Day after day, at that same hour, Sibyl Andres came singing through the orange grove, to stand in the golden sunlight among the roses, with hands outstretched in greeting. Every day, Aaron King waited her coming–sitting before his easel, palette and brush in hand. Each day, he worked as he had worked that first day–with no thought for anything save for his picture.
In the mornings, he walked with Conrad Lagrange or, sometimes, worked with Sibyl in the garden. Often, in the evening, the two men would visit the little house next door. Occasionally, the girl and the woman with the disfigured face would come to sit for a while on the front porch with their friends. Thus the neighborly friendship that began in the hills was continued in the orange groves. The comradeship between the two young people grew stronger, hour by hour, as the painter worked at his easel to express with canvas and color and brush the spirit of the girl whose character and life was so unmarred by the world.
A11 through those days, when he was so absorbed in his work that he often failed to reply when she spoke to him, the girl manifested a helpful understanding of his mood that caused the painter to marvel. She seemed to know, instinctively, when he was baffled or perplexed by the annoying devils of “can’t-get-at-it,” that so delight to torment artist folk; just as she knew and rejoiced when the imps were routed and the soul of the man exulted with the sureness and freedom of his hand. He asked her, once, when they had finished for the day, how it was that she knew so well how the work was progressing, when she could not see the picture.
She laughed merrily. “But I can see _you_; and I”–she hesitated with that trick, that he was learning to know so well, of searching for a word–“I just _feel_ what you are feeling. I suppose it’s because my music is that way. Sometimes, it simply won’t come right, at all, and I feel as though I never _could_ do it. Then, again, it seems to do itself; and I listen and wonder–just as if I had nothing to do with it.”
So that day came when the artist, drawing slowly back from his easel, stood so long gazing at his picture without touching it that the girl called to him, “What’s the matter? Won’t it come right?”
Slowly he laid aside his palette and brushes. Standing at the open window, he looked at her–smiling but silent–as she held the pose.
For an instant, she did not understand. “Am I not right?” she asked anxiously. Then, before he could answer–“Oh, have you finished? Is it all done?”
Still smiling, he answered almost sadly, “I have done all that I can do. Come.”
A moment later, she stood in the studio door.
Seeing her hesitate, he said again, “Come.”
“I–I am afraid to look,” she faltered.
He laughed. “Really I don’t think it’s quite so bad as that.”
“Oh, but I don’t mean that I’m afraid it’s bad–it isn’t.”
The painter watched her,–a queer expression on his face,–as he returned curiously, “And how, pray tell, do you know it isn’t bad–when you have never seen it? It’s quite the thing, I’ll admit, for critics to praise or condemn without much knowledge of the work; but I didn’t expect you to be so modern.”
“You are making fun of me,” she laughed. “But I don’t care. I know your work is good, because I know how and why you did it. You painted it just as you painted the spring glade, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” he said soberly, “I did. But why are you afraid?”
“Why, that’s the reason. I–I’m afraid to see myself as you see me.”
The man’s voice was gentle with feeling as he answered seriously, “Miss Andres, you, of all the people I have ever known, have the least cause to fear to look at your portrait for _that_ reason. Come.”
Slowly, she went forward to stand by his side before the picture.
For some time, she looked at the beautiful work into which Aaron King had put the best of himself and of his genius. At last, turning full upon him, her eyes blue and shining, she said in a low tone, “O Mr. King, it is too–too–beautiful! It is so beautiful it–it–hurts. She seems to, to”–she searched for the word–“to belong to the roses, doesn’t she? It makes you feel just as the rose garden makes you feel.”
He laughed with pleasure, “What a child of nature you are! You have forgotten that it is a portrait of yourself, haven’t you?”
She laughed with him. “I _had_ forgotten. It’s so lovely!” Then she added wistfully, “Am I–am I really like that?–just a little?”
“No,” he answered. “But that is just a little, a very little, like you.”
She looked at him half doubtfully–sincerely unmindful of the compliment, in her consideration of its truth. Shaking her head, with a serious smile, she returned slowly, “I wish that I could be sure you are not mistaken.”
“You will permit me to exhibit the picture, will you?” he asked.
“Why, yes! of course! You made it for people to see, didn’t you? I don’t believe any one could look at it seriously without having good thoughts, could they?”
“I’m sure they could not,” he answered. “But, you see, it’s a portrait of you; and I thought you might not care for the–ah–” he finished with a smile–“shall I say fame?”
“Oh! I did not think that you would tell any one that _I_ had anything to do with it. Is it necessary that my name should be mentioned?”
“Not exactly necessary”–he admitted–“but few women, these days, would miss the opportunity.”
She shook her head, with a positive air. “No, no; you must exhibit it as a picture; not as a portrait of me. The portrait part is of no importance. It is what you have made your picture say, that will do good.”
“And what have I made it say?” he asked, curiously pleased.
“Why it says that–that a woman should be beautiful as the roses are beautiful–without thinking too much about it, you know–just as a man should be strong without thinking too much about his strength, I mean.”
“Yes,” he agreed, “it says that. But I want you to know that, whatever title it is exhibited under, it will always be, to me, a portrait–the truest I have ever painted.”
She flushed with genuine pleasure as she said brightly, “I like you for that. And now let’s try it on Conrad Lagrange and Myra Willard. You get him, and I’ll run and bring her. Mind you don’t let Mr. Lagrange in until I get back! I want to watch him when he first sees it.”
When the artist found Conrad Lagrange and told him that the picture was finished, the novelist, without comment, turned his attention to Czar.
The painter, with an amused smile, asked, “Won’t you come for a look at it, old man?”
The other returned gruffly, “Thanks; but I don’t think I care to risk it.”
The artist laughed. “But Miss Andres wants you to come. She sent me to fetch you.”
Conrad Lagrange turned his peculiar, baffling eyes upon the young man. “Does _she_ like it?”
“She seems to.”
“If she _seems_ to, she does,” retorted the other, rising. “And that’s different.”
When the novelist, with his three friends, stood before the easel, he was silent for so long that the girl said anxiously, “I–I thought you would like it, Mr. Lagrange.”
They saw the strange man’s eyes fill with tears as he answered, in the gentle tones that always marked his words to her, “Like it? My dear child, how could I help liking it? It is you–you!” To the artist, he added, “It is great work, my boy, great! I–I wish your mother could have seen it. It is like her–as I knew her. You have done well.” He turned, with gentle courtesy, to Myra Willard; “And you? What is your verdict, Miss Willard?”
With her arm around the beautiful original of the portrait, the woman with the disfigured face answered, “I think, sir, that I, better than any one in all the world, know how good, how true, it is.”
Conrad Lagrange spoke again to the artist, inquiringly; “You will exhibit it?”
“Miss Andres says that I may–but not as a portrait.”
The novelist could not conceal his pleasure at the answer. Presently, he said, “If it is not to be shown as a portrait, may I suggest a title?”
“I was hoping you would!” exclaimed the painter.
“And so was I,” cried Sibyl, with delight. “What is it, Mr. Lagrange?”
“Let it be exhibited as ‘The Spirit of Nature–A Portrait’,” answered Conrad Lagrange.
As the novelist finished speaking, Yee Kee appeared in the doorway. “They come–big automobile. Whole lot people. Misse Taine, Miste’ Lutlidge, sick man, whole lot–I come tell you.”
The artist spoke quickly,–“Stop them in the house, Kee; I’ll be right in,”–and the Chinaman vanished.
At Yee Kee’s announcement, Myra Willard’s face went white, and she gave a low cry.
“Never mind, dear,” said the girl, soothingly. “We can slip away through the garden–come.”
When Sibyl and the woman with the disfigured face were gone, Conrad Lagrange and Aaron King looked at each other, questioningly.
Then the novelist said harshly,–pointing to the picture on the easel,–“You’re not going to let that flock of buzzards feed on this, are you? I’ll murder some one, sure as hell, if you do.”
“I don’t think I could stand it, myself,” said the artist, laughing grimly, as he drew the velvet curtain to hide the portrait.
Chapter XXVII
The Answer
When Aaron King and Conrad Lagrange entered the house to meet their callers from Fairlands Heights, the artist felt, oddly, that he was meeting a company of strangers.
The carefully hidden, yet–to him–subtly revealed, warmth of Mrs. Taine’s greeting embarrassed him with a momentary sense of shame. The frothing gush of Louise’s inane ejaculations, and the coughing, choking, cursing of Mr. Taine,–whose feeble grip upon the flesh that had so betrayed him was, by now, so far loosed that he could scarcely walk alone,–set the painter struggling for words that would mean nothing–the only words that, under the circumstances, could serve. Aaron King was somewhat out of practise in the use of meaningless words, and the art of talking without saying anything is an art that requires constant exercise if one would not commit serious technical blunders. James Rutlidge’s greeting was insolently familiar; as a man of certain mind greets–in public–a boon companion of his private and unmentionable adventures. Toward the great critic, the painter exercised a cool self-restraint that was at least commendable.
While Aaron King, with James Rutlidge and Mr. Taine, with carefully assumed interest, was listening to Louise’s effort to make a jumble of “ohs” and “ahs” and artistic sighs sound like a description of a sunset in the mountains, Mrs. Taine said quietly to Conrad Lagrange, “You certainly have taken excellent care of your protege, this summer. He looks splendidly fit.”
The novelist, watching the woman whose eyes, as she spoke, were upon the artist, answered, “You are pleased to flatter me, Mrs. Taine.”
She turned to him, with a knowing smile. “Perhaps I _am_ giving you more credit than is due. I understand Mr. King has not been in your care altogether. Shame on you, Mr. Lagrange! for a man of your age and experience to permit your charge to roam all over the country, alone and unprotected, with a picturesque mountain girl!–and that, after your warning to poor me!”
Conrad Lagrange smiled grimly. “I confess I thought of you in that connection several times.”
She eyed him doubtfully. “Oh, well,” she said easily, “I suppose artists must amuse themselves, occasionally–the same as the rest of us.”
“I don’t think that, ‘_amuse_’ is exactly the word, Mrs. Taine,” the other returned coldly.
“No? Surely you don’t meant to tell me that it is anything serious?”
“I don’t mean to tell you anything about it,” he retorted rather sharply.
She laughed. “You don’t need to. Jim has already told me quite enough. Mr. King, himself, will tell me more.”
“Not unless he’s a bigger fool than I think,” growled the novelist.
Again, she laughed into his face, mockingly. “You men are all more or less foolish when there’s a woman in the case, aren’t you?”
To which, the other answered tartly, “If we were not, there would be no woman in the case.”
As Conrad Lagrange spoke, Louise, exhausted by her efforts to achieve that sunset in the mountains with her limited supply of adjectives, floundered hopelessly into the expressive silence of clasped hands and heaving breast and ecstatically upturned eyes. The artist, seizing the opportunity with the cunning of desperation, turned to Mrs. Taine, with some inane remark about the summers in California.
Whatever it was that he said, Mrs. Taine agreed with him, heartily, adding, “And you, I suppose, have been making good use of your time? Or have you been simply storing up material and energy for this winter?”
This brought Louise out of the depths of that sunset, with a flop. She was so sure that Mr. King had some inexpressibly wonderful work to show them. Couldn’t they go at once to the equally inexpressibly beautiful studio, to see the inexpressibly lovely pictures that she was so inexpressibly sure he had been painting in the inexpressibly grand and beautiful and wonderfully lovely mountains?
The painter assured them that he had no work for them to see; and Louise floundered again into the depths of inexpressible disappointment and despair.
Nevertheless, a few minutes later, Aaron King found himself in his studio, alone with Mrs. Taine. He could not have told exactly how she managed it, or why. Perhaps, in sheer pity, she had rescued him from the floods of Louise’s appreciation. Perhaps–she had some other reasons. There had been something said about her right to see her own picture, and then–there they were–with the others safely barred from intruding upon the premises sacred to art.
When there was no longer need to fear the eyes of the world, Mrs. Taine was at no pains to hide the warmth of her feeling. With little reserve, she confessed herself in every look and tone and movement.
“Are you really glad to see me, I wonder,” she said invitingly. “All this summer, while I have been forced to endure the company of all sorts of stupid people, I have been thinking of you and your work. And, you see, I have come to you, the first possible moment after my return home.”
The man–being a man–could not remain wholly insensible to the alluring physical beauty of the splendid creature who stood so temptingly before him; but, to the honor of his kind, he could and did remain master of himself.
The woman, true to her life training,–as James Rutlidge had been true to his schooling when he approached Sibyl Andres in the mountains,–construed the artist’s manner, not as a splendid self-control but as a careful policy. To her, and to her kind, the great issues of life are governed, not at all by principle, but by policy. It is not at all what one is, or what one may accomplish that matters; it is wholly what one may skillfully _appear_ to be, and what one may skillfully provoke the world to say, that is of vital importance. Turning from the painter to the easel, as if to find in his portrait of her the fuller expression of that which she believed he dared not yet put into words, she was about to draw aside the curtain; when Aaron King checked her quickly, with a smile that robbed his words of any rudeness.
“Please don’t touch that, Mrs. Taine. I am not yet ready to show it.”
As she turned from the easel to face him, he took her portrait from where it rested, face to the wall; and placed it upon another easel, saying, “Here is your picture.”
With the painting before her, she talked eagerly of her plans for the artist’s future; how the picture was to be exhibited, and how, because it was her portrait, it would be praised and talked about by her friends who were leaders in the art circles. Frankly, she spoke of “pull” and “influence” and “scheme”; of “working” this and that “paper” for “write-ups”; of “handling” this or that “critic” and “writer”; of “reaching the committees”; of introducing the painter into the proper inside cliques, and clans; and of clever “advertising stunts” that would make him the most popular portrait painter of his day; insuring thus his–as she called it–fame.
The man who had painted the picture of the spring glade, and who had so faithfully portrayed the truth and beauty of Sibyl Andres as she stood among the roses, listened to this woman’s plans for making his portrait of herself famous, with a feeling of embarrassment and shame.
“Do you really think that the work merits such prominence as you say will be given it?” he asked doubtfully.
She laughed knowingly, “Just wait until Jim Rutlidge’s ‘write-up’ appears, and all the others follow his lead, and you’ll see! The picture is clever enough–you know it as well as I. It is beautiful. It has everything that we women want in a portrait. I really don’t know much about what you painters call art; but I know that when Jim and our friends get through with it, your picture will have every mark of a great masterpiece, and that you will be on the topmost wave of success.”
“And then what?” he asked.
Again, she interpreted his words in the light of her own thoughts, and with little attempt to veil the fire that burned in her eyes, answered, “And then–I hope that you will not forget me.”
For a moment he returned her look; then a feeling of disgust and shame for her swept over him, and he again turned away, to stand gazing moodily out of the window that looked into the rose garden.
“You seem to be disturbed and worried,” she said, in a tone that implied a complete understanding of his mood, and a tacit acceptance of the things that he would say if it were not for the world.
He laughed shortly–“I fear you will think me ungrateful for your kindness. Believe me, I am not.”
“I know you are not,” she returned. “But don’t think that you had better confess, just the same?”
He answered wonderingly, “Confess?”
“Yes.” She shook her finger at him, in playful severity. “Oh, I know what you have been up to all summer–running wild with your mountain girl! Really, you ought to be more discreet.”
Aaron King’s face burned as he stammered something about not knowing what she meant.
She laughed gaily. “There, there, never mind–I forgive you–now that you are safely back in civilization again. I know you artists, and how you must have your periods of ah–relaxation–with rather more liberties than the common herd. Just so you are careful that the world doesn’t know _too_ much.”
At this frank revelation of her mind, the man stood amazed. For the construction she put upon his relation with the girl whose pure and gentle comradeship had led him to greater heights in his art than he had ever before attained, he could have driven this woman from the studio he felt that she profaned. But what could he say? He remembered Conrad Lagrange’s counsel when James Rutlidge had seen the girl at their camp. What could he say that would not injure Sibyl Andres? To cover his embarrassment, he forced a laugh and answered lightly, “Really, I am not good at confessions.”
“Nor I at playing the part of confessor,” she laughed with him. “But, just the same, you might tell me what you think of yourself. Aren’t you just a little ashamed?”
The artist had moved to a position in front of her portrait; and, as he looked upon the painted lie, his answer came. “Rather let me tell you what I think of _you_, Mrs. Taine. And let me tell you in the language I know best. Let me put my answer to your charges here,” he touched her portrait.
Almost, his reply was worthy of Conrad Lagrange, himself.
“I don’t quite understand,” she said, a trifle put out by the turn his answer had taken.
“I mean,” he explained eagerly, “that I want to repaint your portrait. You remember, I wrote, when I returned Mr. Taine’s generous check, that I was not altogether satisfied with it. Give me another chance.”
“You mean for me to come here again, to pose for you?–as I did before?”
“Yes,” he answered, “just as you did before. I want to make a portrait worthy of you, as this is not. Let me tell you, on the canvas, what I cannot–” he hesitated then said deliberately–“what I _dare_ not put into words.”
The woman received his words as a veiled declaration of a passion he dared not, yet, openly express. She thought his request a clever ruse to renew their meetings in the privacy of his studio, and was, accordingly delighted.
“Oh, that will be wonderful!–heavenly!” she cried, springing to her feet. “Can we begin at once? May I come to-morrow?”
“Yes,” he answered, “come to-morrow.”
“And may I wear the Quaker gown?”
“Yes, indeed! I want you just as you were before–the same dress, the same pose. It is to be the same picture, you understand, only a better one–one more worthy of us, both. And now,” he continued hurriedly “don’t you think that we should return to the house?”
“I suppose so,” she answered regretfully–lingering.
The artist was already opening the door.
As they passed out, she placed her hand on his arm, and looked up into his face admiringly. “What a clever, clever man you are, to think of it! And what a story it will make for the papers–when my picture is shown–how you were not satisfied with the portrait and refused to let it go–and how, after keeping it in your studio for months, you repainted it, to satisfy your artistic conscience!”
Aaron King smiled.
The announcement in the house that the artist was to repaint Mrs. Taine’s picture, provoked characteristic comment. Louise effervesced a frothy stream of bubbling exclamations. James Rutlidge gave a hearty, “By Jove, old man, you have nerve! If you can really improve on that canvas, you are a wonder.” And Mr. Taine, under the watchful eye of his beautiful wife, responded with a husky whisper, “Quite right–my boy–quite right! Certainly–by all means–if you feel that way about it–” his consent and approval ending in a paroxysm of coughing that left him weak and breathless, and nearly eliminated him from the question, altogether.
When the Fairlands Heights party had departed, Conrad Lagrange looked the artist up and down.
“Well,”–he growled harshly, in his most brutal tones,–“what is it? Is the dog returning to his vomit?–or is the prodigal turning his back on his hogs and his husks?”
Aaron King smiled as he answered, “I think, rather, it’s the case of the blind beggar who sat by the roadside, helpless, until a certain Great Physician passed that way.”
And Conrad Lagrange understood.
Chapter XXVIII
You’re Ruined, My Boy
It was no light task to which Aaron King had set his hand. He did not doubt what it would cost him. Nor did Conrad Lagrange, as they talked together that evening, fail to point out clearly what it would mean to the artist, at the very beginning of his career, to fly thus rudely in the face of the providence that had chosen to serve him. The world’s history of art and letters affords too many examples of men who, because they refused to pay court to the ruling cliques and circles of their little day, had seen the doors of recognition slammed in their faces; and who, even as they wrought their great works, had been forced to hear, as they toiled, the discordant yelpings of the self-appointed watchdogs of the halls of fame. Nor did the artist question the final outcome,–if only his work should be found worthy to endure,–for the world’s history establishes, also, the truth–that he who labors for a higher wage than an approving paragraph in the daily paper, may, in spite of the condemnation of the pretending rulers, live in the life of his race, long after the names to which he refused to bow are lost in the dust of their self-raised thrones.
The painter was driven to his course by that self-respect, without which, no man can sanely endure his own company; together with that reverence–I say it deliberately–that reverence for his art, without which, no worthy work is possible. He had come to understand that one may not prostitute his genius to the immoral purposes of a diseased age, without reaping a prostitute’s reward. The hideous ruin that Mr. Taine had, in himself, wrought by the criminal dissipation of his manhood’s strength, and by the debasing of his physical appetites and passions, was to Aaron King, now, a token of the intellectual, spiritual, and moral ruin that alone can result from a debased and depraved dissipation of an artist’s creative power. He saw clearly, now, that the influence his work must wield upon the lives of those who came within its reach, must be identical with the influence of Sibyl Andres, who had so unconsciously opened his eyes to the true mission and glory of the arts, and thus had made his decision possible. In that hour when Mrs. Taine had revealed herself to him so clearly, following as it did so closely his days of work and the final completion of his portrait of the girl among the roses, he saw and felt the woman, not as one who could help him to the poor rewards of a temporary popularity, but as the spirit of an age that threatens the very life of art by seeking to destroy the vital truth and purpose of its existence. He felt that in painting the portrait of Mrs. Taine–as he had painted it–he had betrayed a trust; as truly as had his father who, for purely personal aggrandizement, had stolen the material wealth intrusted to him by his fellows. The young man understood, now, that, instead of fulfilling the purpose of his mother’s sacrifice, and realizing for her her dying wish, as he had promised; the course he had entered upon would have thwarted the one and denied the other.
The young man had answered the novelist truly, that it was a case of the blind beggar by the wayside. He might have carried the figure farther; for that same blind beggar, when his eyes had been opened, was persecuted by the very ones who had fed him in his infirmity. It is easier, sometimes, to receive blindly, than to give with eyes that see too clearly.
When Mrs. Taine went to the artist, in the studio, the next day, she found him in the act of re-tying the package of his mother’s letters. For nearly an hour, he had been reading them. For nearly an hour before that, he had been seated, motionless, before the picture that Conrad Lagrange had said was a portrait of the Spirit of Nature.
When Mrs. Taine had slipped off her wrap, and stood before him gowned in the dress that so revealed the fleshly charms it pretended to hide, she indicated the letters in the artist’s hands, with an insinuating laugh; while there was a glint of more than passing curiosity in her eyes. “Dear me,” she said, “I hope I am not intruding upon the claims of some absent affinity.”
Aaron King gravely held out his hand with the package of letters, saying quietly, “They are from my mother.”
And the woman had sufficient grace to blush, for once, with unfeigned shame.
When he had received her apologies, and, putting aside the letters, had succeeded in making her forget the incident, he said, “And now, if you are ready, shall we begin?”
For some time the painter stood before the picture on his easel, without touching palette or brush, studying the face of the woman who posed for him. By a slight movement of her eyes, without turning her head, she could look him fairly in the face. Presently as he continued to gaze at her so intently, she laughed; and, with a little shrug of her shoulders and a pretense as of being cold, said, “When you look at me that way, I feel as though you had surprised me at my bath.”
The artist turned his attention instantly to his color-box. While setting his palette, with his eyes upon his task, he said deliberately, “‘Venus Surprised at the Bath.’ Do you know that you would make a lovely Venus?”
With a low laugh, she returned, daringly. “Would you care to paint me as the Goddess of Love?”
He, still, did not look at her; but answered, while, with deliberate care, he selected a few brushes from the Chinese jar near the easel, “Venus is always a very popular subject, you know.”
She did not speak for a moment or two; and the painter felt her watching him. As he turned to his canvas–still careful not to look in her direction–she said, suggestively, “I suppose you could change the face so that no one would know it was I who posed.”
The man remembered her carefully acquired reputation for modesty, but held to his purpose, saying, as if considering the question seriously, “Oh, as for that part; it could be managed with perfect safety.” Then, suddenly, he turned his eyes upon her face, with a gaze so sharp and piercing that the blood slowly colored neck and cheek.
But the painter did not wait for the blush. He had seen what he wanted and was at work–with the almost savage intensity that had marked his manner while he had worked upon the portrait of Sibyl Andres.
And so, day after day, as he painted, again, the portrait of the woman who Conrad Lagrange fancifully called “The Age,” the artist permitted her to betray her real self–the self that was so commonly hidden from the world, under the mask of a pretended culture, and the cloak of a fraudulent refinement. He led her to talk of the world in which she lived–of the scandals and intrigues among those of her class who hold such enviable positions in life. He drew from her the philosophies and beliefs and religions of her kind. He encouraged her to talk of art–to give her understanding of the world of artists as she knew it, and to express her real opinions and tastes in pictures and books. He persuaded her to throw boldly aside the glittering, tinsel garb in which she walked before the world, and so to stand before him in all the hideous vulgarity, the intellectual poverty and the moral depravity of her naked self.
At times, when, under his intense gaze, she drew the cloak of her pretenses hurriedly about her, he sat before his picture without touching the canvas, waiting; or, perhaps, he paced the floor; until, with skillful words, her fears were banished and she was again herself. Then, with quick eye and sure, ready hand, he wrought into the portrait upon the easel–so far as the power was given him–all that he saw in the face of the woman who–posing for him, secure in the belief that he was painting a lie–revealed her true nature, warped and distorted as it was by an age that, demanding realism in art, knows not what it demands. Always, when the sitting was finished, he drew the curtain to hide the picture; forbidding her to look at it until he said that it was finished.
Much of the time, when he was not in the studio at work, the painter spent with Mrs. Taine and her friends, in the big touring car, and at the house on Fairlands Heights. But the artist did not, now, enter into the life of Fairlands’ Pride for gain or for pleasure–he went for study–as a physician goes into the dissecting room. He justified himself by the old and familiar argument that it was for his art’s sake.
Sibyl Andres, he seldom saw, except occasionally, in the early morning, in the rose garden. The girl knew what he was doing–that is, she knew that he was painting a portrait of Mrs. Taine–and so, with Myra Willard, avoided the place. But Conrad Lagrange now, made the neighboring house in the orange grove his place of refuge from Louise Taine, who always accompanied Mrs. Taine,–lest the world should talk,–but who never went as far as the studio.
But often, as he worked, the artist heard the music of the mountain girl’s violin; and he knew that she, in her own beautiful way, was trying to help him–as she would have said–to put the mountains into his work. Many times, he was conscious of the feeling that some one was watching him. Once, pausing at the garden end of the studio as he paced to and fro, he caught a glimpse of her as she slipped through the gate in the Ragged Robin hedge. And once, in the morning, after one of those afternoons when he had gone away with Mrs. Taine at the conclusion of the sitting, he found a note pinned to the velvet curtain that hid the canvas on his working easel. It was a quaint little missive; written in one of the girl’s fanciful moods, with a reference to “Blue Beard,” and the assurance that she had been strong and had not looked at the forbidden picture.
As the work progressed, Mrs. Taine remarked, often, how the artist was changed. When painting that first picture, he had been so sure of himself. Working with careless ease, he had been suave and pleasant in his manner, with ready smile or laugh. Why, she questioned, was he, now, so grave and serious? Why did he pause so often, to sit staring at his canvas, or to pace the floor? Why did he seem to be so uncertain–to be questioning, searching, hesitating? The woman thought that she knew. Rejoicing in her fancied victory–all but won–she looked forward to the triumphant moment when this splendid man should be swept from his feet by the force of the passion she thought she saw him struggling to conceal. Meanwhile she tempted him by all the wiles she knew–inviting him with eyes and lips and graceful pose and meaning gesture.
And Aaron King, with clear, untroubled eye seeing all; with cool brain understanding all; with steady, skillful hand, ruled supremely by his purpose, painted that which he saw and understood into his portrait of her.
So they came to the last sitting. On the following evening, Mrs. Taine was giving a dinner at the house on Fairlands Heights, at which the artist was to meet some people who would be–as she said–useful to him. Eastern people they were; from the accredited center of art and literature; members of the inner circle of the elect. They happened to be spending the season on the Coast, and she had taken advantage of the opportunity to advance the painter’s interests. It was very fortunate that her portrait was to be finished in time for them to see it.
The artist was sorry, he said, but, while it would not be necessary for her to come to the studio again, the picture was not yet finished, and he could not permit its being exhibited until he was ready to sign the canvas.
“But I may see it?” she asked, as he laid aside his palette and brushes, and announced that he was through.
With a quick hand, he drew the curtain. “Not yet; please–not until I am ready.”
“Oh!” she cried with a charming air of submitting to one whose wish is law, “How mean of you! I know it is splendid! Are you satisfied? Is it better than the other? Is it like me?”
“I am sure that it is much better than the other,” he replied. “It is as like you as I can make it.”
“And is it as beautiful as the other?”
“It is beautiful–as you are beautiful,” he answered.
“I shall tell them all about it, to-morrow night–even if I haven’t seen it. And so will Jim Rutlidge.”
Aaron King and Conrad Lagrange spent that evening at the little house next door. The next morning, the artist shut himself up in his studio. At lunch time, he would not come out. Late in the afternoon, the novelist went, again, to knock at the door.
The artist called in a voice that rang with triumph, “Come in, old man, come in and help me celebrate.”
Entering, Conrad Lagrange found him; sitting, pale and worn, before his picture–his palette and brushes still in his hand.
And such a picture!
A moment, the novelist who knew–as few men know–the world that was revealed with such fidelity in that face upon the canvas, looked; then, with weird and wonderful oaths of delight, he caught the tired artist and whirled him around the studio, in a triumphant dance.
“You’ve done it! man–you’ve done it! It’s all there; every rotten, stinking shred of it! Wow! but it’s good–so damned good that it’s almost inhuman. I knew you had it in you. I knew it was in you, all the time–if only you could come alive. God, man! if _that_ could only be exhibited alongside the other! Look here!”
He dragged the easel that held Sibyl Andres’ portrait to a place beside the one upon which the canvas just finished rested, and drew back the curtain. The effect was startling.
“‘The Spirit of Nature’ and ‘The Spirit of the Age’,” said Conrad Lagrange, in a low tone.
“But you’re ruined, my boy,” he added gleefully. “You’re ruined. These canvases will never be exhibited Her own, she’ll smash when she sees it; and you’ll be artistically damned by the very gods she has invoked to bless you with fame and wealth. Lord, but I envy you! You have your chance now–a real chance to be worthy your mother’s sacrifice.
“Come on, let’s get ready for the feast.”
Chapter XXIX
The Hand Writing on the Wall
It was November. Nearly a year had passed since that day when the young man on the Golden State Limited–with the inheritance he had received from his mother’s dying lips, and with his solemn promise to her still fresh in his mind–looked into the eyes of the woman on the platform of the observation car. That same day, too, he first saw the woman with the disfigured face, and, for the first time, met the famous Conrad Lagrange.
Aaron King was thinking of these things as he set out, that evening, with his friend, for the home of Mrs. Taine. He remarked to the novelist that the time seemed, to him, many years.
“To me, Aaron,” answered the strange man, “it has been the happiest and–if you would not misunderstand me–the most satisfying year of my life. And this”–he added, his deep voice betraying his emotion–“this has been the happiest day of the year. It is your independence day. I shall always celebrate it as such–I–I have no independence day of my own to celebrate, you know.”
Aaron King did not misunderstand.
As the two men approached the big house on Fairlands Heights, they saw that modern palace, from concrete foundation to red-tiled roof, ablaze with many lights. Situated upon the very topmost of the socially graded levels of Fairlands, it outshone them all; and, quite likely, the glittering display was mistaken by many dwellers in the valley below for a new constellation of the heavenly bodies. Quite likely, too, some lonely dweller, high up among the distant mountain peaks, looked down upon the sparkling bauble that lay for the moment, as it were, on the wide lap of the night, and smiled in quiet amusement that the earth children should attach such value to so fragile a toy.
As they passed the massive, stone pillars of the entrance to the grounds, Conrad Lagrange said, “Really, Aaron, don’t you feel a little ashamed of yourself?–coming here to-night, after the outrageous return you have made for the generous hospitality of these people? You know that if Mrs. Taine had seen what you have done to her portrait, you could force the pearly gates easier than you could break in here.”
The artist laughed. “To tell the truth, I don’t feel exactly at home. But what the deuce can I do? After my intimacy with them, all these months, I can’t assume that they are going to make my picture a reason for refusing to recognize me, can I? As I see it, they, not I, must take the initiative. I can’t say: ‘Well, I’ve told the truth about you, so throw me out’.”
The novelist grinned. “Thus it is when ‘Art’ becomes entangled with the family of ‘Materialism.’ It’s hard to break away from the flesh-pots–even when you know you are on the road to the Promised Land. But don’t worry–‘The Age’ will take the initiative fast enough when she sees your portrait of her. Wow! In the meantime, let’s play their game to-night, and take what spoils the gods may send. There will be material here for pictures and stories a plenty.” As they went up the wide steps and under the portal into the glare of the lights, and caught the sound of the voices within, he added under his breath, “Lord, man, but ’tis a pretty show!–if only things were called by their right names. That old Babylonian, Belshazzar, had nothing on us moderns after all, did he? Watch out for the writing upon the wall.”
When Aaron King and his companion entered the spacious rooms where the pride of Fairlands Heights and the eastern lions were assembled, a buzz of comment went round the glittering company. Aside from the fact that Mrs. Taine, with practised skill, had prepared the way for her protege, by subtly stimulating the curiosity of her guests–the appearance of the two men, alone, would have attracted their attention The artist, with his strong, splendidly proportioned, athletic body, and his handsome, clean-cut intellectual face–calmly sure of himself–with the air of one who knows that his veins are rich with the wealth of many generations of true culture and refinement; and the novelist–easily the most famous of his day–tall, emaciated, grotesquely stooped–with his homely face seamed and lined, world-worn and old, and his sharp eyes peering from under his craggy brows with that analyzing, cynical, half-pathetic half-humorous expression–certainly presented a contrast too striking to escape notice.
For an instant, as comrades side by side upon a battle-field might do, they glanced over the scene. To the painter’s eye, the assembled guests appeared as a glittering, shimmering, scintillating, cloud-like mass that, never still, stirred within itself, in slow, graceful restless motions–forming always, without purpose new combinations and groupings that were broken up, even as they were shaped, to be reformed; with the black spots and splashes of the men’s conventional dress ever changing amid the brighter colors and textures of the women’s gowns; the warm flesh tints of bare white arms and shoulders, gleaming here and there; and the flash and sparkle of jewels, threading the sheen of silks and the filmy softness of laces. Into the artist’s mind–fresh from the tragic earnestness of his day’s work, and still under the enduring spell of his weeks in the mountains–flashed a sentence from a good old book; “For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
Then they were greeting, with conventional nothings their beautiful hostess; who, with a charming air of triumphant–but not too triumphant–proprietorship received them and passed them on, with a low spoken word to Aaron King; “I will take charge of you later.”
Conrad Lagrange, before they drifted apart, found opportunity to growl in his companion’s ear; “A near-great musician–an actress of divorce court fame–an art critic, boon companion of our friend Rutlidge–two free-lance yellow journalists–a poet–with leading culture-club women of various brands, and a mob of mere fashion and wealth. The pickings should be good. Look at ‘Materialism’, over there.”
In a wheeled chair, attended by a servant in livery, a little apart from the center of the scene,–as though the pageant of life was about to move on without him,–but still, with desperate grip, holding his place in the picture, sat the genius of it all–the millionaire. The creature’s wasted, skeleton-like limbs, were clothed grotesquely in conventional evening dress. His haggard, bestial face–repulsive with every mark of his wicked, licentious years–grinned with an insane determination to take the place that was his by right of his money bags; while his glazed and sunken eyes shone with fitful gleams, as he rallied the last of his vital forces, with a devilish defiance of the end that was so inevitably near.
As Aaron King, in the splendid strength of his inheritance, went to pay his respects to the master of the house, that poor product of our age was seized by a paroxysm of coughing, that shook him–gasping and choking–almost into unconsciousness. The ready attendant held out a glass of whisky, and he clutched the goblet with skinny hands that, in their trembling eagerness, rattled the crystal against his teeth. In the momentary respite afforded by the powerful stimulant, he lifted his yellow, claw-like hand to wipe the clammy beads of sweat that gathered upon his wrinkled, ape-like brow; and the painter saw, on one bony, talon-like finger, the gleaming flash of a magnificent diamond.
Mr. Taine greeted the artist with his husky whisper “Hello, old chap–glad to see you!” Peering into the laughing, chattering, glittering, throng he added, “Some beauties here to-night, heh? Gad! my boy, but I’ve seen the day I’d be out there among them! Ha, ha! Mrs. Taine, Louise, and Jim tried to shelve me–but I fooled ’em. Damn me, but I’m game for a good time yet! A little off my feed, and under the weather; but game, you understand, game as hell!” Then to the attendant–“Where’s that whisky?” And, again, his yellow, claw-like hand–with that beautiful diamond, a gleaming point of pure, white light–lifted the glass to his grinning lips.
When Mrs. Taine appeared to claim the artist, her husband–huddled in his chair, an unclean heap of all but decaying flesh–watched them go, with hidden, impotent rage.
A few moments later, as Mrs. Taine and her charge were leaving one group of celebrities in search of another they encountered Conrad Lagrange. “What’s this I see?” gibed the novelist, mockingly. “Is it ‘Art being led by Beauty to the Judges and Executioners’? or, is it ‘Beauty presenting an Artist to the Gods of Modern Art’?”
“You had better be helping a good cause instead of making fun, Mr. Lagrange,” the woman retorted. “You weren’t always so famous yourself that you could afford to be indifferent, you know.”
Aaron King laughed as his friend replied, “Never fear, madam, never fear–I shall be on hand to assist at the obsequies.”
In the shifting of the groups and figures, when dinner was announced, the young man found himself, again, within reach of Conrad Lagrange; and the novelist whispered, with a grin, “Now for the flesh-pots in earnest. You will be really out of place in the next act, Aaron. Only we artists who have sold our souls have a right to the price of our shame. _You_ should dine upon a crust, you know. A genius without his crust, huh! A devil without his tail, or an ass without his long ears!”
Most conspicuous in the brilliant throng assembled in that banquet hall, was the horrid figure of Mr. Taine who sat in his wheeled chair at the head of the table; his liveried attendant by his side. Frequently–as though compelled–eyes were turned toward that master of the feast, who was, himself, so far past feasting; and toward his beautiful young wife–the only woman in the room, whose shoulders and arms were not bare.
At first, the talk moved somewhat heavily. Neighbor chattered nothings to neighbor in low tones. It was as though the foreboding presence of some grim, unbidden guest overshadowed the spirits of the company But gradually the scene became more animated The glitter of silver and crystal on the board; the sparkle of jewels and the wealth of shimmering colors that costumed the diners; with the strains of music that came from somewhere behind a floral screen that filled the air with fragrance; concealed, as it were, the hideous image of immorality which was the presiding genius of the feast. As the glare of a too bright light blinds the eyes to the ditch across one’s path, so the brilliancy of their surroundings blinded the eyes of his guests to the meaning of that horrid figure in the seat of highest honor. But rich foods and rare wines soon loose the tongues that chatter the thoughts of those who do not think. As the glasses were filled and refilled again, the scene took color from the sparkling goblets. Voices were raised to a higher pitch. Shrill or boisterous laughter rang out, as jest and story went the rounds. It was Mrs. Taine, now, rather than her husband, who dominated the scene. With cheeks flushed and eyes bright she set the pace, nor permitted any laggards.
Conrad Lagrange watched, cool and cynical–his worn face twisted into a mocking smile; his keen, baffling eyes, from under their scowling brows, seeing all, understanding all. Aaron King, weary with the work of the past days, endured–wishing it was over.
The evening was well under way when Mrs. Taine held up her hand. In the silence, she said, “Listen! I have a real treat for you, to-night, friends. Listen!” As she spoke the last word, her eyes met the eyes of the artist, in mocking, challenging humor. He was wondering what she meant, when,–from behind that screen of flowers,–soft and low, poignantly sweet and thrilling in its purity of tone, came the music of the violin that he had learned to know so well.
Instantly, the painter understood. Mrs. Taine had employed Sibyl Andres to play for her guests that evening; thinking to tease the artist by presenting his mountain comrade in the guise of a hired servant. Why the girl had not told him, he did not know. Perhaps she had thought to enjoy his surprise. The effect of the girl’s presence–or rather of her music, for she, herself, could not be seen–upon the artist was quite other than Mrs. Taine intended.
Under the spell of the spirit that spoke in the violin, Aaron King was carried far from his glittering surroundings. Again, he stood where the bright waters of Clear Creek tumbled among the granite boulders, and where he had first moved to answer the call of that music of the hills. Again, he followed the old wagon road to the cedar thicket; and, in the little, grassy opening with its wild roses, its encircling wilderness growth, and its old log house under the sheltering sycamores, saw a beautiful girl dancing with the unconscious grace of a woodland sprite, her arms upheld in greeting to the mountains. Once again, he was painting in the sacred quiet of the spring glade where she had come to him with her three gifts; where, in maidenly innocence, she had danced the dance of the butterflies; and, later, with her music, had lifted their friendship to heights of purity as far above the comprehension of the company that listened to her now, as the mountain peaks among the stars that night were high above the house on Fairlands Heights.
The music ceased. It was followed by the loud clapping of hands–with exclamations in high-pitched voices. “Who is it?” “Where did you find him?” “What’s his name?”–for they judged, from Mrs. Taine’s introductory words, that she expected them to show their appreciation.
Mrs. Taine laughed, and, with her eyes mockingly upon the artist’s face answered lightly, “Oh, she is a discovery of mine. She teaches music, and plays in one of the Fairlands churches.”
“You are a wonder,” said one of the illustrious critics, admiringly. And lifting his glass, he cried, “Here’s to our beautiful and talented hostess–the patron saint of all the arts–the friend of all true artists.”
In the quiet that followed the enthusiastic endorsement of the distinguished gentleman’s words, another voice said, “If it’s a girl, can’t we see her?” “Yes, yes,” came from several. “Please, Mrs. Taine, bring her out.” “Have her play again.” “Will she?”
Mrs. Taine laughed. “Certainly, she will. That’s what she’s here for–to amuse you.” And, again, as she spoke, her eyes met the eyes of Aaron King.
At her signal, a servant left the room. A moment later, the mountain girl, dressed in simple white, with no jewel or ornament other than a rose in her soft, brown hair, stood before that company. Unconscious of the eyes that fed upon her loveliness; there was the faintest shadow of a smile upon her face as she met, in one swift glance, the artist’s look; then, raising her violin, she made music for the revelers, at the will of Mrs. Taine. As she stood there in the modest naturalness of her winsome beauty–innocent and pure as the flowers that formed the screen behind her; hired to amuse the worthy friends and guests of that hideously repulsive devotee of lust and licentiousness who, from his wheeled chair, was glaring at her with eyes that burned insanely–she seemed, as indeed she was, a spirit from another world.
James Rutlidge, his heavy features flushed with drink, was gazing at the girl with a look that betrayed his sensual passion. The face of Conrad Lagrange was dark and grim with scowling appreciation of the situation. Mrs. Taine was looking at the artist. And Aaron King, watching his girl comrade of the hills as she seemed to listen for the music which she in turn drew from the instrument, felt,–by the very force of the contrast between her and her surroundings he had never felt before, the power and charm of her personality–felt–and knew that Sibyl Andres had come into his life to stay.
In the flood of emotions that swept over him, and in the mental and spiritual exultation caused by her music and by her presence amid such scenes; it was given the painter to understand that she had, in truth, brought to him the strength, the purity, and the beauty of the hills; that she had, in truth, shown him the paths that lead to the mountain heights; that it was her unconscious influence and teaching that had made it impossible for him to prostitute his genius to win favor in the eyes of the world. He knew, now, that in those days when he had painted her portrait, as she stood with outstretched hands in the golden light among the roses, he had mixed his colors with the best love that a man may offer a woman. And he knew that the repainting of that false portrait of Mrs. Taine, with all that it would cost him, was his first offering to that love.
The girl musician finished playing and slipped away. When they would have recalled her, Mrs. Taine–too well schooled to betray a hint of the emotions aroused by what she had just seen as she watched Aaron King–shook her head.
At that instant, Mr. Taine rose to his feet, supporting himself by holding with shaking hands to the table. A hush, sudden as the hush of death, fell upon the company. The millionaire’s attendant put out his hand to steady his master, and another servant stepped quickly forward. But the man who clung so tenaciously to his last bit of life, with a drunken strength in his dying limbs, shook them off, saying in a hoarse whisper, “Never mind! Never mind–you fools–can’t you see I’m game!”
In the quiet of the room, that a moment before rang with excited voices and shrill laughter, the man’s husky, straining, whispered boast sounded like the mocking of some invisible, fiendish presence at the feast.
Lifting a glass of whisky with that yellow, claw-like hand upon which the great diamond gleamed–a spot of flawless purity; with his repulsive features twisted into a grewsome ugliness by his straining effort to force his diseased vocal chords to make his words heard; the wretched creature said: “Here’s to our girl musician. The prettiest–lassie that I–have seen for many a day–and I think I know a pretty girl–when I see one too. Who comes bright and fresh–from her mountains, to amuse us–and to add, to the beauty–and grace and wit and genius–that so distinguishes this company–the flavor and the freedom of her wild-wood home. Her music–is good, you’ll all agree–” he paused to cough and to look inquiringly around, while every one nodded approval and smiled encouragingly. “Her music is good–but I–maintain that she, herself, is better. To me–her beauty is more pleasing to the eye–than–her fiddling can possibly–be to the ear!” Again he was forced to pause, while his guests, with hand and voice, applauded the clever words. Lifting the glass of whisky toward his lips that, by his effort to speak, were drawn back in a repulsive grin, he leered at the celebrities sitting nearest. “I suppose to-morrow–if we desire the company of these distinguished artists–we will have to follow–them to the mountains. I don’t blame you, gentlemen–if I was not–ah–temporarily incapacitated–I would certainly–go for a little trip to the inspiring hills–myself. Even if I don’t know–as much about _music_ and _art_ as some of you.” Again his words were interrupted by that racking cough, the sound of which was lost in the applause that greeted his witticism. Lifting the glass once more, he continued, “So here’s to our girl musician–who is her own–lovely self so much more attractive than any music–she can ever make.” He drained the glass, and sank back into his chair, exhausted by his effort.
Aaron King was on the point of springing to his feet, when Conrad Lagrange caught his eye with a warning look. Instantly, he remembered what the result would be if he should yield to his impulse. Wild with indignation, rage, and burning shame, he knew that to betray himself would be to invite a thousand sneering questions and insinuations to besmirch the name of the girl he loved.
In the continued applause and laughter that followed the drinking of the millionaire’s toast, the artist caught the admiring words, “Bully old sport.” “Isn’t he game?” “He has certainly traveled some pace in his day.” “The girl is a beauty.” “Let’s have her in again.” This last expression was so insistently echoed that Mrs. Taine–who, through it all, had been covertly watching Aaron King’s face, and whose eyes were blazing now with something more than the effect of the wine she had been drinking–was forced to yield. A servant left the room, and, a moment later, reappeared, followed by Sibyl.
The girl was greeted, now, by hearty applause which she, accepting as an expression of the company’s appreciation of her music, received with smiling pleasure. The artist, his heart and soul aflame with his awakening love, fought for self-control. Conrad Lagrange, catching his eye, again, silently bade him wait.
Sibyl lifted her violin and the noisy company was stilled. Slowly, under the spell of the music that, to him, was a message from the mountain heights, Aaron King grew calm. His tense muscles relaxed. His twitching nerves became steady. He felt himself as it were, lifted out of and above the scene that a moment before had so stirred him to indignant anger. His brain worked with that clearness and precision which he had known while repainting Mrs. Taine’s portrait. Wrath gave way to pity; indignation to contempt. In confidence, he smiled to think how little the girl he loved needed his poor defense against the animalism that dominated the company she was hired to amuse. With every eye in the room fixed upon her as she played, she was as far removed from those who had applauded the suggestive words of the dying sensualist as her music was beyond their true comprehension.
Then it was that the genius of the artist awoke. As the flash of a search-light in the darkness of night brings out with startling clearness the details of the scene upon which it is turned, the painter saw before him his picture. With trained eye and carefully acquired skill, he studied the scene; impressing upon his memory every detail–the rich appointments of the room; the glittering lights; the gleaming silver and crystal; the sparkling jewels and shimmering laces; the bare shoulders; the wine-flushed faces and feverish eyes; and, in the seat of honor, the disease-wasted form and repulsive, sin-marked countenance of Mr. Taine who–almost unconscious with his exertion–was still feeding the last flickering flame of his lustful life with the vision of the girl whose beauty his toast had profaned: and in the midst of that company–expressing as it did the spirit of an age that is ruled by material wealth and dominated by the passions of the flesh–the center of every eye, yet, still, in her purity and innocence, removed and apart from them all; standing in her simple dress of white against the background of flowers–the mountain girl with her violin–offering to them the highest, holiest, gift of the gods–her music. Upon the girl’s lovely, winsome face, was a look, now, of troubled doubt. Her wide, blue eyes, as she played, were pleading, questioning, half fearful–as though she sensed, instinctively the presence of the spirit she could not understand; and felt, in spite of the pretense of the applause that had greeted her, the rejection of her offering.
Not only did the artist, in that moment of conception see his picture and feel the forces that were expressed by every character in the composition, but the title, even, came to him as clearly as if Conrad Lagrange had uttered it aloud, “The Feast of Materialism.”
Sibyl Andres finished her music, and quickly withdrew as if to escape the noisy applause. Amid the sound of the clapping hands and boisterous voices, Mr. Taine, summoning the last of his wasted strength, again struggled to his feet. With those claw-like hands he held to the table for support; while–shaking in every limb, his features twisted into a horrid, leering grin–he looked from face to face of the hushed and silent company; with glazed eyes in which the light that flickered so feebly was still the light of an impotent lust.
Twice, the man essayed to speak, but could not. The room grew still as death. Then, suddenly–as they looked–he lifted that yellow, skinny hand, to his wrinkled, ape-like brow, and–partially loosing, thus, his supporting grip upon the table–fell back, in a ghastly heap of diseased flesh and fine raiment; in the midst of which blazed the great diamond–as though the cold, pure beauty of the inanimate stone triumphed in a life more vital than that of its wearer.
His servants carried the unconscious master of the house from the room. Mrs. Taine, excusing herself, followed.
In the confusion that ensued, the musicians, hidden behind the floral screen, struck up a lively air. Some of the guests made quiet preparations for leaving. A group of those men–famous in the world of art and letters–under the influence of the wine they had taken so freely, laughed loudly at some coarse jest. Others, thinking, perhaps,–if they could be said to think at all,–that their host’s attack was not serious, renewed conversations and bravely attempted to restore a semblance of animation to the interrupted revelries.
Aaron King worked his way to the side of Conrad Lagrange, “For God’s sake, old man, let’s get out of here.”
“I’ll find Rutlidge or Louise or some one,” returned the other, and disappeared.
As the artist waited, through the open door of an adjoining room, he caught sight of Sibyl Andres; who, with her violin-case in her hand, was about to leave. Obeying his impulse, he went to her.
“What in the world are you doing here?” he said almost roughly–extending his hand to take the instrument she carried.
She seemed a little bewildered by his manner, but smiled as she retained her violin. “I am here to earn my bread and butter, sir. What are you doing here?”
“I beg your pardon,” he said. “I did not mean to be rude.”
She laughed, then, with a troubled air–“But is it not right for me to be here? It is all right for me to play for these people, isn’t it? Myra didn’t want me to come, but we needed the money, and Mrs. Taine was so generous. I didn’t tell you and Mr. Lagrange because I wanted the fun of surprising you.” As he stood looking at her so gravely, she put out her hand impulsively to his arm. “What is it, oh, what is it? How have I done wrong?”
“You have done no wrong, my dear girl,” he answered “It is only that–“
He was interrupted by the cold, clear voice of Mrs. Taine, who had entered the room, unnoticed by them. “I see you are going, Miss Andres. Good-night. I will mail you a check to-morrow. Your music was very satisfactory. An automobile is waiting to take you home. Good night.”
Before Aaron King could speak, the girl was gone.
“Mr. Lagrange and I were just about to go,” said the artist, as the woman faced him. “I hope Mr. Taine has not suffered severely from the excitement of the evening?”
The woman’s cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were bright with feverish excitement. Going close to him, she said in a low, hurried tone, “No, no, you must not go. Mr. Taine is all right in his room. Every one else is having a good time. You must not go. Come, I have had no opportunity, at all, to have you to myself for a single moment. Come, I–“
As she had interrupted Aaron King’s reply to Sibyl Andres, the cool, sarcastic tones of Conrad Lagrange’s deep voice interrupted her. “Mrs. Taine, they are hunting for you all over the house. Your husband is calling for you. I’m sure that Mr. King will excuse you, under the circumstances.”
Chapter XXX
In the Same Hour
In a splendid chamber, surrounded by every comfort and luxury that dollars could buy, and attended by liveried servants, Mr. Taine was dying.
The physician who met Mrs. Taine at the door, answered her look of inquiry with; “Your husband is very near the end, madam.” Beside the bed, sat Louise, wringing her hands and moaning. James Rutlidge stood near. Without speaking, Mrs. Taine went forward.
The doctor, bending over his patient, with his fingers upon the skeleton-like wrist, said, “Mr. Taine, Mr. Taine, your wife is here.”
In response, the eyes, deep sunken under the wrinkled brow, opened; the loosely hanging, sensual lips quivered.
The physician spoke again; “Your wife is here, Mr. Taine.”
A sudden gleam of light flared up in the glazed eyes. The doctor could have sworn that the lips were twisted into a shadow of a ghastly, mocking smile. As if summoning, by a supreme effort of his will, from some unguessed depths of his being, the last remnant of his remaining strength, the man looked about the room and, in a hoarse whisper, said, “Send the others away–everybody–but her.”
“O papa, papa!” exclaimed poor Louise, protestingly.
“Never mind, daughter,” came the whispered answer from the bed. “Try to be game, girl–game as your father. Take her away, Jim.”
As the physician passed Mrs. Taine, who had thus far stood like a statue, seemingly incapable of thought or feeling or movement, he said in a low tone, “I will be just outside the door, madam; easily within call.”
When only the woman was left in the room with her husband, the dying man spoke again; “Come here. Stand where I can see you.”
Mechanically, she obeyed; moving to a position near the foot of the bed.
After a moment’s silence, during which he seemed to be rallying the very last of his vital forces for the effort, he said, “Well–the game is played–out. You think–you’re the winner. You’re–wrong–damn you–you’re wrong. I wasn’t–so drunk to-night that–I couldn’t see.” His face twisted in a hideous, malicious grin. “You–love–that artist fellow. Your–interest in his art is–all rot. It’s _him_ you want–and you–you have been thinking–you’d get him–with my money–the same as I got you. But you won’t. You’ve–lost him already. I’m glad–you love him–damn glad–because–I know that after–what he’s seen of me–even if he didn’t love–that mountain–girl, he wouldn’t wipe–his feet on you. You’ve tortured me–you’ve mocked–and sneered and laughed–at me–in my suffering–you fiend–and I’ve–tried my damnedest–to pay you back. What I couldn’t do–the man you love–will–do for me. You’ll suffer–now in earnest. You thought you’d be a–sure winner–as soon–as I was out of–the game. But you’ve lost–you’ve lost–you’ve lost! I saw your love for him–in your–face to-night–as I have seen–it every time–you two were together. I saw his love–for the girl–too–and I–saw–that you–saw it. I–I–wouldn’t–wouldn’t die–until I’d told you–that I knew.” He paused to gather his strength for the last evil effort of his evil life.
The woman–who had stood, frozen with horror, her eyes fixed upon the face of the dying man, as though under a dreadful spell–cowered before him, livid with fear. Cringing, helpless–as though before some infernal monster–she hid her face; while her husband, struggling for breath to make her hear, called her every foul name he could master–derided her with fiendish glee–mocked her, taunted her, cursed her–with words too vile to print. With an oath and a profane wish for her future upon his lips, the end came. The sensual mouth opened–the diseased wasted limbs shuddered–the insane light in the lust-worn eyes went out.
With a scream, Mrs. Taine sank unconscious upon the floor beside the bed.
From the lower part of the house came the faint sounds of the few remaining revelers.
* * * * *
When Aaron King and Conrad Lagrange left the house on Fairlands Heights that night, they walked quickly, as though eager to escape from the brilliantly lighted vicinity. Neither spoke until they were some distance away. Then the novelist, checking his quick stride, pointed toward the shadowy bulk of the mountains that heaved their mighty crests and peaks in solemn grandeur high into the midnight sky.
“Well, boy,” he said, “the mountains are still there. It’s good to see them again, isn’t it?”
Reaching home, the older man bade his friend good night. But the artist, declaring that he was not yet ready to turn in, went, with pipe and Czar for company, to sit for a while on the porch.
Looking away over the dark mass of the orange groves to the distant peaks, he lived over again, in his thoughts, those weeks of comradeship with Sibyl Andres in the hills. Every incident of their friendship he recalled–every hour they had spent together amid the scenes she loved–reviewing every conversation–questioning searching, wondering, hoping, fearing.
Later, he went out into the rose garden–her garden–where the air was fragrant with the perfume of the flowers she tended with such loving care. In the soft, still darkness of the night, the place seemed haunted by her presence. Quietly, he moved here and there among the roses–to the little gate in the Ragged Robin hedge, through which she came and went; to the vine-covered arbor where she had watched him at his work; and to the spot where she had stood, day after day, with hands outstretched in greeting, while he worked to make the colors and lines upon his canvas tell the secret of her loveliness. He remembered how he had felt her presence in those days when he had laughingly insisted to Conrad Lagrange that the place was haunted. He remembered how, even when she was unknown to him, her music had always moved him–how her message from the hills had seemed to call to the best that was in him.
So it was, that, as he recalled these things,–as he lived again the days of his companionship with her and realized how she had come into his life, how she had appealed always to the best of him, and satisfied always his best needs,–he came to know the answer to his questions–to his doubts and fears and hopes. There, in the rose garden, with its dark walls of hedge and vine and grove, in the still night under the stars, with his face to the distant mountains, he knew that the mountain girl would not deny him–that, when she was ready, she would come to him.
In the hour when Mr. Taine, with the last strength of his evil life, profanely cursed the woman that his gold had bought to serve his licentious will–and cursing–died; Aaron King–inspired by the character and purity of the woman he loved, and by whom he knew he was loved, and dreaming of their comradeship that was to be–dedicated himself anew to the ministry of his art and so entered into that more abundant life which belongs by divine right to all who will claim it.
But it was not given Aaron King to know that before Sibyl Andres could come to him he must be tested by a trial that would tax his manhood’s best strength to the uttermost. In that night of his awakened love, as he dreamed of the days of its realization, the man did not know that the days of his testing were so near at hand.
Chapter XXXI
As the World Sees
It was three days after the incidents just related when an automobile from Fairlands Heights stopped at the home of Aaron King and the novelist.
Mrs. Taine, dressed in black and heavily veiled, went, alone, to the house, where Yee Kee appeared in answer to her ring.
There was no one at home, the Chinaman said. He did not know where the artist was. He had gone off somewhere with Mr. Lagrange and the dog. Perhaps they would return in a few minutes; perhaps not until dinner time.
Mrs. Taine was exceedingly anxious to see Mr. King. She was going away, and must see him, if possible, before she left. She would come in, and, if Yee Kee would get her pen and paper, would write a little note, explaining–in case she should miss him. The Chinaman silently placed the writing material before her, and disappeared.
Before sitting down to her letter, the woman paced the floor restlessly, in nervous agitation. Her face, when she had thrown back the veil, appeared old and worn, with dark circles under the eyes, and a drawn look to the weary, downward droop of the lips. As she moved about the room, nervously fingering the books and trifles upon the table or the mantle, she seemed beside herself with anxiety. She went to the window to stand looking out as if hoping for the return of the artist. She went to the open door of his bedroom, her hands clenched, her limbs trembling, her face betraying the agony of her mind.
With Louise, she was leaving that evening, at four o’clock, for the East–with the body of her husband. She could not go without seeing again the man whom, as Mr. Taine had rightly said, she loved–loved with the only love of which–because of her environment and life–she was capable. She still believed in her power over him whose passion she had besieged with all the lure of her physical beauty, but that which she had seen in his face as he had watched the girl musician the night of the dinner, filled her with fear. Presently, in her desperation, when the artist did not return, she seated herself at the table to put upon paper, as best she could, the things she had come to say.
Her letter finished, she looked at her watch. Calling the Chinaman, she asked for a key to the studio, explaining that she wished to see her picture. She still hoped for the artist’s return and that her letter would not be necessary. She hoped, too, that in her portrait, which she had not yet seen, she might find some evidence of the painter’s passion for her. She had not forgotten his saying that he would put upon the canvas what he thought of her, nor could she fail to recall his manner and her interpretation of it as he had worked upon the picture.
In the studio, she stood before the easel, scarce daring to draw the curtain. But, calling up in her mind the emotions and thoughts of the hours she had spent in that room alone with the artist, she was made bold by her reestablished belief in his passion and by her convictions that were founded upon her own desires. Under the stimulating influence of her thoughts, a flush of color stole into her cheeks, her eyes grew bright with the light of triumphant anticipation. With an eager hand she boldly drew aside the curtain.
The picture upon the easel was the artist’s portrait of Sibyl Andres.
With an exclamation that was not unlike fear, Mrs. Taine drew back from the canvas. Looking at the beautiful painting,–in which the artist had pictured, with unconscious love and an almost religious fidelity, the spirit of the girl who was so like the flowers among which she stood,–the woman was moved by many conflicting emotions. Surprise, disappointment admiration, envy, jealousy, sadness, regret, and anger swept over her. Blinded by bitter tears, with a choking sob, in an agony of remorse and shame, she turned away her face from the gaze of those pure eyes. Then, as the flame of her passion withered her shame, hot rage dried her tears, and she sprang forward with an animal-like fierceness, to destroy the picture. But, even as she put forth her hand, she hesitated and drew back, afraid. As she stood thus in doubt–halting between her impulse and her fear–a sound at the door behind her drew her attention. She turned to face the beautiful original of the portrait Instantly the woman of the world had herself perfectly in hand.
Sibyl Andres drew back with an embarrassed, “I beg your pardon. I thought–” and would have fled.
But Mrs. Taine, with perfect cordiality, said quickly, “O how do you do, Miss Andres; come in.”
She seemed so sincere in the welcome that was implied in her voice and manner; while her face, together with her somber garb of mourning, was so expressive of sadness and grief that the girl’s gentle heart was touched. Going forward, with that natural, dignity that belongs to those whose minds and hearts are unsullied by habitual pretense of feeling and sham emotions, Sibyl spoke a few well chosen words of sympathy.
Mrs. Taine received the girl’s expression of condolence with a manner that was perfect in its semblance of carefully controlled sorrow and grief, yet managed, skillfully, to suggest the wide social distance that separated the widow of Mr. Taine from the unknown, mountain girl. Then, as if courageously determined not to dwell upon her bereavement, she said, “I was just looking, again, at Mr. King’s picture–for which you posed. It is beautiful, isn’t it? He told me that you were an exceptionally clever model–quite the best he has ever had.”
The girl–disarmed by her own genuine feeling of sympathy for the speaker–was troubled at something that seemed to lie beneath the kindly words of the experienced woman. “To me, it is beautiful,” she returned doubtfully. “But, of course, I don’t know. Mr. Lagrange thinks, though, that it is really a splendid portrait.”
Mrs. Taine smiled with a confident air, as one might smile at a child. “Mr. Lagrange, my dear, is a famous novelist–but he really knows very little of pictures.”
“Perhaps you are right,” returned Sibyl, simply. “But the picture is not to be shown as a portrait of me, at all.”
Again, that knowing smile. “So I understand, of course. Under the circumstances, you would scarcely expect it, would you?”
Sibyl, not in the least understanding what the woman meant, answered doubtfully, “No. I–I did not wish it shown as my portrait.”
Mrs. Taine, studying the girl’s face, became very earnest in her kindly interest; as if, moved out of the goodness of her heart, she stooped from her high place to advise and counsel one of her own sex, who was so wholly ignorant of the world. “I fear, my dear, that you know very little of artists and their methods.”
To which the girl replied, “I never knew an artist before I met Mr. King, this summer, in the mountains.”
Still watching her face closely, Mrs. Taine said, with gentle solicitude, “May I tell you something for your own good, Miss Andres?”
“Certainly, if you please, Mrs. Taine.”
“An artist,” said the older woman, carefully, with an air of positive knowledge, “must find the subjects for his pictures in life. As he goes about, he is constantly on the look-out for new faces or figures that are of interest to him–or, that may be used by him to make pictures of interest. The subjects–or, I should say, the people who pose for him–are nothing at all to the artist–aside from his picture, you see–no more than his paints and brushes and canvas. Often, they are professional models, whom he hires as one hires any sort of service, you know. Sometimes–” she paused as if hesitating, then continued gently–“sometimes they are people like yourself, who happen to appeal to his artistic fancy, and whom he can persuade to pose for him.”
The girl’s face was white. She stared at the woman with pleading, frightened dismay. She made a pitiful attempt to speak, but could not.
The older woman, watching her, continued, “Forgive me, dear child. I do not wish to hurt you. But Mr. King is _so_ careless. I told him he should be careful that you did not misunderstand his interest in you. But he laughed at me. He said that it was your _innocence_ that he wanted to paint, and cautioned me not to warn you until his picture was finished.” She turned to look at the picture on the easel with the air of a critic. “He really _has_ caught it very well. Aaron–Mr. King is so good at that sort of thing. He never permits his models to know exactly what he is after, you see, but leads them, cleverly, to exhibit, unconsciously, the particular thing that he wishes to get into his picture.”
When the tortured girl had been given time to grasp the full import of her words, the woman said again,–turning toward Sibyl, as she spoke, with a smiling air that was intended to show the intimacy between herself and the artist,–“Have you seen his portrait of me?”
“No,” faltered Sibyl. “Mr. King told me not to look at it. It has always been covered when I have been in the studio.”
Again, Mrs. Taine smiled, as though there was some reason, known only to herself and the painter, why he did not wish the girl to see the portrait. “And do you come to the studio often–alone as you came to-day?” she asked, still kindly, as though from her experience she was seeking to counsel the girl. “I mean–have you been coming since the picture for which you posed was finished?”
The girl’s white cheeks grew red with embarrassment and shame as she answered, falteringly, “Yes.”
“You poor child! Really, I must scold Aaron for this. After my warning him, too, that people were talking about his intimacy with you in the mountains It is quite too bad of him! He will ruin himself, if he is not more careful.” She seemed sincerely troubled over the situation.
“I–I do not understand, Mrs. Taine,” faltered Sibyl. “Do you mean that my–that Mr. King’s friendship for me has harmed him? That I–that it is wrong for me to come here?”
“Surely, Miss Andres, you must understand what I mean.”
“No, I–I do not know. Tell me, please.”
Mrs. Taine hesitated as though reluctant. Then, as if forced by her sense of duty, she spoke. “The truth is, my dear, that your being with Mr. King in the mountains–going to his camp as familiarly as you did, and spending so much time alone with him in the hills–and then your coming here so often, has led people to say unpleasant things.”
“But what do people say?” persisted Sibyl.
The answer came with cruel deliberateness; “That you are not only Mr. King’s model, but that you are his mistress as well.”
Sibyl Andres shrank back from the woman as though she had received a blow in the face. Her cheeks and brow and neck were crimson. With a little cry, she buried her face in her hands.
The kind voice of the older woman continued, “You see, dear, whether it is true or not, the effect is exactly the same. If in the eyes of the world your relations to Mr. King are–are wrong, it is as bad as though it were actually true. I felt that I must tell you, child, not alone for your own good but for the sake of Mr. King and his work–for the sake of his position in the world. Frankly, if you continue to compromise him and his good name by coming like this to his studio, it will ruin him. The world may not care particularly whether Mr. King keeps a mistress or not, but people will not countenance his open association with her, even under the pretext that she is a model.”
As she finished, Mrs. Taine looked at her watch. “Dear me, I really must be going. I have already spent more time than I intended. Good-by, Miss Andres. I know you will forgive me if I have hurt you.”
The girl looked at her with the pain and terror filled eyes of some gentle wild creature that can not understand the cruelty of the trap that holds it fast. “Yes–yes, I–I suppose you know best. You must know more than I. I–thank you, Mrs. Taine. I–“
When Mrs. Taine was gone, Sibyl Andres sat for a little while before her portrait; wondering, dumbly, at the happiness of that face upon the canvas. There were no tears. She could not cry. Her eyes burned hot and dry. Her lips were parched. Rising, she drew the curtain carefully to hide the picture, and started toward the door. She paused. Going to the easel that held the other picture, she laid her hand upon the curtain. Again, she paused. Aaron King had said that she must not look at that picture–Conrad Lagrange had said that she must not–why? She did not know why.
Perhaps–if the mountain girl had drawn aside the curtain and had looked upon the face of Mrs. Taine as Aaron King had painted it–perhaps the rest of my story would not have happened.
But, true to the wish of her friends, even in her misery, Sibyl Andres held her hand. At the door of the studio, she turned again, to look long and lingeringly about the room. Then she went out, closing and locking the door, and leaving the key on a hidden nail, as her custom was.
Going slowly, lingeringly, through the rose garden to the little gate in the hedge, she disappeared in the orange grove.
Aaron King and Conrad Lagrange, returning from a long walk, overtook Myra Willard, who was returning from town, just as the woman of the disfigured face arrived at the gate of the little house in the orange grove. For a moment, the three stood chatting–as neighbors will,–then the two men went on to their own home. Czar, racing ahead, announced their coming to Yee Kee and the Chinaman met them as they entered the living-room. Telling them of Mrs. Taine’s visit, he gave Aaron King the letter that she had left for him.
As the artist, conscious of the scrutinizing gaze of his friend, read the closely written pages, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment and shame. When he had finished, he faced the novelist’s eyes steadily and, without speaking, deliberately and methodically tore Mrs. Taine’s letter into tiny fragments. Dropping the scraps of paper into the waste basket, he dusted his hands together with a significant gesture and looked at his watch. “Her train left at four o’clock. It is now four-thirty.”
“For which,” returned Conrad Lagrange, solemnly, “let us give thanks.”
As the novelist spoke, Czar, on the porch outside, gave a low “woof” that signalized the approach of a friend.
Looking through the open door, they saw Myra Willard coming hurriedly up the walk. They could see that the woman was greatly agitated, and went quicklv forward to meet her.
Women of Myra Willard’s strength of character–particularly those who have passed through the furnace of some terrible experience as she so evidently had–are not given to loud, uncontrolled expression of emotion. That she was alarmed and troubled was evident. Her face was white, her eyes were frightened and she trembled so that Aaron King helped her to a seat; but she told them clearly, with no unnecessary, hysterical exclamations, what had happened. Upon entering the house, after parting from the two men at the gate, a few minutes before, she had found a letter from Sibyl. The girl was gone.
As she spoke, she handed the letter to Conrad Lagrange who read it and gave it to the artist. It was a pitiful little note–rather vague–saying only that she must go away at once; assuring Myra that she had not meant to do wrong; asking her to tell Mr. King and the novelist good-by; and begging the artist’s forgiveness that she had not understood.
Aaron King looked from the letter in his hand to the faces of his two friends, in consternation. “Do you understand this, Miss Willard?” he asked, when he could speak.
The woman shook her head. “Only that something has happened to make the child think that her friendship with you has injured you; and that she has gone away for your sake. She–she thought so much of you, Mr. King.”
“And I–I love her, Miss Willard. I should have told you soon. I tell you now to reassure you. I love her.”
Aaron King made his declaration to his two friends with a simple dignity, but with a feeling that thrilled them with the force of his earnestness and the purity and strength of his passion.
Conrad Lagrange–world-worn, scarred by his years of contact with the unclean, the vicious, and debasing passions of mankind–grasped the young man’s hand, while his eyes shone with an emotion his habitual reserve could not conceal. “I’m glad for you, Aaron”–he said, adding reverently–“as your mother would be glad.”
“I have known that you would tell me this, sometime Mr. King,” said Myra Willard. “I knew it, I think, before you, yourself, realized; and I, too, am glad–glad for my girl, because I know what such a love will mean to her. But why–why has she gone like this? Where has she gone? Oh, my girl, my girl!” For a moment, the distracted woman was on the point of breaking down; but with an effort of her will, she controlled herself.
“It’s clear enough what has sent her away,” growled Conrad Lagrange, with a warning glance to the artist. “Some one has filled her mind with the notion that her friendship with Aaron has been causing talk. I think there’s no doubt as to where she’s gone.”
“You mean the mountains?” asked Myra Willard, quickly.
“Yes. I’d stake my life that she has gone straight to Brian Oakley. Think! Where else _would_ she go?”
“She has sometimes borrowed a saddle-horse from your neighbor up the road, hasn’t she, Miss Willard?” asked Aaron King.
“Yes. I’ll run over there at once.”
Conrad Lagrange spoke quickly; “Don’t let them think anything unusual has happened. We’ll go over to your house and wait for you there.”
Fifteen minutes later, Myra Willard returned. Sibyl had borrowed the horse; asking them if she might keep it until the next day. She did not say where she was going. She had left about four o’clock.
“That will put her at Brian’s by nine,” said the novelist.
“And I will arrive there about the same time,” added Aaron King, eagerly. “It’s now five-thirty. She has an hour’s start; but I’ll ride an hour harder.”
“With an automobile you could overtake her,” said Myra Willard.
“I know,” returned the artist, “but if I take a horse, we can ride back together.”
He started through the grove, toward the other house, on a run.
Chapter XXXII
The Mysterious Disappearance
By the time Aaron King had found a saddle-horse and was ready to start on his ride, it was six o’clock.
Granting that Conrad Lagrange was right in his supposition that the girl had left with the intention of going to Brian Oakley’s, the artist could scarcely, now, hope to arrive at the Ranger Station until some time after Sibyl had reached the home of her friends–unless she should stop somewhere on the way, which he did not think likely. Once, as he realized how the minutes were slipping away, he was on the point of reconsidering his reply to Myra Willard’s suggestion that he take an automobile. Then, telling himself that he would surely find Sibyl at the Station and thinking of the return trip with her, he determined to carry out his first plan.
But when he was finally on the road, he did not ride with less haste because he no longer expected to overtake Sibyl. In spite of his reassuring himself, again and again, that the girl he loved was safe, his mind was too disturbed by the situation to permit of his riding leisurely. Beyond the outskirts of the city, with his horse warmed to its work, the artist pushed his mount harder and harder until the animal reached the limit of a pace that its rider felt it could endure for the distance they had to go. Over the way that he and Conrad Lagrange had walked with Czar and Croesus so leisurely, he went, now, with such hot haste that the people in the homes in the orange groves, sitting down to their evening meal, paused to listen to the sharp, ringing beat of the galloping hoofs. Two or three travelers, as he passed, watched him out of sight, with wondering gaze. Those he met, turned their heads to look after him.
Aaron King’s thoughts, as he rode, kept pace with his horse’s flying feet. The points along the way, where he and the famous novelist had stopped to rest, and to enjoy the beauty of the scene, recalled vividly to his mind all that those weeks in the mountains had brought to him. Backward from that day when he had for the first time set his face toward the hills, his mind traveled–almost from day to day–until he stood, again, in that impoverished home of his boyhood to which he had been summoned from his studies abroad. As he urged his laboring horse forward, in the eagerness and anxiety of his love for Sibyl Andres, he lived again that hour when his dying mother told her faltering story of his father’s dishonor; when he knew, for the first time, her life of devotion to him, and learned of her sacrifice–even unto poverty–that he might, unhampered, be fitted for his life work; and when, receiving his inheritance, he had made his solemn promise that the purpose and passion of his mother’s years of sacrifice should, in him and in his work, be fulfilled. One by one, he retraced the steps that had led to his understanding that only a true and noble art could ever make good that promise. Not by winning the poor notice of the little passing day, alone; not by gaining the applause of the thoughtless crowd; not by winning the rewards bestowed by the self-appointed judges and patrons of the arts; but by a true, honest, and fearless giving of himself in his work, regardless alike of praise or blame–by saying the thing that was given him to say, because it was given him to say–would he keep that which his mother had committed to him. As mile after mile of the distance that lay between him and the girl he loved was put behind him in his race to her side, it was given him to understand–as never before–how, first the friendship of the world-wearied man who had, himself, profaned his art; and then, the comradeship of that one whose life was so unspotted by the world; had helped him to a true and vital conception of his ministry of color and line and brush and canvas.
It was twilight when the artist reached the spot where the road crosses the tumbling stream–the spot where he and Conrad Lagrange had slept at the foot of the mountains. Where the road curves toward the creek, the man, without checking his pace, turned his head to look back upon the valley that, far below, was fast being lost in the gathering dusk. In its weird and gloomy mystery,–with its hidden life revealed only by the sparkling, twinkling lights of the towns and cities,–it was suggestive, now, to his artist mind, of the life that had so nearly caught him in its glittering sensual snare. A moment later, he lifted his eyes to the mountain peaks ahead that, still in the light of the western sun, glowed as though brushed with living fire. Against the sky, he could distinguish that peak in the Galena range, with the clump of pines, where he had sat with Sibyl Andres that day when she had tried to make him see the train that had brought him to Fairlands.
He wondered now, as he rode, why he had not realized his love for the girl, before they left the hills. It seemed to him, now, that his love was born that evening when he had first heard her violin, as he was fishing; when he had watched her from the cedar thicket, as she made her music of the mountains and as she danced in the grassy yard. Why, he asked himself, had he not been conscious of his love in those days when she came to him in the spring glade, and in the days that followed? Why had he not known, when he painted her portrait in the rose garden? Why had the awakening not come until that night when he saw her in the company of revelers at the big house on Fairlands Heights–the night that Mr. Taine died?
It was dark before he reached the canyon gates. In the blackness of the gorge, with only the light of a narrow strip of stars overhead, he was forced to ride more slowly. But his confidence that he would find her at the Ranger Station had increased as he approached the scenes of her girlhood home. To go to her friends, seemed so inevitably the thing that she would do. A few miles farther, now, and he would see her. He would tell her why he had come. He would claim the love that he knew was his. And so, with a better heart, he permitted his tired horse to slacken the pace. He even smiled to think of her surprise when she should see him.
It was a little past nine o’clock when the artist saw, through the trees, the lights in the windows at the Station, and dismounted to open the gate. Hiding up to the house, he gave the old familiar hail, “Whoo-e-e.” The door opened, and with the flood of light that streamed out came the tall form of Brian Oakley.
“Hello! Seems to me I ought to know that voice.”
The artist laughed nervously. “It’s me, all right, Brian–what there is left of me.”
“Aaron King, by all that’s holy!” cried the Ranger, coming quickly down the steps and toward the shadowy horseman. “What’s the matter? Anything wrong with Sibyl or Myra Willard? What brings you up here, this time of night?”
Aaron King heard the questions with sinking heart. But so certain had he come to feel that the girl would be at the Station, that he said mechanically, as he dropped wearily from his horse to grasp his friend’s hand, “I followed Sibyl. How long has she been here?”
Brian Oakley spoke quickly; “Sibyl is not here, Aaron.”
The artist caught the Ranger’s arm. “Do you mean, Brian, that she has not been here to-day?”
“She has not been here,” returned the officer, coolly.
“Good God!” exclaimed the other, stunned and bewildered by the positive words. Blindly, he turned toward his horse.
Brian Oakley, stepping forward, put his hand on the artist’s shoulder. “Come, old man, pull yourself together and let a little light in on this matter,” he said calmly. “Tell me what has happened. Why did you expect to find Sibyl here?”
When Aaron King had finished his story, the other said, still without excitement, “Come into the house. You’re about all in. I heard Doctor Gordan’s ‘auto’ going up the canyon to Morton’s about an hour ago. Their baby’s sick. If Sibyl was on the road, he would have passed her. I’ll throw the saddle on Max, and we’ll run over there and see what he knows. But first, you’ve got to have a bite to eat.”
The young man protested but the Ranger said firmly, “You can eat while I saddle; come. I wish Mary was home,” he added, as he set out some cold meat and bread. “She is in Los Angeles with her sister. I’ll call you when I’m ready.” He spoke the last word from the door as he went out.
The artist tried to eat; but with little success. He was again mounted and ready to go when the Ranger rode up from the barn on the chestnut.
When they reached the point where the road to Morton’s ranch leaves the main canyon road, Brian Oakley said, “It’s barely possible that she went on up to Carleton’s. But I think we better go to Morton’s and see the Doctor first. We don’t want to miss him. Did you meet any one as you came up? I mean after you got within two or three miles of the mouth of the canyon?”
“No,” replied the other. “Why?”
“A man on a horse passed the Station about seven o’clock, going down. Where did the Doctor pass you?”
“He didn’t pass me.”
“What?” said the Ranger, sharply.
“No one passed me after I left Fairlands.”
“Hu-m-m. If Doc left town before you, he must have had a puncture or something, or he would have passed the Station before he did.”
It was ten o’clock when the two men arrived at the Morton ranch.
“We don’t want to start any excitement,” said the officer, as they drew rein at the corral gate. “You stay here and I’ll drop in–casual like.”
It seemed to Aaron King, waiting in the darkness, that his companion was gone for hours. In reality, it was only a few minutes until the Ranger returned. He was walking quickly, and, springing into the saddle he started the chestnut off at a sharp lope.
“The baby is better,” he said. “Doctor was here this afternoon–started home about two o’clock. That ‘auto’ must have gone on up the canyon. Morton knew nothing of the man on horseback who went down. We’ll cut across to Carleton’s.”
Presently, the Ranger swung the chestnut aside from the wagon road, to follow a narrow trail through the chaparral. To the artist, the little path in the darkness was invisible, but he gave his horse the rein and followed the shadowy form ahead. Three-quarters of an hour later, they came out into the main road, again; near the Carleton ranch corral, a mile and a half below the old camp in the sycamores behind the orchard of the deserted place.
It was now eleven o’clock and the ranch-house was dark. Without dismounting, Brian Oakley called, “Hello, Henry!” There was no answer. Moving his horse close to the window of the room where he knew the rancher slept, the Ranger tapped on the sash. “Henry, turn out; I want to see you; it’s Oakley.”
A moment later the sash was raised and Carleton asked, “What is it, Brian? What’s up?”
“Is Sibyl stopping with you folks, to-night?”
“Sibyl! Haven’t seen her since they went down from their summer camp. What’s the matter?”
Briefly, the Ranger explained the situation. The rancher interrupted only to greet the artist with a “howdy, Mr. King,” as the officer’s words made known the identity of his companion.
When Brian Oakley had concluded, the rancher said, “I heard that ‘auto’ going up, and then heard it going back down, again, about an hour ago. You missed it by turning off to Morton’s. If you’d come on straight up here you’d a met it.”
“Did you see the man on horseback, going down, just before dusk?” asked the officer.
“Yes, but not near enough to know him. You don’t suppose Sibyl would go up to her old home do you, Brian?”
“She might, under the circumstances. Aaron and I will ride up there, on the chance.”
“You’ll stop in on your way back?” called the rancher, as the two horsemen moved away.
“Sure,” answered the Ranger.
An hour later, they were back. They had found the old home under the giant sycamores, on the edge of the little clearing, dark and untenanted.
Lights were shining, now, from the windows of the Carleton ranch-house. Down at the corral, the twinkling gleam of a lantern bobbed here and there. As the Ranger and his companion drew near, the lantern came rapidly up the hill. At the porch, they were met by Henry Carleton, his two sons, and a ranch hand. As the four stood in the light of the window, and of the lantern on the porch, listening to Brian Oakley’s report, each held the bridle-reins of a saddle-horse.
“I figured that the chance of her being up there was so mighty slim that we’d better be ready to ride when you got back,” said the mountain ranchman. “What’s your program, Brian?” Thus simply he put himself and his household in command of the Ranger.
The officer turned to the eldest son, “Jack, you’ve got the fastest horse in the outfit. I want you to go down to the Power-House and find out if any one there saw Sibyl anywhere on the road. You see,” he explained to the group, “we don’t know for sure, yet, that she came into the mountains. While I haven’t a doubt but she did, we’ve got to know.”
Jack Carleton was in the saddle as the Ranger finished The officer turned to him again. “Find out what you can about that automobile and the man on horseback. We’ll be at the Station when you get back.” There was a sharp clatter of iron-shod hoofs, and the rider disappeared in the darkness of the night.
The other members of the little party rode more leisurely down the canyon road to the Ranger Station. When they arrived at the house, Brian Oakley said, “Make yourselves easy, boys. I’m going to write a little note.” He went into the house where, as they sat on the porch, they saw him through the window, his desk.
The Ranger had finished his letter and with the sealed official envelope in his hand, appeared in the doorway when his messenger to the Power-House returned. Without dismounting, the rider reined his horse up to the porch. “Good time, Jack,” said the officer, quietly.