Again Christine’s eyes glowed with triumph.
“Well, really, gentlemen,” said Mr. Ludolph, “I would rather you would discover the copy yourselves. Mr. Cornell, Mr. French, and some others, I think, saw the original several times.”
“Look at Mr. Fleet,” whispered Miss Winthrop to Christine.
She looked, and her attention was riveted to him. Step by step, he had drawn nearer, and his eyes were eagerly glancing from one picture to the other as if following up a clue. Instinctively she felt that he would solve the question, and her little hands clenched, and her brow grew dark.
“Really,” said Mr. Cornell, “I did not know that we had an artist in Chicago who could copy the work of one of the best European painters so that there need be a moment’s hesitancy in detecting differences, but it seems I am mistaken. I am almost as puzzled as Mr. Schwartz.”
“The frames are exactly alike,” said Mr. French.
“There is a difference between the two pictures,” said Mr. Cornell, slowly. “I can feel it rather than see it. They seem alike, line for line and feature for feature, in every part; and just where the difference lies and in what it consists I cannot tell for the life of me.”
With the manner of one who had settled a difficult problem, Dennis gave a sigh of relief so audible that several glanced at him.
“Perhaps Mr. Fleet from his superior knowledge and long experience can settle this question,” said Christine, sarcastically.
All eyes were turned toward him. He flushed painfully, but said nothing.
“Speak up,” said Mr. Ludolph, good-naturedly, “if you have any opinion to give.”
“I would not presume to give my opinion among so many more competent judges.”
“Come, Mr. Fleet,” said Christine, with a covert taunt in her tone, “that is a cheap way of making a reputation. I fear the impression will be given that you have no opinion.”
Dennis was now very pale, as he ever was under great excitement. The old look came again that the young ladies remembered seeing at Miss Brown’s entertainment.
“Come, speak up if you can,” said Mr. Ludolph shortly.
“Your porter, Mr. Ludolph?” said Mr. Cornell, remembering Dennis only in that capacity. “Perhaps he has some private marks by which he can enlighten us.”
Dennis now acted no longer as porter or clerk, but as a man among men.
Stepping forward and looking Mr. Cornell full in the face he said: “I can prove to you, sir, that your insinuation is false by simply stating that I never saw those pictures before. The original had been removed from the store before I came. I have had therefore no opportunity of knowing the copy from the original. But the pictures are different, and I can tell precisely wherein I think the difference lies.”
“Tell it then,” said several voices. Christine stood a little back and on one side, so that he could not see her face, or he would have hesitated long before he spoke. In the firm, decided tones of one thoroughly aroused and sure of his ground, he proceeded.
“Suppose this the copy,” said he, stepping to one of the pictures. (Christine breathed hard and leaned heavily against her friend.) “I know of but one in Chicago capable of such exquisite work, and he did not do it; indeed he could not, though a master in art.”
“You refer to Mr. Bruder?” said Mr. Cornell.
Dennis bowed and continued: “It is the work of one in whom the imitative power is wonderfully developed; but one having never felt—or unable to feel—the emotions here presented cannot portray them. This picture is but the beautiful corpse of that one. While line for line, and feature for feature, and even leaf for leaf on the trees is faithfully exact, yet the soul, the deep, sorrowful tenderness that you feel in that picture rather than see, is wanting in this. In that picture you forget to blame or praise, to criticise at all, so deeply are your sympathies touched. It seems as if in reality two human hearts were being torn asunder before you. This you know to be an exquisite picture only, and can coolly criticise and dwell on every part, and say how admirably it is done.”
And Dennis bowed and retired.
“By Jove, he is right,” exclaimed Mr. Cornell; and approving faces and nodding heads confirmed his judgment. But Dennis enjoyed not his triumph, for as he turned he met Christine’s look of agony and hate, and like lightning it flashed through his mind, “She painted the picture.”
XXVIII
Life Without Love
As Dennis realized the truth, and remembered what he had said, his face was scarcely less full of pain than Christine’s. He saw that her whole soul was bent on an imitation that none could detect, and that he had foiled her purpose. But Christine’s wound was deeper than that. She had been told again, clearly and correctly, that the sphere of high, true art was beyond her reach. She felt that the verdict was true, and her own judgment confirmed every word Dennis uttered. But she had done her best; therefore her suffering was truly agony—the pain and despair at failure in the most cherished hope of life. There seemed a barrier which, from the very limitations of her being, she could not pass. She did not fail from the lack of taste, culture, or skill, but in that which was like a sixth sense—something she did not possess. Lacking the power to touch and move the heart, she knew she could never be a great artist.
Abruptly and without a word she left the room and store, accompanied by the Winthrops. Dennis felt as if he could bite his tongue out, and Christine’s face haunted him like a dreadful apparition. Wherever he turned he saw it so distorted by pain, and almost hate, that it scarcely seemed the same that had smiled on him as he entered at her invitation.
“Truly God is against all this,” groaned he, to himself; “and what I in my weakness
