"You do puzzle one,Miss Mayhew.On the day of our visit to the old garden your thoughts seemed as clear to me as the water of the little brook,and I supposed I saw all that was in your mind.But before the day was over I felt that I did not understand you at all.""Mr.Van Berg,I'm astonished you are an artist.""Because of the character of my work?"
"No,indeed.But such a wonderful taste for solving problems suggests a metaphysician.I think you would become discouraged with such tasks.Just think how many ladies there are in the world,and I'm sure any one of them is a more abstruse problem than I am."The artist looked up at her in surprise and bit his lip with a faint trace of embarrassment,but he said,after a moment,"But it does not follow that they are interesting problems.""You don't know,"she replied.
"And never shall,"he added."I do know,however,that you are a very interesting one.""I didn't agree to come here to be solved as a problem,"she said demurely,but with a mirthful twinkle in her eyes;"I only promised you a sitting for the sake of Mr.Eltinge.""Two sittings,Miss Mayhew."
"Well,yes,if two are needful."
"By all the nine muses!you do not expect me to make a good picture from only two sittings?""You know how slight is my acquaintance with any of those superior divinities,and in this sacred haunt of theirs I feel that I should express all my opinions with bated breath;but truly,Mr.Van Berg,I thought you could make a picture from the sketch you made in the garden.""Yes,I could make A picture,but every sitting you will give enables me to make a better picture,and you know how much we both owe to Mr.Eltinge.""I'm learning every day how much,how very much,I owe to him,"she said,earnestly.
"Then for his sake you will promise to come as often as I wish you to,"was his eager response,and it was so eager that she looked up at him in surprise.
"Really,Mr.Van Berg,I am becoming bewildered as to what that little sketch I asked you to make may involve.""Will it be so wearisome for you to come here?"he asked,with a look of disappointment that surprised her still more.
"I didn't say that,"was her quick reply;"and I promise to come to-morrow.Perhaps you will find that sufficient.""I know it won't be sufficient."
"Cousin Ik has told me that you are very painstaking and conscientious in your work.""Thanks to Cousin Ik.When I get a chance to paint such a picture as this I do,indeed,wish to make the most of it.""But how long must Mr.Eltinge wait for it?""I think we can send it to him as a Christmas present.""We?You,rather,will send it."
"No,WE;or rather,in giving me the sittings you give Mr.Eltinge all that makes the picture valuable to him."Ida's cheeks began to burn,for the artist's words suggested a powerful temptation that;in accordance with her impetuous nature,came in the form of an impulse rather than an insidious and lurking thought.The impulse was to accept of the opportunities he pressed upon her,and,if possible,win him away from Jennie Burton.At first it seemed a mean and dishonorable thing to do,and her face grew crimson with shame at the very thought.Van Berg looked at her with surprise.Conscious himself that while he meant that Mr.Eltinge should profit richly from her visits,it was not by any means for the sake of the old gentleman only that he had been requesting her to come so often,his own color began to rise.
"She begins to see that my motives are a little mixed,and that is what is embarrassing her,"he thought as he bent over his work to hide his own confusion.
"Mr.Van Berg,I'm getting tired of sitting still,"Ida exclaimed.
"It's contrary to my restless disposition.May I not make an exploring tour around your studio?You have no idea what a constraint I've been putting on my feminine curiosity.""I give you a 'carte-blanche'to do as you please.Have you much curiosity?""I'm a daughter of Eve."
"Well,I'm coming to the conclusion that there is a good deal of 'old Adam'in me,"and he felt that as she then appeared she could tempt him to almost anything.
Now that her back was towards him she felt safer,and her mellow laugh trilled out as she said,"We may have to dub this place a confessional rather than a studio of you talk in that way.""If I confessed all my sins against you,Miss Mayhew,it would,indeed,be a confessional."He spoke so earnestly that she gave him a quick glance of surprise.
"There is no need,"she said,hesitatingly,"since I have given you full absolution,"and she suddenly became interested in something in the farthest corner of the apartment.After a moment she added,"If I am to come here I must say to you again,as I did on the day I so disgusted you by my behavior in the stage--you must let by-gones be by-gones."It was now the artist's turn to laugh,and his merriment was so hearty and prolonged that she turned a vexed and crimson face towards him and said,"I think it's too bad in you to laugh at me so.""Miss Mayhew,I assure you I'm not laughing at you at all.But your words suggest a good omen.Didn't that stage teach you that fate means us to be good friends in spite of all you can do?Before we met in that car of fortune I had been trying for a week or more to make your acquaintance,and made a martyr of myself in the effort.