Edith Wharton: New Year's Day, False Dawn, The Old Maid & The Spark (4 Books in One Edition). Edith Wharton

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СКАЧАТЬ he re-entered his house he went straight up to the nursery where he knew that, at that hour, Treeshy would be giving the little girl her bath. But it was later than he supposed. The rite was over, the baby lay asleep in its modest cot, and the mother sat crouched by the fire, her face hidden in her hands. Lewis instantly guessed that she too had seen the papers.

      “Treeshy — you mustn’t . . . consider this of any consequence . . .,” he stammered.

      She lifted a tear-stained face. “Oh, my darling! I thought you never read the papers.”

      “Not usually. But I thought it my duty — ”

      “Yes; I see. But, as you say, what earthly consequence —?”

      “None, whatever; we must just be patient and persist.”

      She hesitated, and then, her arms about him, her head on his breast; “Only, dearest, I’ve been counting up again, ever so carefully; and even if we give up fires everywhere but in the nursery, I’m afraid the wages of the door-keeper and the guardian . . . especially if the gallery’s open to the public every day . . . ”

      “I’ve thought of that already, too; and I myself shall hereafter act as doorkeeper and guardian.”

      He kept his eyes on hers as he spoke. “This is the test,” he thought. Her face paled under its brown glow, and the eyes dilated in her effort to check her tears. Then she said gaily: “That will be . . . very interesting, won’t it, Lewis? Hearing what the people say . . . Because, as they begin to know the pictures better, and to understand them, they can’t fail to say very interesting things . . . can they?” She turned and caught up the sleeping Louisa. “Can they . . . oh, you darling — darling?”

      Lewis turned away too. Not another woman in New York would have been capable of that. He could hear all the town echoing with this new scandal of his showing the pictures himself — and she, so much more sensitive to ridicule, so much less carried away by apostolic ardour, how much louder must that mocking echo ring in her ears! But his pang was only momentary. The one thought that possessed him for any length of time was that of vindicating himself by making the pictures known; he could no longer fix his attention on lesser matters. The derision of illiterate journalists was not a thing to wince at; once let the pictures be seen by educated and intelligent people, and they would speak for themselves — especially if he were at hand to interpret them.

      8.

      Table of Contents

      FOR a week or two a great many people came to the gallery; but, even with Lewis as interpreter, the pictures failed to make themselves heard. During the first days, indeed, owing to the unprecedented idea of holding a paying exhibition in a private house, and to the mockery of the newspapers, the Gallery of Christian Art was thronged with noisy curiosity-seekers; once the astonished metropolitan police had to be invited in to calm their comments and control their movements. But the name of “Christian Art” soon chilled this class of sightseer, and before long they were replaced by a dumb and respectable throng, who roamed vacantly through the rooms and out again, grumbling that it wasn’t worth the money. Then these too diminished; and once the tide had turned, the ebb was rapid. Every day from two to four Lewis still sat shivering among his treasures, or patiently measured the length of the deserted gallery: as long as there was a chance of any one coming he would not admit that he was beaten. For the next visitor might always be the one who understood.

      One snowy February day he had thus paced the rooms in unbroken solitude for above an hour when carriage-wheels stopped at the door. He hastened to open it, and in a great noise of silks his sister Sarah Anne Huzzard entered.

      Lewis felt for a moment as he used to under his father’s glance. Marriage and millions had given the moon-faced Sarah some of the Raycie awfulness; but her brother looked into her empty eyes, and his own kept their level.

      “Well, Lewis,” said Mrs. Huzzard with a simpering sternness, and caught her breath.

      “Well, Sarah Anne — I’m happy that you’ve come to take a look at my pictures.”

      “I’ve come to see you and your wife.” She gave another nervous gasp, shook out her flounces, and added in a rush: “And to ask you how much longer this . . . this spectacle is to continue . . . ”

      “The exhibition?” Lewis smiled. She signed a flushed assent.

      “Well, there has been a considerable falling-off lately in the number of visitors — ”

      “Thank heaven!” she interjected.

      “But as long as I feel that any one wishes to come . . . I shall be here . . . to open the door, as you see.”

      She sent a shuddering glance about her. “Lewis — I wonder if you realize . . .?”

      “Oh, fully.”

      “Then WHY do you go on? Isn’t it enough — aren’t you satisfied?”

      “With the effect they have produced?”

      “With the effect YOU have produced — on your family and on the whole of New York. With a slur on poor Papa’s memory.”

      “Papa left me the pictures, Sarah Anne.”

      “Yes. But not to make yourself a mountebank about them.”

      Lewis considered this impartially. “Are you sure? Perhaps, on the contrary, he did if for that very reason.”

      “Oh, don’t heap more insults on our father’s memory! Things are bad enough without that. How your wife can allow it I can’t see. Do you ever consider the humiliation to HER?”

      Lewis gave another dry smile. “She’s used to being humiliated. The Kents accustomed her to that.”

      Sarah Anne reddened. “I don’t know why I should stay and be spoken to in this way. But I came with my husband’s approval.”

      “Do you need that to come and see your brother?”

      “I need it to — to make the offer I am about to make; and which he authorizes.”

      Lewis looked at her in surprise, and she purpled up to the lace ruffles inside her satin bonnet.

      “Have you come to make an offer for my collection?” he asked her humorously.

      “You seem to take pleasure in insinuating preposterous things. But anything is better than this public slight on our name.” Again she ran a shuddering glance over the pictures. “John and I,” she announced, “are prepared to double the allowance mother left you on condition that this . . . this ends . . . for good. That that horrible sign is taken down tonight.”

      Lewis seemed mildly to weigh the proposal. “Thank you very much, Sarah Anne,” he said at length. “I’m touched . . . touched and . . . and surprised . . . that you and John should have made this offer. But perhaps, before I decline it, you will accept MINE: simply to show you my pictures. When once you’ve looked at them I think you’ll understand — ”

      Mrs. Huzzard drew back hastily, her air of majesty collapsing. “Look at the pictures? Oh, thank you . . . but I can see them very well from here. And СКАЧАТЬ