One unlooked-for result of the evening’s happenings was that
O’Leary’s antagonism to Dangerfield seemed completely to disappear.
Indeed, he seemed now to share Inga’s devotion--probably for no
other reason than that Dangerfield, in a moment of perplexity, had
called him to his assistance.
The effect on Dangerfield was marked. He sobered up all at once, as
though concentrated on some fixed purpose. Yet the restless note
remained--if anything, it was aggravated. There was always about
him, even in the midst of conversation, the effect of listening for
some distant warning sound. Another thing they noticed was that
he did not leave the arcade or indeed the sixth floor, having his
meals sent in by Sassafras. When O’Leary went down to see him the
second night, he had to name himself in a loud voice before the
door was opened cautiously, while once inside, he found quite a
system of bars and bolts had been installed; and by this he divined
that Inga had found a means to warn him.
The change in Dangerfield brought a more pliable mood, of which the
girl availed herself to amuse his mind with the final arrangement
of the studio. Curiously enough, though it was characteristic of
his disconnected actions, he made but one reference, and that an
indirect one, to the abrupt interruption of the woman, whoever she
might have been in his other life. It was the second afternoon, and
they were engaged in hanging pictures and placing the bric-à-brac.
For long periods he was keen and interested, deeply enjoying
her enthusiasm; then, all at once, there came a spell of moody
aloofness in which he forgot her, roving about the room with a
nervous, jerky snapping of his fingers, talking to himself. Once he
stopped with his ear trained to some outer noise and went abruptly
to the door for a suspicious survey. That ended, he closed it
carefully and drew each bolt, trying the strength of the door.
“A couple of bars,” he said, as though dissatisfied; “that’s what
it needs.”
He came back, and, seemingly struck with her presence, went up to
her and laid one of his big hands on her shoulder.
“You think this all very queer, don’t you?”
“It is no business of mine,” she said.
“How do I know you’re not in their game--you, too?” he said
abruptly, and a startled leap of suspicion came into his
yellow-green eyes that made them almost uncanny. “By George, that
would be clever!”
“Don’t get excited, Mr. Dangerfield,” she said; and whether
consciously or unconsciously, her voice took on that dreamy, quiet
tone--like the bubbling of waters along hidden brooks--that seemed
to exercise a peculiar quieting effect upon him.
“No, no; that’s crazy,” he said. Then he frowned suddenly. “Well,
it will all come out soon--the truth--as much as people ever get of
the truth.”
“Where do you want to hang this?”
He stopped and came back, studying a long time the canvas she held
up, a study of sunlight through the foliage that flung spattered
shadows across a group of urchins.
“Like that?” he said suddenly.
“I like it the best.”
“You do?”
She smiled and nodded.
“I thought that a great picture when I painted it--where was it?
Yes, at Étretat,” he said moodily. “Wonder how good it really is?
So you like it best, do you?”
“It’s so sure and daring; and there’s something that draws you into
it.”
“Why, that’s good criticism,” he said, pleased. “Yes, that’s
youth--when you don’t know how difficult the thing is. That’s why
sometimes you succeed in doing it--Well, we’ll give it the place of
honor. Wish the sun shone like that nowadays.”
“You haven’t taken off the signature,” she said, pointing to the
lower corner. “Do you want to?”
“That’s queer! Thought I’d cleaned them all up,” he said, without
appearing to notice the knowledge her remark implied.
He took a palette-knife and carefully shaved away the telltale
strokes.
When they had hung the picture, he seemed to come out of his mental
eclipse as though reinvigorated, and turned to her quite normally.
“Why, you must be tired!” he said, with a sudden contrition. “What
a brute I am! Kept you up all night, too.”
She shook her head and smiled.
“I like this--I like changing something bare and empty into
something beautiful and fine.”
“Now, just what do you mean by that?” he said, with an odd smile;
but, seeing by her expression that she had meant nothing more than
the words implied, he laughed to himself and added thoughtfully,
with some personal show of interest, as he looked into her quiet
eyes:
“Queer--that you should happen to be just over there!”
“Fate, isn’t it?” she said; and, for once, their rôles were
reversed--the man studying her as she went into a revery, her lips
a little drawn, looking far down the long-storied lanes of the
tapestry.
“That’s what it all is,” he said, watching her with more curiosity
than he had shown--“whether you turn to the left or the right at
a certain moment. ‘Life is a jest, and all things show it.’ Why,
Inga, if a gust of wind hadn’t blown my hat off at the right--”
he corrected himself--“no, the wrong moment, would I be here? A
gust of wind--and that’s the cause, the real cause of it all. How
ridiculous!”
Then all at once, after they had completed their task and the
studio stood about them clothed in dark greens and mellow golden
rugs, with rich notes of carved furniture and glowing copper in
subduing shadows, and great Spanish jars in streaked gray and green
in massive restfulness, he became quite furious, as though suddenly
realizing what her patience had accomplished.
“You made me do it, and I didn’t want to! You made me!” he said,
crossing his arms and looking so moodily ferocious that she began
to smile. He continued to scowl at her without answering her mood.
“Lots of good it will do,” he said curtly, with a dark look.
“It kills time,” she said quietly.
“Well, yes; anything for that. Thank God for anything that will do
that,” he admitted. “But as for anything else--” and he began to
laugh in a low tone to himself at something that had struck his
imagination. “All right, then, suppose we have tea here.”
“That would be nice.”
“Ask the others in,” he said restlessly.
She looked up, genuinely surprised, wondering if she had understood
him.
“The men next door?”
“The girls, too--all of them. Fix the tea--wait--I’ll ask them in
myself.”
Accustomed as she was to his change of moods, this inconsistency
amazed her. However, she said nothing, and busied herself at the
tea-table. At the door he stopped and came back.
“You don’t mind, do you?” he said tentatively.
“I? Mind what?”
“The others coming in--perhaps you’d rather not. I thought when I
spoke, you looked as though--”
“No; on the contrary, I think that’s what you ought to do. It will
amuse you.”
“Yes, yes; that’s what I want.”
He nodded, and went to the next studio, where he knocked.
“Who the devil is that?” cried the angry voice of King O’Leary.
“It’s I, Dangerfield.”
Instantly the room was filled with laughter, and the door was
presently opened by Tootles, hair rumpled, paint-brush in his
teeth, palette in hand, sunk in enormous overalls streaked and
speckled with every conceivable combination of colors.
“Come in or shut the door,” cried O’Leary, from across the screen.
“This costume was never meant for January in New York.”
“What is it?” said Dangerfield in surprise.
“I am engaged on a monumental masterpiece,” said Tootles proudly.
“Step in, brother artist, and give me your expert advice.”