"Not if you wish to go back and inquire. It is true, though. Mohammed
is a friend of mine. He was good enough, when Clover and I looked into
his hut, to show us how he polishes those perfect teeth of his with a
little stick. Did you ever see anything so shining? You can buy his
photograph, if you like, at one of these booths, and keep it as a
memento of Mr. Van Tassel's"--
"Look ou-at. Look ou-at for Mary Anderson," called a donkey boy in a
blue gown.
"You wouldn't run over me, would you, Toby?" asked Mildred.
The boy trudging by through the crowd, showed his ivories in a smile of
recognition, and urged his little white donkey onward in the narrow,
crooked, brick-paved street.
Such a throng, such a noise, only the memories of the experienced can
witness to. Camels swung along between the irregular houses, the
warning cries of their drivers mingling with the monotonous sing-song of
the venders in the closely packed booths.
Egyptian flower girls, veiled to the eyes, plied their trade. A
conjurer pushed his way amid the gazers, a hen's egg sticking in his eye
and another clinging behind his jaw. The rhythm of the Midway sounded
from two drums slung at either side of a gaudily caparisoned camel, and
was sung monotonously from the booth of the much-vaunted Oriental
sweetmeat:--
"Alla gooda bum-bum,
Vera nice candy,
Beautifula bum-bum,
Vera good candy,"
repeated _ad libitum_ by the swarthy Arab presiding.
Mildred and Jack glanced into the showcases as they passed onward, the
former restraining her companion from purchasing specimens of brasswork,
filigree silver, ornaments, and embroidery. But once Mildred exclaimed
with pleasure over a small hanging-lamp of dull silver.
"I will take it," said Jack to the instantly voluble salesman.
"Not for me; no don't," protested his companion.
"You must have a souvenir," returned Van Tassel, smiling over the word
which had grown hateful by iteration to all Fair-goers.
"Please don't get it," said the girl; but the very tassel on their
Oriental's fez was active in his zeal to wrap up the parcel for this
gentleman who did not bargain.
The foreign fashion of changing a price by the beating-down process was
one with which many Americans amused themselves when they found it was
expected; but Jack was in that state of mind when an article which had
the rare fortune to please Mildred was above rubies.
She dissembled her satisfaction, however. "If I had let you buy
everything you have started to since we came into the street, we should
have had to charter a donkey," she began.
"Look ou-at--look ou-at for Yanka Doodoo," bawled Achmet, the donkey
boy, directly upon them.
"I don't like to feel that I mustn't admire anything," finished the girl
as Jack stepped between her and the little quadruped who carried a
much-excited and curled maiden of five.
"I like this lamp so much, I don't know that I shall let you have it,"
responded Van Tassel serenely, as he took the package. "Look up,
Mildred. What a deep blue the sky gets between those irregular roofs."
"Only one of us can look up at a time, while the other keeps watch of
the menagerie."
"There appears to be an extra crowd yonder," remarked Jack.
"Oh, that is the camel-stand. Hear the people laughing. How can
anybody be willing to furnish so much amusement to the public as to
mount one of those beasts? There is always just such a crowd there."
"Well, are we through here?" asked Van Tassel.
"What? Are you weary of Cairo Street?"
"Not if you are not; but it is rather warm, and there is a good deal of
a mob, and I have inhaled enough attar of roses to last until my next
incarnation. I thought perhaps you might be tired, standing."
"I am."
"There isn't a place to sit down, either," said Jack, looking around.
"That is just what almost every one thinks. I don't know how soon people
will find out my enchanted palace, but they hadn't done so last week."
"Well, now, an enchanted palace is exactly what I am looking for,"
returned Van Tassel hopefully. "How did you learn the open sesame?"
"The open sesame is"--Mildred paused apologetically. "I am sorry to have
to say it, but it is the only prosaic feature,--the open sesame is
fifteen cents."
They moved along toward the crowd by the camel stand, and here in the
noisiest, busiest portion of the winding street, Mildred led her
companion into an open door which revealed a long, blank corridor. The
dragon guarding it was a most commonplace American. Most people whose
curiosity led them to look into the uninviting hallway were quickly
frightened off by the placard stating the fifteen-cent admission fee.
There was so much to see, and time and money were so limited, little
wonder that the obvious attractions of the street decided them not to
explore this side-show.
Mildred and Jack, leaving the din and bustle behind, pass the easily
placated dragon, and at the end of the low, empty corridor found
themselves in and open, floored court, out of which led a flight of
stairs. A large earthen jar filled with water stood at one side over a
smaller vessel into which the water filtered in crystal drops through
the porous clay. Palms and lilies stood about, and edged the entire
length of the staircase. It was very quiet here, and Van Tassel looked
about him curiously.
Mildred gave him a smiling glance of mystery, "Let us go up and see
Sayed Ibrahim," she said.
"Look here," returned Jack, frowning and smiling, "you are altogether
too sophisticated."
"Sayed doesn't think so," answered the girl, and they proceeded
upstairs. Entering a hallway where was a heavy bronze door of fabulous
age and richness of design, they were met by a tall handsome Oriental in
robes and fez, whose melting eyes lighted as they recognized Mildred.
He bowed low.
"How do you do, Sayed Ibrahim; I have brought another friend to see the
beautiful house."
He bowed again and held aside a portiere of cloth-of-gold. The visitors
passed within and found themselves in a spacious shadowy room with lofty
arched ceiling. The windows were unglazed and shielded by curious
hand-carved lattice work. Thick rugs were upon the floor, and small
tables inlaid with pearl and ivory stood about. On a larger one were a
number of tiny and precious coffee cups, held in little brass stands.
Long-stemmed pipes hung upon the walls, and divans or cushions upon the
floor invited to repose. Rich portieres divided the suite of rooms one
from another.
The light was dim, coming out of the glaring street, and the colors in
rugs and hangings were tempered in the wonderful Oriental weaving. There
were no other visitors. Jack looked at the swarthy cicerone who stood
ready to answer their questions.
"I do not wonder," he said to Mildred, "that you call this mysterious
spot enchanted. It is a chapter out of the Arabian Nights."
"Yes; are you ready to come back to the nineteenth century? The
nineteenth century in Egypt, you know. I wouldn't make your fall too
sudden and profound."
Mildred moved to the broad window-seat which was covered with a rug, and
smiled at the Arab. It was a language he understood as clearly as the
Harvard graduate, and he hastened forward and threw open the lattice.
Van Tassel seated himself opposite Mildred, and together they looked
down upon the madding crowd.
Their position was just opposite the camel stand, and from their height
they commanded a view of the kaleidoscopic life of the street. The
bystanders pressed about the cushions upon which the camels knelt to
take on or be relieved of their burdens, and seemed to find
never-failing entertainment in the behavior of those intrepid passengers
who embarked for the adventurous journey to the end of the street and
back again.
Mildred and Jack in their romantic eyrie held their sides with laughter
over the absurdities enacted before their eyes.
"If any trip ever deserved the name of pleasure exertion, that is the
one," said Mildred, wiping her eyes, while she watched two girls who
evidently took their lives in their hands as they seated themselves on
the cushioned back of one of the patient beasts. The Arab driver cried
out, and tapped the creature on the neck.
"Now then," said Jack, "see the ship of the desert let out the reefs in
its legs!"
Shrieks arose from the maidens at the first ascent, wilder and wilder
cries and clutchings at the second and third, and by the time the animal
had reached the stature of a camel and swung away, the whole crowd was
uproarious, only quieting to observe the next pair embark.
"Miss Amelia Edwards says the camel is a beast that hates its rider,"
said Jack. "I wonder what are the private prejudices of the Cairo
Street variety."
"As if you couldn't see!" answered Mildred. "It wouldn't be half so
funny if the camels didn't curl their lips and look so supercilious all
the time those idiots are shrieking so. 'What fools these mortals be!'
is the sentiment their faces express chronically. Poor things! Just
think, that they are only intended to kneel once or twice a day, and
here they have to go down every three minutes. How they would execrate
Columbus if they only knew how! Oh, look at that old lady! It is a
shame to let her go," added Mildred. "They will laugh at her, too."
"Never mind. She will be the heroine of Perkins Point, or wherever it
is, all the rest of her life."
"She looks scared, Jack. Oh, dear! her bonnet is falling off. I wish
she wouldn't. Why, there are Clover and Mr. Page! Do you see them?
Let us go out on the balcony." Mildred left the window-seat, and Jack
followed.
"Is there a balcony? Why didn't you say so?"
"Because I am economical of my pleasant surprises." The watchful Sayed
threw open double doors of the lattice work, and revealed a small,
square balcony upon which the visitors stepped into the sunlight. The
fanciful minarets and spires of the street gleamed against an azure sky.
Clover and Gorham had paused just below, also interested in the
venturesome old lady, who was followed by cheers as her scornful camel
bore her up the street.
Jack took advantage of the temporary lull that followed, to whistle the
bit from "Carmen."
Clover instantly looked up and called the attention of her companion.
Mildred beckoned.
"Clover knows the way," said Jack.
"Most certainly she does. We Chicagoans aren't Fair visitors. We are
Fair livers."
"Don't be so toplofty, mademoiselle. What am I, if not a Chicagoan?"
"Oh, a sort of deserter."
"'I deny the allegation and despise the allegator.' I am going to marry
a Chicago girl, and live here all my days."
"Have you asked her?"
Van Tassel, perhaps reminded by the neighborhood of his mentor, forbore
from replying to the saucy smiling eyes, and here Clover and Gorham
appeared at the door of the balcony.
"Come out," said Mildred, "it holds five. Is this the way you visit the
Anthropological Building?"
"Why, this is all right," answered Page. "'Midway Plaisance, Department
M. Ethnology.' Look on the catalogue, and you will see this is all a
part of the Anthropological exhibit."
"And apart from it," suggested Mildred, "which certainly is in its
favor. I thought you would see enough ghastly pictures and graveyards
and mummies in a short time."
"The exhibits in the gallery are wonderful and beautiful," said Clover.
"I don't believe you know what you are talking about."
"I do, my dear. I have oh'd and ah'd over them all, from the dainty
infinitesimal sea creatures on pink cotton to the mammoth. I felt so
much obliged to him. He really made me feel small. Then the realistic
cliff, with the birds and beasts artistically disposed, and the
waterfall and flowing brook. I've seen them. How long have you been
here?"
"Not very long. We have been watching the antics of the women on the
camels, and the long-legged men on those tiny donkeys."
"A great deal of human nature comes out in Cairo Street," said Page with
interest. "One sees a great variety of motives, and many grades of
self-control by that camel stand. See that little woman going now to
take a trip. Is it amusement she's after? Not at all. Note the
determination in her face. Duty calls and she obeys. Dollars to
doughnuts she doesn't scream, Jack."
"I'm out of doughnuts; but I'll bet you the supper she does. I haven't
seen a quiet one yet."
"Done! You will see one now."
"That girl is from the East," said Mildred.
"I am sure of it," returned Page, gazing with pleased curiosity at his
protegee, who stood waiting her turn; "but what brings you to that
conclusion?"
"The trimming of her hat looks as if it were nailed on. They say all
Boston women's bonnet trimmings are nailed on."
"She is a character," said Page. "Now I would like to know what her
motive is in riding that camel."
Jack guffawed. "I am sure you would. You will be asking her the next
thing we know."
"Well, it is no idle one, I'm sure of that."
"Perhaps she is a school teacher," suggested Van Tassel, "and wants to
go home and tell her scholars how pitch-and-toss in Cairo Street differs
from the usual game."
"There she goes," said Clover, and they all watched the fair-faced girl
approach and mount a camel whose expression for utter boredom rather
outdid its neighbors. At the driver's cry it gathered itself
convulsively. The rider lurched forward. Her back was to the watchers
on the balcony, but they could not hear a sound from her. She lurched
backward, still without a cry, and they were not surprised when the
camel swung around to see her face still set in its determined and
composed lines while the crowd looked on in silence.
"I shall enjoy that supper very much, Jack," said Gorham.
"You haven't won it yet. Wait till she comes back. When his Nibs
kneels down is the time a girl's lungs really come into play. After she
thinks every joint in his body has doubled up there comes one unexpected
plunge that fetches the most dignified of them every time. They say a
sailor came in here the other day and after riding one of our humped
friends said that the camel played cup-and-ball with him the whole
length of the street, and only missed him twice."
In a few minutes, back came Gorham's heroine, still composed as she
rocked back and forth clinging to the rope which the driver had handed
her for a support.
"Now that supper hangs in the balance," remarked Page.
"I'm safe enough," returned Jack nonchalantly, "and I assure you my
appetite is in prime condition."
The camel, slowly winking and holding his nose aloft, approached his
cushion, and began the series of spasmodic collapses which made its
rider look as though at the mercy of a rocking-chair gone mad. She
pitched wildly, but valiantly held her peace. Even Jack had to admit
that she did not make a murmur, and all his protests against playing off
a dumb girl on him were unheeded as Page gazed benignly down on the
young woman, who smiled sweetly and triumphantly as she rejoined her
friends.
"Five minutes of four," said Mildred. "The wedding procession will soon
pass. Aren't we fortunate to have the balcony? Do you see, other
people are daring to visit the house and taking our window-seat?"
"Your window-seat! That is pretty good," said Clover, turning toward
the speaker with an arch smile. "We thought that was our window-seat,
didn't we, Jack?"
She saw the color flash over her sister's face in the instant before the
girl controlled herself. She wondered if Jack had seen the novel
evidence of feeling before Mildred turned to him coolly.
"So you have been here before," she remarked. "Why didn't you mention
it?"
"Clover and I looked in a short time only, the evening we took supper in
Germany," answered Van Tassel. "I did not examine the curious place at
all then, so this is really my first view of it."
Clover turned away to conceal her amusement. Jack in his embarrassment
had implied all she could have asked from the disciplinary standpoint.
But now the attention of the quartette was claimed by the wedding
procession, which was seen coming down the street, the camels nearly
hidden under their gaudy, bulky trappings, and the din of the tom-toms
filling the air. When the music, dancing, and sword play were ended,
Mildred spoke to her sister.
"What have you done with Mr. and Mrs. Page?"
"They went to the Chinese theatre, and we have promised to meet them in
Old Vienna and take supper there."
"Our dear Jack will have to take supper with us now," declared Gorham
cordially.
"I suppose," said Van Tassel, addressing Mildred, "that Old Vienna is an
oft-repeated experience to you?"
"At least I shall not pretend that it is a novelty," she answered
without looking at him, and Jack was silent. He even colored, but it
was not with proper contrition. It was a flush of pleasure that
overspread his countenance as his brown eyes sent a quick glance into
Clover's.
*CHAPTER XXI.*
*OLD VIENNA.*
"How remarkable that you met Mildred," said Clover to Jack, after the
four had wended their way out of Cairo and turned west.
"It was a lucky chance," replied Van Tassel.
"Where did you meet?" The fun in his face gave Clover her first
suspicion.
"In the Ferris Wheel. Wasn't it a coincidence that we should have
chosen the same cab? And I'll tell you in confidence, Clover, that I
think Mildred was considerably impressed with his Wheelship."
"Why should you make a confidence of that?" asked Mildred nonchalantly.
"We are all impressed, aren't we?"
"Not to the verge of pallor, Milly."
"Don't call me Milly. No one does that but Clover."
"Were you really frightened, Mildred?" asked her sister with much
interest.
"Why do you ask me? Ask Jack. He evidently knows all about it."
"No, I insist on referring you to Mildred herself. She scorns petty
deceits of all kinds. I cannot be relied on to tell the absolute
truth."
Mildred looked at the speaker with a dangerous sparkle in her eyes.
"Why don't you give Clover her present?" she asked suddenly.
"A present for me? Why, hurry," exclaimed Clover. "What new
extravagance have you been committing, Milly?"
"It isn't I this time, it is Jack. He has bought you the most adorable
little silver hanging-lamp you ever saw. Open it, Jack; or shall we
wait till we are seated in Old Vienna?"
"You told him I wanted it, you naughty girl."
"No, I didn't." Mildred was bubbling over with mischievous satisfaction
in Van Tassel's struggles to look bland. "It was purely spontaneous on
his part. I even went so far as to urge him not to get it. Didn't I,
Jack?"
Van Tassel's reply was scarcely audible; but they had reached the guard,
who with puffed sleeves and feathered hat stood motionless, spear in
hand, before the entrance to the Vienna of two hundred years ago.
Inside they found the Pages, standing before one of the many open shops
which formed the first floors of the weather-stained, peaked, and
turreted houses.
"Hilda is buying a spoon," announced Mr. Page as his friends approached;
"but that goes without saying. I have kept careful count, and this is
the seventy-seventh she has purchased while with me. Of course there may
be others. I can't tell what pleasant surprises may be awaiting me when
we get home."
"How was the Chinese theatre?" asked Gorham, while Clover and Mildred
gravitated naturally to Mrs. Page's side to lend her their aid in
deciding between the merits of two spoons she was examining.
"Immense; you must go."
"You mustn't go unless you want to be driven crazy with noise," put in
Hilda. "Robert says I am deficient in the sense of humor, but you
positively can't think in that place. There was a Chinese-American in
the audience acting as an interpreter, and I suppose he saw that Robert
was interested; so he just stayed with us, and put the crowning touch to
the confusion by explaining the play at a pitch to be heard above the
squealing music and the shrieking actors."
"Women's parts all taken by men, of course," explained her husband, "and
they jabber in a high monotonous falsetto without any change of
countenance except an occasional attack of pathetic strabismus. Two
lovers meet after a separation of ten years. They start, then with two
simultaneous squeaks fall backward in a swoon, feet to feet, and lie
there with their elaborately dressed heads sticking up in the air, while
a supe runs in with wooden supports which he tucks under their necks.
The interpreter explained: 'Of course they cannot spoil their hair!'
Ha! ha! It was great; and as for the costumes and hangings, they would
stand alone for the gold and silver embroidery in them. Confess, Hilda,
they were consoling."
"Yes, they were; and so was the baby we saw upstairs in the Joss-house.
He was ten months old, with a black tuft of hair on top of his head
exactly like the Chinese dolls, and was dressed in green silk trousers
and a red silk shirt."
"You must have wanted to steal him," said Mildred.
"That is what his mother thought, I am sure. He lay asleep in a little
wagon, and when she heard me exclaim, she flew out from behind a curtain
with a very suspicious expression on her pretty face. Yes, she was
really pretty, and dimpled, and young; and her hands were loaded with
rings. Robert, just look here one minute. Don't you think the filigree
handle is the prettier?"
"My dear, I ate too many bananas once, and have never since been able to
endure the sight of them. If you knew the sentiments with which a
souvenir spoon inspires me, you would tremble."
"I will take the filigree one," said Mrs. Page, with a sigh of relief.
The six ate supper together at a table pleasantly distant from the fine
German orchestra. Feathery bits of white cloud scudded over the blue
above them. Picturesque gables and weather-beaten facades illuminated
with the decorations of a bygone time closed them in from the outside
world with such an atmosphere of antiquity, that even the dignified
beauty of Handel's Largo, as its stately measures pealed forth on the
evening air, seemed an anachronism.
Mildred sat at Jack's right hand.
"What shall I put down for you?" he asked, looking up from the order he
was writing. "I found nothing on the card injurious enough to be
appropriate."
Mildred smiled slightly as she glanced over the menu.
"You deserved a worse punishment than that," she answered.
"It is true it was no great punishment. I should like to give Clover
all Cairo Street if she wants it."
Clover was sitting opposite between the other men, and the music
effectually concealed from her the above colloquy.
"Hurry up, Jack," she said, leaning forward; "they keep you waiting
forever here. Give her bread and milk if she can't decide. It is good
for the young."
While the party were waiting for their meal to be brought, Jack, now at
ease in the situation, produced the silver lamp, which received much
praise as it was passed about.
Gorham, Mildred's other neighbor, turned to her. "Your sister suggests
that you must have practiced much self-control," he remarked. "She says
this is just the sort of lamp you have been searching for."
"Do you hear that, Jack?" asked Mildred demurely. "I am afraid Jack does
not appreciate me, Mr. Page."
Mildred, ever since the evening of her confidential talk with Gorham,
had carried the half-nettled, wholly amused consciousness that he was
regarding her with considerations of her search for that affinity she
had described. She felt sure he would not repeat their talk to Jack;
but if he should! The thought brought a stinging red to her cheeks.
Page was not thinking of her now, however. This little circumstance of
the gift of the lamp impressed him. That Jack should, while with
Mildred, buy this bauble which the latter coveted and give it to Clover,
looked as though Hilda's convictions might be correct. As he caught a
serene glance from Clover's violet eyes it suddenly seemed to him very
improbable that an impressionable fellow like his cousin should not
dream by day and night of that pure and beautiful face.
Jack was not worthy of her, he could not precisely state to himself why;
and he ran over his acquaintances in his mind to see if he could find
one the consideration of whom would rouse less antagonism. He had not
succeeded when the waiter appeared with the supper.
"What are you indefatigable people going to do next?" asked Robert Page,
lighting a cigar when their meal was finished. "I am extremely
comfortable and good-natured now, but I warn you I shall turn dangerous
if any one suggests the illumination. To be asked just to step over
from Old Vienna to the Court of Honor sounds pleasant. It was played on
me once when I was a tenderfoot; but I'm not to be roped into any such
pilgrimage to-night. If I wasn't a married man, I should sit right here
and listen to the music, and see the Wheel go round, until it was time
to go to my little bed."
"What nonsense!" remarked Hilda. "If you weren't married you would be
urging me to go with you in a gondola."
"My dear, where would be the use? You know the gondolas are all
bespoken by this time. What a sweet consciousness it is, by the way,"
added Page, sighing restfully.
"We are going, though, some night," returned his wife. "Before we leave
the White City, you must take me in a gondola and hold my hand."
"See the lengths to which this woman's frenzy for spoons carries her!
Why, I'll hold your hand now, my dear. Any suggestion which presupposes
so little exertion as that will find me in an affirmative state of mind
every time."
Hilda glanced at his offered hand scornfully. "We haven't the
stage-setting," she replied. "Be careful, Robert Page, or you will
frighten Mildred out of getting married at all."
"Is that true, Miss Mildred? Oh, I don't believe it. You are so
level-headed you must see the situation in the right light. Did you
ever hear the simile of the horse-car? When a man is trying to catch a
horse-car and afraid it is going to escape him, he waves his arms,
shouts, hurries, and disturbs himself generally. After he has caught
the conveyance, if he continued to behave in the same perturbed fashion
he would be set down as a lunatic. You see the point, of course?"
Mildred pursed her lips and shook her head. "You are a very audacious
man," she answered.
"Now Jack isn't smoking," continued Page argumentatively. "That
indicates the restlessness of the man who is afraid he will arrive too
late at the street corner."
"It indicates that I am not going to stay here," returned Van Tassel.
"Whither away, restless one?"
"You will have to ask Miss Bryant. She is showing me the World's Fair
to-day."
"Not after your perfidious behavior," said Mildred. "I was too
sophisticated, was I? Oh, for shame!"
"Do you speak to me of perfidy!" exclaimed Jack.
"Well, sha'n't we all go somewhere together?" suggested Gorham.
"No, I think we sha'n't, dear brother," replied Robert mildly.
"Do you want to stay, Hilda?" asked Gorham. "Aren't you growing tired of
hearing Zwei Bier? Come with us."
"No, thanks. I will stay here until it bores me, and then I will give
Robert his choice of selecting another souvenir spoon or taking me out."
So the other four left their seats and moved away to the martial strains
of Die Wacht am Rhein.
Clover found herself beside Jack a moment.
"It was a shame about the lamp," she murmured.
"What?" returned Van Tassel, looking uncomfortably into her roguish
eyes.
"I saw how it was. Too bad; but that is another thing she will repent
at leisure."
"How did you know?"
"By Mildred's impish dimple. She has one just above her lip that never
shows except when she is in mischief. At first I was taken in; but
after a moment I saw the imp, and then I knew."
"What a wonderful sight the Wheel is with its double row of electric
lights," said Mildred to Gorham.
"What--yes; it has been rather warm," he replied; this irrelevance being
due to the effect upon him of observing Clover's murmured colloquy with
Jack.
Mildred stared. When she made a remark to a man, she was accustomed to
find him attentive.
Page continued with another inexcusable speech.
"I wonder if perhaps Mrs. Van Tassel would like to go somewhere with
Jack."
"I believe Jack considers himself otherwise engaged this evening,"
returned Miss Bryant with hauteur.
"Oh--oh yes." Gorham's eyes fell upon the speaker with an expression
which suggested that he had just become aware of her, and until this
moment had been talking to himself.
A light broke upon Mildred. There was but one possible explanation of
such ignoring of her own preeminent right to homage.
"They are both in love with her!" she thought, and the slight pang that
came with the idea surprised her.
Clover and Jack, with the laughter on their lips, stepped forward and
joined the others.
"Have you any wish, Mrs. Van Tassel?" asked Page.
"No, let us drift until something tempts us." They soon lost sight of
Mildred and Jack in that stream of humanity which flowed in both
directions along the Midway between the soft arc-moons. They left behind
them the great Wheel, slowly revolving in sparkling light as though,
sweeping through the heavens, myriad stars had caught thickly along its
edges and were borne on to earth.
"Let me carry that precious lamp," said Page, taking Clover's parcel.
"I would not let Jack keep it, for fear he might give it to Mildred,"
she explained.
Her companion looked surprised.
"Jack is a little weak and indulgent where Mildred is concerned," said
Clover.
Page did not know what to reply. Hilda had assured him in days past
that no one could help seeing that Mrs. Van Tassel was unwilling Jack
should ask Mildred to go to the Fair with him, and now this frank avowal
of jealousy perplexed him greatly.
"But what--what mystifies me, Mrs. Van Tassel," he said hesitatingly,
"is that you should care for a gift--but there are limits to a man's
right to express his thoughts."
Clover laughed out mirthfully. "Analyze me. I am perfectly willing,
only it will necessitate exposing the fact that my sister is a very
saucy girl."
Page regarded her so earnestly that he nearly stumbled over a wheeled
chair that grazed him.
"I don't understand it at all," he said seriously.
"Of course not. Well, I will tell you. Jack bought this lamp for
Mildred; and she, to punish him for some offense, forced him to give it
to me in the way you heard. She doesn't know that I saw through it; but
now I do not propose that she shall have the fun and the lamp too."
Page found the Midway grow a trifle cheerier under this disclosure. "Of
course not," he answered; then, after a moment's thoughtfulness: "That
was a strange prank for your sister to play," he added. "I fear I
shouldn't have known how to yield as easily to the joke as Jack did."
"Oh, he stuttered a good deal, poor fellow," laughed Clover. "Mildred
is a spoiled child."
"Not so superficial, though, as one would at first believe," returned
Gorham. "There is plenty of depth to her nature. Society educates a
girl to seem shallow, that is all."
Clover looked surprised and pleased. She glanced at Page with quick,
responsive feeling.
"It is very nice of you to see through Mildred," she said, and Page felt
a strange glow under her approval.
"The folly of Hilda," he thought, "in supposing this woman could be
jealous of another!"
There was something too in the quiet joyousness of her sphere which
assured him that whatever were her sentiments for Jack, she was not
longing for his society now. She was content, he felt it, and the
knowledge was bliss to him.
"I wonder how soon we are going to be attracted," remarked Clover, after
they had walked a minute in silence.
Page turned to her suddenly. "What do you mean by that?" he asked so
eagerly that the surprised color rushed to his companion's face.
"Why, we were waiting, weren't we, for one of these side shows to tempt
us beyond the point of resistance," she answered, with the glibness with
which a woman can skim over a moment which threatens too much.
"Well, to tell the truth I had forgotten what we were doing beyond
sauntering together in this very interesting, motley crowd. Isn't it
strange how completely alone we are in such a place?"
"Or might be, if it were not for the wheeled chairs," said Clover. "It
isn't safe to become introspective here."
"Was I?" anxiously. "Have I been silent, Mrs. Van Tassel? My thoughts
often play me tricks. Hilda is always saying that I am 'queer.' I
don't know just what she means, but if you would be kind enough to
mention it if I do anything you don't like, I should be--it would be a
great favor."
"You are very flattering," returned Clover, turning away to smile.
"What a temptation you offer me!"
"Then I do offend you?" he exclaimed with frank consternation.
"No, no, I didn't mean that. I was only thinking what a temptation you
hold out to a woman to mould a fellow-creature into the form she likes.
But I know what an ignis fatuus that alluring idea is. Men do not alter
themselves to please women."
"I should say," returned Page ruminatively, "that you are wrong. I know
that Hilda has changed Robert in many ways, materially."
"By the force of years of influence, yes; but your brother did not know
what was going on. I am certain of that."
"I should suppose," said Page earnestly, "that a man could not rest in
the knowledge that he was doing something offensive to the woman he
loves."
"Yes, you would suppose so," agreed Clover. "My knowledge of the truth
is gathered from observation, not experience, as you know. I reverenced
Mr. Van Tassel too completely to think of desiring to change him. In my
married life it was myself I wished to alter; but I have seen a good
deal of young married people, and--well, tell me, Mr. Page, did you ever
hear Hilda say that she would be glad if her husband did not smoke?"
"Yes," replied Gorham, and said no more.
"Now I begin to feel a strong temptation, Mr. Page. How is it with you?
Are you prepared to resist the Javanese village?"
"I have not been in there."
"Oh, you mustn't miss that. I wonder you have been able to pass that
charming, fantastic, bamboo entrance. The lightness and simplicity of
this life makes it to me the most charming in the Plaisance."
They entered the gateway and came suddenly upon the quiet attractions of
the dainty straw village. Yes, it was still, here; still enough to hear
the muffled music of the water-wheel. Clover and Page stood a moment in
the hush, listening to its tinkle, and the plashing of the wavelets. A
small, soft-footed Javanese occasionally passed them.
"I wish that I smoked," broke out Gorham suddenly.
"Here will be an opportunity," returned Clover. "You will be offered
cigarettes at every turn in Java."
Page's seriousness was unmoved. "I want you to believe that I would
give it up if you asked me."
Mrs. Van Tassel's serene heart quickened its pace, but she laughed.
"Isn't it a pity that I shall have to remain incredulous?" then she
hastened on, vaguely afraid of her companion. "Don't misunderstand me,
please. I was not criticising your brother a minute ago. Do you know
you have formed a shocking habit of frankness in me? You have searched
out my thoughts and opinions so many times that now you have only to
suggest a subject and I pour out my ideas. I think I ought to have kept
my observations to myself on this topic; but since I have said so much,
I don't wish to leave you with the notion that I think your brother and
men like him monsters of selfishness. A woman makes an absurd mistake to
marry a smoking man, and then to be grieved because he refuses when she
artlessly requests him to give up the habit; but a girl nearly always
thinks that all she need do is to marry a man in order to make him over
into anything she likes. I tell you, Mr. Page, it is the result of my
observations that all the voluntary changes a man makes at the request
of his beloved are made before--before he catches the horse-car."