CHAPTER XLIX
BILL CRONK'S TOAST
After all, it was a long day to Christine. Tears would start from hereyes at the thought of her father, but she realized that the only thingfor her to do was to shroud his memory in a great, forgiving pity, andput it away forever. She could only turn from the mystery of his lifeand death--the mystery of evil--to Him who taketh away the sin of theworld. There was no darkness in that direction. She busied herselfwith Mrs. Leonard, and the distribution of food to others, till sixo'clock, and then she stood near the door to watch till her true knightshould appear in his shirt-sleeves, with a shovel on his shoulder, andan old burned, tattered felt hat on his head, instead of jewelled crestand heron plume.
Dennis had gone to his work not very hopeful. He knew Christine wouldbe his grateful friend while she lived, and would perhaps even regardhim as a brother, but all this might be and still she be unable torespond to his deeper feelings. Moreover, he knew she was BaronessLudolph, and might be heiress of such titles and estates in Germanyas would require that she should go at once to secure them; and so sheseemed clearly to pass beyond his sphere.
As he shovelled the hot bricks and cinders hour after hour among otherlaborers, the distance between himself and the Baroness Ludolph seemedto increase; and when, begrimed and weary, he sat down to eat hisdinner of a single sandwich saved from breakfast (for as yet he hadno money), the ruins around him were quite in keeping with his feelings.He thought most regretfully of his two thousand dollars and burnedpicture. The brave, resolute spirit of the morning had deserted him.He did not realize that few men have lived who could be brave andhopeful when weary and hungry, and fewer still, when, in addition,they doubted the favor of the lady of their love.
The work of the afternoon seemed desperately hard and long, but withdogged persistency Dennis held his own with the others till six, andin common with them received his two dollars. Whether Christine wouldaccept the supper he brought or not, he determined to fulfil his promiseand bring one. Wearily he trudged off to the west side, in order tofind a store. No one who met him would have imagined that this ploddinglaborer was the artist who the week before had won the prize and titleof genius.
If he had been purchasing a supper for himself, he would doubtlesshave been sensible about it; but one that the Baroness Ludolph mightshare was a different matter. He bought some very rich cake, a can ofpeaches, a box of sardines, some fruit, and then his money gave out!But, with these incongruous and indigestible articles made up into onelarge bundle, he started for the church. He had gone but a little waywhen some one rushed upon him, and little Ernst clasped him round theneck and fairly cried for joy. Sitting on the sidewalk near were theother little Bruders, looking as forlorn and dirty as three motherlesschildren could. Dennis stopped and sat down beside them (for he wastoo tired to stand), while Ernst told his story--how their mother hadleft them, and how she had been found so burned that she was recognizedonly by a ring (which he had) and a bit of the picture preserved underher body. They had been looking ever since to find him, and had sleptwhere they could.
As Ernst sobbingly told his story the other children cried in dolefulchorus, and Dennis's tears fell fast too, as he realized how his humblefriend had perished. He remembered her kindness to his mother andlittle sisters, and his heart acknowledged the claim of these poorlittle orphans. Prudence whispered, "You cannot afford to burdenyourself with all these children," and pride added, "What a figure youwill make in presenting yourself before the Baroness Ludolph with allthese children at your heels!" But he put such thoughts resolutelyaside, and spoke like a brother; and when one of the children sobbed,"We so hungry!" out came the Baroness Ludolph's fruit and cake, andnothing remained for Christine but the sardines and peaches, sincethese could not well be opened in the street. The little Bruders havingdevoured what seemed to them the ambrosia of the gods, he took theyoungest in his arms, Ernst following with the others; and so theyslowly made their way to the church where Christine was now anxiouslywaiting, with many surmises and forebodings at Dennis's delay.
At last, in the dusk, the little group appeared at the church-door,and she exclaimed, "What has kept you so, Mr. Fleet?"
He determined to put the best face on the situation, and indulge inno heroics, so he said, "You could not expect such a body of infantryas this to march rapidly."
"What!" she exclaimed, "have you brought all the lost children in thecity back with you?"
"No, only those that fell properly to my care;" and in a few words hetold their story.
"And do you, without a cent in the world, mean to assume the burdenof these four children?" she asked, in accents of surprise.
He could not see her face, but his heart sank within him, for he thoughtthat to her it would seem quixotic and become another barrier betweenthem; but he answered, firmly: "Yes, till God, who has imposed theburden, removes it, and enables me to place them among friends in agood home. Mrs. Bruder, before she died, wrote to her family in Germany,telling her whole story. Relatives may take the children; if not, someway will be provided."
"Mr. Fleet, I wonder at you," was her answer. "Give me that child, andyou bring the others."
He wondered at her as he saw her take the child and imprint a kiss onthe sleepy, dirty face; and Ernst, who had been eying her askance,crept timidly nearer when he saw the kiss, and whispered, "Perhaps herold outside heart has been burned away."
They followed to a lobby of the lecture-room, and here she procureda damp towel and proceeded to remove the tear and dust stains from theround and wondering faces of the children. Having restored them tosomething of their original color, she took them away to supper, sayingto Dennis, with a decided nod, "You stay here till I come for you."
Something in her manner reminded him of the same little autocrat whohad ordered him about when they arranged the store together. She soonreturned with a basin of water and a towel, saying: "See what a luxuryyou secure by obeying orders. Now give an account of yourself, as everylady's knight should on his return. How have you spent the day?"
He could not forbear laughing as he said: "My employment has beenalmost ludicrously incongruous with the title by which you honor me.I have been shovelling brick and mortar with other laborers."
"All day?"
"All day."
Her glance became so tender and wistful that he forgot to wash hishands in looking at her, and felt for the moment as if he could shovelrubbish forever, if such could be his reward.
Seemingly by an effort, she regained her brusque manner, which he didnot know was but the mask she was trying to wear, and said, quickly:"What is the matter? Why don't you wash your face?"
"You told me to give an account of myself," he retorted, at the sametime showing rising color in his dust-begrimed face.
"Well, one of your ability can do two things at once. What have yougot in that bundle?"
"You may have forgotten, but I promised to bring you home somethingthat you chose to regard as charity."
"If I was so ungracious, you ought to have rewarded me by bringing mea broken brick. Will you let me see what you brought?" but withoutwaiting for permission she pounced upon the bundle and dragged out thepeaches and sardines.
He, having washed and partially wiped his face, was now able to displaymore of his embarrassment, and added, apologetically: "That is not allI had. I also bought some cake and fruit, and then my money gave out."
"And do you mean to say that you have no money left?"
"Not a penny," he answered, desperately.
"But where are the cake and fruit?"
"Well," he said, laughingly, "I found the little Bruders famishing onthe sidewalk, and they got the best part of your supper."
"What an escape I have had!" she exclaimed. "Do you think I shouldhave survived the night if I had eaten those strangely assorteddainties, as in honor bound I would have done, since you brought them?"Then with a face of comical severity she turned upon him and said:"Mr. Fleet, you need some one to take care of
you. What kind of economydo you call this, sir, especially on the part of one who has burdenedhimself with four helpless children?"
There was a mingling of sense and seriousness in her raillery, whichhe recognized, and he said, with a half-vexed laugh at himself: "Well,really, Miss Ludolph, I suppose that I have not wholly regained mywits since the fire. I throw myself on your mercy." (The same expressionhe had used once before. She remembered it, and her face changedinstantly.) Turning hastily away to hide her feelings, she said, ina rather husky voice, "When I was a wicked fool, I told you I had none;but I think I am a little changed now." Then she added, sharply, "Pleasedon't stand there keeping our friends waiting"; and she led the wayinto the lecture-room, now filled with tables and hungry people.
Dennis was in a maze, and could scarcely understand her, she was sodifferent from the pensive lady, shrinking from rude contact with theworld, that he had expected to meet. He did not realize that there wasnot a particle of weak sentimentality about her, and that, since nowpride was gone, her energetic spirit would make her as truly a leaderin scenes like these as in those with which she had been familiar.Much less could he understand that she was hiding a heart brimmingover with love to him.
He followed her, however, with much assumed humility. When in themiddle of the room, who should meet him squarely but Bill Cronk?
"Hello!" he roared, giving Dennis a slap on his back that startledeven the hungry, apathetic people at the tables.
Dennis was now almost desperate. Glad as he was to see Cronk, he feltthat he was gathering around him a company as incongruous as was thesupper he had brought home. If Yahcob Bunk or even the red-nosedbartender had appeared, to claim him as brother, he would scarcelyhave been surprised. He naturally thought that the Baroness Ludolphmight hesitate before entering such a circle of intimates. But he wasnot guilty of the meanness of cutting a humble friend, even though hesaw the eyes of Christine resting on him. In his embarrassment, however,he held out the washbasin in his confused effort to shake hands, andsaid, heartily, "Why, Cronk, I am glad you came safely out of it."
"Is this gentleman a friend of yours?" asked Christine, with inimitablegrace.
"Yes!" said Dennis, firmly, though coloring somewhat. "He once renderedme a great kindness--"
"Well, miss, you bet your money on the right hoss that time,"interrupted Bill. "If I hain't a friend of his'n, I'd like to know whereyou'll find one; though I did kick up like a cussed ole mulewhen he knocked the bottle out of my hand. Like enough if he hadn'tI wouldn't be here."
"Won't you present me, Mr. Fleet?" said Christine, with an amusedtwinkle in her eye.
"Mr. Cronk," said Dennis (who had now reached that state of mind whenone becomes reckless), "this lady is Miss Ludolph, and, I hope I mayventure to add, another friend of mine."
She at once put out her hand, that seemed like a snowflake in the greathorny paw of the drover, and said, "Indeed, Mr. Cronk, I will permitno one to claim stronger friendship to Mr. Fleet than mine."
"I can take any friend of Mr. Fleet's to my buzzom at once," said Bill,speaking figuratively, but Christine instinctively shrank nearer Dennis.In talking with men, Bill used the off-hand vernacular of his calling,but when addressing ladies, he evidently thought that a certain styleof metaphor bordering on sentiment was the proper thing. But Christinesaid, "As a friend of Mr. Fleet's you shall join our party at once";and she led them to the further end of the room, where at a table satDr. Arten, Professor and Mrs. Leonard, Ernst, and the little Bruders,who at the prospect of more eating were wide awake again. After themost hearty greetings they were seated, and she took her place by theside of the little children in order to wait on them. Few moreremarkable groups sat down together, even in that time of chaos anddeprivation. Professor Leonard was without vest or collar, and satwith coat buttoned tight up to his chin to hide the defect. He hadlost his scholarly gold-rimmed spectacles; and a wonderful pair ofgoggles bestrode his nose in their place. Mrs. Leonard was lost in thefolds of an old delaine dress that was a mile too large, and her facelooked as if she had assisted actively in an Irish wake. Dr. Arten didthe honors at the head of the table in his dress coat and vest thathad once been white, though he no longer figured around in red flanneldrawers as he had done on the beach. The little round faces of theBruders seemed as if protruding from animated rag babies, while nothingcould dim the glory of Ernst's great spiritual eyes, as they gratefullyand wistfully followed Dennis's every movement. Cronk was in a verydilapidated and famished state, and endured many and varied torturesin his efforts to be polite while he bolted sandwiches at a rate thatthreatened famine. Christine still wore the woollen dress she had sohastily donned with Dennis's assistance on Sunday night, and the marksof the fire were all over it. Around her neck the sparks had burneda hole here and there, through which her white shoulders gleamed. Whileshe was self-possessed and assiduous in her attention to the littlechildren, there was a glow of excitement in her eyes which perhapsMrs. Leonard understood better than any one else, though the shrewdold doctor was anything but blind.
Dennis sat next to Christine in shirt-sleeves once white, but now,through dust and smoke, of as many colors as Joseph's coat. He was tooweary to eat much, and there was a weight upon his spirits that hecould not throw off--the inevitable despondency that follows greatfatigue when the mind is not at rest.
Christine darted away and brought him a huge mug of hot coffee.
"Really, Miss Ludolph," he remonstrated, "you should not wait on mein this style."
"You may well feel honored, sir," said Mrs. Leonard. "It is not everyman that is waited on by a baroness."
"The trouble with Christine is that she is too grateful," put in theold doctor.
"Now I should say that was scarcely possible in view of--" commencedthe professor, innocently.
"I really hope Miss Ludolph will do nothing more from gratitude,"interrupted Dennis, in a low tone that showed decided annoyance.
The doctor and Mrs. Leonard were ready to burst with suppressedamusement, and Cronk, seeing something going on that he did notunderstand, looked curiously around with a sandwich half-way to hisopen mouth, while Ernst, believing from Dennis's tone that he waswronged, turned his great eyes reproachfully from one to another. ButChristine was equal to the occasion. Lifting her head and looking roundwith a free, clear glance she said, "And I say that men who meet thisgreat disaster with courage and fortitude, and hopefully set aboutretrieving it, possess an inherent nobility such as no king or kaisercould bestow, and, were I twenty times a baroness, I should esteem itan honor to wait upon them."
A round of applause followed this speech, in which Cronk joinedvociferously, and Mrs. Leonard whispered: "Oh, Christine, howbeautifully I learn from your face the difference between dignity andpride! That was your same old proud look, changed and glorified intosomething so much better."
Dennis also saw her expression, and could not disguise his admiration,but every moment he increasingly felt how desperately hard it wouldbe to give her up, now that she seemed to realize his very ideal ofwomanhood.
And Cronk, having satisfied the clamors of his appetite, began to befascinated in his rough way with her grace and beauty. Nudging Dennishe asked in a loud whisper heard by all, which nearly caused Dr. Artento choke, "The young filly is a German lady, ain't she?"
Dennis, much embarrassed, nodded assent.
A happy thought struck Bill. Though impeded by the weight of anindefinite number of sandwiches, he slowly rose and looked solemnlyround on the little group. Dennis trembled, for he feared some dreadfulbull on the part of his rough, though well-meaning friend, but Dr.Arten, in a state of intense enjoyment, cried, "Mr. Cronk has thefloor."
Lifting a can of coffee containing about a quart, the drover saidimpressively, and with an attempt at great stateliness:
"Beautiful ladies and honorable gentlemen here assembled, I wouldrespectfully ask you to drink to a toast in this harmless beverage:_The United States of Ameriky!_ When the two great elementalraces--the sanguina
ry Yankee and the phlegmatic German--become one,and, as represented in the blooded team before me" (waving his handmajestically over the heads of Dennis and Christine), "pull in thetraces together, how will the ship of state go forward!" and his facedisappeared behind his huge flagon of coffee in the deepest pledge.Bill thought he had uttered a very profound and elegant sentiment, buthis speech fell like a bombshell in the little company.
"The very spirit of mischief is abroad to-day," Dennis groaned. AndChristine, with a face like a peony, snatched up the youngest littleBruder, saying, "It is time these sleepy children were in bed"; butthe doctor and the Leonards went off again and again in uncontrollablefits of laughter, in which Dennis could not refrain from joining,though he wished the unlucky Cronk a thousand miles away. Bill putdown his mug, stared around in a surprised and nonplussed manner, andthen said, in a loud whisper, "I say, Fleet, was there any hitch inwhat I said?"
This set them off again, but Dennis answered good-naturedly, slappinghis friend on the shoulder, "Cronk, you would make a man laugh in theface of fate."
Bill took this as a compliment, and the strange party, thrown togetherby an event that mingled all classes in the community, broke up andwent their several ways.
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