Robin

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Chapter I

The fierce sun of August had all day long held Venice in its close embrace ; but now that five o^clock had struck, the piazza, which during the mid-day heat had been deserted, began to show signs of life again.

Between the columns,’’ spot of evil omen, two Englishmen were standing bidding each other good-bye. One — on his way to Padua — was leaving by the evening train ; the other — after the fashion of birds who while on the wing stay their flight — ^was stopping at Venice.

That morning neither had ever seen or spoken to the other, but the casual mention of Dr. North’s name had set Mr. Veriker thinking, and ridding himself of his daughter by sending her to the Lido, he had hurried off to the Hotel Luna, and asked the favor of an interview with the great London physician.

His request was granted, the two had since spent the remainder of the day together, and now they were parting like old friends.

“ I cannot thank you half enough for the kindness you have done me,” Mr. Veriker was saying.

ROBIN.

“ But no, don’t speak of it in that way. I only wish I had had something more pleasant to say to you. Unhappily,” and oh, what popularity that sigh and sympa thetic shake of the head had gained him ! ‘‘ it is the misfortune of doctors to give people unpalatable things to swallow.”

“ Truths are for the most part apt to be unpalatable.”

‘‘ Perhaps so ; and yet to my mind it is always best to know the truth. The thing does not happen one whit the sooner because some one has said that some day it must come to pass. Besides,” laying his hand encouragingly on his companion’s shoulder, “ we are not infallible ; doctors differ.”

“ And patients die.”

‘‘ Ah ! that end comes to all of us ; to me as well as to you. Many whom I have warned will be taking my physic long after I am under ground. So remember ; live carefully, avoid excitement, and we shall meet in London.”

He walked away. Mr. Veriker watched him out of sight ; then turning round, he mechanically bent his steps towards the starting-place of those “ little black steam-tugs,” which, to the great scandal of Mr. Ruskin, convey the people of Venice to the Lido.

“ You may die any day.” The words, without any especial meaning for him, kept repeating themselves in Mr. Veriker’s ears. ‘‘ Die any day ” — die — lie dead, stretched motionless and mute, while all the busy world went on around.

The host of speculations which followed this thought arrested Mr. Veriker’s steps. Unconsciously he stopped short, leaned his elbows on a bit of rail which ran near, and threaded the mazes of a life of fifty years, while gazing down into the water which flowed below : seeing a boy — fruit of an ill-assorted marriage — neglected, uncared for, with a father grown old and selfish, and a mother too young and thoughtless to take trouble in shaping a nature which only needed love to guide its course aright; seeing a youth, headstrong, impatient, refusing all control from those who he knew had prophesied that their advice would be thrown away ; seeing a man after thirty years of life — spent no matter how — trying to start afresh, for the reason that on him was fixed the faith and trust of one whose love could see no failure.

Alas ! how many stumbles he had made which that dear heart had shut her eyes to — and his own, growing dim, obscured the rest of the sad picture, for all too soon Death had claimed her for his own, and the husband, and the child that she had borne him, had had to learn to live without her. — Yes ; she had died.

Surely, in all the years that had passed since then, never had Mr. Veriker seen his wife so bodily — the magic power of memory brought before him the room, its furniture, with all those dread accessories by which death is made more terrible.

‘‘ Good God ! ’’ standing erect, he made a gasp for breath, for in that momentary vision the lighted candles, the heavy perfumed flowers, the leaden weight of that o’erspreading sheet, had seemed to stifle him, and sighing audibly he took off his hat so that the little seaward-wafted breeze might fan him more readily ; then knitting himself together by a movement which seemed to assert the power of motion, he walked towards the steamboat with a quick step as if to outstride the shadow which stalked behind him.

That reverie of his had eaten into more time than he had an idea of — it had made a good hole in an hour — and seven o’clock struck as he passed through the bathing establishment on to the balcony in search of his daughter.

On an evening such as this, one was sure to find a crowd assembled here ; and Mr. Veriker’s eyes ran over the heads of those seated at the numerous little tables, to skirt the railing, over and against which a line of people stood lounging.

‘‘ Ah ! ” His face told that he had found what he sought, that his eyes were resting upon those they had been looking for. Mr. Veriker was a singularly handsome man, and the pause he had made had attracted

ROBIN.

the' notice of a party of diners, who smiled significantly as they saw him suddenly walk straight across to an opposite point, and by a rather brusque movement place himself between a young man and a girl, who were thus separated.

And what may you two people be talking about together, eh } ’’

His eyes, which had rapidly scanned both faces, while his elbows widened the distance between them, now plunged themselves into the sea.

“ Why, papa, it^s you. I was just going to fire up at the rude monster,^’ and she snuggled herself up against him, “ who had pushed himself in between us two ; and look at Jack’s face — isn’t it red ? that will tell you what he intended to do.”

‘‘ I expected to find you wondering what had become of me.”

Mr. Veriker’s voice sounded as unusually stern as his manner was unusually odd. But his daughter, accustomed only to the perfect good-fellowship which reigned between them, set this down to the probable worry of the business engagement for which her father had left her.

“ I was wondering,” she said. “ I came out of the water very early indeed, and I could not think what had become of you.”

I had no idea myself that I should be kept until seven o’clock.”

“ Seven o’clock ! Was that seven that struck ? Why, I thought it was five — didn’t you ? did you think it was seven, Jack ”

“ Not until I heard the clock, I didn’t.”

“ Just fancy that ! We’re a nice pair together, aren’t we ? Papa, what do you think ? ”

“ Think, my dear ’I That I wish you wouldn’t call our friend here Jack. You know, you are growing up — you’re getting quite a woman now, and there are some things that’ll have to be left off : that are not quite in keeping — are they ? ” and though he did not

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raise his eyes, his head slightly turned towards the young man in question.

“ Really, I have never given the matter any consideration ’’ — the answer came a little stiffly. ‘‘ I don’t quite remember how it happened, but it would seem as strange for her now not to call me Jack, as if I didn’t call her Robin.”

There was a few minutes pause, broken at length by the anxious inquiry of :

‘‘ Don’t you feel well, papa ? ”

‘‘ Well^ my dear ! Certainly I feel well — what should make you ask such a question ? ”

Mr. Veriker no longer lounged, but drew himself up into an erect position.

“ Oh, I know ! You want your dinner. I'm starving, and so is Ja ” She drew back at the end of

the name, made a dumb show of swallowing it down, and then, with a look of mimic pleading to her father, said : “You really must let me off, papa; 1 can’t call him Mr. Dorian, not while he looks as he does now.”

“ I don’t see anything at all particular in his look now.”

“ Don’t you ? but I fancy there is though, and about my look too, by the way people have been staring at us.”

“ Staring at you if you like,” put in Jack by way of mending matters.

“ At me ! well, I don’t see there is more to look at in me than in you. This dress has got a little bit skimpy, perhaps,” and by the movement she made she tried to lengthen it down ; and the water hasn’t improved the color of my hat, but the shape is all right,” and having taken it off, she surveyed it critically, “ perfectly,” placing it on again. “ So there.”

The eyes of both men turned upon her. Jack Dorian smiled ; Mr. Veriker’s face twitched.

“ Why do you go about dressed like this, Robin ? ” he said. “You ought to have some new clothes.”

“ But I shall be delighted to have some new clothes, if you can find any money to pay for them ; and if b

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there is anything to spare, perhaps you’ll be generous to Jack, and then I may find it possible to call him Mr. DorianB

Jack rubbed his hand over his coat, and fell to examining it about the elbows.

‘‘ I can’t think how it is the confounded things wear out as they do. I’m sure they used to last much longer,” he said. “ Upon my life, though, I didn’t know I was quite so seedy-looking as I am.”

“ My dear fellow, we’re all in about the same condition,” and Mr. Veriker cast a rueful eye upon his own garments.

And what if we are ? ” and Robin drew herself up. “ We’re by long odds the best looking people here. As for you, daddy, you’re the handsomest man in all the world, everybody knows that — and this afternoon some one told me,” and she threw a mischievous look towards Jack, that there was not another girl in the place half as good-looking as I am ; so it’s hard if we two can’t manage to pass off a bad third between us,”

Jack’s face had got rather red, but already — pretending to descry in the distance her most devoted waiter — Robin was off, and the two were left together alone. Mr. Veriker gave a shake of his head.

“ You shouldn’t put such thoughts into her head,” he said ; girls find out things of that sort far too soon.^

‘‘ But you know that I would not say a word to her that I thought you would not approve of. You may trust me for that.”

“ My dear fellow, I have trusted you already.”

“ And I have in no way abused your trust.”

“No, I don’t believe you have. God grant that I have not abused my own ; but it’s a difficult task for an idle man like me to have the entire guidance of a young girl like Robin. I did not feel it when she was a child ; but now — when — oh, the thing won’t bear a thought ! Come along,” hurrying off, “ let’s look after our dinner; perhaps that will drive the blues awaj

Somehow IVe got a fit of them on me to-day that I can’t get rid of.”

But though the dinner was a marvel in the art of discreet ordering, Mr. Veriker, impatient to be seated, had no appetite to partake of it. Jack with forethought, for which a look from Robin blessed him, feigned it impossible to get on unless they had a little better wine ; but the wine there, Mx, Veriker drank but a small share of it;

^‘No,” he said, ^‘it’s only that the sun has been hot, and that heat tries me now. I thought I should be all right this evening when I got out here, but somehow I can’t rise to the occasion.”

Don’t let us stop here any longer ; let’s go back and sit in the piazza. The band will be playing and we could have some ices.”

‘‘ That doesn’t sound half bad, does it, Robin ?

It is the very thing I was wishing for.”

All that her father desired, and lately much that Jack Dorian had wanted to do, was safe to be the very thing Robin was wishing for. Hers was that woman-nature whose pleasure comes from those she loves being pleased.

Accustomed by the habits of their . wandering life to make many friends, not one among them had ever been what Jack Dorian was to her: Their acquaintance had commenced at Nice some three winters before, when Robin, looked on as a child by the men who visited her father, had been singled out by Jack to tease, to pet, to romp with. Small for her age, she was then fourteen ; she had so grown since, that now at seventeen she was quite a woman ; and some weeks before, with thoughts of this kind floating in her mind, Robin had taken from beneath her chin a flower which Jack had given her to fasten there, and holding it in her hand, had fixed her eyes on it, bringing it nearer and nearer to her lips, until for an instant it lay pressed against them, then, with a sudden glow which sent the color mounting up from cheek to brow, she thr^w

ROBIN.

it out of the open window, and, turning, quickly ran away, still blushing at she knew not what.

The memory of this little action gave her manner when next they met a half-shy consciousness, with just that suspicion of embarrassment a lover is so proud to seize upon. Not that Jack had any thought of being Robin’s lover — at least the notion had not come to him until the moment when her coy glance sent a sudden thrill which set his heart beating, and shot from out his eyes a fire which Robin’s lids drooped under.

Since that day, children playing with edged tools the two had been ; Robin by turns silent, elated, shy, defiant ; Jack — it is difficult to analyze what Jack felt ; he was twenty-five, and imagined that he had a good experience in the tender passion. What then was this sudden feeling that he had for Robin 1 not love — that is if he had ever known love before ; not friendship — he could not deceive himself so far as that. Was it brotherly affection, sympathy, compassion perhaps ? Yes, all of these, and with them all a something so far beyond, that it outstripped the rest and left him doubtful as before.

Chapter II

Midnight had struck, and Mr. Veriker, who at ten o’clock had declared himself too tired to remain out any longer, was still up and abroad.

At the door of the hotel — to Robin’s surprise — instead of going in with her, he proposed taking a turn in Jack Dorian’s company. He would ‘‘ have a cigar,” he said — he had not wanted one before, he had been fidgeting to get home ; now that he was there, he felt it was useless going to bed — he should not sleep. Perhaps a smoke might help him.

“ He isn’t himself, thought Jack, as they strolled through the Merceria in the direction of the Rialto ; “ something has gone wrong with him ; and jumping

ROBIN.

at the conclusion that this something must be money, he run over his resources with a view of rendering any help that was in his power. It did not strike him that this generosity towards a man who had no claim upon him was very foreign to his nature ; the desire to assist Mr. Veriker was so spontaneous that it seemed to take the shape of a necessity, and Jack was all anxiety to learn the extent of the demand.

Knowing by experience how difficult it is to make the first plunge, he was prepared for some preamble ; and, though he did not quite see how the bush was to be beaten round by entering upon a dissertation upon Venice, its past glory and its present decay, he did his part of listener with a manly grace. But when an hour had gone, the whole time of which had been spent in walking, and they were back again on the Riva de Schiavoni, with the subject no nearer than it had seemed at starting, Jack^s patience began to give way. What did it mean ? Had he made a mistake 1 Did Mr. Veriker tell nothing because he had nothing to tell ? If so they had mooned about quite as long as, that night. Jack had a mind for; he was tired, sleepy, would light up one more cigar, to last him as far as the hotel, and then drop a quiet hint that it was time they began to move homewards.

“ I thought you’d want to stop here ” — they were crossing the Ponte della Paglia. “ I can never go by without having a look at that place.”

Mr. Veriker’s eyes were ,4*.irned towards the Bridge of Sighs.

‘‘ To think of those,” he said, ‘‘who have crossed over there with the song of death sounding in their ears.”

“ Ah ! ” and Jack leaned over to watch the descent of his fusee as it dropped into the dark water below, “ that’s a music we none of us care much for.”

“ And yet we have to listen, whether we like or not.”

“ When our time comes I suppose we have.”

lO

‘‘ And who knows how soon that may be ? Death has so many doors to let out life.’’

“ True : but he’s not in any immediate hurry to open yours or mine just yet, I hope.”

“ Oh ! I don’t know. If I was alone in the world, I should not much care. Life has not so many charms left for me.”

He had taken up his place by Jack’s side, and was resting his arms on the stone-work.

The sting of death in my case is having to leave a girl fatherless, friendless, penniless, as Robin will be.”

“ Yes, that’s a serious consideration.”

Jack’s face became thoughtful. Robin alone, unprotected ! His heart grew big towards her.

“ But long before anything of that sort is likely to happen, ” and his tone sounded prophetically confident, ‘‘ she is certain to have some one to fill your place,”

“ Fill my place ! how fill my place ? ”

Jack smiled. Already he foresaw the rivalry that was likely to exist between Robin’s husband and her father.

“ Why, you expect her to marry, don’t you ? — she’ll have a husband ! ”

Nothing more unlikely,” said Mr. Veriker sharply.

‘‘ Whom does she see, in the life we lead, that 1 should care for her to marry ? No, no ; the husband I want for Robin is a simple honest fellow, who would work to maintain his wife ; not such a one as myself, living God knows how.”

Without a syllable on which he could lay hold being spoken. Jack felt an arrow had been aimed at him.

“ It is to be hoped you will find your daughter’s taste runs with your own,” he said cynically.

‘‘No, I don’t expect that. Robin is too much her mother’s child to take prudence for a guide where her heart is concerned. And that is why I have felt a little disturbed that you and she have been so much together of late. Not on your account. You have seen too much of life to give a second thought to a girl

ROBUST,

II like Robin, and I don^t harbor a suspicion that you would trifle in any way with her. But — well, there’s a woman’s heart beating inside the child, full of love to be poured out like water at the touch of the one who places his finger on the right spring, and — it may be only my fancy — but I have thought her a little altered of late, preoccupied, variable, silent. I dare say it’s imagination, but it has nevertheless managed to give me a considerable amount of worry.”

The dark cloud which had gathered on Jack’s face rolled away while listening to that birth of love begotten of himself, as he knew it to be.

“ Don’t be anxious because you think I do not care for Robin,” he began, and the softened tone of his voice was but another whip to goad on Mr. Veriker’s fears. I ”

‘‘ Should be fifty thousand times more anxious if I thought you did,” interrupted Mr. Veriker quickly. “ No, my dear fellow, dont misunderstand me ; the confidence I place in you is my sheet-anchor ; I know you well enough to be quite certain that, seeing what Robin’s position is — without any one to guide her, and nobody to look after her but a scapegrace of a father, who leaves her entirely to her own devices — you would be the last to take advantage of my supineness or her situation.”

‘‘ I don’t know that taking an advantage ever occurred to me,” said Jack stiflly.

Certainly it never did, and it never would to an honorable man ; and in spite of what the straitlaced may find to say against us, we haven’t quite forgotten the meaning of that word, at all events in our dealings one with the other, eh ? ”

Jack did not answer, but inwardly he winced under words which jarred on his inmost sensibilities, and set his pride in array. He ranked with Veriker ! a man whose weak nature and shifty morality he despised : the sting was indeed bitter. True, for the last twelve months or so, it had happened that they had been greatly thrown together ; but Jack considered the space

ROBIN.

between them in no way narrowed by the intercourse.

“ What am I to understand ? ” he said. “ Is it that you wish me to go away from here ? — all thought of love for Robin had fled before the bare suspicion that any offer on his part was not an immense condescension, one he had intended to hamper with restrictions and conditions such as became the surroundings he had been brought up in, rather than those by which he was now encircled.

Away ! no, certainly not. What I meant was not to be, well — quite so much with her as you are.’^

“Who is to be with her, then?’’ and Jack put the question harshly. “ Do you wish her to run the place over by herself ? — it was because of the bathing and the boating here together that you pressed me to come.”

“ Yes, yes 1 I knov/,” and Mr. Veriker gave a despondent shake of the head ; “ it’s my own fault, as everything that has gone wrong in my life has been. Jack, I wonder sometimes you don’t take warning by me. I wish to God you would — I should like to think I’d done somebody some good before I — die.”

The word was forced out by an effort but the effort was lost upon Jack.

“ Oh, no doubt you’ll do your daughter a good turn,” he said, “ if you succeed in finding this model son-in-law for yourself.”

“ Ah, yes ! now your back’s up because of the way I took what you said about Robin.’' (Jack was in the habit of giving his friends an occasional taste of a not over easy temper.) “ But you don’t know all the reasons I have for speaking as I did — you don’t know that it’s on the cards (for the little we have goes when I’m gone) that any moment — without word or warning she may be left destitute.”

“ How ? ” and Jack turned with a sceptical look : but something he saw arrested his futher speech.

Mr. Veriker, overcome by the agitation of giving vent to the secret which all that day had hung on him

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like a log, had turned deathly white with a pallor visible in the moonlight; his features were drawn; his lips, rigid and parted, seemed striving to keep back the groans which the agony he was suffering would have made a relief.

“ You're ill — faint ! " exclaimed Jack.

By a gesture of the hand, which was clutched over his heart, Mr. Veriker indicated that the sudden spasm of unendurable pain was already abating.

“Better now," he gasped in answer to Jack's anxious scrutiny — “ it will pass in a minute ; " and the tension of his limbs giving way, he dropped his head upon his arms, and let his face rest on them.

“Poor fellow! "thought Jack, “there's something in this ; he is really ill ; " and a moment after, when Mr. Veriker recovered and looked up, he was met by an expression of earnest sympathy.

“ I frightened you," he said, with a poor attempt at smiling.

“ I wasn't prepared to see you like this," Jack answered ; “ have you ever been taken so before ? "

“ Several times — not always so severe, but on and off very bad. No going to Monte Carlo this winter. Jack. Couldn't stand the tables ; the excitement would kill me. I do pretty well while things go on smoothly; but get anxious, and it's all up with me. Any day 1 might drop down and “ give in my chips," as the Yankees say. I mean it for Jack looked incredulous. “Though I didn't tell you so, I went to see North this morning, and asked him to speak out, to tell me the truth — because of Robin, you know ; and though, as he said, I might hang on for years, he advised me, if I had any affairs to settle, to put them in order."

“ Well, I think he was wise there ; and you'll do so, won't you ? It will save you anxiety, besides being the right thing to do for your daughter."

Mr. Veriker sighed.

“ Poor child," he said, “ it's late in the day to try and begin to set the wrong I have done her, right. I haven't a penny to leave her ; I haven't a friend to trust her to. Oh ! I see it all now ; my cursed selfishness kept her with me, when I ought to have given her up to those who at least could have provided her with food to eat, and a roof to shelter her. But no ; I wouldn’t part with her, and now I dare say they’d see her starve before they’d hold out a finger to help her.”

Have you tried them ? ”

No ; it’s been on my mind to write for the last month and more, but I can’t swallow down my pride ; it seems to stick in my gizzard more and more.”

Are they relations of yours ? ”

‘‘After a fashion they are. It’s the husband of Robin’s mother’s sister. I like to make the connection as roundabout as I can — it puts the fellow further from me. He’s a brute that turns everything into money that he touches.”

“ Ah ! ” sighed Jack, “ I wish he would rub shoulders with me, then.”

“ It wouldn’t matter — ^whatever came of it would stick to him. Soon after my wife died, they offered to take Robin ; but I wouldn’t let her go, and they took it as a mortal offence, since then we haven’t troubled each other much.”

“ But if they knew, don’t you think they’d take her now ? ”

“ Do you think she’d leave me ? ”

“ Oh, they could hardly expect that ; but in case of anything happening to you, people could hardly see their sister’s child cast on the world a beggar, without coming forward to assist her in some way.”

“ Oh I don’t know — besides, the sister herself is dead now, so the claim is less than ever.”

“ Still you seem to have had some idea of writing to ask.”

“ Simply because I don’t know of any other thing to do ; and when I’m driven into a corner by the thought of that girl with her looks, and her spirit, left alone in the world, without a living soul to turn to. Jack I could pray to God to see her dead rather than leave

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her to all she may be exposed to. They might find her a situation — something to do, mightn^t they ?

Jack made no reply.