Dolly Dering was beating time with her fan to the closing passages of
the Mendelssohn concerto, when she suddenly caught sight of Hope Benham,
three seats before her. Dolly's quick start, and a smothered "Oh!"
excited the curiosity of her companion,--a young cousin of hers,--Jimmy
Dering, who, following the direction and expression of her eyes,
whispered,--
"What's the matter with her, Dolly?"
Dolly made no reply, but continued to stare, and, Jimmy repeating his
question, Dolly whispered back: "'Matter with her'? That girl I was
looking at? Nothing; what do you mean?"
"You looked so astonished I thought she was a ghost, or that something
was the matter with her."
Dolly giggled under her breath, and whispered: "No, it's only that I was
so surprised to see her here in Music Hall. She is one of the girls from
my school,--Hope Benham. I thought she was going to stay in New York
this week with the Van der Bergs,--awful swells! I wonder who she's
visiting here."
"Some other 'awful swells,'--Boston swells, I suppose. She looks that
way herself. Why didn't you invite her to stay with you, Dolly?"
"I should as soon have thought of inviting Bunker Hill Monument,--though
I like her,--sort of--she's stiffish, but fascinating, and plays the
violin like--_Oh_!" with an emphatic emphasis, to convey the
inexpressible.
"Like 'Oh'! You must waylay her and introduce me to her, Dolly. I want
to know any girl who plays the violin like 'Oh.' I never heard it played
like that. Say, Dolly--"
"H--ush!" breathed Jimmy's mother, Mrs. Mark Dering, shaking her head at
the two whisperers, as the violin solo began. Jimmy, who was
enthusiastically fond of the music of the violin, was now quite willing
to be hushed, and, leaning back, gave himself up to silent enjoyment.
Toward the close of the exquisite strains he happened to glance at the
girl three seats in front of him. Her lips were slightly parted, her
eyes were shining, her whole attitude expressive of the deepest delight.
"How she _does_ like it, and how she knows music!" thought Jimmy. "I'd
like to hear _her_ play the violin. I wonder if I can't manage it. I
mean to make Dolly introduce me to her."
Hope was pulling up her little sealskin cloak at the end of the concert,
when she heard a voice say: "How de do, Hope? I never was so surprised
in my life as when I saw you here. I thought Kate Van der Berg had
invited you to stay with her through the vacation."
[Illustration: "HOW DE DO, HOPE?"]
The "deep delight" on Hope's face vanished as if by magic as she heard
this; and as she turned to the speaker, Jimmy said to himself:
"My! how she _does_ dislike Dolly!"
When, in the next breath, Dolly repeated, "I thought Kate Van der Berg
invited you to stay with her," Jimmy, who was a little gentleman with
much tact and taste, groaned in spirit: "How could she; oh, how _could_
Dolly put the thing in that way? As if--as if a girl had only to be
invited by a Kate Van der Berg to accept! As if she couldn't refuse a
Kate Van der Berg, or anybody--such a girl as this!"
But the next instant Jimmy's groan had become a chuckle as he heard this
girl say: "Yes, Kate invited me to spend my vacation with her, but I had
older friends than the Van der Bergs."
Not much in the words, but, oh, the way they were spoken,--the tone, the
little straight stare at Dolly! Jimmy, little gentleman though he was,
had a wild desire to throw up his cap and "hurrah" as he looked and
listened. "It was all such a set-down for Dolly," as he told his mother
later. But Dolly didn't seem to mind it much. She colored a bit, and
then she laughed, and then before Hope could make a move away from her,
she was introducing her to "my cousin, Jimmy Dering;" and Jimmy, tactful
little fellow, began to speak in his soft, sweet voice that was like the
G string of a violin, of the music they had been listening to; and he
spoke so intelligently and appreciatively that Hope could not but be
interested; and when, by the greatest good luck in the world for him, he
asked her if she had noticed the beautiful expression on the face of the
first violinist when he played, and then proceeded to tell her that this
violinist was a German, and that his name was Kolb, and that he was a
real genius, Hope turned such a radiant face towards the boy that he was
quite taken aback at the first start; then he thought to himself, "She
appreciates old Kolb as well as we do;" and delighted at this, was going
on to say more, when Dolly's voice again broke in with,--
"Hope, I want to introduce you to my aunt, Mrs. Dering. This is Miss
Hope Benham, auntie, one of the girls at my school."
"_My school!_" Jimmy groaned again when he heard this; and as he
observed Hope's sudden stiffening and coolness, he inwardly exclaimed:
"I shall never hear this girl play if Dolly goes on like this, with
'_my_ school,' and that my-everything-way of hers!"
But when Mrs. Dering came up with that pretty manner, and said that she
was always glad to meet one of Miss Marr's girls, Jimmy breathed easier;
and when she asked Hope if she was fond of music, and Dolly burst out,
"Fond? You wouldn't ask that question if you could hear Hope play the
violin," Jimmy took courage and said,--
"Mother, if Miss Benham would only come to our Monday night musicale!"
"Yes, to be sure," cried Mrs. Dering, delighted at the suggestion. If
Hope was a musical genius, she might perhaps be interested to help them,
for the musicale was for a charity. That she was one of Miss Marr's
girls spoke for her desirability in all other ways. It had got to be a
sort of voucher to be one of Miss Marr's girls.
"And if you have your violin with you--she's got a wonderful violin,
auntie--and will bring it, and play something for us--it's for a
charity, you know--"
"Yes, if you would, it would be so kind of you; the charity is such a
worthy one,--a little kindergarten bed at the children's hospital," took
up Mrs. Dering, persuasively.
"I haven't my violin with me; and--"
"Oh, well, that needn't make any difference. I have two, and you can
have one of mine," interrupted Dolly, with perfect confidence.
"And I have an engagement on Wednesday to another musicale, or rather a
concert," said Hope, finishing the answer that Dolly had so confidently
interrupted.
"But can't you come and see _me_ some day and--if you'll tell me where
you're staying I'll call on you--I'll call and fetch you any day you'll
say, and Jimmy'll come, and we'll all play together--Jimmy plays very
well."
Dolly, with this, pulled out a little tablet, and fixing her eyes on it
in a business-like way, said, "Now, then, give me your address; and--"
"It would be of no use, I cannot come to you, for I return to New York
Thursday morning."
"But it's only Saturday now--there's four days to Thursday--if you'd say
Monday or Tuesday."
"I am engaged Monday and Tuesday,--you must excuse me--Ah!" with an air
of relief, "there's Mr. Kolb, I must bid you good-by;" and with a very
polite bow, including the three,--Mrs. Dering, her son, and Dolly,--and
with a very small smile, Hope made her escape, and hastened towards Mr.
Kolb.
"She _knows_ old Kolb, after all," exclaimed Jimmy, in astonishment.
"She knows all the musical people that were ever born, _I_ believe,"
snapped out Dolly; "stiff as she is, she's just crazy over musical
folks. But did you ever see anybody so stiff and offish as she was?"
"I never saw anybody so persistent as _you_ were, Dolly; you fairly
pushed her into stiffness and offishness. You asked her to help in the
musicale as if it would be simply a privilege for _her_, and then, when
anybody could see with half an eye she didn't want to come and didn't
mean to come, you went at her in the same way about coming to _you_,
whipping out that tablet with a 'Now, then, give an account of yourself'
air that was--that was--" But Jimmy could find no words to express
adequately his feelings on this point, and finished up suddenly in his
wrath and disappointment, "Dolly, you are the biggest bully I ever met.
If you were a boy amongst boys, you'd get a licking!"
"Children, children, stop quarrelling, right here in public!" admonished
Mrs. Dering, in a low, shocked tone.
"'Tisn't me that's quarrelling," said Dolly, regardless of grammar and
in a tearful sniffle. "Jimmy's always setting me up to do things for
him, and then he's al-al-always finding fault with the way I do 'em,"
Dolly went on, in a still more tearful sniffle.
"Setting you up to do things for him? What did he set you up to do now?"
asked her aunt.
"To introduce him to Hope. He wanted to know her, he wanted to hear her
play; and I"--sniff, sniff, sniff--"I--"
"Well, there, never mind; tell me when we get into the carriage," broke
in Mrs. Dering, mindful of the proprieties, as she saw several persons
observing Dolly.
"Yes, don't cry on the street,--you might get taken up for a nuisance,
Dol; a policeman's got his eye on you now," growled Jimmy, with a savage
little grin. Dolly had a queer, childish way of accepting everything
seriously sometimes; and the startled seriousness of her face at this
was too much for Jimmy's gravity, and he burst into a fit of laughter
that cleared the atmosphere not a little, and made Dolly herself forget
to sniffle. She forgot also to air her grievance against Jimmy, when, as
they were seated in the carriage, her aunt said animatedly,--
"Benham--I wonder if this girl is the daughter of a Mr. and Mrs. Benham
I met when I was in Paris."
"Her father and mother are in Paris now; that is the reason why Hope
doesn't spend her vacations with them," said Dolly.
"This Mr. Benham was a distinguished scientific man of some sort, I
believe. He was distinguished for _something_, I know, and he was with
scientific men. I met him at Professor Hervey's, and he came into the
room, I remember, with two or three English gentlemen of note. I
recollect it, because I know I felt quite proud at the time that he was
an American,--he looked so manly and earnest,--and some one told me he
had just had a fortune come to him."
"Well, Hope's father must have a lot of money, for she's got a violin
that cost enough. It's a regular Cremona."
"No!" exclaimed Jimmy, incredulously.
"Yes; she told me it was made by an Italian who was a pupil of
Stradivari and lived in Cremona."
"You don't say so!" cried Jimmy, excitedly. "How I should like to see
it, for I tell you to see a real old Cremona would be worth while. Lots
of people think they've got a Cremona, when it's only an imitation. Karl
Myerwitz, who makes violins, and knows all about them, told me that if
everybody who claims to have a Cremona violin, _really_ had one, the
number of them would count up to twice as many as had ever been made."
"Well, all I know is that Hope told me that her violin was made in
seventeen hundred and something by a pupil of Stradivari."
"Where did her father get it, do you know,--did she tell you that?"
"An old teacher of hers got it,--a German who has a brother who deals in
rare violins in Paris."
"How soon did she begin to take lessons?"
"Oh, when she was quite a little girl."
"What kind of music--whose compositions, I mean, does she play?"
Dolly rattled off what she knew of Hope's repertoire.
"Well, she _must_ have been at it from a small youngster," ejaculated
Jimmy, emphatically, at the list Dolly gave. "And she must have a
great--a _great_ taste for music. The idea of your thinking I would play
with any one who was up to what she is!"
"But you play very well,--you play better than I do."
"What's that to do with it? You don't mean to say that you think--that
you propose--" But Jimmy stopped short, remembering the recent outbreak
of sniffles and tears. But he had gone far enough for Dolly to
understand, and she took up his words, not tearfully, but indignantly,
as she replied,--
"I do mean to say that I propose to play a duet with Hope at school this
very winter."
"Is it a school arrangement,--Miss Marr's plan? I didn't know that you
studied the violin at Miss Marr's."
"Well, we do, if we wish to. There is a teacher, a very fine teacher,
who comes in from the outside for that, as there is for the harp, or any
other special accomplishment."
"Oh! and Miss Benham wants you to practise with her,--I suppose you can
help each other,--I see," remarked Jimmy, demurely.
"I didn't say she wanted me to _practise_ with her. I said that I
proposed to play a duet with Hope sometime this winter."
Jimmy made no further remark concerning the matter, but he said to
himself: "Yes, that's it; Dolly has had the nerve to _propose_ to play a
duet with that girl, and my opinion is that she'll get snubbed. Miss
Hope Benham isn't going to stand Dolly's impudence,--not a bit of it."
"What concert is it, Jimmy, that comes off on Wednesday?" suddenly asked
Mrs. Dering here.
"I don't know of any except that affair at the Somersets'."
"Oh, that for Mr. Kolb! I wish I had been told of that earlier. I only
heard about it at the last minute, and then I couldn't get any ticket
for love or money."
"Mamma tried to get tickets too," said Dolly, "but they seemed to be all
snapped up at the very start by that Somerset clique. I think it was
real mean. There are other people in Boston, besides the Somersets, that
know about music, and can appreciate--"
"But there was a limit of tickets,--there had to be; for Mrs. Somerset's
parlors, big as they are, can only hold just so many," put in Jimmy, in
explanation.
"Your young friend may be going to this concert," suggested Mrs. Dering,
reflectively.
Dolly bounced up like an India-rubber ball at this suggestion, and cried
out,--
"Why, of course that's where she's going, I might have known it." And
then Dolly leaned back discontentedly, and reflected upon the good
fortune that seemed to attend Hope Benham at every step. There was Kate
Van der Berg lavishing all sorts of attentions upon her; and here was
this testimonial concert that the Somersets had got up for Mr. Kolb, and
that everybody was pining to go to, open to her! "Wonder who she is
visiting, anyway," Dolly pondered, in the course of these
reflections,--"perhaps the Somersets themselves,--'twould be just like
her luck."
And while Dolly pondered these things, Mrs. Dering mused with regret of
what her musicale had lost, and Jimmy chuckled anew as he recalled "that
girl's" high and mighty manner with Dolly. But his chuckle ended in a
sigh, as he thought: "It's of no use for me to expect to hear that girl
play; Dolly has spoilt all that."