."
Joles"s face expressed nothing. Helene shook her f head slowly and walked upstairs. Before she went to bed that night she sent the following note:
"MY DEAREST BEVERLY: Come to-morrow morning and take me to lunch. I want you to do a little diplomatic work for me.
"Your loving
"HeLeNE."
Chapter Twenty-one
Von Barwig now firmly made up his mind that it would never be his good fortune to see his beloved pupil again. "She has gone out of my life as suddenly as she came into it," he said with a deep sigh.
To a man of his mental activity the loss of almost the sole object of his thoughts created an aching void, and yet so hopeful was he in spite of the constant repet.i.tion of blasted hopes and unfilled desire that two or three days after the occurrences just narrated he had resolved on a new plan of action.
"Poons and Jenny shall marry at once," said he as he arose that morning and dressed himself to go to the rehearsal of a new songstress at the Museum.
"The son of your old friend and the niece of your good landlady shall mark a new epoch for you, Barwig. You overrated yourself, you loved the daughter of millions, you lived beyond your means, my friend. Now it is time you lived within your income," he said, looking at himself in the gla.s.s, as he combed his grey hair. "Love Jenny and Poons; poor little neglected ones, you had forgotten their existence! No more extravagances, no more reaching for the impossible! Here down in Houston Street is your life! It is your own, live it! Don"t go after the fleshpots of Fifth Avenue, don"t cheapen yourself that servants and lackeys may insult and deride you."
Yet ever as he spoke, a mental image of his beloved pupil came before him, and his heart sank as he thought that he should never see her again.
"Why has a mere thought, a stray idea the power to make us so unhappy?"
he asked himself. This question was still unanswered when there came into his mind the memory of the unfortunate young woman he had met on Union Square a few nights before. Her misery, her agony of mind, the crying babe, all came before him in a flash. "My G.o.d, when I think of her, I am ashamed of myself! Here I howl and tear my hair and rail at fortune because I lose something that I never had; she was never mine--this girl of millions--I had no right to her. But the sufferings of that poor child-wife are real, deep, heartrending; and there are thousands of others like her in this world. Get up, sluggard, get up!
Go out and comfort them; go out into the world and mend broken hearts.
It is your trade! You have qualified, for your own is battered to pieces."
This idea gave him peace of mind for a short time, but presently his thoughts ran into the old groove. Try as he would he could not direct them away from the line of easiest mental resistance.
"If I could only see her once again," he thought, "perhaps I could explain away the cause of our separation. Perhaps I--" and he started up suddenly, the idea sweeping him off his feet. "By G.o.d, I make one more effort; just one more effort! And if that fails, I give it up; it shall be the last! This time I swear it shall be the last. Yes, I go, I demand an interview. It is my right." He was as full of hope now as he had ever been. As a gambler eagerly stakes his last bet, so Von Barwig hastened to finish dressing and go to her, to make his one last appeal.
As he brushed his coat hurriedly, there came a knock at the door.
"Come in," said Von Barwig rather impatiently, thinking that it was Poons. He did not feel in the mood just at that moment for casual conversation. "Come in," he repeated in a louder voice, and to his utter amazement in walked Beverly Cruger.
Von Barwig could only stare at him in speechless astonishment. He was literally dumfounded. Young Cruger evidently saw this, for he seized Von Barwig"s hand and shook it warmly.
"How do you do, Herr Von Barwig?" he said.
"Thank you, well! Sit down," the old man managed to gasp out, as he pointed to a chair. "You come from her, from Miss Stanton?" he articulated in a voice just loud enough to be heard by the younger man.
"Yes," said Beverly, taking off his gloves and placing them on the table. "I want to have a little talk with you. May I?"
Von Barwig did not answer his question.
"Did--she--did she send you?" he asked. His eyes glistened; his very life seemed to depend on the answer.
Beverly nodded. "Yes, she wanted me to ask you a few questions. Are you sure you have the time to spare?"
Von Barwig laughed from sheer joy. Time! to some one who came from her! He could only nod in acquiescence and wait for the young man to speak.
"How many letters have you received from Miss Stanton?" asked Beverly.
Von Barwig looked at him. "Not any," he replied, shaking his head sadly.
Beverly made no comment, but he made a mental note. It was not his intention at that moment at least to acquaint Herr Von Barwig with all that had pa.s.sed between Helene and himself as to the letters that had failed to reach their destination.
"Didn"t receive one, eh?"
"No, not one," said Von Barwig, in a low voice. "Has she written?" he asked falteringly.
Beverly made no reply, but thought a moment.
"How many letters have you sent Miss Stanton?" he asked.
Von Barwig hesitated. "Perhaps--perhaps some five or six," he said apologetically.
"Hum!" commented Beverly, "five or six, eh? How many times have you called during, say, the past month?"