第149章 Ida's Temptation.(5)

"Father,you ought to be ashamed thus to divert my mind from the pursuit of useful knowledge."Her father came to her side and said very kindly:"Ida,darling,you are a little bit like an ostrich now."She sprang up,and,hiding her face on his shoulder,trembled like a leaf."Oh,father,"she whispered,"I would not have him know for the world.Is it so very plain?""Not to him,my child,but the eyes of a love like mine are very keen.So you needn't be on your guard before your old father as you must be before him and the world.You shall have only rest and sympathy at home as far as I can give them.Indeed,if you will let me,I'll become a very unobtrusive,but perhaps,useful ally.

At any rate,I'll try not to make any stupid,ignorant blunders.

I have like Mr.Van Berg from the first hour of our meeting,and I would thank God from the depths of my heart if this could be.""Dear,good father,how little I understood you.I've been living in poverty over a gold mine.But father,I'm so ignorant and Mr.

Van Berg knows everything."

"Not quite,you'll find.He's only a man,Ida.But you can never win him through politics or by discussing with him the questions of the day.These are not in your line nor his.""What can I do,father.Indeed,it does not seem to me maidenly to do anything.""It would not be maidenly,Ida,to step one hair's breadth beyond the line of scrupulous,womanly delicacy,and by any such course you would only defeat and thwart yourself.A woman must always be sought;and as a rule,she loses as she seeks.But I strust to your instincts to guide you here.You have only to be simple and true,as you have been since the happy miracle that transformed you.Unless a man is infatuated as I--but no matter.A man that keeps his sense welcomes truthfulness--a high delicate sense of honor--above all things in a woman,for it gives him a sense of security and rest.By truthfulness I do not mean the indiscreet blurting out of things that good taste would leave unsaid,but clear-eyed integrity that hides no guile.Then,again,unless a man is blinded by passion or some kind of infatuation he knows that the chief need of his life is a home lighted and warmed by an unwavering love.With these his happiness and success are secured,as far as they can be in this world,unless he is a brute and a fool,and has no right to exist at all.But I am growing preachy.

Let me suggest some things that I have observed in this artist.He is a high-toned pagan and worships beauty;but with this outward perfection he also demands spiritual loveliness,for with him mind and honor are in the ascendant.He admired you immensely from the first,and since your character has been growing in harmony with your face he has sought your society.So,be simple,true,and modest,and you will win him if the thing is possible.You will never win him by being anything else,and you might lose your own respect and his too.""I'll suffer anything rather than that,father.I think you had better not invite him to-morrow evening.""I'll be governed by what I see to-morrow,"he replied,musingly.

"Both my business and my habit of mind have taught me to observe and study men's motives and impulses very closely.You could order a suitable dinner after leaving the studio,could you not?""Yes,father."

"Well,then,my Princess Ida,I'll be your grand vizier,and I'll treat with this foreign power with such a fine diplomacy that he shall appreciate all the privileges he obtains.But we will keep our self-respect hereafter,Ida,and then we can look the world in the face and ask no odds of it.""Yes,father,let us keep that at all events.And yet I'm only a woman.""You are the woman that has made me happy,and I think there is another man who will want to be made happy also.And now we will defer all other questions of the day,for I must go out for a time.

Do not think I undervalue your craving for information,and you shall have it as fast as you can take care of it.You have grown pale and thin this summer,but I do not expect you to become plump and rosy again in a day.""Oh,I'm rosy too often as it is.Why is it that girls must blush so ridiculously when they don't want to?That's the question of the day for me.I could flirt desperately in old times,and yet look as demure and cool as if I were an innocent.But now,oh!

I'm fairly enraged with myself at times.""They say blushes are love's trail,"said Mr.Mayhew with a laugh,"and since he is around I suppose he must leave his tracks.If you wish for a more scientific reason let me add that physiology teaches us that the blood comes from the heart.I can assure you,however,that there are but few gentlemen who admire ladies that cannot blush,and Mr.Van Berg is not one of them."Ida spent the evening at her piano instead of over the encyclopaedia,but she sighed again and again.

"Simple and true!I fear Jennie Burton and Mr.Eltinge would say I was neither if they knew what was in my heart.But I can't help it--I can't give him up after what has happened since I came to the city,unless I must."But the music she selected was simple and true.Tossing her brilliant and florid pieces impatiently aside,she played or sang only that which was plaintive,low,and in harmony with her thoughts.It also seemed to have a peculiar attractiveness to a tall gentleman who lingered some moments beneath the windows,and even took one or two steps up towards the door,and then turned and strode away as if conscious that he must either enter or depart at once.