From a Bench in Our Square Part 16

Insomnia, my old enemy, having clutched me that night, I went to my window and looked abroad over Our Square, as w.i.l.l.y Woolly's memorial clock was striking four (it being actually five-thirty). A shocking sight afflicted my eyes. My bench was occupied by a b.u.m. Hearing the measured footsteps of Terry the Cop, guardian of our destinies, I looked for a swift and painful eviction. Terry, after a glance, pa.s.sed on.

Nothing is worse for insomnia than an unsolved mystery. Slipping into my clothes, I made my way softly to the spot. There in the seat where I was wont to pursue my even tenor as an orchid slumbered Martin d.y.k.e, amateur desecrator of other men's houses, challenger of the wayward fates, fanatic of a will-o'-the-wisp pursuit, desperate adventurer in the uncharted realms of love; and in his face, turned toward the polychromatic abominations of the house, so soon to be deserted, was all the pathos and all the beauty of illusion-haunted youth.

Ah, youth! Blundering, ridiculous youth! An absurd period, excusable only on the score of its brevity. A parlous condition! A traitorous guide, froward, inspired of all manner of levity, pursuant of hopeless phantasms, dupe of roseate and pernicious myths (love-at-first-sight, and the like), b.u.t.t of the High G.o.ds' stinging laughter, deserving of nothing kinder than mockery from the aged and the wise--which is doubtless why we old and sage folk thank Heaven daily, uplifting cracked voices and withered hands, that we are no longer young. A pious and fraudulent litany for which may we be forgiven! My young friend on the bench stirred. A shaft of moonlight, streaming through the bush upon his face, bewitched him to unguarded speech:

"Dominie, I have been dreaming."

Fearing to break the spell, I stood silent.

"A fairy came down to me and touched her lips to mine, so lightly, so softly. Did you know there were fairies in Our Square, Dominie?"

"Always."

"I think her name is Happiness. Is there such a fairy in this world, Dominie?"

"There has been."

"Then there will always be. I think it was Happiness because she went away so quickly."

"Happiness does. Did you try to hold her?"

"So hard! But I was clumsy and rough. She slipped through my arms."

"Did she leave nothing?"

"Nothing."

"Then what is this?" I lifted from the ground at his feet a single petal of pink rose, fragrant, unwithered, and placed it in his hand.

"The fairy's kiss," he said dreamily. "That's for farewell."

The moon, dipped beyond a cloud, dissolved the spell. Youth straightened up brusquely on its bench, rubbing enchantment from its eyes.

"Have I been talking in my sleep, Dominie?"

"Possibly."

"What kind of talk? Nonsense?"

"Nonsense--or wisdom. How should I know?"

"Dominie, is there a perfume in the air? A smell of roses?"

"Look in your hand."

He opened his fingers slowly and closed them again, tenderly, jealously.

"I must go now," he said vaguely. "May I come back to see you sometimes, Dominie?"

"Perhaps you'll bring Happiness with you," I said.

But he only shook his head. On the morrow his van was gone from the alley and the house at Number 37, which had once been the House of Silvery Voices, was voiceless again.

Something of the savor of life went with the vanners out of Our Square.

I missed their broad-ranging and casual talk of politics, art, religion, the fourth dimension, and one another. Yet I felt sure that I should see them both again. There is a spell woven in Our Square--it has held me these sixty years and more, and I wonder at times whether Death himself can break it--which draws back the hearts that have once known the place. It was a long month, though, before the b.u.t.terfly fluttered back.

More radiant than ever she looked, glowing softly in the brave November sun, as she approached my bench. But there was something indefinably wistful about her. She said that she had come to satisfy her awakened appet.i.te for the high art of R. Noovo, as she faced the unaltered and violent frontage of Number 37.

"Empty," said I.

"Then he didn't take my advice and rent it. The painter-man, I mean."

"He's gone."

"Where?"

"I haven't an idea."

"Doesn't he ever come back?"

"You must not a.s.sume," said I with severity, "that you are the only devotee of high art. You may perhaps compare your devotion to that of another whom I might mention when you, too, have lost ten pounds and gained ten years--"

"Dominie! Has he?"

"Has he what?"

"G-g-g-gained ten pounds. I mean, lost ten years."

"I haven't said so."

"Dominie, you are a cruel old man," accused the b.u.t.terfly.

"And you are a wicked woman."

"I'm not. I'm only twenty," was her irrelevant but natural defense.

"Witness, on your oath, answer; were you at any time in the evening or night before you departed from this, Our Square, leaving us desolate--were you, I say, abroad in the park?

"Y-y-yes, your Honor."

"In the immediate vicinity of this bench?"

"Benches are very alike in the dark."

"But occupants of them are not. Don't fence with the court. Were you wearing one or more roses of the general hue and device of those now displayed in your cheeks?"

"The honorable court has nothing to do with my face," said the witness defiantly.

"On the contrary, your face is the _corpus delicti._ Did you, taking advantage of the unconscious and hence defenseless condition of my client, that is, of Mr. Martin d.y.k.e, lean over him and deliberately imprint a--"