Miss Davis

“ The girl laughed her enchanting little laugh, appraised him at a glance, then turned her pretty head and critically surveyed the studio.
"I believe," she said, "I'm to pose for Miss Davis seated on a winged horse. Isn't that exciting?"
"You'd be delightful on a winged horse," he said.
"Do you think so?"
"I suspect it. What did you do in the Follies?"
"Nothing very interesting. Have you seen the Follies?"
"You ought to know I haven't," he said reproachfully. "Do you suppose I could have forgotten you?"
She rose and dropped him a Florodora curtsey. They were getting on very well. ”

“ Miss Davis became the pupil of Miss Marguerite E. Saxton, a lady of undisputed ability and a most conscientious teacher—a lady who knows no one by their color. Under the tuition and guidance of this lady she made her debut April 25, 1883, at Washington, before an audience that was cultured, critical and large. ”

“ It was met by shrieks from two hundred throats, by screams, oaths, prayers, by the sharp jangling of bells, by the blind rush of many men scurrying like rats for a hole to hide in, by the ringing orders of one man. Above the tumult this one voice rose like the warning strokes of a fire-gong, and looking up to the pilot-house from whence the voice came, David saw the barkeeper still in his shirt-sleeves and with his derby hat pushed back behind his ears, with one hand clutching the telegraph to the engine-room, with the other holding the spoke of the wheel. ”

“ How would you, Praxinœ, like to marry an Isthmionices?”
“Excellently well, but your Hermas won’t so honour you.”
“Eu! see, she lifts her pretty blue veil; I’m glad she’s handsome. Some beautiful men wed regular hags.”
The two ladies were clearly mother and daughter, of the same noble height, and dressed alike in white. Both faces were framed in a flutter of Amorgos gauze: the mother’s was saffron, crowned with a wreath of golden wheat-ears; the daughter’s blue with a circlet of violets. And now as they stood with arms entwined the younger brushed aside her veil. The gossips were right. ”

“ My suit was dark blue, my boots tan with Cuban heels, and my blue velvet hat had two reddish quills in it. I was awfully pleased with my selections, and I confided to Miss Davis, the teacher, that I wasn't going to wear any of the things until the very day I started for home.
[61]
"And now," I said, "I'm going to take you to luncheon, Miss Davis, after which I want you to be my guest at a matinée."
It was simply grand to have money! It makes you feel like a queen to fling it around as if it were paper. ”

“ When she lowered them her eyes were shining, radiant, laughing with happiness.
“I am so sorry!” she whispered penitently. “It was wicked. But,” she pleaded, “I did so want to hear you say it just once more!”
She was very near to him. Her eyes were looking into his. What she saw in them caused her to close her own quickly. Feeling blindly with outstretched hands, she let herself sway toward him, and in an instant she was wrapped in his arms with his breathless kisses covering her lips and cheeks. ”

“ When he had spoken, although they were entirely alone in the world and quite near to each other, it was as though the girl could not hear him, even as though he had not spoken at all. After a silence, the girl said: "Perhaps it would be better for us to go back to the car."
"I won't do it again," begged the man.
"We will pretend," cried the girl, "that the car is a van and that we are gypsies, and we'll build a campfire, and I will tell your fortune."
"You are the only woman who can," muttered the young man. ”

“ Mary was silent; the old man continued: "No reply? I know your thoughts. You are half a Frank and love them better: better to watch these mad knights at tourney than read Polybius with the Princess Anna?"
"Yes, my father," was the simple reply; "we have glory, art, learning, a name never to die. But the future is with these Franks—so boisterous, so brutish! For high resolve and higher action make people great, not gazing at statues, and reading of brave deeds done of old."
More silence save for the bulbuls and the fountain.
"Daughter mine," replied the Cæsar, "you say well. ”

“ As she bent to fill the cap, in the water she saw again her face, framed now in the shining hair.
"Allah!" she cried, after the manner of the Arabs, "how beautiful I am! how Richard will love me!" And she laughed at her own complacency. A sudden shout made her start like a fawn when the hounds are baying; then a rush of hoofs, an outcry.
"Iftikhar! He is pursuing!" her thought; and Mary sprang to run up the sandy hillside. Not Iftikhar; from behind the little sand-hill to the west six horsemen had appeared in a twinkling: all on long-limbed, sleek-coated desert steeds. ”

“ Sister Anne shrugged her shoulders; they were charming shoulders—as delicate as the pinions of a bird.
“One must live,” said Sister Anne.
They had passed through the last cold corridor, between the last rows of rigid white cots, and had come out into the sunshine. Below them stretched Connecticut, painted in autumn colors. Sister Anne seated herself upon the marble railing of the terrace and looked down upon the flashing waters of the Sound.
“Yes; that's it,” she repeated softly—“one must live.”
Sam looked at her—but, finding that to do so made speech difficult, looked hurriedly away. ”

“ I am complaining that I cannot feel it myself.”
“That will come in time, no doubt,” she said, encouragingly, with the air of a connoisseur; “and let me tell you,” she added, “that it will be all the better for the woman that you have doubted yourself so long.”
“You think so?” said Carlton, eagerly.
Miss Morris laughed at his earnestness, and left him to go below to ask her aunt to join them, but Mrs. Downs preferred to read in the saloon, and Miss Morris returned alone. She had taken off her Eton jacket and pulled on a heavy blue football sweater, and over this a reefer. ”

“ They were one Mr. Davis, and a small circle of friends. It was impossible not to know Mrs. Davis's name, from her being always in great request among her party, and her party being everywhere. During the Holy Week, they were in every part of every scene of every ceremony. For a fortnight or three weeks before it, they were in every tomb, and every church, and every ruin, and every Picture Gallery; and I hardly ever observed Mrs. Dads to be silent for a moment. Deep under-ground, high up in St. Peter's, out on the Campagna, and stifling in the Jews' quarter, Mrs. Davis turned up, all the same. ”

“ And then they went at it alternately, each pointedly addressing not the other, and tossing the hypothetical Kit between them, as if that epicene individual were the most familiar of shuttlecocks.
“Kit is to be congratulated, Mrs. Davis,” said his lordship.
“Kit has chosen the better course, Mrs. Davis,” said her ladyship.
“Matrimony is the shadow of felicity, Mrs. Davis, for which men, like the dog in the fable, drop the substance.”
“Men, you see, are beasts, Mrs. Davis; and not only beasts, but silly beasts.”
“They don’t know when they are well off, Mrs. Davis.” ”

“ Some city lady, is it?”
“She’s sat in the same place in the grand stand every day, wearing a red hat——”
“Me, I don’t notice ladies’ hats much,” Pres said. “Maybe, if you could give me a better description——”
“I was introduced to her, at the same time Curly was. Miss Florrine, her name is. She’s—she’s very pretty and well-dressed and city-acting.”
“H’mph!” grunted the ex-ranger. “And boys don’t have sense enough to know when they’re well off. Any more,” he conceded, “then they did when I was one. Who is she?” ”

“ Back over the years since he had seen her, the rush of memory took him to that day when she had told him that she knew his secret. He saw her again standing in the road and bidding him, with a smile, come on [59] with her. And now that little girl was this beautiful woman! She had not changed, and yet she was all changed.
Slowly the tide of emotion swelled within him. He could not remember that he had ever thought she was a pretty girl, and in the years he had spent at the university he had scarcely thought of her at all. ”

“ To a young man very much interested in a young woman, of whom he knew so little that it was possible to endow her with every grace of mind and character, and whose personal charm was never to be forgotten, these melancholy visits afforded much satisfaction. Even to pass the house was a pleasing exercise; and, separating from McKildrick, he turned his steps to the Alameda, the broad avenue shaded by a double line of trees that followed the curve of the harbor, and upon which the gates of Miramar opened. ”

“ The princess had just bidden Louis farewell. His importunity was great, her perplexity greater; for she did not love the man, yet things had gone too far for her to dismiss him without bitterness and gossip all over the city.
"Hei, despoina!" quoth the old woman; "Bardas, the groom, is come from Palermo—a terrible story. Richard Longsword in deathly peril!" And Sylvana, sly sinner, who knew Mary better than Mary knew herself, had expected the start, and flush, and little cry. "No, by St. Basil, he is safe enough," protested she, consequentially. ”

“ Davis had been kinder, and had given her more time to read the Fairy Tales, she would have been quite a happy little girl, for she lived in dreams, and it did not take much to content her. Half her time was spent in a sort of inward play which never came out in words. Sometimes in these plays she was a Princess with a gold crown, and a delightful Prince making love to her all day long. Sometimes she kept a candy-shop, and lived entirely on sugar-almonds and sassafras-stick. ”

“ I told him, adding, "I do wish you knew the Davis family. They are the best people in the world."
"I know Master Hall and his wife, at least to speak to," said he. "She seems, indeed, like a most generous woman, such as the wise man calls a crown to her husband." ”

“ To-day you have been a gallant guard of the princess. Remain by her to-morrow; defend her with your life. As I live, if you do your duty, reward shall not fail."
"Cid," answered the Arab, kissing the Baron's feet, "I hear and obey. I swear, on my head, no unfriendly hand shall touch your very noble wife."
As Richard looked about, he saw Theroulde standing in the firelight. "And you, too, Sir Minstrel," said he, "shall stand guard with Hossein over your lady." As he spoke, he thought he heard a low curse, "Eblees confound him!" burst from under Hossein's breath. "Ha! What said you, Arab?" ”

“ Men heard their voices for an instant raised high—curse and defiance, doubtless. Who might say? A second time—all eyes following. Mary saw the Spaniard swing nimbly in his saddle. The emir's lance overshot harmlessly; his own snapped fairly on the target. Another mighty shout—Musa had won!
"Again I wish you glory!" said Mary, as she fixed a second diamond aigrette on the cap of the kneeling Spaniard. "May God ever guard you as now, and let you shed glory on your friends!" ”

“ The Eleusinian youths broke from their ranks and fell upon the chariot. The horses were loosed in a twinkling. Fifty arms dragged the car onward. The pipers swelled their cheeks, each trying to outblow his fellow. Then after them sped the maidens. They ringed the chariot round with a maze of flowers chains. As the car moved, they accompanied it with a dance of unspeakable ease, modesty, grace. A local poet—not Simonides, not Pindar, but some humbler bard—had invoked his muse for the grand occasion. Youths and maidens burst forth into singing.
“Io! Io, pæan! the parsley-wreathed victor hail! ”

“ The light was too dim to discover in the distance anything new in the face of the queen. She wore a loose, long gown of some light blue silken stuff; and her belt, shoes, neck, breast, and ears were all glittering with gems. At the foot of the dais was a group of half a dozen showily dressed chamberlains and courtiers, who made a slight motion of greeting when the two guests darkened the doorway. One of these functionaries advanced to Cornelia.
"Your ladyship," he began, in a smooth, colourless voice, "I have the honour to be the Royal Introducing Chamberlain. ”

“ But before they could reach their hero the courteous Junta forced them back, and cleared a pathway for a young girl. She was travel-worn and pale, her shirt-waist was disgracefully wrinkled, her best hat was a wreck. No one on Broadway would have recognized her as Burdett and Sons' most immaculate and beautiful stenographer.
She dug the shapeless hat into David's shoulder, and clung to him. “David!” she sobbed, “promise me you'll never, never do it again!” ”

“ The reserve squad trooped in leisurely with the playing-cards in their hands and with their pipes in their mouths.
“This man,” growled the sergeant, pointing with the end of his cigar to Rags, “is either drunk, or crazy, or a bit of both.”
The char-woman came down stairs majestically, in a long, loose wrapper, fanning herself with a palm-leaf fan, but when she saw the child, her majesty dropped from her like a cloak, and she ran toward her and caught the baby up in her arms. “You poor little thing,” she murmured, “and, oh, how beautiful!” ”

“ But from beneath the bed, he took a short leathern scourge, its three lashes plaited with round balls of lead,—no toy, though swung by a girl. Slipping aside the sheepskin, he laid the lash with steady hand upon the naked shoulders. At the first whistle the red welts leaped out, at the second the blood, but under his great beard the strange man only smiled grimly. “It shall [13] be forty stripes save one,” had been his vow, and the lash whistled on, whilst he uttered two names at every blow, “Jesu! Sigismund! Sigismund! Jesu!” ”