Volume II Part 21 (1/2)
For example, there was a room downstairs, built out, for the books, which had accuned a very sweet green-house, to be approached fro; the same perfume of cleanliness permeated every corner; and it was just as well this was the case, so jammed and choked up with all sorts of treasures and curiosities were the little landing-place, the tiny drawing-room, the very bed-room and _a half_, as Davy called my own little closet, with the little carven bed's head Everywhere his shadow, gliding and sh at the proper time she had plenty to say too, came Millicent after him Nor was the baby ever far behind; for at the utlimpsed a nest of basket-work, lined with blush-color, placed on a chair or two aeraniums and myrtles, and in that basket the baby lay; while her mamma, who only kept one servant, h the house
While Davy was at home, however, Carlotta was never out of his arms, or, at least, off his lap; she had learned to lie quite quiescently across his knees while he wrote or read,no more disturbance than a dove would have done I believe he was half-jealous because when I took her she did not cry, but began to put her fingers intowe had her between us e began to talk, and it ith his eyes upon her that Davy first said,--
”Well, Charles, you have toldof your plans yet; I suppose they are hardly formed”
”Oh, yes! quite formed,--at least as formed as they can be without your sanction You knohat you wrote to me about,--your last letter?”
”You received that exteanza, then, Charles,--which I afterwards desired I had burned?”
”I take that as especially unkind on your part, as I could not but enter with the h I own it was a little cowardly I felt rather awed in sub my ideas to you when you were at the very midst of music in its most perfect exposition”
”Oh! I did not quite discover that, Lenhart There are imperfections everywhere, and will be, in such a mixed multitude as of those who press into the service of what is altogether perfect”
”The old story, Charlie”
”Rather the new one I find it every day placed beforeheld even with me How very little we can do, even at the utmost, and how very hard we must labor even to do that little!”
”I a fresh from the severities of study; but we are soether; and this bringsto settle in London, Lenhart,--that is a mistake of yours I will never leave you while I can be of any use”
”Leave me, Charlie? Ah! would that I could cherish the possibility of your re here! But with your power and your promise of success, ould not blame those who should prevent your appearance in London?”
”I will never make my appearance anywhere, my dearest brother,--at least not as you intend I could have no objection to play anywhere if I anted, and if any one cared to hear ive up the actual hold I have on this place As much may be done here as anywhere else, and more, I am certain, than in London There is more room here,--less strain and stress; and, once more, I will not leave you”
”But how,with you, and for you, while I work for , and, I daresay, very presuresident professor, to devote anization of that band of which you wrote, and which in your letter you gave a as I aive me a position like this, and that if I fail, I can but return to a less ambitious course”
”There is no course, Charles, that I do not consider you equal to; but I cannot reconcile it with nal for my own sake,--it is a mere sketch of a Spanish castle I had reared in an idle hour”
”We will raise a sure fame on solid foundations, Lenhart, and I do not care about fame for its own sake After all, you cannot, with your musical electicisle for precedence which, in London, degrades the very nature of art, and renders its pursuit a iven up one of your old prejudices, Charles”
”No, Davy I feel we can do ether than either separately, for the cause we love best and desire to serve You knoell, and that, whatever I have learned in ladly Besides all the rest, which is ood deal more than one can say, I could never consent, as an instru that instrument to be part of myself, to infect my style hienerally acceptable I _must_ reserve what Ican satisfy me in that respect but the developeruine Charlie”
”I auine; on the contrary, I am disposed to suspect treachery everywhere, even in o to London, take fashi+onable lodgings, and starve nificent one of lionizing musical professors No, I could not bear that, and no one would care a whit foras I _feel_ I should be starved out and out If you can initiate s, I think I shall be able to persuade you that I ought to be only where my impulse directs me to remain”
Davy at this juncture deprived er all the time we talked; and when he had placed her in her nest,--a portent of vast significance,--he enlightened me indeed to the full, and we infor could be done without asking her accord It was greatly to reat relief to Davy, who in the plenitude of his delicate pride could hardly bear the thought of suggesting anything to anybody, lest his suggestion should unsteady any fixed idea of their own Millicent cordially asserted that she felt there was a ine to exist anywhere else; and perhaps she was right, for no one could sufficiently laud the extirpation of ancient prejudices by Davy's firm voice and ardent heart I could not possibly calculate at that ular efforts, and their still more unwonted effects in so short a time made manifest I heard of these fro else, to me, at least, after Davy, ever anxious, had left us for his h not much more than formerly, as his peculiar attention and nearly his whole time were devoted more determinately than ever to the instruction and elevation of the vocal institution he had organized
”No one can tell, Charles,” said Millicent, as, ”how heroically and patiently he has worked, rejecting all but the barest re, and has nobly done You will say so when you hear, and you ”
”I shall indeed feel strange, Millicent,” I replied, ”to sit at his feet once h me in the days when I learned of him alone But I am very curious about another friend of mine I suppose you can tell me just as well as he”
”About Miss Benette, Charles?”
”Yes, and also little Laura”
”I know nothing; we know nothing of her or what she has been doing