Beatrix Randolph

Copyright bt Amekicak Press Associatiojï, What became of Mr. Vinal Beatris Bever ascertained : she fotgot about him for several minutes and when she looked round for him he was gone. Meanwhile .Tocelyn introduced his compasión toher as "Gen. Iñigo, a gentleman interested in music;" and Mr. Randolph was extracted from his retreat, into which he had witlidrawn onder the impression j that more duns were after him. and was likewise made a partaker of the generáis acquaintance. The latter appeared in quite a different light from that in whvh we first encountered liiui. He had not only been assiduonsly instnicted by Jocelyn as to the behavior he should put on, but the f resh country air and scenery and the tendency which all persons who live in some measure by luck have to hope for a fortúnate turn in their affairs had combined to put him in a genial and optimistic frame of mind. As a contrast to the gloom in which they hal I lived of late this sunny mood of the general's seemed even more paradisiaca] than would havebeen the case at a more cheerful time. Eis jokes and coinicalities had an areh charm to the ears and eyes of Mr. Randolph and his daughter that would have perplexed the mamiiacturer of them. A feehng of security and pleasant promise diffused itself in the air. though as yet there was no known foundation for it. It was 4 o"clock in the af ternoon and dinner was over. but in considemtioTi of the city habita of the guests preparations were made for one of those high teas which combine the best features of all mèals. in the menntime the ■old ex-Virginiiin rummaged out a bottle of claret (which the general secretly wisheil had been whisky), and proceeded to dispense it witb Bomething of the courcly air that had belonged to him fore misfortune and misanthropy had ; inarked hijn for tiieir own. But his hospitality was tempered by a haanüng suspense. What was the general, aud wluit did he intend? Evidently he must have had a purpose of no ordinary nrgency (o bring him all the way from New York city hiiher. His smiling ! bearing forbade the supposition that the purpose conld be a hostile one, but why and in what way should it be friendly? It was only by an heroic effort that Mr. Randolph subdued the evidence of his j curiosity, and perhape did not succeed in disguising it so completely but that his guests could amuse themselves by ! detecting it. At length, vhen the bottle was nearing its last glass, Jocelyn turned to the young hostess with bis most fascinating marmer and said: "My dear Beatris, I wonder whether your piano is in tune? The general and I are pining for some music. The faU season hasn't begun yet, you know, and positively I don't believe either he or I have heaxd any singing worthy of the name for four months - eh, general?" "Four inonths! I should think not, by Júpiter!" returned the general, rubbing his nose pleasantly. "One doeen't hear good singing as often as that, niy dear boy. 'TH just teil you,"' he continued, turning to Beatris, "a tliing my dear old friend Doriinar said to me oncu" "Was Professor Dorimar a friend of yours?" exclaimed Beatric, with sunshine streaming frorn her eyes. "Well, I guess it was a good while before you was born that I knew him first," s&id the general gallantly; "and there was nobody had inuch to say about musio after him!" "Oh, Til sing for you as much as yon wish!" rejoined the young lady, all alive with generous pleasure. "Thinking of Professor Dorimar alwaysmakes me feel as if I could do anything." She led the way, as she spoke, to the inner sitting room, the scène of her late battle with Mr. Vinal. The gentlemen followed, and Jocelyn took the opportunity to raurmur to Inigo, "Whatdo you think of her?" "If she could sing as she looks," responded tbat personage, "I'd never bother my head again abont the Russian. The funny thing is this gal looks a little as the Russian would like to, if she could. But the beauties can't do anything but look beautiful, as a role. Well, we'll see. I might like to have her for opera bonffe, anyhow." "Were you on the southern side during the war, general?" inquired Mr. Randolph, as they sat down. "Humph! my commission was an English one," the general replied, with military presenoe of mind. "Hadn'tthe luck to see your country tül after the racket was over." Here he endeavored to caten Jocelyn's eye, in order to relieve his own feelings by a wink, but at that moment JSeatrix's fingers touched the keys, and thenceforward nothïng was possible but to listen. It need not be asked what she sang on tliis momentous occasion. Her method and quality would have been apparent in alinost any selection. But the phases of emotion through which she had recently passed were surging toward that expression which only music can afford, and with deep drawn breath and exultant heart she launched into a passage frorn one of those grand vvorks of the last century which all the intellectual brilliance and pictorial coinplexity of the modern gospel of ïnusic cannot supplant nor outweigh. As the niighty strains won control of the listeners' senses all things seemed to uudergo a noble transformation. There was a feeliug of enlargement and exaltation, what was trifling and ignoble faded out of sight, or was absorbed into the prevailing harmony of ordered beauty. Passion gained majesty from restraint. Sorrow tlirobbed with the delight of joy, and joy assuined the dignity of sorrow. Tlie mystic unity of art, which grasps the elements of things, and gives them speech and meaning; the utterance of the divine reason, which transcends the bondage of words; the language that belongs to no man, but to mankind- this magie and mystery of song, flowing forth in its grandeur and enchantment from a simple girl's lliroat. cast over all a spell of wonder and delight, and but for the profound Warrant of its beauty would have seemed miraculons. The room in which the auditors sat appeared to assume finer proportions; the very chairs and tables were endowed with elegance, and the persons thernselves were conscions of a certain stateliness in their attitudes and inovements, and of being uplifted to a higher sphere of thought and feeling tiian was native to thein. Aud the singer was transfignred; for the music which tonched the others as it were trom without was made the very form and fiber of her soul. It magnified and strengthened her; it annulled the nierely individual and accidental liinibitions of her being, and brought her into that lai-ge, impersonal state which marks the artist in seasons of inspirarion. So was it with the pythoness of old, who, in such measure as her private personality was subdued and obliterated by the god, tookonthe god's own superkuman guise of majesty. Beatrix, when she sang, rose above Buatrix. and became the fearless and self unconscious instrument of her art's expression. Whatever reverence and dignity belonged to music belonged in snch momenta to the musician, and she bestowed the faculty of reverence upon those who were before incapable of it. The general had at first put on astrictly eritieal air, as of one to whom pleasures and social amenities are one thing, and very well in their place, but business quite another. After two or three minutes, however, he had forgotten all about eveiything except the rise and f all, the swell and resonance, the airy g;unbolings and tlie strong, melodious poise and niovement of this imitchless voice. There is a point in the enjoyment of art where we cease to draw comparisons, and only teel that we are following the artisfs charmed footsteps into hitherto unexplored regions of beauty and fascij nation. Our burden of responsibility falls f rom our shoulders because we are i conscious that what we now see or hear ib better than anytbing we have heretofore known. This recognition of true mastery, wherever and whenever met with, is among the surest signs of knowledge and experience. A fool will tind fault with Raphael, and chat through a syinphony by Beethoven. Gen. Iñigo was not a fooi. He was a vulgar Jew, of nncertain nationality, whose past history and private lif e would not bear examination, bnt he knew what music and musical genius are, and he could estímate accurately the rarity and valué of the discovery which Jocelyn had led hitn to make. Accidenta aside, this unknown and unsuspecting girl would be one of the great prime donne of the world. It was not a matter of opinión, but of certainty. Indeed the general flattered himself that no one begide himself and Dorimar would be able to understand how great she really was. As he sat there and listened to her, with his fat hands folded on his waistcoat, his stumpy little feet crossed one over the other, and his big head wagging and swa)"ing in involuntary accord with the splendid diapasón of sound, he was happier thun he had ever been in his life. Not only was his reputation wed, his outlay secured, and his revenge on the Russian made certain, but his name would go Jjvmi to posterity as that of the man who had brought before the world the brightest operatic star of the age. 'Til do the handsome thing by her - I will, by Júpiter!" thought the general to himself. "There are cases in which generosity pays 50 per cent., and here's one of 'em." Beatrix sang for the better part of an hour, and might have gone on indefinitely, so far as either she or her auditors were concerned, for a truly noble voice rightly trained and managed is as tireless and untiring as it is beautiful. But mortal existence is full of petty Iets and hindrances, and Beatrix, being for the present a hostess as well as prima donna assoluta, was obliged to go and see about the supper. When the gentlemen were alone the general pulled down his waistcoat, sat up in his chair, and after regarding Jocelyn for a few inoments between half closed eyelids nodded his head several times slowly. "I see you are fond of music, general," said Mr. Randolph discerningly. "Well, music and I are under soroe 1 obligations to eacS other," was the general's reply. "Now, just teil me, has that young lady ever sung in public?' "My daughter ever sung in public!" exclaimed the young lady's father, with the air of a prince of the blood. "We are not that sort of people, sir!" 'Corne now, Randolph, this is beftvven friends, you know," said Jocelyn, airiliug as one who is superior to prejudice. "G-reat gif ts like hers - deuce take it, you've no right to hide 'em! We're not living in the feudal ages; what's the good of a girl's being talented if nobody's to know anything about it? Besides, talent rneans money nowadaya, and your danghter's voice is a fortune I if it's rightly inanaged. Don't you agree ! with me, general?" "Well, a great deal dependa on the management," retnrned that gentleman, squeezing his largo nose between his thumb and forefinger. "But with good management - yes - she could nuike money, as much as she wants." "I should say she could, as mnch as sho wants, or as much as you want either, Randolph, if these stories I hear about your einbarrassnients have any truih in 'em." '■I scarcely understaad; perhaps you wiD cxplain yourself inore fully," said Randolph, looking from one to the other in a manner that betrayed agitation. "I see you don't know who Inigo is," observed Jocelyn suarely. "You've made such a hermit of }-ourself orp here of late years you've dropped out of the running. Why, Inigo, my dear man - pimple as you see him sit there - is the foremost impresario and musical manager of the aga He has heard a report of our Beatrix's powers, and - well, go ahead, Inigo; putitinyourown way." 'Til just teil you what it is, Mr. Randolph," said the impresario, assvuning the reins of the conversation with a wave of the hand. "A few words are best, when it's about business. I carne up here to find out if your daughter could sing as good as Jocelyn here says she could. Well, she's got a fine organ, and ehe knows what to do with it; no mistake about that! Well, I've got an opening and I'll take her in, and I"ll pay her first prices; that's what I'll do. She goes right on, in opera, under me, and she makes her fortune; that's all about itl I'm a square man, by Júpiter! and I don't make no fuss about terms; when I buy a good artiele I pay good money for it. When I say ril make her a boom I'll do it. When Moses Inigo says he'll do the management the young lady's all right, if she was as homely as a cow and sung like a buil; and if she gets a fooi to manage her, or manages herself (it's about the same thing), she might sing like an angel and look like Venus and not make fif ty dollars a week, and don't you forget it!" "I am not accustomed, I need hardly say." observed Randolph, with an appealing glance at Jocelyn, and endeavoring to appear calni and indifferent, "to consider or discuss such matters. I have always lived, as my forefathers have before me, upon my private resources, without reference to trade of any sort. However, gentlemen, I niust admit that fortune has pliiyed me a very scurvy trick, through no fault of my own; and 1 suppose that what you say is true - the good old days are passing away, and each one of us has to flght for his own hand. At the same time it eould only be with the greatest reluctance, and under pressure of the severest necessity, that I could permit a daughter of mine" "To be - of course - that's understood!" put in Jocelyn comfortably. "But you'll be surprised to find how little annoyance there is about it, especially since, in your case, it very fortunately happens that we shall be able to put Beatrix upon the stage without any one's being aware who she is. She will be incógnita from first to last." "Ah! that changes the aspect of the matter materially," said Randolph, looking at the impresario. "But it oecurs to me that" The entrance of Beatrix herself at this juncture prevented the thing which had occurred to her father from becoming known. She announced that supper was ready. The gentlemen arose, and Jocelyn, approaching her, took her hand and put it under his arm, murmuring confidentially in her ear, "How would our little Beatrix like to pay all her f ather's debts, and setup the family on its legs again?" Beatrix gazed round at him with searching eyes and questioning lips. The unruly part of her excitement had been eomposed by her 8inging, but the exalted mood remained, so that she was ready to expect anything that was not comnionplace. She could not have told what Jwelyn nieant, and yet she seemed to herself to anticípate what he was gouvj; to say. Good news was in the air. However, for the moment nothing more was said. Her father was behind, with the general, and they were speaking in an undertone. Her heart beat high, and her step was light. As they carne to the Bupper table, and Jocelyn pressed her hand, she gave him a smile which, had he been worthy of it, wonld have knighted him on the spot. She was young and knew nothing worse than her own pure self , and she was ready to give gratitude without waiting to know for what her gratitude was due. Experience of the world is apt to correct this impulse. The conversation at table wandered first over miscellaneous topics, for Mr. Randolph was somewhat at a loss how to present the all important subject to his daughter; Jocelyn was busy thinking over his own part in the little comedy, and the impresario, besides finding much to occupy his attention in the viands, was now wholly at ease in his own inind and dreamed of no difficulties. He had interpreted Mr. Randolph's scruples as merely a bid for good payment, to which he had responded in his usual whole souled style; as to the young lady, of conrse she would follow her father's lead. Of the three it was Jocelyn who first spoke. "I don't see why we should keep this dear child any longer in ignorance of the plot we have hatched against her," he said, addressing the others, but keeping his eyes caressingly on Beatrix. "My dear girl, I said I brought you fame and fortune; but, in fact, I only brought you the orraortunitv to win them for self. i (-11 liavë a 'glorious future TJêfore you. Tlus gentleman is tlio owtier anü manager of he new opera house in the city. All your favorito operas will be produced there this season, splendidly set and cast, and yon, my dear Beatrix, are to sing the leading nraac." Beatrix grew pale, and tumed her face j toward her father. "Oh, papa, can I?" she said in a low voice. "It is painful, of course, to contémplate such a thing," Mr. Raudolph replied, looking down in hia plate with an nneasy, evaive air; "but vo are poor folka Dow, you know, and we niust do the best we eau. We can only hope, my dOax, that the necessity will not" "Oh, but it is not that!" exclaimed the girl, interruptiug him, and tremnlous with exeitement; "but tosing, papa - to sing in real opera bufore a real ai : dience! It is the best thing in tiw world! But can I do it, do you thiuS} Am I able? Would Professor Doijmsr ■■ hare wished it? I would rn til rr" fcr was going io siy "marry lír. Vinal,"but changedit to, "I would rather do anything than disgrace Professor Dorimar." "You just leave all that In me, young lady," Baid the impresario, noddiug good naturedly. "I take the nsks! You'll not disfrace Dorimar nor nobody ': You'iv as good as the bet of 'cm, though it's money out of my pocket to teil yon sol You'll need some drilling about the stage business of course; that - But don't yon worry, I'll fix it all right! You've got a nionth or six weeks' rein ■arsuls, and you'll catch on as quick as most gals, I guess." Thus far the glory and delight of the merely musical aspect of the adventure had so dazzled Beatrix's eyes that she had thought of nothing else, but now a new idea cntered her head. ■'Am I to be paid for doing this?" she asked, glancing from her father to Jocelyn. "Of course I mean by and by - if I sneceed. Xs that what you meant when you talked about my winning fortune? But I would rather not make money in that way - I would rather make it in some other way than by singing, because But I couldn't make it in any other way, I suppose," she added, faltering a little. "Singing is all I can dol And, after all, it would be good if my singing would help pay our debts; that would not be unworthy even of music, would it, papa? I wotrldn't take money to get rich, but I would to prevent your being troubled any more by Oh, papa, can it be trae? I'm sure you are very kind. Gen. Inigo; and thank you for telling him of me, Mr. Jocelyn." This speech - a broken medley of musical tones, siniles, wet eyelashes, pauses of reflection and eager utterance - completed the general's captivation. He thumped his fat fist down on the tablecloth and exclaimed, "By Júpiter! gentlemen, I move we drink the health of the new prima donna" "And christen her at the same time," put in Jocelyn quickly. "You haven't heard your new stage name, Beatrix. Henceforward you are to be known to the world, not as Beatrix Randolph, but as - what is it, general?"' "ilademoiselle Maraña," said Inigo. "Hero's Mademoiselle Marana's health, boys! May she stand at the top of the profession, and sing pearls and diainonds, like the gal in the fairy tale! Down she goes!'" "Up she goes! you mean," said Jocelyn laughing. "Well, mademoiaelle, how do you like your new name?" "It's very pretty," answered she; "but how did I get it?" "If you or your father had been in New York lately you woulün't nced to ask. The name of Mademoiselle Marana, the great prima donna from St. Petersburg and Moscow, is placarded all over town. All the world is agog to see and hear her. The new opera house was built expressly for her." "But how" "I'm going to teil you. There's another lady somewhere, who sings under that name, and whom Inigo had invited to sing here. But she refused to keep her word at the last moment, and since the public must have some new divinity to worship, and since I know it would be painful to your father to have you appear under your own name, I advised Inigo to put you in her place. That's the whole story." Beatrix's olear eyes grew troubled. "It doesn't seem right to pretend to be another person - it wouid be deceiving people," she said. "Nobody goes on the stage under his own name," replied Jocelyn. "To go on the stage is to changt your identity, and beconie some one else. Nobody's deceived, because notxxly expects anythinj; else." But Beatrix at once detected the flaw in this argument. "Why should I be called Maraña?" she demanded. "Why not give ïae some other namo that nobody has?" "It seems to me that that might be preferable," observed Mr. Randolph. "My dear RandoJph, it's merely a business question," said Jocelyn, not sorry to make the explanation to him instead of to his daughter. "We cali her Marana simply because Maraña w the name in people's mouths at this moment. To give her another name would be to créate all sorts of doubt and confusión, in the course of which the dear child's identity would be crtain to be discovered. Nobody here knows Maraña by sight or sound; so, even if Beatrix were inferior as a singer, they would be defrauded of nothing. But the fact is - as Inigo, who has heard the lady, will confirm me in saying - Beatrix can sing e very bit ai well a? Maraña, and rather better; so we are giving the public even inore than they bargained for. It's a pure foriuality, but some forms are of the first importance practically. To bring her out under any other name than Maraña would be a great injustice to our friend, the general, who has, so to speak, made out all his invoices and labeled all his goods under that title, and it would be quite as great an injustice to Beatrix herself, who, instead of at once roceiving the salary that her genius deserves, would have to flght an uphill battle through Btupidity and prejudice, and, taking all accidente into consideration, might not win throtigh at all." "It may be foolisli, but I can_'t help not íiking it," saitl Beatris, feenng unhappy. "But you know best, papa, and Hl do what yousay." "I believe the aiuount of the salary has not been mentioned," said Mr. Randolph, turning to the impresario. The latter was aboat to reply when Jocelyn swiftly took up the word. "She will be paiil $3,000 a night," said he, "and there will be froin three to four performances a week." Mr. Randolph grew very red, and conld not suppress a start. His most sanguine expectations had not exceeded a tenth of this suin. Froin $9,000 to $12,000 a week I- it was scarcely credible; it was magnificent; it was a fortune once il ïi Li )iith ! Mean while Beatrix sat almost Indifferent, mach to Inigo's admiration; but tho truth was the girl knew nothing of the valne of inoney, and was, moreover, personally much less concerned about the rewards of the enterprise than aboat the enterprise itself. She certainly never. iniagined that her father's discriinination between right and wrong conld be influenced by suoh considerations. After a pause to recover his composure Mr. Randolph cleared his throat and said: "I only asked forinformation; I know little nhont these matters, but I presume the suin you name would be cousidered fair remuneration. As to the morality of the matter," he added, breaking into his shrill laugh, "I agree witli you, Jocelyn, that the quest-ion is more one of form than anything else; and it would be an ungracious return for Oen. Inigojg txmrtesy to subject lam to tbe embarrassment you indícate. I think you may cali yourself Mademoiselle Marana with a ciear conscienc, iny dear." Beatiix sighed and faintly siniled. The worst that can be said of her at this moment is that she did not know whether she were glad or sorry.