第134章 Problems Beyond Art.(3)

"Father,father,I can't bear that look.Oh,God forgive me,how I have wronged you!"and she buried her face on his shoulder again.

"Ida,"he said,slowly and pleadingly,"be very careful--be sure this is not a passing impulse,a mere remorseful twinge of conscience.

I've been hoping for years--I would have prayed,if I dared to--for some token that I was not a burden to you and your mother.You seemed to love me some when you were little,but as you grew older you grew away from me.I've tried to forget that I had a heart.

I've tried to become a beast because it was agony to be a man.why I have lived I scarcely know.I thought I had suffered all that Icould suffer in this world,but I was mistaken.I left this place last Monday with the fear that my beautiful daughter was giving her love to a man even baser than I am,base and low from choice,base and corrupt in every fibre of his soul and body,and from that hour to this it has seemed as if I were ground between two millstones,"and he shuddered as if smitten with an ague."Ida,"he concluded piteously,"I'm too weak,I'm too far gone to bear disappointment.This is more than an impulse,is it not?You will not throw yourself away?Oh,Ida,my only child,if you could be in heart what you were in your face as you greeted me to-night,Icould die content!"

For a few minutes the poor girl could only sob convulsively on his breast.At last she faltered brokenly:

"Yes,father--it is an impulse--an impulse from heaven;but I shall pray daily that it be not a passing one.I--I have lost confidence in myself,but with my Saviour's help,I will try to be a loving daughter to you and make your wishes first in everything.""Great God!"he muttered,"can this be true?""Yes,father,because God IS great,and very,VERY,kind."His bent form became erect and almost steely in its tenseness.He gently but firmly placed her in a chair,and then paced the room rapidly a moment or two,his dark eyes glowing with a strong and kindling excitement.Ida began to regard him with wonder and almost alarm.Suddenly he raised his hand to heaven,and said solemnly:

"This shall be no one-sided affair so help me God!"Then opening his valise,he took out a bottle of brandy and thew it,with a crash,into the empty grate.

Ida sprang towards him with a glad cry,exclaiming,"O father,now I understand you!Thank God!thank God!"He kissed her tearful,upturned face again and again,as if he found there the very elixir of life.

"Ida,my dear little Ida,"he said,huskily,"you have saved your father from a drunkard's end--from a drunkard's grave.I was in a drunkard's hell already."Mr.Mayhew requested that supper should be served in his own room,for neither he nor his daughter was in a mood to meet strangers that evening.Ida called her mother,and tried to explain to her why they did not wish to go down,but the poor woman was not able to grasp very much of the truth,and was decidedly mystified by the domestic changes which she had very limited power to appreciate,and in which she had so little part.She was not a coarse woman,but matter of fact,superficial,and worldly to the last degree.

Van Berg could scarcely believe his eyes when Mr.Mayhew came down to breakfast with his family Sunday morning.The bondman had become free;the slave of a degrading vice had been transformed into a quiet,dignified gentleman.His form was erect,and while his bearing was singularly modest and retiring,there was nothing of the old cowering,shrinking manner which suggested defeat,loss of self-respect,and hopeless dejection.All who knew him instinctively felt that the prostrate man had risen to his feet,and there was something in his manner that made them believe he would hold his footing among other men hereafter.

The artist found himself bowing to the "spiritless wretch"with a politeness that was by no means assumed,and from the natural and almost cordial manner in which Mr.Mayhew returned his salutation,he was very glad to believe that Ida had not told him the deeper and darker secrets of her experience during the past week.

"This is her work,"he thought,and Ida's radiant face confirmed the impression.She then felt that after her father's words,"You have saved me,"she could never be very unhappy again.A hundred times she had murmured,"Oh,how much better God's way out of trouble has been than mine!"Mr.Mayhew had always had peculiar attractions for Miss Burton,and they at once entered into conversation.But as she recognized the marvellous change in him,the pleased wonder of her face grew so apparent,that he replied to it in low tones:

"I now believe in your 'remedies,'Miss Burton;but a great deal depends on who administers them.My little girl and I have been discovering how nearly related we are."Her eyes grew moist with her sympathy and gladness."Mr.Mayhew,"she said,"I'm inclined to think that heaven is always within a step or two of us,if we could only take the right steps.""To me it has seemed beyond the farthest star,"he replied,very gravely."To some,however,the word is as indefinite as the place,and a cessation of pain appears heaven.I could be content to ask nothing better than this Sabbath morning has brought me.I have found what I thought lost forever."Jennie Burton became very pale,as deep from her heart rose the query,"Shall I ever find what I have lost?"Then with a strong instinct to maintain her self-control and shun a perilous nearness to her hidden sorrow,she changed the subject.

It was touching to see how often Mr.Mayhew's eyes turned towards his daughter,as if to reassure himself that the change in her manner towards him was not a dream,and the expression of her face as she met his scrutiny seemed to brighten and cheer him like a coming dawn.