THE GATES OPEN
At Dennis's request, Dr. Arten called and carefully inquired into Mrs.
Fleet's symptoms. Her son stood anxiously by awaiting the result of
the examination. At last the physician said, cheerily: "There is no
immediate occasion for alarm here. I am sorry to say that your mother's
lungs are far from strong, but they may carry her through many
comfortable years yet. I will prescribe tonics, and you may hope for
the best. But mark this well, she must avoid exposure. A severe cold
might be most serious in its consequences."
How easy to say, "Do not take cold!" How many whose lives were at stake
have sought to obey the warning, but all in vain! Under Dr. Arten's
tonics, Mrs. Fleet grew stronger, and Dennis rejoiced over the
improvement. But, in one of the sudden changes attendant on the breaking
up of winter, the dreaded cold was taken, and it soon developed into
acute pneumonia.
For a few days she was very ill, and Dennis never left her side. In
the intervals of pain and fever she would smile at him and whisper:
"The harbor is near. This rough weather cannot last much longer."
"Mother, do not leave us; we cannot spare you," ever pleaded her son.
Contrary to her expectations, however, she rallied, but continued in
a very feeble state. Dennis was able to resume his duties in the store,
and he hoped and tried to believe that the warm spring and summer days
soon to come would renew his mother's strength. But every day she grew
feebler, and Dr. Arten shook his head.
The Bruders were very kind, and it was astonishing how much Mrs. Bruder,
though burdened with her large family, found time to do. If Mrs. Fleet
had been her own mother she could not have bestowed upon her more
loving solicitude. Mr. Bruder was devotion itself. He removed his easel
to an attic-room in Mrs. Fleet's house; and every hour of Dennis's
absence heard him say: "Vat I do for you now? I feel no goot unless
I do someding."
Some little time after Mrs. Fleet was taken sick a mystery arose. The
most exquisite flowers and fruits were left at the house from time to
time, marked in a bold, manly hand, "For Mrs. Fleet." But all efforts
to discover their source failed.
The reader will guess that Christine was the donor, and Dennis hoped
it--though, he admitted to himself, with little reason.
Mrs. Fleet had not much pain. She seemed gently wafted as by an ebbing
tide away from time and earth, Kindly but firmly she sought to prepare
Dennis's mind for the change soon to take place. At first he could not
endure its mention, but she said, earnestly: "My son, I am not dying.
I am just entering on the true, real, eternal life--a life which is
as much beyond this poor feeble existence as the sun is brighter than
a glow-worm. I shall soon clasp my dear husband to my heart again,
and, oh, ecstasy! I shall soon in reality see the Saviour whom I now
see almost continually in vision."
Then again she would turn toward her earthly treasures with unutterable
yearning and tenderness.
"Oh, that I could gather you up in my arms and take you all with me!"
she would often exclaim. Many times during the day she would call the
little girls from their play and kiss their wondering faces.
One evening Dennis came home and found a vase of flowers with a green
background of mint at his mother's bedside. Their delicate fragrance
greeted him as soon as he entered. As he sat by her side holding her
hand, he said, softly: "Mother, are not these sprays of mint rather
unusual in a bouquet? Has the plant any special meaning? I have noticed
it before mingled with these mysterious flowers."
She smiled and answered, "When I was a girl its language was, 'Let us
be friends again.'"
"Do you think--can it be possible that _she_ sends them?" said he, in a
low, hesitating tone.
"Prayer is mighty, my son."
"And have you been praying for her all this time, mother?"
"Yes, and will continue to do so to the last."
"Oh, mother! I have lost hope. My heart has been full of bitterness
toward her, and I have felt that God was against it all."
"God is not against her learning to know Him, which is life. Jesus has
loved her all the time, and she has wronged Him more than she has you."
Dennis bowed his head on his mother's hand, and she felt hot tears
fall upon it. At last he murmured: "You are indeed going to heaven
soon, dear mother, for your language is not of earth. When will such
a spirit dwell within me?"
"Again remember your mother's words," she answered, gently; "prayer
is mighty."
"Mother," said he, with a sudden earnestness, "do you think you can
pray for us in heaven?"
"I know of no reason to the contrary."
"Then I know you will, and the belief will ever be a source of hope
and strength."
Mrs. Fleet was now passing through the land of Beulah. To her strong
spiritual vision, the glories of the other shore seemed present, and
at times she thought that she really heard music; again it would seem
as if her Saviour had entered the plain little room, as He did the
humble home at Bethany.
Her thoughts ran much on Christine. One day she wrote, feebly:
"Would Miss Ludolph be willing to come and see a dying woman?
ETHEL FLEET."
Mr. Bruder carried it, but most unfortunately Christine was out, so
that her maid, ever on the alert to earn the price of her treachery,
received it. It was slightly sealed. She opened it, and saw from its
contents that it must be given to Mr. Ludolph. He with a frown committed
it to the flames.
"I have written to her," she whispered to her son in the evening, "and
think she will come to see me."
Dennis was sleepless that night, through his hope and eager expectation.
The following day, and the next passed, and she came not.
"I was right," exclaimed he, bitterly. "She is utterly heartless. It
was not she who sent the flowers. Who that is human would have refused
such a request! Waste no more thought upon her, for she is unworthy,
and it is all in vain." "No!" said Mrs. Fleet in sudden energy. "It
is not in vain. Have I not prayed again and again? and shall I doubt
God?"
"Your faith is stronger than mine," he answered, in deep despondency.
"God's time is not always ours," she answered, gently.
But an angry fire lurked in Dennis's eyes, and he muttered to himself
as he went to his room: "She has snapped the last slender cord that
bound me to her. I could endure almost anything myself, but that she
should refuse to visit my dying mother proves her a monster, with all
her beauty."
As he was leaving the house in the morning, his mother whispered,
gently, "Who was it that said, 'Father, forgive them, they know not what
they do?'"
"Ah, but she does know," said he, bitterly. "I can forgive nearly
everything against myself, but not slights to you."
"The time will come when you will forgive everything, my son."
"Not till there is acknowledgment and sorrow for the wrong," answered
he, sternly. Then with a sudden burst of tenderness he added: "Good-by,
darling mother. I will try to do anything you wish, even though it is
impossible;" but his love, through Janette's treachery, suffered the
deepest wound it had yet received.
Christine of her own accord had almost decided to call upon Mrs. Fleet,
but before she could carry out her purpose while hastily coming
downstairs one day, she sprained her ankle, and was confined to her
room some little time.
She sent Janette with orders for the flowers, who, at once surmising
their destination, said to the florist that she was Miss Ludolph's
confidential maid, and would carry them to those for whom they were
designed. He, thinking it "all right," gave them to her, and she took
them to a Frenchman in the same trade whom she knew, and sold them at
half-price, giving him a significant sign to ask no questions. To the
same market she brought the fruit; so from that time they ceased as
mysteriously as they had appeared at Mrs. Fleet's bedside.
But Dennis was so anxious, and his mother was now failing so rapidly,
that he scarcely noted this fact. The warm spring days seemed rather
to enervate than to strengthen her. He longed to stay with her
constantly, but his daily labor was necessary to secure the comforts
needful to an invalid. Every morning he bade her a most tender adieu,
and during the day often sent Ernst to inquire how she was.
One evening Christine ventured to send Janette on the same errand and
impatiently awaited her return. At last she came, appearing as if
flushed and angry.
"Whom did you see?" asked Christine, eagerly.
"I saw Mr. Fleet himself."
"Well, what did he say?"
"He bite his lip, frown, and say, 'Zere is no answer,' and turn on his
heel into ze house."
It was now Christine's turn to be angry. "What!" she exclaimed, "does
his Bible teach him to forget and forgive nothing? Can it be that he,
like the rest of them, believes and acts on only such parts as are to
his mood?"
"I don't know nothing about him," said the maid, "only I don't want
to go zere again."
"You need not," was the brief reply.
After a long, bitter revery, she sighed: "Ah, well, thus we drift
apart. But it is just as well, for apart we must ever be."
One morning early in May Mrs. Fleet was very weak, and Dennis left her
with painful misgivings. During the morning he sent Ernst to see how
she was, and he soon returned, with wild face, crying, "Come home
quick!"
Breaking abruptly from his startled customer, Dennis soon reached his
mother's side. Mr. and Mrs. Bruder were sobbing at the foot of the
bed, and the girls were pleading piteously on either side--"Oh, mother!
please don't go away!"
"Hush!" said Dennis, solemnly. Awed by his manner, all became
comparatively silent. He bent over the bed, and said, "Mother, you are
leaving us."
The voice of her beloved son rallied the dying woman's wandering mind.
After a moment she recognized him, smiled faintly, and whispered: "Yes,
I think I am--kiss me--good-by. Bring--the children. Jesus--take
care--my little--lambs. Good-by--true--honest friends--meet me--heaven.
Dennis--these children--your charge--bring them home--to me. Pray for
_her_. I don't know--why--she seems very--near to me. Farewell--my
good--true--son--mother's blessing--God's blessing--ever rest--on you."
Her eyes closed, and she fell into a gentle sleep.
"She vake no more in dis vorld," said Mrs. Bruder, in an awed tone.
Mr. Bruder, unable to control his feelings any longer, hurried from
the room. His wife, with streaming eyes, silently dressed the little
girls, and took them home with her, crying piteously all the way for
mamma.
Pale, tearless, motionless, Dennis sat, hour after hour holding his
mother's hand. He noted that her pulse grew more and more feeble. At
last the sun in setting broke through the clouds that had obscured it
all day, and filled the room with a sudden glory.
To Dennis's great surprise, his mother's eyes opened wide, with the
strange, far-off look they ever had when she was picturing to herself
the unknown world.
Her lips moved. He bent over her and caught the words: "Hark! hear!--It
never was so sweet before. See the angels--thronging toward me--they
never came so near before."
Then a smile of joy and welcome lighted up her wan features, and she
whispered, "Oh, Dennis, husband--are we once more united?"
Suddenly there was a look of ecstasy such as her son had never seen
on any human face, and she cried almost aloud, "Jesus--my Saviour!"
and received, as it were, directly into His arms, she passed from
earth.
We touch briefly on the scenes that followed. Dennis took the body of
his mother to her old home, and buried it under the wide-spreading elm
in the village churchyard, where as a happy child and blooming maiden
she had often sat between the services. It was his purpose to remove
the remains of his father and place them by her side as soon as he
could afford it.
His little sisters accompanied him east, and he found a home for them
with a sister of his mother, who was a good, kind, Christian lady.
Dennis's salary was not large, but sufficient to insure that his sisters
would be no burden to his aunt, who was in rather straitened
circumstances. He also arranged that the small annuity should be paid
for their benefit.
It was hard parting from his sisters, whose little hearts seemed
breaking at what appeared to them to be a new bereavement.
"How can I leave them!" he exclaimed, with tears falling fast from his
eyes.
"They are children," said his aunt, soothingly, "and will forget their
troubles in a few days."
And so it proved; but Dennis, with a sore heart, and feeling very
lonely, returned to Chicago.
When at last Christine got out again, she learned from Ernst at the
store that Dennis's mother had died, and that he had taken the remains
and his sisters east. In his sorrow he seemed doubly interesting to
her.
"How I wish it were in my power to cheer and comfort him!" she sighed,
"and yet I fear my ability to do this is less than that of any one
else. In very truth he seems to despise and hate me now. The barriers
between us grow stronger and higher every day. How different it all
might have been if--. But what is the use of these wretched 'ifs'?
What is the use of resisting this blind, remorseless fate that brings
happiness to one and crushes another?"
Wearily and despondingly she rode back to the elegant home in which
she found so little enjoyment.
Whom should she met there but Mrs. Von Brakhiem from New York, bound
westward with a gay party on a trip to the Rocky Mountains and
California? They had stopped to spend a few days in Chicago, and were
determined to take Christine on with them. Her father strongly seconded
the plan. Though Christine surmised his motive, she did not care to
resist. Since she would soon be separated from Dennis forever, the
less she saw of him the less would be the pain. Moreover, her sore and
heavy heart welcomed any change that would cause forgetfulness; and
so it was speedily arranged.
Mrs. Von Brakhiem and her party quite took possession of the Ludolph
mansion, and often made it echo with gayety.
On the evening of the day that Dennis buried his mother, Ernst went over
at Mr. Ludolph's request to carry a message. He found the house
the scene of a fashionable revel. There were music and dancing in the
parlors, and from the dining-room the clink of glasses and loud peals
of laughter proved that this was not Christine's ideal of an
entertainment as she had portrayed it to her father on a former
occasion. In truth, she had little to do with the affair; it was quite
impromptu, and Mr. Ludolph and Mrs. Von Brakhiem were responsible for
it.
But Ernst could not know this, and to him it seemed shocking. The
simple funeral service taking place on that day in the distant New
England village had never been absent from his thoughts a moment. Since
early morning he had gone about with his little face composed to
funereal gravity.
His simple, warm-hearted parents felt that they could only show proper
respect for the occasion by the deepest gloom. Their rooms were arranged
in stiff and formal manner, with crape here and there. All unnecessary
work ceased, and the children, forbidden to play, were dressed in
mourning as far as possible, and made to sit in solemn and dreadful
state all day. It would not have surprised Ernst if the whole city had
gone into mourning. Therefore the revelry at the Ludolph mansion seemed
to him heartless and awful beyond measure, and nearly the first things
he told Dennis on the latter's return was that they had had "a great
dancing and drinking party, the night of the funeral, at Mr. Ludolph's."
Then, trying to find some explanation for what seemed to him such a
strange and wicked thing, he suggested, "Perhaps they meant it for a
wake."
Poor little Ernst's ideas of the world, outside of his home, had been
gathered from a very low neighborhood.
He also handed Dennis a letter that Mr. Ludolph requested should be
given him on his return. It read as follows:
"CHICAGO, May 6, 1871.
"I have been compelled to supply your place in your absence: therefore
your services will be no longer needed at this store. Inclosed you
will find a check for the small balance still due you,
AUGUST LUDOLPH."
Dennis's brow grew very dark, and in bitter soliloquy he said, half
aloud, as he strode up and down his little room in great agitation:
"And so it all ends! The girl at whose side my mother would have watched
in the most dangerous and loathsome of diseases; the woman of ice whom
I sought to melt and render human by as warm, true love as ever man
lavished on one who rewarded his affection--this beautiful monster
will not even visit my mother when dying; she holds a revel on the day
of the funeral; and now, through her influence no doubt, I am robbed
of the chance of winning honest bread. She cannot even endure the sight
of the man who once told her the unvarnished truth. Poor as you deem
me, Christine Ludolph, with God's help not many years shall pass before
it will be condescension on my part to recognize you."
He would not even go to the store again. The Bruders, having heard
what had occurred, took Ernst away also; but Dennis soon found him a
better situation elsewhere.
The day on which Dennis returned, Christine was speeding in a palace-car
toward the Rocky Mountains, outwardly gay, determined to enjoy herself
and carry out her reckless purpose to get the most possible out of
life, cost what it might.
If she had been a shallow girl, thoughtless and vain, with only mind
enough to take in the events of the passing moment, she might have
bought many fleeting pleasures with her abundant wealth. But this she
was not, with all her faults, and wherever she went, in the midst of
gayest scenes, and in the presence of the grandest and most inspiring
scenery, thought and memory, like two spectres that no spell could lay,
haunted her and robbed her of peace and any approach to happiness.
Though possessing the means of gratifying every whim, though restrained
by no scruples from doing what she chose, she felt that all around
were getting more from life than she.
During her absence she experienced a sudden and severe attack of
illness. Her friends were much alarmed about her, and she far more
about herself. All her old terror returned. In one respect she was
like her mother; she had no physical courage, but shrank with
inexpressible dread from danger, pain, and death. Again the blackness
of darkness gathered round her, and not one in the gay pleasure party
could say a word to comfort her.
She recovered, and soon regained her usual health, but her
self-confidence was more thoroughly shaken. She felt like one in a
little cockle-shell boat out upon a shoreless ocean. While the
treacherous sea remained calm, all might be well, but she knew that
a storm would soon arise, and that she must go down, beyond remedy.
Again she had been taught how suddenly, how unexpectedly, that storm
might rise.
Dennis resolved at once to enter on the career of an artist. He sold
to Mr. French, at a moderate price, some paintings and sketches he had
made. He rented a small room that became his studio,
sleeping-apartment--in brief, his home, and then went to work with all
the ordinary incentives to success intensified by his purpose to reach
a social height that would compel Christine to look upward if their
acquaintance were renewed.
Disappointment in love is one of the severest tests of character in
man or woman. Some sink into weak sentimentality, and mope and languish;
some become listless, apathetic, and float down the current of existence
like driftwood. Men are often harsh and cynical, and rail at the sex
to which their mothers and sisters belong. Sometimes a man inflicts
a wellnigh fatal wound and leaves his victim to cure it as best she
may. From that time forth she may be like the wronged Indian, who slays
as many white men as he can. Not a few, on finding they cannot enter
the beautiful paradise of happy love, plunge into imbruting vice, and
drown not only their disappointment but themselves in dissipation.
Their course is like that of some who deem that the best way to cure
a wound or end a disease is to kill the patient as soon as possible.
If women have true metal in them (and they usually have) they become
unselfishly devoted to others, and by gentle, self-denying ways seek
to impart to those about them the happiness denied to themselves.
But with all manly young men the instinct of Dennis is perhaps the
most common. They will rise, shine, and dazzle the eyes that once
looked scornfully or indifferently at them.
As he worked patiently at his noble calling this smaller ambition was
gradually lost in the nobler, broader one, to be a true artist and a
good man.
During his illness some gentlemen of large wealth and liberality, who
wished to stimulate and develop the native artistic talent of their
city, offered a prize of two thousand dollars for the finest picture
painted during the year, the artist also having the privilege of selling
his work.
On his return after his illness Dennis heard of this, and determined
to be one of the competitors. He applied to Mr. Cornell, who had the
matter in charge, for permission to enter the lists, which that
gentleman granted rather doubtfully. He had known Dennis only as a
critic, not as an artist. But having gained his point, Dennis went
earnestly to work on the emblematic painting he had resolved upon, and
with what success the following chapters will show.
His mother's sickness and death, of course, put a complete shop to his
artistic labors for a time, but when entering on his new career, he
gave himself wholly to this effort.
The time for exhibition and decision was fixed--Saturday morning October
7, 1871.