"By Jove! Fenton," he said, "I didn"t know you had it in you. It"s perfectly stunning. But it"s beastly wicked," he added. "Perhaps that"s the reason it"s so good."
"Come," Fenton said with a laugh, "that sounds quite like the old Pagan days."
"But how in the d.i.c.kens," Tom went on, "did you get Mrs. Herman to pose for you?"
"Great Heavens!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Fenton, "don"t say that to anybody else. I had no end of studies of her, made long ago; but I didn"t suppose I had followed them closely enough for it to be recognized."
"You don"t mean," Tom returned, "that that side and arm are done from old studies!"
Fenton had a delicate dislike to literal falsehood. It was not a question of morality directly, but one of taste. Albeit, since taste is simply morality remote from the springs of action, it perhaps came to much the same thing in the end. He felt now, however, that the time for the selfish indulgence of his individual whims was past, and that he owed to Ninitta the grace of a downright and hearty falsehood.
"Why, of course," he said, "I had one or two models to help me out; but the inspiration came from the old studies."
"And she didn"t pose for you?" Tom persisted incredulously.
"Pose for me?" echoed Fenton, impatiently. "Why, man alive, think what you"re saying! Of course, she didn"t pose for me. She never has posed for anybody since she was married."
"And a devilish shame it is, too," responded Tom.
This conversation, which took place Wednesday afternoon, made Fenton extremely uneasy. Fate seemed to have worked against him. He had painted the picture to go to the New York Exhibition, where he hoped it would be sold without ever coming under the eye of Herman at all. He reflected now that Ninitta had posed for Helen and for several of his brother painters, while it was scarcely credible that the likeness which Bently had perceived at a glance should escape the trained artist"s eye of her husband; and it seemed to him now, little less than madness to have brought the picture here at all.
Upon second thought, however, he reflected that even were the picture recognized, no great harm would probably come of it. No one would be likely to speak on the subject to Herman, and, least of all, was there a probability that the latter would confess that he was aware of what his wife had done. Herman"s condemnation, Fenton said to himself with a shrug, he must, if worst came to worst, endure; this was to be set down with other unpleasantnesses which belong to the unpleasant conditions of life as they exist in these days. As long as there was no open scandal, he could ignore whatever lay beneath the surface, and he a.s.sured himself that in any event it were wisest, as he had long ago learned, to carry things off with a high hand.
It was about half past nine when Fenton brought Edith into the gallery.
The crowd had by this time become pretty dense, and just inside the door they halted, exchanging greeting with the acquaintances who appeared on every side. The St. Filipe was an old club, and for more than a quarter of a century had maintained the reputation of leading in matters of art and literature. Its influence had, on the whole, been remarkably even and intelligent; but of late it began to be felt, among those who were radical in their views, that the club was coming under Philistine influence. Half a dozen years before, when Fenton had proposed Peter Calvin for membership, even the social influence of the candidate did not save him from a rejection so marked that Arthur had threatened to resign his own membership. Now, however, Peter Calvin was not only a member of the St. Filipe, but he was on the Election Committee. The club was held in favor in the circles over which his influence extended, and although workers in all branches of art were still included among the members, they were pretty closely pushed by the more fashionable element of the town. Fenton was not far from right in a.s.serting, as he did one day to Mrs. Greyson, after her return from Europe, that the change in his own att.i.tude toward art was pretty exactly paralleled by the alteration which had taken place in that of Boston.
The character of the membership of the club was indicated to-night by the brilliancy of the company present. It was one of those occasions when everybody is there, and the scene, as the new-comers looked over the gallery, was most bright and animated. Although the ladies had evidently labored under the usual uncertainty in regard to the proper dress which seems inseparable from an art exhibition in Boston, and were in all varieties of costume from street attire to full evening toilette, there were enough handsome gowns to supply the necessary color. There was also abundance of pretty and of striking faces, and the crowd had that pleasant look of familiarity which one gets from recognizing acquaintances all through it.
One of the first persons the Fentons saw was Ethel Mott, who, under the chaperonage of Mrs. Frostwinch, was making the tour of the gallery with Kent, and paying far more attention to her companion than to the pictures.
"Oh, Arthur," Edith whispered, "I saw Mrs. Staggchase in the dressing-room, and she told me that Ethel"s engagement is out to-day."
Arthur smiled, remembering his perspicacity when Ethel had driven away from his dinner with Kent in her carriage.
"Isn"t the crowd dreadful?" the voice of Mrs. Bodewin Ranger said, at Edith"s elbow. "I"m really getting too old to trust myself in such a crush."
While Edith chatted with her, the steward called Fenton away, in connection with some question about the catalogues, and when Mrs.
Ranger moved on, Edith found herself for an instant alone. The mention of her husband"s name behind her caught her ear and her attention.
"Fenton"s cheeky enough for anything!" said an unknown voice. "But he makes a point of his good taste, and I think it"s beastly poor form for him to show that picture here."
"Bently says," returned another voice, also strange to Edith, "that Fenton says she didn"t pose for him, but that he worked it up from old studies."
"I don"t care if he did," was the response. "All the fellows know it, and Herman must feel like the deuce."
"But you can"t suppress every picture that has a study of her in it."
"Hush," said the other voice, "there comes Herman himself."
It seemed to Edith that this brief dialogue had been shouted out so that it could not be inaudible to any one in the room. She looked about for her husband. Her ears rang with the meaningless babble of voices, the jargon of human sounds conveying far less impression of intelligence than the noise of water on the sh.o.r.e, or the sound of the wind in the tree-tops. All about her were faces wreathed in conventional smiles, the inevitable laughter, the usual absence of earnestness, and in the midst of all, with a shock hardly less painful than that of the discovery she had just made, she heard the voice of Herman bidding her good evening.
She held out her hand to him with a hasty, excited gesture. She was painfully conscious that he had but to lift his eyes to see the _Fatima_ hanging on the opposite wall of the gallery, and she instinctively felt that she must draw his attention away.
"How do you do, Mr. Herman," she said, with eager warmth. "Is Mrs.
Herman with you?"
She moved half around him as she spoke, as if compelled by the shifting of the crowd to change her position; and while she shook hands managed to bring herself almost face to the picture, so that his back was toward it.
"No," he answered, "she never comes to these things if she can possibly help it. I hear your husband has outdone himself on this exhibition."
Edith looked about despairingly for Arthur. She felt herself unequal to the emergency, and longed for his clever wits to contrive some means of escape from the cruel dilemma in which his act had placed her and his friend. Indignation, shame, and sorrow filled her heart. She recognized that Arthur had not told her the truth in regard to Ninitta. The dread and the suspicion which she had felt on the night of the dinner returned to her with tenfold force. But the greatest triumph of modern civilization is the power it has bestowed upon women of concealing their feelings. The pressing need of the moment was to show to Herman a smiling and untroubled face, and to avoid arousing his suspicion that anything was wrong.
"The truth is," she returned, "that I haven"t seen the exhibition. It"s impossible to see pictures in such a crowd, don"t you think? I know Arthur has worked very hard. I"ve hardly seen him this week."
"He has a most tremendous power of accomplishing what he undertakes,"
Herman said heartily. "But tell me about yourself. You"re looking tired."
"It is the time of year to look tired. I believe I am feeling a little anxious that spring should arrive."
She was struggling in her thoughts for a means of preventing the discovery, which it seemed to her must be inevitable the moment she ceased to engage Herman in conversation and he turned away. Over his shoulder she could see the beautiful, sensuous _Fatima_ lying with long sleek limbs amid bright-hued cushions. Now that she knew the truth, she could see Ninitta in every line, and her whole soul rose in indignant protest. It was her friend, the wife of this man she honored, who was delivered up on the wall yonder to the curious eyes of all these people. The stinging blush of shame burned in Edith"s cheeks, and, as at this instant she turned to find her husband beside her, the glance which darted from her eyes to his was one of righteous scorn and indignation.
His wife"s burning look showed Arthur that she knew; and, reflecting quickly, he decided that Herman did not. It was characteristic of him that he instantly chose the boldest policy.
"Come," he said to Herman as soon as they had greeted each other, "I know you haven"t seen my _Fatima_. The boys say its the best thing I"ve done, but I couldn"t get a decent model, and had to depend so much on old studies, that, for the life of me, I can"t tell whether it"s good or not."
Like two blows at once came to Edith a sense of shame that she could even involuntarily have wished for her husband"s aid, and an overwhelming consciousness of the readiness and boldness of his falsity. She saw the face of Grant Herman, n.o.bly instinct with truth in every line, and, as he turned at her husband"s word, everything blurred before her vision. She believed she was going to faint, and she rallied all her self-command to hold herself steady. The lights danced, and the sound of voices faded as into the distance. Then, with a supreme effort of will, she rallied, and the voices rolled back upon her ear with a noise like the roar of an incoming wave.
A sphere of silence seemed to envelop Herman and Arthur and herself in the very midst of the crowd, as for an instant which seemed to her cruelly long she stood waiting for what the sculptor should say.
"Your friends are right, Fenton," Herman said, at length, in a voice so changed from its previous cordiality that it was idle to suppose the likeness had escaped him. "You have never painted anything better."
"Thank you," Fenton responded, brightly. "I am awfully glad you like it. I fancy," he added, with a laugh, "that the tabby-cats will be shocked."
His companion made no reply, and the approach of Rangely afforded Arthur a chance to change the conversation.
"I say, Fred," he demanded, "have you congratulated Thayer Kent yet?"
"Congratulated him?" echoed Rangely.
"Yes. Didn"t you know his engagement is out?"
Rangely might have been said to take a page out of Fenton"s own book, as he answered,--
"But what"s the etiquette of precedence?" "Of precedence?" echoed Arthur, in his turn.
"Yes," Rangely returned. "Which of us should congratulate the other first? Only," he added, hitting to his own delight upon a position which might save him from some awkwardness in the future, "of course my engagement can"t be announced until Miss Merrivale gets home to her mother."
"Well," Arthur said, "marriage is that ceremony by which man lays aside the pleasures of life and takes up its duties. I congratulate you on your determination to do anything so virtuous."