Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

THE EXTRA SPRING NUMBER

NUMBER FOR 1885

WILL BE FOUND AT THE END OF THE VOLUME.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]
[graphic]

CHAPTER I. THE ATELIER.

WHY did the great Shakespeare put joyous thoughts into Romeo's breast on the eve of doom? Do ecstatie moods indeed visit mortals when nearing, unawares, the verge of dread catastrophe ?

If disaster sends a herald in disguise, doth happier fortune treat us after the same fashion? Are such inner promptings hearkened to or distrusted ever?

These questions must occur to most of us at some time or other, since certain it is that dark presagement does not always betoken evil hap, nor will unwonted exuberance of spirits be surely followed by substantial joy. We feel more assurance about the connection between an unusual frame of mind and rare events. The common day is not begun with trumpetlike wakenings to destiny-thoughts like wings to lift above grosser air.

"I am far from being an unhappy woman," mused Bernarda Burke as she prepared for her busy day. "If Fortune has no more golden gifts in store, she has surely no bad either. Away, then, ye siren voices-ye stern forebodings! To work -to work! Therein lies sure healing for the bruised heart-redemption for all!"

The vast city might be searched from one end to the other for a brighter, more poetic spectacle than Bernarda's atelier presented an hour later. As if by magic, the bare, cold London room was transformed into a garden within garden, parterre within parterre. The blonde, rosy

She

The girls often wondered at their mistress's devotion to this especial flower. She never wore any other, and generally contrived to obtain splendid specimens that brightened her dress as a jewel. was a tall, handsome woman, about thirtytwo, with the dark hair, dark-blue eyes, and long silken lashes of a race famous for its beauty; also with a certain piquancy of contour and expression which made her very fascinating, especially to the blonde. Hardly one of the fair, rosy, light-haired Saxons but envied their teacher's raven hair, pearly skin, and dark eyebrows. Yet Bernarda could have no longer seemed young in their eyes. There must, then, have been some hidden charm of manner; some influence due to character, as well as looks; that subdued these careless young things, and made her task of keeping order,

and getting through a proper amount of work, so easy.

As Bernarda's stately figure moved backwards and forwards amid these avenues of bright girls, silken blossoms, and their living prototypes, there was no diminution of the girlish chatter and laughter well held in check. The empty-headed idler was expelled; but, so long as her pupils were sedulous, the mistress encouraged them to talk to each other in undertone. The perpetual chirping, as of so many birds, was a relief, and enabled her to think.

One or two rules, of course, had to be rigidly enforced. Bernarda's handsome brows knit darkly if any new comer forgot the observance of these, and ventured on a suggestion regarding the daily task, or, what the teacher resented much more, any personal remark directed to herself. On this especial morning, however, the entire school sinned in company, and had to be forgiven. As Bernarda sat alone on her raised platform above the rest, the sun, that had hitherto been obscured all the morning, suddenly disentangled itself from clouds-not sufficiently so as to flood the whole room, but just enough to envelope the one black-robed figure, and the white lilies she was busied upon, in warm golden light. The effect was strange and beautiful, and no wonder the young embroiderers seized upon it as an opportunity for unburdening themselves. For a moment every needle rested. Then one sentimentalist, more venturesome than the rest, cried out :

"Please forgive us! We must look at you whilst you sit like a saint in your aureole."

Bernarda smiled impatiently, and continued her own work as if determined for once to be indulgent. Truth to tell, she was herself conscious of a desire to break through routine, to burst this freezing silence.

Calm and dignified although she found her present mode of life, congenial as it was to one enamoured of natural beauty, there were yet moments when she longed to close her atelier and begin life anew.

The incident of the golden ray, now blinding her, and wrapping her round as a vesture, was a vexation, since it made her realise how much she had in common with these careless, restless girls. Was she not also ready to catch at any excuse for wearying of duty, for letting thought stray beyond the limit of actuality? Yes, she

Life must

acknowledged that it was so.
have more to give than a daily portion of
restful toil.

In a moment the sunlight cloud was
gone, and another exclamation went the
round of the room. On the track of that
warm effulgence now came
an almost
phenomenal gloom, which, like the glory,
fastened upon Bernarda where she sat,
hemming her round about with subtle
cloud as she had before been enthroned in
dazzling brightness.

"We cannot see you. Speak to us!" cried the girl who had before been spokeswoman of the rest. "Oh, Miss Burke, good and evil luck will surely visit you to-day."

"Foolish children! I will then hand over the good luck to you!" Bernarda replied with one of her quietly sarcastic smiles. "Go home, all of you, and make what holiday you may in the fog."

The place rang with a merry cheer, and in a few minutes the embroidery - frames were covered up, the baskets piled with gorgeous silks and flosses put away, the flowers carried off to the conservatory; Bernarda found herself alone in the bare, silent, unpictorial room; no blotch of colour left but that brilliant flower of hers, which like a gem, a butterfly, a hummingbird, now pierced the leaden London atmosphere, shining amid the gloom.

She glanced down at her heartsease as she now passed out of the deserted atelier, and readjusted it tenderly. This fairy thing was the only companion of her solitude, ever fresh and perpetually beauteous, renewed day by day as if by magic. Was it not like some undisclosed memories that accompany us wherever we go, perchance saddening but yet beautifying the common ways of life?

And once again she checked the disturbing thoughts that had come unbidden a few hours before.

"What have I to do any more with joys or terrors, prognostics of evil or blissful harbingers? To work, to work! Therein lies healing for the bruised heart, redemption for all !"

CHAPTER II. THE CONSPIRATOR.

THE gloaming had come, a time Bernarda devoted on fine days to such business as lay out of doors. To-day, however, the heavy cloak of fog that enveloped the streets kept her indoors. It was a pleasant place to walk and think in, this airy, spacious workroom, dimly lighted from

above, and Bernarda's calling gave her much to think about. To-day, as she walked up and down the silent atelier, she was contriving a set of arras destined to carry the fame of her little school across the wide Atlantic. She soon became so absorbed in the pleasing task that she did not hear a gentle tap at the door. Then her young maid - servant intruded with a card in her hand, saying that the bearer awaited an interview.

"Light the lamp in my sitting-room. I will follow at once," Bernarda said carelessly. She was subject to interruptions at this hour, and cards were matters of daily occurrence also. Rich people would call to order or inspect embroidery, parents to apprentice their children, young girls in search of employment, unknown artists to proffer designs. No day without its visitants.

heeded card fell from her passive hand. He stooped down, picked it up, and coolly replaced it in his pocket-book. Then, depositing hat and stick on the table, by a matter-of-fact speech he broke the ice.

"Can we talk undisturbed for an hour ?" he asked. "I have something to say to you."

"Certainly," Bernarda made reply, almost carelessly, as she handed him a chair. "Pray be easy," she added as she saw him glance at the door; "the only creature in the house is my little maid. You can hear her singing in her kitchen downstairs. If anyone should call, the door-bell will give due warning, and I have but to deny admittance."

He did not look entirely reassured. "You must still remember our mothertongue," he said. "Suppose" She broke in impatiently, even scornfully :

"No need to use outlandish jargon within these incurious walls. We are perfectly secure from eavesdroppers, I assure you."

Still dwelling on her arras, and without looking at the card, she went downstairs to the little parlour set aside for her own exclusive use. What a contrast it presented to the spacious, chilly workroom she had just quitted! All here was warm, The first part of her speech evidently rich, pictorial. And amid these belong-disconcerted him, and before opening his ings which seemed part of her, the little lips again, he perused her steadily. For piano, handsel of her toil, the books, a brief spell they sat looking at each pictures, and works of art bought with her other. earnings, she dared to be herself. The black abbess-like gown, with its plain folds, was discarded as soon as her day's work had come to an end, and her pansy now rested on a background as brilliant as itself.

[blocks in formation]

There was, how

He was, like herself, strikingly handsome, and the thought must have occurred to others, if it had never struck themselves, how strong was the likeness between the pair. It was a semblance due to race rather than kinship. His temples, like hers, were hidden by raven curls; the dark blue eyes were shaded with long silken lashes; he had the self-same rich, tawny skin, fine features, and kindling, yet disdainful smile. ever, a difference no less marked. Whilst Bernarda, although perfectly dignified and self-possessed, was not without a certain proud timidity and almost girlish shyness, due, perhaps, to her solitary life, you saw at a glance that he was something more than a mere man of the world. Speech, demeanour-nay, his very dress, indicated the cosmopolitan and, if not the courtier, at least one familiar with all conditions of society-perhaps the humblestcertainly not the least elevated.

Such things betray themselves in a man's most insignificant action, also that easy selfadaptation, versatility, amiableness, roughly summed up under the head of good manners, but which really mean much more than outward politeness. An adequate share in

the world's graver concerns, the give and take required in the management of public business or the leadership of masses, the necessity men of action are under of keeping their impulses well under control, naturally give them an advantage over those who move in small, circumscribed spheres.

Bernarda realised all this in a moment, and the conviction helped to make her self-reliant. He would not add to her embarrassment. Whatever he had to say would be said kindly, delicately, and with due regard for her feelings. He began with a question, smilingly put.

"Why did you use that expression just now?" he asked. "Outlandish jargon!' Is it thus you speak of the tongue of your fathers? Have you, then, abjured your country?"

"Oh, our unhappy country," she cried, looking ready to burst into tears; "must we talk of our country? Yet, of course, I know all. Your rôle is no secret.'

'Why should it be a secret?" he said, then looked at her as if to read her inmost thoughts. He added in a voice that changed to gentle insinuation: "First we have to talk of ourselves. You are well and prosperous, I see," and he glanced round the warm-tinted, elegant little room approvingly, "but hardly satisfied with such a lot, I feel sure-hardly happy?"

Bernarda's frank, impetuous nature rose up in rebellion against the irony of this speech-an irony that was not intended, she felt sure of that, but that galled nevertheless. Memories fresh and sweet as the flower she wore on her breast lived once more. The youthfulness and fervid hope of a vanished yest'reen came back. One day of life, its best and brightest, seemed to revive.

"Why have you come after all these years?" she cried passionately. "What can it matter to you whether I am happy or not? Speak out. Make known your errand, then go away and let me be."

Her distress evidently troubled him, and rising a second time, he kissed her on the forehead. That kiss, so respectfully, dispassionately accorded, yet evidently intended both as a sign of reconcilement and apology, did not comfort, but at least tended to calm her. It served to bring with sudden force the difference between his condition of mind and her own. They had loved each other passionately once, and now met suddenly after fateful years. Yet whilst the very sound of his

voice calling her by name, and the touch of his hand, could bring back the past that had been his and her own, could make this estrangement seem unreal and impossible, he remained calm and almost indifferent. The conviction forced her back on her womanly pride. She determined, no matter at what present cost to herself, to appear calm and indifferent too.

"I will tell you why I have come," he began, stooping to pick up the light shawl she had thrown round her shoulders, adjusting it with prompt care for her comfort, yet without the slightest trace of tenderness in the act. He saw that in spite of the warmth of the room, his sudden apparition had made her tremble-that was all. "Years ago I did you a great wrong," he went on, fixing his dark, penetrating eyes upon her. "Poor, obscure, and friendless, I then promised to marry you, and broke my troth. Rich, famous "-here he smiled an odd, yet winning smile "abounding in friends and followers, I am here to redeem it. My errand to-day is to offer you my fortunes and my name."

She was too much overtaken by surprise to make any answer. He went on in the same prosaic, straightforward, friendly way, no vestige of lover-like enthusiasm or demonstrativeness in voice, look, or manner, yet a keen desire to gain his point evidently actuating each syllable.

"You protested at one time that you fully and freely forgave me. A proud, high-spirited woman could not feel otherwise.

But in spite of these silent years, I have never forgotten the past, and have never forgiven myself. Pray believe that."

"It was a wild dream. Let us forget it," Bernarda said, stirred to hidden depths by his strange indifference, and still stranger fervour. Since it was plain that his love for her was a forgotten thing, certainly no joy, hardly a memory any longer, why then had he come with this word "marriage" on his lips?

They sat looking at each other, these two who had once been lovers, with hardly as they once fancied in their fond foolish exaltation, any secrets between them, any separate interests possible, no matter in what remote future; and now, after ten brief years, utter strangers could hardly be so wide apart. But the saddest experience of all was the conviction that this blank, awful separation, this wall of granite which seemed to crush the very breath of life out of her, was scarcely perceptible to him.

« AnteriorContinuar »