the next day and the next christine went to the studio, and the sittings passed in almost total silence. it had become more than ever impossible for them to speak to each other, and they both realized it. then came a day on which noel waited in vain for christine. when morning and afternoon were passed and he got no tidings he could bear the suspense no longer, and went to the house to inquire. old eliza, the negro servant, opened the door for him and told him the baby was dying. his heart grew cold within him. what would christine do? how could she bear it? he asked if the doctor had been, and was told he was now up-stairs. he inquired for dallas. “gone to walk,” eliza said with contempt, and then added that “he might as well be one place as another, as he didn’t do no good nowhar.”
noel saw the doctor, an elderly, capable, decided man, who, as he soon found, took in the whole situation and sympathized with christine as heartily as he excoriated her husband. noel said he was an old friend of christine’s, who was anxious to do all that was possible for her, and had the satisfaction of seeing that he had inspired dr. belford with confidence in him. he soon saw that it was unnecessary to ask the good physician to see that her wants and those of the child were supplied, as his own sympathies were thoroughly enlisted, so he could only beg to be notified of anything he could possibly do, and go sadly away.
when noel came, early next morning, a scant bit of black drapery, tied with a white ribbon, told him that the thing had happened which deprived christine of all she loved on earth. the desire of her eyes was taken from her and her house was left unto her desolate.
eliza opened the door, and he came inside the hall and asked her a few questions. the baby had died about midnight, the woman said. dr. belford had stayed until it was over. the child was now prepared for burial, the mother having done everything herself, seeming perfectly calm. she would not eat, however, and was lying on the bed by the baby. he did not need to inquire for the father, for at the end of the hall was the dining-room, where he could see dallas, with his back turned, seated at the table, evidently making a hearty breakfast, the smell of which smote offensively the visitor’s nostrils. noel felt he must get away, and yet the thought of christine, lying up-stairs alone by her little dead baby, seemed to pull him by his very heartstrings.
he put some money into eliza’s hand, telling her to use it as she thought necessary, and then went away. he next sought dr. belford and sent a message to christine, which he felt would fall as coldly as upon the ear of a marble statue, and then he went to a florist’s and sent her a great heap of pure white flowers, which he thought she might care to put about the baby. this done he felt helpless, impotent and miserable.
the next morning he went with dr. belford and helped to lower into the earth the treasure of christine’s heart. there were but four persons present, the mother, the clergyman, the physician and himself. dallas had slipped from the house early in the morning, telling eliza he would not be back, deliberately shirking the unpleasantness of the occasion. he had never shown any love for the child, but a funeral was, in itself, a painful thing, and he ran away from it. this, at least, was the explanation given by dr. belford. noel felt that the kind old doctor was the being who could best help christine now, since he had been with her through the worst of her trial. so it was he who sat beside christine as they drove through the crowded city streets, with the little white coffin on the seat opposite. noel went in another carriage with the clergyman, to whom he told something of christine’s history, begging him to go see her and try to give her comfort, which he promised to do. it seemed a bitter thing to him that both these men seemed to have [pg 125]some place and position beside christine—and he none! he looked at her during the short service, which tortured his heart with pain for her, but behind her thick veil her face was quite invisible, and her figure was still and cold as marble. he longed unspeakably to try to comfort her, but he felt he could not take one step until she gave some sign that she wanted him. he knew that dr. belford had told her that he wished to speak with her as soon as she could bear it, and now he must wait—no matter how long—until she signified her wish to have him come. she had sent him a message of thanks by dr. belford, and said she would see him when she could. with that he had to be content. he felt it useless to deny the plain fact that grief had crowded every thought of him out of her heart now.
every day he sent her flowers—although he felt assured that they all found their way to the cemetery—and every day he went to dr. belford to find out how she was. the report was always the same—calm, uncomplaining, hopeless!
he longed to feel that christine thought of him with some degree of comfort, but there was absolutely no foundation for such a hope. he had always felt a certain impatient scorn of the unfortunate, and to him totally uninteresting baby, whom christine had loved with such idolatry, but now he found himself formulating a passionate wish that he could get back the child’s life for her at the sacrifice of his own. he almost felt that he could consent to it.
