"Then I'll teach you after the Socratic method,and ask you questions.""I fear some of them might be too personal.You have such a mania for solving everything.""And did you fear that at some of the many sittings I shall need this fall I might again broach every subject under the sun,and so you were led to read an encyclopaedia to be prepared?""Is that what you mean by the Socratic method?I decline any lessons concerning art or anything else on that plan,for you would find out everything.""I shall,anyway.How long ago it seems since we took that stupid walk together on Mr.Burleigh's piazza!We are nearer together now,Miss Ida,than we were then.""Oh!no,indeed,"she replied quickly;"I had your arm on that occasion.""But you have my sincere friendship and respect now.I can't tell you how pleased I was when I saw how you had honored the little emblematic flower I gave you this morning.That you wear it to-night as your only ornament gives me hope that you do value my respect and regard.""I think I had better let the rose-bud answer you,and I confess I like to think how perfect it is when I remember the meaning you gave to it,though how you can respect me at all I cannot understand.
Still,I am like father--next to God's favor the respect of those I esteem does most to sustain and reassure me.But,oh!Mr.Van Berg,you can't know what an honest sense of ill-desert I have.It is so hard just to do right,no matter what the consequences may be.""The trouble with me is that I am not trying as you are.But Iknow,with absolute certainty,that the strongest impulse of true friendship,or at least of mine,in this instance,is to render some service to my friend.You will make me very happy if you will tell me something I can do for you.""You are helping me very much in your manner towards father,and I do thank you from the very depths of my heart.In no way could you have won from me a deeper gratitude.And--well--your kindness almost tempts me to ask for another favor,Mr.Van Berg."He sprang to her side and took her hand.
Quickly withdrawing it,she said with a little decisive node:"You must sit down and sit still,for I have along,tiresome story to tell,and a very prosaic favor to ask;"for she had resolved,"he shall go forward now with his eyes open,and he shall never say Iwon him by seeming what I was not.If I can't deal right by Jennie Burton,I will by him.""I shall find no service prosaic;see,I'm all attention,"and he did look very eager indeed.
"That encyclopaedia suggests my story,and I may have to refer incidentally to myself.""Leave the book out;I'll listen for ages.""I should be out of breath before that.Mr.Van Berg,I'm in earnest;I don't know anything worth knowing.My life has been worse than wasted,and the only two things I understand well are dancing and flirting.Now I know you are disgusted,but its the truth.My old,fashionable life seems to me like the tawdry scenes of a second-rate theatre,where everything is for effect and nothing is real.Ihave hosts of acquaintances,but I haven't any friends except Mr.
Eltinge."
"And Harold Van Berg,"put in the artist,promptly.
"It's good of you to say that after such confessions,"she continued,with a shy glance."I hope it wasn't out of politeness.Well,I've waked up at last.I think you first startled me out of my insufferable stupidity and silliness at the concert garden,and I'm very much obliged to you for the remark you made to Cousin Ik on that occasion.""Yes,I remember,"Van Berg groaned."I waked you up as if I were trying to put your shoulder out of joint.Well,I'm waking up also.""You have no idea what a perfect sham of a life I led,"and she told him frankly of her wasted school days and of her trip abroad,for which she had no preparation of mind or character."A butterfly might have flown over the same ground and come back just as wise,"she said."But I have suddenly entered a new world of truth and duty,and I am bewildered;I am anxious to fit myself for the society of sensible,cultivated people,and I am discouraged by the task before me.I went to father's library yesterday and was perfectly appalled by the number of books and subjects that I know nothing about.The fact that I stumbled into that encyclopaedia,which gave you the laugh against me,shows how helpless I am.
Indeed,I'm like a little child trying to find its way through a wilderness of knowledge.I blundered on as far as Amsterdam,and there I stopped in despair.I didn't know what was before me,and I was getting everything I had been over confused and mixed up in my mind.And now,Mr.Van Berg,with your thorough education and wide experience you can tell me what to read and how to read."Van Berg's face was fairly alive with interest,and he said eagerly:
"The favor you ask suggests a far greater one on my part.Let me go with you through this wilderness of knowledge.We can take up courses of reading together."At this moment Mr.Mayhew entered,and the artist hesitated to go on with his far-reaching offers,and,indeed,he suddenly began to realize,with some embarrassment,how much they did involve.
But Ida maintained her presence of mind,and said,simply:"That would be impossible,though no doubt exceedingly helpful to me.