University of Virginia Library

15. CHAPTER XV.
THE PINK-SILK DRESS.

But, spite of Teddy's disapproval and his mother's doubts,
neither of them could resist the earnestness of Cherry's
entreaties, day after day, to be allowed to “go down and
see the music in 'Varny's room;” and it finally became
quite a regular thing for Teddy, upon his return home, to
find his little sister ready shawled and hooded, and waiting
for him to accompany her.

As the summer came on, and whole streets-full of his
patrons left the city, Giovanni became less regular in his
hours of leaving or returning home; often remaining in
his room several hours of the day, smoking, sleeping, or
training Pantalon in new accomplishments.

So sure as she knew him to be at home, Cherry gave her
foster-mother no peace until she had consented to allow her
to visit him; and Mrs. Ginniss said to herself, —

“Sure, and it's no harm the little crather can git uv man
nor monkey nor music; an' what's the good uv crossin' her?”

So it finally came about that Cherry spent many more
hours in the company of Giovanni, Pantalon, and the organ,
than Teddy either knew, or would have liked, had his
mother thought fit to tell him.

At first, the conversation between the new friends was
carried on in the imperfect English used by both; but, very
soon, Giovanni, noticing the facility with which the child
adopted an occasional word of Italian, set himself to teach
her the language, and succeeded beyond his expectations.
Indeed, it seemed to him that the soft and liquid accents of
the beloved tongue had never sounded to him so sweet
beneath Italian skies as now, when they fell from the rosy
lips and pure tones of the charming child whom he, with
all who approached her, was learning to love with the best
love of his nature.

Besides the Italian lessons, Giovanni taught his little
pupil to sing several of the popular songs of his native city
of Naples, and to perform several of his national dances;
watching with an ever-new delight the grace and ease of
her movements, and the quickness with which she caught
at his every hint and gesture.

Occasionally, Cherry insisted upon making Pantalon join
in the dance; and the somewhat sombre face of the Italian

would ripple all over with laughter as he watched her
efforts to subdue the creature's motions to grace and harmony,
and to cultivate in his bestial brain her own innate
love of those divine gifts.

“You will never make him dance as if of heaven, as you
do, picciola,” said he one day; and Cherry suddenly stood
still, and, dropping the monkey's paws, came to her
teacher's side, asking eagerly, —

“Have you been to heaven too? and did you see me
dance there?”

“Padre Johannes says we all came from heaven; so I
suppose I did, and perhaps Pantalon also,” said the
Italian with a comical grimace: “but, if so, I have long
forgotten what I saw there. Do you remember heaven,
picciola?”

“Yes; I don't know,” slowly replied the child with
the weary and puzzled look she so often wore. “Sometimes
I do. I used to dance; and mamma — that wasn't
mammy — was there: but there was a naughty lady that
slapped me; and there was a little man — why, it was Pantalon,
wasn't it? Did Pantalon eat some cake that I — no,
that some one gave him? Oh! I don't know; and I am
so tired! I guess I'll go see mammy now, and lie down on
the bed.”

Giovanni did not try to detain the child, but, after
closing the door behind her, remained looking at it as if he
still saw the object of his thoughts, while an expression of
perplexity and doubt clouded the careless good-humor of
his face. Presently, however, it cleared; and, with a significant
gesture of the head, he muttered, —

“What then? Is it my business or my fault? Come,
Pantalon: we shall sup.”

When Cherry appeared the next day in Giovanni's
room, it was with as gay and untroubled a face as if no
haunting memories had ever vexed her; and Giovanni,
who liked her sunny mood much the best, was careful
not to awaken any other. He played for her to dance;
he sang with her; he told her stories of Italy, and the
merry life he had lived there with his wife and child.

“And my little Julietta, like you, loved music and
dancing, and sang like the angels,” said he, smoothing
Cherry's shining curls.

“Did she? Then she sings in heaven, and is happy:
and by and by, when we go there, we'll see her; won't
we?”

The Italian shook his head.

“You may, picciola; but the good God, if he takes

me to heaven, must make me so changed, that Julietta
could no longer know me, or I her. We men are not
as little maidens.”

Then, with a sudden change of mood, the Italian
snatched from its case his cherished violin, and drew
from it such joyous strains, that the child, clapping her
hands, and skipping round the room, cried, —

“It laughs! the music laughs, and makes me laugh
too! And Pantalon — see poor Pantalon try to laugh, and
he can't!”

Giovanni stopped suddenly, and laid down his violin.
A new thought, a sudden plan, had entered his head, and
made his breath come quick, and his eyes grow bright.
He looked attentively at the child for a moment, and then
said, —

“Julietta used to wear such a beautiful dress, and go
with me to the houses of rich people to dance; but you
dance better than she did, picciola.”

“Oh! let me go, and wear a beautiful dress. I don't
like this dress a bit!” said Cherry, plucking nervously at
the coarse and tawdry calico frock Mrs. Ginniss had
thought it quite a triumph to obtain and to make up.

“I have saved two of Julietta's dresses for love of

her. You shall see them,” said the Italian; and from
the box where he kept his clothes he presently brought
a small bundle, and, unfolding it, shook out two little
frocks, — one of pink silk, covered with spangles; the other
a gay brocade, upon whose white ground tiny rosebuds
were dotted in a graceful pattern. Some long silk stockings,
and white satin boots with red heels, and blue tassels
at the ankle, dropped from the bundle; and from one of
these boots Giovanni drew a wreath of crushed and faded
artificial roses.

“All these were given her by the beautiful marchésa
for whom she was named. Many times we have been
to play and dance before her palázzo; and she, sending
for us in, has given the little one a dress or a wreath, or
a handful of confetti, or a silver-piece in her hand. It
was when the marchésa died that our troubles began; and
in three months more the little Julietta followed her, and
Stephána (that was my wife) went from me, and — But
see, picciola! is it not a pretty dress? Let us put it upon
you, and it shall dance the Romaika with you as it once
did with her.”

Nothing loath, Cherry hastened, with the help of the
Italian, to array herself in the pink-silk frock, and to

exchange her coarse shoes for the silken hose and satin
boots of the little lost Julietta. Although somewhat
large, the clothes fitted better than those Cherry had taken
off; and when, seizing the violin, Giovanni drew a long,
warning note, the little dancer took her position, and
pointed her tiny foot with so assured and graceful an
air, that the Italian, nodding and smiling, cried with
enthusiasm, —

“Ah, ah! See the little Taglioni! Why is she not
upon the boards of La Scála?”

What this might mean Cherry could not guess, nor
greatly cared to know. She understood that her friend
was pleased, and her little heart beat high with vanity
and excitement. She danced as she had never danced
before; and at the end, while Giovanni still applauded,
and before she had regained her breath, the child was
panting, —

“I want to go and dance for the rich ladies, like Julietta
used to do, and wear her beautiful dresses, and have
a wreath.”

“Why not, then?” exclaimed the Italian eagerly.
“Only you must never say so to the woman above there
or the boy: they will not allow it.”

“Won't mammy and Teddy like it? Then I can't go.
Oh, dear! Why won't they like it, 'Varny?”

“Because they can't dance, and they don't want you to
be different from them; and they will be afraid you will
tire yourself. They don't know that it makes you well
and happy to dance, and hear music, as it does me to
make it. They are not like us, these people above
there.”

Cherry looked earnestly in his face, and her own suddenly
flushed, while she replied indignantly, —

“They're real good, 'Varny; and I love them same
as I do you and Pantalon. Don't you love them?”

“Oh! but I adore them, picciola; and I like well that
you should place me and Pantalon beside them. But
surely they do not dance, or love music, as we do.”

Cherry shut tight her lips, and shook her head with an
uneasy expression.

“Mammy says she don't believe they dance in heaven:
and Teddy says it wasn't there I used to learn; for I never
went anywhere but to mammy's room since I was borned.”

“But they do dance in heaven, and sing, and listen to
music; and it is because you came from heaven so little
while ago that you remember, and they have forgotten,”

said Giovanni positively. “And it is right that you should
love these things; and it is right that you should go with me,
and say nothing to them till we come back. I will ask the
good woman that I may take you for a walk in a day or two;
and I will carry the pretty dress and the violin; and, when
we are away from the house, you shall put it on, and we
will go and dance for the rich people a little while; and
some one shall give you beautiful things, and much money,
as they did Julietta; and then we will come home, and bring
it all to the mammy, and she will be so happy, and see that
it is a good thing, after all, to dance.”

“Yes, yes; that will be splendid!” cried Cherry, clapping
her hands, and jumping up and down. “I will save every
bit of the candy, and all the beautiful dresses, and the roses,
and every thing, and bring them to mammy.”

“And the money, that she may buy bread and clothes
and wood, and not have to work so hard for them herself,”
suggested Giovanni artfully.

“Yes, Teddy gives her money; and she calls him her
brave, good boy. So she'll call me too, pretty soon; won't
she?”

“Truly will she; but remember always, picciola, that
she nor Teddy must know any thing of this, or they will
prevent it all. You won't tell them?”

“No; I won't tell,” said Cherry, shutting her lips very
tight, and shaking her head a great many times. “Only
we must go very quick, or else I might forget; and, when I
opened my mouth, it might jump out before I knew.”

“We will go to-morrow if it is fine,” said Giovanni,
after a moment of consideration; and Cherry, after changing
her clothes, returned home so full of mystery and importance,
that unless Mrs. Ginniss had been more than
usually busy, and Teddy obliged to hurry with his supper
and go directly out again, one or the other must have suspected
that something very mysterious was working in the
mind of their little pet.