The Dark Star

“No.”

“What! You don’t know anyone in New York!”

Rue looked at her dumbly; then, of a sudden, she remembered Neeland.

“Yes,” she said, “I know one person.”

“Where does your friend live?”

In her reticule was the paper on which he had written the address of the Art Students’ League, and, as an afterthought, his own address.

Rue lifted the blue silk bag, opened it, took out her purse and found the paper.

“One Hundred and Six, West Fifty-fifth Street,” she read; “Studio No. 10.”

“Why, that isn’t far!” said the blonder of the two. “We are going that way. We’ll take you there.”

“I don’t know – I don’t know him very well–”

“Is it a man?”

“Yes. He comes from my town, Gayfield.”

“Oh! I guess that’s all right,” said the other woman, laughing. “You got to be leery of these men, little one. Come on; we’ll show you.”

It was only four blocks; Ruhannah presently found herself on the steps of a house from which dangled a sign, “Studios and Bachelor Apartments to Let.”

“What’s his name?” said the woman addressed as Lil.

“Mr. Neeland.”

By the light of the vestibule lantern they inspected the letter boxes, found Neeland’s name, and pushed the electric button.

After a few seconds the door clicked and opened.

“Now, you’re all right!” said Lil, peering into the lighted hallway. “It’s on the fourth floor and there isn’t any elevator that I can see, so you keep on going upstairs till your friend meets you.”

“Thank you so much for your great kindness–”

“Don’t mention it. Good luck, dearie!”

The door clicked behind her, and Rue found herself alone.

The stairs, flanked by a massive balustrade of some dark, polished wood, ascended in spirals by a short series of flights and landings. Twice she rested, her knees almost giving way, for the climb upward seemed interminable. But at last, just above her, she saw a skylight, and a great stair-window giving on a court; and, as she toiled up and stood clinging, breathless, to the banisters on the top landing, out of an open door stepped Neeland’s shadowy figure, dark against the hall light behind him.

“For heaven’s sake!” he said. “What on earth–”

The suitcase fell from her nerveless hand; she swayed a little where she stood.

The next moment he had passed his arm around her, and was half leading, half carrying her through a short hallway into a big, brilliantly lighted studio.

CHAPTER XII

A LIFE LINE

She had told him her story from beginning to end, as far as she herself comprehended it. She was lying sideways now, in the depths of a large armchair, her cheek cushioned on the upholstered wings.

Her hat, with its cheap blue enamel pins sticking in the crown, lay on his desk; her hair, partly loosened, shadowed a young face grown pinched with weariness; and the reaction from shock was already making her grey eyes heavy and edging the under lids with bluish shadows.

She had not come there with the intention of telling him anything. All she had wanted was a place in which to rest, a glass of water, and somebody to help her find the train to Gayfield. She told him this; remained reticent under his questioning; finally turned her haggard face to the chairback and refused to answer.

For an hour or more she remained obstinately dumb, motionless except for the uncontrollable trembling of her body; he brought her a glass of water, sat watching her at intervals; rose once or twice to pace the studio, his well-shaped head bent, his hands clasped behind his back, always returning to the corner-chair before the desk to sit there, eyeing her askance, waiting for some decision.

But it was not the recurrent waves of terror, the ever latent fear of Brandes, or even her appalling loneliness that broke her down; it was sheer fatigue – nature’s merciless third degree – under which mental and physical resolution disintegrated – went all to pieces.

And when at length she finally succeeded in reconquering self-possession, she had already stammered out answers to his gently persuasive questions – had told him enough to start the fuller confession to which he listened in utter silence.

And now she had told him everything, as far as she understood the situation. She lay sideways, deep in the armchair, tired, yet vaguely conscious that she was resting mind and body, and that calm was gradually possessing the one, and the nerves of the other were growing quiet.

Listlessly her grey eyes wandered around the big studio where shadowy and strangely beautiful but incomprehensible things met her gaze, like iridescent, indefinite objects seen in dreams.

These radiantly unreal splendours were only Neeland’s rejected Academy pictures and studies; a few cheap Japanese hangings, cheaper Nippon porcelains, and several shaky, broken-down antiques picked up for a song here and there. All the trash and truck and dust and junk characteristic of the conventional artist’s habitation were there.

But to Ruhannah this studio embodied all the wonders and beauties of that magic temple to which, from her earliest memory, her very soul had aspired – the temple of the unknown God of Art.

Vaguely she endeavoured to realise that she was now inside one of its myriad sanctuaries; that here under her very tired and youthful eyes stood one of its countless altars; that here, also, near by, sat one of those blessed acolytes who aided in the mysteries of its wondrous service.

“Ruhannah,” he said, “are you calm enough to let me tell you what I think about this matter?”

“Yes. I am feeling better.”

“Good work! There’s no occasion for panic. What you need is a cool head and a clear mind.”

She said, without stirring from where she lay resting her cheek on the chairback:

“My mind has become quite clear again.”

“That’s fine! Well, then, I think the thing for you to do is–” He took out his watch, examined it, replaced it – “Good Lord!” he said. “It is three o’clock!”

She watched him but offered no comment. He went to the telephone, called the New York Central Station, got General Information, inquired concerning trains, hung up, and came back to the desk where he had been sitting.

“The first train out leaves at six three,” he said. “I think you’d better go into my bedroom and lie down. I’m not tired; I’ll call you in time, and I’ll get a taxi and take you to your train. Does that suit you, Ruhannah?”

She shook her head slightly.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I’ve been thinking. I can’t go back.”