The Music Master Part 48

Von Barwig could restrain himself no longer. "Well, perhaps I do," he said in a voice trembling with emotion; "perhaps I do!" Taking her in his arms, he kissed her again and again.

"At last, at last! My little Elene! My little baby--my little baby!"

"Father, father!" was all Helene could say. Beverly looked out of the window.

"Now we mend that doll with the broken eye," said the old man, gulping down a sob and smiling through his tears.

"Yes, father," and Helene took his face between her two hands.

"Say it again!" he murmured. "It is the sound I have listened for these sixteen years."

"Father!" repeated Helene.

Beverly looked at his watch. "The steamer leaves in less than an hour," he said. "How long will it take you to pack?" he asked. "You are going with us now, father," he added, patting the old man on the back and shaking him by the hand. Von Barwig seemed dazed.

"Come, father," pleaded Helene, "no foolish pride! My home is your home after this. Now don't hesitate!"

"Hesitate? I, hesitate?" and rus.h.i.+ng to the stairway the old man shouted loudly for Miss Husted. Poons was just coming up the stairs to find out why Von Barwig didn't come down to drink Jenny's health. Von Barwig gave him a message which brought them all up in breathless haste.

Mr. and Mrs. Cruger had gone below, and Von Barwig had finished packing and was locking his portmanteau as his friends stood around begging him to tell them why he was going and where.

"I go on a honeymoon," he said, and they all laughed. "I go home," he added. "No cruel farewells, no sad partings! Jenny will tell you. I am called away. Sit down, all of you, where you always sit. Fico, your mandolin; Pinac, your violin! Poons, your 'cello!" They did as he asked them, "So, now! Play, sing, be happy, just as always! Come, the old dinner song we always sang; let it ring in my ears as I go!"

Though their hearts were heavy, they burst into their oft-sung glee, Miss Husted and Jenny joining in the chorus.

"So, so!" murmured the old man, beating time and smiling approval. "I want to go away seeing you all happy, as happy as I am, smiling, happy faces!"

"You will come back?" whispered Jenny as the old man kissed her tenderly.

"I come back," he said gently, "I come back! Good-bye, good-bye all of you! Yes, I come back, I come back," and Anton Von Barwig disappeared down the stairs and out of their lives. His eyes were still wet with tears as he took his seat in the carriage. Helene dried them with a beautiful d.u.c.h.esse lace handkerchief.

"Don't cry, father," she pleaded.

"Ach, I don't cry!" said the old man as he patted her hand. "I--I--"

he hesitated. "When I think of the many, many kind hearts in this world--I--I just feel happy, that's all!"