The Miss Mayhew that crossed the artist's threshold the following morning might have been taken as a model of graceful self-possession,but she disguised a maiden with as fluttering a heart and trembling a soul as ever faced one of the supreme moments of destiny.Her father,however,proved a faithful and intelligent ally,and his manner towards Van Berg was a fine blending of courtesy and dignity,suggesting a man as capable of conferring as of receiving favors.
His host would indeed have been blind and stupid if he had tried to patronize Mr.Mayhew that morning.
Although unconscious of the fact,Van Berg was for a time subjected to the closest scrutiny.Love had deep if not dark designs against him,and the glances he bent on Ida might suggest that he was only too ready to become a victim.He had welcomed to his study two conspirators who were committed to their plot by the strongest of motives,and yet they were such novel conspirators that a word,a glance,an expression even of "ennui"or indifference would have so touched their pride that they would have abandoned their wiles at every cost to themselves.Were they trying to ensnare him?
Never were such films and gossamer threads used in like entanglement before.He could have brushed them all away by one cold sweep of his eyes,and the maiden who had not scrupled at death to gain merely his respect,would have left the studio with a colder glance than his,nor would her womanly strength have failed her until she reached a refuge which his eye could not penetrate;but then--God pity her.The tragedies over which the angels weep are the bloodless wounds of the spirit.
But it would seem that the atmosphere of Van Berg's studio that summer morning was not at all conducive to tragedy of any kind,nor were there in his face or manner any indications of comedy,which to poor Ida would have been far worse;for an air of careless "bonhomie"on his part when she was so desperately in earnest would have made his smiles and jests like heartless mockery.
And yet,in spite of his manner the previous day,the poor girl had come to the studio fearing far more than she hoped,and burdened also with a troubled conscience.She was almost sure she was not doing right,and yet the temptation was too strong to be resisted.
But when he took her hand in greeting that morning,and said with a smile that seemed to flash out from the depths of his soul,"I won't hurt you any more if I can help it,"all scruples,all hesitancy vanished for a time,like frostwork in the sun.His magnetism was irresistible,and she felt that it would require all her tact and resolution to keep him by some careless,random word or act,from brushing aside the veil behind which shrank her trembling,and as yet,unsought love.
But Van Berg was even a rarer study than the maiden,and his manner towards both Ida and her father might well lead one to think that he was inclined to become the chief conspirator in the design against himself.He had scarcely been conscious of time or place since parting the previous day with the friend he was so bent on securing,and when at last he slept in the small hours of the morning he dreamt that he had been caught by a mighty tidal wave that was bearing him swiftly towards heaven on its silver crest.
When he awoke,the wave,so far from being a bubble,seemed a grand spiritual reality,and he felt as if he had already reached a seventh heaven of vague,undefined exhilaration.Never before had life appeared so rich a possession and so full of glorious possibilities.Never in the past had he felt his profession to be so noble and worthy of his devotion,and never had the fame he hoped to grasp by means of it seemed so near.Beauty became to him so infinitely beautiful and divine that he felt he could worship it were it only embodied,and then with a strange and exquisite thrill of exultation he exclaimed:"Right or wrong,to my eye it is embodied in Ida Mayhew,and she will fill my studio with light again to-day and many days to come.If ever an artist was fortunate in securing as a friend,as an inspiration,a perfect and budding flower of personal and spiritual loveliness,I am that happy man."The Van Berg of other days would have called the Van Berg that waited impatiently for his guests that morning a rhapsodical fool,and the greater part of the world would offer no dissent.The world is very prone to call every man who is possessed by a little earnestness or enthusiasm a fool,but it is usually an open question which is the more foolish--the world or the man;and perhaps we shall all learn some day that there was more of sanity in our rhapsodies than in the shrewd calculations that verged towards meanness.Be this as it may in the abstract,Van Berg regarded himself as the most rational man in the city that morning.He did not try to account for his mental state by musty and proverbial wisdom or long-established principles of psychology.The glad,strong consciousness of his own soul satisfied him and made everything appear natural.Since he HAD this strong and growing friendship for this maiden,who was evidently pleased to come again to his studio,though so coy and shy in admitting it,why should he not have it?There was nothing in his creed against such a friendship,and everything for it.
Men of talent,not to mention genius,had ever sought inspiration from those most capable of imparting it,and this girl's beauty and character were kindling his mind to that extent that he began to hope he could now do some of the finest work of his life.The fact that he felt towards her the strongest friendly regard was in itself enough,and Van Berg was too good a modern thinker to dispute with facts,especially agreeable ones.