That Night
Although six persons left the little station at Waldheim to attend the
concert in Berlin by special arrangement, Esther and Betty were allowed
to occupy a coach in the train together without any one else being with
them. Esther had particularly asked that this might be arranged. The two
sisters did not speak very often during the trip, but sat quietly
looking out the window holding each other's hands. Judging from the two
faces, one might reasonably have supposed that it was Betty Ashton who
was about to make her _debut_ that evening instead of Esther. For the
older girl's eyes shone with a new happiness and content. Just while she
was dressing for her concert her sister had managed to tell her the news
of Judge Maynard's surprising will. And from that moment Esther had
almost forgotten the trying ordeal ahead of her in her joy over Betty's
good fortune. For now she need no longer worry over her little sister's
future, no longer grieve over the change in her fortune. Why, she might
even fail tonight and Betty would not suffer.
She gave a sigh, and the Princess drew closer to her.
"You are not to think about a single thing that has any connection with
the concert tonight, Esther," the younger girl reminded her. "Professor
Hecksher says that you know your song perfectly and your encore is to be
a surprise even to me. Let us talk about our old Camp Fire days in the
woods. Don't you remember when we thought poor little Nan Graham must
have stolen that wretched money of mine, when I had only lost it in the
woods and Polly had discovered it. Dick says that Anthony Graham told
him Nan has a fine position as a teacher of domestic science in a high
school in Dartmouth. And it seems that his father has reformed and gone
to work and the whole family now is quite different. Anthony gives all
the credit of the changes to Nan and Nan ascribes them to what she
learned in our Camp Fire club at Sunrise Hill. It is lovely to think
that may be true, isn't it?"
"Yes, and even better to reflect that Betty Ashton originated the club,"
Esther returned.
"Yes, and that Esther suggested the idea to her by singing an exquisite
song and then with her own hands starting a fire," Betty added.
So the two girls talked on fitfully while the train carried them swiftly
onward toward the great German city.
The concert was to be held in a small opera house close to one of the
more fashionable avenues. It was an old building, but was considered a
particularly fine one for musical purposes. And immediately upon their
arrival Mrs. Ashton and Betty went with Esther to remain in her dressing
room until a short time before her appearance.
Dick Ashton, Miss Adams and Polly had a box reserved for them near the
stage, where Betty and Mrs. Ashton were to join them. But before they
appeared Anthony Graham in immaculate evening clothes came around to
the box door to extend his greetings to Polly, and Dick insisted that he
be one of their party. And five minutes afterwards Lieutenant von Reuter
also joined them, Betty having invited him several days before.
The concert was to be a serious musical affair commencing with the
playing of a stringed orchestra led by the great Professor Hecksher
himself. And as Polly had never seen him before, she amused herself
while waiting for Betty's return and fighting off her own apprehensions
about Esther by never taking her eyes from the great man's face. He must
have weighed two hundred and fifty pounds and yet had the face of a
glorified cherub. His hair was long and light, hanging down to his
shoulders and he wore spectacles over his burning, heavy-lidded brown
eyes.
The first singer on the program was supposed to be the famous teacher's
star pupil. But because she seemed old and ugly to Polly O'Neill and
because the girl could hardly wait for her own friend to be heard, she
took little interest in the really remarkable solo and was almost vexed
with Miss Adams and with Carl von Reuter for their evident admiration of
a stranger. It was a comfort to her to observe that Richard Ashton
seemed to be feeling just as she did and that he spent the greater part
of his time studying the audience, trying to discover just how many
important musical critics were present.
Anthony Graham also had the air of waiting for something or some one.
A quartette followed, and then a violin solo, and afterwards Betty and
Mrs. Ashton stole quietly in, taking the two chairs left vacant for
them. Polly and Miss Adams were in the front row with Dick Ashton at one
side of them, near the back of the box and yet facing the stage. In the
second row Betty had the outside seat and she kept her elbow resting on
the plush railing with her chin in her hand, entirely unconscious of the
large crowd about her. Next her Carl von Reuter had arranged his chair,
leaving Mrs. Ashton and Anthony in the rear.
A young man sang before the time for Esther's appearance, but Betty
never recalled having seen or heard him. She had left her sister
composed and not especially nervous; but there was no way of guessing
what a surge of feeling might since have overtaken her.
And then Esther's moment came.
Notwithstanding that Betty had dressed her, fixed her hair and kissed
her only a few moments before, she hardly recognized her own sister as
she walked slowly to the front of the stage. For had they not always
thought of Esther as the homeliest of their group of Camp Fire girls?
What had happened to her, what wonderful transformation had taken place?
Polly O'Neill almost gasped aloud. Of course every one of her friends
had appreciated how much Esther had improved in appearance in the past
two years, but it was hardly credible that she could look and behave
like this, a girl brought up in an orphan asylum with no friends and no
opportunities for so long a time! Well, one should understand that into
each life certain wonderful hours may come when one seems to transcend
one's self. And tonight such an hour had come to Esther.
She was to sing Elizabeth's farewell song from the opera of Tannhaeuser.
And though the concert was not to be sung in costume, so far as possible
in selecting and arranging Esther's dress Betty had been mindful of the
character and the circumstances of her song.
In the opera there is seen a wayside shrine where the Princess Elizabeth
appears each day to pray for the soul of her lover, the knight
Tannhaeuser, who has gone on a pilgrimage to Rome to ask that his sins
may be forgiven him. On this last day the pilgrims have passed on their
journey homeward and among them Elizabeth sees no sign of her lost
lover, so that she knows he must be unforgiven. She then sings this
final song, asking that peace may come to her at last.
Esther wore a long white gown of _crepe de chine_ made in simple classic
lines, with the draped tunic which is a modern fashion copied after a
far older model. Ordinarily she was too tall and angular in every-day
clothes, but this toilette seemed to give her just the grace and
dignity her figure and character needed. Her red hair, which had grown a
little darker as she grew older, was tonight a crown of glory, so that
the pallor of her long grave face did not matter, for her always
beautiful mouth had a look both of power and of wistfulness that
surprised the strangers in the audience.
"The girl is far too young for the song her teacher has chosen for her,"
the critics whispered among themselves. It is not fair to make such an
experiment, for this song of Elizabeth's is one of the favorites among
the great prima donnas. What would this young girl do with it? Would she
be too theatrical, too showy, or fail altogether?
While the orchestra played the opening chords Esther waited with her
hands clasped lightly together in front of her, but not moving them with
her old nervous gesture. Neither did she seem to be looking at anything
or anybody. Not once did she even glance toward the box where her sister
and friends were watching her, though in a kind of subconscious fashion
she was aware of the white intensity in Betty's pretty face and the
look of grave strength and helpfulness in Richard Ashton's.
Then Esther began to sing--and Betty, Dick, Polly, Mrs. Ashton and
indeed all her friends, both new and old, had a sudden sensation of
bitter disappointment. The tears came into Betty's eyes, rolling
unheeded down her cheeks, though Polly slipped her hand back through the
opening in her chair to press it sympathetically. However, Richard
Ashton only set his lips, hardly breathing for the space of half a
moment. Did he not recall a similar beginning on Esther's part some
years before, when she had sung the Indian Love Song before a group of
their Woodford acquaintances, which he had at first believed would end
in a failure? Esther would not find this audience so ready to forgive or
admire should she take too long a time before winning their attention.
"O blessed Virgin, hear my prayer!
Thou star of glory, look on me!"
These lines were whispered in so low a tone that they were almost
inaudible except to the persons nearest the stage and Esther's voice
trembled with nervousness. Was she frightened as she had expected to be?
It was difficult to decide, because she stood so still.
"Here in the dust I bend before thee,
Now from this earth oh set me free!
Let me a maiden pure and white,
Enter into thy kingdom bright!"
Betty's tension relaxed. "Bravo," Miss Adams whispered under her breath.
Richard Ashton felt a glow which was oddly commingled of pleasure, pride
and sorrow. Yet one could not think, could not feel any other emotion
now except wonder and delight as the beautiful voice in perfect sympathy
with the music and its theme filled every shadowy space in the opera
house with harmony.
Betty witnessed the expressions on several previously bored faces near
them changing first to surprise, then interest and finally frank
pleasure. Small wonder that the old German music master had allowed this
young American girl to appear unheralded before them! She could only be
twenty-one or twenty-two years old at the most. What a future lay before
her!
Still Esther sang on:
"If vain desires and earthy longing
Have turn'd my heart from thee away,
The sinful hopes within me thronging
Before thy blessed feet I lay.
I'll wrestle with the love I cherished,
Until in death its flame hath perish'd.
If of my sin thou wilt not shrive me,
Yet in this hour, oh grant thy aid!
Till thy eternal peace thou give me,
And on thy bounty I will call,
That heav'nly grace on him may fall."
And with the closing words of her song Esther suddenly seemed to have
reached the realization of all her worst fears. Surely she had failed
abjectly, for was there not a silence everywhere about her, chilling and
cruel? Would not a single pair of hands applaud? She dared not try to
find the face of her master, for she hoped never to have to see
Professor Hecksher again so long as she lived. Yet here miraculously
enough he had appeared on the stage standing next her, with one of his
powerful hands holding tight to her cold one, bowing and smiling, while
the noise of many bravos and of almost a tumult of applause shook the
house. Esther then wondered why she only felt dreadfully tired and had a
childish disposition to cry as the great maestro led her off the stage.
But when the girl returned for her encore she was smiling, and her
cheeks were more flushed than ever in her life. And in her hands she
held a great bunch of pink roses which had mysteriously appeared in her
dressing room. And this time she allowed herself to glance smilingly at
Betty and Polly and Mrs. Ashton and even to exchange a single quiet
glance with Richard Ashton.
Then to the surprise, to the mystification and yet to the pleasure of
her listeners, Esther sang the verses which had first touched Betty
Ashton's heart and inspired her ardor on that day long ago, the song
that is to remain an inspiration to many thousands of women for many
years to come, the Camp Fire song of "The Soul's Desire."
"Lay me to sleep in sheltering flame,
O Master of the Hidden Fire.
Wash pure my heart, and cleanse for me
My soul's desire.
"In flame of sunrise bathe my mind,
O Master of the Hidden Fire,
That, when I wake, clear-eyed may be
My soul's desire."
And ten minutes after the finishing of this second song Esther, Betty
and Richard Ashton were driving to their old pension where the entire
party was to spend the night, Mrs. Ashton, Polly and Miss Adams meaning
to join them when the concert was over.
And in the carriage, again it was Esther who seemed quiet and composed,
while between tears and laughter Betty poured forth her joy and pride in
her sister's wonderful success.