Mistress Anne Part 22

She dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief. The unconscious Beulah, busy with her oysters, asked: "Is the Tobasco too hot? I'm all burning up with it."

Geoffrey was able later to speak lightly of his affliction. "I shall go to the Brooks ball as a Blind Beggar."

"Oh, how can you make fun of it?"

"It is better to laugh than to cry. But your tears were--a benediction."

Silence fell between them, and after a while he asked, "What shall you wear?"

"To the ball? Pink silk. A heavenly pink. I have just bought it, and I paid more than I should for it."

"Such extravagance!"

"I'm to be Cynthia Warfield--like the portrait in the Crossroads library of my grandmother. It came to me when I saw the silk in the shop window.

I shall have to do without the pearls, but I have the lace flounces. They were left to my mother."

"And so Cinderella will go to the ball, and dance with the Prince. Is Brooks the Prince?"

She flushed, and evaded. "I can't dance. Not the new dances."

"I can teach you if you'll let me."

"Really?"

"Yes. But you must pay. You must give the Blind Beggar the first dance and as many more as he demands."

"But I can't dance all of them with you."

"You can dance some of them. And that's my price."

To promise him dances seemed to her quite delicious and delightful since she could not dance at all. But he made a little contract and had her sign it, and put it in his pocket.

Going home Anne had little to say. It was Geoffrey who talked, while Beulah slept in a seat by herself.

Anne made her own lovely gown, running over now and then to take surrept.i.tious peeps at Cynthia's portrait. She had let Mrs. Brooks into her secret, and the little lady was enthusiastic.

"You shall wear my pearls, my dear. They will be very effective in your dark hair."

She brought the jewels down in an old blue velvet box--milk-white against a yellowed satin lining.

"My father gave them to me on my wedding day. Some day I shall give them to Richard's wife."

She could not know how her words stirred the heart of the girl who stood looking so quietly down at the pearls.

"I am almost afraid to wear them," Anne said breathlessly. She gave Nancy a shy little kiss. "You were _dear_ to think of it."

And now busy days were upon her. There was the school with Richard running in after closing time, and staying, too, and keeping her from the work that was waiting at home. Then at twilight a dancing lesson with Geoffrey in the long front room, with Beulah playing audience and sometimes Eric, and with Peggy capering madly to the music.

Then the evening, with its enchanting task of st.i.tching on yards of rosy silk. Usually Geoffrey read to her while she worked. His story was nearing the end. He was wearing heavy goggles which gave him an owl-like appearance, of which he complained.

"It spoils my beauty, Mistress Anne. I am just an ugly gnome who sits at the feet of the Princess."

"You are not ugly, and you know it. And men shouldn't be vain."

"We are worse than women. Do you know what you look like with all that silk around you?"

"No."

"Like Aurora. Do you remember that Stevenson speaks of a 'pink dawn'?

Well, you are a pink dawn."

"Please stop talking about me, and read your last chapter. I am so glad that you have reached the end."

"Because you are tired of hearing it?"

"Because of your poor eyes."

He took off his goggles. "Do my eyes look different? Are they changed or--dim?"

"They are as bright as stars," and he sighed with relief.

"_And now it was young Michel who whispered, 'G.o.d is good! In a moment we shall see his face, and we shall say to him, "We fought, but there is no hatred in our hearts. We cannot hate--our brothers----"'_"

That was the end.

"It is a great book," Anne told him solemnly. "It will be a great success."

He seemed to shrink and grow small in his chair. "It will come--too late."

She looked up and saw the mood that was upon him. "Oh, you must not--not that," she said, hurriedly; "if you give up now it will be a losing fight."

"Don't you suppose that I would fight if I felt that I could win? But what can a man do with a thing like this that is dragging him down to darkness?"

"You mustn't be discouraged. Dr. Brooks says that it isn't--inevitable.

You know that he said that, and that the specialist said it."

"I know. But something tells me that I am facing--darkness." He threw up his head. "Why should we talk of it? Let me tell you rather how much you have helped me with my book. If it had not been for you I could not have written it."

"I am glad if I have been of service." Her words sounded formal after the warmth of his own.

He laughed, with a touch of bitterness. "The Princess serves," he said, "always and always serves. She never grabs, as the rest of us do, at happiness."

"I shall grab when it comes," she said, smiling a little, "and I am happy now, because I am going to wear my pretty gown."