THE WORLD IS STILL DECEIVED.
Merchant of Venice; iii.--2.
On the evening following his reception, Orin Stanton presented himself
at the rooms of Melissa. He was fairly beaming with self-complacency
and gratification. He had been awarded the commission, the exhibition
of his model had been attended, as he assured Melissa, "by no end of
swells," and five thousand dollars had been paid over to him as an
advance upon which to begin his work. He felt as if the world were
under his feet and he spoke to Melissa with an air of lofty
condescension which should have amused her, but which she received with
the utmost humility.
"Well," he said, "what do you think of that for a crowd? Wasn't that a
swell mob? Didn't you notice what a lot of bang-up people there were at
the studio this afternoon?"
"Of course I didn't know many of them," Melissa returned humbly; "but I
could see that there were a lot of people that everybody seemed to
know. I'm glad that you were pleased."
Orin pulled out a big cigar and bit the end off it excitedly.
"Pleased!" he echoed. "I was more than pleased--I was delighted. All
the committee were there, of course, and half the fashionable women of
Boston."
"I heard a lady telling another who the artists were," Milly observed,
glad to find a subject upon which she could talk to Orin easily.
"O yes, there were a lot of artists there, but they don't count for
much in getting a fellow commissions."
Stanton had evidently no intention of being satirical, but spoke with
straightforward plainness what he would have regarded, had he given the
matter any thought at all, as being a truth too obvious to need any
disguises. His Philistinism was of the perfectly ingrained, inborn
sort, which never having appreciated that it is naked has never felt
the need of being ashamed; and he let it be seen on any occasion with a
frankness which arose from the fact that it had never occurred to him
that there was any reason why he should conceal it. He was one of those
artists who never would be able wholly to separate his idea of the muse
from that of a serving-maid; and he viewed art from the strictly
utilitarian standpoint which considers it a means toward the payment of
butcher and baker and candlestick maker. He was not indifferent to the
opinion of his fellow sculptors; but the criticism of Alfred Irons,
which he knew to be backed by a substantial bank account, would have
outweighed in his mind the judgment of Michael Angelo or Phidias.
Milly, of course, had no ideas about art beyond a faint sentimental
tendency to regard it as a mysterious and glorious thing which one
could not wholly escape in Boston; while her thrifty New England
nurture enabled her to appreciate perfectly the force of the
considerations Orin brought forward.
"I am glad you are getting commissions," she said, "but it must be nice
to have the artists like your work, for after all, don't you think rich
people depend a good deal upon what the artists say?"
"Oh yes, they do, some," admitted the sculptor.
He puffed his cigar, and with the aid of a penknife performed upon his
nails certain operations of the toilet which are more usually attended
to in private. Milly sat nervously trying to think of something to say,
and wondering what had brought the sculptor to visit her. She was too
kindly to suspect that possibly he had come because in her company he
could enjoy the pleasure of giving free rein to his self-conceit. The
words of her companion of the afternoon had given her a new sense of
the honor of a visit from her prospective brother-in-law, although this
increased her diffidence rather than her pleasure.
"Was Mr. Fenton there this afternoon?" she asked, at length, simply for
the sake of saying something.
The face of her companion darkened.
"Damn Fenton!" he returned, with coarse brutality. "He's a cad and a
snob; he says Herman ought to have made the _America_, and he abuses my
model without ever having seen it."
The remark of Fenton's which had given offence to Stanton had been made
at the club in comment upon a photograph of the model which somebody
was showing.
"The only capitol thing about it," Fenton had said, "is the headgear."
The remark was severe rather than witty, and it was its severity which
had given it wings to bear it to the sculptor's ears.
"I don't like Mr. Fenton very well," Milly admitted, "but Mrs. Fenton
is perfectly lovely; she's been awfully good to me."
By way of reply the sculptor, with a somewhat ponderous air, unbuttoned
his coat and produced a red leather pocket-book. This he opened, took
out a handful of bills, and proceeded to count them with great
deliberation. Melissa watched while he counted out a sum which seemed
to have been fixed in his mind. He smoothed the package of bills in his
hand, then he glanced up at her furtively as if to ascertain whether
she knew how much he had laid out. She involuntarily averted her
glance. Instantly Orin gathered up several of the bills quickly,
conveying them out of sight with a guilty air as if he were purloining
them. Then he held the remainder toward his companion.
"There," he said, "I should have kept my promise if you hadn't hinted
by speaking of Fenton. Of course you understand that I can't give you
anything very tremendous, but there's a hundred and fifty dollars."
Melissa flushed and drew back.
"I had no idea of hinting," was her reply. "Of course I thank you very
much, but you ought to give the money to John, not to me."
"No," Orin insisted, "you helped me with Mrs. Fenton, and John might as
well know that I wouldn't put this money into a hole just to please
him. I know John. He'll set more by you if the money comes through you."
"But I don't believe," protested she, "that what I said to Mrs. Fenton
really made any difference."
But in Orin's abounding good nature her disclaimer passed unheeded. He
pressed the money upon her, and went away full of the consciousness of
having exercised a noble philanthropy.
It is possible that had he waited to read Fred Rangely's criticism upon
his _America_ which appeared in the _Daily Observer_ next morning he
might never have made this contribution toward paying his father's
debts. With Bently's help Rangely had discovered the original of the
statue, and had then written a careful comparison between the work of
Eutychides and that of Stanton. It hardly need be added that the result
was not at all flattering to the latter. Rangely possessed a very
pretty gift of sarcasm, and it was his humor to consider that in
attacking the sculptor he was to a certain degree settling scores with
Mrs. Staggchase for her change in attitude toward him after Miss
Merrivale came. He served up the unlucky statue and its more unlucky
maker with a piquancy and a zest which made his article town talk for a
month. The sculptor sheltered himself, so far as he could, by keeping
out of sight, while Peter Calvin, unable to endure the jibes and
laughter which everywhere met him, abandoned the cause of his _protege_
and the town together, by starting two months earlier than he had
intended on a trip to Europe.
Rangely was angry with himself for having been persuaded by Mrs.
Staggchase to write an article sustaining Stanton's claims in the first
place, and not having signed it, he endeavored to give to this
criticism a tone which should indicate, without its being specifically
stated, that he had not written the former paper. He understood
perfectly well that Mrs. Staggchase would regard his position as a
declaration of independence, and indeed when the lady read the
_Observer_ that morning she smiled with an air of comprehension.
"That's an end to that," she said to herself. "When you've known a man
as long as I have Fred Rangely, he's like a book that's been read;
you've got all the good there is in him. There are other men in the
world."
When Orin had gone, Milly stood turning over and over in her hand the
roll of bills he had given her. Then she spread them out upon the
table, counting them and gloating over them, with a delight which arose
quite as largely from her foretaste of John's pleasure and the joy of
having helped to cause it, as it did from mere love of money. She had
just taken the precious roll to put it away, when her lover himself
appeared.
John Stanton was really of more kindly disposition than might have been
inferred from his misunderstanding with his betrothed. He had been half
a dozen weeks coming to his right mind, but whatever he did he did
thoroughly, and in the end he had reached a point where he was willing
to acknowledge himself wrong, and to make whatever amends lay in his
power. He came in to-night with the determined air of one who has made
up his mind to get through a disagreeable duty as speedily as possible.
Milly opened the door for him, and stood back to let him pass; she had
learned in these weeks of their estrangement to restrain the
manifestation of her joy at his coming. It was with so great a rush of
blissful surprise that she now found herself suddenly caught up into
his arms, that she clung closely to his neck for one joyful instant,
and then burst into a passion of weeping.
"There, there," her lover said, caressing her; "don't cry, Milly. I've
been a brute, and I know it; but if you'll forgive me this time I'll
see that you never need to again."
He moved toward a chair as he spoke, half carrying her in his arms. In
her excitement she loosened her hold upon the roll of money, which was
still in her hand, and the bills were scattered on the floor behind him
as he walked. He sat down and took her in his lap, stroking her hair
and soothing her as well as he was able. By a strong effort she
controlled herself, dried her tears, and sat up, half laughing.
"I'm getting to be dreadful teary," she said. "I"--
"What in the world," he interrupted her in amazement, "is that on the
floor?"
She turned and saw the money, and burst into a peal of laughter.
Springing down from his knee, she ran and gathered up the bills in her
two hands; then, dancing up to him, half wild with delight, her cheeks
flushed, her eyes shining, she scattered the precious bits of green
paper fantastically over his head and shoulders.
"'Take, oh take, the rosy, rosy crown!'"
She sang, in the very abandonment of gayety.
"Are you gone crazy?" he demanded, clutching the floating bills, and
then catching her about the waist. "You act like a witch! Where did all
this money come from? The savings-bank?"
"No," she returned, becoming quiet, and nestling close to him. "The
Lord sent it by the hand of your brother Orin."
It was some time before John could be made to understand the whole
story; and when it had been told, he instantly leaped to the conclusion
that the whole credit of Orin's getting the commission belonged of
right to Milly, a conviction in which he remained steadfast despite all
her disclaimers.
At last she gave up protesting, and shut his mouth with a kiss. Since
John, as well as Orin, thought so, she felt that her part must have
been more important than she had realized; but she was too modest to
bear so much praise.
"John," she said at length, "I have something awful to confess. I've
been keeping a secret from you."
"I'm afraid I've been too much of a bear for it to have been safe to
tell me," returned her lover, smiling.
His own heart was filled with the double joy of reconciliation, and of
having brought it about himself by a manly confession of his fault.
"It wasn't that at all," she protested. "It was because I wasn't sure
about it; and then I wanted to surprise you if I got it."
"Got what? You speak as if it was the smallpox. Is it anything
catching?"
"Oh, no," answered Milly, laughing gleefully at his sally, which to her
present mood seemed the most exquisite wit. "You needn't be afraid;
it's only the matronship of the new Knitting School, thank you, with a
salary of five hundred dollars a year."
"Really, Milly?"
"Really, John; and don't you think"--
"Think what?"
She had made up her mind to say it even before this blessed agreement
had come about, but now that the moment came, the habits and trammels
of generations held her back.
"Why," she stammered, blushing and hesitating, "don't you
think,--wouldn't it seem more appropriate if a matron was"--Her voice
failed utterly. She flung her arms convulsively about her lover's neck,
and drew his ear close to her lips. "Surely, now, John, dear," she
whispered, "we could afford to"--
She finished with a kiss.
"If you can put up with me, darling," he answered her, with a mighty
hug; "we'll be married in a week, or, better still, in a day."
"I think in a month will do," responded Mistress Milly, demurely,
sitting up to blush with decorum.