Beatrix Randolph

m Copyright by Amekican Pkess Association, Jocelyn and the impresario staid over night at the Randolphs', and completed the details of tho agreement for Mademois'.'Ue Marañas appcarance. She was to come to the city in a few days. take up her ftbode at a hotel, and begin rehearsals iminediately. Before leaving Inigo hamled Mr. Randolph a check for f3,000, as advance salary, to enable hiin to make the necessary arrangements; and the two gentlemen took their departuro with many professions of good ■will on both sides. Late in the afternoon a tall, rather stern looking young man, with grave bine eyes under thick. level brows, and a short, dense brown beard covering the lower part of his face, walked into Gen. Inigo's office, and was informed that the general was expeoted every minute. He seated himself at a ta.ble, undid the roll of paper that he carried, and proceeded to busy himself in making calculations and sketches. This young man, whose name was Oeoffrey Bellingham, was a New Englander, whose family had lived for many Senerattoiis in an ancien t town not very f ar froin Boston. From the early part of the present century, however, their prosperity began to recede, along with that of the town with which they -were so closely allied. Large families of chiliren divided and dissipated the property; many of them moved to other parts of the coantry; those who remained, proudlv uiiudfnl of their past grandeur, and un willing todesceud to a lower level in searc h of new ways to fortune, gradually f.ided óut of c-ight or esistence, retaining to the end the oíd traits of character, rendered harsher and gloomier by heir il. oio restric'el circumstances. At tength. about thirry years ago, öeoffrey Bellingham was oom. He was a child of umióual intclligencc, and with a strong apijetite bot'j for reading and venturo. B;it the monotonous and lifeJess existence of the sluggish oíd town vexed :md wearied hini: he wished he had come into the world a hundred years tarlier. whín men Ment forth to battle. aud to sail tho seas, and the da-ys were fnll of novelty, activicy and excitement. His heart stirred within hiin to bear a hand in the work and uiovement of the 'A'orld, and snch echoes as reached hini of what v;is going on iu other places And lauds kcpt alive this longin g and developeü it. Ho niet with no sympathy, however, from his own family circle, and at length ceased to make them confidants of liis de-sires and projects; yet this discourageiacnt to the utterance of his thoughts led him to cherish them not le&s but more ardently. Finally, in his twelftli year, he ran away to sea, taking passage on board a Boston vessel bound for the Pacific. He was absent three years, and ho came home first mate on board an English blockade runner from Liverpool. It was in the midst of our civil war; the blockade runner was captured and Bellingham was taken prisoner. On lus announcing his ï'eacllness to t;:ke service aMer llie federal fl;:;. liuwever, hu was allowed to join the urew of a government war vessel. ïlr had the good luck io see a great deal of ú'.v. iu.;, ;;:i 1 was 2promoted for gallante y aid general efíicieney. Before the year was out he mot Confedérate bullet. whiej put an end to his particination u tiio war. and veiy nearly severeú bis connc-tion with all human affairs. Nevertheless he recovered and made his way to the north with fl,000 in his pocket. On reaching his native place he found his father and mother 'xth dead, and bis sister (the only chíld besides himself) married. He was at this time about 17 years oíd, but as tall and robust (barring the temporary effects of his wound) as a much older man; with a prematuro gravity and dignity of demeanor, and a strong, penetrating and resolute mind. After remaining quiet for a month or two, to recupérate his physical powers and to think over his position, he determined to be an architect. He set to ■work at once, with his usual energy and persistence; and afterhavingfamiliarized himself with the rudiments of the j fession at the best scientific school in the ■ country he entered an architect's office in New York, and worked thero f rom twelve to fif teen hours a day for seven years. Unreinitting application such as this, rendered physically possible as it was by an inviucible constitution, and turned to the best advantage by a erful and coinprehensive intellect, could not fail to have its effect. When Bellingham, at the end of his apprenticeship period, set up in business on his own account there werefew men in the country who possessed a broader and sounder knowledge of architecture j tham this_yonng jnan pf 23 qr whqjiad ' so mncli taste and originality in matters of design. The remainder of his professional hi8tory, being mainly a record of well deserved and increasing snccess, has little interest. At the epoch of his entrance into this story he had had a hand in many of the best buildings of our large cities, both private and public, and incidentally he had been brought in contact with a great nuinber of people j whoni it might be deemed socially pedient to know. But Bellingham scarcely seemed to liave the ordinary social instinct. His manners were abrupt and reserved, and he had a very disconcerting glance for those who seemed disposed to attempt to ba familiar vrith him. He seemed to have a temperamental antipathy against aristocratical or exclusive pretensions of any kind, though in a certain sense no one was more exclusive and aristocratie than he. The type is no uncommon one, as the critics say ; and it is perhaps a pity, nowadays, that it is not a great deal commoner. Though repellent in several ways, it has some qualities of almost finito redeinption. It includes I thing that we cali mascnline. Its ; emplars are often deficiënt in humor; j bat they have a sternness and simplicity that are to the other parts of human nature what sea salt is to water. They are often unjust, but they are never plaisant. They may be bitter, but they j are never sweet; or hard, but never soft. ; And yet there is another side to them - I but only very few - perhaps only one - ever comes to know it. Enough of eralizations. G-eoffrey Bellingham had not the ir of being susceptible to feminine charms. His manner, when he was brought in contact with the gentler sex, underwent ; no gentle and illuminating change. The elements of his nature seemed averse from harmonizing with those of women. ; When he happened to speak with a I woman he would expresa himself in his usual curt, laconic way, keeping his eyes fLsed upou her fjv.the while, with asort of unsynipathetic mquisition. The pression couveyed was that he i ered women insufficient and untrustworth}-. On the other hand he never railed agaiust them, as self conscious misogynists do; his indifference seemed not to be the result of an exhaustivo or mortifying experience of them in the past; it was scientific or temperamental rather. He recognized their functional uses to the race and to society, but did not care to be personally concerned with them more than was necessary. But his professional reputation was so high and so well attested that his social disqualilications did not injure his success; and when Gen. Iñigo conceived the idea of a grand new opera house Bellingham was among those to whom i he applied for a plan and an estímate, and it was Belliugham wiio got the contract. The result was a building which many judges considered to be second to none of its kind in the world. It was beautiful, it was luxurious, it was acoustically a marvel, it was fireproof. Incidentally a number of artists achieved renown and made money by the decorations which they executed, under Belüngham's supervisión, for its inner and outer walls. New York boasted of it, the papers contained descnptions of it, and the illustrated journals published pictures of it, and endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to obtain a portrait of the architect. But, as a compensa tion, there was engraved a dignified and imposing representaron of (ien. Inigo, and a record of his brilliant and typically American career. Byllinghaui had been waiting in the general's office fifteeu minutes whea the latter appeared, with Jocelyn on his arm, both in the best of spirits. The architect did not rise from his chair or make any other response than a preoccupied Hod to the expansive greetings of the gentleman. "If you have your wits about you," he said to Inigo, "look at this plan and teil me your idea about it." "What's it all about, anyhow?" returned the impresario, removing his cigar from his mouth and pulling himtelf together. "Stage entrance! Whafs the use botheriu' with tliat? Just make it so as they can get in and out, and the gals can set; their fellows" "No, sir," interposod Bellinghain quietly. "I want to stop that." "Stop what, in the naino o' gracious?" "Fellows hangiug round the stagñ door for the girls to como out. I don't liko it, and 1 uieau to give the girls a chance to get off free if they choose." "Your saviug clausc will cover ninetynine cases in a huudrad, I fancy," remarUed Joealyn wiüi a laugh. ■What has that got to do with it?" demande' 1 Bellingham, looking ut him; "and what have yon to do with it, eithor?" "Oh, I was only startled to see you tuiiung misaionary," replied the otlier, cnoving away. Bellingliam paid no further notice to lüm. "By connecting the window above the lower door, by means of an iron bridge of fifteen feet span, with the corridor in the building on the oppositO side of the alley," he said, referring to his drawing, "you give additional meana of exit either by Ihe street door of that building or by the upper passage leading to the elevated railway station. Well?" "What'll it cost?" inquired Inigo. "Not more than eight hundred, or 111 pay the difference." "It's all darn nonsense; but Til do it to oblige you," said Inigo. ''That way, if you like," said Bellingham. f'olding lip lus plan. "G-ood day." "Odd fish, that fellow," observed Jocelyn when the architect had gone ont. "I just teil you what," said Inigo, "if that odd Jjsh was an_ impresario the divas woulcín't go back oh Tiim - not much!" "Why wouldn't they?" "Oh, maybe they wouldn't daré; but they wouldn't, anyhow." "What do you know about it?" "I know a man when I see him," returned the other, wagging his head. "and so do they." CHAPTER V. HOW EVERYTHINQ WAS MADE PLEASANT AND EASY FOR HER. Two or three days afterwaril Jocelyn ! betook liimself to a small and rather shabby looking house in East Eighteenth street, and asked if Mrs. Bemax were at home. The woman who opened tlie door said, in a weary and discontented voice, that Mrs. Bemax was in, and Jocelyn went upstairs. He entered the front room on the first floor. This rooni had a dingy and brownish aspect. The furniture was meager and rickety. Upon the wall between the windows hnng askew a print of the Prince of Wales and his family, taken f rom some illustrated paper and framed in a wooden frame stained black and varnished. The only pretty thing in the room was a photograph of R chubby little child about 4 years of age. It was mounted in a tastefnl standard frame of stamped leather, and a small vase containing two or three flowers stood in front of it. The photograph itself was much faded and was in the style of ten years ago. In a few minutes a tall, middle aged woman, with a square shaped face and rather strongly inarked features, came into the room. Her eyes and brows were dark; her hair was slightly touched with gray. The corners of her large month had acquired an indrawn look, apparently from a habit of pressing her lips togetber; her general expression was studiously impassive. She looked like one accustomed to meet with rebnffs and disappointments, and to put up with them when necessary, though never with meekness and resignation. There was an air about her that showed she had once been familiar with the handsome side of the world, but, from whatever cause, had discontinued to enjoy or practice its refinements. There were more hard and unpleasant things in her memory than the contrary, and these memories and experiences had worn away her former eomeliness and made her 8keptieal and somewhat malicious, instead of gentle and engaging. "Well, Hamilton," she said, as she carne in, "I hope you've brought me some money." "Money, my dear Meg! Didn't I send you some last week?" "Yes, enough to pay up my arrears of board. I've had none to spend on myself for a month, and I have only one other dress to my back, and that is not fit to be seen." "Things are more expensive here than in England. I told you that when you insisted on coming here. You would have been more comfortable at home." "Home is where the heart is," she replied, with an intonation of somber sarcasm. "My heart is not in England, wherever else it may be." "Well, I've been very busy," said Jocelyn. "So you always teil me; but I presume, as usual, it is no business of mine." "Well, my dear, it's only the money aspect of my business that you feel any interest in." "If you mtaaire is no longer any sentiment between us I cordially admit it," was the answer. "I don't care the snap of my tinger for you or for any one else now alive. But I have some claims upon you, and I've come here to enforce them." "You have the photograph there still, I see," remarked Jocelyn, turning to the table. "Poor little fellow! If he'd lived Fd have made a man of him." "Yes! You'd have made the same sort of man of him as you've made woinan of his mother. I'm glad he's dead, if it's ouly to save him from knowing what sort of a father he's got! However, you said that to put me in a good humor, I suppose. What do you want?" "I vow, Meg, you're too confoundedly sour for anything," exclaimed Jocelyn, twisting his wiskers. 'Tve come to teil you of an arrangement that will enable you to live at your ease thg rest of your days, and this is the way I am reoeived. Come, now!" "It is impossible you should intena any benefit to me that would not benefit you ten times more," said Mrs. Bemax impassively. "You do me gro3S injustioe; you are like all women with a grievance!" returned Jocelyn, whose temper was certainly very easy. "My scheme is to put you in receipt of an income of $1,200 a year. Have yon any fault to find with that?" "What are the services for which this is thü payment?" Mrs. Bemax inquired. "To chaperon a lady - nothing more." "A lady!" repeated the other, a peculiar smile drawing down the corners of her mouth; "I begin to understandl Who is she?" "Tlie prima donna at the new opera house." "Yes; in whom you are tendcrly interested. Taking everything into consideration, Hamilton, that is very characteristic of you; a very delicate piece of kindne88j" "Bah! "Meg, your cynicisni is overdone; you are on a wrong scent entirely. In the first place, the lady is not the person she's supposed to be. She's the [ daughter of an old friend of mine; I once intended to niarry her, bnt - 1 thought better of it. Circnmstances which you will be fully infonned of have led to her personating the Maraña -name and all - the coming season. It's a grand secret, of course, and I j lected you as the only woman who could be trusted to keep it. You are to conftrm in every way that suggests itself the idea that she is the bona fide Maraña; say you've lived with her for years in Europe, and so on. But she is wholly ignorant of the world, and you are to see to it that none of the young fellows gets ahead of her. You may invent all the adventures you like for her - in the past, but on no account let her get into any scrapes in the present. Do you see what I inean?" "I think so. The young fellows you speak of are to be kept out of the way for your sake rather tban for hers; and she is to be instructed that any scrape she gets iuto with you is no scrape at all, but a distinction and a blessing." "Upon my soul I should natter myself you were jealous if 1 didn't know you so well," said Jocelyn with a langh; "I only wish to protect the girl f rom annoyance and to insure the success of the whole schemes If you could make me believe in your disinterestedness and virtue the only result would be that I should serve you less effieiently than otherwiso. But you always liked deception for its own sake, and you are the same Hamilton Jocelyn that I knew in Richmond twelve years ago. Well, I shall know what tone to take with her." ''fake any tone you like, in the devil's name, so long as you take the position and observe the conditions!" exclaimed Jooelyn, gettiiig up, with some signs of impatience. "I will take the position on condition of being guarauteed my outfit and twelve lmndred dollars," said Mrs. Bemax. "It is not high wages for the devil to pay, but it's better than nothing, and to live as comfortably as I can, so long as 1 do live, is the best I have to look forward to now. I'm not so fastidious in other respects as you do me the honor to imagine." 'Well, Meg, when you've enjoyeu a few months' luxury you'll take a more genial view of things, I hope. Above all things make as good an impression on the lady as possible. She must learn to confide in yon, and to take your advice in all social matters from the outset. You can do anything with her if she likes you and trusts yon, and nothing if she doesn't." "1 understand; 1 am to be another mother to her!" said Margaret Bemax, in a tone and with a look in her eyes so quiet and yet so repellent that Jocelyn made uo attempt to reply, but took nis leave without f urther ceremony. Certainly Beatrix needed a mother at this epoch of her career. The peculiar conditions under which she w;is making her entrauce into the world rendered her eapecially defenseless. She was not ouly iguorant (as any girl brought up in the secl nsion of home is likely to be ) of the ways and wickedness of mankind, but the strict necessity of her incognito cut her off from the support and society of both her father and of all the other relatives and frieuds who should naturally be around her. She was not herself, and she was somebody wholly different from herself as well. Furthennore she was a singer, with all the sensitiveness and the liability to emotional impressions that the musical temperament iraplies. Upon the whole a young woiuan can select no career more dangerous thau that upon which Beatris had just entered, and the external circumstances which attended her entrance could scarcely have been more untoward. Meantime the subject most constantly present to her thoughts, since it gave color to everything else,was her assumed character of the Maraña. To be herself begau to appear in the light of something criminal. Everythiug depended upon maintaining the deception. Nor could she disguise from herself that the men she met treated her with a sort of freedom to which she was quite unaccustomed. This perplexed and annoyed her, and Mrs. Bemax.when she appealed to her, only smiled and said she mustn't mind them. Finally she thought it would be a good idea to ask information of Mr. Jocelyn. "Fellows bother you, do they?" said that gentleman in answer to her complaint, with a reassuring smile. "Well, ma"mselle, you know we mustn't be too particular about that. Whan we have been on the stage 'a little longer we shall learn to look upon all men as our brothers, and not mind a little fun. Besides, you know, you are the famous and invincible Maraña, and are supposed to be able to settle all such Jack-a-dandies with one hand, so to speak!" "I don't understand you," said Beatrix, with a slight flush. "Well, my dear, the amount of it all is they mean no hann, and they've heard so many stories about the Marana's adventures that they feel justified in trying to find out what she's made of. The fact is, you know, she's said to be a little haairde - dangorous - as soon ruin a man as look at him, and you mustact out the character." "Do you mean that 1 should pretend to be anything that is not - good?" "Oh! no, no - not that, of course'. Only a sort of giveond-take, live-andlet-live style - -that's what you want." "If they think I am different from what I am, in any bad way," continued Beatrix, "I will either teil them who I am or give up the whole thing." Her voice trembled. "Now my good little prima donna, don't yo"u say anything so foolish!" said Jocelyn, taking her hand in Iris and patting it. "Come, you know me, don't you' and you know whether or not Hamilton Jocelyn woiild permit any one to insult you? Very well, then; yon're as safe, if the woi-st comes to the worst, as if yon were sealed up in the center of the pyramid of Cheops'! Bnt what I want you to learn is to have courage - to hold your ovn bravely, and not to be too squeamish about what the people you meet with say and do. The w_prld ahvavs eems_Qiieer-Jinii a litíle , dis]igree;ïbl(3 "vvliën5nèIj8Brst in contact witïFIt- full oí people not a bit like our quiet folks out in the cfliuntry. But we can't change the world, can we? All wo can do is to take things as they are, and make the best of it. If we are all right nothing can really hnrt us. But we must have courage, we mustn't be afraid, we mustn"t talk of giving ni! We must be a little woman of the world. Every woman must be who intends to accoinplish anything, let alone to make snch a reputation, as lies before you. It's a little freemasonry we all have to learn, nothing more; and, as I said, though you won't love me- naughty child!- yet you can't help trusting your father's old friend: and as a matter of course you will come to me if yon get into any real scrape. 1 shall be only too ready to assist you; but I don't want to seem officious either to you or to others, and 1 want you to fight your own way as inuch as possible at flrst. It will make it all the easier for you hereafter. Don't let yourself be put upon, of course, but don't altogether forget that you're the Maraña either. If you manage it cleverly her name ought to be a help to yon rather than the contrary." "In what way?" "Oh, the sharper the fight the sooner over, you know, and the more decisive," said Jocelyn, laughing. "Yes, it is an advantage in every way. If you wen; entered in the lists in your own name, with your father and all your friends to fall back on. you would be falling back all the time. You would be trusting to their strength instead of to your own. But since you're alone you'll discover your own force, and make it evident to the others into the bargain." "But will not papa live in the hotel with me?" "Mjr gracious, no!" exclaüned Jocelyn, lifting his hands in half playf ui consternation. "In the eyes of the world, remember he's nothing but a respectable old gentleman, in no sort of way related to you. To have him in attendance on yon would be most - what shall I say?- inexpedient; and if it led to nothing else, it might lead to his true relationship being found out. No, you may see him occasionally, of course, but on the same footing as any other chance acquaintance. Ha, ha! You wouldn't want to compromise your own father, would yon? not to speak of being compromised by him!" "Well, I certainly am alone!" said Beatris gravely. "In appearance, yes; but so long as Hamilton Jocelyn is alive you'll have an unfailing resource." "I should compromise you as well," said she, looking at him fixedly. He made a laughing gesture of depreciation. "Oh, don't be afraid of that! I'm known; every body understandsme! "We can do no possible hann to each other. It's an understood thing that I stand godfather to all prime donne on their entry into New York society. You may safely refer to me as an old friend on all occasions. And, by the by, I've taken the liberty to do yon a bit of service already. You need a companion, and I've been so lucky a.s to secure just the person. She's an English lady, daughter of a clergyman; I've known her for years; an excellent creature; really a lady of great refinement and experience, and precisely suited to your needs. She will take perfect care of you, and keep you posted about everything you ought to do and all that sort of thing. I have let her into the secret, the only other persons who know it being your father, Iñigo, and myself. The idea is, of course, that she's been living with you on the continent, and all that sort of thing. Mme. Bemax, she'll be here toinorrow morning. You'll be certain to like her immensely." "Well, what must be, must, I suppose," said Beatrix, folding her hands in her lap and looking down. "It does seem hopeless to think of going back now I have come so far. But if I had understood beforehand." She paused, but went on after a moment. "I seem to be living in the midstof falsehoods, and it seems to me that that is more likely to take away courage than to give it." "Pooh, pooh! things will very soon shake down, and then in everything but name you can be inore yourself than you ever were before!" returned her father's old friend encouragingly. The next day Mme. Bemax was introduc-ed, and was very genial, helpful and agreeable.