A DUET AND WHAT CAME OF IT
Richard Lister played with Eleanor Bent for the first time on the
afternoon of Commencement Day, which was Thursday. He played with her
also on Friday and Saturday and again on Monday and Tuesday. In the
mornings he played with Thomasina, who was certain that she had never
seen her beloved pupil so anxious for perfection. Never was there such
gilding of the lily, such painstaking practice of trill and mordent. She
would have opened her brown eyes to their greatest possible diameter
could she have known that what he practiced with her in the mornings he
played with Eleanor Bent in the afternoons, when he displayed all the
fine shadings of expression, all the tricks of fingering which he had
learned from her. With Eleanor's mistakes he was patient, to himself he
allowed no mistakes.
As little as Thomasina suspected that his playing with her was for the
time mere practicing for a more important audience, so little did
Richard suspect that the young lady beside him neglected all other tasks
in order to prepare as well as she could to support his treble.
On two evenings of the week, they read poetry together, sitting on the
little porch facing the wide valley and each taking a turn. They looked
at the beautiful prospect, then they read again. Each watched the
other. When Eleanor's eyes were turned definitely toward the western
mountains and her head away from him, Richard's eyes took their fill of
her. When his eyes were upon his book, she learned by heart each line of
his countenance. She had quite forgotten by now her uncertainties and
fears. Within doors Mrs. Bent sat under her lamp, forever embroidering
beautiful things.
Together the two read "Abt Vogler," together "A Toccata of Galuppi's."
Thomasina, appealed to by Richard, produced "A Toccata of Galuppi's" and
played it smilingly.
"Curious, isn't it? You've been reading Browning. Yes, take it with
you."
To Richard Eleanor carried from her neat bookcases, volume after volume.
"How many books you have!"
"My mother gives them to me, and Dr. Green has given me a great many."
"Your mother and Dr. Green have good taste," said Richard.
Together they read the "Blessed Damozel," together "Love among the
Ruins," together "Staff and Scrip." Then in an instant the old, common
miracle was wrought. Life was short and troubled and often tragic--one
must have companionship to make it endurable. Looking up they met each
other's eyes.
Richard's hands trembled, a solemn thrill was succeeded by a warm wave
of emotion, all emotions which seemed to gather themselves into one. He
could not look long into the bright eyes so near him, he could say
nothing, he must rise and go away, even though Eleanor begged,
trembling, "Oh, do not go!" He had not reckoned upon anything like this,
was not prepared for it.
"I have forgotten something. I will come to-morrow."
Richard went home and sat by his window and looked out over the campus
with its deep shadows, a broad shadow here by the chapel, a lesser
shadow by the Scott house. He heard in a daze his mother's voice and his
father's footstep, and when all was quiet once more he gave to his
youthful fancy, still clean and fresh, free rein. He leaned his head
against the window frame, then, hiding his eyes, he laid his cheek on
his folded arms. The night seemed to excite while it blessed him.
He began to be sorry that he had left her. What was she doing now? Had
she thought him rude? Did she think of him at all when he was not with
her? She seemed far above him, she had been more conscientious about
college work, she knew more than he did. But he would work, there should
be no limit to his working. If only he had his clavier now! He would
have at least the noblest profession in the world. He began to count the
years before he could amount to anything. And she was already complete,
already perfect!
When he thought of Thomasina, it was to bless her for setting his feet
in the right way and for guarding him and guiding him. He thought of his
mother with a slight feeling of uneasiness about her opinion of
Eleanor. She had never even invited Eleanor to the house. But that
should not worry him. His mother loved him, wished him to be happy; she
would not deny him that which would be the most blessed source of
happiness. He would tell her about Eleanor to-morrow. It should be a
casual sentence at first, a word or two about the pretty house or the
magnificent piano or the many books.
It was long past midnight when he went to bed and almost morning when he
fell asleep. He was certain that he was the only person awake in
Waltonville and he felt as though he were guarding his beloved.
Mrs. Bent said nothing to her daughter about the sudden and frequent
visits of this young man. Certainly no two persons could be more safely
or profitably employed than in playing or reading together! She did not
listen to what they read, but sat wrapped in her own thoughts, or in
that blankness of mind which serves even the most mentally active for
thought at times. There were now many moments when she looked worried
and harassed. A course which had once seemed reasonable was beginning to
seem more and more mad.
On Wednesday evening Richard returned, having kept himself away since
Tuesday afternoon. He had said nothing to his mother about Eleanor or
her books or her piano. He had been making vague plans. Certain
expressions of his mother's came back to him; a sigh when he sat down at
the piano, and an unflattering opinion of Thomasina's finger exercises,
heard by Mrs. Lister as she passed the house. Thomasina, she had said,
had been "tinkling and banging," two favorite words from her small
musical vocabulary. Richard felt that the time was not propitious. He
would wait a day or two until the confusion in his mind had given place
to those even and regular processes which had always been his.
He found Eleanor seated on the upper step of the porch, trying to read
by the failing light, and he sat down and leaned against the other
pillar from where he could watch her. She told him what she had been
doing, how she had practiced--this a little wistfully--all the morning,
and how she had found that Dr. Green had sat in his carriage listening
to her for dear knows how long.
"He's a funny soul," said Eleanor. "He's always bossing me and
correcting me, but I love him. Aren't you very fond of him?"
"I don't know that I am," said Richard, conscious of a sudden cooling of
whatever emotion he had felt toward Dr. Green.
"Well, I am," said Eleanor. "Did you ever hear how he disposes of his
books?"
"No."
"If he begins a book and doesn't like its theories, he drops it into his
waste-basket. Then his Virginia carefully fishes it out and carries it
down to the cabins. She has a lot of shelves made of soap-boxes, and
there stand Billings on the Eye and Jackson on Bones and Piatt on dear
knows what."
Eleanor talked easily and well. Her teachers and her friend Miss
Thomasina and her acquaintance Mr. Utterly would have been astonished to
hear her. It seemed to her that some confining band within her had
parted and that she was expanding out of the former compass of her body
and her mind. She talked about the moonlight, about the lovely valley,
about the poetry she had been reading. Suddenly she turned to Richard.
"What are you going to do this fall?"
"I'm going to study music." Richard woke from a trance to his uneasy
thoughts.
"How lovely!" Eleanor sighed. She was beginning to know him and now he
would go away; he would become famous, he would forget her entirely. To
her came also a determination to be more devoted to her work, to grow as
he grew. "When are you going away?"
"In the fall."
"And where will you study?"
"In New York, with Faversham."
"Miss Thomasina's friend?"
"Yes."
"How fortunate you are!" Eleanor meant not only that he was fortunate to
be able to do as he pleased, but that he was fortunate to be Richard.
"Then you'll forget all about Waltonville."
"It's not likely." Richard remembered miserably that after all nothing
was settled. An exceeding high mountain blocked his path and it was
growing higher and higher. He looked out over the valley, chin on hand.
It seemed to Eleanor that he shut her out of his thoughts, that he had
already forgotten her.
"I have written a story that has been accepted," she said timidly,
forgetting all her fears and compunctions about what she had written.
"It has been accepted by 'Willard's Magazine' and it is to be published
very soon. A Mr. Utterly came here to tell me."
Richard's comment came after a long pause.
"I think that is splendid!"
"I haven't told any one but my mother," faltered Eleanor, certain that
he must think her boastful and conceited. It seemed to her that again he
left in a sudden, unceremonious way.
Again Richard sat by his window. He would have liked to walk the floor,
but he was afraid that his mother would hear and that she would come to
his room and talk to him. He must have this time alone. He had
accomplished nothing, was accomplishing nothing. Only a little while ago
he had been so happy and so certain of himself and of all that he was
going to do. But Eleanor Bent had had a story accepted for publication!
He did not believe that Dr. Scott, whom he called "Old Scotty," had ever
dreamed of such an honor. That man Utterly had come to tell her! Utterly
had seemed a counterfeit, but he must be a man of some parts or he would
not hold a responsible position. She was now even farther above him than
before. To-morrow his own future must be definitely settled.
The next afternoon he went to see Thomasina. She would help him as she
had always helped him. She sat upon her throne by the garden door with
a new life of Beethoven open on the table by her side; she had put it
down as he came in to take up a piece of sewing.
"It is amazing and incredible and inspiring to contemplate the obstacles
which great spirits have overcome," said Thomasina with shining eyes.
"Physical defects, mental defects, opposition of relatives, of all
mankind, of fate itself--none of them ever daunted an earnest man set
upon achieving a great thing. All great achievement seems to have had
the history of Paul's! 'In weariness and painfulness, in watchings
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.'
Richard--" Her bright eyes searched his troubled face--"What is the
matter, my dear?"
"Everything," said Richard.
"Suppose we begin with one thing."
Richard slapped his cap up and down on his knee. "I want to get to
work."
"Why don't you?"
"What do you suppose my father and mother will say to my studying
music?"
"The sooner you hear what they have to say the better for all of you.
Your parents are persons of excellent common sense. And I have some news
for you. Henry Faversham is to be in Baltimore for a few days before
long."
Richard's head whirled.
"Do you suppose I could play for him there? Do you suppose he will ever
take me as a pupil?"
"Certainly he will! I haven't spent all these years teaching you to
have you refused by anybody."
"Suppose I did go, what should I prepare to play?" The unhappy look was
gone from Richard's face. Thomasina had the gift of wings, no less than
Basil Everman. Moreover, she lifted others out of fog-dimmed valleys up
to mountain peaks. Richard's eyes shone, his cheeks glowed, ambition and
aspiration now quickened by a new motive, took up their abode once more
in his breast.
On his way home Mrs. Scott called to him from her porch. Impatiently he
obeyed the summons. He did not like her, and had never disliked her so
much as he did at this moment. She had many foolish questions to ask.
What did he think of her friend Mr. Utterly? What did he suppose was Mr.
Utterly's business with Eleanor Bent? She understood that he had spent
an evening with her. The Bents were strange people, they behaved well,
yet everything that one knew definitely about Mrs. Bent was that she was
a hotel-keeper's daughter.
Richard said shortly in reply that he had had no conversation with Mr.
Utterly and that he knew none of his business.
"And I do think it is the most pathetic thing about your Uncle Basil,"
said Mrs. Scott.
"My Uncle Basil," repeated Richard. "What of him?"
Mrs. Scott's hands clasped one another in a gesture of amazement.
"Why Mr. Utterly said--why where were you?--oh, yes, you were in the
kitchen so kindly helping Cora!--he said your uncle wrote wonderfully.
I think it's very strange--"
Richard was suddenly certain that his neighbor wished to "get something
out of him."
"Oh, that!" said he, without having any idea what she meant.
Mrs. Scott made him promise to come the next afternoon to play with
Cora. He could not escape. He almost added poor, inoffensive Cora to her
mother and the metallic piano in the limbo to which he consigned them.
Now his wings drooped. He decided that after supper he would lie down
for a few minutes to get rid of the sharp pain which too much practicing
had put into the back of his neck. Then he would join his father and
mother on the porch and settle the important business of his future.
At the supper table he asked about his Uncle Basil and his mother
answered placidly, prepared for the question.
"He had published anonymously some stories and this Mr. Utterly came to
ask questions about his life."
"Why wasn't I told?"
"You haven't been here very much of late, my dear."
"Where are the stories?"
"Mr. Utterly has them."
"Couldn't we get them?"
"Perhaps we could."
"How did Mrs. Scott know about him?"
"Mr. Utterly went there to inquire."
"Did you know they had been published?"
"No. You had better stay with us this evening. We scarcely know our
boy."
There was to be no escaping to his room. Mrs. Lister laid her arm across
his shoulders and together they went out to the porch. The air was cool
and sweet; near by a woodpecker tapped slowly, wrens chattered, anxious
about their late nestlings, song sparrows trilled, and flickers and
robins hopped under the spray which Dr. Lister was sending over his
cannas and elephant ears.
Mrs. Lister, with Richard at her side, felt her heart at rest. Utterly
had vanished definitely, leaving no trail behind him. She could now
think of Richard's future, both immediate and far removed. She asked him
whether he would like to pay a visit to Dr. Lister's kin in St. Louis.
"No, indeed," said Richard.
"But you used to want to go out there!"
"But I don't now, mother--unless you want me to take you," he added with
sudden compunction.
"Oh, no," said Mrs. Lister.
Further conversation was postponed by the arrival of the Myerses to
call. When all possible themes of common interest had been discussed and
they had moved on to talk of the same subjects at the Scotts', darkness
had come. Mrs. Lister did not wish to give up the idea of a visit.
"You have had a busy winter and this fall you will go to the university,
and you may wish to do something else in vacations."
Richard cleared his throat. He sat about a dozen feet away from his
father and mother and facing them as a culprit might have sat.
"But I don't wish to go to the university, mother."
"What do you wish to do?"
Richard almost said passionately, "You know what I wish to do!" But he
would have been wrong. Mrs. Lister was certain that Richard had put away
all childish things.
"I wish to study music."
Mrs. Lister dropped her hands, palm upward, into her lap.
"I thought you were over _that_!" said she, much more sharply than
Richard had ever heard her speak. "I thought you had given it up."
"I have never given it up for a minute. I never shall give it up."
Mrs. Lister gasped. Richard might almost as well have announced that he
had ceased to think of her or love her. She could not brook difference
of opinion in her son.
"It cannot be. I cannot hear of it. You are a man and you must do a
man's work."
"It is a man's work!" cried Richard. The pain in the back of his neck
was growing more acute. "Father, don't you consider it a man's work?"
Dr. Lister moved uneasily.
"We haven't had musicians in the family thus far. Suppose you tell us
about it."
Richard drew a long breath.
"It's what I have wanted to do ever since I have wanted to do anything!
I have planned for it all my life. I have practiced for professional,
not for amateur playing. The two are very different. Miss Thomasina has
drilled me with the greatest care. I have taken pains with my German and
French and Italian. I have talent, Miss Thomasina says so, and I know
that I have no other talent, at least. I--"
"Thomasina has been encouraging you, I suppose?" said Mrs. Lister.
"She was my teacher, of course she encouraged me. I am prepared for
Faversham. I--"
"Faversham?" Mrs. Lister's tone was as nearly scornful as she could make
it. It was as though she alluded to a mountebank.
"I have often told you about him, mother. He is the greatest teacher in
New York and he is Miss Thomasina's old friend. She has prepared me for
him as though she were a pupil teacher."
"What is a pupil teacher?" asked Mrs. Lister in the same tone.
"He is the pupil of a great master who prepares younger pupils according
to the master's methods. Miss Thomasina is the most wonderful person I
know."
After that sentence there was a pause, which grew longer and longer.
"Your mother would like you to be a preacher or a teacher like your
father and grandfather," said Dr. Lister at last. "Or, perhaps a lawyer
or doctor."
"I could not be a doctor. I hate the sight of Dr. Green's office with
all the bottles and knives. And a lawyer--I think a lawyer's business is
hideous. They make people pay to get what is theirs by right, and they
help to cheat the poor. They defend murderers when they know they are
murderers and try to hang innocent men. I'm not interested in sick
bodies or in crimes. I'm willing to be a teacher, but it must be a
teacher of music."
"To take children to teach, like Thomasina, for pay?"
"Why, certainly, for pay! A musician must live like any one else. I
wouldn't want to take absolute babies or too many stupid children, but
I'd be perfectly willing to begin that way."
"You would cover me with shame!"
"Mother!"
Dr. Lister tapped the arms of his chair nervously. Above all things in
the world he disliked acrimonious discussion between members of the same
family. Mrs. Lister was hard on the boy. Besides, she was becoming a
little ridiculous. He was apt to put off disagreeable duties in the hope
that they would not have to be performed or that they might cease to be
disagreeable.
"We needn't decide it all at this moment."
"It is decided," said Mrs. Lister.
"Mr. Utterly thought he played very well. I suppose he has had
opportunity to judge."
"I consider Mr. Utterly a poor judge of anything," Mrs. Lister went on
vehemently. It seemed to her agonized eyes that Richard looked like
Basil. Basil never argued, but he took his own way. "I cannot have it,"
said she. "I will not have it. You are my child. I brought you into the
world. I have some rights in you. If you persist--" Mrs. Lister
stopped, terrified, at a bitter reminiscence suggested by her tone and
her words. She put up her hand to hide her eyes.
Richard was frightened. It could not be that they would seriously oppose
him, that he could not persuade them! It could not be that he would have
to work his own way. It could not be that he must hurt and defy his
mother! He thought of Eleanor Bent, successful, honored, sought out,
lost to him.
"It will not be necessary for you even to get a new piano, mother. I can
use Miss Thomasina's and the assembly room piano. I am going to spend my
Commencement money for a clavier. It will not make any noise that can be
heard when the door of my room is shut. I need not practice at home at
all. I will not be a nuisance in the least."
Mrs. Lister looked at him as though he had struck her.
"It is not money," she said slowly. "And it is not noise. But what you
wish to do is impossible."
She rose and went into the house.
Richard turned to his father.
"I am sorry for mother," said he. "But I am going to study music."
Here at last was steel under the satin.