The Second Violin.
by Grace S. Richmond.
BOOK I
THE SECOND VIOLIN
CHAPTER I
Crash! Bang! Bang! "_The March of the Pilgrims_" came to an abrupt end.
John Lansing Birch laid down his viola and bow, whirled about, and flung out his arms in despair. "Oh, this crowd is hopeless!" he groaned.
"Never mind any other instrument, providing _yours_ is heard. This march is supposed to die away in the distance! You murder it in front of the house. That second violin--"
Here his wrath centered upon the red-cheeked, black-eyed young player.
The second violin returned his gaze with resentment. "What"s the use of my playing like a midsummer zephyr when Just"s sawing away like mad on the ba.s.s?" she retorted.
The first violin smiled pleasantly on the little group. "Let"s try it again," she suggested, "and see if we can please John Lansing better."
"You"re all right," said Lansing, with a wave of his hand at Celia, "if the rest of the strings wouldn"t fight to drown you out. Charlotte plays as if second violin were a solo part, with the rest as accompaniment."
Charlotte tucked her instrument under a sulky, round chin, raised her bow and waited, her eyes on the floor. Celia, smiling, softly tried her strings.
"That"s it, precisely," began the leader, still with irritation. "Celia tunes between practice; Charlotte takes it for granted she"s all right and fires ahead. Your E string is off!"
The second violin grudgingly tightened the E string; then all her strings in turn, lengthening the process as much as possible. The "cello did the same--the "cello always stood by the second violin. Jeff gave Charlotte a glance of loyalty. His G string had been flatter than her E.
Lansing wheeled about and picked up his instrument, carefully trying its pitch. He gave the signal, and the "_March of the Pilgrims_" began--in the remote distance. The double-ba.s.s viol gripped his bow with his stubby twelve-year-old fingers, and hardly breathed as he strove to keep his notes subdued. The "cello murmured a gentle undertone; the first violin sang as sweetly and delicately as a bird, her _legato_ perfect.
The second violin fingered her notes through, but the voice of her instrument was not heard at all.
The leader glanced at her once, with a frown between his fine eyebrows, but Charlotte played dumbly on. The Pilgrims approached--_crescendo_; drew near--_forte_; pa.s.sed--_fortissimo_; marched away--_diminuendo_; were almost lost in the distance--_piano_--_pianissimo_. Uplifted bows--and silence.
"Good!" said a hearty voice behind them. Everybody looked up, smiling--even the second violin. His children always smiled when Mr.
Roderick Birch came in. It would have been a sour temper which could have resisted his genial greeting.
"Mother would like the _"Lullaby"_ next," he said. "She"s rather tired to-night. And after the _"Lullaby"_ I want a little talk with you all."
Something in his voice or his eyes made his elder daughter take notice of him, as he dropped into a chair by the fire. "Play your best," she warned the others, in a whisper. But they needed no warning. Everybody always played his best for father. And if mother was tired--
The notes of the second violin fell daintily, caressing those which wrought out the melody enveloping but never overwhelming them. As the music ceased, the leader, turning to the second violin, met her reluctant eyes with a softening in his own keen ones. The hint of a laugh curved the corners of her lips as his smiled broadly. It was all the truce necessary. Charlotte"s sulks never lasted longer than Lanse"s impatience.
They laid aside their instruments and gathered round their father.
Graceful, brown-eyed Celia sat down beside him; Charlotte"s curly black hair mingled with his heavy iron-gray locks as she perched upon the arm of his chair, her scarlet flannel arm under his head. The youngest boy, Justin, threw himself flat on the hearth-rug, chin propped on elbow, watching the fire; sixteen-year-old Jeff helped himself to a low stool, clasping long arms about long legs as his knees approached his head in this posture; and the eldest son, pausing, drew up a chair and sat down to face the group.
"Now for it," he said. "It looks serious--a consultation of the whole.
Mayn"t we have mother to back us?"
"I"ve sent mother to bed," Mr. Birch explained. "She wanted to come down to hear you play, but I wouldn"t let her. And indeed there are moments--" He glanced quizzically at his eldest son.
"Yes, sir," Lansing responded, promptly. "There are moments when the furnace pipes convey up-stairs as much din as she can bear."
Mr. Birch sat looking thoughtfully into the fire for a minute or two.
He began at last, gently, "Celia--has mother seemed quite strong to you of late?"
"Mother--strong?" asked Celia, in surprise. "Why, father, isn"t she?
She--had that illness last winter, and was a long time getting about, but she has seemed well all summer."
Their eyes were all upon his face. Even young Justin had swung about upon his elbows and was regarding his father with attention. They waited, startled.
"I took her to Doctor Forester to-day, and he--surprised me a good deal.
He seemed to think that mother must not spend the coming winter in this climate. Don"t be alarmed; I don"t want to frighten you, but I want you to appreciate the necessity. He thinks that if mother were to have a year of rest and change we need have no fears for her."
"Fears!" repeated Lansing, under his breath. Was it possible that anything was the matter with mother? Why, she was the central sun about which their little family world moved! There could not--must not--be anything wrong with mother!
"Tell us plainly, father," urged Celia"s soft voice. She was pale, but she spoke quietly.
Charlotte, at the first word of alarm, had turned her face away. Jeff"s bright black eyes--he was Charlotte"s counterpart in colouring and looks--rested anxiously on the second violin"s curly mop of hair, tied at the neck with a big black bow of ribbon. It was always most expressive to Jeff, that bow of ribbon.
Lansing repeated Celia"s words. "Yes, tell us plainly, sir. We"d rather know."
"I am alarming you," Mr. Birch said, quickly. "I knew I could not say the slightest thing about her without doing that. But I need to talk it over with you all, because if we carry out the doctor"s prescription it means much sacrifice for every one. I had no doubt that you would make it, but I think it is better for you to understand its importance.
Doctor Forester says New Mexico is an almost certain cure for such trouble as mother"s, if taken early. And we are taking it early."
Justin and Jeff looked puzzled, but Celia caught her breath, and Lansing"s ruddy colour suddenly faded. Charlotte buried her head in her father"s shoulder and drew the scarlet flannel arm tighter about his neck.
The iron-gray head bent over the curly black one for a moment, as if the strong man of the household found it hard to face the anxious eyes which searched his, and would have liked, like his eighteen-year-old daughter, to run to cover. But in an instant, he looked up again and spoke in the cheery tone they knew so well.
"Now listen, and be brave," he said. "Mother"s trouble is like a house just set on fire. A dash of Water and a blanket--and it is out. Wait till a whole room is ablaze, and it"s a serious matter to stop it. Now, in our case, we"ve only the little kindling corner to smother, and the New Mexico air is water and blanket--a whole fire department, if need be. The doctor a.s.sures me that with mother"s good const.i.tution, and the absence of any hereditary predisposition to this sort of thing, we"ve only to give her the ten or twelve months of rest and reenforcement--the winter in New Mexico, the summer in Colorado--to nip the whole thing in the bud. I believe him, and you must believe him--and me. More than all, you must not show the slightest change of front to her. She knows it all, but she doesn"t want you to know. I think differently about that.
"Three of you are men and women now, and the other two," he smiled into the upturned, eager faces of Jeff and Justin, "are getting to be men.
Even my youngest can be depended upon to act the strong part."
Justin scrambled to his feet at that, and gravely laid a muscular boy"s hand in his father"s.
"I"ll stand by you, sir," he said.
n.o.body laughed. Charlotte"s black bow twitched and a queer sound burst from the shoulder where her head was buried. Jeff"s thick black lashes went down for a moment; Celia shook two bright drops from br.i.m.m.i.n.g eyes and patted Just"s st.u.r.dy shoulder. Mr. Birch shook the hand vigorously without speaking, and only Lansing found words to express what they felt.
"He speaks for us all, I know, sir. And now if you"ll tell us our part we"ll take hold. I think I know what it means. Trips to New Mexico, from New York, are expensive."
"They are very expensive," Mr. Birch replied, slowly. "I must go with her. We must travel in the least fatiguing fashion, which means state-rooms on trains and many extras by the way. She has kept up bravely, but this unusual exhaustion after one day in town shows me how careful I must be of her on the long journey. Then, once away, no expense must be spared to make the absence tell for all there is in it.
And most of all to be considered, while I am away there will be--no income."
They looked at each other now, Celia at Lansing, and Lansing at Jeff, and Jeff at both of them. Charlotte sat up suddenly, her cheeks and eyes burning, and stared hard at each in turn.