e morning determined to face becomingly the disappointment that
was in store for him, and to accept the bitter necessity of admitting
his failure to his friends. He had come back in the late afternoon
with his fortunes restored, the long weeks of humiliation wiped out,
and his life back again on its old confident and inspired footing.
He had burst into the studio with his news before he understood that
Eleanor was not alone, and inadvertently shared the secret with
Gertrude, who had been waiting for him with the kettle alight and some
wonderful cakes from "Henri's" spread out on the tea table. The three
had celebrated by dining together at a festive down-town hotel and
going back to his studio for coffee. At parting they had solemnly and
severally kissed one another. Eleanor lay awake in the dark for a long
time that night softly rubbing the cheek that had been so caressed,
and rejoicing that the drink Uncle Jimmie had called a high-ball and
had pledged their health with so assiduously, had come out of two
glasses instead of a bottle.
Her life at the Hutchinsons' was almost like a life on another planet.
Margaret was the younger, somewhat delicate daughter of a family of
rather strident academics. Professor Hutchinson was not dependent on
his salary to defray the expenses of his elegant establishment, but
on his father, who had inherited from his father in turn the
substantial fortune on which the family was founded.
Margaret was really a child of the fairies, but she was considerably
more fortunate in her choice of a foster family than is usually the
fate of the foundling. The rigorous altitude of intellect in which she
was reared served as a corrective to the oversensitive quality of her
imagination.
Eleanor, who in the more leisurely moments of her life was given to
visitations from the poetic muse, was inspired to inscribe some lines
to her on one of the pink pages of the private diary. They ran as
follows, and even Professor Hutchinson, who occupied the chair of
English in that urban community of learning that so curiously bisects
the neighborhood of Harlem, could not have designated Eleanor's
description of his daughter as one that did not describe.
"Aunt Margaret is fair and kind,
And very good and tender.
She has a very active mind.
Her figure is quite slender.
"She moves around the room with grace,
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