A Face Illumined Part 27

"Stanton, we both fee that he is not fit to sit at the same table with Miss Burton."

"You are right, Van," Stanton replied with a deep flush; "but I can do nothing without drawing attention to my relatives. After all, it is only a casual and transient a.s.sociation in a public place, over which we have no control. While she seems too near to him there you know that heaven is as near to h.e.l.l as they are to each other. For the sake of poor Mr. Mayhew, if for no one else, let the matter pa.s.s."

"Very well, Stanton; but it must not happen so another week;" and then the young men who had withdrawn into the hall-way entered, but the expression of coldness and displeasure did not wholly pa.s.s from their faces.

Chapter XXIII. Jennie Burton's "Remedies."

Fortunately Mr. Mayhew had been placed at the supper-table next to Miss Burton, and Van Berg speedily became absorbed in watching the impression made on each other by these two characters that were so utterly diverse. It needed but a glance to see that Mr. Mayhew was a heavy-hearted, broken-spirited man. His shrunken inanimate features, and slight, bent form, looked all the more dim and shadowy in contrast with his stout, florid wife, who even in public scarcely more than tolerated his presence. This evening she devoted herself to Sibley, who sat between her and her daughter.

Mr. Mayhew seemed unusually depressed even for him, and began to make a supper only in form. Jennie Burton stole a few shy glances at his sallow face, and seemed to find an attraction in it she could not resist. Two handsome lovers sat near her, but she evidently forgot them wholly save when they addressed her; and she wooed the elderly man at her side with consummate tact and grace.

At first he was unconscious of her presence. She was but another human atom, and of no more interest to him than the chair on which she sat. Mechanically he declined one or two things she pa.s.sed to him, and in an absent manner replied to the few casual remarks by which she sought to engage him in conversation. At last she said, in a voice that was indescribably winning and sympathetic:

"Mr. Mayhew, your sultry week in town has wearied you. Our country air will do you good."

There was so much more in her tones than in her words that he turned to look at her, and then, for the first time, became aware that he was not sitting at the side of an ordinary, well-bred lady.

"Country air is good as far as it goes," he said slowly, scanning her face as he spoke; "but it does not make much difference with me."

"There are other remedies," she resumed in her low gentle tone, "which, like the air, are not exactly tangible, and yet are more potent."

"Indeed," he said, the dawning interest deepening in his face; "what are they?"

"I do not mean to tell you," she replied with a little piquant nod and smile. "I've learned better than those people who have a dozen infallible medicines at their tongues' end for every trouble under heaven. I never name my remedies; for if I did, people would turn away in contempt for such commonplace simples."

"I can guess one of them already," he said with a pleased light coming into his eyes.

"So quickly, Mr. Mayhew? I doubt it."

"Kindness," he said, in a low tone.

"Well," she replied with a slight flush, "I can stoutly a.s.sert that this remedy did me good when all the long-named drugs in the 'Materia Medica' could not have helped me."

He looked at her searchingly a moment, and then said in the same low tone:

"And so you are trying to apply your remedy to me? It certainly is very good of you. Most people when they are cured, throw away the medicine, forgetting how many others are sick."

"Perhaps we can never exactly say we are cured in this life; but I think we can all get better."

"It depends a great deal upon the disease," he replied, with a shrug.

"No, Mr. Mayhew," she said; and, although her tone was low, it was almost pa.s.sionate in its earnestness. "G.o.d forbid that there should be a disease without a remedy."

He again looked at her with a peculiar expression, and then slowly turned toward his wife and daughter. Mrs. Mayhew was too preoccupied to heed him, and Sibley was just saying:

"Miss Ida, I claim you for the first waltz this evening, and only wish that it would last indefinitely."

"Pardon me for saying it to one so young and hopeful as yourself, Miss Burton," Mr. Mayhew resumed gloomily, "but that which both G.o.d and good-sense forbid seems the thing most sure to take place in this world."

Although so dissimilar, deep and sad experiences made them kin, and Miss Burton found she must make an effort not to let their thoughts color their words too darkly for the time and place.

"I shall not let you destroy my faith in my old-fas.h.i.+oned simples,"

she said in tones that were lighter than her meaning. "You must not be sure that because you are so much my senior, all my complaints have been merely children's troubles. Appearances are often misleading, you know."

"Not in your case, I think, Miss Burton. I have lost faith in almost everything, and most of all in myself; but this unexpected little talk has touched me deeper than you can know, and I cannot help having faith in you."

"I will believe it," she said with a smile, "if you will give me a little of your society before you go back to the city."

He looked at her with sudden suspicion. "Do you mean what you say?"

"I do."

"Why do you wish my society?"

She hesitated.

His face darkened still more, for he remembered what he was, and how little this young and lovely girl had in common with him.

"Answer me truly," he insisted; "why should you wish my society?

I've not a particle of vanity. I know what I am, and you undoubtedly know also. If you wish to advise me and preach at me, let me tell you plainly but courteously that your efforts, however, well intentioned, would be in vain, and not altogether welcome. I can conceive of no other reason why you should wish for my society."

Her face became very pale, but she looked him full in his eyes as she replied:

"I do not wish to preach or advise at all. Can you not understand that one may ease one's own pain by trying to relieve the suffering of another? Now you see how selfish I am."

His face softened instantly, and he said:

"Miss Burton, that is too divine a philosophy for me to grasp at once. As the world goes now, I think you are founding a school of your own. You will find me an eager listener, if not an apt scholar, whenever you will honor me with your company." And smiling his thanks he rose and left the table.

This conversation had been carried on in tones too low and quiet to be heard by others in the crowded and noisy dining-room. Van Berg, who sat opposite, had taken pains not to follow it and to appear oblivious, and yet he could not refrain from observing its general drift and scope in Mr. Mayhew's manner; and his eyes glowed with admiration for her winning tact and kindness. The glance he bent upon her was perhaps more ardent and approving than he was aware, for she, looking up from the abstraction which the recent conversation had occasioned, seemed strangely affected by it, for she trembled and her face blanched with a sudden pallor, while her eyes were riveted to his face.

"You are not well, Miss Burton," said Stanton hastily, but in a low tone. "Let me get you some wine."

She started perceptibly, and then a sudden crimson suffused her face as she became conscious that other eyes were upon her.

In almost a second she recovered herself fully, and replied, with a smile:

"No, I think you, Mr. Stanton. A cup of tea is a panacea for all a woman's troubles, and you see I have it here. I did not feel well for a moment, but am better now."

The eyes of Stanton and Ida met. Both had seen this little episode, and each drew from it conclusions that were anything but inspiriting. But Van Berg was thoroughly puzzled. While as he felt hen he would have gladly drawn encouragement from it, and perhaps did so to some extent, he still felt there was something peculiar in her manner, of which he seemed the occasion, but was not the adequate cause.

Miss Burton soon after sought her room, and for a few moments paced it in deep disquiet, and her whole form seemed to become tense and rigid. In low tones she communed with herself: