<h2 id="c13"><br/>CHAPTER XIII <br/><span class="sc">An Indian Love Song</span></h2>
<p>Although Polly O’Neill could never
afterwards be persuaded that her
failure had not marred the Camp
Fire play, nevertheless there were many
members of the audience who never realized
that anything had gone wrong, so promptly
had the other girls acted and so swiftly
had the curtain been rung down.</p>
<p>And then, within a remarkably short space
of time, Esther had reappeared to close the
entertainment with her song. The stage
had been left as it was in the final act, the
piano was already there, and almost immediately
the accompanist, Esther’s music
teacher in the village, seated herself before
it.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_150">[150]</div>
<p>The only delay was of a few minutes,
caused by the fact that Esther had insisted
on wearing her ordinary clothes. A week
before, therefore, Betty had had made for
her a simple white dress and this Miss
McMurtry very quickly helped her into,
braiding her red hair into a kind of crown
about her head. Her toilet was of course
made in a great hurry, but then Esther was
so convinced of her own homeliness that she
cared very little except to look neatly and
appropriately dressed.</p>
<p>Herr Crippen and Esther then walked
out on the platform together, the man
leading the girl with one hand and carrying
his violin with the other, and it was curious
the similarity in their coloring.</p>
<p>Very little of the Indian idea had the girls
thus far brought into their Christmas Camp
Fire entertainment, but now Esther’s song
was to bring with it this suggestion,
although it had been chosen chiefly because
of its beauty and suitability to Esther’s
voice. It was, however, a wonderful Indian
love song, which Dick had found quite by
accident the summer before for his sister’s
friend.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_151">[151]</div>
<p>Esther was also dreadfully nervous and
frightened at the beginning of her song,
but fortunately for her she was thinking
more of the music itself than of the effect
she was to produce. Nevertheless, it was
with sensations of disappointment that the
friends, who cared most for her singing,
listened to the first verse of her song. Dick
Ashton, who had found himself a seat in
the back of the room, when he was no
longer needed to assist with the management
of the curtain, moved impatiently
several times, thinking that Betty had
probably been making unnecessary sacrifices
to cultivate her friend’s voice and that they
had all probably been mistaken in the
degree of Esther’s talent.</p>
<p>However, Dick changed his mind so soon
that he never afterwards remembered this
first thought, but sat spellbound with
delight, feeling every nerve in his body thrill
and quiver with the pathos and loveliness
of a voice that was so clear, so true and so
sympathetic that not a single member of
Esther’s audience failed to respond to its
beauty. The song had a kind of plaintive
cadence and had been arranged either for
a tenor or soprano.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_152">[152]</div>
<div class="fig"> id="pic3"> <ANTIMG src="images/p2.jpg" alt="The Song Had a Plaintive Cadence" width-obs="393" height-obs="621" /> <p class="center"><span class="sc"><span class="sc">The Song Had a Plaintive Cadence</span></span></p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_153">[153]</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“Fades the star of morning, west winds gently blow,</p>
<p class="t0">Soft the pine trees murmur, soft the waters flow.</p>
<p class="t0">Lift thine eyes, my maiden, to the hill-tops nigh,</p>
<p class="t0">Night and gloom will vanish when the pale stars die.</p>
<p class="t0">Lift thine eyes, my maiden, hear thy lover’s cry.</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“From my tent I wander seeking only thee,</p>
<p class="t0">As the day from darkness comes for stream and tree.</p>
<p class="t0">Lift thine eyes, my maiden, to the hill-top nigh;</p>
<p class="t0">Lo! the dawn is breaking, rosy beams the sky.</p>
<p class="t0">Lift thine eyes, my maiden, hear thy lover’s cry.</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“Lonely is our valley, though the month is May,</p>
<p class="t0">Come and be my moonlight, I will be thy day.</p>
<p class="t0">Lift thine eyes, my maiden, oh, behold me nigh;</p>
<p class="t0">Now the sun is rising, now the shadows fly.</p>
<p class="t0">Lift thine eyes, my maiden, hear thy lover’s cry.”</p>
</div>
<p>Hearing the applause which broke out
like a storm at the close of Esther’s singing,
Betty managed to get away from Polly
and to find Esther shivering in the kitchen
which opened just off their stage and had
been used for the entrance way that evening.
But no power or persuasion could
have induced Esther to go back upon the
stage, not even when Herr Crippen added
his entreaties, nor when Dick slipped out
into the cold and came around through the
back door to congratulate her. If Esther
had pleased Betty and Dick and Miss
McMurtry, really she cared very little for
any one else’s criticism.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_154">[154]</div>
<p>Nevertheless, later that evening, when
the company was enjoying a kind of informal
reception, she could not refuse to be
introduced to the celebrated Miss Margaret
Adams, who sent one of the girls especially
for her. Esther was awkward and tongue-tied
and nervous as usual when the great
lady congratulated her, very different from
Polly, who when she had recovered from her
faintness had come immediately out into
the living room and gone straight up to
Miss Adams and taken her hand.</p>
<p>“If I wasn’t so used to failing at most
of the important moments of my life, I
think I couldn’t bear to live after to-night,”
she said with characteristic Polly exaggeration.
Then, with one of the sudden smiles
that so transformed her face and made her
fascinating both to strangers and friends
she added: “But, after all, I have seen
<i>you</i> and I am talking to you now, and as
that is the most wonderful thing that has
ever happened to me, I am going to try
and not care about anything else.”</p>
<p>Then the older woman pressed Polly’s
hot hand in both of hers, looking keenly
into the girl’s expressive face. Only she
knew how much Polly did care about her
failure and also that her suffering had not
yet fully begun, because until the excitement
of the evening was well over the girl
would not fully realize all that she at least
believed this failure meant.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_155">[155]</div>
<p>“Come and see me for half an hour
to-morrow, I can judge nothing by to-night.
And do please remember, child, that one
person’s judgment in this world fortunately
does not count for much at best. I want
to have a little talk with you just because
my cousin, whom I love very dearly, has
told me so much about you.”</p>
<p>“And because,” Polly added with her
lips trembling, “because you are sorry for
me. But I don’t care so much why you
want me, I only know I want to come more
than anything in the world.”</p>
<p>Of course at the close of the Camp Fire
play it was then impossible for Miss Adams
to escape recognition, so she was evidently
tired on her way back home from the cabin
and therefore did little talking. However,
after the cousins had undressed for the
night she called softly into the next room:</p>
<p>“My dear Mary, I think your Polly is
charming, but I am afraid your little girl
has the dream and the temperament and
that the other plainer girl has the talent.
But, then, who can tell when they are both
so young?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_156">[156]</div>
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