"For a wonder I also can half agree with Mr.Van Berg--congenial society for me or none at all."A second later she could have bitten her tongue out before uttering words virtually claimed Sibley as her most congenial companion.
"Miss Mayhew is better than most of us in that she lives up to her theories,"Van Berg remarked,coldly.
Her eyes shot at him a sudden flash of impotent protest and resentment,and then she lowered her head with a flush of the deepest shame.
At that moment a loud discordant laugh from Sibley caused many to look around toward him,and not a few shook their heads and exchanged significant glances,intimating that they thought the young man was in a "bad way.""Your philosophy,Mr.Van Berg,"said Miss Burton,"may answer very well for the wise and fortunate,for those whose lives are as yet unspoiled and unblighted by themselves or others.But even an artist,who by his vocation gives his attention to the beautiful,must nevertheless see that there are many in the world who are neither wise nor fortunate--who seem predestined by their circumstances,folly,and defective natures to blunder and sin till they reach a point where reason and intelligence can do little more for them than reveal how foolish and wrong they have been,or how great a good they have missed and lost irrevocably.The past,with its opportunities,has gone,and the remnant of earthly life offers such a dismal prospect,and they find themselves so shut up to a certain lot,so shackled by the very conditions in which they exist,that they are disheartened.It is hard for many of us not to feel that we have been utterly defeated and so sink into fatal apathy."Mr.Mayhew,who had been coldly impassive and resolutely taciturn thus far,now leaned back in his chair,and his eyes glowed like two lamps from beneath the eaves of his shaggy brows.A young and lovely woman was giving voice to his own crushed and ill-starred nature;and strange to say,she identified herself with the class for which she spoke.in the depths of his heart he bowed down,reverenced,and thanked her for claiming this kinship to himself,even thought he knew it must be misfortune and not wrong that had marred her life.
If Van Berg had not been so preoccupied with the speaker,he would have seen that the daughter also was hanging on the lips that were expressing simply and eloquently the thoughts with which her own heavy heart was burdened.But when the artist began to speak,Ida's face grew paler than ever as she saw the glow of admiration and sympathy that lighted up his features.Compliments she had received in endless variety all her life,but never had she seen a man look at her with that expression.
"Pardon me,Miss Burton,"he said,"if I protest against your using the pronoun you did.No one will ever be able to associate the word 'defeat'with you.I do not understand your philosophy;but I know it is far better than mine.While I admit the truth of your words that I do professionally shut my eyes as far as possible to all the ugly facts of life,still I have been compelled to note that the world is full of evils for which I can see no remedy,and as a matter of common experience they apparently never are remedied.