"I am not an amateur," replied Annie, laughing. "Music is my profession."
"I don"t understand," said Edith.
"Father has made me study music as a science," explained Annie.
"I could teach it to-morrow. All of us girls are to have a profession.
Ella, my eldest sister, is studying drawing and painting. Here is a portfolio of her sketches."
Even Edith"s unskilled eyes could see that she had made great proficiency.
"Ella could teach drawing and coloring at once," continued Annie, "for she has studied the rules and principles very carefully, and given great attention to the rudiments of art, instead of having a teacher help her paint a few show-pictures. But I know very little about it, for I haven"t much taste that way. Father has us educated according to our tastes; that is, if we show a little talent for any one thing, he has us try to perfect ourselves in that one thing. Julia is the linguist, and can jabber French and German like natives. Father also insisted on our being taught the common English branches very thoroughly, and he says he could get us situations to teach within a month, if it were necessary."
Edith sighed deeply as she thought how superficial their education had been, but she said rather slyly to Annie, "But you are engaged. I think your husband will veto the music-teaching."
"Oh, well," said Annie, laughing, "Walter may fail, or get sick, or something may happen. So you see we shouldn"t have to go to the poor-house. Besides, there"s a sort of satisfaction in knowing one thing pretty well. But the half is not told you, and I suppose you will think father and mother queer people; indeed, most of our friends do.
For mother has had a milliner come to the house, and a dressmaker, and a hair-dresser, and whatever we have any knack at she has made us learn well, some one thing, and some another. Wouldn"t I like to dress your long hair!" continued the light-hearted girl. "I would make you so bewitching that you would break a dozen hearts in one evening. Then mother has taught us how to cook, and to make bread and cake and preserves, and Ella and I have to take turns in keeping house, and marketing, and keeping account of the living expenses. The rest of the girls are at school yet. Mother says she is not going to palm off any frauds in her daughters when they get married; and if we only turn out half as good as she is, our husbands will be lucky men, if I do say it; and if all of us don"t get any, we can take care of ourselves.
Father has been holding you up as an example of what a girl can do, if she has to make her own way in the world."
And the sprightly, but sensible, girl would have rattled on indefinitely, had not Edith fled to her room in an uncontrollable rush of sorrow over the sad, sad, "It might have been."
One afternoon Annie came into Edith"s room, saying, "I am going to dress your hair. Yes, I will--now don"t say a word, I want to. We expect two or three friends in--one you"ll be glad to see. No, I won"t tell you who it is. It"s a surprise." And she flew at Edith"s head, pulled out the hairpins, and went to work with a dexterity and rapidity that did credit to her training. In a little while she had crowned Edith with nature"s most exquisite coronet.
A cloud of care seemed to rest on Mr. Hart"s brow as they entered the dining-room, but he banished it instantly, and with the quaint, stately gallantry of the old school, pretended to be deeply smitten with Edith"s loveliness. And so lovely she appeared that their eyes continually returned, and rested admiringly on her, till at last the blushing girl remonstrated:
"You all keep looking at me so that I feel as if I were the dessert, and you were going to eat me up pretty soon."
"I speak for the biggest bite," cried Mr. Hart, and they laughed at her and petted her so that she said:
"I feel as if I had known you all ten years."
But ever and anon, Edith saw traces of the cloud of care that she had noticed at first. And so did Mrs. Hart, for she said:
"You have been a little anxious about business lately. Is there anything new?"
"No," said Mr. Hart, who, in contrast to Mr. Allen, talked business to his family; "things are only growing a little worse. There have been one or two bad failures today. The worst of it all is, there seems a general lack of confidence. No one knows what is going to happen. One feels as if in a thunder-shower. The lightning may strike him, and it may fall somewhere else. But don"t worry, good mother, I am as safe as a man can be. I have a round million in my safe ready for an emergency."
The wife knew just where her husband stood that night.
At nine o"clock, Edith was talking earnestly with Mrs. Ranger, whom she had expressed a wish to see. There were a few other people present of the very highest social standing, and intimate friends of the family, for her kind entertainers would not expose her to any strange and unsympathetic eyes. Annie was flitting about, the very spirit of innocent mischief and match-making, gloating over the pleasure she expected to give Edith. The bell rang, and a moment later she marshalled in Gus Elliot, as handsome and exquisitely dressed as ever.
He was as much in the dark as to whom he should see as Edith. Some one had told Annie of his former devotedness to Edith, and so she innocently meant to do both a kindness. Having a slight acquaintance with Elliot, as a general society man, she invited him this evening to "meet an old friend." He gladly accepted, feeling it a great honor to visit at the Harts".
He saw Edith a moment before she observed him, and had time to note her exquisite beauty. But he turned pale with fear and anxiety in regard to his reception.
Then she raised her eyes and saw him. The blood rushed in a hot torrent to her face, and then left it in extreme pallor. Gus advanced with all the ease and grace that he could command under the circ.u.mstances, and held out his hand. "She cannot refer to the past here before them all," he thought.
But Edith rose slowly, and fixed her large eyes, that glowed like coals of fire, sternly upon him, and put her hand behind her back.
All held their breath in awe-struck expectation. She seemed to see only him and the past, and to forget all the rest.
"No, sir," she said, in a low, deep voice, that curdled Gus"s blood, "I cannot take your hand. I might in pity, if you were in the depths of poverty and trouble, as I have been, but not here and thus. Do you know where my sister is?"
"No," faltered Gus, his knees trembling under him.
"She is in Bellevue Hospital. A poor girl was carried thence to Potter"s Field a day or two since. She might have been if I had not found her. And," continued Edith, with her face darkening like night, and her tone deepening till it sent a thrill of dread to the hearts of all present, "_in_ Potter"s Field _I_ might now have been if I had listened to you."
Gus trembled before her in a way that plainly confirmed her words.
With a grand dignity she turned to Mrs. Hart, saying, "Please excuse my absence; I cannot breathe the same air with him," and she was about to sweep from the parlor like an incensed G.o.ddess, when Mr. Hart sprang up, his eyes blazing with anger, and putting his arm around Edith, said, sternly:
"I would shield this dear girl as my own daughter. Leave this house, and never cross my threshold again."
Gus slunk away without a word. As the guilty will be at last, he was "speechless." So, in a moment, when least expecting it, he fell from his heaven, which was society: for the news of his baseness spread like wildfire, and within a week every respectable door was closed against him.
Is it cynical to say that the well-known and widely-honored Mr. Hart, in closing his door, had influence as well as Gus"s sin, in leading some to close theirs? Motives in society are a little mixed, sometimes.
Mr. Hart went down town the next morning, a little anxious, it is true, on general principles, but not in the least apprehensive of any disaster. "I may have to pay out a few hundred thousand," he thought, "but that won"t trouble me."
But the bolt of financial suspicion was directed toward him; how, he could not tell. Within half an hour after opening, checks for twelve hundred thousand were presented at his counter. He telegraphed to his wife, "A run upon me." Later, "Danger!" Then came the words to the uptown palace, "Have suspended!" In the afternoon, "The storm will sweep me bare, but courage, G.o.d, and our right hands, will make a place and a way for us."
The business community sympathized deeply with Mr. Hart. Hard, cool men of Wall Street came in, and, with eyes moist with sympathy, wrung his hand. He stood up through the wild tumult, calm, dignified, heroic, because conscious of rect.i.tude.
"The shrinkage in securities will be great, I fear," he said, "but I think my a.s.sets will cover all liabilities. We will give up everything."
When he came up home in the evening, he looked worn, and much older than in the morning, but his wife and daughters seemed to envelop him in an atmosphere of love and sympathy. They were so strong, cheerful, hopeful, that they infused their courage into him. Annie ran to the piano, and played as if inspired, saying to her father:
"Let every note tell you that we can take care of ourselves, and you and mother too, if necessary."
The words were prophetic. The strain had been too great on Mr. Hart.
That night he had a stroke of paralysis and became helpless. But he had trained his daughters to be the very reverse of helpless, and they did take care of him with the most devoted love and skilled practical energy, making the weak, brief remnant of his life not a burden, but a peaceful evening after a glorious day. They all, except the youngest, soon found employment, for they brought superior skill and knowledge to the labor market, and such are ever in demand. Annie soon married happily, and her younger sisters eventually followed her example. But Ella, the eldest, remained single; and, though she never became eminent as an artist, did become a very useful and respected teacher of art, as studied in our schools for its refining influence.
To return to Edith, she felt for her kind friends almost as much as if she were one of the family.
"Do not feel that you must go away because of what has happened," said Mrs. Hart. "I am glad to have you with us, for you do us all good.
Indeed, you seem one of us. Stay as long as you can, dear, and G.o.d help us both to bear our burdens."
"Dear, "heavy-laden" Mrs. Hart," said Edith, "Jesus will bear the burdens for us, if we will let Him."
"Bless you, child, I am sure He sent you to me."
As Edith entered the ward that day, the attendant said, "She"s herself, miss, at last."
Edith stole noiselessly to Zell"s cot. She was sleeping. Edith sat down silently and watched for her waking. At last she opened her eyes and glanced fearfully around. Then she saw Edith, and instantly shrank and cowered as if expecting a blow.
"Zell," said Edith, taking the poor, thin hand, "Oh, Zell, don"t you know me?"
"What are you going to do with me?" asked Zell, in a voice full of dread.
"Take you to my home--take you to my heart--take you deeper into my love than ever before."