In her complacency she said: “So far, very well, Mr. Fleet. I congratulate myself that I have you to assist me, instead of that awkward fraud, Mr. Berder.”
“And I assure you, Miss Ludolph, that I have longed intensely for this privilege ever since I knew your purpose.”
“You may have cause to repent, like many another whose wishes have been gratified; for your privilege will involve a great deal of hard work.”
“The more the better,” said Dennis, warmly.
“How so? I should think you had more to do now than you would care about.”
“Work is no burden to one of my years and strength, provided it is suited to one’s tastes. Moreover, I confess that I hope to derive great advantages from this labor.”
“In what way?” she asked, with a slight frown, imagining that he thought of extra pay.
“Because unconsciously you will give me instruction, and I hope that you are not unwilling that I should gain such hints and suggestions as I can from the display of your taste that I must witness.”
“Not at all,” said she, laughing. “I see that you are ambitious to learn your business and rise in the store.”
“I am ambitious to gain a knowledge of one of the noblest callings.”
“What is that?”
“Art.”
“What!” said she, with a half-scornful smile; “are you a disciple of art?”
“Yes; why not?”
“Well, I do not wish to hurt your feelings, but, to tell you the honest truth, it seems but the other day that you were Pat Murphy.”
“But am I a Pat Murphy?” he asked, with gentle dignity.
“No, Mr. Fleet; I will do you the justice to say that I think you very much above your station.”
“I am sufficiently a democrat, Miss Ludolph, to believe that a man can be a man in any honest work.”
“And I, Mr. Fleet, am not in the least degree a democrat.”
Which fact she proceeded to prove by ordering him about for the next hour like the most absolute little despot that ever queened it over a servile province in the dark ages. Bat it was rather difficult to keep up this style of dictatorship with Dennis. He seemed so intelligent and polite that she often had it to her tongue to ask his opinion on certain points. Toward the last she did so, and the opinion he gave, she admitted to herself, was judicious; but for a purpose of her own she disregarded it, and took a different way.
Dennis at once saw through her plan of arrangement. In the centre of that side of the room which he had cleared, she caused him to hang one of the largest and finest pictures, which, under Mr. Schwartz’s management, had been placed in a corner. Around the central painting all the others were to be grouped, according to color, subject, and merit. At the same time each wall was to have a character of its own. Such a task as this would require no little thought, study, and comparison; and Miss Ludolph was one to see delicate points of difference which most observers would not notice. It was her purpose to make the room bloom out naturally like a great flower. This careful selection of pictures was necessarily slow, and Dennis rejoiced that their united work would not soon be over.
To her surprise she often saw his eyes instinctively turning to the same picture that she was about to select, and perceived that he had divined her plan without a word of explanation, and that his taste was constantly according with hers in producing the desired effects. Though all this filled her with astonishment, she revealed no sign of it to him. At eight she said: “That will do for today. We have made a good beginning—better indeed than I had hoped. But how is it, Mr. Fleet, since you are such an uncompromising democrat, that you permit a young lady to order you about in this style?”
Dennis smiled and said: “It seems perfectly natural for you to speak in this way, and it does not appear offensive as it might in another. Moreover, I have voluntarily taken this position and am in honor bound to accept all it involves.”
“But which was the controlling motive of your mind?”
“Well, a few seem born to command, and it is a pleasure to obey,” said Dennis, paying a strong but honest compliment to the natural little autocrat.
“Indeed, Mr. Fleet, do church members flatter?” said she, secretly much pleased.
“I did not mean to flatter,” said he, flushing. “They who have power should use it like the All-powerful—gently, considerately.”
It was her turn to flush now, and she said, “Oh, I perceive, the compliment was the sugarcoating of the little homily to follow.”
“I have no such diplomacy as you credit me with,” said Dennis, looking straight into her eyes with honest frankness. “I merely spoke my passing thought.”
“But he has fine eyes,” said she to herself, and then she said to him: “Very well, I certainly will give you credit for being superior to your position. Be ready again tomorrow at the same hour;” and with a smile somewhat kindly she vanished.
Somehow she seemed to take the light out of the room with her. The pictures suddenly looked tame and ordinary, and everything commonplace. Here was an effect not exactly artistic, which he could not understand. He sighed, he scarcely knew why.
But the day’s duties came with a rush, and soon he was utterly absorbed in them.
That evening Dennis was much cheered by Mr. Bruder’s comments on his sketches.
“Considering de advantages you haf had, an de little time you can give, dey are very goot. You haf fallen into de natural faults of dose who work alone, but we can soon cure dese. Now here is some vork dat I vant you to do under my eye, and dat study on outlining you can take home. Moreover, I can give you some lessons in outlining from my own
