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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba2db97 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #50836 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50836) diff --git a/old/50836-0.txt b/old/50836-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 76ee65f..0000000 --- a/old/50836-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,11646 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Princess Napraxine, Volume 2 (of 3), by Maria Louise Ramé - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Princess Napraxine, Volume 2 (of 3) - -Author: Maria Louise Ramé - -Release Date: January 3, 2016 [EBook #50836] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCESS NAPRAXINE, VOLUME 2 *** - - - - -Produced by MWS, Christopher Wright and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - PRINCESS NAPRAXINE - - II. - - - - - New Three-volume Novels at all Libraries. - - - DOROTHY FORSTER. By WALTER BESANT. - - THE NEW ABELARD. By ROBERT BUCHANAN. - - A REAL QUEEN. By R. E. FRANCILLON. - - THE WAY OF THE WORLD. By DAVID CHRISTIE - MURRAY. - - CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly, W. - - - - - Table of Contents - Chapter 14 1 - Chapter 15 9 - Chapter 16 41 - Chapter 17 63 - Chapter 18 77 - Chapter 19 80 - Chapter 20 98 - Chapter 21 117 - Chapter 22 136 - Chapter 23 157 - Chapter 24 171 - Chapter 25 192 - Chapter 26 207 - Chapter 27 218 - Chapter 28 232 - Chapter 29 254 - Chapter 30 276 - Chapter 31 278 - Chapter 32 321 - Chapter 33 340 -Chatto & Windus's List of Books - - - - - PRINCESS NAPRAXINE - - BY - - OUIDA - - [Illustration] - - IN THREE VOLUMES - - VOL. II. - - London - CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY - 1884 - - [_All rights reserved_] - - - - -PRINCESS NAPRAXINE. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - - -When her husband and her guests came downstairs at one o'clock, they -found the Princess Nadine looking her loveliest. - -'Oh, you lazy people!' she cried to them. 'Are you any the better for -sleeping like that? Look at me. I have been swimming half an hour; I -have dictated twenty letters; I have scolded the gardeners, and I have -seen three boxes from Worth unpacked; it is only one o'clock, and I can -already feel as good a conscience as Titus. I have already saved my -day.' - -'I daresay you have only been doing mischief,' said Lady Brancepeth. 'I -should like to see the letters before I judge of the excellence of your -actions.' - -'Anyone might see the letters; they are all orders, or invitations, or -refusals of invitations; quite stupid, but very useful; epistolary -omnibus horses driven by the secretary. When I had done with them, -I had my half hour's swim. What nonsense the doctors talk about not -swimming in winter: the chill of the water is delicious. In summer one -always fancies the sea has been boiled. Platon, if you had not gone to -bed, you would have seen your friend Othmar. He was here for half an -hour.' - -'Othmar!' exclaimed the Prince. 'Here at that time of the morning?' - -'He does not want to go to sleep,' she retorted. 'He had his chocolate -with me, and then rowed himself back to S. Pharamond and Baron Fritz.' - -Lady Brancepeth glanced at her. - -'You have certainly done a great deal, Nadine, while we have been only -dozing,' she said drily. The Princess looked at her good-humouredly, -with her little dubious smile. - -'There is always something to do if one only look for it. You feel -so satisfied with yourself too when you have been useful before one -o'clock.' - -'Othmar!' repeated the Prince. 'If I had known, I would have come -downstairs.' - -'My dear Platon, you would have done nothing of the kind; you would -have sworn at your man for disturbing you, and would have turned round -and gone to sleep again. Besides, what do you want with Othmar? You do -not care about "getting on a good thing," nor even about suggesting a -loan for Odessa.' - -'I like Othmar,' said Napraxine with perfect sincerity. His wife looked -at him, with her little dubious smile. 'It is always so with them,' she -thought. 'They always like just the one man of all others----!' - -'I suppose, if I had done quite what I ought, I should have asked -Othmar to "put me on" something,' she said aloud. 'It is not every day -that one has one of the masters of the world all alone at eight o'clock -in the morning.' - -'The masters of the world always find their Cleopatras,' said Lady -Brancepeth. 'At La Jacquemerille, perhaps, as well as in Egypt.' - -'Cleopatra must have been a very stupid woman,' said Nadine Napraxine, -'to be able to think of nothing but that asp!' - -'I do not know that it was so very stupid; it was a good _réclame_. It -has sent her name down to us.' - -'Anthony alone would have done that. A woman lives by her lovers. Who -would have heard of Héloïse, of Beatrice, of Leonora d'Este?----' - -'You are very modest for us. Perhaps without the women the men might -never have been immortal.' - -'I cannot think why you sent Othmar away,' repeated Prince Napraxine. -'I wanted especially to know if they take up the Russian loan----' - -'I did not send him away, he went,' replied his wife, with a little -smile; 'and you know he will never allow anyone to talk finance to him.' - -'That is very absurd. He cannot deny that his House lives by finance.' - -'He would certainly never deny it, but he dislikes the fact; you cannot -force it on him, my dear Platon, in the course of breakfast chit-chat. -I am sure your manners are better than that. Besides, if you did commit -such a rudeness, you would get nothing by it. I believe he never tells -a falsehood, but he will never tell the truth unless he chooses. And I -suppose, too, that financiers are like cabinet ministers--they have a -right to lie if they like.' - -'I am sure Othmar does not lie,' said Napraxine. - -'I dare say he is as truthful as most men of the world. Truth is not -a social virtue; tact is a much more amiable quality. Truth says to -one, 'You have not a good feature in your face;' tact says to one, 'You -have an exquisite expression.' Perhaps both facts are equally true; -but the one only sees what is unpleasant, the other only sees what is -agreeable. There can be no question which is the pleasanter companion.' - -'Othmar has admirable tact----' - -'How your mind runs upon Othmar! Kings generally acquire a great deal -of tact from the obligation to say something agreeable to so many -strangers all their lives. He is a kind of king in his way. He has -learnt the kings' art of saying a few phrases charmingly with all his -thoughts elsewhere. It is creditable to him, for he has no need to be -popular, he is so rich.' - -'Ask him to dinner to-morrow or Sunday.' - -'If you wish. But he will not come; he dislikes dinners as much as I -do. It is the most barbarous method of seeing one's friends.' - -'There is no other so genial.' - -She rose with a little shrug of her shoulders. She seldom honoured -Napraxine by conversing so long with him. - -'Order the horses, Ralph,' she said to Lord Geraldine; 'I want a long -gallop.' - -'She has had some decisive scene with Othmar,' thought Lady Brancepeth, -'and she is out of humour; she always rides like a Don Kossack when she -is irritated.' - -'There is no real riding here,' said the Princess, as she went to put -on her habit. 'One almost loves Russia when one thinks of the way one -can ride there; of those green eternal steppes, those illimitable -plains, with no limit but the dim grey horizon, your black Ukrane -horse, bounding like a deer, flying like a zephyr; it is worth while to -remain in Russia to gallop so, on a midsummer night, with not a wall or -a fence all the way between you and the Caspian Sea. I think if I were -always in Russia I should become such a poet as Maïkoff: those immense -distances are inspiration.' - -She rode with exquisite grace and spirit; an old Kossack had taught -her, as a child, the joys of the saddle, on those lonely and dreamful -plains, which had always held since a certain place in her heart. That -latent energy and daring, which found no scope in the life of the -world, made her find pleasure in the strong stride of the horse beneath -her, in the cleaving of the air at topmost speed. The most indolent -of _mondaines_ at all other times, when she sprang into the saddle as -lightly as a bird on a bough, she was transformed; her slender hands -had a grip of steel, her delicate face flushed with pleasure, the fiery -soul of her fathers woke in her--of the men who had ridden out with -their troopers to hunt down the Persian and the Circassian; who had -swept like storm-clouds over those shadowy steppes which she loved; -who had had their part or share in all the tragic annals of Russia; -who had slain their foes at the steps of the throne, in the holiness -of the cloister; who had been amongst those whose swords had found the -heart of Cathrine's son, and whose voices had cried to the people in -the winter's morning, 'Paul, the son of Peter, is dead; pray for his -soul!' If she were cruel--now and then--was it not in her blood? - - * * * * * - -Meanwhile Yseulte was helping her foster-mother to pack tea-roses, to -go to England for a great ball, in their little hermetically-sealed -boxes. The roses were not wholly opened before they were thus shut -away from light and air into darkness. They would not wither in -their airless cells, but they would pale a little in that dull sad -voyage from the sunshine to the frost and fog. As she laid the -rosebuds,--pink, white, and pale yellow,--one by one on their beds of -moss, she thought for the first time wistfully that her fate was very -like theirs; only the rosebuds, perhaps, when they should be taken out -of their prisons at their journey's end, though they would have but -a very few hours of life before them, yet would bloom a little, if -mournfully, in the northern land, and see the light again, if only for -a day. But her life would be shut into silence and darkness for ever; -she would not even live the rose's life '_l'espace d'un matin_.' - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - - -When Othmar went out from her presence, he was more near to happiness -than he had been in his whole thirty years of life. He was filled -with vivid, palpitating, intoxicated hope. He was passionately in -love, and almost he believed himself beloved in return. As much as -she had allowed to him she had certainly allowed to no living man. -The very force of his passion, which had driven him to scorn the -conventional court which he might have paid her in common with so many -others--the spaniel's place of Geraldine, the slave's place of Boris -Seliedoff--rendered him as willing to set no limits to the sacrifices -which she should be free to exact from him, and he be proud to make. -Only he would never share her, even in nominal union with her lawful -lord. He would be all to her, or nothing. - -He loathed the conventional adulteries of his time and of his society; -he sighed, impatiently for the means to prove that the old fearless, -high-handed, single-hearted passion which sees in the whole teeming -world only one life, was not dead, but lived in him for her. - -He foresaw all the loss of freedom and of fair repute which would be -entailed on him by the surrender of his life to her; he knew well -that she was a woman who would be no docile companion or unexacting -mistress; he knew that there were in her the habits of dominance, the -instincts of egotism, and that _esprit gouailleur_ which compelled -her, almost despite herself, to jest at what she admired, to ridicule -her better emotions, to make a mockery of the very things which were -the dearest to her. He did not because he loved her become blind to -all that was cold, merciless, and capricious in her nature; he was -conscious that she would never lose her own identity in any passion, -never surrender her mind, even if she gave her person, to any lover; he -knew that she would always remain outside those tropic tempests of love -which she aroused and controlled, and which offended her or flattered -her, according to the mood in which they found her. - -He knew all these things, and was aware that his future would not be -one of peace. But he loved her, and agitation, jealousy, suffering -beside her would, he felt, be sweeter to him than any repose beside -another. Even these defects, these dangers, which he clearly perceived, -added to her sorcery for him. It is the mistress who is indifferent -who excites the most vehement desires; and, by reason of his great -fortunes, women had been always to him so facile, so eager, and so -easily won, that the coldness of Nadine Napraxine, which he knew was a -thing of temperament, not of affectation, had but the more irresistible -power over him. The very sense with which she impressed everyone, -himself as well as others, of being no more to be held or relied upon -than the snowflake, to which her world likened her, attracted a man who -had, from his boyhood, been wearied by the adulation, insistence, and -sycophancy of almost all who approached him. - -The few days of his probation passed slowly over his head, seeming as -though they would never end. He was restless, feverish, and absent -of mind; Friederich Othmar, who, contrary to all his usual habits, -remained at S. Pharamond, tranquilly ignoring the visible impatience -of his host at his unasked presence, was sorely troubled by the -alternate exhilaration and anxiety of spirit which all the reserve -and self-possession of Othmar himself could not wholly conceal from -the penetration of a person accustomed to divine and dive into the -innermost recesses of the minds of men. - -'What, in God's name, is he meditating?' thought his uncle. 'Some -insanity probably. I should believe he was about to disappear from -the world with Madame Napraxine if I were not so persuaded that her -pride and her selfishness will never permit her to commit a folly for -anyone. Morality is nothing to her, but her position is a great deal; -her delight in being insolent will never allow her to lose the power of -being so.' - -So accurately did this man of the world read a character which baffled -most persons by its intricacy and its anomalies. - -To Friederich Othmar human nature presented many absurdities but few -secrets. - -He remained at S. Pharamond, despite his own abhorrence of any place -which was not a capital. He passed his mornings in the consideration -of his correspondence and his telegraphic despatches, but in the later -hours of the day and in the evenings he was that agreeable member of -society whom society had known and courted for so many years; and -beneath his pleasant subacid wit and his admirable manner his acute -penetration was for ever _en vedette_ to penetrate his nephew's purpose -and preoccupation. But a lover, on his guard, will baffle an observer -whom the keenest of statesmen would, in vain, seek to deceive or -mislead, and the Baron learned nothing of Othmar's inmost thoughts. -Although Othmar and Nadine Napraxine met twice or thrice in his -presence at other people's houses, and once at S. Pharamond itself, -where some more choice music was given one evening, the acute blue eyes -of the elder man failed to read the understanding which existed between -them. All he saw was that she appeared to treat Othmar, before others, -with more raillery and more nonchalance than usual. He remarked that -Othmar did not seem either hurt or surprised at this. - -'Since he is as much in love with her as ever, he must be aware of some -intimacy between them which renders him comparatively insensible to -her treatment of him in society,' thought the sagacity of his uncle, -who was alarmed and disquieted by a fact which would have reassured -less fine observers--the fact that the master of S. Pharamond did -not once, during fifteen days, cross the mile or two of olive-wood, -orange orchard, and hanging field which alone separated him from La -Jacquemerille. - -'No love is so patient but on some promise,' he reflected. He knew -the romantic turn of Othmar's character, and he feared its results as -others would fear the issue of some mortal or hereditary disease. A -week or two previous the ministers then presiding over the fortunes -of France had met, at his little house in the Rue du Traktir, the -representatives of two great Powers, and in the newspapers of the -hour that informal meeting, which had led to many important results, -had been called the Unwritten Treaty of Baron Fritz; and yet, at such -a moment, instead of being entranced with such influence as such a -nickname implied to his House, instead of being occupied with the -power, the might, and the mission of the Othmars, which that gathering -around the library-table in the Rue du Traktir displayed for the -ten thousandth time to the dazzled eyes of suppliant and trembling -Europe, Otho himself could only think of a woman with larger eyes and -smaller hands than usual, but a woman absolutely useless to him in any -ambitions--likely, rather, to be his ruin in all ways! - -'I could understand it were she one of the great political forces -of the world. Some women are that, and might so, to us, be of very -high value,' thought Friederich Othmar, 'but Madame Napraxine is as -indifferent to all political movement as if she were made of the ivory -and mother-of-pearl which her skin resembles. If she be anything, she -is that horrible thing a Nihilist, only because Nihilism embodies an -endless and irreconcilable discontent, which finds in her some secret -corner of vague sympathy. But for politics in our meaning of the word -she has the most complete contempt. What did she say to me the other -day? "I am a diplomatist's daughter. I have seen the strings of all -your puppets. I cannot accept a Polichinelle for a Richelieu, as you -all do." And she declared that if there were no statesmen at all, and -no journalists, life would go smoothly; everybody would attend to their -own affairs, the world would be quiet, and there would be no wars. What -but disaster can such a woman with such views bring into the life of -Otho, already paralysed as it is by poco-curantism?' - -He asked the question of himself in his own meditations, and could give -himself no answer save one which grieved and alarmed him. - -Othmar himself bestowed on his guest but little thought except a -passing impatience that his uncle should have taken that moment, of all -others, to instal himself at S. Pharamond. - -He had not the cynicism nor the _insouciance_ of the woman he adored. -He did not attempt any sophisms with his own conscience. He knew that -to do a man dishonour was to do him a violence unkinder, and perhaps -even in a way baser, than to take his life. But he was ready to pledge -himself to that which, unlike her, he still considered was a sin. -He was entirely mastered by a force of passion which she could have -understood by the subtlety of her intelligence, but was not likely ever -to share by any fibre of her nature. He was lost in that whirlpool of -emotion, anticipation, and fear which carried his inner life away on -it, although his outer life remained in appearance calm enough for no -eyes save those of the Baron to penetrate the disguise of his serenity. - -Yseulte he had forgotten. - -The simple and innocent tenderness which she had momentarily aroused -in him could not hold its place beside the overwhelming passion which -governed him, more than a slender soft-eyed dove can dispute possession -with the fierce, strong-pinioned falcon. Once or twice he saw her and -spoke to her with kindness, but his thoughts were far away from her, -and he did not linger beside her, although each time he chanced to meet -her on the way to her foster-mother's, in lonely lovely country paths, -which might well have tempted him to tarry. - -On the thirteenth day of his probation, the priest's gown which, to -please her, he had ordered for the church of S. Pharamond, arrived at -the château, and, his attention being drawn to it by his servants, -he remembered his promise to her. It was the last day of the year. A -passing remembrance of pity came over him as he thought of her; she -was so entirely alone, and she would go to the life of the cloister; -a fancy came to him to do some little thing to give her pleasure; a -mere evanescent breath of innocent impulse, which passed like the cool -breeze of an April day, sweet with scent of field flowers, across the -heated atmosphere of desire and expectation in which his soul was then -living. Conventional etiquette had seldom troubled him greatly; he -had always enjoyed something of that sense which princes have, that -whatever he did the world would condone. A man of the exceptional power -which he possessed can always exercise on his contemporaries more or -less of his own will. Whatever he might have done no one would have -said of him anything more severe than that he was singular. - -When he went into Nice that day he chanced to see a very pretty thing, -modern, but admirable in taste and execution, a casket of ivory mounted -on silver, with a little angel in silver on the summit. On its sides -were painted in delicate miniatures reproductions of Fra Angelico -and Botticelli. It was signed by a famous miniaturist, and cost ten -thousand francs. Othmar, to whom the price seemed no more than ten -centimes, bought it at once. - -'It will please her,' he thought. 'It shall go to her with the -soutane;' and he sent it with the vestment to Millo, addressed to -Mademoiselle de Valogne. His knowledge of etiquette told him that he -ought to send it, if he sent it at all, through the Duchesse; but he -did not choose to obey etiquette; he had discarded social rules, more -or less, all his life, according to his inclination, and people had not -resented his rebellion simply because he was who he was. He utterly -disobeyed etiquette now, and sent his present direct to Yseulte very -early on the morning of the New Year. - -It did not occur to him that he might only run the risk of cruelly -compromising the poor child. He gave hardly more thought to the action -than he would have given to a rose which he might have broken off -its stalk to offer to her. All his heart had gone with the basket of -flowers which he had sent at sunrise to Nadine Napraxine, who allowed -no other offering. - -The chances were a million to one that his casket would never -reach its destination without being seen, if not intercepted, by -the governesses; but as it happened, his messenger gave it to the -gatekeeper, and the gatekeeper gave it in turn to the woman who served -her as maid during her stay at Millo, and who was passing through the -gates, on her way home from matins. The woman was attached to her; -indeed, being a religious person herself, considered that Yseulte was -the only creature whose presence saved Millo from the fate of Sodom and -Gomorrah; therefore, pleased that the girl should have pleasure, she -carried the packet straight to her as she rose from her bed; and in the -cold, misty morning of the New Year the first thing that greeted the -astonished eyes of Yseulte was the Coronation of the Virgin, glowing -like a jewel on the side of the ivory casket. - -The whole day passed to her in an enchanted rapture. - -In the large, idle, careless household there was a general exchange -of congratulations and _étrennes_, and a pleasant tumult of good -wishes and merriment. Blanchette and Toinon danced about before a -pyramid of bonbons and costly playthings, and the Duchesse, descending -at her usual hour, two o'clock, gave and received a multitude of -felicitations, gifts, and visits. 'The most tedious day of the whole -three hundred and sixty-five,' she said pettishly, giving her cheek to -the touch of her children's pale little lips. - -In the many occupations and ennuis of the day no one heard or knew -anything of Othmar's present. At noon some bouquets of roses and some -orchids, laid on a plate of old _cloisonné_ enamel, were brought in -his name to Madame de Vannes, but she knew nothing of her cousin's -casket. Meanwhile nothing could hurt Yseulte. The contempt with which -her little cousins received the gifts she had made for them in the -convent, the oblivion to which she was consigned by every one, the -carelessness with which the Duchesse received her timidly-offered good -wishes, the severity with which the governesses forbade her to go out -in such weather to see Nicole or attend Mass in the little church, the -unconcealed ill-temper with which Alain de Vannes flung her a word of -greeting--none of these things had any power to wound her; she scarcely -perceived them; she was lifted up into a world all her own. Unnoticed -in the general _branle-bas_ of the day, she passed the hours, when she -was not at Mass in the chapel, locked safely in her own room, before -her treasure, in a rapt happiness, in a wonder of ecstasy, which were -so intense that she feared they were cardinal sins. - -The weather was cold, some snow had even fallen, and the north winds -blew, making all the chilly foreigners gathered on those shores shiver -and grumble like creatures defrauded of their rights; but all the -grey, cheerless, misty landscape, and the fog upon the sea, appeared -more beautiful to her than they had ever done before in its sunshine. -From her window she looked at the towers of S. Pharamond, and on her -table--all her own--was the ivory casket. - -The Duchesse de Vannes, waking in the forenoon after the Jour de l'An, -cross, peevish, sleepy, and yet sleepless, which is, in itself, the -most irritating and dispiriting of all human conditions, and morbidly -conscious that, as her little daughter had said, she was beginning -to _baisser un peu_, was in a mood of natural resentment against all -creation in general and the human race in particular, and quite ready -to vent her ill-humour on the first object which offered itself. -That first object was one of the little prim notes by which her -children's instructresses were wont to communicate any terrible event -in the schoolroom, or any entreaty for guidance when Mademoiselle -Blanchette had insisted on riding the wooden horses at a village fair, -or Mademoiselle Toinon had dressed herself up in the smallest groom's -clothes. 'Ne m'ennuyez pas; vous savez vos devoirs' was the only reply -they ever received; but the good women continued to write the notes -as a relief to their consciences. They wrote one now, signed in their -joint names, humbly entreating to be informed if it were the pleasure -of Madame la Duchesse that Mdlle. de Valogne should receive presents -of which the donor was unknown. Mdlle. de Valogne was in possession of -a new and very valuable locket; they believed also that she was in the -habit of going to the gardens of S. Pharamond; they had deemed it their -duty to acquaint Madame la Duchesse, &c., &c. - -Blanchette, with the most innocent face in the world, had said to them, -'I have seen the big pearl locket of Yseulte! _Oh, vrai!_ When I am -as old, I will not hide my handsome things as she does. Who gave it -her? Who do you think could give it to her? She is friends with that -gentleman at S. Pharamond--the one that is as rich as M. de Rothschild. -I think he gave it her! Do you tell mamma.' - -Blanchette guessed very shrewdly that her father had given the locket; -but she was too wary to offend him. Blanchette was like the little cats -who steal round and round to their mouse by devious paths unseen. She -had alarmed the governesses, and the prim note was the consequence. - -When the Duchesse read it, she flung it away in a corner. '_Tas -d'imbéciles_,' she said, contemptuously; then said to one of her maids, -'Request Mdlle. de Valogne to come hither.' - -Yseulte was presented in a fortuitous moment as the whipping-boy on -whom could be spent all that useless irritation which she could not -spend on the real offenders, her ineffective chloral, her increasing -wrinkles, and the indifference of Raymond de Prangins. - -'Mamma is always cross,' the wise little Blanchette had reflected. -'She is always angry, even for nothing. That great baby will get a -lecture, and she will be sure to say it was papa; she always tells the -truth--such a simpleton!--and papa will hate her for ever and for ever!' - -Then Blanchette made a _pied de nez_ all by herself in her little -bedroom: when you were a child you could not have many things your -own way, but you could spoil other people's things very neatly with a -little pat here, a little poke there, if you looked all the while like -your picture by Baudry, an innocent cherub with sweet smiling eyes, who -could not have made a _pied de nez_ to save your life. Blanchette had -already acquired the knowledge that this was how the world was most -easily managed. - -When Yseulte was summoned to her cousin's presence, the girl was -startled to see how old she looked, for it was scarcely noon, and the -handsome face which 'Cri-Cri' was wont to present to her own world had -scarcely received its finishing touches from the various embellishing -_petits secrets_ shut up in their silver boxes and their china pots, -which were strewn about under the great Dresden-framed mirror in front -of her. - -'Good-day,' she said, with irritation already in her voice, as Yseulte -timidly kissed her hand. 'Is this true what they tell me, that you -receive presents without my knowledge and consent? Do you not know that -it is perfectly _inconvenable_? Are you not taught enough of the world -in your convent to be aware that a young girl cannot do such things -without being disgraced eternally? What is it you have accepted? Is it -a jewel? Can you realise the enormity of your action?----' she paused, -in some irritation and uncertainty. 'Well, why do you not speak? Can -you excuse yourself? What is it you have taken? From whom have you -taken it? My people have told me you have a new and valuable jewel and -refuse to say who gave it.' - -'My cousin, M. le Duc, gave it me,' said Yseulte. 'He said that I was -to tell you if you asked me, but not anyone else.' - -She spoke frankly, without any hesitation. The Duchesse stared at her, -half rose in her amazement; her face was dark with anger for a moment, -then cleared into a sudden laughter. - -'My husband!' she echoed. 'A _fillette_ like you! And they say there -are no miracles now! Do you absolutely mean to say that Alain gave you -a jewel?----' - -'He was so good as to give me a locket--yes,' murmured Yseulte, -conscious that her cousin was angry, insolent, and derisive, and afraid -that the Duc would be irritated at the issue of his kindness to her. - -'Pray, has he given you anything else?' echoed Madame de Vannes. 'Has -he given you the diamonds he had bought for Mdlle. Rubis, or the -_coupé_ from Bender's which he meant for _la grande_ Laure?' - -'He has not given me anything else,' answered Yseulte, to whom these -terrible names conveyed no meaning. - -'Where is this locket? Show it me.' - -'It is in my room. Shall I fetch it?' - -'No, no. It does not matter. You can send it me. I will send Agnès for -it. The idea of Alain having even looked at you!--it makes one laugh; -it is too absurd.' - -She continued to laugh, but the laughter did not convey to the ear of -Yseulte any impression either that she was pardoned or that her cousin -was amused. It was a laugh expressive of irony, irritation, wonder, -contempt, rancour, all in one. - -'You should not have taken it. You should have told me,' continued -the Duchesse. 'To be sure, he is your cousin. But it is not proper to -take a man's gifts. It is not becoming. It is too forward. It is even -immodest. Is that the sort of thing the Dames de Ste. Anne have taught -you? Surely you might have known better.' - -These phrases she uttered in a staccato rapid succession, as if she -thought little of what she said; she was indeed thinking as the girl -stood before her: - -'What a skin! What shoulders! What a throat! What a thing it is to be -sixteen! Why did not _le bon Dieu_ make all that last longer with us? -It goes too soon; so horribly soon; after one is five-and-twenty it -is all one can do to make up decently. If it were only the complexion -which went it would not matter; that one can easily arrange; but it -is the features that change; they grow out or they grow in; the mouth -gets thin or the cheeks get broad; the very lines alter somehow, and we -cannot alter that; and then to make oneself up is as much trouble as -to build a house, and the house has to be built anew every day!--it is -horribly hard--and yet one has compensations, revenges; it is not those -children whom men care to look at though they are fresh as roses; at -least not usually. Alain, I suppose, does--what can he mean by giving -her a medallion?' - -While these thoughts ran through her mind, she was staring hard at -Yseulte through her eyeglass, as though they had never met before then. -The girl had coloured scarlet at the epithet 'immodest,' but it had -made her a little angry, with the righteous indignation of innocence. -Respect kept her mute, but her face spoke for her. - -'Alain was right; she is really handsome,' reflected the Duchesse. - -She was herself only eight-and-twenty, but in the world as on the -racecourse it is the pace that kills; and before she had passed through -all those arduous processes which she had rightly compared to building -a house anew every day, she knew very well that she looked cruelly old, -though after two o'clock in the day she was still one of the great -beauties of France. - -She had been immersed in pleasures, pastimes, and excitements from -the day of her marriage; she had lived in a crowd, she had gambled -not a little, and she had had certain intrigues, of whose dangers -she had at times a vivid and anxious consciousness, for the Duc was -indifferent but not base, and might any day be roused if he came to be -aware that men laughed at him more than he liked. As a rule, she and -he understood each other very well, and tacitly condoned each other's -indiscretions; but there might come a time when he would break that -convenient compact, as she felt disposed now to resent his admiration -of her young cousin. On the whole, perhaps, she mused, she had been -wrong to do so; she would let the girl keep his present; he might, if -she provoked him, insist that Raymond de Prangins should leave Millo. -All these reflections occurred to her during that one minute in which -her eyeglass watched the indignation rise in Yseulte's face. - -'Have you seen M. de Vannes alone?' she resumed, with a sharpness in -her voice, due rather to her own sense of the girl's beauty than to her -knowledge of her husband's admiration for it. - -'Now and then,' said Yseulte without hesitation. 'He has come into the -schoolroom----' - -'For a lesson in A B C, I suppose?--or a cup of Brown's green tea?' -said the Duchesse contemptuously. 'Well, he may _conter ses fleurettes -ailleurs_. I should have thought he had had better taste than to begin -in his own house: however,' she continued, interrupting herself, as she -remembered that she was suggesting, 'I do not suppose it is you who -are to blame. But another time, ask my permission before you accept -anything from anybody. I will not deprive you of the Duc's gift. He is -in a manner your cousin--your guardian--of course he meant very kindly, -but another time remember to come to me. You will tell the Duc that I -said so.' - -'Good heavens!' she was thinking, 'who would have supposed that Alain -had a taste for a creature like that, half a saint and half a baby? To -be sure, her eyes are superb, and the throat and bosom--what beautiful -lines they have; why did they send her here? She shall go back next -week. The wickedness of the thing would charm him; the nearer it was -to a crime, the more of a _clou_ it would be. To play Faust under the -respectable shade of Brown's teapot and the big dictionaries would be -sure to enthral him, out of its very drollery--men are made like that.' - -Then a remembrance of S. Pharamond passed over her, and she said aloud, -with an unkind sarcasm in her voice: - -'Perhaps you have other friends beside M. de Vannes? Pray tell me if -you have. I fully appreciate the effects of the education which the -Dames de Ste. Anne have given you.' - -Yseulte coloured scarlet, and the Duchesse's eyes scanned her face as -Blanchette's had done, without mercy. - -'Pray tell me,' she continued, with a chill dignity, which was in sharp -contrast with the sarcasm and railing of her previous manner. 'You will -be so good as to remember that I stand in the place of your mother; -your indiscretions are not alone painful to me, but compromising to me. -Is it true that you are intimate with Otho Othmar?' - -'He has been kind to me,' murmured Yseulte, an agony at her heart and -the hot tears standing in her eyes. She did not understand enough of -the world to justify herself by the fact that the offender had been -presented to her by her cousin herself; nor, if she had done so, would -the position she stood in towards Madame de Vannes have allowed her to -use such a justification without apparent impertinence. For eight years -she had owed everything to the Duchesse. - -'Kind to you!' echoed her cousin, 'a most fortuitous phrase, but not -one that young girls can employ except to their own ridicule and -injury. Pray how has he been kind to you? has _he_ given you a locket?' - -Yseulte might easily have told a lie; no one knew of the casket, no one -could tell of it; she loved it more dearly than anything she had ever -possessed. But she had been taught in her childhood that falsehood was -cowardice, and the courage of the de Valogne was in her; therefore she -answered, with an unsteady voice indeed, but with entire truthfulness, -'He has given me a very beautiful box, it is made of ivory and painted, -it came yesterday----' - -Madame de Vannes burst into another laugh, which jarred on the child's -ear: - -'Really,' she cried, relapsing into the manner most natural to her, -'you begin well! Othmar and my husband! and you are not quite sixteen -yet, and we all thought you such a little demure saint in your grey -clothes! Send the casket to me. You cannot receive presents in that -way. From your cousin, _passe encore_, but from a man like Othmar--you -might as well go and sup with him at Bignon's. Good heavens! What are -Schemmitz and Brown about that they have let you meet him? Where have -you seen him? how have you become intimate with him?' - -Yseulte had become very pale. She had done her duty; done what honour, -truth, obedience, and gratitude all required; but it had cost her a -great effort, and she would lose the casket. - -'I have only seen him three times,' she said, with her colour changing; -and she went on to tell the story of her visit to his gardens, of his -conversation with her on the seashore, of the priest's soutane, and of -their meeting at the house of Nicole. It was a very simple inoffensive -little story, but it hurt her greatly to tell it; cost her quite as -much as it would have done Madame de Vannes to unfold all her manifold -indiscretions in full confession before a _conseil de famille_. - -'He has been very kind to me,' she said timidly, as she finished her -little tale, 'and if--if--if you would only let me keep the casket and -take it to Faïel?' - -The Duchesse laughed once more: - -'You do not care to keep the Duc's locket--how flattering to him! -Really, _fillette_, you are sagacious betimes; I would never have -believed you such a cunning little cat! Did you learn all that at -the convent? you convent-girls are more _rusées_ than so many rats! -Othmar, of all men of the world! My dear, you might as well wish for -an emperor. There is not a marriageable woman in Europe who does not -sigh for Othmar! He is so enormously rich! There is no one else rich -like that; all the other financiers have a tribe of people belonging to -them. "The family" is everywhere, at Paris, at Vienna, at Berlin, at -London, and have as many branches as the oak; but Othmar is absolutely -alone--for old Baron Fritz does not count--he is absolutely alone, -that is what is unique in him. Whoever marries him will be the most -fortunate woman in Europe. Yes, I say it advisedly, it is fortune that -is power nowadays; our day is over; we do not even lead society any -longer.' - -The colour had rushed back into Yseulte's face; the Duchesse's words -tortured her as only a very young and sensitive creature can be -tortured by an indelicate and cruel suspicion. 'I never thought, I -never meant,' she murmured. 'You know, my cousin, I am dedicated to the -religious life; you cannot suppose that I--I----' The words choked her. - -'_Ne pleurnichez pas, de grâce!_' said the Duchesse impatiently. 'I -have no doubt you have taken all kinds of impossibilities into your -head, girls are always so foolish; but you may be sure that the gift of -the casket means nothing--nothing. Othmar is always giving away, right -and left; most very rich men are mean, but he is not. It was a wrong -thing, an impertinent thing, for him to do, and it must be returned to -him instantly; but if you imagine you have made any impression upon -him, I can assure you you are very mistaken, he only thinks of Nadine -Napraxine.' - -Yseulte remained very pale; her eyes were cast down, her lips were -pressed together. She had done her duty and told the truth, but she -was not recompensed. - -The Duchesse rang for her maids. To the one who answered the summons, -she said: 'Accompany Mdlle. de Valogne to her room, and bring me a -casket she will give you, which is to be sold for the Little Sisters of -the Poor. _Va-t'-en, Yseulte._' - -She put out her hand carelessly, and the girl bent over her. - -'My cousin! I have never seen him but three times,' she murmured -again. Her face was very pale; she had been wounded profoundly by the -Duchesse's words, even though their full meaning was not known to her. - -Madame de Vannes laughed again; then, with an assumption of dignity, -which she could take on at will, said coldly: - -'Once was too much. Never accuse accident; no one believes in it. -Remember also, that as one vowed to the service of Heaven, it is -already sin in you if you harbour one earthly thought. Go, and send me -the casket.' - -Without another word Yseulte curtsied and withdrew from her presence. - -When the maid returned, she brought her mistress the ivory casket; but -inside it was the Duc's medallion. Madame de Vannes laughed yet again -as she saw. - -'The little obstinate!' she murmured. 'It is not often that Alain -throws pearls, or anything else away. And what a casket! Heavens! it is -fit for a wedding gift to a queen. Is it possible that Othmar---- No, -it is not possible; he would never think of a child like that. Perhaps -he did it to rouse Nadine. What a cunning little pole-cat these nuns -have sent me!' - -But a kind of respect awakened in her towards her young cousin. A girl -who could charm Alain de Vannes and Othmar was not to be dismissed -scornfully as a novice and a baby. The Duchesse drew some note-paper to -her, and wrote a little letter to her neighbour, in which she expressed -herself very admirably, with dignity and grace, as the guardian of -a motherless child who was dedicated to the service of Heaven. She -suggested, without actually saying so, that he had failed in reverence -towards Heaven, and towards the Maison de Vannes and the Maison de -Creusac, in permitting himself to offer gifts to Mdlle. de Valogne; -she recalled to him, without any positive expression of the sort, that -a young girl of noble descent could not be approached with gifts as a -young actress might be, and that if any had been offered they should -have, at least, been offered through herself. - -She was honestly irritated with Othmar for having thus been wanting, -as she considered, in full respect for those great families from which -Yseulte de Valogne had sprung. She was excessively angry with her -children's governesses, whose negligence had rendered it possible for -the girl to wander about alone, and she gave them a short but very -terrible audience in her dressing-room; yet, on the whole, the affair -amused her a little, and the high-breeding in her made her do justice -to the honour which had forced her young cousin to tell unasked all the -truth. - -Later on she had a little scene with her husband, half comic, half -tragic, in which they flung the _tu quoque_ liberally one at the other, -apropos of many vagaries less innocent than his fancy for Yseulte -de Valogne; but she did not tell him about Othmar's casket, for she -reasoned, with admirable knowledge of men's natures, that they cared -so much more if they thought any one else cared too. - -Meanwhile Yseulte, having given the casket into the hands of the maid -without a word or a sign of regret, locked herself in, threw herself on -her bed, and sobbed as piteously as though the magic box had been that -of Pandora, and bore all hope away within it. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - - -Nadine Napraxine kept her promise to Othmar. She did for him what she -had done for no other human being; she meditated on his entreaties as a -thing which might possibly be granted by her. She looked for a little -while through the play and the glow of his impassioned words as through -some painted window into some agreeable land whither, perchance, she -might travel. - -The very sternness and daring of his manner of demand had its -attraction for her. None of her courtiers had wooed her quite in -that way: some had been too timid, some too submissive, some too -worldly-wise. The insane desire to fly with her from the world to some -far-away, semi-barbaric, mysterious Eden of his own making had never -been so boldly and uncompromisingly set forth to her by any lover as -now by Othmar. It had a certain fascination for her even while the -philosophy and irony in her ridiculed the idea. It responded to the -vague but very real dissatisfaction with which life, as it was, filled -her. She was tired of the routine of it. Everyone said the same thing. -Its very triumphs were so monotonous that they might just as well have -been failures. Half her provocation and cruelty to men arose from a -wish which she could not resist, to find something vivid and new to -interest her. She succeeded in causing tragedies, but she did not -succeed in being interested in them herself. - -Othmar did interest her--in a measure. - -He had done so from the first moment that she saw him coming in--tall, -slight, grave, with great repose and more dignity than most men of his -day--through the vague light, _entre chien et loup_, into the hall of -a country house in the green heart of the Ardennes, where she and her -hosts and a great party, wearing the russet and gold and pale blue of -their hunting clothes, were waiting for the signal of the _curée_ from -the terraces without. - -He had interested her then and always in a degree; but only in a degree. - -'It certainly cannot be love that _I_ feel,' she said to herself, -with regret. 'I am glad when he comes because he--almost--excites -me, but I am glad when he is gone because he--almost--disturbs me. I -can imagine certain follies being possible to me when he is here, but -they never quite become possible. If I were sure they would become -so, and in becoming so be agreeable to me, I would go away with him. -But--but--but----.' - -The objections seemed many to her, in a way insuperable; they lay in -herself, not in him, and so appeared never to be removed. - -She respected him because he would have scorned one of those intrigues -screened under conventional observances, of which the world is so -full. If she could have entirely persuaded herself that his life was -absolutely necessary to hers, she would not have hesitated to let -society become aware of the truth. She had no grain in her of the -hypocrite or of the coward. - -But she was not sure: and to break up your life irrevocably, to throw -it into a furnace and fuse it into a wholly new shape, to fling your -name to all the hounds who fed on the offal of calumny, and then -to find, after all this _Sturm und Drang_, that you had only made -a mistake, and were only a little more bored than before!--this -possibility seemed to be at once so dreary and so ridiculous that she -did not dare to put it to the proof. Her own potential weariness in the -future to which he wooed her, rose before her in a ghastly shape and -barred the way. - -She pondered on the matter fully and sincerely for some days: days -in which nothing pleased her: days in which her riding-horse felt -her spurs, and her friends her sarcasms: days in which her toilettes -had little power to interest her; Worth himself seemed worn out; her -admirable tire-woman did nothing well; and her husband seemed to her -to have grown heavier, stouter, stupider, more Kalmuck, and more -intolerable than ever during the hours of breakfast and dinner, which -were the only hours weighted by his presence. In those few hours she -felt almost persuaded to take her lover at his word. Platon Napraxine -was so densely, so idiotically, so provocatively unalarmed and secure! -He would have tempted almost any woman to make him suddenly awake to -find himself ridiculous. - -'He would howl like a wounded bear!' she thought contemptuously, 'and -then somebody would bring him brandy, and somebody would mention the -tables, and somebody would talk about Mdlle. Chose, and he would be all -right again. He is too stupid to feel. There are prairie dogs, they -say, which hardly know when they are shot or beaten; he has got the -soul of one of them. Because I have married him he is convinced that I -shall never leave him;--_la belle raison_! There are so many men like -that. They marry just as they buy a cane; they put the cane in the -stand; it is bought and it cannot move; they are sure it will always be -there. One fine day some one comes and takes it; then they stare and -they swear because they have been robbed.' - -This time of uncertainty and doubt, which was to Othmar fraught with -such wild alternations of hope and of fear, which now swung him in his -fancy high as heaven and now sunk him deep in the darkness of despair, -was to her a period rather of the most minute analysis and of the -most subtle self-examination. In the _naïveté_ of her profound and -unconscious egotism she never once considered his loss or gain: she was -entirely occupied with the consideration of her own wishes. Everything -bored her; would she, if she took this step, which to most women would -have looked so big with fate, be less bored--or more? This seemed to -her the one momentous issue which trembled uncertain at the gate of -choice. - -She considered it thoughtfully and dispassionately. She was not -troubled by any moral doubts, or any such reasons for hesitation as -would have beset many women of more prejudices and of less intelligence -than herself. All these things were _le vieux jeu_. She was far too -clear-sighted and too highly-cultured to be scared by such bogies as -frighten narrow minds. She saw no sanctity whatever in the marriage -ties which bound her to Platon Napraxine. You might as well talk of -a contract for eggs and butter, or an operation on the Bourse being -sacred! No human ordinances can very well be sacred, and we cannot -be sure there are any divine ones, logically, all the probabilities -are that there are none; so she certainly would have said had anyone -challenged her views on such a subject. - -In a manner, this crisis of her life amused her like a comedy. The -unconsciousness of her husband whilst the unseen cords of destiny were -tightening about him; the revolt and impatience of Othmar, conveyed to -her by many a restless glance and half-uttered word as they passed each -other in his drawing-rooms or in those of others; the ignorance of her -lovers and her friends; and her own meditations as to the many comments -that the world would make if ever it knew: all these diverted her. - -What alone troubled her was her own pride. Would she ever be able to -endure any loss of that? '_Je serai honnête femme_,' she had said to -her father in her childhood, and when she had repeated the words in her -womanhood her mind had been made up not so much by coldness, chastity, -or delicacy as by hauteur. She could not have endured to feel that -there were any doors in Europe which could be shut in her face, or that -she could not shut her own whensoever and against whomsoever she might -choose. - -His term of probation came to an end one morning when the day had -nothing of winter save its date; a morning rosy and golden, with -distant mists transparent as a veil, and the mild air soundless and -windless amongst the mimosa and eucalyptus groves of the grounds of La -Jacquemerille. For once Nadine Napraxine condescended to be true to an -appointment; whilst the day was still young and all the lazy world of -the modern Baiæ still dozed or, at the utmost, yawned itself awake, she -moved, with that lovely languor which was as much a portion of her as -the breath she drew, along the sea-terrace of her house, and smiled to -see Othmar already standing at the foot of the sea-steps. - -'What children men are!' she thought, with that ridicule which the -ardour of her lovers was always most apt to awake in her, as he bent -over her hand and pressed on it lips which trembled. - -'It must be really delightful,' she continued in her own reflections, -'to be able to be so very eager and so very much in earnest about -anything. Instead of abusing us, men ought to be infinitely thankful -to us for giving them emotions which do, for the time at least eclipse -those of baccarat and of pigeon-shooting. In a moment or two he will be -inclined to hate me, but he will be very wrong. He will always be my -debtor for fifteen days of the most exquisite agitation of his life. -Twenty years hence he will look back to this time, and say, "_Oh, le -beau temps quand j'étais si malheureux!_"' - -Whilst she so mused she was saying little careless, easy phrases to -him, pacing her terrace slowly, with her great mantle of iris-coloured -plush, lined with silver-fox fur drawn close about her, and its -hood about her face, like its spathe around the narcissus. She was -serene, affable, nonchalante; he was silent, and deeply agitated; so -passionately eager for his fate to be spoken, that he could find no -light sentences with which to answer hers. - -'He looks very well in that kind of excitement,' she thought, as she -glanced sideways at him. 'He is poetic in it, instead of being only -awkward, like poor Ralph. Really, if one could only be sure of one's -self----' - -She amused herself awhile by keeping him upon the terrace, on which all -the windows of the house looked, and where regard for her must perforce -restrain him from any betrayal of his own emotions. She felt as if she -held in leash some panting, striving, desert animal which she forced to -preserve the measured pace and decorous stillness of tamed creatures. - -At length, compassion or prudence made her relent, and enter the -little oriental room where his eloquent avowals had been made a -fortnight before. She closed the glass doors, threw off her furs, and -stood in the subdued light and the heated air of the room, cool, pale, -delicate as the April flower which she resembled, long trailing folds -of the primrose-coloured satin which formed her morning _négligé_ -falling from her throat to her feet in the long lines that painters -love; one great pearl fastened a few sprays of stephanotis at her -throat. She sank into a chair which stood against a tree of scarlet -azalea set in an antique vase of brass. She was one of those women -who naturally make pictures of themselves for every act and in every -attitude. - -The moment they were secure from observation Othmar knelt at her feet -and kissed her hands again; his eyes, uplifted, told their tale of -rapture, hope, fear, and imploring prayer more passionately than any -words. He would have cut his heart out of his breast if she had bidden -him. - -She glanced down on the agitation which his features could not conceal -with a sense of that wonder which never failed to come to her before -the intensity of feeling with which she inspired others. - -'When I really do nothing to make them like that!' she reflected for -the hundredth time before the tempest which she raised almost without -endeavour. - -Othmar had recovered his presence of mind, though none of his -tranquillity; his words, impetuous, persuasive, at times broken by the -force of his emotion, at times eloquent with the eloquence natural -to passion, fell on her ear uninterrupted by her. She listened, much -as she might have listened to the sonorous swell of the _Marche au -Supplice_ of Berlioz, or any other harmony which should have pleased -her taste if only by contrast of its own vehemence and strength with -the serenity of her own nature. She listened, without any sign of -any sort, save of so much acquiescence as might be indicated by the -gentleness of her expression and the passiveness with which she left -her hand in his. He believed her silence to be assent. - -'This is what I have always fancied might conquer me,' she thought, -whilst his ardent protestations and entreaties held her for the moment -pleased and fascinated. 'And yet, I do not know. To leave the world, to -be always together, to go, heaven knows where, into a sort of Mahometan -paradise--would it suit me? I am afraid not. The idea pleases one in -a way, but not quite enough for that. Always together, and alone--one -would tire of an angel!' - -So still she was, as these thoughts drifted through her mind, so -unresistingly she let his forehead, and then his lips, lie on her hand, -that he believed himself successful in his prayer. He lifted his eyes -and looked at her with a gaze full of rapturous light, of adoration and -of gratitude. - -'Oh, my love! my love!' he murmured. 'Never shall you regret an hour -your mercy to me!' - -His lips would have sought hers as his words ended in a sigh, the -lover's sigh of happiness, but she moved and disengaged herself -quickly, and motioned to him to rise. On her mouth there was the slight -smile he knew so well--the smile that was the enemy of men. - -'My dear friend,' she said, in her melodious voice, sweet as the -south wind, and never sweeter than when it uttered cruel truths to -ears that were wounded by them, 'I will do you the justice to grant -that I quite believe you care very much for me' (he made an indignant -gesture); 'well, that you love me _un peu, beaucoup, passionnément_, as -the convent girls say to the daisies. But I am equally convinced that -you do not understand me in the least. I understand myself thoroughly. -We are all enigmas to others, but we ought to be able to read our own -riddle ourselves. I can read mine; many people never can read theirs -all their lives long, and that is why they make so many mistakes. -Now, I do know myself so very well. I know that no kind of sin, if -there really be such a thing as sin, would frighten me much. I think -my nerves would stand even a crime without wincing, if it were a bold -one. If the world threw stones at me, it would amuse me. I cannot -fancy anybody being unhappy about it. Therefore you will comprehend me -when I say that it is not any kind of commonplace nonsense about doing -anything wrong which moves me for a moment, but,--I have thought of it -all very much and very seriously, and really with a wish to try that -other kind of life you speak of, but--I cannot go with you!' - -She said it as quietly and as lightly as if she were saying that she -could not drive with him to the Col di Guardia that morning. She was -smiling her pretty, slight, mysterious smile, which might have meant -anything, from pity to derision. She had a sprig or two of the leafless -calycanthus in her fingers, which she played with as she spoke. He -hated the fragrance of that winter blossom ever afterwards. - -'You cannot? You cannot?' he murmured almost unconsciously. 'And why?' - -He did not well know what he said, the paralysis of a sudden and -intense disappointment was upon him; he forgot that he had no right to -interrogate her, that no faintest breath of promise from her had ever -given him title to upbraid her; the noise as of a million waves of -stormy seas was surging in his ears. - -'Why?' she repeated, with the same serenity, and with a kind of -indulgence as to a wayward, imperious child. 'Oh, for so many -reasons!--not at all, believe me, from any kind of hesitation about -Platon; he would do very well without me, though he would try to kill -you, I suppose, because men have such odd ideas; besides they are -always fretting about what the world thinks, just as when they play -billiards they think about the opinion of the _galerie_; no, not for -that, believe me; that is not my kind of feeling at all; but I have -thought over it all very much, and I have decided that it would not -do--for me. I should be irritable and unhappy in a false position, -because I should have lost the power to shut my doors, other people -would shut theirs instead; I should be quite miserable if I could not -be disagreeable to persons whom I did not care to know, and no one -in a false position ever dares be that; they smile, poor creatures, -perpetually, like so many wax dolls from Giroux's. Of course the moral -people say it is the loss of self-respect which makes them so anxious -to please, but it is not that: it is really the sense that it is of no -use for them to be rude any more, because their rudeness cannot vex -anybody. I quite understand Marie Antoinette; I should not mind the -scaffold in the least, but I should dislike going in the cart. "_Le roi -avait une charrette_," you remember.' - -Othmar had risen; as she glanced up at him, even over her calm and -courageous temperament, a little chill passed that was almost one of -alarm. Yet her sense of pleasure was keener than her fear: men's souls -were the chosen instrument on which she chose to play; if here she -struck some deeper chords than usual, the melody gained for her ear. -Profound emotions and eager passions were unknown to her in her own -person, but they constituted a spectacle which diverted her if it did -not weary her--the chances depended upon her mood. At this moment they -pleased her; pleased her the more for that thrill of alarm, which was -so new to her nerves. - -Othmar did not speak: all the strength which was in him was taxed to -its breaking point in the effort to restrain the passionate reproaches -and entreaties which sprang to his lips, the burning tears of bitter -disillusion and cruel disappointment which rushed to his sight and -oppressed his breath. What a fool, what a madman, he had been again to -throw down his heart like a naked, trembling, panting thing at her feet -to be played with by her. - -'How well he looks like that!' she thought. 'Most men grow red when -they are so angry, but he grows like marble, and his eyes burn--there -are great tears in them--he looks like Mounet-Sully as Hippolytus.' - -Once more the momentary inclination came over her to trust herself to -that stormy force of love which might lead to shipwreck and might lead -to paradise; there were a beauty, a force, a fascination for her about -him as he stood there in his silent rage, his eyes pouring down on her -the lightnings of his reproach; but the impulse was not strong enough -to conquer her; the world she would have given up with contemptuous -indifference, but she would not surrender her own power to dictate to -the world. - -Her soft tranquil voice went on, as a waterfall may gently murmur its -silvery song while a tempest shakes the skies. - -'I know you think that love is enough, but I assure you I should doubt -it, even if I did--love you. Rousseau has said long before us that -love lacks two things,--permanence and immutability; they seem to me -synonymous, and I do not think that their absence is a defect; I think -it even a merit. Yet, as they _are_ absent, it cannot be worth while to -pay so very much for so very defective a thing.' - -'God forgive you!' cried her lover in passionate pain. 'You betray me -with the cruelest jest that woman ever played off on man, and you think -that I can stand still to hearken to the pretty tinkling bells of a -drawing-room philosophy!' - -'You do not stand still,' she answered languidly, 'you walk to and fro -like a wounded panther in a cage. I have in no way betrayed you, and I -am not jesting at all. I am saying the very simplest truth. You have -asked me to do a momentous and irrevocable thing; and I have answered -you truthfully that I should not shrink from it if I were convinced -that I should never regret it. But I am not convinced----' - -'If you loved me you would be so!' he said in a voice which was choked -and almost inaudible. - -'Ah!--if!' said Nadine Napraxine with a smile and a little sigh. 'The -whole secret lies in that one conjunction!' - -His teeth clenched as he heard her as if in the intolerable pain of -some mortal wound. - -'Besides, besides,' she murmured, half to herself and half to him, 'my -dear Othmar, you are charming. You are like no one else; you please -me; I confess that you please me, but you could not ensure me against -my own unfortunate capacity for very soon tiring of everybody, and,--I -have a conviction that in three months' time _I should be tired of -you_!' - -A strong shudder passed over him from head to foot, as the words struck -him with a greater shock than the blow of a dagger in his side would -have given. He realised the bottomless gulf which separated him from -the woman he adored,--the chasm of her own absolute indifference. - -He, in his exaltation, was ready to give up all his future and fling -away all his honour for her sake, and would have asked nothing more of -earth and heaven than to have passed life and eternity at her feet; and -she, swayed momentarily towards him by a faint impulse of the senses -and the sensibilities, yet could draw back and calmly look outward into -that vision of the possible future, which dazzled him as the mirage -blinds and mocks the desert-pilgrim dying of thirst; she, with chill -prescience could foresee the time when his presence would become to -her a weariness, a chain, a yoke-fellow tiresome and dull! - -She looked at him with a momentary compassion. - -'Dear Othmar, I am quite sure you have meant all you said,' she -murmured softly. 'But, believe me, it would not do; it would not do for -you and me, if it might for some people. I am not in the least shocked. -I think your idea quite beautiful, like a poem; but I am certain it -would never suit myself. I tire of everything so quickly, and then you -know I am not in love with _you_. One wants to be so much in love to -do that sort of thing, we should bore one another so infinitely after -the first week. Yes, I am sure we should, though I know you are quite -sincere in saying you would like it.' - -Then, still with that demure, satisfied, amused smile, she turned -away and lifted up the Moorish chocolate pot and poured out a little -chocolate into her cup. - -'It has grown cold,' she said, and tinkled a hand-bell which was on the -tray to summon Mahmoud. - -Othmar, who had sprung to his feet and stood erect, seized her wrist -in his fingers and threw the bell aside. - -'There is no need to dismiss me,' he said in a low tone. 'Adieu! You -can tell the story to Lord Geraldine.' - -His face was quite colourless, except that around his forehead there -was a dusky red mark where the blood had surged and settled as though -he had been struck there with a whip. - -He bowed low, and left her. - -She stood before the Moorish tray and its contents with a sense of cold -at her heart, but her little self-satisfied smile was still on her -mouth. - -'He will come back,' she thought. 'He came back before; they always -come back.' - -She did not intend to go with him to Asia, but she did not, either, -intend to lose him altogether. - -'He was superb in his fury and his grief,' she thought, 'and he meant -every word of it, and he would do all that he said, more than he said. -Perhaps it hurt him too much, perhaps I laughed a little too soon.' - -She was like the child who had found its living bird the best of all -playthings, but had forgotten that its plaything, being alive, could -also die, and so had nipped the new toy too cruelly in careless little -fingers, and had killed it. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - - -Othmar, as he left La Jacquemerille, forgot the boat in which he had -come thither. He walked mechanically through the house, and out by the -first gate which he saw before him. He was in that state of febrile -excitation in which the limbs move without the will in an instinctive -effort to find outlet to mental pain in bodily exertion. The gate he -had passed through opened into a little wood of pines, whence a narrow -path led upward into the hills above. With little consciousness of -what he did, he ascended the mule-road which rose before him, and the -chill of the morning air, as it blew through the tops of the swaying -pines, was welcome to him. He had that cruel wound within him which a -proud man suffers from when he has disclosed the innermost secrets of -his heart in a rare moment of impulse, and has seen them lightly and -contemptuously played with for a jest. - -He had gone through life receiving much adulation but little sympathy, -and giving as little confidence; in a moral isolation due to the -delicacy of his own nature and to the flattery he received, which had -early made him withhold himself from intimate friendships, fearing to -trust where he would be only duped. - -To her, in an unguarded hour, he had shown the loneliness and the -longing which he felt, he had disclosed the empty place which no powers -or vanities of the world could fill; he had staked the whole of his -peace on the caprice of one woman, and he knew that, in the rough -phrase which men would have used to him, he had been made a fool of -in return; he had betrayed himself, and had nothing in return but the -memory of a little low laughter, of a tranquil voice, saying: '_Tout -cela c'est le vieux jeu!_' - -He never knew very well how that day of the 2nd of January passed -with him. He was sensible of walking long, of climbing steep paths -going towards the higher mountains, of drinking thirstily at a little -woodland fountain, of sitting for hours quite motionless, looking down -on the shore far below, where the blue sea spread in the sunlight, -and the towers of S. Pharamond were mere grey points amidst a crowd of -evergreen and of silvery-leafed trees. - -There was an irony in the sense that he could have purchased the -whole province which lay beneath his feet, could have bought out the -princeling who reigned in that little kingdom under old Turbia, as -easily as he could have bought a bouquet for a woman, could have set -emperors to war with one another by merely casting his gold into the -scales of peace, could have created a city in a barren plain with as -little effort as a child builds up a toy village on a table, and yet -was powerless to command, or to arouse, the only thing on earth which -he desired, one whit of feeling in the woman he loved! - -It was late in the afternoon when he took his way homeward, having -eaten nothing, only drunk thirstily of water wherever a little brook -had made a well amongst the tufts of hepatica in the pine woods. He was -a man capable of a spiritual love; if she had remained aloof from him -for honour's sake, but had cared for him, he would not have demurred -to her choice, but would have accepted his fate at her hands and would -have served her loyally with the devotion of a chivalrous nature. - -All the passion, the pain, as of a boy's first love, blent in him -with the bitter revolts of mature manhood. He believed that Nadine -Napraxine had never intended more than to amuse herself with his -rejection; he believed that for the second time he had been the toy of -an unscrupulous coquette. Whatever fault there might be in his love for -her, it was love--absolute, strong, faithful, and capable of an eternal -loyalty; he had laid his heart bare before her, and had meant in their -utmost meaning all the words which he had uttered, all the offers which -he had made. Despite his knowledge of her, he had allowed himself to -be beguiled into a second confession of the empire she possessed over -him, and for the second time he had been not alone rejected, but gently -ridiculed with that quiet amused irony which had been to the force -and heat of his passion like a fine spray of ice-cold water falling -on iron at a white-heat. She had not alone wounded and stung him: she -had humiliated him profoundly. If she had rejected him from honour, -duty, or love for any other, he would have borne what men have borne -a thousand times in silence, and with no sense of shame; but he was -conscious that in her absolute indifference she had drawn him on to the -fullest revelation of all he felt for her, only that her ready satire -might find food in his folly, and her fine wit play with his suffering, -as the angler plays the trout. She seemed to him to have betrayed -him in the basest manner that a woman could betray a man who had no -positive right to her loyalty. She had known so well how he loved her. -He had told her so many times; unless she had been willing to hear the -tale again, why had she bidden him come there in that charmed solitude -in the hush and freshness of the early morning? When women desire not -love, do they seat their lover beside them when all the world sleeps? -He had been cheated, laughed at, summoned, and then dismissed; his -whole frame thrilled with humiliation when he recalled the smiling -subdued mockery of her voice as she had dismissed him. - -He had been willing to give her his life, his good repute, his peace, -his honour, his very soul; and she had sent him away with the calm, -cool, little phrases with which she would have rejected a clumsy valser -for a cotillon! - -He had little vanity, but he knew himself to be one of those to whom -the world cringes; one of those of whom modern life has made its -Cæsars; he knew that what he had been willing to surrender to her had -been no little thing; that he would have said farewell to the whole -of mankind for her sake, and would have loved her with the romantic -devoted force and fealty of a franker and fiercer time than his own; -and she had drawn him on to again confess this, again offer this, and -all it had seemed to her was _vieux jeu_, an archaic thing to laugh at, -to yawn at, to be indulgent to, and tired by, in a breath! - -He was a very proud man, and a man who had seldom or never shown what -he either desired or suffered, yet he had laid his whole heart bare to -her; and she, the only living being who had either power over him, or -real knowledge of him, had looked at him with her little cool smile, -and said, 'In three months I should be tired of you.' - -If, when the knight had killed his falcon for his lady, she had scoffed -at it and thrown it out to feed the rats and sparrows he would have -suffered as Othmar suffered now. He had killed his honour and his pride -for her sake, and she had held them in her hands for a moment, and then -had laughed a little and had thrown them away. - -Where he sat all alone he felt his cheeks burn with the sense of an -unendurable mortification. At this moment, for aught he knew, she, with -her admirable mimicry and her merciless sarcasm, might be reacting the -scene for the diversion of her companions! Passion was but _vieux jeu_; -it could expect no higher distinction than to be ridiculed as comedy by -a witty woman. Did not the universe only exist to amuse the languor of -Nadine Napraxine? - -The world, had it heard the story, would have blamed him for an unholy -love, and praised her for her dismissal of it; but he knew that he had -been as utterly betrayed as though he had been sold by her into the -hands of assassins. She had drawn him on, and on, and on, until all his -life had been laid at her feet, and then she had looked at it a little, -carelessly, idly, and had said she had no use for it, as she might -have said so of any sea-waste washed up on the sea-steps of her terrace -with that noon. - -Of course the world would have praised her; no doubt the world would -have blamed him; but he knew that women who slay their lovers after -loving them do a coarser but a kinder thing. - -It was almost dark as he descended the road to S. Pharamond, intending -when he reached home to make some excuse to his uncle and leave -for Paris by the night express or by a special train. The path he -took led through the orange-wood of Sandroz, which fitted, in a -triangular-shaped piece of ground, between the boundaries of his own -land and that of Millo. Absorbed as he was in his own thoughts, he -recognised with surprise the figure of Yseulte as he pushed his way -under the low boughs of the orange trees, and saw her within a yard of -him. She was with the woman Nicole. - -She did not see him until he was close to her, where she sat on a low -stone wall, the woman standing in front of her. When she did so, her -face spoke for her; it said what Nadine Napraxine's had never said. -The emotion of joy and timidity mingled touched him keenly in that -moment, when he, with his millions of gold and of friends, had so -strongly realised his own loneliness. - -'_She_ loves me as much as she dare--as much as she can, without being -conscious of it,' he thought, as he paused beside her. She did not -speak, she did not move; but her colour changed and her breath came -quickly. She had slipped off the wall and stood irresolute, as though -inclined to run away, the glossy leaves and the starry blossoms of the -trees consecrated to virginity were all above her and around her. She -glanced at him with an indefinite fear; she fancied he was angered by -the return of the casket; he looked paler and sterner than she had ever -seen him look. - -He paused a moment and said some commonplace word. - -Then he saw that her eyes were wet with tears, and that she had been -crying. - -'What is the matter?' he said, gently. 'Has anything vexed you?' - -'They are sending her away,' said Nicole Sandroz, with indignant tears -in her own eyes, finding that she did not reply for herself. 'They are -sending her to the Vosges, where, as Monsieur knows very well, I make -no doubt, the very hares and wolves are frozen in the woods at this -month of the year.' - -'Are you indeed going away?' he asked of Yseulte herself. - -She did not speak: she made a little affirmative gesture. - -'Why is that? Bois le Roy, in this season, will be a cruel prison for -you.' - -'My cousin wishes it,' said the girl; she spoke with effort; she did -not wish to cry before him; the memory of all that her cousin had said -that morning was with her in merciless distinctness. - -Nicole broke out in a torrent of speech, accusing the tyrants of Millo -in impassioned and immoderate language, and devoting them and theirs to -untold miseries in retribution. - -Yseulte stopped her with authority; 'You are wrong, Nicole; do not -speak in such a manner, it is insolent. You forget that, whether I am -in the Vosges or here, I equally owe my cousin everything.' - -She paused; she was no more than a child. Her departure was very cruel -to her; she had been humiliated and chastised that day beyond her power -of patience; she had said nothing, done nothing, but in her heart she -had rebelled passionately when they had taken away her ivory casket. -They had left her the heart of a woman in its stead. - -Othmar was ignorant that his casket, fateful as Pandora's, had been -returned, but he divined that his gift had displeased those who -disposed of her destiny, and had brought about directly or indirectly -her exile from Millo. - -'When do you go?' he asked abruptly. - -'To-morrow.' - -As she answered him the tears she could not altogether restrain rolled -off her lashes. She turned away. - -'Let us go in, Nicole,' she murmured. 'You know Henriette is waiting -for me.' - -'Let her wait, the cockered-up Parisienne, who shrieks if she see a pig -and has hysterics if she get a spot of mud on her stockings!' grumbled -Nicole, who was the sworn foe of the whole Paris-born and Paris-bred -household of Millo. But Yseulte had already moved towards the house. -When she had gone a few yards away, however, she paused, returned, and -approached Othmar. She looked on the ground, and her voice trembled as -she spoke: 'I ought to thank you, M. Othmar--I do thank you. It was -very beautiful. I would have kept it all my life.' - -'Ah!' said Othmar. - -He understood; he was moved to a sudden anger, which penetrated even -his intense preoccupation. He had meant to do this poor child a -kindness, and he had only done her great harm. - -Yseulte had turned away, and had gone rapidly through the orange-trees -towards the house. - -'She is not happy?' said Othmar to her foster-mother, whose tongue, -once loosed, told him with the eloquence of indignation of all the -sorrows suffered by her nursling. 'And they will make her a nun, -Monsieur!' she cried; 'a nun! That child, who is like a June lily. For -me, I say nothing against the black and grey women, though Sandroz -calls them bad names. There are good women amongst them, and when one -lies sick in hospital one is glad of them; but there are women enough -in this world who have sins and shame to repent them of to fill all -the convents from here to Jerusalem. There are all the ugly ones too, -and the sickly ones and the deformed ones, and the heart-broken; for -them it is all very well; the cloister is home, the veil is peace, -they must think of heaven, or go mad; it is best they should think of -it. But this child to be a nun!--when she should be running with her -own children through the daisies--when she should be playing in the -sunshine like the lambs, like the kids, like the pigeons!'---- - -Othmar heard her to the end; then without answer he bade her good-day, -and descended the sloping grass towards his house. - -'They say he has a million a year,' said Nicole to herself, as she -looked after him. 'Well, he does not seem to be happy upon it. The lads -that bring up the rags on their heads from the ships look gayer than -he, all in the stench and the muck as they are, and never knowing that -they will earn their bread and wine from one day to another.' - -She kicked a stone from her path, and hurried after her nursling. - -Othmar went quickly on to his own woods. 'They could not even let -her have that toy,' he thought with an emotion, vague but sincere, -outside the conflict of passion, wrath, and mortification which Nadine -Napraxine had aroused in him. He saw the sudden happiness, so soon -veiled beneath reserve and timidity, which had shone on the girl's face -as she had first seen him under the orange boughs. He saw her beautiful -golden eyes misty with the tears she had had too much courage to -shed; he saw her slender throat swell with subdued emotion as she had -approached him and said shyly, 'I would have kept it all my life.' - -All her life,--in the stone cell of some house of the Daughters of -Christ or the Sisters of St. Marie! - - 'To love is more, yet to be loved is something,' - -he thought. 'What treasures for one's heart and senses are in her--if -one could only care!' - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - - -When he reached home that evening he found on his writing-table the -ivory casket and the letter of Madame de Vannes. In the pain and -the passion which wrestled together against his manhood in him, he -scarcely heeded either, yet they brought before his memory the face of -Yseulte, and the sound of her soft grave voice with that sweet thrill -of youth in it which is like the thrill of the thrush's in the woods at -spring-time. She had youth, but she would have no spring-time. - -And in the strong and impotent rage which consumed him, in the pain of -bruised and aching nerves, and the sickening void which the certain -loss of what alone is loved brings with it, Othmar, seeing the ivory -casket, and glancing at the letter which he had had no patience to -read through, thought to himself, 'The child loves me; she will have -a wretched life; what if I try to forget? They threw virgins to the -Minotaur. Shall I try to appease with one this cruel fire of love, -which leaves me no peace or wisdom?' - -It was the act of a madman to attempt to make one woman take the place -of another to the senses or to the heart, but in that moment he was -not master of himself. He was only sensible of a cruel insult which he -had received from the hand he loved best on earth; of a cruel betrayal -which was but the more merciless because wrought with so sweet a smile, -so apparent an unconsciousness, so seemingly innocent a malice. - -He passed the night and the next morning locked in his own room; when -he left it, and met the Baron Friederich, he said to him: - -'I have thought over all you said the other day. You are right, no -doubt. Will you go across to our neighbours at Millo and ask of them -the honour of the hand of their cousin, of Mademoiselle de Valogne?' - -The Baron stared at him with a little cry of amaze. - -'For you?' he stammered. - -'For me,' said Othmar. 'What have you said yourself? I do not want -wealth; I want good blood, beauty, and innocence; they are all -possessed by Mademoiselle de Valogne. Go; your errand will please them. -They will pardon some breach of etiquette. It will be a mission which -you will like.' - -As the Baron, a little later, rolled through the gates of Millo in full -state, his shrewd knowledge of men and their madnesses made him think: - -'So the Princess Napraxine evidently will have nothing to say to him! -_A la bonne heure!_ There are some honest women left then amongst the -great ladies. She could so easily have ruined him! He takes a droll -way to cure himself, but it is not a bad one. The worst is, that this -sort of cure never lasts long, and when she can make the unhappiness of -two persons, instead of only the happiness of one, perhaps Madame la -Princesse will be tempted to make it!' - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - - -On the following day Platon Napraxine drove home from Monte Carlo at -sunset with a piece of news to carry there which amused and unusually -animated him. - -He went up the stone stairs of the terrace of La Jacquemerille with the -quick step of one who is eager to deliver himself of his tidings, and -approached, with a rapidity unfrequent with him, the spot where his -wife sat with her guests under the rose and white awning beside the -marble balustrade and the variegated aloes. - -The Princess Nadine was also full of unwonted animation; her cheek -had its sea-shell flush, her eyes a vague and pleased expectancy; she -was laughing a little and listening a good deal; besides her usual -companions, she had there a group of Austrian and Russian diplomatists -and some Parisian boulevardiers. They were just taking their leave as -she was taking her tea, but it was not very greatly of them that she -was thinking: she was thinking as she heard the roll of her husband's -carriage wheels beneath the carouba trees;----'Ten to one Othmar will -return with him.' - -She lost her gay expression as she saw that he was alone. - -All the day she had expected the man whom she had banished to return. -She was accustomed to spaniels who crawled humbly up after a beating to -solicit another beating rather than remain unnoticed. She had dismissed -a certain apprehension which had told her that she had gone too far -with the reflection that a man who loved her once did so for ever, and -that, as he had returned from Asia, so he would return this morning, -however great his offence or his humiliation might have been. - -'He is more romantic than most,' she had thought, 'but after all, he -must be made of the same stuff.' - -Napraxine approached her hurriedly, and scarcely giving himself time to -formally greet the gentlemen there, cried to her aloud: - -'_Ecoutez donc, Madame!_ You will never guess what has happened.' - -'It is of no use for us to try then,' said his wife. 'You are evidently -_gonflé_ with some tremendous intelligence. Pray unburden yourself. -Perhaps the societies for the protection of animals have had Strasburg -_pâtés_ made illegal?' - -'I have seen the Duchesse, I have seen Baron Fritz, I have seen -Melville,' answered her husband impetuously and triumphantly, 'and -they all say the same thing, so that there cannot be a doubt that it -is true. Othmar marries that little cousin of Cri-Cri: the one of whom -they meant to make a nun. What luck for her! But they say she is very -beautiful, and only sixteen.' - -The people assembled round her table raised a chorus of exclamation -and of comment. Napraxine stood amidst them, delighted; his little -social bomb had burst with the brilliancy and the noise that he had -anticipated. - -Nadine Napraxine turned her head with an involuntary movement of -surprise. - -'Othmar!' she repeated; her large black eyes opened fully with a -perplexed expression. - -'It must be the girl who was in the boat,' said Lady Brancepeth. 'She -was very handsome.' - -Geraldine looked at Madame Napraxine with curiosity, eagerness, and -gratification. - -'Who told you, Platon?' she asked, with a certain impatience in her -voice. - -'Three of them told me; Melville first, then Cri-Cri herself, in the -Salle de Jeu. She did not seem to know whether to be affronted or -pleased. She said the whole thing was a great surprise, but that she -could not refuse Othmar; she declared that her projects were all upset, -that her young cousin had been always destined to the religious life; -that she regretted to have her turned from her vocation; in short, she -talked a great deal of nonsense, but the upshot of it all was that -Baron Fritz had made formal proposals, and that she had accepted them. -In the gardens, coming away, I met the Baron himself; he was in a state -of ecstasy; all he cares for is the perpetuation of the name of Othmar; -but he declares that Mademoiselle de Valogne is everything he could -desire, that she was excessively timid, and scarcely spoke a word when -they allowed him to see her for five minutes, but that it was a very -graceful timidity, and full of feeling.' - -'Baron Fritz in the operatic _rôle_ of Padrone d'Amore is infinitely -droll,' said Nadine, with a little cold laugh. - -'Of course Othmar was obliged to marry some time,' continued Napraxine, -who did not easily abandon a subject when one pleased him. 'And he -is--how old is he?--I saw the Baron as I left; he is delighted. He says -the poor child fainted when they told her she was to be saved from a -religious life.' - -'My dear Platon,' said his wife impatiently, 'we can read Daudet or -Henri Greville when we want this sort of thing. Pray, spare us. I hope -Baron Fritz explained to her that all she is wanted for is to continue -a race of Croatian money-lenders which he considers the pivot of the -world. If she fail in doing that he will counsel a divorce, _à la_ -Bonaparte.' - -'He might marry an archduchess,' said one of the diplomatists. 'Surely, -it is throwing himself away.' - -'It must be for love,' said Geraldine, with an ironical smile. - -'The de Valogne was a great race, but impoverished long ago,' said a -Russian minister. 'I think, if he had married at all, he should have -made an alliance which would have brought him that unassailably great -rank which is usually the ambition of all financiers. For a man of -his position to make a mere romantic _mariage d'amour_ is absurd--out -of place;--and who knows if it be even that?' he pursued, with an -involuntary glance at the Princess Napraxine. - -'Why on earth should we doubt it?' said her husband. 'It cannot be -anything else, and they say the girl is quite beautiful. Surely, if -anyone can afford to marry to please himself, that one is Othmar.' - -'At any rate, it is his own affair,' said Nadine, in a voice which was -clear and sweet, but cold as steel. 'I cannot see why we should occupy -ourselves about it, or why you should have announced it as if it were -the dissolution of the world.' - -'Mademoiselle de Valogne is very beautiful,' said Geraldine, 'I have -seen her once at Millo. Why should they pretend to hesitate?' - -'They hesitated because she is _vouée à Marie_,' replied Napraxine, -'and also the de Vannes and the de Creusac scarcely recognise the -princes of finance as their equals. Still the marriage is magnificent; -they felt they had no right to regret it since it fell to them from -heaven.' - -'Do you still believe, Platon, that heaven has anything to do with -marriage?' said his wife, with her little significant smile; a slight -colour had come upon her cheeks, tinging them as blush-roses are tinged -with the faintest flush; her eyes retained their astonished and annoyed -expression, of which her husband saw nothing. - -'Heaven made mine at least,' he said, with his unfailing good-humour, -and a bow in which there was some grace. - -'Louis Quatorze could not have answered better,' said Nadine. 'I cannot -say I see the hand of heaven myself in it, but if you do, so much the -better. "Les illusions sont des zéros, mais c'est avec les zéros qu'on -fait les beaux chiffres."' - -'I do not know whether Mademoiselle de Valogne has illusions, but -her settlements will certainly have _de beaux chiffres_,' continued -Napraxine, who was still full of the tidings he had brought. 'Did -Othmar say nothing to you the other morning of what he intended to do?' - -'Nothing; why should he? I am no relation of his or of Mademoiselle de -Valogne.' - -'He might have done so; he was a long time alone with you. Perhaps he -did not know it himself.' - -'Perhaps not.' - -'It seems a _coup de tête_. Madame de Vannes told me that he had only -seen her cousin four times.' - -'That is three times more than is necessary.' - -'They say the girl is very much in love with him, and burst into tears -when they told her of his proposals.' - -'Oh, my dear Platon! That the girl marries Othmar one understands; she -would be an imbecile, a lunatic, to refuse; but that she weeps because -she will enjoy one of the hugest fortunes in Europe--do not make such -demands on our credulity!' - -'They say their acquaintance has been an idyl; quite _hors d'usage_; -they both met in his gardens by chance, and he----' - -'Chance? I thought it was heaven? You may be quite sure neither had -anything to do with it. Aurore is a very clever woman; she knew very -well what she did when she brought her cousin down to Millo this -winter; if the girl had been honestly _vouée à Marie_, would they have -had her in the drawing-room after their dinner-parties? Ralph says he -has seen her there.' - -'Well, if it were a conspiracy, it has succeeded.' - -'Of course it has succeeded. When women condescend to conspire, men -always fall. Our Russian history will show you that.' - -Being, however, an obstinate man, who always adhered to his own -opinion, even in trifles which in no way concerned him, Napraxine -reiterated that Baron Fritz had expressed himself satisfied that the -girl was in love with his nephew. - -'And why not?' he said stoutly, with more courage than he usually -showed. 'Most women would soon care for Othmar if he wished them to do -so.' - -'Oh, _grand dada_!' murmured Nadine, in supreme disdain, whilst her -eyes glanced over him for a moment with an expression which, had he -been wise enough to read it, would have made him less eager to extol -the absent. - -'After all,' she said aloud, 'what is his marriage to us, that we -should talk about it? I suppose it is the sole act of his life which -would have no effect on the Bourses. We get into very base habits of -discussing our neighbours' affairs. Let us say, once for all, that he -has done a very charitable action, and that we hope it will have a -happy result: _e basta!_ We will call at Millo to-morrow. I am curious -to see the future Countess Othmar.' - -'They say she is very shy.' - -'Oh, we all know Ste. Mousseline,' said Nadine Napraxine, with scorn. -'Besides, convent-reared girls are all of the same type. I only hope -Cri-Cri will not assume any hypocritical airs of regret before me; the -only regret she can really have is that Blanchette was not old enough -to have won this matrimonial Derby.' - -'You always speak so slightingly of Othmar,' said Napraxine, with some -reproach. - -'I really thought I paid him a high compliment,' said his wife. - -'Why has he done it?' said one of the Russian diplomatists to another, -when they had taken leave of the Princess and her party. - -'I imagine that Madame Napraxine piqued him,' said another. 'You know -he has been madly in love with her for two years.' - -'She does not seem to like his marriage.' - -'They never like it,' returned the Russian minister. 'They may not look -at you themselves, but they never like you to look at any one else.' - -'If he marry her because he is in love elsewhere, and if she have the -Princess Nadine for an enemy at the onset, this poor child's path will -not be of roses.' - -'She will be almost the richest woman in Europe; that must suffice.' - -'That will depend on her character.' - -'It will depend a little on whether she will be in love with her -husband. If she be not, all may go smoothly.' - -'Do you know what I thought as I looked at Madame Napraxine just -now?' said the younger man. 'I thought of that Persian or Indian tale -where the woman, leaning over the magic cup, dropped a pearl from her -necklace into it, and spoilt the whole charm for all eternity. I dare -say it will be only a pearl which she will drop into Othmar's future -life, but it will spoil the whole charm of it for ever and ever.' - -'You never liked her,' said the elder man. 'She is a woman capable of -an infinitude of things, good and bad. She has the misfortune to have a -very excellent and very stupid husband. There is nothing so injurious -for a clever woman. A bad man who had ill-treated her would not have -done her half as much harm. She would have had courage and energy to -meet an unhappy fate superbly. But a perfectly amiable fool whom she -disdains from all the height of her own admirable wit, coupled with the -habits of our idiotic world, which is like a mountain of wool steeped -in opium, into which the strongest sinks indolent and enfeebled, have -all tended to confirm her in her egotism and her disdain, and to send -to sleep all her more noble impulses. Whatever men may be, women can -only be "saved by faith," and what faith has Nadine Napraxine except -her perfect faith in her own irresistible and incomparable power over -her innumerable lovers?' - -'Well,' said the younger man, 'if she chose to drop that pearl in, as I -said, I would not give much for the chances of Othmar's wife against -her. I have seen the girl. She is very lovely, serious, simple; no -match at all against such a woman as Princess Napraxine.' - -'She will have the advantage of youth, and also--which, perhaps, will -count for something with such a man as Othmar, though it would not with -most men--she will be his wife.' - -'Perhaps. He has been always eccentric,' rejoined the other. - -Watching her with all the keen anxiety of jealousy Geraldine had been -unable to discover that the intelligence of Othmar's marriage caused -her any more surprise or interest than any other of the hundred and one -items of news which make up the daily pabulum of society. But then he -knew very well that she was of such a character that though she might -have suffered intolerably she would have shown no sign of it any more -than she would have shown any fear had a dozen naked sabres been at her -breast. - -Left alone beside his sister for a moment, he said to her, with -doubting impatience: 'Does she care, do you think?' - -'What affair is it of yours if she does?' returned Lady Brancepeth. -'Does she ever care for anything? And why should she care here? Othmar -has been known to be violently in love with her--as you are--but no one -has ever had the slightest reason to suppose that she had any feeling -in return for him. He does a foolish thing in marrying one woman while -he loves another. Some men have faith in that cure. Myself I should -have none. But whatever his reasons for this sudden choice of Mdlle. -de Valogne, I imagine that his marriage is a matter of as perfect -indifference to Nadine as your own would be.' - -Geraldine grew red, and his mortification kept him silent. But the -insight of a man in love told him that his keen-eyed sister was for -once in error. - -Nadine Napraxine herself had gone to her own rooms to change her gown -for dinner, but she dismissed her maids for twenty minutes and threw -herself on a couch in her bedroom. She was herself uncertain what she -felt, and angered that she should feel anything. She was conscious of -a sense of offence, irritation, amazement, almost chagrin, which hurt -her pride and alarmed her dignity. If a month before she had been told -that Othmar was dead, she would have felt no more than a momentary -regret. But the strength of his passion in the morning interviews with -her had touched some fibre, some nerve in her, which had been dumb and -numb before. Again and again she had recalled the accents of his voice, -the sombre fire and pathetic entreaty of his eyes; they had not moved -her at the time to anything more than the vague artistic pleasure which -she would have taken in any emotion admirably rendered in art or on the -stage, but in remembrance they had haunted her and thrilled through -her with something more nearly resembling response than had ever been -aroused in her. - -The expectation of his return had been as strong as certainty; the -sense that she had gone too far with him had heightened the interest -with which she had awaited her next meeting with him. One of the -greatest triumphs of her fascination had been the power she had -exercised over him. She was the only living person who could say to -this man, who could have purchased souls and bodies as he could have -purchased strings of unpierced pearls if he had chosen: 'You desire -something of which you will never be master.' - -That she had had influence enough on such a career as his to drive him -out from the world where all his interests, pursuits, and friendships -lay, had pleased her with more keenness in her pleasure than similar -victories often gave her. She had seen his return to Europe with -amusement, even with derision; she had seen at a glance that he had -fled in vain from her; she had been diverted, but she had remained -indifferent. - -In those morning hours when he had addressed her with an almost brutal -candour, he had taken a hold upon her admiration which he had never -gained before. His accents had lingered on her ear; his regard had -burned itself into her remembrance; she had begun to look forward to -his next approach, after her rejection, with something more than the -merely intellectual curiosity with which before she had studied the -results of her influence upon him. The news of his intended marriage -came to her with a sense of surprise and of affront which was more -nearly regret than any sentiment she had ever experienced. It seemed -to her supremely ridiculous that a man who adored _her_ should seek -or hope to find any oblivion elsewhere; she even understood that it -was no such hope which had actuated him, but rather his wounded pride -which had rebelled against herself and been unwilling to allow the -world to consider him her slave. Of the more delicate and more tender -motives which had led him towards Yseulte de Valogne she could know -nothing; but of those more selfish and embittered ones she comprehended -accurately all the sources and all the extent. - -'He does it to escape me,' she thought as she sat in solitude, while -the last faint crimson of the winter's sunset tinged the light clouds -before her windows; a smile came slowly on her beautiful mouth,--a -smile, proud, unkind, a little bitter. There was resentment in her, -and there was also pain, two emotions hitherto strangers to her -heart; but beyond these, and deeper than these, there was a caustic -contempt for the man's cowardice in seeking asylum in an unreal love, -in endeavouring to cheat himself and another into belief in a feigned -passion. - -'I thought him more brave!' she said bitterly to herself. 'He is like -a beaten warrior who makes a rampart of a virgin's body!' - -And yet, in that moment she was nearer love for him than she had ever -been before. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - - -Blanchette was dancing round her cousin in the twilight of the January -day, making her _pied de nez_ triumphantly, but pausing every now and -then to look up in her face with her habitual inquisitiveness, yet with -a respect quite new to her. - -'_Tiens, tiens, tiens!_' she was crying in her little shrill voice, -like the tiniest of silver trumpets. 'To think you are going to be -married after all! You will be ever so much richer than mamma, they -say; you will be as rich as all the _Juiverie_ put together, and you -will be as great a lady as all the _grandes dames_. You will have as -many jewels as Madame de Talleyrand; you will have as many horses and -houses as Madame de Sagan; you will have two new gowns every day if you -like. Have you seen the Hôtel Othmar? I have seen it; it is as big as -the Louvre. What will you ask him for first? If I were you, I should -ask him for a rope of pearls, all as big as pigeons' eggs. What are -the Othmar liveries? I never saw them; the state liveries, I mean. I -like canary-colour best, and Louis Treize _tricornes_. What will he -settle on you? He will give you what you wish; I heard mamma say so. -Make him give you S. Pharamond for your very own. I am sure you will -not get half you might, you are such a silly little snipe; you are as -tall as a Venetian mast on a feast day, but you are a simpleton. You -cried when mamma told you he would marry you. The idea! You should have -danced for joy. It would be delicious to marry him if he were as old as -the hills and as ugly as Punch, but he is not old and he is handsome: -all that _par-dessus le panier_, and thirty thousand francs a day, -Julie says; and Brown and Schemmitz wanted to kiss your hand! What fun -you would make of them if you were me. You should skip and shout all -day;--I should. To be sure, he is _dans la finance_, but they are the -only royalties nowadays; I have heard mamma say so. Whatever can he -see in you? You are pretty and tall, but you don't know it; you stand -and stare like an owl with your big eyes. What can he want with you? -He will give you everything, he must be a simpleton, too! he might -marry somebody quite great; none of them can imagine what he wants you -for----' - -'Oh, Blanchette!' said Yseulte de Valogne, with a look of pain, as she -tried to silence her little tormentor, whose words she only vaguely -heard as she stood lost in the golden mists of an incomparable dream. - -'_Vrai!_' said the cruel little child. 'Nobody can think what he can -see in you. It is Madame Napraxine whom he loves.' - -Yseulte coloured with sudden anger, and a look of severity and -sternness came on her youthful face, while its happy wistful eyes lost -their light and grew cold: - -'You must not say these things, Blanchette,' she said sternly; 'you may -laugh at me as you like, but you must respect M. Othmar.' - -The red deepened in her cheeks as she spoke, and realised that she -had the right to defend his name thus. She was thinking in herself as -she did so: 'If it were true, if I thought it were true, I would bury -myself in the convent for ever.' - -The quick little mind of Blanchette divined the direction of her -thoughts, and dearly as the child loved to do mischief and to torment, -she loved her own pleasure and gain better. She had no wish for this -_beau mariage_ to be broken off, as she foresaw from it endless -diversion, gifts, and bonbons for herself. - -'Othmar will give us each at least a medallion with diamonds on the -back,' she reflected; and she was conscious, too, that if the marriage -fell through by any doing of hers, her mother would be unsparing in -her punishment, of which not the least portion would be banishment to -Bois de Roy; for Blanchette adored her spring-time in Paris, her summer -months at Deauville and Homburg and Biarritz, her wagers on the _petits -chevaux_, her exploits in the water, and the many whispers of scandals -and naughty witticisms which she caught, when apparently engrossed -with her toy balloon or her ball, behind the chairs of her mother and -other great ladies on the sand by the sea or under the trees of the -fashionable inland baths. - -With a rapid remembrance of all that she herself would lose if there -were no grand wedding at which she would assist at the Madeleine or S. -Philippe du Roule, she threw her arms about her cousin with her most -coaxing _câlinerie_: 'It was only my fun,' she whispered; 'pray don't -tell any one, _chérie_. It was years and years ago that they laughed -about Madame Napraxine; of course, it is you he loves now. Why should -he marry you if he did not? He could marry anywhere, anybody,--mamma -says so. And you _are_ handsome, if you would only think it! Mamma says -when you shall have been married a week, and have all your jewels you -will be superb.' - -Her cousin's face flushed more warmly till it was the hue of those -Charles Raybaud roses which she had used to pack for Nicole. Her heart -beat in that tumult of emotion, of joy, and of vague, most sweet, fear, -in which she had lived for the last twenty-four hours. She thought: -'Why, if he did not care for me, why, indeed, should he seek me?' - -It seemed marvellous to her that it should be so, but she could not -doubt it. - -She had only seen him for ten minutes that morning, in the presence of -the Duchesse de Vannes, but though her confusion had been too great to -let her eyes meet his, the few soft grave words he had spoken, and the -touch of his lips on her hand, had left with her an ineffable sense of -protection and affection received. If it were not for love, why should -he have paused on his way to thrust back the gates of the convent and -take her to himself? - -As for herself, the timid, pure, half-unconscious feeling which he had -awakened in her was growing in strength with every hour now that it had -recognised its own existence and been permitted its expansion without -shame. It remained as shy and fearful as a freshly captured wood-dove, -but it had in it all the elements of an intense and devoted passion. - -She did not hear the child's chatter, which rippled on like a little -brook, asking her a thousand questions of what she would do, of what -she would wear, of what she would give away. Blanchette was herself -half sympathetic, half envious; disposed to resent her cousin's sudden -and splendid change of destiny, yet inclined to rejoice in it, as it -would secure to herself a spectacle, a new costume, and a costly gift. -She kept looking at the girl critically, with her head on one side, and -affecting to help her only hindered her, as she dressed for the first -ceremonious dinner at which she had ever assisted. - -'To think you can dress yourself; how queer!' cried the little censor. -'I cannot put on a stocking, nor Toinon either. I never mean to do it. -Mamma could not to save her life. How many women will you have? Two? -three? Never let your maids carry your jewel-box; have it always put in -the train by your major-domo, between two footmen. Mamma says all the -robberies are done by the maids. What are you going to put on? You have -only white frocks. Don't you long to wear satin and velvet? Oh, you are -so stupid; you ought to marry a shepherd, and wear lambs'-wool that you -spun yourself. You must not be so simple. A Countess Othmar ought to be -very magnificent. The finance is nothing if it do not look gorgeous. -Oh, what are you doing? You must not put a black sash on; you are a -_fiancée_. Have you got nothing but black? Wait a minute; I will run -and get one of mine.' - -'I have always worn something black or grey since my grandmother died,' -said Yseulte, a little sadly. - -But Blanchette made a _pirouette_. - -'Henri IV. est sur le Pont-Neuf!' she cried. 'Oh, you silly! You were -Cendrillon yesterday; now you are the prince's betrothed. Yesterday you -were a little brown grub; now you are a butterfly. I will go and get my -sash.' - -The child flew out of the room and left Yseulte standing before the -mirror, looking shyly at her own reflection as though she saw a -stranger. She felt, indeed, a stranger to herself; so long she had been -resigned to the religious life, so long she had been accustomed to -regard obscurity, neglect, sadness, loneliness, as her natural lot; so -long she had been trained to submission, lectured to the shade and the -silence of resignation, that to be thus suddenly called out into the -light, and lifted on to a pedestal, dazzled and almost paralysed her. - -It seemed to her as though it could never be herself, Yseulte de -Valogne, to whom her cousin had said, with an admiration that was -almost reverence: 'You will be the most enviable woman in Europe. Do -you understand all you have done for yourself?' - -She did not understand it; she only understood that he had rescued her -from the conventual life, and that he loved her--surely he loved her, -or he would not wish?---- - -Blanchette flew back into the room, accompanied by the maid Françoise. - -'Yseulte! Yseulte!' she shrieked, waving a blue sash in one hand and -with the other clasping to her a square parcel tied with silver cord. -'Here is something he sends you: Françoise was bringing it. Open it -quick, quick. Oh, what a happy creature you are, and you only stand and -stare like the statues in the Luxembourg! Open it quick! It is sure to -be something worth thousands and thousands of francs.' - -'Hush, Blanchette!' said the girl, with a look of pain, as she took the -packet and undid its covering. Within was the ivory casket; and within -the casket was a necklace of great pearls. - -A little note lay on them, which said merely:-- - -'_No one can dispossess you of the casket now. Receive what is within -as a symbol of your own innocence and of my reverence for it.--Yours, -with devotion_, OTHMAR.' - -On the other side of the paper was written more hastily:--'_Pardon me -that I must leave immediately after dinner for Paris and shall not see -you for a few days. I have explained to the Duchesse._' - -Yseulte grew very pale. If the eyes of her little tormentor and of the -woman Françoise had not been on her, she would have kissed his note and -fallen on her knees and wept. As it was, she stood still in silence, -reading the lines again and again, with sweet, warm tears in her eyes. -It was Blanchette who took out the pearls and held them up in the -lamplight, and appraised their value with the keenness of a jeweller -and screamed in rapture over their size and colour. - -'They _are_ the pigeon's eggs!' she cried, 'and four ropes of them; -they must be worth an empire. They are as fine as mamma's, and she -has only three rows. I will marry into the finance myself. Oh, what a -happy creature you are! Brown says it all came out of your going to -gather flowers in his garden. Is that true? How clever it was of you! -Who would ever have believed you were so clever, with your silent ways -and your countryfied scruples. Let me see his note? You will not? What -nonsense! You must put the pearls on. Let me fasten them. Four ropes! -They are fit for a Court ball. What a _corbeille_ he will send you!' - -As she chattered she clasped it round the throat of her cousin, who -grew red, then white, as the pearls touched her skin. They made her -realise the immense change which one short day had made in her lot. -They made her realise that Othmar henceforth was her lover. - -While Blanchette chirped and skipped around her, directing her toilette -with the accurate instinct in decoration of a little Parisienne, the -eyes of the girl were suffused with unshed tears of gratitude and -tremulous joy. - - 'What can I render thee, O princely giver?' - -she was saying in her heart, although she had never read the Portuguese -sonnets; while her little cousin babbled on of jewels and ball-dresses, -and horses and establishments, and dowries and settlements, and the -_régime dotal_, and all the many matters which meant marriage to the -precocious comprehension of Blanchette. - -'You will have your box at all the theatres, will you not? You have -never been to a theatre, but I have. Mind that you go the evening after -your marriage. When will your marriage be? I heard mamma say that he -wished it to be very soon: but then there is all your _lingerie_, -and all your gowns to be made. I suppose mamma will give you your -trousseau; she must. Oh, how happy you ought to be, and you look -just as grave as an owl! Nobody would guess you were going to be the -Countess Othmar. Do you know that he could be made a prince if he -liked? You have never learned to ride, Yseulte. What a pity! It is so -_chic_ to ride early in the Bois. Well, you will have a _coupé_ for -the early morning, and then you will have a Daumont for the afternoon, -of course. There is nothing so pretty as postillions in velvet jackets -and caps--if you only knew what colour his liveries are? Won't you -have out-riders? I do not know, though, whether you can; I think -it is only ambassadresses and princesses of the blood who may have -out-riders----You might have a special train every day,' continued -Blanchette, exciting herself with her own visions. 'There is nothing -such fun as a special train; we had one when grandmère was dying at -Bois le Roy all in a moment and wanted to see us; it is so diverting -to go on, on, on, through all the stations, past all the other trains, -never stopping--pr-r-r-rut!' - -'Oh, hush, Blanchette! What do I care about those things?' murmured -Yseulte, as she put his note into the casket, locked it, and slipped -the little silver key in her bosom, blushing very much as she did so. - -It seemed so very wonderful to her that such lines should have been -written to her. She wanted to be all alone to muse upon the marvel -of it. She remembered a little nook in the convent garden where a -bench was fixed against the high stone wall, under the branches of an -old medlar tree; a place that she had gone to with her sorrows, her -fancies, her visions, her tears, very often; she would have liked to -have gone now to some such quiet and solitary nook, to realise in peace -this miracle which had been wrought for her. But that was impossible; -they had ordered her to dine with them at eight--her first great -dinner. She must submit to be gazed at, commented on, complimented, -felicitated. - -The sensitive, delicate nature of the child shrank from the publicity -of her triumph; but she understood that it was her duty, that -henceforth these things would be a prominent portion of her duties; the -wife of Othmar could not live shut away from the world. - -Blanchette tossed her golden head with immeasurable contempt. - -'It is all "those things" that make a _grand mariage_. If you think you -do not care now, you will care in a year's time. Mamma said so. Mamma -said you will be just like anybody else when you shall have been in the -world six months.' - -Yseulte shook her head with a smile, but she sighed a little also; it -pained her that the world, and all it gave, was so intermingled with -this beautiful, incredible, dream-like joy which had come to her like -some vision brought by angels. In the singleness and sincerity of her -young heart she thought: 'Ah! if only he were poor!--how I wish he were -poor!--then they would know and he!----' - -But he was not poor, and he had sent her pearls worthy of an empress, -and Blanchette was dancing before her in envy, longing to be sixteen -years old too and betrothed to an archi-millionaire. - -She cast one last timid glance at herself and at the great pearls -lying beneath the slender ivory column of her throat, then she drew -on her long gloves, and went, with a quickly-beating heart, down the -staircase, Blanchette shouting after her Judic's song,-- - - On ne peut pas savoir ce que c'est, - Ce que c'est, - Si on n'a pas passé par là! - -which the child had caught up from the echoes of the boulevards, and -sang with as much by-play and meaning as Judic herself could have put -into it. - -There were some twenty people assembled in the oval drawing-room when -Yseulte entered it. It was not of them she was afraid: it was of seeing -Othmar before them. There was a murmur of admiration as she appeared in -her childish white dress, with the superb necklace on, which a queen -might have worn at a Court ball. Her shyness did not impair her grace; -the stateliness and pride which were in her blood gave her composure -even in her timidity; her eyes were dark and soft with conflicting -feelings, her colour came and went. She never spoke audibly once in -answer to all the compliment and felicitation she received, but she -looked so lovely and so young that no one quarrelled with her silence. -When Othmar gave her his arm she trembled from head to foot, but no one -noticed it save Othmar himself. - -'Do not be afraid of me, my child,' he murmured, and for the first -time she took courage and looked at him with a rapid glance that was -like a beam of sunlight. The look said to him, 'I am not afraid, I am -grateful; I love you, only I dare not say so, and I hardly understand -what has happened.' - -The dinner seemed both to her and to him interminable; she was quite -silent through it, and ate nothing. She was conscious of a sullen gaze -which her cousin, de Vannes, fastened on her, and which made her feel -that, by him, she was unforgiven. She was confused by the florid speech -made to her by the Baron Friederich, who was so enchanted by her that -he put no measure to his audible admiration. Othmar, seated beside her, -said very little. The party was gay, and the conversation animated. -The silence of each of them passed unnoticed. The Duchesse, who alone -remarked it, said to Raymond de Prangins: - -'It is their way of being in love; it is the old way, which they have -copied out of Lamartine and Bernardin de St. Pierre. It is infinitely -droll that Othmar should play the sentimental lover, but he does. I -want Nadine Napraxine to see him like that. I asked her to dinner, but -they had a dinner party at home. She sent me a little line just now, -promising, if her people were gone, to come for an hour in the evening. -The child looks well, does she not? What jewels he has given her! They -are bigger than mine. It is the least he can do; the Finance is bound -to buy big jewels. Who would ever have supposed he would have seen -anything in that baby, that convent mouse? To be sure, she is handsome. -Such a marriage for that little mouse to make! a mere baby like that, -a child proud of being the _médaillon_ of her convent yesterday! After -all, nothing takes some men like that air of innocence, which bores -them to death as soon as they have put an end to it. It is like dew; it -is like drinking milk in the meadow in the morning; we don't care for -the milk, but the doctors say it is good for us, and so----I wonder -what she is thinking about. About her gowns, I dare say, or about her -jewels. She is just like a vignette out of "Paul et Virginie." She need -not pretend to be in love with him; no one will believe in it; he will -not believe in it himself; he is too rich. What can he have seen in her -more than in five thousand other _fillettes_ he might have married? To -be sure she is handsome. She will be handsomer----' - -She put up her eyeglass and looked down the table at her young cousin -with amusement and envy, mingled as they mingled in little Blanchette. -The amusement was at the girl's evident embarrassment, the envy was of -her youth, of her complexion, of her form, of all which told her own -unerring instincts that Yseulte in a few years, even in a few months, -would be one of the most beautiful women of her world. - -And she said angrily to de Prangins, 'Some men like children; it is as -boys like green apples.' - -'At least the green apples are not painted,' thought the young man as -he murmured aloud a vague compliment. Raymond de Prangins, like most -men of his age, had never looked twice at a _fillette_; he had been -three weeks in the same house with this child and had never addressed -a word to her or noticed whether her eyes were black or brown; but now -that she had become the betrothed wife of Othmar, the charm of the -forbidden fruit had come to her; she had suddenly become an object of -interest in his sight; he was never tired of finding out her beauties, -he was absorbed in studying the shape of her throat, the colour of her -hair, the whiteness of her shoulders, which came so timidly and with a -little shiver, like shorn lambs, out of the first low bodice that she -had ever worn. To know that she was about to belong to another man, -gave her all at once importance, enchantment, and desirability in his -sight. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - - -Immediately that the dinner was over Othmar made his excuses and left -Millo to take the night express to Paris. When once she knew that he -was absent, she lost all fear. - -Her innocent love was at that stage when the presence of a lover -is full of trouble and alarm, and the happiest hours are those in -which his absence permits its dreams to wander about her memory -undisturbed. When he was there he was still, to her, a stranger whose -gaze embarrassed her, whose touch confused her, whose association -with herself was unfamiliar and unreal; but, away from him, there was -nothing to check or dismay those spiritual and poetic fancies which had -lodged their ideal in him. No one of those around her would ever have -imagined that she had these fancies, or would have understood them in -the slightest degree; they only thought that she was very naturally -enraptured to be chosen by a very rich man, and did not doubt that in -her mind she was musing, as Blanchette had suggested, on the colour of -her liveries, the number of her horses, the places of her residence, -and the prospect of her jewels. - -Baron Fritz, who made her blush with the fervour of his compliments, -and was so delighted with her that he could not cease from gazing at -her as though she were a water-colour of Copley Fielding's, was alone -sufficiently sympathetic, despite all his seventy years of cynicism, -to perceive that the things of this world had little place in her -thoughts, and he thought to himself as he looked at her: - -'Will Otho be wise enough to appreciate all that? He will have the -carnation in its bud, the peach in its flower; he will make just -what he pleases of them; the worse will be if he should leave them -altogether alone: then the carnation will unfold, the peach will ripen -and come out into fruit unnoticed, and if he be an ingrate, they will -both come to their perfection for someone else--which will be a pity. -The child is in love with him--_parbleu!_--he does not deserve it; he -only cares for his Russian woman, his hothouse narcissus; he only -wants to cure himself of Nadine Napraxine; as if one blush of this -child's cheek were not worth a century of Madame Napraxine's languor!' - -And he felt a passing regret that he was not forty years younger and in -the place of his nephew. - -After dinner he seated himself beside Yseulte, and talked to her of -Othmar, of his boyhood, of his talents, of his opportunities, and of -his destinies, with so much tact and so much skill that she was moved -to an affectionate gratitude towards the speaker and to a sense of -infinite awe before all the ambitions and responsibilities with which -he filled her future. - -'She is a baby, but she is not a fool,' thought the wise old man. 'When -the love fever has passed, we shall make of her just what we want, -provided only that she has influence over Otho. But will she have -any? In marriage there is always one who rules the other: "_un qui se -baisse, et l'autre qui tend la joue_": and it is always the one who -_cares_ who goes under.' - -Even as he had eaten his truffles and drunk the fine wines grown on -the de Vannes' estates in Gironde, he had been more troubled by an -impersonal anxiety than he had ever allowed himself to be in the whole -course of his existence. The child had sat opposite to him, looking -so youthful beside the faces, more or less _maquillées_, of the women -around her, with her soft surprised eyes, happy as those of a child -that wakes from sleep, and her colour coming and going, delicate and -warm: 'And he will not stay here to see, just because the desire for -another woman is in him like a fly in the ear of a horse!' had thought -the Baron impatiently. He guessed very accurately that the departure of -Othmar was due to a restless unwillingness to face the fate which he -had voluntarily made for himself. - -He himself had had no heed of Othmar's marriage except as a means of -legally continuing his race; his only notion of a woman was Napoleon's, -that she should bear many children; but as he looked at Yseulte de -Valogne, something kinder and more pitiful stirred in his selfish old -heart; she seemed to him too good to be sacrificed so; he understood -that there would be other things than money and children which this -sensitive plant would want; and worldly, unemotional, and unprincipled -as he was, Baron Fritz was the only person present who divined -something of the dreams which she was dreaming and felt a compassionate -regret for them, as for flowers which opened at dawn to die perforce at -noonday. - -About eleven o'clock in the evening, when Yseulte was beginning to -feel her eyelids grow heavy, and was thinking wistfully of her little -white bed amidst the murmur of conversation unintelligible to her and -the stare of inquisitive eyes, she heard with a little thrill of an -emotion quite new to her the voice of the groom of the chambers, which -announced Madame la Princesse Napraxine. - -Jealousy she was too young, too simple, and too innocent to know; but a -strange eagerness and an unanalysed pain moved her as she saw the woman -whom they said that Othmar loved. - -'Is that really Madame Napraxine?' she said in a low voice to the -Baron, who was beside her. - -'Who has told you of Madame Napraxine?' he thought, as he answered her: -'Yes! that is the name of the lady coming in now; she is a famous -European beauty, though to my taste she is too slender and too pale.' - -The girl did not reply; her eyes followed the trail of Princess -Nadine's pale primrose-coloured skirts laden with lace, and fastened -here and there with large lilies and lilac. Before that inimitable -grace, that exquisite languor and ease, that indescribable air of -indifference and of empire and of disdain which made the peculiar power -of Nadine Napraxine, the poor child felt her own insignificance, her -own childishness, her own powerlessness; she fancied she must look -rustic, awkward, stupid: she grew very pale, and her throat swelled -with pain under her lover's pearls. - -'It is too early for you to have that adder in your breast,' thought -Friederich Othmar, as he watched her. 'What a coward he was to go away, -instead of standing his ground beside you! After all, why is everyone -so afraid of this Russian woman?' - -Aloud, he only said: 'The Princess is coming to you; courage, _mon -enfant_. A woman of the world is certainly an alarming animal, but you -will have to meet many such, and you will be one yourself before very -long.' - -'_Fillette_, come and be presented to Mme. Napraxine; she wishes it,' -said her cousin at that moment in her ear. The girl shrank back a -little, and the colour came into her face; she rose, nevertheless, -obediently. - -Nadine Napraxine came half-way to meet her, with an indulgent little -smile, of which the compassion and disdain penetrated the inmost soul -of Yseulte with a cruel sense of inferiority. Yet had she not been so -humble and so embarrassed she might have seen a look of surprise in the -eyes of her rival. Nadine saw at a glance that in this child there was -no 'Sainte Mousseline' to be easily derided and contemned. - -'How beautiful a woman she will be in a year or two!' she thought, with -that candour which was never lacking in her in her judgments of her -greatest foes. 'He is going to possess all that, and he only sighs in -his soul for me!--what fools men are!' - -While she so thought, she was still smiling as she came to meet Yseulte -with that slow, soft, indescribable grace of which she had the secret. - -'I am an old friend of Count Othmar's; you must let me be yours in the -future,' she said with gracious kindliness. 'Shall I offend you if I -venture to say that I am sure he is a very happy and fortunate person? -I dare say I shall please you better if I say that he deserves to be -so.' - -The girl could not have found words to answer to save her life. -Instinctively she made her grand eighteenth-century curtsy in -acknowledgment. She was very pale; her heart seemed to sink within her -as she realised all the charm of this her rival. - -Mme. de Vannes murmured a few amiable words, and left them opposite -to one another; the girl trembled despite herself, as those indolent -lustrous eyes scanned her with merciless investigation and smiled at -her embarrassment. - -It was her first experience of that obligation, so constant in the -world, to meet what is dreaded and disliked with suavity and compliment. - -'I am a great friend of your cousin, too,' continued Nadine Napraxine, -with all the amiable condescension of a woman of the world to a child. -'We shall be sure to meet constantly in the years to come, which will -leave you so young and make us so old! Where have you lived? In an old -Breton convent? I wish I had lived in a Breton convent too! Come and -sit by me and talk to me a little. Do you know that I am here to-night -on purpose to see you. I had a tiresome dinner, all of Russian people, -or I should have come here earlier.' - -She drew the girl down beside her on a sofa with that pretty -imperiousness of which women as well as men often felt the charm and -the command. She was most kindly, most gentle, most flattering, yet -Yseulte suffered under all her gracious compliments as under the most -poignant irony. She answered in monosyllables and at random; she was -ill at ease and confused, she looked down with the fascination of a -bird gazing at a snake on the hand which held hers, such a slender hand -in its tan-coloured glove and with its circles of _porte-bonheurs_ -above the wrist, and its heavy bracelets crowding one another almost to -the elbow. - -She would not have spoken more than Yes or No to save her life, and she -said even these in the wrong places; but Nadine Napraxine did not make -the mistake of thinking her stupid, as less intelligent women would -have done. - -She studied her curiously whilst she continued to speak those amiable -and careless nothings which are the armoury of social life; toy weapons -of which the young know neither the use nor the infinite value. She had -all the kindly condescension, the good-humoured, amused indulgence, -of a grown woman of the world for a schoolgirl; by dates she was only -seven years older than Yseulte de Valogne, but in experience and -knowledge she was fifty years her senior. - -'_Elle est vraiment très bien_,' she said, as she turned away from the -girl and took the arm of Friederich Othmar. 'At present she is like a -statue in the clay, like a sketch, like a magnolia flower folded up; -but Othmar will change all that. You must be so glad; his marriage must -have been such an anxiety to you. Suppose he had married a Mongol! What -would you have done?' - -'It was not precisely of the Mongol that I was most afraid, Madame,' -replied the Baron. 'Do you think too that a marriage is a termination -to anyone's anxieties? Surely, the dangerous romance begins afterwards -in life as in novels.' - -'It would be very dull reading in either if it did not,' said Madame -Napraxine. 'But we will hope that Mademoiselle and your nephew will -read theirs together, and eschew the dangers; that is possible -sometimes; and she will have one great advantage for the next five -years; she will be handsomer every year.' - -'It will be a great advantage if he find her so, but perhaps only -others will find her so; marriage does not lend rose-coloured -spectacles to its disciples,' thought the Baron, as he answered aloud, -'There can be no one's opinion that he could value as much as he is -sure to do that of Madame Napraxine.' - -'I imagine my opinion matters nothing at all to him,' she answered, -with her enigmatical smile. 'But when I see him I shall certainly be -able to congratulate him with much more truth than one can usually -put into those conventionalities. Mademoiselle de Valogne is very -beautiful.' - -The Baron sadly recalled the saying of that wise man who was of opinion -that it makes little difference after three months whether your wife -be a Venus or a Hottentot; but he did not utter this blasphemy to a -lovely woman. - -The girl remained on her sofa gazing wistfully after this _élégante_ -who had all the knowledge which she lacked, and who impressed her so -sadly with an indefinite dull sense of inferiority and of helplessness. -She put her hand up to her throat and felt for his pearls; they seemed -like friends; they seemed to assure her of his affection and of the -future. People thought she was proud of them because they were so -large, so perfect in colour and shape, so royal in their value; she -would have been as pleased with them if they had been strings of -berries out of the woods, and he had sent them with the same message -and meaning. - -She watched Nadine Napraxine with fascinated eyes; wondering where -was the secret of that supreme seduction which even she, in her -convent-bred simplicity, could feel was in her. In the few words which -had been addressed to her she was dimly conscious that the other -disdained her as a child, and derided Othmar as a fool. - -Madame de Vannes roused her from her preoccupation with a tap of her -fan. - -'How grave you look, _fillette_,' she said with some impatience. 'You -must never look like that now you are in the world. Everyone detests -grave people. If you cannot always smile, stay in your convent.' - -'I beg your pardon,' murmured Yseulte, waking from her meditation with -a little shock. 'I did not know--I was thinking----' - -'That is just what you must not do when you are in society. What were -you thinking of? You looked very sombre.' - -The girl coloured and hesitated, then she said very low: - -'The other day--the day of the casket--you said he loved her--was it -true?' - -She glanced across the room at Nadine Napraxine as she spoke. - -'Did I say so?' answered the Duchesse, with annoyance at herself. -'Then I talked great nonsense. But how was I to know then that he was -thinking of you? Listen to me, _fillette_,' she continued, with more -real kindness in her tone than the girl had ever heard there. 'You -will hear all kinds of scandals, insinuations, stories of all sorts in -the world that you will live in; never listen to them, or you will be -perpetually irritated and unhappy. People say all sorts of untruths -out of sheer idleness; they must talk. M. Othmar must certainly have -some very especial esteem for you, or why should he choose you out of -all womankind for his wife? That is all you have to think of; do not -perplex yourself as to whom he may, or may not, have loved beforehand. -All your care must be that he shall love no one else afterwards. -You are tired, I think; go to bed, if you like: you can slip away -unnoticed. You are only a child yet.' - -Yseulte went at once, thankful for the permission, yet looking -wistfully still at the delicate head of Nadine Napraxine, as it rose -up from a collar of emeralds. Madame de Vannes passed to the music -room, where a little operetta was being given, with a vague compassion -stirring in her. - -'I am sure the old Marquise could not have given her more moral -advice than I,' she thought, 'but I am afraid the silly child will -have trouble, she is so old-fashioned. Why cannot she marry the man, -and enjoy all he will give her, without perplexing herself as to -what fancies he may have had for other people? What does it matter? -She will have to get used to that sort of thing. If it be not Nadine -who makes her jealous, it will be someone else; but one could not -tell her that. How right I was not to send Blanchette and Toinon to -a convent! The holy women make them so romantic, so emotional, so -_pleurnicheuses_!' - -At the same moment Nadine Napraxine said, when she had left her and was -speaking to Melville of her: - -'She is very interesting. She will have plenty of character; he thinks -that he is marrying a child; he forgets that she will grow up, and that -very rapidly. Marriage is a hothouse for women who are young. I was -married at her age; in three months' time I felt as old--as old--as old -as I do now. Nobody can feel older! You are sixty-five, you say, and -you are so young. That is because you are not married and can believe -in Paradise.' - -'You mean that I hope for compensation?' said Melville, with his -pleasant laugh. - -'Or that you keep your illusions. There is so much in that. People who -do are always young. I do not think I ever had any to lose!' - -'It is great emotions which make happy illusions, and I believe you -have never permitted those to approach you?' - -'I have viewed them from afar off, as Lucretius says one ought to see a -storm.' - -'I do not doubt you have seen them very often, Princess,' said -Melville, with significance. 'But as you have not shared them, they -have passed by you like great waves which leave no mark upon the -smoothness of the sand on which they break.' - -'Perhaps,' she said, while her mind reverted to the scene of which her -boudoir had been the theatre three days before; then she added a little -abruptly: 'You know Mlle. de Valogne well--you are interested in her? -What do you think of her marriage?' - -'I have known her from the time she was four years old,' replied -Melville. 'I have seen her at intervals at the convent of Faïel. I am -convinced she has no common character; she is very unlike the young -girls one sees in the world, who have had their course of Deauville, -Aix, and Biarritz. She is of the antique French patrician type; perhaps -the highest human type that the world has ever seen, and the most -capable of self-restraint, of heroism, of true distinction, and of -loyalty. I fancy Elizabeth de France must have been just such a girl as -is Yseulte de Valogne.' - -'What eulogy!' returned his companion, with a little incredulous -accent. 'I have always wondered that your Church did not canonize -the Princess Elizabeth. But you do not tell me what you think of the -marriage.' - -Melville smiled. - -'I might venture to prophecy if the success of a marriage depended on -two persons, but it depends on so many others.' - -'You are very mysterious; I do not see what others have to do with it.' - -'And yet,' thought Melville, 'how often you have stretched out your -delicate fingers and pushed down the most finely-wrought web of human -happiness--just for pastime!' - -Aloud he said: 'If she and he were about to live their lives on a -desert island, I am convinced they would be entirely suited to each -other. But as they will live in the world, and perforce in what they -call the great world, who shall presume to say what their marriage -will become? It may pass into that indifferent and amiable friendship -which is the most usual issue of such marriages, or it may grow into -that direct antagonism which is perhaps its still commoner result; on -the other hand, it may become that perfect flower of human sympathy -which, like the aloe, blossoms once in a century; but, if that miracle -happen, such flowers are not immortal; an unkind grasp will suffice to -break them off at the root. On the whole, I am not especially hopeful; -she is too young, and he----' - -'And he?' said Nadine Napraxine, with a gleam of curiosity in her -glance. - -'I am not his confessor; I doubt if he ever confess--to his own sex,' -replied Melville; 'but if I had been, I should have said to him: "My -son, one does not cure strong fevers with meadow-daisies; wait till -your soul is cleansed before you offer it to a child whom you take from -God." That is what I should have said in the confessional; but I only -know Othmar on the neutral ground of society. I cannot presume to say -it there.' - -'You are too serious, Monsignore,' said Nadine, with her enigmatical -smile. 'Marriage is not such a very serious thing, I assure you. Ask -Platon.' - -'Prince Napraxine is exceptionally happy,' said Melville, so gravely -that she laughed gaily in his face. - -Meanwhile Yseulte dismissed the maid, undressed herself slowly, kissed -the pearls when she had unclasped them; and, kneeling down under her -crucifix, said many prayers for Othmar. - -She was soon asleep, like a tired child, and she had his note under her -pillow; nevertheless, she dreamed of Nadine Napraxine, and her sleep -was not the pure unbroken rest that she had always had before. Once she -awoke in a great terror, her heart beating, her limbs trembling. - -'If he did not love me!' she cried aloud; then the light of the lamp -fell on the open casket, on the necklace of pearls. They seemed to say -to her, 'What should he want with you, unless he loved you?' - -She fell asleep again, and with a smile on her face. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - - -The fortnight passed away rapidly and dizzily for her. They took her -at once to Paris, and gave her no time for thought. She lived in a -perpetual movement, which dazzled her as a blaze of fireworks would -dazzle a forest doe. All the preparations of a great marriage were -perpetually around her, and she began to realise that the world thought -her lot most enviable and rare. Often her head ached and her ears were -tired with the perpetual stream of compliment and felicitation, the -continual demands made on her time, on her patience, on her gratitude. -What would have been ecstasy to Blanchette was to her very nearly pain. -There were moments when she almost longed for the great, still, walled -gardens of the Dames de Ste. Anne, for her little whitewashed room, her -rush chair in the chapel, her poor grey frock. - -Then she thought of Othmar, and the colour came into her face and she -was happy, though always unquiet and a little alarmed, as a dove is -when its owner's hand is stretched out to it. - -To Yseulte he was a hero, a saint, an ideal. He had come so suddenly -into her life, he had transformed it so completely, that he had -something of a magical fascination and glory for her. She knew nothing -of the House of Othmar, or of their position in finance; if she had -understood it, she would have disliked it with the instinctive pride of -a daughter of '_les preux_;' she had a vague, confused idea of him as -the possessor of great power and wealth, but that taint of commerce, -which in Othmar's eyes soiled every napoleon he touched, had not dimmed -his majesty for her. - -She was never allowed to see him alone; her cousin insisted on the -strictest observance of '_les convenances_,' and though a Romeo would -have found means to circumvent these rules, her lover did not. He was -glad of the stiff laws of etiquette which forbade him unwitnessed -interviews. He felt that if she asked him straightway, with her clear -eyes on his, what love he had for her, a lie would not come easily to -his lips. He was lavish of all offerings to her, as though to atone -materially for the feeling that was wanting in him. The Duchesse was -herself astonished at the magnificence and frequency of his gifts. -Unasked, he settled S. Pharamond and an estate in Seine et Oise upon -her in absolute possession, while a commensurate income was secured to -her to render her wholly independent in the future of any whim or will -of his own. - -'He is really very generous,' said the Duchesse to herself. 'But what -perplexes me is, he is not in love; not the very least in love! If he -were, one would understand it all. But he is not in the very slightest -degree _amouraché_; not half as much as Alain is.' - -But she was heedful that no suggestion of this fact, which her -observation made clear to her, should escape her before Yseulte or -anyone else. If he were not in love, yet still wished to marry, it was -his own affair; and she was not his keeper. - -To Yseulte, it was absolute shame to find that she was regarded by -all who approached her as having done something clever, won something -enviable in the lottery of life. A vague distress weighed on her -before the motives which she felt were attributed to her. - -When her cousin said to her, '_Fillette_, you were really very -audacious when you went to gather those flowers at S. Pharamond. But -audacity succeeds--Voltaire and Napoléon were right,' she could have -wept with humiliation and indignation. - -'Perhaps he thinks as badly of me, too!' she thought, in that -perplexity which had never ceased, since his gift of the ivory casket, -to torment her. - -'There is storm in the air,' said the Duc once to his wife; 'Othmar -will be like one of those magicians who used to raise a force that they -could neither guide nor quell. He is making a child worship him, and -forgetting that he will make her a woman, and that then she will not be -satisfied with being hung about with trinkets, and set ankle-deep in -gold like an Indian goddess. I am quite sure that this marriage, which -pleases you all so much, will be a very unhappy one--some day.' - -'You think what you wish--all men do,' said his wife. 'I have not a -doubt that it will be perfectly happy--as happy as any marriage is, -that is to say. She will adore him; men like to be adored. You can only -get that from somebody very young. He will never say an unkind word -to her, and he will never object, however much she may spend. If she -cannot be content with that----' - -The Duc laughed derisively. - -'Gold! gold! gold! That is the joy of the _cabotine_, not of Yseulte de -Valogne. What she will want will be love, and he will not give it her. -With all deference to you, I see the materials for a very sombre poem -in your _épopée_.' - -'I repeat, your wish is father to your thought. On the theatres women -do rebel, and stab themselves, or other people, but in real life they -are very much more pliable. In a year's time she will not care in -the least about Othmar himself, but she will have grown to like the -world and the life that she leads in it. She will have learnt to amuse -herself; she will not fret if he pass his time elsewhere----' - -'You are entirely wrong,' said de Vannes, with irritation. 'She is a -child now, but in a few weeks she will be a woman. Then he will find -that you cannot light a fire on grass and leave the earth unscorched. -She has the blood of Gui de Valogne. She will not be a saint always. -If she find herself neglected, she will not forgive it when she shall -understand what it means. If he be her lover after marriage, all may -be well; I do not say the contrary. But if he neglect her then, as he -neglects her now----' - -'Pray, do not put such follies into her head. Neglected! When not a day -passes that he does not send her the most marvellous presents, does not -empty on her half the jewellers' cases out of Europe and Asia.' - -'He makes up in jewels what he wants in warmth,' said Alain de Vannes. -'At present she is a baby, a little saint, an innocent; as ignorant as -her ivory Madonna; but in six months' time she will be very different. -She will know that she belongs to a man who does not care for her; she -will want all that he does not give her; she will be like a rich red -rose opening where all is ice----' - -'You go to the theatres till you get melodramatic,' said his wife, with -contempt. 'I do not believe she will ever have any passions at all; she -will always be the ivory saint.' - -Alain de Vannes laughed grimly. - -'Women who are beautiful and have good health are never saints,' he -said, 'and saints are not married at sixteen.' - -'Françoise Romaine was,' said his wife, who always had the last word in -any discussion. - -Othmar was more restless than he had ever been in his life, more -dissatisfied, and more impatient of fate. Yet he was not sure that he -would have undone what he had done, even if honour would have allowed -him. - -The tenderness which Yseulte had awakened in him, though it could not -compete with the passion another had aroused in him, made him feel a -charm in her presence, a solace in her youthfulness. The restrictions -imposed on their intercourse sustained the mystic spiritual grace which -the young girl had in his eyes, and it prevented any possible chance -of disillusion or of fatigue on his part. Hers was really the virginal -purity, as of a white rosebud which has blossomed in the shade. He was -not insensible to its beauty, even whilst a beauty of another kind -had fuller empire upon him. He had done an unwise thing, but he said -to himself continually, 'At least I have made one innocent creature -happy, and surely I shall be able to continue to do so; she can hardly -be more difficult to content than a dove or a fawn.' - -He forgot, as so many men do forget, that in this life, which seemed -to him like the dove's, like the fawn's, there would be all the -latent ardours of womanhood; that in the folded rosebud there was -the rose-tinted heart, in which the bee would sting. They met at -ceremonies, banquets, great family réunions, solemn festivities, in -which all the Faubourg took part. She was intensely, exquisitely, happy -when she was conscious that he was near her, but she was as silent as -a statue and as timid as a bird when he looked at her or addressed -her. Every day, every hour, was increasing what was to become the one -absorbing passion of her life, but he was too indifferent, or too -engrossed by other thoughts, to note the growth of this innocent love. -Alain de Vannes saw much more of it than he. - -She had the spiritual loveliness for him which S. Cecilia had in the -eyes of the Roman centurion who wedded with her; a more delicate and -more ethereal charm than that which only springs from the provocation -of the senses. A caress to her seemed almost a profanity: to disturb -her innocent soul with the grossness of earthly love seemed like a sort -of sacrilege. - -The whole of this time was a period of restless doubt with him, and the -sense that he had not been honest with her rebuked him whenever he met -the timid worship of her wistful eyes. He thought, 'She would not give -herself to me, if she knew!' - -He was impatient to have all the tumult and folly which precede a great -marriage over and done with. Every detail annoyed him; every formula -irritated him. - -'All I entreat is, that there may be no delay,' he said so often to her -cousin, that Madame de Vannes ended in believing that he must be much -more enamoured than his manner had betokened, and said with amusement -to her husband: - -'It has often been disputed whether a man can be in love with two -persons at one time: Othmar is so, unquestionably. It is like the bud -and the fruit on the same bough of camellia.' - -'It is to be hoped that when the bud is a flower the fruit will fall,' -said de Vannes, with a grim smile. - -'You are not sincere when you say that,' said the Duchesse, 'and you -know that both always fall--after a time.' - -'A law of nature,' said her husband. 'And it is a law of nature also -that others come in their place.' - -'My dear friend,' said Aurore de Vannes, with good-natured contempt, -'when Yseulte shall have followed the laws of nature in that -way, believe me, it is not you who will profit by them. You were -good-looking ten years ago--or more--but absinthe and bacarat does -not improve the looks after five-and-twenty, and you have crow's-feet -already, and will soon have to dye your hair if you wish still to look -young. Yseulte will never think of you except as a _vieux cousin_ who -was kind enough to give her a locket--if she will even do that when she -has got all the diamonds that she will get as Countess Othmar.' - -Meantime, Othmar himself was constantly saying to the Duchesse: - -'I put myself completely in your hands; only, all I beseech of you, -Madame, is not to delay my marriage longer than you are absolutely -obliged.' - -'He does not say his happiness,' thought Madame de Vannes, as she said -aloud, 'Well, what will seem terrible to you? I think I ought to exact -a delay of at least six months. She is so very young.' - -'It is her youth that is delightful to me,' he replied abruptly. 'I am -old enough to need its charm. I should be glad if you would consent -to our nuptials very soon--say within a fortnight. I have already -instructed my solicitors to meet you and to make whatever settlements -you and the Duc de Vannes may desire upon Mademoiselle de Valogne.' - -'What! carte blanche?' thought Cri-Cri, with a wonder which she took -care to conceal, whilst she objected that such speed as he desired was -impossible, was quite unheard of, would be indecorous: there were so -many things to be done; but in the end she relented, consented to name -that day month, and reflected that he should pay for his haste in the -marriage contract. It would make no difference to herself whether he -settled ten millions or ten pence on her young cousin, but it seemed -to her that she was not doing her duty unless, in condescending to -ally herself with la Finance, she did not shear its golden fleeces -unscrupulously. - -In her own mind she reflected that it was as well the marriage should -take place speedily, for she perceived that his heart was not much in -it. She divined that some alien motive actuated him in his desire for -it, and she would have regretted if any breach had occurred to prevent -it; for, although she professed to her intimate friends that she -disliked the alliance excessively, she was nevertheless very gratified -at her own relative having borne off such a great prize as Othmar. One -never knew either how useful such a connection as his might not become. - -'I would never have let her marry into the _Juiverie_,' she said to -her husband. 'But Othmar is quite different; his mother was an English -duke's daughter, his grandmother was a de Soissons-Valette, he has -really good blood.' - -'And besides that,' said de Vannes savagely, 'he is a man whom all -Europe has sighed to marry ever since he came of age. Why do you talk -such nonsense to me? It is waste of good acting!' - -'As you wasted your medallion,' said his wife, with a malicious -enjoyment. 'If she had taken the veil, you would have been quite -capable of eloping with her, the very infamy of the action would have -delighted you. But Othmar will certainly not let you make love to his -wife; he is just the sort of man to be jealous.' - -'Of Nadine Napraxine, not of his own wife!' said de Vannes, with an -angry laugh. 'Marry them quickly, while he is in the mind, and before -Madame Napraxine can spoil the thing. In six months' time he will -return to her, but that will not matter; our little cousin will be -Countess Othmar, and will probably learn to console herself.' - -'You are not hopeless?' said his wife, much amused. 'Well, I do not -think with you. I believe that Nadine Napraxine has never been anything -to Othmar; that the child, on the contrary, is passionately in love -with him; and that the marriage will be a very happy one.' - -Alain de Vannes shrugged his shoulders. He was very angry that the -matter had turned out as it had done; the more angry that it was -wholly impossible for him to display or to express his discomfiture, -and that he was compelled to be amiable to Othmar and to all the -world in relation to it, and bear himself before everyone as the -friend and guardian of his wife's cousin. His fancy for her had been -a caprice rather than anything stronger, but it was resentful in -its disappointment and impotence, and might even be capable of some -vengeance. - -Faïel had left sweet, solemn memories with the girl: the green gloom -of the fern-brakes and the wooded lanes, the soft grey summers, -and the evenings with their mysterious silvery shadows; the silent -corridors, the tolling bells, the altars with their white lilies, the -pathetic monotonous voices of the nuns--all were blent together in -her recollection into a picture full of holiness and calm. Now that -she knew what the gipsy woman had meant, she wished to be there for a -little while to muse upon her vast happiness, her wondrous future, and -consecrate them both. - -She asked for, and obtained, permission to go to her old convent in -retreat for the two weeks before her marriage. Madame de Vannes was -inclined to refuse what she regarded as excessive and eccentric, but -Othmar obtained her consent. - -It pleased him that she should pass her time before her marriage with -the holy women who had trained her childhood; it was not so that Nadine -Napraxine had spent the weeks preceding her soulless union. - -'You wish not to see her for two whole weeks?' said the Duchesse, -suspiciously. - -'I wish her to do always what she wishes,' he answered. - -'She will be a very happy woman then,' said Cri-Cri, drily. - -He added, with a little hesitation: 'It is her unlikeness to the world, -her spirituality, which has charmed me; I wish her to retain them.' - -'It will be difficult,' said the Duchesse, with a laugh. '_Fillette_,' -she said with amusement to her young cousin, 'I do not know why you are -so very solemn about it all; I assure you the soul has very little to -do with marriage, as you will find out soon enough. Why should you go -in retreat as if you were about to enter religion?' - -Yseulte coloured; she answered timidly: 'I am forgetting God; it is -ungrateful; I am too happy; I mean--I grow selfish, I want to be quiet -a little while to remember----' - -The Duchesse laughed, much amused: 'You ought decidedly to have taken -the veil; you will be a _religieuse manquée_! At your age I thought of -nothing but of my balls and my bouquets, and of the costumes they gave -me, and of the officers of the Guides--Alain was in the Guides, he was -very good-looking at that time. I must say Othmar and you are like no -lovers in the world that I have ever known.' - -However, she gave her permission, and Yseulte went to the ancient -stonebuilt fortress-like house of Faïel, where the quiet corridors were -filled with the smell of dried herbs from the nuns' distillery and -the little grey figures of the children played noiselessly under the -leafless chestnut avenues of the tranquil gardens. - -It was all so welcome to her after the babble of Blanchette, the tumult -of congratulation, the succession of compliments, the perpetual sense -of being exhibited and examined, discussed and depreciated; but it -did not change her thoughts very much, for even in her prayers her -wondrous change of fate always seemed with her, and she found that even -amongst her pious and unworldly Dames de Ste. Anne the betrothed of -Count Othmar was received as a very different being to the dowerless -Yseulte de Valogne; and something of that bitterness which so often -came to her lover reached her through all her guilelessness. Even -Nicole, also, embracing her with ardour and tenderness, with the tears -running down her brown cheeks, and pleading for the right to send her -_pétiote_ the orange-blossoms and the lilies-of-the-valley for her -bridal-dress, yet amidst her joyful tears and tearful joy had not -forgotten to whisper: 'And, _dis donc, ma mignonne_, you will say a -word now to the Count Othmar to get my husband the municipal concession -to put up the steam mill? It will make our fortune, my angel, and I -know what a happiness that will be to you!' - -'A fortune! Money, money! It seems all they think of in the world!' -the child reflected sadly. 'What can Nicole and Sandroz want with more -money? They are very well off, and they have no children, no relations -even; and yet all they think about is laying by one napoleon on the -top of another! It is horrible! Even the Mother Superior has never said -to me how good he is, how kind, how generous; she only says that I am -fortunate because he is so rich! They make me feel quite wicked. I want -to tell them how mean they are! Why am I so much better and greater -in their sight because I am going to become rich too? I thought they -cared for none of those things. But our Reverend Mother asks me for a -new altar service as Blanchette asked me for a turquoise necklace! I -understand why he is always a little sad. He thinks no one cares for -him, for himself.' - -And, after many days and nights of most anxious thought and most -entreating prayer, she gathered up all her courage and wrote a little -letter to Othmar, the only one which she had ever addressed to him; she -was afraid it was a strange thing to do, and one perhaps unmaidenly, -but she could not resist her longing to say that one thing to him, and -so she wrote: - -'Monsieur,--I do not know whether I ought to say it, and I hope -you will forgive me if it be wrong to say so, but I have thought -often since I hear and see so much of your great wealth that -perhaps--perhaps--you may imagine it is that which I care for; but -indeed I do not; if you were quite poor, very poor to-morrow, it would -be just the same to me, and I should be just as happy. I do pray you to -believe this. - - 'Yours, in affection and reverence, - 'YSEULTE.' - -She had hesitated very long before she ventured to sign herself so, -but in the end it seemed to her that it could not be very wrong as -it stood: she owed him both affection and reverence--even the Mother -Superior herself would say so. - -She enclosed the little note in a letter to her cousin the Duchesse, -knowing that otherwise it would not be allowed to pass the convent -walls. When Madame de Vannes received it she looked at it with -suspicion. - -'If it should be any nonsense about Nadine Napraxine?' she thought with -alarm; 'if it should be any folly that would break the marriage?' - -She decided that it would be unwise to send it to Othmar without -knowing what it said, so she broke the little seal very carefully and -read it. Something in it touched her as she perused the simple words, -written so evidently with a hand which trembled and a heart that was -full. She sealed it again and despatched it to its destination. 'Poor -little simpleton,' she thought, 'why did she take the trouble to say -that? She will not make him believe it!' - -But he did believe it. - -It was because she made the belief possible to him that the child had -seemed to him like a young angel who brought healing on her wings; and -the love which did not venture to avow itself, but yet was visible in -every one of these timid sentences, went to his heart with sweetness -and unconscious reproach. He wrote back to her: - -'I believe you, and I thank you. You give me what the world cannot give -nor command.' - -And he added words of tenderness which, if they would have seemed cold -to an older or a less innocent recipient, wholly contented her, and -seemed to her like a breath from heaven. - -The fortnight soon passed, and after its quiet days at Faïel, filled -with the sounds so familiar to her of the drowsy bells, the rolling -organ swell, the plaintive monotonous chaunts and prayers, the pacing -of slow steps up and down long stone passages, the grinding of the -winch of the great well in the square court, she felt calmed and -strengthened, and not afraid when the Mother Superior spoke of all the -responsibilities of her future. - -To her, marriage was a mystic, spiritual union; all she knew of it was -gathered from the expressions borrowed from it to symbolise the union -of Christ and His saints. She went to it with as religious and innocent -a faith as she would have taken with her to the cloister had they sent -her there. If any human creature can be as pure as snow, a very young -girl who has been reared by simple and pious women is so. Even the -Duchesse de Vannes felt a vague emotion before that absolute ignorance -of the senses and of the passions of life. - -'It is stupid,' she said to herself. 'But it is lovely in its way. I -can fancy a man likes to destroy it--slowly, cruelly--just as a boy -pulls off butterflies' wings.' - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - - -The first days of February came all too soon for the vague fears of -Yseulte, which throbbed in her as the heart beats in a bird which -feels a captor's hand approaching. All the ridicule of Blanchette -and Toinon, all the good-natured banter of their mother, and all the -endless congratulations of society which rained on her like the almond -blossoms which were falling in showers in the wind, could not make her -otherwise than bewildered and alarmed, and as the time of her marriage -drew closer and closer her terror almost obscured her happiness. No one -would have believed in it; everyone, had they known the secrets of her -shy and silent mind, would have laughed at it as hypocrisy; but with -her it was most real. - -Away from Othmar, she adored him; but near him, she dreaded him as -a stranger who was about to lead her into the strangest and most -terrible mysteries of life. But time stays not for the sinking or -the fluttering of any poor human heart, and they brought her from the -dim, cold, misty Breton country back into the gay and crowded world of -Paris; and the great rooms of her cousin's house, filled by brilliant -throngs for the signing of the contract, brought home to her the -inexorable fact that her marriage would itself take place in another -forty-eight hours. - -'You are so pale, _fillette_!' said the Duchesse in some impatience. -'One would think that we were forcing your inclinations!' - -Yseulte said nothing; she could not have explained the tumult of -agitation which was in her. She was marvellously happy; and yet---- - -A lover who had loved her would have divined and penetrated all those -mingled emotions, which were unintelligible to herself; but Othmar was -too _distrait_ and too absorbed in thought, wherein she had no share, -to do so. Though she was the centre of the world around her for the -moment, the child remained in an absolute solitude. - -Friederich Othmar, studying her with his exquisite power of -penetration, alone perceived her trouble, and thought with pleasure: -'The poets are not quite the fools I deemed them; there _is_ such a -thing as a virginal soul in which the senses do not speak, and to -which the gewgaws of the world say nothing either. I should never have -believed that, but I see it. He has found a pearl, but he will not -care for it. He will absorb it into the acid of his own disappointed -passions, and then will be surprised if it disappear.' - -If he had been told a month earlier that he would have had such -sentimental regrets, he would have been wholly incredulous, but -something in the sight of the young girl, in her innocent gravity, with -her wistful, changeful eyes, touched him, as she stood by the table -where the marriage contract was signed. She seemed to him too good to -be wedded with indifference, taught the fever of passion, the suffering -of maternity, and then be forsaken--as she would be. - -'I am glad that I did not meet her, or one like her, thirty years ago; -she would have unnerved me,' he thought, as he stooped and wrote his -own name. - -Amongst the nuptial gifts had been one of great value from the -Princess Napraxine. It was a gold statuette of Love, modelled by Mercié -and standing on a base of jade and agate. It had all the cruelty and -irony of the modern Italian school in it, for the poor Amorino was -trying to drink out of a gourd which was empty, and the expression -of his disappointed, distressed, pathetic features was rendered with -admirable mockery and skill. He turned his sad eyes ruefully on those -who looked at him; some withered passion-flowers and a little asp were -near his feet. When Othmar saw it, his face darkened; he thought it -a jest at himself, nor had the giver selected it without intention. -Behind the gold Amorino he seemed to see her smiling, serene, -jewel-like eyes, her delicate, contemptuous mouth, which said: '_Va -donc! C'est le vieux jeu!_' - -'The only woman that I shall ever love!' he thought with a thrill of -remorse, of shame, and of anger, all in one. - -What right had he, while his veins were hot with those unholy fires, to -simulate love for an innocent and virgin life? - -The morning came for which Blanchette and Toinon had been longing for a -month; and clothed in palest blue velvet, carrying white bouquets as -large as themselves, they wore at their throats the new diamond lockets -of their ambition, with the miniature of their cousin within each, -for which they cared nothing at all. But the diamonds were as large -and as numerous as ever their hearts could desire. '_Vrai! Il est bon -prince!_' they cried in chorus, as they skipped round each other, and -made the sun sparkle in the jewels, and sang the song of Judic. - -Then they went to the church of S. Philippe du Roule, and made their -little naughty faces as grave as mice that see a cat, while the incense -rose and the organ pealed, and the Latin words rolled out sonorously, -and the pale wintry sunshine shone over the brilliant crowd assembled -there for the marriage. - -Yseulte herself looked like a slender white lily. - -The deep peace and serenity of her convent days had come there with -her; certain instincts of her race kept her still and composed with -the eyes of so many strangers upon her; a dignity that was exquisitely -graceful blended with her childish air; she looked like some young -princess of the Valois time, such as poets and painters still see in -their dreams. - -One of those special trains which Blanchette thought the supreme -privilege of marriage bore them without a pause through the wintry -landscapes between Paris and Blois. - -The day was fine and windless; there was a scent of spring which -breathed through the leafless poplars and willows, and over the frosted -fields and vineyards, with sweet, vague promise; here and there -burst in to sight, out from a forest glade beside some château, some -gaily-clad hunting party, the last of the season; ever and anon there -was some little town, with its old ruined castle, or its monastic -church, shut in, in leafless orchards. The broad river glistened in -the light under the burden of its many islands, its breaking blocks of -ice drifting on turbid green waters, its flood of mud and melted snow -rolling heavily beneath the colliers and the merchant craft, which made -their way slowly against the floes. In the drear blackened vineyards, -peasants, like pictures by Millet, were at work; sometimes a woman -with faggots on her bowed shoulders straightened herself to watch the -swiftness of the train, or a bluefrocked herd-boy stopped his cattle -at a crossing. - -All these pictures passed before the eyes of Yseulte like the panorama -of a dream: the early morning hours had been one long bewilderment to -her; though she had carried herself so bravely, her heart had beaten -all the while like a caught bird's: even now the scent of the incense, -the waves of sound from the organ, the sonorous voice of the great -prelate in its admonitions, seemed to come with her into the still, -brown, fresh country; the sense of some infinite and solemn obligation, -accepted and irrevocable, was upon her. - -They had left Paris immediately after the ceremony; and the evening -sun was glowing in the west and lighting the pastoral country with its -leafless woods and glancing rivers as they reached the château. - -Amyôt was a place of great beauty and stateliness; it had been built -for François Premier, and had the salamander and the crown carved on -its stones and blazoned on its metal work; it was surrounded by water -like Chenonceaux, and in the sunset-glow its pinnacles and towers and -high steep roof gleamed as if made of gold; it stood on a hill amidst -great woods, overlooking the fruitful valleys and fertile plains which -lie between the Loire and Cher, and in its gardens all the art that -modern horticulture can boast was united to the stately avenues, the -close-shorn turf, the long grey stone terraces with the motto of the -Valois and the fleur-de-lis of France carved upon their pilasters, -which had in their day seen the _mignons_ of Henri II., and felt the -feet of Diane de Poitiers and of Mary Stuart. - -Amyôt was a poem, epic and epopee in one; she had never seen it before; -she gazed at it with entranced eyes, glad that her home would be in -such a place; then she looked timidly at Othmar. - -He was not looking at her. - -She sighed, hardly knowing why, but with a vague sense of neglect and -disappointment. She was in a trance of mingled joy and dread. She saw -the dusky avenue of yews through which they passed, the long lines -of majestic terraces, the sheets of glancing water, the masses of -camellias and azaleas, brought from the hothouses to make the wintry -gardens bloom for that momentous hour, the vast fantastic solemn pile -towering up against the evening skies. She saw them all as in a dream; -she was wondering wistfully in her ignorance whether it were possible -that she had offended him, or possible that already he regretted what -he had done. She shrank a little from him, and sat quite silent as -their carriage rolled under the great stone gateway. - -There had been enough in his caresses, in his words, as they had come -thither, to startle her innocent ignorance into some sense of the -meaning and the demands of love, but they had left her dimly alarmed -and troubled, as before some great mystery, and he had soon grown -abstracted, almost indifferent, and had abandoned himself to his own -thoughts. - -Amyôt even in its winter silence and sombreness, was a place where -lovers could well forget the world; yews and bay trees made perpetual -verdure around its lawns, and orangeries and palm-houses made ceaseless -summer within its walls; in its halls and galleries old tapestries and -Eastern hangings muffled every sound and excluded every draught; and in -the warm air of its chambers, ceiled with cedar-wood, embossed with the -salamander, and the 'F.' in solid gold, and having embayed windows, -all looking straightway south over the Loire water, the winter's -landscape, seen through its painted casements, was but as a decorative -scene set there for the strong charm of contrast. - -They passed through the ranks of the bowing servants, and remained at -last alone in the great suite of drawing-rooms, whose oriel windows -all looked southward. They were rooms hung with pale satins, still -ceiled with cedar, and keeping the Valois crown and arms upon their -gilded carvings and lofty archways. They preserved the style and charm -of the age which had begotten them. She was in harmony with them as -she moved there, the dull red light which preceded evening falling -through the painted panes on the dove-hued velvet and dusky furs of her -travelling-gown, and touching the light gold of her fair hair coiled in -a great knot above her throat. - -He, when his servants had retired, kissed her hand with a ceremony -which seemed, even to her innocence, very cold. - -'You are at home,' he said gently. 'Here it will be for you to command, -for all to obey.' - -She stood before him in one of the embrasures of the windows; the -cream-hued velvet of her travelling-dress trimmed with sable, caught -the rays of the setting sun. - -'You are châtelaine of Amyôt,' he added, with a smile. 'Here I shall be -but the first of your servants.' - -The words were gracious, and even tender, but they touched her with a -sense of chillness; she felt, without knowing why she felt it, that it -was not with this courteous ceremony that he would have welcomed her if -he had loved her--much. - -She said nothing, though she coloured a little as he kissed her hands. - -She moved to one of the great windows and looked out a little wistfully -towards the rolling waters, the deep, dark brown forests with their -purple shadows. The dim afternoon light spread over the landscape -without, and through the gorgeous and majestic chambers, which had -once heard the love words of the Valois. She had laid her hat down on -a table near, the lingering glow of the dying day fell on her white -throat, on her cheek with its changing colour, on the knot of orange -blossom fastened amongst the lace at her breast; she thrilled through -all her nerves as she suddenly realised that she was altogether his, to -be used as he chose, never to be apart from him unless by his wish. - -She gazed at the scene around her, troubled, perplexed, wistfully, -vaguely alarmed, afraid she knew not of what; whilst he watched her -with a certain futile anger against himself that her loveliness did not -excite him and content him more, a remorseful sense that he was not the -lover she merited and should have won. - -A sort of self-reproach moved him as he looked at her in her innocence, -which seemed too holy a thing to be profaned by the grossness of -sensual approach--on the morrow she would not look at him with those -serene, childlike eyes. - -It seemed to him almost cruel to rouse that perfect innocence from its -unsuspicious repose. - -Before he could speak again she had turned towards him; her lips -trembled a little as she gathered her courage and said aloud what had -been in her thoughts all the day through. - -'It will be for me to obey,' she murmured, with the colour deepening in -her cheeks. 'And I will do it always, so gladly: but would you tell -me one thing: did you--I mean--if you had not cared for me a little, -surely you would never have wished----?' - -She paused, overcome by the sense of her own hardihood, and her eyes -filled with tears; she longed to say to him, 'Instead of all your -jewels, instead of all this luxury, give me one fond word,' but her -timidity and her modesty would not let her lips frame the supplication. -He was still as a stranger to her--a man whom she had seen scarce a -dozen times. - -The question in its timid commencement had said enough: his conscience -shrank from it; he had always dreaded the moment inevitable of the -fatal-- - - 'If this be love, tell me how much.' - -'Would you tell me?' she repeated very low, then paused with an -overwhelming sense of her own hardihood and great immodesty. - -She made a beautiful picture as she stood before him; the cream-hued -satin falling about her, the warm cedar-wood panels behind her, the red -light of the sunset shed like a glory upon her head and shining about -her feet. - -'Who would not love you, dear?' he murmured, with a hesitation of -which her own confusion spared her from being conscious. 'Never doubt -my affection. I have not been as happy as the world thinks me, but if I -be not happy beside you, fate will indeed find me thankless.' - -Nor was it altogether untrue; she looked infinitely lovely to him in -that moment, with the tears shining in her upraised eyes, and the blue -veins of her throat swelling where the orange flowers touched them; and -all this was his--his as wholly as the budding primrose in the woods is -the child's that finds it and may pluck and rifle it at will. - -An emotion that was more nearly passion than he had hitherto felt for -her moved him as he looked on her. - -With a sudden impulse of the joy and mastery of possession, warmer and -more eager than any she had roused in him before, he took her in his -arms and kissed her throat where the orange flowers were fastened, and, -with a tender touch, unloosed them. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - - -'Othmar _filant le parfait amour_ while he gathers wet violets under -his Valois woods, is a truly admirable idyl!' said the Princess -Napraxine, with her unkind little smile, a month later, while her eyes, -from under an umbrella covered with old point duchesse, went indolently -from the shining sea upon her right to the romantic gorge leading up -to distant peaks of snow, which could be seen on her left through -boughs of eucalyptus and mimosa. She was seated on the white terraces -of a famous villa, crowning a promontory which carried luxuriant and -fantastic gardens far out into the lazy blue water, across whose then -smiling plains of azure light it looked straight southward to the cloud -which was Corsica. It was the villa of another Russian magnate, Prince -Ezarhédine, with whom there was at that time staying a mighty statesman -at whose nod or frown Europe breathed lightly or held her breath; and -under the guise of a breakfast there was an informal conference of -diplomatists at his house that day. - -Friederich Othmar was staying at S. Pharamond for two days to meet the -great Russian, and conduct, over a cigarette and a glass of kümmel, -one of those delicate and intricate negotiations in which finance and -diplomacy had equal parts, and which were the delight of his soul, and -made the special fame of the House of Othmar. - -The great statesman was a charming person, Oriental in morals, Athenian -in mind, and French in manners; and Nadine Napraxine, who so seldom -could be persuaded to go anywhere, had deigned to come and breakfast -with him there and allow him to recall her childhood. - -'You would never give me a smile,' he said to her. 'At five years -old you were as cruel as you are now. I remember taking you what I -thought an irresistible bribe; a gardener in Saxe driving a wheelbarrow -of bonbons. But you just looked at it--smileless--and said cruelly, -"_Merci, Monsieur--mais j'en ai tant!_" You were five years old then.' - -'"_Tant_" and "_trop_" are the spoilers of our existence,' she replied. -'I remember as a child I never cared for bonbons; I used to say that if -they hung up where the church bells were, and one could not get them, -one would care----' - -'My intention was good,' said the great man piteously; 'you might have -smiled on me for that.' - -'That would have been very commonplace, everybody is amiable in that -kind of way; I am not amiable, they say, and yet I am never out of -temper--which seems to me the first requisite for amiability.' - -'Serenity is unkind when it means indifference.' - -'But indifference is so comfortable to the indifferent!' she had -replied, and the reply admitted of no refutation. - -Now, when the _déjeuner_, which had been the pretext and cover of the -morning's informal but pregnant discussion, was over, and she was -about to go to her carriage, she had smiled with gentle condescension -on the Baron, and asked him the tidings of Amyôt. Friederich Othmar, -in his answers, had been incautiously and unusually enthusiastic in -the hearing of a person who to all enthusiasm was merciless; the more -merciless, because in a far-down and never-investigated corner of her -own nature she was a little conscious that she also could have been -enthusiastic--if it had been worth while. - -She had laughed a little unkindly, and had made the remark about the -wet violets; the Baron, slightly irritated and considerably in earnest, -had replied, that to gather violets with your own wife was less -exciting, but perhaps sweeter, and certainly wiser, than to purchase -orchids for the wife of someone else. - -'A most moral opinion, turned with classic elegance, and quite -indisputable,' said Madame Napraxine, with much amusement. 'And orchids -are so short-lived! Do you think home-grown violets live longer? Dear -Baron, I am so glad to see you so pleased, and so poetical; Napoleon's -desire for an heir made him quite brutal; your desire for your nephew's -heir makes you quite full of pretty sentiment. Pray go on, you interest -me! it is as if one heard Bismarck playing a guitar!' - -'Like Napoleon, I dislike _les amours stériles_,' replied Friederich -Othmar, with a smile. 'My nephew was in danger of letting his life -drift away in a dream; I know no means of recalling a man to the -practical happiness of existence so efficacious as a young girl's -beauty.' - -'You are very primitive in your ideas, dear Baron, for a person who has -lived all his life in Paris,' said the Princess Nadine, with her little -air of fatigue and of irony. She knew very well what had been implied -in his words, and she resented them. - -'Nature is primitive, Madame,' said the Baron. 'But after all, we do -not improve on her, nor exclude her, do what we may.' - -'You think not?' said Madame Napraxine, much amused. 'Well, for my -part, I have never been able to discover that Nature is very charming: -if we attended to her, she would make us eat with our fingers, fight -with our teeth, drink only water, and wear no clothes; she would -certainly, also, give Otho Othmar a score of wives instead of one -Sainte Mousseline. Do not take to admiring Nature, Baron; she will lead -you astray. It is too late for you to begin; no one after twenty can -eat green fruit with impunity.' - -'Sainte Mousseline!' echoed the old man, with more temper than -prudence. 'Surely that epithet would not apply to Yseulte!' - -'Of course not now,' said Nadine, serenely. 'Sainte Mousseline has -given way to the nuptial white satin. Only you spoke of Nature;--and if -I were you I would not wish for Nature to prevail too much at Amyôt, -for Nature has a sad trick of being soon satisfied, and dissatisfied, -and disposed to change. You know it is only the poets who invented -Constancy, at the same time that they created the Phoenix and the -Hippogriff.' - -'If I thought he could be unfaithful to so much youth and so much -innocence----,' began the Baron, with some heat. - -'He will not be so yet, at all events,' said Prince Ezarhédine. 'Men -are not quite so fickle as Madame Nadine thinks.' - -'Men are what women make them,' she replied, with her most contemptuous -tranquillity. 'As a rule, they are always faithless to women who -love them. It is tiresome to be loved; "_ça vous donne des nerfs_." -You get out of temper and you go away; then silly people say you are -inconstant.' - -'You will admit that at least it seems very like it,' said Baron Fritz. - -The great statesman, standing near, looked a little wistfully at her. -He thought that he would not have found it tiresome to be loved by the -wife of Napraxine. - -'The Countess Othmar will be too young to understand all that,' -continued Nadine. 'She will give too much of herself. She will not -have the first essential: _savoir se reprendre_. Love is like all -other fine arts--it should be treated scientifically. Do you remember -Sergius Veriatine? He was devoted to the Princess Platoff--my cousin -Sophie. All at once he broke with her. Some one asked him why he did -so. He answered honestly: "Un jour, elle faisait la faute de me prier -de rester quand je voulais m'en aller." Serge Veriatine put the whole -of male human nature into that sentence. Othmar's wife will be always -begging him to stay when he will want to go; she is so young. She is, -of course, in love with him; very much in love with him; and she is so -unhappily inexperienced that she will be sure to tell him so a hundred -times a day. Now, however pretty a story is, still when you hear it -very often it grows dull: you see she is beginning with an immense -mistake: Amyôt in the winter!' - -'Amyôt is his choice as much as hers,' said Friederich Othmar. 'You -know he always liked solitude. They will be in Paris in the first days -of April----' - -'Two months, or to speak precisely, seven weeks, of Amyôt in midwinter -is precisely the mistake that a very young girl would be sure to make,' -continued his tormentor. 'Amyôt is a delightful place in its way; it -is like a page of Brantôme. I remember the admirable hunting parties -he gave there for the Orleans princes. But all the same, seven whole -weeks of Amyôt in the rain of February and March would damp any ardour -that he might begin with--do you think he began with very much? What -a pity there was no one to tell her that a man is bored so soon! And -Othmar is like Chateaubriand; he is the _grand ennuyé_ just because -his ideals are so high that it is wholly impossible to find anything -like them anywhere. I am quite sure that he has imagined in this poor -child an angel and a goddess; a kind of Greek nymph and Christian -virgin blent in one. When he finds that she is only a child, who has -had the narrowest of all educations, and is not even a woman in her -comprehension or her sympathies, he will be intolerably wearied. If -they were in the world, the disillusion might be postponed; at Amyôt it -must come in two days.' - -'You are very clever, Madame,' said the Baron with some irritation, -'but even you may perhaps for once be mistaken. She is very young, as -you say; but for that very reason she will be like clay in his hands -which he can mould as he will.' - -'If he take the trouble to model it at all,' said Nadine Napraxine. -'If the sculptor do not touch the clay, it lies in a lump neglected -till somebody else comes. She will not know, I fear, how to tempt him -to make anything of her. Do you suppose they have taught her the art -of provocation in her Breton convent? She will only sob aloud if he go -away for an hour, and be plunged into despair if his kisses be one less -in number. My dear Baron, you lost all your wisdom when you failed to -persuade them to leave Amyôt. They say there is no living woman who can -be seen at sunrise after a ball and keep her lover; I am sure there is -not one who can be shut up with a man for two months in the country, in -winter, and retain his belief in her.' - -'You are very learned in these matters,' said the Baron, more and more -irritated, 'and yet everyone knows that the Princess Napraxine has -always herself despised all human affections!' - -'It is not necessary to have sat in the midst of a maelstrom to have -studied the laws of whirlpools,' said his tormentor. 'And what have -human affections to do with it? You know as well as I do that humanity -has only caprices and passions, with their natural issue, disillusions.' - -Friederich Othmar thought of the terrace at Amyôt and the face of -Yseulte. - -Walking with her a moment, alone, in the afternoon sunshine, he had -ventured on a word of counsel. - -'My dear child, you are very young. Let an old man tell you something. -Otho has one serious malady; nay, do not look so alarmed, it is only -the malady of his generation--caprice and ennui. He has not an idea -that he is capricious, but he is so. Do not let his caprices pain you; -but, as far as you can, vary with his varying moods; I think that is -the secret of sympathy. Just now it is high noon with you; so there are -no shadows; but shadows will fall. I want you to understand that. Otho -is not perfect; in a way, he is very weak, though he has more intellect -than most men. Do not make a god of him. You will only spoil him and -blind yourself.' - -And then she had looked at him with that look which he recalled now as -he sat by Nadine Napraxine, and had said with a dignity of reproach -which had sat very prettily on her youthfulness: 'If he have faults, I -shall never see them--you maybe sure of that; and if you will tell me -how to please him, I will never think of myself.' - -Remembering this, the Baron, who had never in his life cared greatly -for any woman or believed much in one, felt a restless anger against -the prophetess of woe. - -'When they predict fire they have already laid the powder,' he thought, -impatiently. - -Friederich Othmar was surprised himself at the feeling of affection and -of anxiety which Yseulte had aroused in him. He had wished Othmar to -marry that the race might be continued, but he had never supposed that -any young girl would fill him with the solicitude for her own welfare -which she made him feel for hers. - -Women had always been _la femelle de l'homme_ with him; no more; he was -astonished at himself for being moved by a genuine desire to secure for -her those more subtle joys of the soul which he had always derided. -Before her he felt ashamed of his own grosser convictions (which a -month before would have been so confident) that she could want nothing -more than the riches her marriage conferred on her. Though he had been -a man of little feeling he was not altogether without kindliness, -and his keen penetration told him that hers was a nature which the -glories and gewgaws of the world would do very little to console if its -affections were starved or its higher instincts humiliated, and the -prophecies of Nadine Napraxine but irritated him more because he knew -that her merciless intelligence was as a seismographic pendulum which -foretold truly the convulsions of the future. - -'Surely,' she continued, 'S. Pharamond would have been a more natural -place to select at this season. Amyôt is superb, but it must be sunk -fathoms deep in snow.' - -'There is no snow; it was open weather, and even mild,' replied the -Baron, who was ready to declare that roses were blossoming in the -ditches of the Orleannais. - -'But why did he not come to S. Pharamond? It is a paradise of azaleas -and tulips at the present moment.' - -'It is a pretty place,' he answered; 'but perhaps more suggestive of -Apates and Philotes than of the true Eros.' - -'The vicinity of the _tripots_ hardly accords with the solemnity -of Hymen? Do you mean that?' she said, with her enigmatical little -smile. 'Who would ever have thought to live to hear Baron Friederich -mention Eros! Well, we will hope that the god for once will be like -the Salamander which is emblazoned, and carved so liberally, all over -Amyôt. We will hope the fire that feeds him may not go out; but I am -afraid the motto really means that what nourishes extinguishes.' - -With that she rose and took herself and her sunshade, with its point -duchesse, and her marvellous gown with its cascades of lace and soft -pale hues, like tea roses, her provocative languor, and her admirable -grace, from the terraces of the Prince Ezarhédine. She was followed -by longing eyes and a silence which was the truest of compliments. To -more than one there, the sun had set whenever she had passed from their -sight. - -'What makes the world of men so fanatic about that woman?' asked -Friederich Othmar, exhaling all the unspoken grievances of his own soul -in a rude grumble, as the sound of the whirling wheels of her carriage -died away. 'Why? Why? There are numbers more beautiful; few, perhaps, -with so perfect a form, yet there are some who equal her even in that. -She is as cruel as death, as cold as frost; no one ever saw a flush on -her cheek or a tear in her eyes, and when she smiles it is like the -sirocco and the north wind blent together; and yet there is no woman so -blindly loved.' - -'Yet!' echoed Prince Ezarhédine. 'Surely, you should say "therefore." -The sirocco and the north wind blent together are electric shocks to -the most sated senses.' - -'Yes,' added the great statesman who was his guest, 'and if it will -not sound too pedantic, I will add also why it is. She is to her lovers -very much what the worship of Isis became to the Latins. She blends an -infinite subtlety of sentiment with an infinite potentiality of sensual -delight.' - -'Sensual! She is as cold as snow----' - -'I know; she has that sobriquet. But every one feels what a paradise -would lie within if the snow were melted. Every one hopes--more or less -conscious or unconscious of his hope--to pass that frosty barrier. I -think if Madame Napraxine ever loved any man, she would make such a -heaven for him that he would be the most enviable of all human beings. -But it would only last a month; perhaps six weeks. Although,' he added, -with a faint sigh, 'it would be worth losing all the rest of life to be -the companion of those six weeks.' - -'If I may differ with you, Prince, I would say that, on the contrary, -if ever Madame Nadine can be touched to love she will be most tenacious -and most constant,' said Ezarhédine. - -'Perhaps too much so for the felicity of the person whom she might -honour,' added the Baron with a smile that was a little impertinent. -He had always disliked and dreaded her; she had wasted two years of -his nephew's life, and he shrewdly suspected that she was the cause of -Othmar's too slight ardour towards his young wife. - -Meanwhile, the subject of their meditations and desires was borne by -her fleet horses over the sea-road homeward to La Jacquemerille. She -felt astonished, irritated, offended at the idyl of Amyôt. To have -loved herself, and then to be content shut up within the stone walls of -a country-house with a girl taken from a convent! - -'He is like Gilles de Retz,' she thought, with bitter disdain. 'He -takes the white flesh of a child to try and cure his malady.' - -It seemed to her cowardly, sensual, contemptible. - -She drove homeward through the olives and the lemon-yards and the green -fields that were full of anemones and narcissus and of the bright gold -and sea-shell hues of the crocus. The grey towers of S. Pharamond were -on her left as she went, and beyond them the fantastic pinnacles and -gilded crockets of Millo. She looked at them with an anger foreign to -her character. - -'Who could have dreamed he would have done so absurd a thing?' she -thought, irritated against him and against herself. Never before in -her life had the actions of any other person had the slightest effect -upon her own feelings. She had not lived very long, it is true, but -to herself she seemed to have an illimitable experience; and within -her memory there was no record of any time in which she had cared one -straw what another did. That she should care now, ever so slightly, -irritated her pride and wounded her delicacy. She was a woman at all -times truthful with herself, however it might be her amusement to -mislead others. She was quite as cruel to herself as to anyone else -in her unrelenting and inquisitive mental dissection. She pursued her -self-analysis with a mercilessness which, had she been less witty and -less worldly, might have been morbid; and she did not disguise from -herself now that the tidings of Amyôt were an irritation if not a pain -to her. She did full justice to the loveliness with which Othmar had -sought to find oblivion of her own; and she knew that it might very -well be that, as the Baron had said, he had become the girl's lover as -well as her husband. - -'Men are such poor creatures,' she thought with scorn. 'They are all -the slaves of their senses; they have no character; they are only -animals. They talk of their souls, but they have got none; and of their -constancy, but they are only constant to their own self-indulgence.' - -The contempt of a woman, in whom the senses have never awakened, and -for whom all the grosser appetites have no attraction, for those easy -consolations which men can find in the mere gratification of those -appetites, is very real and very unforgiving. - -Her scorn for Othmar, seeking forgetfulness of herself in the fresh -and budding life of a child of sixteen, was equal to that which she -felt for Napraxine finding solace for her own indifference in the -purchasable charms of the _belles petites_; the one seemed as trivial -to her as the other. When men spoke of their devotion, they only meant -their own passions; if these were denied, they sought refuge in mere -physical pleasures, which at all events partially consoled them. -She thought of him with increasing intolerance. She answered only by -monosyllables to the remarks of her companions, and her mind wandered -away to that stately place where life might well seem a love-lay of the -Renaissance. - -'He will soon be tired,' she mused, with cruel wisdom. 'In a week the -child will have become a romance read through; a peach with its bloom -rubbed off; a poor little bird which has only one note, and has sung -that one till its master is ready to wring its throat. It is always -so. I never see a baby run through the fields gathering daisies and -throwing them down but what I think of men with their loves. The only -passion that lasts with them is one which is denied, and even that is -a poor affair. To be sure, sometimes they kill themselves, but that -is rather out of rage than out of any higher despair. And for one who -kills himself for us there are a hundred who kill themselves for their -debts. Othmar never can have any debts, so he invents woes for himself, -and captivity for himself, and he will die of neither.' - -Yet, contemptuous of him for what seemed to her his weakness and his -unreason as she was, her thoughts attached themselves persistently to -him. He was the only living being who had never wearied her, who had -always perforce interested her, who had seemed to her unlike the rest -of the world, and capable of a master-passion, which might have risen -beyond mediocrity. How would it have been with them if he had stood in -the stead of Napraxine, whilst she was vaguely open to dim and noble -ideals, to spiritual emotions, to human affections? - -'Pooh!' she thought. 'It would have been just the same thing. Love is -gross and absurd in its intimacies; it is like the hero to his valet. -Maternity is first a malady, and then an ennui; that _biche blanche_ -at Amyôt will learn that as I learned it. He would have been much more -poetic than Platon, and much more agreeable; but I dare say he would -have been much more exacting, and much more jealous.' - -Yet the remembrance of Amyôt pursued her, and made her restless; with -her lips she had ridiculed the idea of nuptial joys enshrouded in the -wet woods and falling mists of the Orleannais; but in her heart she did -not laugh; almost--almost--she envied that child, with the innocent, -serious eyes, whom she called contemptuously _la biche blanche_, who -was learning the language of love in the earliest dawn of womanhood. - -'Only he does not love her!' she reflected, with pity, disdain, and -satisfaction, all commingled. No! He loved herself. She believed in few -things, and in few emotions; but she believed that so long as Othmar -lived he would love her alone. - -'_Quand on tient la dragée haute!_' she thought, with her unkindest -smile at the fractiousness and ingratitude of men, as she descended at -the doors of La Jacquemerille, and with displeasure heard her servants -say, 'M. le Comte Seliedoff awaits Madame la Princesse.' - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. - - -Boris Fedorovich Seliedoff was a young cousin of Napraxine's; he was -twenty-two years old, tall and well made, with a beautiful face on his -broad shoulders, a face given him by a Georgian mother. He had been -an imperial page, and was now a lieutenant in the Imperial Guard. He -was an only son, and his father was dead; he had a great position, -and was much indulged by all his world, and was as headstrong and as -affectionate as a child. Nadine Napraxine alone did not indulge him, -and he adored her with all the blind ecstasies of a first love; he had -obtained his leave of absence only that he might follow her southward. -He was extremely timid in his devotion, but he was impassioned also; -the moral question of his love for his cousin's wife weighed no more -with him than it weighed with Othmar. His world was not given to -consideration of such scruples. As far as she could be entertained by -such stale things, she was amused by the worship of this boy. In Russia -he had done the maddest follies at her whim and word; once he had come -from Petersburg to the Krimea only to be able to dance one valse with -her at a ball at her villa on the Black Sea; he had ridden his horse -up the staircase of her house in Petersburg, and taken an incredible -leap over a river in Orel, because she wished for a stalk of foxglove -growing on the other bank; he had risked life and limb, position and -honour, again and again, to attract her attention or to go where she -was, and she had smiled on him the more kindly the more headstrong were -his acts and the more perilous his follies. - -Once Napraxine had dared to say to her: - -'Could you not spare Boris? He is only a lad, and his mother trusts to -me to keep him out of harm.' - -She had answered in her chilliest tones: - -'Pray keep him so. I do not think, however, that you give him the best -of examples. Your clubs, your play, your various distractions, are not -all of them virtuous?' - -And he had been dumb, afraid to offend her more, though he was vaguely -uneasy for his young cousin. The lad was terribly in earnest, and -she only saw in him a young lion-whelp whose juvenile ardours and -furies were half grotesque, half amusing. Napraxine knew that if the -lion-whelp went too far, or if she tired of his rage and fret, she -would strike him with a whip like any other cur. But he dared not -remonstrate more; and Boris Seliedoff, on a brief term of leave, had -followed them to the sea-shores of the south-west, and was fretting -his soul in futile rage before the indifference of his idol and the -presence of her other lovers. It would have been very easy at the -onset to have checked the growth of this boyish passion, but she had -diverted herself with it, permitted its exaggerations, smiled at its -escapades, fanned its fires as she so well knew how to do, and it had -sprung to a giant growth in giant strength. This day, when she drove -homeward from the breakfast at Ezarhédine's, he was waiting for her at -La Jacquemerille. For anyone to wait for her was a thing she detested; -it was a disobedience to all those unspoken laws which she required -her courtiers implicitly to obey. She expected everyone, of whichever -sex, of whatever rank, in however high a degree of favour, to be the -humble suer of her commands, the meek attendant of her pleasure. To be -waited for without her desires being previously ascertained, made her -instantly in a chill and irritable mood; it was a presumption. This -morning she was especially ready to be irritated. When she saw the tall -figure of the young soldier pacing to and fro, with feverish steps, the -marble _perron_ of her villa, she grew suddenly and disproportionately -angry. - -'The boy becomes audacious,--intolerable,--impertinent,' she thought. -'I should have taken him to Ezarhédine's if I had wanted him. He has -had too much sugar, he needs the whip.' - -All that was most cruel, most intolerant, most tyrannical in her, -came with a cold hard look upon her delicate features; the temper of -those of her people who had thrust their swords into the body of Paul -began to awake in her. She was in the humour to hurt something, the -first thing she saw; her eyes were full of scorn and of command as -they looked haughtily at Seliedoff, and arrested him by a glance as he -sprang towards her. - -'Who told you that I sent for you?' she said, with that chill -contemptuous gaze which froze the boy and magnetised him in the same -moment. - -'No one,' he said piteously; 'I thought,--I imagined----' - -'You imagined you were always welcome!' she replied. 'A very erroneous -imagination. You may be so to Prince Napraxine, you are his cousin; -but as the house is mine, I shall prefer that you shall await my -invitation.' - -She spoke slightingly, and with a coldness like the New Year ice of -Russia. - -Boris Seliedoff stood and gazed at her helplessly, fascinated by the -anger of the gaze which swept over him in such supreme contempt. He had -before offended, before had seen what her caprices and her unkindness -could become when she was displeased; but all those previous moments -had been as summer showers compared with this glacial censure which -froze all his hot young blood. So often she had been content to see -him; so often she had laughed at him with indulgence and benignity; so -often she had called him '_beau cousin_,' '_cher enfant_,' and smiled -at his haste and eagerness when he had done much more than this. Might -not any stranger have waited to see her pass, to hear her speak? - -Nadine Napraxine, with that one comprehensive disdainful glance, passed -across the marble floor, and entered through the open glass doors of -the house. She said nothing more. The young Seliedoff, who had grown -first very red, then very pale, followed her timidly like a chidden -hound, and paused upon the threshold, hesitating; he scarcely ventured -to enter also without some sign from her. But she gave him none. She -passed on through the salons, and ascended the low broad staircase -without bestowing on him a single glance. Then he knew that she was -gone to her own apartments, where no man living dared follow her. Boris -Seliedoff stole into a little _salon_ humbly, and threw himself down on -the first seat he saw. He covered his face with his hands; there were -tears in his eyes, which fell slowly through his clasped fingers. - -He was a young dare-devil who had eaten fire and played with death, and -had hewed down men and women and children without mercy by Skobeleff's -side; but he was a mere frightened, timid, wretched lad beneath the -lash of her displeasure. He would have crawled for her pardon like her -spaniel, even whilst he groped about in bewilderment and darkness to -discover his own offence, and could not tell what it had been. An older -man would have told him that it had only been the supreme fault of -arriving at the wrong moment. - -How long he sat there he never knew; he waited in the vague hope of -a gentler word, a more kind dismissal, at least for permission to -return. He did not remember that he would only increase his offence, -prolong his error. The bright day was shining without on all the gay -array of shining marbles, many-coloured azaleas, dancing waves, white -sails, blue skies; within, the shaded light fell subdued and roseate on -the porcelains, the tapestries, the bronzes, the stands and bowls of -flowers, all the fantastic details of modern luxury. He might have been -in a peasant's _isba_ in the midst of a frozen plain for aught he knew. -Two or three clocks chimed five, and the carillon in the stable-tower -of La Jacquemerille answered them; for anything he could tell, he -might have been there a whole day or only fifteen minutes. - -Whilst it was still quite daylight, servants came in and brought lamps -with rose-coloured shades and set them down noiselessly and went away. -Seliedoff raised his head, but he did not leave his place; he sat like -a figure of stone. He heard a sound of voices and of laughter; through -the parted curtains of the _portières_ he saw the vista of the three -drawing-rooms which opened out of the small one in which he was. People -were coming in and standing about conversing with one another in the -rose-hued light of the lamps, lit whilst the sun was still shining. -He then remembered that it was Thursday, her day, on which, from five -to seven, the _dessus du panier_ could come there and idle and flirt -and sip caravan tea, or syrups or liqueurs, and have the honour of a -word from her, perhaps even of a word of welcome. As he looked and -remembered, she herself entered the little room in which he sat, and -which was the nearest to her own apartments. She cast a glance upon -him, severe, astonished, then passed through to the larger salons. She -wore a pale-mauve-coloured velvet gown, with a _jabot_ of old point -lace, and the same lace peeping here and there from the folds of its -skirts; she had some natural yellow roses at her throat; she had her -hair _à l'empire_; she had never looked lovelier, colder, more utterly -beyond the imitation of other women or the solicitations of men. He -watched her receive the little crowd of people already there, and those -who came after them; he heard her sweet chill voice, now and then her -laugh; he saw all the men whom he hated gathered about her; and the -murmur of the voices, the whispers of the discreet mirth, the scent of -the flower-laden air, the rosy gleams of the lamplight, the _frou-frou_ -of the dresses, the tinkle of the tea-cups, came to his ear as the -sounds of the outer world come to a sick man in fever. - -Geraldine was not there. She had always prohibited his appearance more -than once a month at her _jour_. - -'I will have no one seen in my rooms as regularly and certainly as -Paul,' she had always said to him. Paul was her groom of the chambers. -'Whenever any man is seen perpetually anywhere, as immovably as though -he were a clock or a bracket, he becomes ridiculous; and the woman who -allows him to be there, still more so.' - -Geraldine had been forced to obey, with whatever reluctance; usually he -had consoled himself, as well as he could, with the _tripot_. A man is -not often jealous of a day in which he knows there exists for him, in -his absence, that safety which lies in numbers. - -Boris Seliedoif sat on where he was with dogged persistence, his eyes -riveted on those pretty salons in which the comedy of society was being -acted, and where he perceived nothing save that one form, when it came -within his sight, with the grace of movement, the charm of attitude, -which were especial to Nadine Napraxine. He thought the coming and -going of her many guests would never end; that the buzz of the many -voices would never cease. Once or twice men and women whom he knew came -into the little room, and sat down there for a few moments; then he -was forced to rise and speak to them, to say he knew not what. But he -took his seat again immediately, and resumed his silent vigil. Some of -them looked at him in surprise, for his expression was strange, and -his black Georgian eyes were misty yet fierce; but he was not conscious -of the notice he excited, he was only conscious that she never glanced -towards him, never summoned him, once. - -The two hours seemed to him endless. When seven had struck, the last -carriage rolled away from before the windows, the last lingering -visitor, the Duc de Prangins--he who had killed young d'Ivrea--made his -profound bow over her hand, and took himself and his elegant witticisms -and his admirable manners back to the Hotel de Paris at Monte Carlo. -When the doors had closed on him, Nadine Napraxine stood a moment alone -in the centre of her salon; then swiftly turned, and came towards -Seliedoff. He rose, and awaited her sullenly. - -Her right hand was clenched as though it grasped the handle of a knout, -and was about to use it; a terrible anger shone from the lustre of her -eyes; her lips were pale with the force of her displeasure. - -'How dare you! how dare you!' she said between her teeth. - -So might an empress have spoken to a moujik. - -To have waited unbidden in her room, seen by all the world, sulking -there as though he were a lover once favoured, now dispossessed; -making of himself a spectacle, a ridicule, a theme for the comment and -chatter of society--it seemed to her such intolerable presumption, such -infinite insolence, that she could have struck him with her clenched -hand if her dignity had not forbade her. For all her world to see this -love-sick boy half-hidden in an inner room, as though by her welcome -and authority! She, who had dismissed kings as others dismiss lackeys -when she had found them too presuming, could find no chastisement vast -enough for such a sin against her authority and her repute. - -Seliedoff was but a spoilt child; he had had his own will and way -unchecked all his short life, and all his companions and servants had -existed only for his pleasure. A foolish and doting mother had never -bridled his wishes or tamed his passions. Before Nadine Napraxine alone -had the arrogant young noble become submissive, suppliant, and humble. -Now, in his torture and his sense of wrong, the natural self-will -and fury of a spoilt child crossed, of an adoring youth checked and -repudiated, broke away from the bonds of fear in which she had always -held them. He answered her with a torrent of words, unconsidered and -unwise, beyond all pardon. - -'You have treated me like a dog!' he said in conclusion, his voice -choked in his throat, the veins of his forehead injected. 'You have -caressed me, called me, allowed me every liberty, been pleased with my -every folly; and now you turn me out of your house as you would turn -the dog if he misbehaved himself. But I am not a dog, I am a man, and -that you shall know, by God----' - -He came nearer to her, his eyes red and covetous, his boyish face -inflamed with fiercest passion, his arms flung out to seize her. - -She looked at him, such a look as she would have given to a madman to -control, and awe him; he paused, trembled, dared not draw nearer to her. - -She was deeply, implacably offended by what had passed. For him to -permit himself such language and such actions, seemed to her as -intolerable an insult as if the African boy in her service had dared to -disobey her. It was the first time that anyone had ever ventured to -insult her; it irritated all her delicacy, infuriated all her pride. -She never paused to think what provocation she had given; she would -have struck him dead with a glance had she been able. - -'You are unwell, and delirious,' she said in her serenest, chillest -tones. 'You know neither what you do or say. I have been kind to you, -and you have presumed to misinterpret my kindness. Your cousin would -treat you like a hound, if he knew. But you are ill, so there is excuse -for you. Go home, and I will send you my physicians.' - -Then she rang; and when a servant entered from the antechamber she -turned to him: - -'M. le Comte Seliedoff desires his carriage.' - -The boy looked at her with a terrible look in his eyes--pitiful, -baffled, imploring, delirious. - -'Nadine, Nadine,' he whispered hoarsely, 'will you send me away like -that--to die?' - -But she had passed, with her slow soft grace, into the adjoining room. -He heard her say to Melville, who had been asked there: - -'You are after my hours, Monsignore, but you are always welcome.' - -Seliedoff, with a mist like blood before his eyes, staggered out of the -little salon into the mild primrose-scented evening air, hearing, as in -a dream, the voices of the servants who told him that his horses waited. - -'She will never forgive; she will never forgive,' he thought, with a -sickening sense that this one moment of insanity had severed him for -ever from the woman he worshipped. 'She will never forgive; I shall -never enter her house again!' - -All the lovely scene stretching before him in its peace and luxuriance, -as the stars came out in the deep blue skies and the daylight still -lingered upon shore and sea, was blotted out for him by a red haze as -of blood and of tears. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. - - -Meanwhile Melville, who had come to take his leave before proceeding -to Paris under orders from the Vatican, found his hostess evidently -_ennuyée_; she was not in her usual serene humour. - -'What has irritated you, Princess?' that very observant person presumed -at last to ask. 'Have you actually discovered that doubled rose-leaf of -whose existence you have been always sure and I always sceptical?' - -'The doubled rose-leaf is that enormous nuisance, _la bêtise humaine_,' -she replied with ennui, breaking off some blossoms of an odontoglossum -standing near her. 'It is like the fog in London, it penetrates -everywhere, you cannot escape it; there has been no rose-glass made -which could shut it out. If Balzac had written for centuries, he would -never have come to an end of it. Do you ever find any variety in your -confessional? I never do in my drawing-rooms.' - -'And yet who should find it, if not Madame Napraxine?' said Melville, -who, when in his worldly moods, did not especially care to be reminded -that he was a churchman. - -'I do not know who should,--I know that I never do,' she replied. 'I -have made _la chasse au caractère_ ever since I was old enough to know -what character meant; and my only wonder is how, out of such a sameness -of material, St.-Simon and La Bruyère and Ste.-Beuve, and all those -people who write so well, ever were able to make such entertaining -books. I suppose it is done by the same sort of science which enables -mathematicians to make endless permutations out of four numbers. For -myself, I should like other numbers than those we know by rote.' - -'Good heavens!' thought Melville, 'when men have died because she -laughed! Is that so very commonplace? or, is it not tragic enough?' - -Aloud he said, in his courtliest manner: - -'Princess, I fear the sameness of human nature tries you so greatly -because of the sameness of the emotions which you excite in it; I can -imagine that too much adoration may cloy like too much sugar. Also, in -your _chasse au caractère_ you have, like all who hunt, left behind -you a certain little bourgeois quality called pity; an absurd little -quality, no doubt, still one which helps observation. I am sure you -have read Tourguenieff's little story of the quail?' - -'Yes; but one eats them still, you know, just the same as if he had -never written it. Pity may be a microscope, I do not know; besides, you -must admit that a quail is a much lovelier little life than a man's, -and so can excite it so much more easily. A quail is quite a charming -little bird. Myself, I never eat birds at all; it is barbarous.' - -'What I meant to say was,' suggested Melville, 'that, in that tiny -tale, Tourguenieff, like a poet, as he was, at heart, describes -precisely what sympathy will do to open the intelligence to the closed -lives of others, whether bird or man. Perhaps, madame, sympathy would -even do something to smooth the creases out of your rose-leaf--if you -tried it.' - -'I suppose I am not sympathetic,' said Nadine Napraxine, stripping the -petals of the odontoglossum; 'they all say so. But I think it is their -own fault; they are so uninteresting.' - -'The quail,' said Melville, 'to almost everybody is only a little juicy -morsel to be wrapped in a vine-leaf and roasted; but Tourguenieff -had the vision to see in it the courage of devotion, the heroism of -maternity, the loveliness of its life, the infinite pathos of its -death. Yet, the exceptional estimate of the student's view of it was -quite as true as the general view of the epicure.' - -'Am I an epicure?' said Nadine Napraxine, amused. - -'Spiritually, intellectually, you are,' replied Melville; 'and so -nothing escapes the fastidiousness of your taste; yet perhaps, madame, -something may escape the incompleteness of your sympathies.' - -'That is very possible; but, as I observed to Lady Brancepeth when she -made me a similar reproach, one is as one is made. One is Tourguenieff -or one is Brillat-Savarin, all that is arranged beforehand for -one--somewhere.' - -Melville had learned the ways of the world too well not to know -how to glide easily, with closed eyes and averted ears, over such -irreverences; but he ventured to say: - -'One cannot dispute the fact of natural idiosyncrasy and inclination, -of course; but may not one's self-culture be as much of the character -as of the mind? Might it not become as interesting to strive and expand -one's moral as one's intellectual horizon? It seems so to me, at the -least.' - -She laughed, and rang a little silver bell for Mahmoud to bring them -some fresh tea. - -'My dear Monsignore,' she said, with amusement and admiration; 'for -enwrapping a kernel of religious advice in an envelope of agreeable -social conversation, there is not your equal anywhere--you may well be -beloved of the Propaganda! But, alas! it is all wasted on me.' - -Melville reddened a little with irritation: - -'I understand,' he answered. 'I fear, Princess, that you are like -Virschow or Paul Bert, who are so absorbed in cutting, burning, and -electrifying the nerves of dogs that the dog, as a sentient creature, -a companion, and a friend, is wholly unknown to them. Humanity, poor -Humanity, is your dog.' - -'Will you have some tea?' she said, as Mahmoud brought in her service -made by goldsmiths of the Deccan, who sat on mats under their banana -trees, with the green parrots flying over the aloes and the euphorbia, -and who produced work beside which all the best which Europe can do -with her overgrown workshops is clumsy, inane, and vulgar. - -'What you suggested was very pretty,' she continued, pouring out -the clear golden stream on the slices of lemon; 'and I had no right -to laugh at you for wrapping up a sermon in _nougat_. Of course the -character ought to be trained and developed just like the body and the -mind, only nobody thinks so; no education is conducted on those lines. -And so, though we overstrain the second, and pamper the third, we -wholly neglect the first. I imagine that it never occurs to anyone out -of the schoolroom to restrain a bad impulse or uproot a bad quality. -Why should it? We are all too busy in trying to be amused, and failing. -Do you not think it was always so in the world? Do you suppose La -Bruyère, for instance, ever turned his microscope on himself? And do -you think, if he had done, that any amount of self-scrutiny would have -made La Bruyère Pascal or Vincent de Paul?' - -'No; but it might have made him comprehend them, or their likenesses. -I did not mean to moralise, madame; I merely meant that the issue of -self-analysis is sympathy, whilst the issue of the anatomy of other -organisations is cruelty even where it may be wisdom.' - -'That may be true in general, and I daresay is so; but the exception -proves the rule, and I am the exception. Whenever I do think about -myself I only arrive at two conclusions; the one, that I am not as well -amused as I ought to be considering the means I have at my disposal, -and the other is that, if I were quite sure that anything would amuse -me very much, I should sacrifice everything else to enjoy it. Neither -of those results is objective in its sympathies; and you would not, I -suppose, call either of them moral.' - -'I certainly should not,' said Melville, 'except that there is always a -certain amount of moral health in any kind of perfect frankness.' - -'I am always perfectly frank,' said the Princess Nadine; 'so is -Bismarck. But the world has made up its mind that we are both of us -always feigning.' - -'That is the world's revenge for being ruled by each of you.' - -'Is it permitted in these serious days for churchmen to make pretty -speeches? I prefer your scoldings, they are more uncommon.' - -'The kindness which permits them is uncommon,' said Melville, as he -took up his tea-cup. - -'Ah! I can be kind,' said Nadine Napraxine. 'Ask Mahmoud and my little -dog. But then Mahmoud is dumb, and the dog is--a dog. If humanity were -my dog, too, as you say, I should make it _aphone_!' - -'Poor humanity!' said Melville, with a sigh. 'If it would not offend -you, Princess, there are two lines of Mürger which always seem to me to -exactly describe the attitude, or rather the altitude, from which you -regard all our sorrows and follies.' - -'And they are?' - -'They are those in which he thinks he hears: - - "Le fifre au son aigu railler le violoncelle, - Qui pleure sous l'archet ses notes de crystal;" - -only we must substitute for _aigu_ some prettier word, say _perlé_.' - -She laughed, thinking of Boris Seliedoff, with more perception of -his absurdities than of his offences, as her first movement of wrath -subsided into that ironical serenity which was most natural to her of -all her varying moods. - -'The violoncello does not know itself why it weeps,' she replied, 'so -why should the fife not laugh at it? Really, if I were not so impious -a being, I would join your Church for the mere pleasure of confessing -to you; you have such fine penetration, such delicate suggestion. But -then, there is no living being who understands women as a Catholic -priest does who is also a man of the world. Adieu! or rather, I hope, -_au revoir_. You are going away for Lent? Ours will soon be here. I -shock every Russian because I pay no heed to its sanctity. Did you ever -find, even amongst your people, any creatures so superstitious in their -religion as Russians? Platon is certainly the least moral man the sun -shines on, but he would not violate a fast nor neglect a rite to save -his life. It is too funny! Myself, I have fish from the Baltic and -soups (very nasty ones) from Petersburg, and deem that quite concession -enough to Carême. My dear Monsignore, why _should_ there be salvation -in salmon and sin in a _salmis_?' - -Melville was not at all willing to enter on that grave and large -question with so incorrigible a mocker. He took his leave, and bowed -himself out from her presence; whilst Nadine Napraxine went to her own -rooms to dress for dinner and look at the domino which she would wear -some hours later at a masked ball which was to take place that night -in her own house in celebration of the last evening of the Catholic -Carnival. - - 'Le masque est si charmant que j'ai peur du visage,' - -she murmured inconsequently, as she glanced at the elegant disguise -and the Venetian costume to be worn beneath it which had been provided -for her. 'That is the sort of feeling which one likes to inspire, and -which one also prefers to feel. Always the mask, smiling, mysterious, -unintelligible, seductive, suggestive of all kinds of unrealised, and -therefore of unexhausted pleasures; never the face beneath it, the face -which frowns and weeps and shows everything, is unlovely, only just -because it is known and must in due time even grow wrinkled and yellow. -How agreeable the world would be if no one ever took off their masks or -their gloves!' - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. - - -On the following day as she returned from her drive, she was met, to -her great surprise, by Napraxine, who descended the steps of the house -with a face unusually pale, and a manner unusually grave. - -'What can possibly be the matter, Platon?' she said, with a vague -sense of alarm, but with her inevitable mockery of him dominating her -transient anxiety. 'Have you had a _culotte_ yonder? Has Athenais -gone away with my jewel-safe? Or have our friends the Nihilists fired -Zaraizoff?' - -Napraxine gave her his hand to help her to alight. - -'Do not jest,' he said simply. 'Boris has shot himself.' - -'Boris?--Boris Fédorovitch?' - -She spoke in astonishment and anger rather than sorrow: an impatient -frown contracted her delicate brows, though she grew ashen pale. Why -would men do these things? - -Napraxine was silent, but when they had entered the house he spoke very -sadly, almost sternly. - -'This afternoon he had lost a hundred thousand francs; no doubt on -purpose to have an excuse. The ruse can deceive nobody. A Count -Seliedoff could lose as much all day for a year, and make no sign. He -shot himself in the gardens, within a few yards of us all.' - -He paused and looked at his wife. A shadow passed over her face without -changing its narcissus-like fairness; she shrugged her shoulders ever -so slightly, her eyes had had for a moment an expression of awe and -regret, but, beyond any other sentiment with her, were her impatience -and irritation. - -'Why will men be so stupid?' she thought. 'As if it did any good! The -foolish boy!' - -'Nadine,' murmured her husband in a voice that was timid even in its -expostulation and reproach. 'I am sorry for Boris; for the other I have -never cared, but for Boris;--you know that I promised his mother to -take what care I could of him--and now--and now--and so young as he -was!--and how shall I tell her?--My God!' - -She was silent; a genuine pain was on her face, though still mingled -with the more personal emotion of impatience and annoyance. - -'It was no fault of yours!' she said at last, as she saw two great -tears roll down her husband's cheeks. - -'Yes, it was,' muttered Platon Napraxine. 'I let him know you.' - -The direct accusation banished the softer pain which had for the minute -moved her; she was at all times intolerant of censure or of what she -resented as a too intimate interference; and here her own surprise at -an unlooked-for tragedy, and her own self-consciousness of having been -more or less the cause and creatress of it, stung her with an unwelcome -and intolerable truth. - -'You are insolent,' she said, with the regard which always daunted -Napraxine, and made him feel himself an offender against her, even when -he was entirely in the right. - -'You are insolent,' she repeated. 'Do you mean to insinuate that I -am responsible for Seliedoff's suicide? One would suppose you were a -journalist seeking _chantage_!' - -The power which she at all times possessed over her husband making him -unwilling to irritate, afraid to offend her, and without courage before -her slightest sign of anger, rendered him timid now. He hesitated and -grew pale, but the great sorrow and repentance which were at work in -him gave him more resolution than usual; he was very pale, and the -tears rolled down his cheeks unchecked. - -'Every one knows that Boris loved you,' he said simply. 'All the world -knows that; he was a boy, he could not conceal it; I cannot tell what -you did to him, but something which broke his heart. You know I never -say anything; you give me no title. I am as much of a stranger to you -as if we had met yesterday; and do not fancy I am ever--jealous--as -men are sometimes. I know you would laugh at me, and besides, you care -for none of them any more than you care for me. I should be a fool to -wish for more than that;--if it be always like that, I shall never say -anything. Only you might have spared this lad. He was so young and my -cousin, and the only one left to his mother.' - -He paused, in stronger agitation than he cared to allow her to see. -It was the first time for years that he had ventured to speak to her -in any sort of earnestness or of upbraiding. She had allotted him his -share in her life, a very distant one; and he had accepted it without -dispute or lament, if not without inward revolt; it was for the first -time for years that he presumed to show her he had observed her actions -and had disapproved them, to hint that he was not the mere lay figure, -the mere good-natured dolt, '_bon comme du pain_,' and as commonplace, -which she had always considered him. - -She looked at him a little curiously; there was a dangerous irritation -in her glance, yet a touch of emotion was visible in her as she said -with impatience, 'You are growing theatrical. It does not become you. -Boris was a boy, foolish as boys are; he had no mind; he was a mere -spoilt child; he was grown up in inches, not in character; so many -Russians are. If he have killed himself, who can help it? They should -have kept him at home. Why do you play yourself? He is not the first.' - -'No, he is not the first,' said Napraxine, with a curt bitterness. -'He is not the first, and it was not play; he only played to have an -excuse. He thought of your name, perhaps of mine; he did not wish the -world to know he died because you laughed at him.' - -'Laughed! I used to laugh; why not? He was amusing before he grew -tragical. I rebuked him yesterday, for he deserved it. Everyone scolds -boys. It is good for them. No one supposes----' her tone was impatient -and contemptuous, but her lips quivered a little; she was sorry that -the boy was dead, though she would not say so. It hurt her, though it -annoyed her more. - -'Did he--did he suffer?' she asked, abruptly. - -Napraxine took out of the breast-pocket of his coat a sheet of -note-paper, and gave it her. - -'He died instantly, if you mean that,' he answered. 'He knew enough to -aim well. They brought me that note; he had written it last night, I -think.' - -In the broad, rude handwriting of the young Seliedoff there was -written:-- - -'Pardonnez-moi, mon cousin: je l'adore, et elle se moque de moi; je ne -peux pas vivre, mais j'aurai soin que le monde n'en sache rien. Soignez -ma pauvre mère. Tout à vous de coeur - - 'BORIS FÉDOROVITCH.' - -She read it with a mist before her eyes, and gave it back to him -without a word. - -Napraxine looked at her wistfully; he wondered if he had killed himself -whether she would have cared more than she cared now--no, he knew she -would have cared as little, even less. - -'You say nothing?' he murmured wistfully. - -'What is there to say?' she answered. 'It was a boy's blunder. It was a -grievous folly. But no one could foresee it.' - -'That is all the lament you give him?' - -'Would it please you better if I were weeping over his corpse? I regret -his death profoundly; but I confess that I am also unspeakably annoyed -at it. I detest melodramas. I detest tragedies. The world will say, as -you have the good taste to say, that I have been at fault. I am not -a coquette, and a reputation of being one gives me no satisfaction. -As you justly observed, no one will believe that a Count Seliedoff -destroyed his life because he lost money at play. Therefore, they will -say, as you have been so good as to say, that the blame lies with me. -And such accusations offend me.' - -She spoke very quietly, but with a tone which seemed chill as the -winter winds of the White Sea, to Napraxine, whose soul was filled -with remorse, dismay, and bewildered pain. Then she made him a slight -gesture of farewell and left him. As usual, he was entirely right in -the reproaches he had made, yet she had had the power to make himself -feel at once foolish and at fault, at once coarse and theatrical. - -'Poor Boris!' he muttered, as he drew his hand across his wet lashes. - -Had it been worth while to die at three-and-twenty years old, in -full command of all which the world envies, only to have that cruel -sacrifice called a boy's blunder? His heart ached and his thoughts -went, he knew not why, to his two young children away in the birch -forests by the Baltic Sea. She would not care any more if she heard on -the morrow that they were as dead in their infancy as Boris Seliedoff -was in his youth, lying under the aloes and the palms of Monte Carlo in -the southern sunshine. - -Platon Napraxine was a stupid man, a man not very sensitive or very -tender of feeling, a man who could often console himself with coarse -pleasures and purchasable charms for wounds given to his affections or -his pride; but he was a man of quick compunction and warm emotions; -he felt before the indifference of his wife as though he stretched -out his hand to touch a wall of ice, when what he longed for was the -sympathetic answering clasp of human fingers. He brushed the unusual -moisture from his eyes, and went to fulfil all those innumerable small -observances which so environ, embitter, and diminish the dignity of -death to the friends of every dead creature. - -Meanwhile, Nadine passed on to her own rooms, and let her waiting-woman -change her clothes. - -A momentary wish, wicked as a venomous snake, and swift as fire, had -darted through her thoughts. - -'Why had not Othmar died like that? I would have loved his memory all -my life!' she thought, with inconsistency. - -Though she had almost refused to acknowledge it, the suicide of -Seliedoff pained and saddened her. Foremost of all was her irritation -that she who disliked tragedies, who abhorred publicity, who -disbelieved in passion, should be thus subject to having her name in -the mouths of men in connection with a melodrama which, terrible as -it was, yet offended her by its vulgarity and its stupidity. The hour -and the scene chosen were vulgar; the transparency of the pretext -was stupid. It was altogether, as she had said, a boy's blunder--a -blunder, frightful, irreparable, with the horror of youth misspent -and life self-destroyed upon it--still a blunder. She thought, with -impatience, that what they called love was only a spoilt child's whim -and passionate outcry which, denied, ended in a child's wild, foolish -fit of rage, with no more wisdom in it than the child has. - -All Europe would say that, indirectly, she had been the cause of his -death; every one had seen him, moping and miserable, in her rooms the -previous day. She disliked a sensational triumph, which was fit for -her husband's mistresses, for Lia, for Aurélie, for la belle Fernande. -Men were always doing these foolish things for her. She had been angry -certainly: who would not have been so? He had been ridiculous, as youth -and intense emotion and unreasonable suffering constantly are in the -sight of others. - -There had been only one man who had not seemed to her absurd when -passion had moved him, and that had only been because he had remained -master of himself even in his greatest self-abandonment. If it had -been Othmar who had been lying dead there with the bullet in his -breast, she would have felt--she was not sure what she would have -felt--some pleasure, some pain. Instead, he was at Amyôt finding what -pleasures he might in a virginal love, like a spring snowdrop, timid -and afraid. She, who always analysed her own soul without indulgence or -self-delusion, was disgusted at the impulses which moved her now. - -'After all,' she thought, 'Goethe was right; we are always capable of -crime, even the best of us; only one must be Goethe to be capable of -acknowledging that.' - -She sat alone awhile, thoughtful and regretful; indisposed to accept -the blame of others, yet not unwilling to censure herself if she saw -cause. But she saw no cause here; it was no fault of hers if men loved -her as she passed by them without seeing they were there. True, she had -been annoyed with the youth; she had been irritated by him; she had -treated him a little as some women treat a dog,--a smile one day, the -whip the next; but she had thought so little about him all the time, -except that his high spirits were infectious and his face was boyishly -beautiful, and that it had diverted her to annoy Geraldine. But who -could have supposed that it would end thus? And amidst her pain and her -astonishment was foremost a great irritation at his want of thought for -her. - -The journals, with their innuendoes, their initials, their transparent -mysteries; the condolences and the curiosities of her own society; the -reproaches of his family; the long ceremonious Russian mourning and -Russian rites--'_Quelle corvée!_' she murmured impatiently, as at some -pebble in her embroidered shoe, at some clove of garlic in her delicate -dinner. - -After all, were the great sorrows of life one-half so unendurable in -themselves as the tiresome annoyances with which the foolish habits of -men have environed them? - -That our friend dies is pain enough, why must we have also the nuisance -of following his funeral? - -'Men only think of themselves!' she said irritably, in her own -unconscious egotism. If Boris Seliedoff had considered her as he should -have done, he would not have killed himself within three miles of her -garden terrace, at a moment when all their own gossiping world was -crowding on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean. A sense of the wrong -done to herself divided the regret, tinged almost with remorse, which -weighed on her. - -As she moved through her boudoir to write the inevitable and most -difficult letter which must be penned to his mother far away in the -province of the Ekaterinoslaf, a photograph, in a frame of blue plush, -caught her eye as it stood amongst all the pretty costly nothings of -her writing-table. It was a photograph of Seliedoff; it had been tinted -with an artist's skill, and the boyish handsome mouth smiled tenderly -and gaily at her. - -For almost the first time in her life she felt the tears rise to her -throat and eyes. She laid the picture face downward, and wept. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII. - - -A few days later when the remains of Boris Seliedoff had been removed -to Russia, there to find their last home in the sombre mausoleum of -his family on their vast estates in Ekaterinoslaf, Geraldine, who was -one of the few who were admitted to La Jacquemerille in these days -of mourning, coming thither one afternoon to find her in the garden -alone and to entreat for permission to follow her in the various -travels which she was about to undertake, since the Riviera had grown -distasteful to her, was accosted by her abruptly, if in her delicate -languor she could ever be termed abrupt: - -'My dear Ralph,' she said briefly, 'why do you not go home?' - -Geraldine drew his breath quickly, and stared at her. - -'Go home!' he repeated stupidly. - -'Well, you have a home; you have several homes,' she said, with her -usual impatience at being questioned or misunderstood by wits slower -than her own. 'You are an Englishman; you must have a million and one -duties. It is utterly wrong to live so much away from your properties. -We do it, but I do not think it matters what we do. Whether we be here -or there, it is always the stewards who rule everything, but in your -country it is different. Your sister says you can do a great deal of -good. I cannot imagine what good you should do, but no doubt she knows. -I do not like England myself. Your châteaux are very fine, but the -life in them is very tiresome. You all eat far too much and far too -often, and you have lingering superstitions about Sunday; your women -are always three months behind Paris, and never wear shoes like their -gowns; your talk is always of games, and shooting, and flat-racing. -You are not an amusing people; you never will be. You have too much of -the Teuton, and the Hollander, and the Dane in you. Your stage makes -one yawn, your books make one sleep, your country-houses make one do -both. Your women clothe themselves in Newmarket coats, get red faces, -and like to go over wet fields; your men are well built very often, -but they move ill; they have no _désinvolture_, they have no charm. The -whole thing is tiresome. I shall never willingly go to England; but -you, as a great English noble, ought to go there, and stay there----' - -'And marry there!' said Geraldine, bitterly. 'Is that the medicine you -prescribe for all your friends?' - -'Of course you will marry some time,' she said indifferently. 'Men of -your position always do; they think they owe it to their country. But -whether you marry or not, go home and be useful. You have idled quite -too much time away in following our changes of residence.' - -He turned pale, and his eyes grew dark with subdued anger. - -'You want to be rid of me!' - -'Ah, that is just the kind of rough, rude thing which an Englishman -always says. It is the reason why Englishmen do not please women much. -No Italian or Frenchman or Russian would make such a stupid, almost -brutal, remark as that; he would respect his own dignity and the -courtesy of words too greatly.' - -'We are unpolished, even at our best; you have told me so fifty -times,' he said sullenly. 'Well, let me be a savage, then, and ask for -a savage mercy; a plain answer. You want me away?' - -Nadine's eyes grew very cold. - -'I never say uncivil things,' she answered, with an accent that was -chill as the mistral. 'But since for once you divine one's meaning, I -will not deny the accuracy of your divination.' - -She blew a little cloud from a tiny cigarette as she paused. She -expressed, as clearly as though she had spoken, the fact that her -companion was as little to her as that puff of smoke. - -'Does sincerity count for nothing?' he muttered stupidly. - -'Sincerity!' she echoed. 'Ah! English people always speak as if they -had a monopoly of sincerity, like a monopoly of salt or a monopoly of -coal! My dear Lord Geraldine, I am not doubting your sincerity in the -very least; it is not _that_ which is wanting in you----' - -'What is?' he asked in desperation. - -'So much!' said the Princess Napraxine with a little comprehensive -smile and sigh. - -'If you would deign to speak definitely--' he murmured in bitter pain, -which he strove clumsily to make into the likeness of serenity and -irony. - -'Oh, if you wish for details!--It is just that kind of wish for details -which shows what you fail in so very much; tact, finesse, observation, -flexibility. My dear friend, you are thoroughly insular! Everything is -comprised in that!' - -He was silent. - -'I have not the least wish to vex you,' she continued. 'I am quite -sorry to vex you, but if you will press me----A painter teased me the -other day to go to his studio and see what he had done for the salon. -I made him polite excuses, the weather, my health, my engagements, the -usual phrases, but he would not be satisfied with them, he continued to -insist, so at last he had the truth. I told him that I detested almost -all modern art, and that I did not know why anyone encouraged it at all -when it was within everyone's power to have at least line-engravings of -the old masters. He was not pleased--take warning. Do not be as stupid -as he.' - -Geraldine understood, and his tanned cheek grew white with pain. He -was a proud man, and had been made vain by his world. He was bitterly -and cruelly humbled, but the love he had for her made him almost -unconscious of the offence to him, so overwhelming in its cruelty was -the sentence of exile which he received. - -He did not speak at once, for he could not be sure to command his -voice, and he shrank from betraying what he felt. She rose, and threw -the cigarette over the balustrade into the sea, and turned to go -indoors. She had said what her wishes were, and she expected to have -them obeyed without more discussion. But the young man rose too, and -barred her way. - -He had only one consciousness, that he was on the point of banishment -from the only woman whom he had cared for through two whole years. It -had become so integral a part of his life that he should follow Nadine -Napraxine as the moon follows the earth, that exile from her presence -seemed to him the most terrible of disasters, the most unendurable of -chastisements. - -'After all this time, do you only tell me to go away?' he muttered, -conscious of the lameness and impotency of his own words, which might -well only move her laughter. But a certain anger rather than amusement -was what they stirred in her; there was in them an implied right, an -implied reproach, which were both what she was utterly indisposed to -admit his title to use. - -'All this time!' she echoed; 'all what time? You are leading a very -idle life, and all your excellent friends say that you leave many -duties neglected; I advise you to return to them.' - -'Is it the end of all?' he said, while his lips trembled in his own -despite. - -'All? All what? The end? No; it is the end to nothing that I know of; -I should rather suppose that you would make it the beginning--of a -perfectly proper life at home. Evelyn Brancepeth says you ought to -reduce all your farmers' rents; go and do it; it will make you popular -in your own county. I know you good English always fancy that you can -quench revolutions with a little weak tea of that sort. As if people -who hate you will not hate you just the same whether they pay you half -a guinea, or half a crown, for every sod of ground! Our Tsar Alexander -thought the same sort of thing _en grand_, and did it; but it has not -answered with him. To be sure, he was even sillier--he expected slaves -to be grateful!' - -'You really mean that you are tired of my presence?' he said, with no -sense of anything except the immense desolation which seemed suddenly -to cover all his life. - -'You _will_ put the dots on all your i's!' she said impatiently. 'That -kind of love of explanation is so English; all your political men's -time is wasted in it. Nobody in England understands _à demi-mot_, or -appreciates the prettiness of a hint.' - -'I understand well enough--too well,' he muttered, with a sigh that -was choked in its birth. 'But--but--I suppose I am a fool; I did not -think you really cared much--yet I always fancied--I suppose I had no -right--but surely we have been friends at the least?' - -His knowledge of the world and of women ought to have stopped the -question unuttered; but a great pain, an intense disappointment, had -mastered him, and left him with no more tact or wisdom than if he -had been a mere lad fresh from college. It cost him much to make his -reproach so measured, his words so inoffensive. He began to understand -why men had said that Nadine Napraxine was more perilous in her -chastity and her spiritual cruelty than the most impassioned Alcina. - -She looked at him with a little astonishment mingled with a greater -offence. - -'Friends? certainly; why not?' she said, with entire indifference. 'Who -is talking of enmity? In plain words, since you like them so much, you -do--bore me just a little; you are too often here; you have a certain -manner in society which might make gossips remark it. You do not seem -to comprehend that one may see too much of the most agreeable person -under the sun. It is, perhaps, a mistake ever to see much of anyone; -at least, I think so. Briefly, I do not wish to have any more stories -for Nice and its neighbourhood; this one of Boris Seliedoff is quite -enough! They are beginning to give me a kind of reputation of being -a _tueuse d'hommes_. It is so vulgar, that kind of thing. They are -beginning to call me Marie Stuart; it is absurd, but I do not like -that sort of absurdities. I had nothing to do with the folly of poor -Boris, but no one will ever believe it; he will always be considered -my victim. It is true you are certain not to kill yourself; Englishmen -always kill a tiger or a pig if they are unhappy, never themselves. I -am not afraid of your doing any kind of harm; you will only go home -and see your farmers and please your family; and you will give big -breakfasts in uncomfortable tents, and be toasted, and your county -newspapers will have all sorts of amiable paragraphs about you, and -sometime or other you will marry--why not? Please stand back a little -and let me pass; we shall meet in Paris next year when you take a -holiday on your reduced rents.' - -She laughed a little, for the first time since Seliedoff's suicide; her -own words amused her. Those poor English gentlemen, who fancied they -would stem the great salt tide of class hatred, the ever-heaving ocean -of plebeian envy, by the little paper fence of a reduced rental! Poor -Abels, deluding themselves with the idea that they could disarm the -jealousy of their Cains with a silver penny! - -But the thoughts of Geraldine were far away from any political ironies -with which she might entertain her own discursive mind. - -'Nadine, Nadine,' he said stupidly, 'you cannot be so cruel. I have -always obeyed you; I have never murmured; I have been like your dog; -I have been content on so little. Other men would have rebelled, but -I--I----' - -Her languid eyes opened widely upon him in haughty surprise and rebuke. - -'Now you talk like a _jeune premier_ of the Gymnase!' she said, -contemptuously. 'Rebelled? Content? What words are those? You have been -a pleasant acquaintance--amongst many. You cannot say you have been -ever more. If you have begun to misunderstand that, go where you can -recover your good sense. I have liked you; so has Prince Napraxine. Do -not force us to consider our esteem misplaced.' - -She spoke coldly, almost severely; then, with an enchanting smile, she -held out her hand. - -'Come, we will part friends, though you are disposed to _bouder_ like -a boy. You know something of the world; learn to look as if you had -learned at least its first lesson--good temper. Affect it if you have -it not! And--never outstay a welcome!' - -He looked at her and his chest heaved with a heavy sigh that was -almost a sob. Passionate upbraiding rose to his lips, a thousand -reproaches for delusive affabilities, for patiently-endured caprices, -for wasted hours and wasted hopes, and wasted energies, all rose to -his mouth in hot hard words of senseless, irrepressible pain; but they -remained unuttered. He dared not offend her beyond pardon, he dared not -exile himself beyond recall. He was conscious of the futility of any -reproach which he could bring, of the absence of any title which he -could allege. For two years he had been her bondsman, her spaniel, her -submissive servant in the full sight of the world, yet looking backward -he could not recall any sign or word or glance which could have -justified him in the right to call himself her lover. She had accepted -his services, permitted his presence--no more; and yet, he felt himself -as bitterly wronged, as cruelly deluded, as ever man could have been by -woman. - -There is a little song which has been given world-wide fame by the -sweetest singer of our time: the little song which is called, '_Si -vous n'avez rien à me dire_.' Just so vague, and so intense, as is the -reproach of the song, was the cry of his heart against her now. - -If she had never cared, had never meant, why then----? - -But he dared not formulate his injury in words; he knew that it would -condemn him never to see her face again except in crowds as strangers -saw it. He had never really believed that she would care for him as -he cared for her, but it had always seemed to him that habit would in -the end become affection, that the continual and familiar intercourse -which he had obtained with her would become in time necessary to her, -an association, a custom, a friendship not lightly to be discarded. -He had believed that patience would do more for him than passion; he -had endured all her caprices, followed all her movements, incurred the -ridicule of men, and, what was worse, his own self-contempt, in the -belief that, with her, _Festina lente_ was the sole possible rule of -victory. And now she cast him aside, with no more thought than she -left to her maids a fan of an old fashion, a glove that had been worn -once! - -She gave him no time to recover the shock with which he had heard his -sentence of exile, but, with a little kindly indifferent gesture, -passed him and went into the house. - -He had not the courage of Othmar; he had never had as much title as -Othmar to deem himself preferred to the multitude; looking back on the -two years which he had consecrated to her memory and her service, he -could not honestly recall a single word or glance or sign which could -have justified him in believing himself betrayed. - -She had accepted his homage as she accepted the bouquets which men sent -her, to die in masses in her ante-chambers. - -His pain was intolerable, his disappointment was altogether out of -proportion to the frail, vague hopes which he had cherished; but he -felt also that his position was absurd, untenable; he had never been -her lover, he had none of the rights of a lover; he was only one of -many who had failed to please her, who had unconsciously blundered, who -had committed the one unpardonable sin of wearying her. - -Resistance could only make him ridiculous in her eyes. She had plainly -intimated that she was tired of his acquaintance and companionship. -It was an intense suffering to him, but it was not one which he could -show to the world, or in which he could seek the world's sympathy. If -he had failed to please her--failed, despite all his opportunities, to -obtain any hold upon her sympathies--it was such a failure as is only -grotesque in the esteem of men, and contemptible in the sight of women. - -'_A qui la faute?_' she would have said herself, with a pitiless -amusement, which the world would only have echoed. - -It was late in February, but already spring in the Riviera; a brilliant -sun was dancing on all the million and one pretty things in her -boudoir, for she liked light, and could afford, with her exquisite -complexion and her flower-like mouth, to laugh at the many less -fortunate of her sex, who dared not be seen without all the devices of -red glass and rose-coloured transparencies and muffled sunbeams. She -caressed her little dog, and bade the negro boy bring her some tea, and -stretched herself out on a long low chair with a pleasant sense of -freedom from a disagreeable duty done and over. - -'I will never be intimate with an Englishman again,' she thought. -'They cannot understand; they think they must be either your Cæsar or -_nullus_: it is so stupid; and then, when you are tired, they grumble. -Other men say nothing to you, but they fight somebody else,--which is -so much better. It is only the Englishman who grumbles, and abuses you -as if you were the weather!' - -The idea amused her. - -Through her open windows she could see the sea. She saw the boat -of Geraldine, with its red-capped crew pulling straightway to the -westward; he was going to his yacht; the affair was over peaceably; he -would not kill himself like Seliedoff. Her husband would miss him for -a little time, but he was used to men who made themselves his ardent -and assiduous friends for a few months or more, and then were no more -seen about his house, being banished by her; he was wont to call such -victims the Zephyrs after that squadron of the mutinous in the Algerian -army, which receives all those condemned and rejected by their chiefs. -He would ask no questions; he would understand that his old companion -had joined the rest; he had never cared for the fate of any save for -that of young Seliedoff. There were always men by the score ready to -amuse, distract, and feast with Prince Napraxine. - -She drank her yellow tea with its slice of lemon, and enjoyed the -unwonted repose of half an hour's solitude. She was conscious at once -of a certain relief in the definite exile of her late companion, yet -of a certain magnanimity, inasmuch as she would enable other women to -presume that he had grown tired of his allegiance. - -But the latter consideration weighed little with her; she had been -too satiated with triumph not to be indifferent to it, and she was at -all times careless of the opinions of others. She would miss him a -little, as one misses a well-trained servant, but there would be so -many others ready to fill his place. Whenever her groom-of-the-chambers -told her hall-porter to say 'Madame reçoit,' her rooms were filled with -young men ready to obey her slightest sign or wildest whim as poodles -or spaniels those of their masters. There were not a few who, like -Geraldine, regulated their seasons and their sojourns by the capricious -movements of the Princess Napraxine, as poor benighted shepherds follow -the gyrations of an ignis-fatuus. Whether north, south, east, or west, -wherever she was momentarily resident, there was always seen her _corps -de garde_. - -As she sat alone now for the brief half-hour before her usual drive, -her past drifted before her recollection in clear colours, as though -she were quite old. She remembered her childhood, spent at the -embassies of great cities, where her father was the idol of all that -was distinguished and of much that was dissolute; the most courtly, the -most witty, the most elegant, of great diplomatists. She remembered -how, sitting in her mother's barouche in the Bois or the Prater, -or petted and caressed by sovereigns and statesmen in her mother's -drawing-rooms, she had seen so much with her opal-like eyes, heard so -much with her sea-shell-like ears, and had, at ten years old, said to -Count Platoff, '_Je serai honnête femme; ce sera plus chic_;' and -how his peal of laughter had disconcerted her own serious mood and -solemnity of resolve. Then she remembered how, when she was seventeen -years old, her mother had advised her to marry her cousin; and how her -father, when she had been tempted to ask his support of her own adverse -wishes, had twisted his silken white moustaches with a little shrug of -his shoulders, and had said: 'Mais, mon enfant, je ne sais--nous sommes -presque ruinés; ça me plaira--et un mari, c'est si peu de chose!' - -'_Si peu de chose!_' she thought, now; and yet a bullet that you drag -after you, a note of discord always in your music, a stone in your ball -slipper, dance you ever so lightly--an inevitable ennui always awaiting -you! - -'If they had not been in such haste, I should have met Othmar and have -married him!' she mused, with that frankness which was never missing -from her self-communion. 'Life would have looked differently;----I -would have made him the foremost man in Europe; he has the powers -needful, but he has no ambitions; his millions have stifled them.' - -She thought, with something that was almost envy, of the fate of -Yseulte, and with a remembrance, which was almost disgust, of the early -hours of her own marriage, when all the delicacy and purity of her own -girlhood had revolted against the brutality of obligations which she -had in her ignorance submitted to accept. - -How could she care for the children born of that intolerable -degradation to which no habit or time had had power to reconcile her? - -In her own eyes she had been as much violated as any slave bought in -the market. - -'If I had daughters, they should at least know to what they surrendered -themselves before they were given away in marriage,' she had often -reflected, with a bitter remembrance of the absolute innocence in which -she herself had repeated the vows, and broken the glass, which had -indissolubly united her to her cousin Platon. - -Then, with the irony even of herself, and the doubt even of herself, -which were stronger than any other instincts in her, she laughed at her -own momentary sentiment. - -'I dare say I should have been tired of him in six months,' she -thought, 'and very likely we should have hated one another in another -six. He would not have been as easy as Platon; he would have had his -prejudices----' - -Before her mind there rose the vision of a place she had once seen as -she had sailed in a yacht down the Adriatic one cool autumnal month; -a place not far from Ragusa, somewhat farther to the southward; a -fantastic pile, half Greek, half Turkish, with an old Gothic keep built -by Quattrocentisto Venetians rising in its midst; gardens of palms and -woods of ilex sloping from it to meet the lapis-lazuli-hued sea, cliffs -of all the colours of precious stones towering up behind it into the -white clouds and the dazzling sunshine. Fascinated by the aspect of the -place, she had asked its name and owner, and the Austrians with her had -answered her, 'It is called Zama, and it belongs to the Othmars.' - -She had often remembered the Herzegovinian castle, lonely as Miramar -after the tragedy of Quetaro. - -'I would not have lived at Amyôt, but at Zama,' she thought now; then, -angry and impatient of herself, she dismissed her fancies as you banish -with a light clap of your hands a flock of importunate birds, which fly -away as fast as they have come. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX. - - -'Are you very happy?' said Baron Fritz to Yseulte in his occasional -visits to Amyôt. And she answered without words, with a blush and a -smile which were much warmer than words. He saw that she was perfectly -happy, as yet; that whatever thorns might be beneath the nuptial couch, -they had not touched her. - -He did not venture to put the same question to Othmar. There were times -when he would no more have interrogated his nephew than he would have -put fire to a pile of powder; he had at once the vague fear and the -abundant contempt which a thoroughly practical, artificial, and worldly -man has for one whose dreams and desires are wholly unintelligible to -him. - -'Otho,' he said once to her, 'is like an Eastern sorcerer who holds -the magic ring with which he can wish for anything under heaven; but, -as he cannot command immortality, all his life slips through his -fingers before he has decided on what is most worth wishing for. Do you -understand?' - -Yseulte did not understand; to her this sorcerer, if not benignant to -himself, had at least given all her soul desired. He treated her with -the most constant tenderness, with the most generous delicacy, with the -most solicitous care; if in his love there might be some of the heat -of passion, some of the ardours of possession, lacking, it was not the -spiritual affection and the childish innocence of so young a girl which -could be capable of missing those, or be conscious of their absence. To -Yseulte, love was at once a revelation and a profanation: she shrank -from it even whilst she yielded to it; it was not to such a temperament -as hers that any lover could ever have seemed cold. - -She did not understand her husband; physical familiarity had not -brought much mental companionship. She adored him; the distant sound -of his step thrilled her with excitement, his lightest touch filled -her with delight; the intense love she bore him often held her silent -and pale with an excess of emotion which she would have been afraid to -render into speech even if she had been able to do so; and she was -utterly unable, for the strength of her own feelings alarmed her, and -the mode of her education had made her reticent. - -He was to her as a god who had suddenly descended upon her life, and -changed all its poor, dull pathways into fields of light. That she -gave, or that she might give him, much more than he gave her, never -occurred to her thoughts. That any ardour of admiration, or force of -emotion, might be absent in him towards her, never suggested itself -to her. Such love as he bestowed on her, indifferent though it was in -reality, seemed to her the very height of passion. She could not tell -that mere sensual indulgences mingled with affectionate compassion, may -produce so fair a simulacrum of love for awhile that it will deceive -alike deceiver and deceived. - -Othmar knew that nothing tenderer, purer, or nearer to his ideal, could -have come into his life than this graceful and most innocent girl. She -satisfied his taste if not his mind; she was as fresh as a sea-shell, -as a lily, as a summer-dawn; and he felt an entire and illimitable -possession in her such as he had never felt in any living woman; she -was so young, it seemed like drinking the very dew of morning; and yet -he could not have told whether he was most restless or most in peace at -Amyôt. - -'Love me a little, dear; I have no one,' he had said to her on the day -of their betrothal, and it had always seemed to him that he had no one; -all his mistresses had never cared for him, but only for the golden god -which was behind him; or, he had thought so. And now, she loved him -with an innocence and a fervour of which he could not doubt the truth; -and he was grateful, as the masters of the world are usually grateful, -for a handful of the simple daily bread of real affection; and she gave -him all her young untouched loveliness in pledge of that, as she might -have given him a rosebud to pluck to pieces. And he felt the sweetness -of the rosebud, he resigned himself to the charm of the dawn, and -endeavoured to believe that he was happy; but happiness escaped him as -the vermilion hues of the evening sky may escape the dreamer watching -for them, who looks too closely or looks too far. - -Yet he remained willingly at Amyôt through these winter weeks; as -willingly as though he had been the most impassioned of lovers. Amyôt -was as far from the world, if he chose, as though its pastures and -avenues had been an isle in the great South Ocean; he wished to forget -the world with the ivory arms of Yseulte drawn about his throat: he -would gladly have forgotten that any other woman lived beside this -child, on whose innocent mouth, sweet as the wild rose in spring, he -strove to stay the fleeting fragrance of his own youth. - -'No man had ever sweeter physician to his woes,' he thought as he -looked at her in her sleep, the red glow from the angry winter sunrise -touching with its light the whiteness of her sculptural limbs. But what -drug cures for long? - -Friederich Othmar often went to the château for a few hours on matters -of business, and was persuaded that the shining metal roofs of the -great Valois house of pleasure sheltered a perfect contentment. - -'But you must not remain for ever here,' he said to his nephew. 'They -will give you some foolish name which will run down the boulevards -like magic; they will say you are in love with your wife, or that you -are educating her; we all know what comes of that latter attempt.' - -'I stay at Amyôt,' answered Othmar, 'because I like it, because we both -like it.' - -'My dear Otho, since you have pleased yourself persistently all your -life, it is improbable that you will cease to do so at an age when most -men are only just able to begin. Amyôt is an historic place, very old, -admirably adapted for a museum; but since it is to your taste, well and -good; only none will comprehend that you stay here _filant le parfait -amour_ for two months. If you continue to do so, Paris will believe -that your wife has a club-foot or a crooked spine.' - -'You think she must show the one in a cotillon, or the other in -something _très collant_?' said Othmar. - -'Are you afraid of that?' said the Baron, who knew by what means to -attain his own ends. - -'I am not in the least afraid,' replied Othmar, with impatience. 'But I -confess Amyôt, with the cuckoo crying in its oak woods, seems a fitter -atmosphere for her than the _endiablement_ of Paris.' - -'You could return to the cuckoo. I am not acquainted with his habits, -but I should presume he is a stay-at-home, countryfied person.' - -'You do not understand the spring-time,' said Othmar, with a smile. - -'It has always seemed to me the most uncomfortable period of the year,' -confessed the Baron. 'It is an indefinite and transitory period, such -as are seldom agreeable, except to poets, who are naturally unstable -themselves.' - -'I suppose you were never young?' said Othmar, doubtfully. - -'I must have been, pathologically speaking,' replied Friederich Othmar. -'But I have no recollection of it; I certainly never remember a time -when I did not read of the state of Europe with interest: I think, on -the contrary, there was never a time in which you took any interest in -it.' - -'Europe is such a very small fraction of such an immeasurable whole!' - -'It is our fraction at least; and all we have,' said the Baron; all -the gist of the matter seemed to him to lie in that. 'You would like -to live in Venus, or journey to the rings of Saturn, but at present -science limits us to Earth.' - -'Can you not persuade him to take any interest in mankind?' he -continued to Yseulte, as she approached them at that moment. He was -about to leave Amyôt after one of his brief and necessary visits, and -stood smoking a cigarette before his departure in the great central -hall, with its dome painted by Primaticcio. - -'In mankind?' she repeated with a smile. 'That is very comprehensive, -is it not? I am sure,' she added with hesitation, for she was afraid of -offending her husband, 'he is very good to his own people, if you mean -that?' - -'He does not mean that at all, my dear,' said Othmar. 'He means that -I should be very eager to ruin some states and upraise others, that I -should foment war and disunion, or uphold anarchy or absolutism, as -either best served me, that I should free the hands of one and tie -the hands of another; do not trouble your head about these matters, -my child; let us go in the woods and look for primroses, which shall -remind you of the green lanes of Faïel.' - -Yseulte, whose interest was vaguely aroused, looked from one to another. - -'If you really can do so much as that,' she said timidly, 'I think I -would do it if I were you; because surely you might always serve the -right cause and help the weak people.' - -Othmar smiled, well pleased. - -'My dear Baron, this is not the advocate that you wish to arouse. -Remember Mephistopheles failed signally when he entered a cathedral.' - -'I do not despair; I shall have Paris on my side,' said the Baron, as -he made his farewells. - -The day was bright, and a warm wind was stirring amidst the brown -buds of the trees and forests; the great forests wore the purple -haze of spring; from the terraces of Amyôt, where once Francis and -the Marguerite des Marguerites had wandered, the immense view of -the valleys of the Loire and of the Cher was outspread in the noon -sunlight, white tourelle and grey church spire rising up from amid the -lake of golden air like 'silver sails upon a summer sea.' From these -stately terraces, raised high on colonnades of marble, with marble -statues of mailed men-at-arms standing at intervals adown their length, -the eyes could range over all that champaign country which lies open -like a chronicle of France to those who have studied her wars and -dynasties. - -Yseulte loved to come there when the sun was bright as when it was -at its setting, and dream her happy dreams, whilst gazing over the -undulations of the great forests spreading solemn and hushed and -shadowy, away, far away, to the silver line of the vast river and to -the confines of what once was Touraine. - -'What do you find to think so much of, you, with your short life and -your blameless conscience?' asked Othmar that day, looking at her as -she leaned against the marble parapet. - -She might have answered in one word, 'You,' but love words did not come -easily to her lips; she was very shy with him still. - -She answered evasively: 'Does one always think at all when one looks, -and looks, and looks, idly like this? I do not believe reverie is real -thinking; it is an enjoyment; everything is so still, so peaceful, so -bright--and then it cannot go away, it is all yours; we may leave it, -it cannot leave us.' - -'You are very fond of the country?' - -'I have never been anywhere else, except when I was a little child in -Paris. I love Paris, but it is not like this.' - -'No woman lives who does not love Paris; but I think Amyôt suits you -better. You have a Valois look; you are of another day than ours. I -should not like to see you grow like the women of your time; you are a -true patrician--you have no need of _chien_.' - -He put a hothouse rose in her bosom as he spoke, and kissed her throat -as he did so. The colour flushed there at his touch. She stooped her -face over the rose. - -'I do not think I shall ever change,' she said, hurriedly. 'It seems to -me as if one must remain what one is born.' - -'The ivory must; the clay changes,' said Othmar. 'You are very pure -ivory, my love. I robbed you from Christ.' - -He was seated on one of the marble benches in the balustrade of the -terrace; she stood before him, while his hand continued to play with -the rose he had put at her breast. She wore a white woollen gown, -which fell about her in soft folds, edged with ermine; a broad gold -girdle clasped her waist, and old guipure lace covered her heart, which -beat warm and high beneath his touch as he set the great crimson rose -against it. In an innocent way she suddenly realised her own charm and -its power which it gave her over any man; she lost her timidity, and -ventured to ask him a question. - -'What is it that the Baron wishes you so much to do?' she said, as she -stood before him. 'I did not understand.' - -'He wishes me, instead of putting roses in your corsage, to busy myself -with setting the torch of war to dry places.' - -'I do not understand. What is it you can do?' - -'I will try and tell you in a few words. There are a few men, dear, -who have such an enormous quantity of gold that they can arrange the -balance of the world much at pleasure. One man, called Vanderbilt, -could, for instance, make such a country as England bankrupt if he -chose, merely by throwing his shares wholesale on the market. The -Othmar are such men as this. My forefathers made immense fortunes, -mostly very wickedly, and by force of their own unscrupulousness have -managed to become one of these powers of the world. I have no such -taste for any such power. It is with my indifference that my uncle -reproaches me. He thinks that if I bestowed greater attention to the -state of Europe I could double the millions I possess. I do not want to -do that; I do not care to do that; so a great chasm of difference yawns -for ever between him and me.' - -'He loves you very much?' - -'Oh, in his way; but I irritate him and he irritates me. We have -scarcely a point in common.' - -'Perhaps,' said Yseulte, amazed at her own boldness in suggesting a -fault in him, 'perhaps you have not quite patience with his difference -of character?' - -'That is very possible,' said Othmar, himself astonished at her -insight. 'I could pardon anything if he would not speak of the Othmar -as Jews speak of Jehovah. It is so intolerably absurd.' - -'But they are your people.' - -'Alas! yes. But I despise them; I dislike them. They were intolerably -bad men, my dear; they did intolerably bad things. All this,' he -continued, with a gesture of his hand towards the mighty building of -Amyôt, with its marble terraces and its many towers dazzling in the -sunlight, 'they would never have possessed save through hundreds of -unscrupulous actions heaped one on the other to make stepping-stones -across the salt-marsh of poverty to the yellow sands of fortune. Oh, -I do not mean that Amyôt was not bought fairly. It was bought quite -fairly, at a very high price, by my great grandfather, but the wealth -which enabled him to buy it was ill-gotten. His father was a common -Croat horse-dealer, which is a polite word for horse-stealer, who lived -in the last century in the city of Agram. There are millions of loose -horses in the vast oak woods of Western Hungary and the immense plains -of Croatia, and to this day there are many men who live almost like -savages, and steal these half-wild horses as a means of subsistence. -There were, of course, many more of these robbers in the last century -than in this. Marc Othmar did not actually steal the horses, but he -bought them at a tenth part of their value from these rough men of the -woods and plains when stolen, and the large profits he made by this -illegal traffic laid the foundations of the much-envied fortunes which -I enjoy, and which you grace to-day.' - -He had spoken as though he explained the matter to a child, but -Yseulte's ready imagination supplied the colour to his bare outlines. -She was silent, revolving in her thoughts what he had said. - -'I would rather your people had been warriors,' she said, with -hesitation, thinking of her own long line of crusaders. - -'I would rather they had been peasants,' he returned. 'But being what -they were, I must bear their burdens.' - -'Then what is it he wishes you to do that you do not?' - -'He wishes me to have many ambitions, but as I regard it, the fortunes -which I have been born to entirely smother ambition; whatever eminence -I might achieve, if I did achieve it, would never appear better than so -much preference purchased. If I had been as great a soldier as Soult, -they would have said I bought my victories. If I had had the talent of -Balzac, they would have said I bought the press. If I had written the -music of the "Hamlet" or the "Roi de Lahore," they would have said that -I bought the whole musical world for my claque. If I could have the -life that I should like, I should choose such a life as Lamartine's, -but a rival of the Rothschilds cannot be either a poet or a leader of a -revolution. The _monstrari digito_ ruins the peace and comfort of life: -if I walk down the boulevard with the Comte de Paris the fools cry that -I wish to crown Philippe VII., if I speak to M. Wilson in the _foyer_ -of the Français they scream that there is to be a concession for a new -loan; if the Prince Orloff come to breakfast with me a Russian war is -suspected, and if Prince Hohenlohe dine with me I have too German a -bias. This kind of notoriety is agreeable to my uncle. It makes him -feel that he holds the strings of the European puppet show. But to -myself it is detestable. To come and go unremarked seems to me the -first condition of all for the quiet enjoyment of life, but I have been -condemned to be one of those unfortunates who cannot drive a phaeton -down to Chantilly without the press and the public becoming nervous -about the intentions of M. d'Aumale. Last year, one very hot day, I was -passing through Paris, and I asked for a glass of water at a little -café at the barrière. They stared, and brought me some. When I told -them that I only wanted water, the waiter said, with a smile, "Monsieur -ne peut pas être sérieux! nous avons l'honneur de le connaître." The -world, like the waiter, will not let me have plain water when I wish -for it. I dare say my wish may be perversity, but, at any rate, it is -always thwarted by the very people who imagine they are gratifying me -with indulgences.' - -'But some of the people love you,' she insisted. 'Did not the workmen -of Paris give you that beautiful casket the other day? Was it not -bought by a two-sous subscription?' - -'That was more a compliment to the Maison d'Othmar than to myself. We -have always been popular in Paris; so was Louis Napoléon--once. We have -much the same titles as he had; we have committed many crimes, and -caused immeasurable misery.' - -'Not you,' she said softly. - -'I inherit the results,' said her husband. - -'But you have done great things,' she said timidly. 'The curé here -was telling me yesterday of all you have done for the poor of Paris. -He says that the hospitals you have founded, the charities you -maintain----' - -'The curé knows his way to your heart and your purse! My dear, the -Emperor Napoléon Trois thought that he did a great thing for the poor -of Paris when he pulled down their rookeries and built them fine and -healthy _cités ouvrières_; there was only one thing the Emperor could -not do: he could not make the poor live in them; and the Convalescent -Home he erected at Vincennes did not save him from Sedan, or Paris from -the Commune. We who are rich shall always have the Emperor's fate; we -shall build as much as we like, and spend as much as we like, but we -shall never reach the hearts of the great multitudes, who all hate -us. It is very natural they should. Never say a word about what they -call my charities. They are blunders like the Emperor's, many of which -seem now to be very absurd ones. If I ever come to my Sedan, they -will not be remembered for an hour. The one thing I can do, and will -do, is, that I will prevent, as long as I live, the use of the great -mill of gold which we grind being turned to immoral purposes--such -purposes, for instance, as the oppression of peoples, as the barter -of nationalities, as the supply of the sinews of unjust and unholy -wars, as the many intolerable iniquities which, whilst professing -Christianity, modern statesmen employ under spurious names to most -intolerable ends. So much I can do; and, for doing it, I am thought -a fool. All the rest is wholly indifferent to me. The machine swings -on as it will; it is so admirably organised that it requires little -guidance, and, that little, Baron Friederich gives, whilst I am free, -my dear, to stay at Amyôt and gather you another rose, for I have -spoilt this one.' - -He had spoken more gaily, frankly, and fully than was his wont, and -kissed her softly on the throat once more. - -Yseulte's thoughts were with his earlier words; her eyes were moist, -and very serious. It was the first time that he had ever alluded before -her to his family or his position; she had never at all understood what -they had meant around her when they had spoken of la Finance; she had -seen that he was _très grand seigneur_, and was treated, wherever he -moved, with the greatest marks of deference. It seemed very strange to -her that so much power and state should be possible without unblemished -descent: it was outside of her creed and her comprehension. If she had -loved him less, it would have shocked her. - -'I am sorry,' she said softly, 'it must have troubled you so much. I -understand why you are sometimes sad. It must be like holding lightning -in your hands; and then there is the fear of using it ill----' - -'My greatest fault has been to be too careless of it,' he answered. -'To have used my power neither way, neither for good nor ill. I have -comforted myself that I have done no harm;--a negative praise. Come, -let us go and choose another rose for you; or shall we go into the -woods? You like them better. Do not trouble your soul with the gold or -the crimes of the Othmar. You are come to purify both; and you will -make your children in your own likeness out of that consecrated ivory -of which heaven has made you!' - -'She is the first woman of them all,' he thought, as they descended the -marble stairs towards the glades of the park, 'the first who has had -any sympathy with me. They have all thought me a fool for not turning -round like the sluggard, and lying drugged in my golden nest. She -understands very little because she does not understand the world; but -she can imagine how all which the vulgar think so delightful drags me -down like a wallet of stones.' - -'Yseulte,' he said aloud, 'do you know what all my millions cannot -buy, and what I would give them all to be able to buy? Well, something -like the _mort sur le champ d'honneur_, which was said for a hundred -and fifty years when the name of Philippe de Valogne was called in the -roll-call of the Grenadiers.' - -The memory he recalled was one of the most glorious of her race; one -of those traditions of pure honour which are common enough in the -nobility of France. The Counts de Valogne had been behind none in high -courage and lofty codes; and the local history of their province was -studded with the exploits and the martial self-sacrifice whereby they -had continually redeemed their extravagance and their idleness as -courtiers and men of pleasure. - -She turned to him with her brightest smile, and her hand touched his -with a gesture caressing and timid. - -'He is mine; I will give him to you,' she said, with a child's -abandonment and gaiety. 'I am so glad that I have something to give!' - -'You will give his blood to my sons,' said Othmar. 'So you will give it -to me.' - - - - -CHAPTER XXX. - - -Melville came one day to Amyôt. - -'You have followed my advice,' he said to Othmar. 'You have made -yourself a home. It is the nearest likeness to heaven that men get on -earth. Believe a homeless man when he tells you so.' - -Othmar smiled. - -'It is odd that you, the purest priest I know, and my uncle, the -worldliest of philosophers and money-makers, should coincide in your -counsels. Perhaps to make a home is as difficult as to make a discovery -in astronomy or mathematics, or to appreciate a sunrise or sunset.' - -'Do you mean to say?----' - -'I mean to say nothing in especial; except that one's life, as the -world goes, does not fit one to be the hourly companion of a perfectly -virginal mind. My dear Melville, she makes me ashamed; my society seems -infinitely too coarse for her. I have never seemed to myself such a -brute.' - -'That is, I fear, because you are not very much in love, and so are at -liberty to analyse your own sensations: a lover would not feel those -scruples,' reflected Melville; but he merely said aloud: 'If a woman -have not a little of the angelic, she goes near to having something of -the diabolic. Women are always in extremes.' - -'Her soul is like a crystal,' said Othmar. 'But in it I see my own -soul, and it looks unworthy.' - -He could not say even to Melville, tried physician of sick souls as he -was, that there were moments when the perfect purity of the young girl -wearied him, when her innocent tenderness fretted him, and failed to -supply all the stimulant to his senses that women less lovely but more -versed in amorous arts could have given, when he was, in a word--the -most fatal word love ever hears--wearied. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXI. - - -'_Othmar cueillant les marguerites aux bois!_' said Nadine Napraxine, -with her most unkind smile, when she heard that he remained under the -Valois woods until autumn. - -She herself was in Russia; forced also to gather daisies in her own -manner, which always wearied her. It was necessary to be seen awhile at -Tsarkoe Selo, or wherever the Imperial people were; and then to visit -for a few months the immense estates of Prince Napraxine. They had gone -thither earlier than usual through the suicide of Boris Seliedoff, -which had cast many noble northern families into mourning, and had for -a moment chilled the feeling of Europe in general towards herself. - -'It was so inconsiderate of him!' she said more than once. 'Everyone -was sure to put it upon me!' - -It seemed to her very unjust. - -She had been kind to the boy, and then had rebuked him a little as -anybody else would have done. Who could imagine that he would blow his -brains out under the palms and aloes, like any _décavé_ without a franc? - -She was exceedingly angry that the world should venture to blame her. -When her Imperial mistress, receiving her first visit, gave some -expression to this general sentiment, and presumed to hazard some -phrases which suggested a hint of reproof, Nadine Napraxine revolted -with all the pride of her temper, and did not scruple to respond to -her interlocutor that the Platoff and the Napraxine both were of more -ancient lineage and greater traditions in Russia than those now seated -on the throne. - -To her alone would it have been possible to make such a reply and yet -receive condonation of it, as she did. There was in her a force which -no one resisted, a magnetism which no one escaped. - -She was, however, extremely angered, both by the remarks made to her -at Court, and about her in European society, and withdrew herself -to the immense solitudes of the province of Kaluga in an irritation -which was not without dignity. Men who adored her, of whom there were -many, noticed that her self-exile to Zaraïzoff coincided with that of -Othmar to Amyôt; but there was no one who would have dared to say so. -Geraldine had gone to North America, which had amused her. - -'_He_ will not shoot himself,' she thought. 'He will shoot a vast -number of innocent beasts instead. Seliedoff was the manlier of the -two.' - -Zaraïzoff was a mighty place set amongst the endless woods and rolling -plains of the north-eastern provinces; a huge rambling structure half -fortress, half palace, with the village clustering near as in other -days when the Tartars might sweep down on it like vultures. The wealth -of the Napraxines had made it within almost oriental in its luxury; -without, it had much of the barbaric wildness of the country, and it -had been here in the first two intolerable years after her marriage -that she had learned to love to be drawn by half-wild horses at -lightning speed over the snow plains, with the bay of the wolves on the -air, and the surety of fatal frost-bite if the furs were incautiously -dropped a moment too soon. - -At Zaraïzoff, when she established herself there for the summer, -she brought usually a Parisian household with her, and inviting a -succession of guests, filled with a great movement and gaiety of life -the sombre courts, the silent galleries and chambers, the antique walls -all covered with vivid paintings like a Byzantine church, the long low -salons luxurious as a Persian harem. But this summer it saw her come -almost alone. Her children came also from southern Russia, and Platon -Napraxine at least was happy. - -'Is it possible to be uglier than that; not surely among the Kalmucks!' -she thought, looking in the good-tempered little Tartar-like faces of -her two small sons. - -They were absurdly like their father; but, as they promised to be also, -like him, tall and well-built, would probably, as they grew up, find -many women, as he had found many, to tell them they were handsome men; -but that time was far off, and as yet they were but ugly children. -Sachs and Mitz (Alexander and Demetrius) were respectively five and six -years old, big, stout, ungainly little boys, with flat blunt features, -in which the Tartar blood of the Napraxine was prominently visible. -They had a retinue of tutors, governesses, bonnes, and attendants -of all kinds, and had been early impressed with the opinion that a -Napraxine had no superior on earth save the Gospodar. - -'_Ils ont pris la peine de naître!_' quoted their mother with contempt -as she beheld their arrogant little pomposities: she could never -forgive them that they had done so. It was natural that when she looked -in her mirror she could scarcely bring herself to believe that they had -been the issue of her own life. - -'I suppose I ought to adore them, but I certainly do not,' she said -to Melville, who, having been sent on a mission to Petersburg by the -Vatican in the vain hope of mitigating by the charm of his manner the -hard fate of the Catholic Poles, had paused for a day at Zaraïzoff to -obey the summons of its mistress, travelling some extra thousand versts -to do so. It was to him that she had made the remark about the daisies. - -Melville, though he was a priest whose vows were truly sacred -obligations in his eyes, was also keenly alive to those enjoyments -of the graces and luxuries of life which his frequent employment -in diplomatic missions for the head of his Church made it not only -permissible but desirable for him to indulge in at times. His brief -visit to Zaraïzoff, and other similar diversions, were agreeable -episodes in months of spiritual effort and very serious intellectual -work, and he abandoned himself to the amusement of such occasional -rewards with the youthful ardour which sixty years had not tamed in him. - -Nadine Napraxine was not only charming to his eyes and taste, as to -those of all men, but she interested him with the attraction which -a complicated and not-easily-unravelled character possesses for all -intellectual people. He had perceived in her those gifts mental -and moral which, under suitable circumstance, make the noblest of -temperaments, and he also perceived in her an indefinite potentiality -for cruelty and for tyranny; the conflict between the two interested -him as a psychological study. He could not but censure her intolerance -of Napraxine; yet neither could he refuse to sympathise with it. The -Prince was the last man on earth to have been able to attain any power -over that variable, contemptuous, and subtle temperament and over an -intelligence refined by culture to the utmost perfection of taste and -hypercriticism of judgment. He adored her indeed, but _c'est le pire -défaut_ in such cases; and a hippopotamus in his muddy sedges might -have done so, with as much hope as he, of exciting anything more than -her impatience and contempt. - -'I certainly do not,' she repeated, as she lay on a divan after dinner, -in a grand hall imitated from the Alhambra, with a copy of the Lion -fountain in white marble in the centre, and groves of palms in white -marble vases lifting their green banners against the deep glow of -the many-coloured fretwork and diapered gold of the walls. 'They are -two quite uninteresting children, stupid, obstinate, proud, already -convinced that a Prince Napraxine has only to breathe a wish to see it -accomplished. At present they are good tempered and are fond of each -other, but that will not last long; they will soon feel their claws and -use them. They are quite wonderfully ugly;--an ugliness flat, heavy, -animal, altogether Tartar. I imagine I could have been fond of a child -like any other woman, but then I think with any mother it must be -always the child of a man she loves; it must be the symbol of sympathy -and the issue of joy----' - -She spoke dreamily, almost regretfully, her delicate head lying back -amongst the pillows of golden silk, while she sent a little cloud of -smoke into the air. - -Melville looked at her: he thought that there were persons who were -like the Neva river; the Neva does not freeze of itself, but it has so -many huge blocks of ice rolled down into it from above that it looks as -if it did. - -He hesitated a moment; he was too sagacious a man of the world to -intrude his own beliefs where they would only have met with unbelief. - -'What can I say?' he murmured. 'Only that I suppose maternal love, -after all, like all other love, does not come at command; human nature -has always been under the illusion that it was a spontaneous and -irresistible growth.' - -'Human nature has so many illusions,' said Nadine Napraxine. 'But I -have never heard that much reason underlies any one of them.' - -'But does not our happiness?' said Melville. - -She laughed a little. - -'Do you believe much in happy people? I think there are passions, -vanities, titillations, desires, successes--those one sees in full -motion on the earth, like animalculæ in a drop of water; but happiness, -I imagine, died with Paul et Virginie, with Chactas and Atala. To be -happy, you must be capable of being unhappy. We never reach that point; -we are only irritable, or grow _anémique_, according to the variety of -our constitutions.' - -'I knew a perfectly happy woman once,' said Melville; 'happy all her -life, and she lived long.' - -'Oh, you mean some nun,' said Nadine Napraxine, with impatience. 'That -is not happiness; it is only a form of hysteria or hypogastria.' - -'Not a nun,' replied Melville, making himself a cigarette, while the -sun played on the red sash of his gown, the gown which Raffael designed -for Leo. 'Not a nun. The woman I mean was a servant in a little dirty -village near Grenoble; she had been in the service of two cross, -miserly people ever since she was fifteen. At the time I knew her -first she was forty-seven. The old people had a small shop of general -necessaries; she attended to the shop, cooked, and cleaned, and washed, -and spun, dug, too, in a vegetable garden, and took care of a donkey, -and pigs, and fowls. When she was about thirty, the old man first, and -then the old woman, became incapable, from paralysis. Rose--her name -was Rose--worked on harder than ever. She had many offers of better -service, even offers of marriage, for she was a famous housewife, but -she refused them; she would not leave the old people. They were poor; -they had never been good or grateful to her; they had even beaten her -when she was a girl; but she would never leave them. She had been a -foundling, and theirs had been the only form of human ties that she -had ever known. She was perfectly happy all the day long, and she -even found time to do many a good turn for neighbours worse off than -herself. She had never had more than twenty francs a year in money, but -then "you see, I live well, I want nothing," she said to me once. And -such living! Black cabbage and black bread! Well, she was perfectly -happy, as I say. You do not seem to believe it?' - -'Oh, yes; so is a snail,' said the Princess Nadine. 'Besides, you -know, if she had been a pretty woman----' - -Melville felt almost angry. - -'You are very cruel. Why will you divorce beauty and virtue?' - -'I do not divorce them, nature usually does,' she answered, amused. -'Perhaps they divorce themselves. Well, what became of this paragon?' - -'She was no paragon,' said Melville, annoyed. 'She was a hard-working, -good, honest woman, perfectly content with a horrible lot, and loyal -unto death to two tyrannical old brutes who never thanked her. When -they died they left all the little they had to a nephew in the Jura, -who had taken no notice of them all their days--a rich tradesman. Poor -Rose, at fifty-three years old, was sent adrift on the world. She -cried her heart out to have to leave the house, and the ass, and the -chickens. I got her the grant from the Prix Montyon, and she was set -up in a tiny shop of her own in her own village, but she did not live -long. "_Quand on a été heureuse, après--c'est long_," she said in her -dying hour. She was afraid to seem ungrateful, but "_sans mes vieux_," -as she said, apologetically, her life was done. It seems a terrible -life to us, but I can solemnly declare that it was one of the few -happy ones of which I have ever been witness. There is a sustaining, -vivifying force in duty, like the heat of the sun, for those who accept -it.' - -'For those who accept it, no doubt,' said Nadine Napraxine, drily; -'but then, you see, my dear and reverend Melville, it requires some -organ in one's brain--superstition, I think, or credulity--before one -can do that. Every one is not blessed with that organ. Pray believe,' -she resumed, with her softer smile, perceiving a vexed shadow on his -face, 'I am not insensible to the quiet unconscious heroism of those -lowly lives of devotion. They are always touching. Those revelations -which the _discours_ of the Prix Montyon give from time to time always -make one envious of so much belief, of so much endurance, of so much -unobtrusive and unselfish goodness. But, though I dare say you will be -very angry, I cannot help reminding you that what makes the sparrow -very happy would have no sort of effect on the swallow, except that he -would feel restless and uncomfortable; and also that--pray forgive me, -for you are a priest--to be contented with doing one's duty one must -believe in duty as a Divine ordinance. To do that one must have--well, -just that bump of credulity of which I spoke--of easy, unquestioning, -unintelligent, credulity. Now, that it is a happy quality I am certain, -but is it,--is it, an intellectual one?' - -She spoke very sweetly, but with a demure smile, which made Melville -feel that there was a great deal more which she did not say out of -respect for his sacred calling and his position as her guest. - -'Do not repeat over to me all the stock arguments,' she said quickly, -as he opened his lips; 'I have heard them all ten thousand times. -I have the greatest possible regard for your doctrines, which have -satisfied Chateaubriand, Lacordaire, Montalembert, Manning, Newman, and -yourself, but I have always failed to understand how they did satisfy -any of you. But we will not discuss theology. Your poor Rose proves, -if she prove anything, that Heaven is not in a hurry to reward its -servitors. Perhaps, after all, she might have been wiser if she had -married some Jeannot, all over flour or coal dust, and had half a dozen -children and fifty grand children.' - -'There is common brute enjoyment all over the earth,' said Melville, -almost losing his temper. 'It must be well that it should be leavened -here and there with lives of sublime self-sacrifice; one heroic or -unselfish act raises the whole of human nature with it.' - -Nadine Napraxine took a cigarette. - -'There are ten thousand such acts in Russia every year, but they do not -produce much effect. Juggernauth rolls on,----' - -Melville looked at her quickly. - -'You have a certain sympathy with the people, though you deride my poor -Rose.' - -'I do not deride her; I admire her within certain limits. Only, I -ascribe her actions more to ignorance and to superstition, whereas you -ascribe them entirely to a clear-eyed devotion. Yes; I could have been -a revolutionist, I think, only all the traditions of the Platoff and -the Napraxine forbid it; and then, as I said to you once before, I do -not like _Pallida Mors_ carried about in a hat-box or a sardine-case. -It is grotesque. Without jesting,' she continued, 'I think if I saw -my way to do something truly great or of lasting benefit, I should be -ready to sacrifice my life to it; but there is nothing. If a Princess -Napraxine joined the Nihilists, she would only cause an intolerable -scandal and set an example which would be very injurious to the country -at large. Some day, Russia will be in revolt from one end to another, -but the day is not yet, and I doubt much that any good will be done -when it comes. The evil lies too deep, in the drunkenness, in the -lying, in the bestiality----' - -She saw a look of surprise on Melville's face, and continued quickly: - -'Do you suppose I never think? I believe I have read every socialistic -writer from Rousseau to Bakounine. They do not convince me of anything -except of the utter improbability that any real liberty will ever be -obtainable from any congregation of men. Humanity is tyrannical and -slavish at once; its governments are created in its own likeness, it -makes little difference what they are called, they are human offspring, -so they are narrow and arrogant.' - -'Poor humanity!' said Melville. 'It is only we priests who can lend it -wings.' - -'Because you say to it, like Schiller, "Cheat yourself, and dream,"' -she replied. 'But even there how narrow still! You say to each unit, -"Save yourself!"' - -'Well,' said the Englishman with good temper, 'if every one sweep out -his own little chamber, the whole city will be clean.' - -'The city will be for ever unclean. You know that as well as I do. -Only, all Churchmen can hide their eyes ostrich-like in the sand of -sonorous phrases. Your Christianity has been toiling for eighteen -centuries, and, one may say, has accomplished nothing. It mouths a -great deal, but practical result it has scarcely any. Its difficulty -has always been that, being illogical in its essence and traditions, it -must be restrained to words. Reduced to practice, all the modern world -would fade away, riches would disappear, effort would be impossible, -and the whole machinery of civilisation come to a standstill and entire -disuse. You are as aware of that as I am, only you do not like to say -so.' - -She rose, amused at his discomfiture, and lighted another cigarette. -She smoked as gracefully as a bird pecks at the dew in a rose. - -'She is the only woman who makes me irritable,' the courtly Gervase -Melville had once said of her, and he might have said also, 'the only -woman who reduces me to silence.' - -'Allow, Princess,' he said irritably now, 'that whether we accredit -Christianity with it or not, the life of poor Rose in her wooden shoes -was much more useful than yours is in those pearl-embroidered _mules_.' - -'Ah,' she answered with a smile. 'You are indeed worsted in your logic -if you must descend to personalities! Certainly I grant that; my life -is of a most absolute inutility. It is, perhaps, now and then useful -to my tailors, because I give them ideas they would not have without -me. But to no one else. _À qui la faute?_ I arrived in this world -without any option. As Mr. Gladstone said when he was an Eton boy, -responsibilities which are thrust upon us do not exact our obedience. -It is the only sentiment of Mr. Gladstone with which I have ever been -able to agree. Life is clearly thrust upon us. We none of us seek -it, that is certain. If we are able to disport ourselves in it, like -butterflies in a south wind, it says much in praise of the lightness of -our hearts.' - -'Or of the levity of our consciences,' said Melville, a little -gloomily. - -'Conscience is only the unconscious cerebral action of transmitted -influence, is it? Oh, I have read the Scientists as well as the -Socialists. They are not much more convincing, if one goes to them with -an unprejudiced mind----' - -'Does your conscience never tell you that you have done any harm, -Princess?' - -'Oh, very often--a great deal,' she answered candidly. 'But it does -not tell me that I ought not to have done it. I suppose my chain of -transmitted influences is not as strong as it should be. Seriously,' -she continued, 'I do not think hereditary influences are nearly -sufficiently allowed for at any time. Think what my people were for -ages and ages; the most masterful of autocratic lords who had no single -law save their own pleasure, and who, when they helped slay a Tzar, -were washing out some blood-feud of their family; pleasure, vice, -bloodshed, courage no doubt, rough justice perhaps, were all their -lives knew; they lived in the saddle or beside the drinking-horn; they -rode like madmen; they had huge castles set in almost eternal snows; -they were the judge and the executioner of every wrong-doer in their -family or their province; it was not until Letters came in with the -great Catherine that the least touch of civilisation softened them, and -even after Catherine they were amongst the slayers of Paul; for though -they could read Bossuet and Marmontel, their culture was but the merest -varnish still. Now, I come from these men and women, for the women were -not better than the men. Do you suppose their leaven is not in me? Of -course it is, though I am--perhaps as civilised as most people.' - -Melville looked at her with a smile. - -'Yes, certainly civilisation has in you, Princess, reached its most -exquisite and most supreme development; the hothouse can do no more. -You are its most perfect flower. Are we really to credit that you have -beneath all that the ferocity and the despotism of a thousand centuries -of barbaric Boyars?' - -'I have no doubt something of it,' said Nadine Napraxine, whilst the -dark velvet of her eyes grew sombre and her delicate hand clenched -on an imaginary knout. 'I could use _that_ sometimes,' she said with -significance: Melville understood what she meant. - -'You can hurt more than with the knout, Princess,' he answered. - -Nadine Napraxine smiled. The suggestion pleased her. - -Then a certain regretfulness came upon her face. - -'I think I might have been tender-hearted,' she said involuntarily and -inconsistently, with a pathos of which she was unconscious. 'I do not -know--perhaps not--I am not compassionate.' - -She forgot that Melville was seated on a divan near her in the great -golden room of Moorish work, whose arches opened on to the marble -court of the Lion. She thought of her spoilt, artificial, frivolous -childhood, spent in great drawing-rooms listening to political -rivalries and calumnious stories and wit that was always polished but -not always decent; she thought how her keen eyes had unravelled all -the threads of intrigue about her, and how her heart had scorned the -duplicity of her mother; when she had been only eight years old, she -had known by intuition her mother's secrets and had shut them all up in -her little silent soul with vague ideas of honour and dishonour, and -never had said anything to her father--never, never--not even when he -lay on his deathbed. - -And then they had married her to Platon Napraxine as _si bon garçon_. -'Oh, _si bon garçon_, no doubt!' she had thought contemptuously then -as she thought now--only he had outraged her, revolted her, disgusted -her. Her marriage night still remained to her a memory of ineffaceable -loathing. - -She looked up to see the intelligent eyes of Melville fixed on her in -some perplexity. - -She laughed and walked out on to the marble pavement of the great -court, above which shone the blue of a northern sky; beyond its -colonnades were immense gardens, and beyond those stretched the plains -like a green sea covered with forests of birch and willow. - -'I think I should have liked to be your Rose,' she said, as she did so. -'After all, she must have been content with herself when she died. A -philosopher can be no more.' - -'A philosopher can rarely be as much,' said Melville. 'He may be -resigned, but resignation and content are as different as a cold hand -and a warm one. My poor Rose was certainly content whilst she lived, -but not when she died, for she thought she had not done nearly enough -in return for all the blessings which she had received throughout her -life.' - -'Now you cannot get that kind of absurdly grateful feeling without pure -ignorance,' said Nadine Napraxine, a little triumphantly. 'It would be -impossible for an educated person to think that misery was comfort; so -you see, after all, ignorance is at the bottom of all virtue. Now in -your heart of hearts, you cannot deny that, because, though you are a -priest, you are beyond anything a man of the world?' - -Melville did not dislike to be called a man of the world, for he was -one, and liked to prove, or think he proved, that worldly wisdom was -not incompatible with the spiritual life. - -At that moment Napraxine crossed the court. It was the first of the -brief hours between sunset and sunrise; there was a full moon in the -midsummer skies; he was smoking a cheroot, and talking with some young -men, neighbouring gentlemen, who had dined there; he looked big and -coarse, and his face was red; his wife gazed at him with an intolerant -dislike; he could have a grand manner when he chose, but in the country -he 'let himself go;' he did not remember that he was in the presence -of the most inexorable of his critics, of the most implacable of his -enemies, of the one person in the whole world whom it would have been -most desirable, and was most impossible, for him to propitiate. - -'Sachs turned the knife round and round in the wolf's throat; he did, -on my honour, while it was alive; we blooded him at five years old, and -the child never winked. When the blood splashed him he shouted!' he was -saying audibly, with much pride, to one of his guests, as he lounged -across the marble court. Sachs was his eldest son. He was relating a -hunting exploit, crowned by the presence of his heir. - -Nadine glanced at Melville with an expression of sovereign contempt. - -'Butchers before they can spell!' she said, with ineffable distaste. - -'Shall I venture to say anything?' he murmured. - -'It would be of no use. Slaughter is the country gentleman's god. -Prince Napraxine is just now wholly _fourré_ in his character of a -country gentleman. It is perhaps as useful as that of a Monte Carlo -gamester. Only here the beasts suffer--there, the fools. I prefer that -the fools should do so.' - -The young men gathered about her; Napraxine approached Melville. - -'How does the Othmar marriage succeed?' he asked. 'I suppose you have -seen them?' - -'I have been once to Amyôt,' returned Melville. 'You know Amyôt? A -magnificent place. They appeared very happy. She seems to have grown -years in a month or two.' - -'That of course,' said Napraxine, with his loud laugh. 'She is very -handsome. Why on earth do they stay on in the provinces?' - -'She is fond of Amyôt,' replied Melville. 'Probably he thinks that as -she is so young, there is time and to spare for the world.' - -'Perhaps Nadine will believe now that it is a love marriage?' insisted -her husband, turning towards her. - -'Did I ever say it was not?' she replied, with a little yawn. - -'I do not see, if it were not, why it should possibly have taken -place,' said Melville. 'Othmar is lord of himself.' - -'With a slave for his master?' she murmured, too low to be heard by -the not quick ears of her husband. - -Melville heard, and the doubt crossed him whether Othmar might not have -been the lover of the Princess Napraxine, and the marriage arranged by -her, as great ladies often arrange such matters to disarm suspicion; -for Melville, despite the acumen on which he prided himself, did not -by any means wholly understand the very complicated character of his -hostess, in which a supreme courage was to the full as strong as were -its disdain and its indifference. - -She shook off the importunities of the young nobles, who seemed rustic -and tiresome enough to a woman to whom the wittiest society of Europe -had seemed dull and too tame, and strolled by herself through the half -wild gardens, which reached and touched the virgin forests of the East. -Her Kossack Hetman, who never lost her from sight when she was out of -doors, paced at a respectful distance behind her, but he was no more -to her than a big dog would be to others. The high seeding grass which -grew in the unused paths screened him from sight. - -As she looked back, the moonlit mass of the vast house gathered a -dignity and austerity not its own by daylight, but to her it only -resembled a prison. She hated it: she would have liked to raze it to -the ground and make an end of it. There were so many prisons in Russia! - -She laughed a little to herself, not mirthfully, as she strolled -through the intense light of the Northern night, her Kossack following -like her shadow. A poor drudge like that servant woman in Jura had been -content with her life, whilst she, the Princess Napraxine, in all the -perfection of youth, beauty, and great rank, was often so dissatisfied -with it that she could have drugged herself out of it with morphine -from sheer ennui! - -What was the use of the highest culture, if that was all it brought -you? A whimsical fancy crossed her that she wished her Kossack would -try and assassinate her; it would be something new, it might make her -life seem worth the having, if somebody would try and take it away. She -was only three-and-twenty years old, and her future seemed so immensely -long that she felt tired at the very prospect of it, as one feels -tired at the sight of a long dull road which one is bound to follow. - -The eternal monotony of the great world would be for ever about her. -She had too great rank, too great riches, for ambition to present any -prizes to her. To attempt to thrust Platon Napraxine into high offices -of the State would have been as absurd as to make a bear out of Finland -a magistrate or a general. He was a very great noble, but he would -never have wit enough even to play a decent hand at whist, much less to -conduct a negotiation or sway a Council. - -'One might have had ambition for Othmar,' she thought involuntarily, as -his image rose unsummoned from the sea of silvery shadows around her; -'he had none for himself, but he might have been spurred, stimulated, -seduced, by a woman he had loved. There would have been many things -possible to him; the financier is the king, the Merlin, of the modern -world, and might become its Arthur also.' - -She thought with impatience of that summer night, as it was shining -on the towers and woods of Amyôt. She felt as if something of her -own had been stolen from her, some allegiance due to her unlawfully -transferred. He should have had patience, he should have waited on her -will, he should have accepted her rebuffs, he should have followed her -steps through life as the Kossack was following them through the dewy -grass. - -Poor stupid Geraldine would have been grateful to do so much, or -Seliedoff, or so many others. Othmar alone had dared to say to her, 'I -will be nothing or all.' - -Therefore his memory abided with her and moved her, and had power -over her, and at times an irritable gnawing sense of something which -might have been stole upon her. What could that child give him at -Amyôt?--white limbs, clear eyes, a rose-bloom of blushes; but besides? -what sympathy, comprehension, inspiration? what of the higher delights -of the passions? - -The thought of him irritated her. There was a defiance, an insolence, -in his assumption of being able to command his destiny in independence -of herself, which offended her; it was unlike what others did. She was -aware that it was done out of bravado, or so she believed; but it was -not thus that the fates on which she had deigned to lay her finger had -usually been closed. Something even of contempt for him at seeking such -a refuge from herself mingled with her irritation. It seemed to her -weak and commonplace. - -'Madame,' said the voice of Melville through the shadows, 'is it quite -safe to ramble so late, despite the trusty Kossack and his lance?' - -She turned; her head enwrapped in gossamer, till he saw nothing but the -cloud of lace and the two dusky, jewel-like eyes. - -'I was just wishing, almost wishing,' she answered, 'that the trusty -Kossack were of the new doctrines, and would take advantage of the -opportunity to make away with his _barina_. I am not sure that I would -have called out; it would have saved one a great deal of sameness. -When my chocolate comes to my bedside I always think of Pierre Loti's -childish protest, "Toujours se lever, toujours se coucher, et toujours -manger de la soupe qui n'est pas bonne!" Our soup is good, perhaps. It -is rather the appetite which is lacking.' - -'Your generation is born tired,' said Melville. 'Mine was happier; it -believed in the possibility of enjoyment--an illusion, no doubt, but -one which cheers life considerably. Princess, I wish you would pardon -me an indiscretion; you are always so merciful to me, you make me -over-bold; but I have always so much wanted to know whether a story -that I heard, of a winter's journey of yours across Russia, was true. -It was in the newspapers, but one never knows what is true there, and I -was in India at the time.' - -She smiled. 'Oh! I know what you mean. Yes, it was true enough. That -was nothing; nothing at all. I had all kinds of people to help me. -There was no difficulty of any sort. It was amusing----' - -'It was a very heroic thing to do,' said Melville gravely. - -'Not at all,' she interrupted quickly. 'There was no heroism about it. -The Tzar was always very kind to me. I had every assistance, every -comfort on my journey. You, imaginative being, have a picture instantly -in your mind of me as enduring all the dangers of poor Elizabeth in the -French classic; on the contrary, I slept nearly all the way, and read a -novel the rest.' - -'All the same,' said Melville, 'no one but yourself will deny that it -was a very noble thing to travel in November, the most hideous part -of the year, through mud and snow, right across Russia, to have a few -facts reach the Emperor in their true aspect, and then post to Tobolsk -with his pardon, that a dying mother might know her son was free before -she died----' - -Nadine Napraxine shrugged her shoulders slightly, with a gesture of -indifference. - -'It amused me. I had a fancy to see Siberia in winter. The pity -was that Fedor Alexowitch Boganof was an ugly and uninteresting -fellow--with plenty of brains, indeed, which brought his ruin, but -quite ugly, rather misshapen, and blessed with five children. If the -hero of my journey had only been a fine officer of cuirassiers, or a -romantic-looking revolutionist, the story would have been delightful, -but poor Boganof no one could turn into a _jeune premier_; not even -the gossips of Petersburg. He was only a clever writer, with a mother -and a wife who idolised him. The truth is, I had read his novel and -liked it; that is why, when his people came to me, I did what I could. -Anybody who knew the Tzar as well as I could have done as much. As -for going to Siberia--well, I went myself because I have a profound -distrust of Russian officials. Even an Imperial pardon has a knack of -arriving too late when it is desirable that it should do so. It was -certainly a disagreeable season of the year, but behind strong horses -one does not mind that. Very soon Siberia will have lost its terrors -and its romance; there will be a railway across the Urals, and all -chance of the little excitements attendant on such a journey as mine -will be over. When the Governor saw me actually in Tobolsk, he could -not believe his eyes. If his beard had not been dyed, it would have -turned white with the extremity of his amazement. I think he could have -understood my taking the trouble if it had been for a Tchin; but for -a mere scribbler of books, a mere teller of stories! I told him that -Homer, and Ariosto, and Goethe, and ever so many others had been only -tellers of stories too, but that produced no impression on him. He was -compelled to let Boganof go, because the Tzar ordered him, but he could -not see any valid reason why Boganof should not be left to rot away, -brain downwards, under the ice.' - -She laughed a little at the recollection of it all; it had been called -an eccentric hair-brained thing at the time by all her world, but she -had taken Boganof back with her in triumph, and had not left him until -she had seen him seated by the stove of his own humble house in Odessa. - -It had been one of the best moments of her life--yes, certainly--but it -did not seem to her that she had done anything remarkable. It had been -so absurd to send a man to dwell amidst eternal snows and semi-eternal -darkness because he had written a clever novel in which the wiseacres -of the third section had seen fit to discover revolutionary doctrines, -that when the wife and mother of Boganof, knowing her influence at -Court, and having chance of access to her through her steward, threw -themselves at her feet one day, and besought her compassion and -assistance, she had been surprised into promising her aid, from that -generosity and sympathy with courage which always lived beneath the -artificiality and indifference of her habits and temper. No doubt they -had succeeded because they had come upon her in a _bon moment_; no -doubt they might have found her in moods in which they might as well -have appealed to the Japanese bronzes in her vestibule; but, having -been touched and surprised into a promise, she had kept it through much -difficulty and with an energy which bore down all opposition. - -'She looks as frail as a reed, but she has the force of a lance,' the -autocrat to whom she appealed, and who was at the onset utterly opposed -to her petition, had thought as he had answered her coldly that Boganof -was a dangerous writer. - -'So were all the Encyclopædists; but the great Catherine was not afraid -of them; will you, the Father of your people, refuse to one of those -the protection which she was proud to grant to Frenchmen?' she had said -to the Emperor, with many another persuasive and audacious argument, -to which he had listened with a smile because the lovely mouth of the -Princess Napraxine had spoken them. - -'It was a very noble thing to do,' repeated Melville. - -'Oh, no,' she also repeated; 'it amused me. It frightened everybody -else. The Tzar was at Livadia unusually late; there was first to go -to him from here; when I reached Livadia, he was everything that was -kind to me personally, but I found him terribly angered against the -poor novelist, and all his courtiers were of course ready to swear -that Boganof was Satan; poor innocent Boganof, with his tender heart -always aching over the sorrows of the poor, and the mysteries of animal -suffering! I told the Emperor that Boganof was, on the contrary, a -type of all that was best in the Russian people; of that obedience, -of that faith, of that fortitude, which the Russian possesses in a -stronger degree than any other of the races of man. Where will you find -as you find in Russia the heroic silence under torture, the unwavering -adherence to a lost cause, the power of dying mute for sake of an idea, -the uncomplaining surrender of youth, of beauty, of all enjoyment, -often of rank and riches, to a mere impersonal duty? They are all -sacrificed to dreams, it is true; but they are heroic dreams which have -a greatness that looks fine in them, beside the vulgar greeds, and the -vulgar content of ordinary life. I said something to that effect to -the Tzar. "You fill your mines and prisons, sir, with these people," -I said to him. "Greece would have raised altars to them. They are the -brothers of Harmodius; they are the sisters of Læna." I suppose it is -wonderful that he did not send me to the prisons; I dare say, if I had -been an ugly woman he would have done; he was, on the contrary, very -indulgent, and, though he was hard to move at first, he ended with the -utmost leniency. - -'I was really quite in earnest at the time,' she continued, now, with -a little wondering astonishment at such remembrances of herself. 'I -urged on the Tzar the truth that, when the intellect of a nation -is suppressed and persecuted, the nation "dies from the top," like -Swift. I think I convinced him for the moment, but then there were so -many other people always at his ear to persuade him that universal -convulsion was only to be avoided by corking all the inkbottles, and -putting all the writers and readers down the mines. Prince Napraxine, -by the way, was in a terrible state when he heard of it all. He -was away in Paris at the time, and you may imagine that I did not -telegraph to ask his consent. Indeed, he first learnt what I had done -from the Russian correspondent of _Figaro_, and took the whole story -for one of _Figaro's_ impudent fictions. He went to the bureau in a -towering rage, and, I think, broke a Malacca cane over a sub-editor. -Then he telegraphed to me, and found it was all true enough; he might -more wisely have telegraphed first, for the sub-editor brought an -action for assault against him, and he had a vast deal of money to -pay. He abhors the very name of Boganof. Last New Year's day I had all -Boganof's novels in the Russian text, bound in vellum, as a present -from him; I thought he would have had an apoplectic fit.' - -Her pretty, chill laughter completed the sentence. - -'My honesty, however, compels me to confess,' she continued, 'that for -an unheroic _boulevardier_ and a strongly conservative _tchin_ like my -husband, the position was a trying one. He abhors literature, liberal -doctrines, and newspaper publicity; and the story of my journey for -and with Boganof met him in every journal, in every club, in every -city of Europe. The publicity annoyed me myself very much. I think -the way in which journalists seize on everything and exaggerate it to -their own purposes will, in time, prevent any action, a little out of -the common, ever taking place at all. People will shut themselves up -in their own shells like oysters. I should have left Boganof to the -governor of Tobolsk, who was so anxious to keep him, if I had ever -foreseen the annoyance which the Press was destined to cause me about -him. When I met the Tzar afterwards he said, "Well, Princess, are you -still convinced now that the ink-bottle contains the most harmless and -holy of fluids?" and I answered him that I granted it might contain a -good deal of gas and a good deal of gall, yet still I thought it wiser -not to cork it.' - -'Princess,' said Melville, with a little hesitation, 'one cannot -but regret that a person capable of such fine sympathy and such -noble effort as yourself should pass nearly the whole of her time in -sedulously endeavouring to persuade the world that she has no heart and -herself that she has no soul. Why do you do it?' - -She gave a little contemptuous gesture. 'I do not believe I have -either,' she said. 'When I was a tiny child, my father said to me, -"Douchka, you will have no dower, but you will have plenty of wit, -two big eyes, and a white skin." The possession of these three things -has always been the only fact I have ever been sure of, really! Do -not begin to talk theologically; you are delightful as a man of the -world, but as a priest you would bore me infinitely. One thinks out all -that sort of thing for oneself: ostensibly, I am of the Greek Church; -actually, I am of Victor Hugo's creed, which has never been able to -find a key to the mystery of the universe, "_Quelle loi a donné la bête -effarée à l'homme cruel?_" The horse strains and shivers under the -whip, the brutal drunkard kicks him in his empty stomach: God looks -on, if He exist at all, in entire indifference throughout tens of -thousands of ages. You say the patient animal has no soul, and that the -sodden drunkard has one. I do not admire your religion, which enables -you placidly to accept such an absurdity, and such an injustice, as a -Divine creation. Do not say that poets do no good; they do more than -priests, my dear friend. I had been reading that poem of Hugo's, the -_Melancholia_, at the moment when Boganof's wife and mother brought -their petition to me. It had made me in a mood for pity. You know that -is the utmost a woman ever has of any goodness--a mere mood. It is why -we are so dangerous in revolutions: we slay one minute, and weep the -next, and dance the next, and are sincere enough in it all. If they had -come to me when I had been annoyed about anything, or when I had had a -toilette I disliked, or a visit that had wearied me, I should have said -"No," and left Boganof in Siberia. It was the merest chance, the merest -whim--all due to the _Melancholia_.' - -'Whim, or will, I am sure Boganof was grateful?' asked Melville. - -Her voice softened: 'Oh yes, poor soul! But he died six months -afterwards of tubercular consumption, brought on by exposure and bad -food in Siberia. You see, imperial pardons may arrive too late, even if -one carry them oneself!' - -'But he died at home,' said Melville; 'think how much that is!' - -'For the sentimentalists,' she added, with her cruel little smile, but -her eyes were dim as she glanced upward at the stars in the north. - -'Poor Boganof!' she said, after a pause, with a vibration of unresisted -emotion in her voice. 'There is another problem to set beside your -Rose. The world is full of them. Your Christianity does not explain -them. He was the son of a country proprietor, a poor one, but he had a -little estate, enough for his wants. He was a man of most simple tastes -and innocent desires: he might have lived, as Tourguenieff might have -lived, happy all his humble days on his own lands; but he had genius, -or something near it. He believed in his country and in mankind; he -had passionate hopes and passionate faiths; he knew he would lose all -for saying the truth as he saw it, but he could not help it; the truth -in him was stronger than he, he could not restrain the fire that was -in him--a holy fire, pure of all personal greed. Well, he has died for -being so simple, being so loyal, being so impersonal and so unselfish. -If he had been an egotist, a time-server, a sycophant, he would have -lived in peace and riches. Your Christianity has no explanation of -that! Musset's "_être immobile qui regarde mourir_" is all we see -behind the eternal spectacle of useless suffering and unavailing loss.' - -She turned and drew her laces closer about her head, and passed quickly -through the shadows to the house. - -Melville in answer sighed. - -That night, when Melville stood at his windows looking over the immense -flat landscape, green with waving corn and rolling grass lands and low -birch woods which stretched before him silvered by the effulgence of a -broad white moon, he thought of Nadine Napraxine curiously, wistfully, -wonderingly, as a man who plays chess well puzzles over some chess -problem that is too intricate for him. The explanation we give of -ourselves is rarely accepted by others, and he did not accept hers of -herself; that she was the creature of the impression of the moment. -It seemed to him rather that hers was a nature with noble and heroic -impulses crusted over by the habits of the world and veiled by the -assumption rather than the actuality of egotism. She, too, could have -been a sister of Læna, he thought. - -What waste was here of a fine nature, sedulously forcing itself and -others to believe that it was worthless, wearied by the pleasures which -yet made its only kingdom, cynical, lonely, incredulous, whilst at the -height of youth and of all possession! - - - - -CHAPTER XXXII. - - -Othmar, faithful to his word, remained at the château of Amyôt -throughout the spring and summer months, indifferent to the laughter -of the world, if it did laugh. He divined very accurately that one -person at least laughed and made many a satiric sketch to her friends -of himself _filant le parfait amour_, and gathering wood violets, wood -anemones, wood strawberries, beneath the shadows of his Valois trees -in glades which had been old when the original of Jean Goujon's Diane -Chasseresse had been young. - -Amyôt seemed to him to suit the youth, the grace, and the gravity of -Yseulte better than any babble of the great world;--Amyôt, which was -like a stately illuminated chronicle of kingly and knightly history, -which was as silent as the grave of a king in a crypt, and which was -shut out from the fret of mankind by the screen of its Merovingian -forests. - -He was scarcely conscious that he lingered in this seclusion from an -unacknowledged unwillingness to go where he would see and hear of -another woman; he persuaded himself that he chose to stay on in the -provinces partially because the tumult of the world was always vulgar, -noisy, and offensive to him, chiefly because nowhere else in the world -so surely as in one of his own country houses could he be certain not -to meet the woman who had wounded him mortally, yet whom he loved far -more than he hated her. - -'It is absolutely necessary that you should be seen in Paris, and that -you should receive there; it is absolutely necessary that you should -sustain your position in the world,' said Friederich Othmar, with much -emphasis as he sat at noon one day on the great terrace of Amyôt. -Othmar laughed a little, and shrugged his shoulders. - -'Amyôt is magnificently kept up--that I admit,' continued the elder -man. 'It is a place that it is well to have, to spend six weeks of the -autumn in, to entertain princes at; it is quite royal, and was one of -the best purchases that my father ever made. But to bury yourself -here!--when the Kaiser comes to Paris, to whom you owe by tradition -every courtesy----' - -'The Othmars were never received at the Court of Vienna.' - -The Baron made an impatient gesture. - -'We are Parisians, but we are Croats before all. Sometimes you are -pleased to insist very strongly that we are Croats, and nothing else. -If we are so, the Emperor is our sovereign.' - -'It is disputed in Croatia, which has never been too loyal!' - -'Croatia be----,' said Friederich Othmar, with difficulty restraining -the oath because Yseulte was seated within hearing; and he returned to -his old arguments, which were all brought to bear upon the fact that -at the approach of winter Othmar owed it as a duty to society and to -himself to throw open the doors of that vast hotel on the Boulevard S. -Germain, which had always seemed to him the most hateful embodiment of -the wealth, the unscrupulousness, and the past history of his race. - -The hotel had been purchased from the Duc de Coigny during the White -Terror by Marc Othmar for a nominal price; and under the reign of -Louis Philippe, Stefan Othmar, deeming it neither grand nor luxurious -enough, had had it changed and redecorated in the worst taste of -the epoch, and, in the early days of the Second Empire, had farther -enlarged and overloaded it, until to his son it was as a very nightmare -of gilding, marble, and allegorical painting, a Cretan labyrinth of -enormous and uninhabitable chambers, fit for such motley crowds as cram -the Elysée in the days of Grevy. - -It was one of the show-houses of Paris, and had, indeed, many real -treasures of art amidst its overloaded luxury, but Othmar hated it -in its entirety, from its _porte-cochère_, where the arms which the -heralds had found for Marc Othmar had replaced the shield and crown of -the Ducs de Coigny, to the immense library, which did not contain a -single volume that he cared to open; an 'upholsterer's library,' with -all its books, from Tacitus to Henri Martin, clad in the same livery of -vellum and tooled gold. - -'Absolutely necessary to sustain your position in the world!' repeated -Othmar when his uncle had left him. 'That is always the incantation -with which the fetish of the world obtains its sacrifices. Translated -into common language, he means that as I have a great deal of money, -other people expect me to spend much of it upon them. I do not see the -obligation, at least not socially.' - -'Do you desire the life of Paris?' he added abruptly to Yseulte, who -hesitated, coloured slightly, and said with timidity: - -'I should prefer S. Pharamond.' - -'S. Pharamond is yours,' said Othmar with some embarrassment, knowing -why every rood of that sunny and flowering shore seemed to him nauseous -with sickening memories. 'S. Pharamond is yours, my dear; but I -scarcely think that we can pass this winter there. There are tedious -duties from which we cannot escape; to entertain in Paris is one of -them.' - -An older woman would have perceived that he contradicted himself, but -Yseulte was blinded to such anomalies by her adoration of him; an -adoration as intense as it was meek, dumb, and most humble. - -'I am so perfectly happy here,' she answered, with hesitation; -'but----' - -She was not actuated by the sentiment which he attributed to her -hesitation; she infinitely preferred the country to the city, as all -meditative and poetic tempers do, and the little she had seen of the -great world at Millo made her dread her entry into it in Paris. What -she wished, but lacked the courage to say, was, that she perceived -that the country did not satisfy him himself. She was not so dull of -comprehension that she did not see the melancholy of her husband, the -listless indifference, the unspoken ennui, which spoiled his years -to him, and left him without energy or interest in life. She could -discern the wound she knew not how to cure, and Friederich Othmar in -his conversations with her had repeatedly assured her that the _vie -de province_ stifled the intelligence of a man as moss grows over the -trunk of a tree. - -'I am so happy here,' she answered now with hesitation, 'but still----' - -'But still you are a daughter of Eve,' he added with indulgence. 'My -poor child, it is quite natural, you are so young; all young girls long -for the life of the world. It robs them of their lilies and roses, it -draws bistre shadows under their eyes, it makes them old before they -are twenty, but still they kiss the feet of their Moloch! I do not -think, though, that you will ever be hurt by the world yourself. You -are too serious, and have at once too much humility and too much pride: -they are safe warders at the door of the soul; you will not easily -become a _mondaine_.' - -'What is the difference?' - -'In the world, when she belongs to it, a woman crushes her soul as she -crushes her waist; she is a butterfly, with the sting of an asp; she -wastes her brain in the council-chambers of her tailors, and her time -in a kaleidoscope of amusements that do not even amuse her; she would -easily make the most hideous thing beautiful if she put it on once, and -the most flagrant vice the fashion if she adopted it for a week; she -has given the highest culture possible to her body and to her brain, -only to spend her years in an ennui and an irritation beside which the -life of the South Sea islanders would seem utility and wisdom; she has -the clearest vision, the finest intelligence, the shrewdest wit, only -to set her ambition on having a whole audience of a theatre forget the -stage because she has entered her box, or the entire journals of a city -chronicle the suicide of some madman who has taken his life because she -crossed out his name on her tablets before a cotillon----' - -He paused abruptly, becoming suddenly conscious that he was speaking in -no general terms, and had only before his thoughts the vision of one -woman. - -'No, my dear,' he said kindly, passing his hand over the shining -tresses of Yseulte; 'I am not afraid that you will become a coquette -or a lover of folly; you will not learn the slang of the hour, or -yellow your white skin with _maquillage_; you will always be the young -patrician of the time of the Lady of Beaujeu. You shall go to Paris if -you wish, and do just as you like there; you must not blame me if it do -not suit you better than it suits those roses which your foster-mother -sends up in moss from her garden.' - -'Poor child!' he thought, with a pang of conscience. 'She has a right -to enjoy any amusement she can. She is young; the world will be a -play-place to her; if she can make for herself friends, interests, -pastimes, I should be the last to prevent her. Sooner or later she -will find out that she is so little to me. She is content now because -she takes kindness for love, and because, in her innocence, she cannot -conceive how one's senses may be roused while one's heart may lie dumb -and cold as a stone. But when she is older she will perceive all that, -and then the more friends she has found, and the less she leans on me, -the less unhappy she will be. I will give her everything that she can -wish for; all women grow contented and absorbed in the world.' - -So he argued with himself, but he knew all the while that he was to -blame in desiring that sort of compensation and consolation for her; -and that delicacy of taste, which has over some temperaments a stronger -control than conscience, made him feel that there was a kind of -vulgarity in thus persuading himself that material gifts and material -triumphs would atone to her for the indifference of his feelings and -the absence of his sympathy. - -It was something better than mere material possessions and indulgences -which he had meant to give the child whose lonely fate had touched -him to so much pity under the palm trees of S. Pharamond and the -gilded roofs of Millo. But he dismissed the rebuke of this memory with -impatience. The world had so repeatedly told him that his gold was -capable of purchasing heaven and earth, that, though he found it of no -avail for himself, he fell instinctively into the error of imagining -that with it at least he could heal all wounds not his own. She should -have all her fancy could desire. His experience of women told him that -she would be very unlike them if, in all the pleasure of acquisition, -emulation, and possession, she did not find at least a fair simulacrum -of happiness. She would be one out of a million--but if she were that -one? Then her soul might starve in the midst of all her luxuries and -pageants, like a bird in a golden cage that dies for want of the drop -of water which the common brown sparrow, flying over the ploughed brown -field, can find at will. But he did not think of that. - -He knew that it was unworthy to speculate upon the power of the lower -life to absorb into itself a soul fitted by its affinities to discover -and enjoy the higher. He shrank from his own speculations as to the -possibility of the world replacing himself in her affections. He had -honestly intended, when he had taken her existence into his charge, to -study, reverence, and guide this most innocent and docile nature; and -endeavour, beside her, to seek out some trace of the purer ideals which -had haunted his youth. And he felt, with remorse, that the failure to -do so lay with himself, not with her. She remained outside his life; -she had no sorcery for him. She was a lovely and almost faultless -creature, but she was not what he loved. He realised, with bitter -self-reproach, that in a moment of impulse, not ignoble in itself, but -unwise, he had burdened his own fate and perhaps unconsciously done a -great wrong to her, since, in the years to come, she would ask at his -hands the bread of life and he would only be able to give her a stone. - -She herself had as yet no idea that she was not beloved by Othmar -with a lover's love. She knew nothing of men and their passions. She -had not the grosser intuitions which could have supplied the place of -experience. She did not perceive that his tenderness had little ardour, -his embraces nothing of the fervour and the eagerness of delighted -possession. She had no standard of comparison by which to measure -the coldness or the warmth of the desires to which she surrendered -herself, and it was not to so spiritual a temperament as hers that the -familiarities of love could ever have seemed love. But her nerves were -sensitive, her perceptions quick; and they made her conscious that -mentally and in feeling Othmar was altogether apart from her; that in -sorrow she would not have consoled him, and that in his meditations she -never had any place. - -'When I am older he will trust me more,' she reflected, in her -innocence, and she had been so long used to repression and obedience -that it cost her much less than it would have cost most women of her -years to accept, uncomplainingly, that humble place before the shut -doors of his life. - -She was too modest to be offended at a distraction which would have -been certain to excite the offence and the suspicion of a more selfish -or self-conscious nature; and she was too young to be likely to -penetrate by intuition the secret of that evident joylessness which -might well have excited her jealousy. It was rather the same sense of -pity which had come to her for him in the weeks before her marriage -which grew strongest in her as the months passed on at Amyôt. He -enjoyed and possessed so much, yet could not enjoy or possess his own -soul in peace. - -'I do not think he is happy, and it is not I who can make him happy,' -she said once, very timidly, to Friederich Othmar, who answered with -considerable impatience: - -'My love, the fault does not lie with you. Otho, who believes himself, -like Hamlet, out of joint with his time, is in reality a man of his -times in everything; that is, he is a pessimist; he has a mental -nevrose, to borrow the jargon of scientists; he has so cultivated his -conscience at the expense of his reason, that I sometimes believe he -will be satisfied with nothing but the abandonment of all he possesses; -and no doubt he would have tried this remedy long since, only he has -no belief in any Deity who would reward him for it. The misfortune -of all the thoughtful men of Otho's generation is, that they combine -with their fretful consciences an entire disbelief in their souls, so -that they are a mass of irritable anomalies. The mirthful sceptics of -Augustan Rome, of Voltairian France, and of Bolingbroke's England, were -all consistent philosophers and voluptuaries; they disbelieved in their -souls, but they believed in their bodies, and were amply content with -them. They never talked nonsense about duty, and they passed gaily, -gracefully, and consistently through their lives, of which they made -the best they could materially, which is only reasonable in those who -are convinced that the present is the sole sentient existence they -will ever enjoy. But the tender-nerved pessimists of Otho's kind and -age are wholly inconsistent. They believe in nothing, and yet they are -troubled by a multitude of misgivings; they think the soul is merely a -romantic word for the reflex action of the brain, and yet they distress -themselves with imagining that the human animal has innumerable duties, -and should have innumerable scruples, which is ridiculous on the face -of it, for, religion apart and Deity denied, there is no possible -reason why man should have any more duties than a snail has, or a -hare. The agnostics of the present generation do not perceive this -contradiction in themselves, and that is why they look so inconsistent -and so entirely valetudinarian beside the robust Atheism of the past -century, and are, indeed, the mere _malades imaginaires_ of the moral -hospital.' - -'If I could only make him as happy as I am myself,' she said again; but -she had not the talisman which the woman who is beloved in return holds -in the hollow of her hand. - -'She is too young,' thought Friederich Othmar, angrily. 'She is too -innocent; she is a daisy, a dove, a child. She knows nothing of -persuasion or provocation; she is not even aware of her own charms. She -waits his pleasure to be caressed or let alone; she knows neither how -to deny herself or make herself desired. She wearies him only because -she does not know how to torment him. He will drift away to someone -else who does, while he will expect her--at seventeen!--to be satisfied -with bearing him children and owning his name!' - -A few months before, the Baron himself would have emphatically declared -that no living woman could or should ever need more. But his nephew's -wife had touched a softer nerve in him; something which was almost -tenderness and almost regret smote him when he saw the tall, graceful -form of Yseulte like a garden lily, standing alone in the warmth of -the sunset on the terraces at Amyôt, or saw Othmar, when he approached -after a day's absence, kiss her hand with the calm and serious courtesy -which he would have displayed to any stranger, and turn away from her -with an indifference which all his deference of manner and careful -_prévoyance_ of thought for her could not conceal from the keen eyes of -the elder man. - -'He gives her his caresses, not his companionship,' thought the old -man, angrily, but he was too prudent and too wise to draw her attention -to a fault against herself of which she was unconscious. - -A few months earlier he would have said with Napoléon, _'Qu'elle -nous donne des marmots; c'est le nécessaire._' But before this young -mistress of this stately place as she moved, in her white gown, with -her great bouquet of roses in her hand and her clear eyes smiling -gravely on these men who so brief a while before had been unknown to -her, and now held all her destiny in their hands, Friederich Othmar -for the first time in his life saw a little way into a soul unsoiled, -and began to dimly comprehend some desires not wholly physical, some -necessities sheerly of the mind and heart. The impression came to -him--a purely sentimental one for which he chid himself--that this -child was entirely alone; more alone in her wedded life perhaps than -she would have been in the monastic. She was surrounded with every -species of material indulgence; day after day her husband gave her new -pleasures, as people give children new toys; if she had wished for -the impossible he would have endeavoured to obtain it for her; but -Friederich Othmar twice or thrice in his hurried visits to Amyôt had -found her in solitude, and walking alone in the stately gardens or -sitting alone in some little rustic temple in the woods, and the fact, -though insignificant enough, seemed to him indicative of a loneliness -which would certainly become her fate unless she learned as so many -other women have learned, to console herself for neglect by folly. - -'And that she will not do,' the old man said to himself. 'She is -a pearl; but a pearl thrown, not before swine, but wasted on a -pessimist, an _ennuyé_, a _délicat_ whom nothing pleases except that -which he cannot possess.' - -He pitied her for what he foresaw would befall her in the future, -rather than for any thing which troubled her at that present time, for -although vaguely conscious of a certain discordance and dissatisfaction -in her husband's life, Yseulte was, in her own, as happy as a very -young girl can be to whom kindliness seems love and the external beauty -surrounding her appears like a lovely dream. - -Othmar left her often to shut himself in his library, to lose himself -in his forests, or to go for the affairs of his House to Paris; but -he was always gentle, generous, and kind; he was even prodigal of -caresses to her, because they spared him words in whose utterance he -felt himself untrue; and if the reflex of his own sadness fell at times -across herself, it became a light soft shadow without name, such as -seemed to suit better than mere vulgar joys the silence of the gardens -and the grandeur of the courts, where a life of the past, once so -gracious, so vivid, so impassioned in love and so light in laughter, -had been extinguished like a torch burned out in the night. A riotous -or exuberant happiness would not have so well pleased her nature, made -serious beyond her years whilst yet so mere a child, by the pains of -poverty, the companionship of old age, and the sights and sounds of -the siege of Paris. The long, light, warm days of spring and summer -at Amyôt, with all the floral pomp around her, and the château itself -rising, golden and silvery in the brilliant air, historic, poetic, -magnificent, airy as a madrigal, martial as an epic, were days of an -ecstatic but of an almost religious joy to her. - -'What have I done that all this should come to me?' she said often in -her wonder and humility, and Othmar seemed ever to her as a magician, -at whose touch the briars and brambles in her path had blossomed like -the almond and the may. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIII. - - -With October days an accident as her boat crossed the Loire water, -when the autumn currents were rolling strong and wide, brought on the -premature delivery of a child, who barely breathed for a few moments, -and then took with him into darkness the hopes of the Maison d'Othmar. -The fury and the grief of Friederich Othmar were so great that they far -surpassed the moderate regret shown by his nephew, who appeared to him -intolerably cold and little moved save by his sympathy with the sorrow -of the child's young mother. - -'You would care, I believe, nothing if there were no one to succeed you -when you die!' said the elder man with indignation. - -Othmar gave a gesture of indifference. - -'I hope I should care for my sons as much as most men care for theirs,' -he replied. 'But the "succession" does not seem to me to be of vital -importance. If you would only believe it, we are not Hohenzollerns nor -Guelfs, and even they would be easily replaced, though perhaps Moltke -or Wolseley would not be so.' - -'Why do I, indeed, care so little?' said Othmar to himself when he -was alone. 'I am neither inhuman nor heartless. I used to be quickly -touched to any kind of feeling; but the whole of life seems cold to me, -and profitless. I was dry-eyed whilst that poor child wept over that -little, frail, waxen body which was so much to her; would have been -so much to her if it had lived to lie on her breast. It is the most -pathetic of all possible things--a girl still sixteen sorrowing for her -offspring which has perished before it had any separate existence; has -died before it lived; and yet, I feel hardly more than if I had seen -a bird flying round an empty nest, or a brood of leverets wailing in -an empty form. I think she took my heart out of my chest that day she -fooled me, and put a stone there----' - -He meant Nadine Napraxine, who remained the one woman on the earth for -him. - -A woman of unstable impulses, of incalculable caprices, of an infinite -intelligence, of as infinite an egotism; absorbed in herself, save so -far as her merciless eyes scanned the whole world as players, whilst -her fastidious taste found them the poorest players, and judged them -inexorably as dunces and as fools; a woman who had treated the tragedy -of his own passion as a mere comedy, and had listened to it seriously -for a moment only the better to turn it into jest. - -Yet the one woman upon earth whom he adored, whom he desired. - -For love is fate, and will neither be commanded nor gainsaid. - - -THE END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. - -[Illustration] - - - - - [_March, 1884._ - - [Illustration] - - CHATTO & WINDUS'S - - _LIST OF BOOKS_. - - * * * * * - - -=About.--The Fellah:= An Egyptian Novel. 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LIBRARY EDITIONS, many -Illustrated, crown 8vo, cloth extra, =3s. 6d.= each. - - -_BY MRS. ALEXANDER._ - -=Maid, Wife, or Widow?= - - -_BY W. BESANT & JAMES RICE._ - - =Ready-Money Mortiboy.= - =My Little Girl.= - =The Case of Mr. Lucraft.= - =This Son of Vulcan.= - =With Harp and Crown.= - =The Golden Butterfly.= - =By Celia's Arbour.= - =The Monks of Thelema.= - ='Twas in Trafalgar's Bay.= - =The Seamy Side.= - =The Ten Years' Tenant.= - =The Chaplain of the Fleet.= - - -_BY WALTER BESANT._ - - =All Sorts and Conditions of Men.= - =The Captains' Room.= - - -_BY ROBERT BUCHANAN._ - - =A Child of Nature.= - =God and the Man.= - =The Shadow of the Sword.= - =The Martyrdom of Madeline.= - =Love Me for Ever.= - - -_BY MRS. H. LOVETT CAMERON._ - - =Deceivers Ever.= - =Juliet's Guardian.= - - -_BY MORTIMER COLLINS._ - - =Sweet Anne Page.= - =Transmigration.= - =From Midnight to Midnight.= - - -_MORTIMER & FRANCES COLLINS._ - - =Blacksmith and Scholar.= - =The Village Comedy.= - =You Play me False.= - - -_BY WILKIE COLLINS._ - - =Antonina.= - =Basil.= - =Hide and Seek.= - =The Dead Secret.= - =Queen of Hearts.= - =My Miscellanies.= - =Woman in White.= - =The Moonstone.= - =Man and Wife.= - =Poor Miss Finch.= - =Miss or Mrs.?= - =New Magdalen.= - =The Frozen Deep.= - =The Law and the Lady.= - =The Two Destinies.= - =Haunted Hotel.= - =The Fallen Leaves.= - =Jezebel's Daughter.= - =The Black Robe.= - =Heart and Science.= - - -_BY DUTTON COOK._ - -=Paul Foster's Daughter.= - - -_BY WILLIAM CYPLES._ - -=Hearts of Gold.= - - -_BY JAMES DE MILLE._ - -=A Castle in Spain.= - - -_BY J. LEITH DERWENT._ - - =Our Lady of Tears.= - =Circe's Lovers.= - - -_BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS._ - - =Felicia.= - =Kitty.= - - -_BY MRS. ANNIE EDWARDES._ - -=Archie Lovell.= - - -_BY R. E. FRANCILLON._ - - =Olympia.= - =Queen Cophetua.= - =One by One.= - - -_Prefaced by Sir BARTLE FRERE._ - -=Pandurang Hari.= - - -_BY EDWARD GARRETT._ - -=The Capel Girls.= - - -_BY CHARLES GIBBON._ - - =Robin Gray.= - =For Lack of Gold.= - =In Love and War.= - =What will the World Say?= - =For the King.= - =In Honour Bound.= - =Queen of the Meadow.= - =In Pastures Green.= - =The Flower of the Forest.= - =A Heart's Problem.= - =The Braes of Yarrow.= - =The Golden Shaft.= - =Of High Degree.= - - -_BY THOMAS HARDY._ - -=Under the Greenwood Tree.= - - -_BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE._ - - =Garth.= - =Ellice Quentin.= - =Sebastian Strome.= - =Prince Saroni's Wife.= - =Dust.= - =Fortune's Fool.= - - -_BY SIR A. HELPS._ - -=Ivan de Biron.= - - -_BY MRS. ALFRED HUNT._ - - =Thornicroft's Model.= - =The Leaden Casket.= - =Self-Condemned.= - - -_BY JEAN INGELOW._ - -=Fated to be Free.= - - -_BY HENRY JAMES, Jun._ - -=Confidence.= - - -_BY HARRIETT JAY._ - - =The Queen of Connaught.= - =The Dark Colleen.= - - -_BY HENRY KINGSLEY._ - -=Number Seventeen.= - - -_BY E. LYNN LINTON._ - - =Patricia Kemball.= - =Atonement of Leam Dundas.= - =The World Well Lost.= - =Under which Lord?= - =With a Silken Thread.= - =The Rebel of the Family.= - ="My Love!"= - - -_BY HENRY W. LUCY._ - -=Gideon Fleyce.= - - -_BY JUSTIN McCARTHY, M.P._ - - =The Waterdale Neighbours.= - =My Enemy's Daughter.= - =Linley Rochford.= - =A Fair Saxon.= - =Dear Lady Disdain.= - =Miss Misanthrope.= - =Donna Quixote.= - =The Comet of a Season.= - - -_BY GEORGE MACDONALD, LL.D._ - - =Paul Faber, Surgeon.= - =Thomas Wingfold, Curate.= - - -_BY MRS. MACDONELL._ - -=Quaker Cousins.= - - -_BY KATHARINE S. MACQUOID._ - - =Lost Rose.= - =The Evil Eye.= - - -_BY FLORENCE MARRYAT._ - - =Open! Sesame!= - =Written in Fire.= - - -_BY JEAN MIDDLEMASS._ - -=Touch and Go.= - - -_BY D. CHRISTIE MURRAY._ - - =Life's Atonement.= - =Joseph's Coat.= - =A Model Father.= - =Coals of Fire.= - =Val Strange.= - =Hearts.= - =By the Gate of the Sea.= - - -_BY MRS. OLIPHANT._ - -=Whiteladies.= - - -_BY MARGARET A. PAUL._ - -=Gentle and Simple.= - - -_BY JAMES PAYN._ - - =Lost Sir Massingberd.= - =Best of Husbands.= - =Fallen Fortunes.= - =Halves.= - =Walter's Word.= - =What He Cost Her.= - =Less Black than We're Painted.= - =By Proxy.= - =High Spirits.= - =Under One Roof.= - =Carlyon's Year.= - =A Confidential Agent.= - =From Exile.= - =A Grape from Thorn.= - =For Cash Only.= - =Kit: A Memory.= - - -_BY E. C. PRICE._ - - =Valentina.= - =The Foreigners.= - - -_BY CHARLES READE, D.C.L._ - - =It is Never Too Late to Mend.= - =Hard Cash.= - =Peg Woffington.= - =Christie Johnstone.= - =Griffith Gaunt.= - =The Double Marriage.= - =Love Me Little, Love Me Long.= - =Foul Play.= - =The Cloister and the Hearth.= - =The Course of True Love.= - =The Autobiography of a Thief.= - =Put Yourself in His Place.= - =A Terrible Temptation.= - =The Wandering Heir.= - =A Woman-Hater.= - =A Simpleton.= - =Readiana.= - - -_BY MRS. J. H. RIDDELL._ - - =Her Mother's Darling.= - =Prince of Wales's Garden-Party.= - - -_BY F. W. ROBINSON._ - - =Women are Strange.= - =The Hands of Justice.= - - -_BY JOHN SAUNDERS._ - - =Bound to the Wheel.= - =Guy Waterman.= - =One Against the World.= - =The Lion in the Path.= - =The Two Dreamers.= - - -_BY T. W. SPEIGHT._ - -=The Mysteries of Heron Dyke.= - - -_BY R. A. STERNDALE._ - -=The Afghan Knife.= - - -_BY BERTHA THOMAS._ - - =Proud Maisie.= - =Cressida.= - =The Violin-Player.= - - -_BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE._ - - =The Way we Live Now.= - =The American Senator.= - =Frau Frohmann.= - =Marion Fay.= - =Kept in the Dark.= - =Mr. Scarborough's Family.= - =The Land Leaguers.= - - -_BY FRANCES E. TROLLOPE._ - - =Like Ships upon the Sea.= - =Anne Furness.= - =Mabel's Progress.= - - -_BY T. A. TROLLOPE._ - -=Diamond Cut Diamond.= - - -_By IVAN TURGENIEFF and Others._ - -=Stories from Foreign Novelists.= - - -_BY SARAH TYTLER._ - - =What She Came Through.= - =The Bride's Pass.= - - -_BY J. S. WINTER._ - - =Cavalry Life.= - =Regimental Legends.= - - -CHEAP EDITIONS OF POPULAR NOVELS. - -Post 8vo, illustrated boards, =2s.= each. - - -_BY EDMOND ABOUT._ - -=The Fellah.= - - -_BY HAMILTON AÏDÉ._ - - =Carr of Carrlyon.= - =Confidences.= - - -_BY MRS. ALEXANDER._ - -=Maid, Wife, or Widow?= - - -_BY SHELSLEY BEAUCHAMP._ - -=Grantley Grange.= - - -_BY W. BESANT & JAMES RICE._ - - =Ready-Money Mortiboy.= - =With Harp and Crown.= - =This Son of Vulcan.= - =My Little Girl.= - =The Case of Mr. Lucraft.= - =The Golden Butterfly.= - =By Celia's Arbour.= - =The Monks of Thelema.= - ='Twas in Trafalgar's Bay.= - =The Seamy Side.= - =The Ten Years' Tenant.= - =The Chaplain of the Fleet.= - =All Sorts and Conditions of Men.= - =The Captains' Room.= - - -_BY FREDERICK BOYLE._ - - =Camp Notes.= - =Savage Life.= - - -_BY BRET HARTE._ - - =An Heiress of Red Dog.= - =The Luck of Roaring Camp.= - =Californian Stories.= - =Gabriel Conroy.= - =Flip.= - - -_BY ROBERT BUCHANAN._ - - =The Shadow of the Sword.= - =A Child of Nature.= - =God and the Man.= - =The Martyrdom of Madeline.= - =Love Me for Ever.= - - -_BY MRS. BURNETT._ - -=Surly Tim.= - - -_BY MRS. LOVETT CAMERON._ - - =Deceivers Ever.= - =Juliet's Guardian.= - - -_BY MACLAREN COBBAN._ - -=The Cure of Souls.= - - -_BY C. ALLSTON COLLINS._ - -=The Bar Sinister.= - - -_BY WILKIE COLLINS._ - - =Antonina.= - =Basil.= - =Hide and Seek.= - =The Dead Secret.= - =Queen of Hearts.= - =My Miscellanies.= - =Woman In White.= - =The Moonstone.= - =Man and Wife.= - =Poor Miss Finch.= - =Miss or Mrs.?= - =The New Magdalen.= - =The Frozen Deep.= - =Law and the Lady.= - =The Two Destinies.= - =Haunted Hotel.= - =The Fallen Leaves.= - =Jezebel's Daughter.= - =The Black Robe.= - - -_BY MORTIMER COLLINS._ - - =Sweet Anne Page.= - =Transmigration.= - =From Midnight to Midnight.= - =A Fight with Fortune.= - - -_MORTIMER & FRANCES COLLINS._ - - =Sweet and Twenty.= - =Frances.= - =Blacksmith and Scholar.= - =The Village Comedy.= - =You Play me False.= - - -_BY DUTTON COOK._ - - =Leo.= - =Paul Foster's Daughter.= - - -_BY J. LEITH DERWENT._ - -=Our Lady of Tears.= - - -_BY CHARLES DICKENS._ - - =Sketches by Boz.= - =The Pickwick Papers.= - =Oliver Twist.= - =Nicholas Nickleby.= - - -_BY MRS. ANNIE EDWARDES._ - - =A Point of Honour.= - =Archie Lovell.= - - -_BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS._ - - =Felicia.= - =Kitty.= - - -_BY EDWARD EGGLESTON._ - -=Roxy.= - - -_BY PERCY FITZGERALD._ - - =Bella Donna.= - =Never Forgotten.= - =The Second Mrs. Tillotson.= - =Polly.= - =Seventy-five Brooke Street.= - - -_BY ALBANY DE FONBLANQUE._ - -=Filthy Lucre.= - - -_BY R. E. FRANCILLON._ - - =Olympia.= - =Queen Cophetua.= - =One by One.= - - -_Prefaced by Sir H. BARTLE FRERE._ - -=Pandurang Hari.= - - -_BY HAIN FRISWELL._ - -=One of Two.= - - -_BY EDWARD GARRETT._ - -=The Capel Girls.= - - -_BY CHARLES GIBBON._ - - =Robin Gray.= - =For Lack of Gold.= - =What will the World Say?= - =In Honour Bound.= - =The Dead Heart.= - =In Love and War.= - =For the King.= - =Queen of the Meadow.= - =In Pastures Green.= - =The Flower of the Forest.= - =A Heart's Problem.= - =The Braes of Yarrow.= - - -_BY WILLIAM GILBERT._ - - =Dr. Austin's Guests.= - =The Wizard of the Mountain.= - =James Duke.= - - -_BY JAMES GREENWOOD._ - -=Dick Temple.= - - -_BY ANDREW HALLIDAY._ - -=Every-Day Papers.= - - -_BY LADY DUFFUS HARDY._ - -=Paul Wynter's Sacrifice.= - - -_BY THOMAS HARDY._ - -=Under the Greenwood Tree.= - - -_BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE._ - - =Garth.= - =Ellice Quentin.= - =Prince Saroni's Wife.= - =Sebastian Strome.= - =Dust.= - - -_BY SIR ARTHUR HELPS._ - -=Ivan de Biron.= - - -_BY TOM HOOD._ - -=A Golden Heart.= - - -_BY MRS. GEORGE HOOPER._ - -=The House of Raby.= - - -_BY VICTOR HUGO._ - -=The Hunchback of Notre Dame.= - - -_BY MRS. ALFRED HUNT._ - - =Thornicroft's Model.= - =The Leaden Casket.= - =Self-Condemned.= - - -_BY JEAN INGELOW._ - -=Fated to be Free.= - - -_BY HARRIETT JAY._ - - =The Dark Colleen.= - =The Queen of Connaught.= - - -_BY HENRY KINGSLEY._ - - =Oakshott Castle.= - =Number Seventeen.= - - -_BY E. LYNN LINTON._ - - =Patricia Kemball.= - =The Atonement of Leam Dundas.= - =The World Well Lost.= - =Under which Lord?= - =With a Silken Thread.= - =The Rebel of the Family.= - ="My Love!"= - - -_BY HENRY W. LUCY._ - -=Gideon Fleyce.= - - -_BY JUSTIN McCARTHY, M.P._ - - =Dear Lady Disdain.= - =The Waterdale Neighbours.= - =My Enemy's Daughter.= - =A Fair Saxon.= - =Linley Rochford.= - =Miss Misanthrope.= - =Donna Quixote.= - =The Comet of a Season.= - - -_BY GEORGE MACDONALD._ - - =Paul Faber, Surgeon.= - =Thomas Wingfold, Curate.= - - -_BY MRS. MACDONELL._ - -=Quaker Cousins.= - - -_BY KATHARINE S. MACQUOID._ - - =The Evil Eye.= - =Lost Rose.= - - -_BY W. H. MALLOCK._ - -=The New Republic.= - - -_BY FLORENCE MARRYAT._ - - =Open! Sesame!= - =A Harvest of Wild Oats.= - =A Little Stepson.= - =Fighting the Air.= - =Written in Fire.= - - -_BY J. MASTERMAN._ - -=Half-a-dozen Daughters.= - - -_BY JEAN MIDDLEMASS._ - - =Touch and Go.= - =Mr. Dorillion.= - - -_BY D. CHRISTIE MURRAY._ - - =A Life's Atonement.= - =A Model Father.= - =Joseph's Coat.= - =Coals of Fire.= - =By the Gate of the Sea.= - - -_BY MRS. OLIPHANT._ - -=Whiteladies.= - - -_BY MRS. ROBERT O'REILLY._ - -=Phoebe's Fortunes.= - - -_BY OUIDA._ - - =Held in Bondage.= - =Strathmore.= - =Chandos.= - =Under Two Flags.= - =Idalia.= - =Cecil Castlemaine.= - =Tricotrin.= - =Puck.= - =Folle Farine.= - =A Dog of Flanders.= - =Pascarel.= - =Two Little Wooden Shoes.= - =Signa.= - =In a Winter City.= - =Ariadne.= - =Friendship.= - =Moths.= - =Pipistrello.= - =A Village Commune.= - =Bimbi.= - =In Maremma.= - - -_BY MARGARET AGNES PAUL._ - -=Gentle and Simple.= - - -_BY JAMES PAYN._ - - =Lost Sir Massingberd.= - =A Perfect Treasure.= - =Bentinck's Tutor.= - =Murphy's Master.= - =A County Family.= - =At Her Mercy.= - =A Woman's Vengeance.= - =Cecil's Tryst.= - =Clyffards of Clyffe.= - =The Family Scapegrace.= - =Foster Brothers.= - =Found Dead.= - =Best of Husbands.= - =Walter's Word.= - =Halves.= - =Fallen Fortunes.= - =What He Cost Her.= - =Humorous Stories.= - =Gwendoline's Harvest.= - =Like Father, Like Son.= - =A Marine Residence.= - =Married Beneath Him.= - =Mirk Abbey.= - =Not Wooed, but Won.= - =£200 Reward.= - =Less Black than We're Painted.= - =By Proxy.= - =Under One Roof.= - =High Spirits.= - =Carlyon's Year.= - =A Confidential Agent.= - =Some Private Views.= - =From Exile.= - =A Grape from a Thorn.= - =For Cash Only.= - - -_BY EDGAR A. POE._ - -=The Mystery of Marie Roget.= - - -_BY E. C. PRICE._ - -=Valentina.= - - -_BY CHARLES READE._ - - =It is Never Too Late to Mend.= - =Hard Cash.= - =Peg Woffington.= - =Christie Johnstone.= - =Griffith Gaunt.= - =Put Yourself in His Place.= - =The Double Marriage.= - =Love Me Little, Love Me Long.= - =Foul Play.= - =The Cloister and the Hearth.= - =The Course of True Love.= - =Autobiography of a Thief.= - =A Terrible Temptation.= - =The Wandering Heir.= - =A Simpleton.= - =A Woman-Hater.= - =Readiana.= - - -_BY MRS. J. H. RIDDELL._ - - =Her Mother's Darling.= - =Prince of Wales's Garden Party.= - - -_BY F. W. ROBINSON._ - -=Women are Strange.= - - -_BY BAYLE ST. JOHN._ - -=A Levantine Family.= - - -_BY GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA._ - -=Gaslight and Daylight.= - - -_BY JOHN SAUNDERS._ - - =Bound to the Wheel.= - =One Against the World.= - =Guy Waterman.= - =The Lion in the Path.= - =Two Dreamers.= - - -_BY ARTHUR SKETCHLEY._ - -=A Match in the Dark.= - - -_BY T. W. SPEIGHT._ - -=The Mysteries of Heron Dyke.= - - -_BY R. A. STERNDALE._ - -=The Afghan Knife.= - - -_BY R. LOUIS STEVENSON._ - -=New Arabian Nights.= - - -_BY BERTHA THOMAS._ - - =Cressida.= - =Proud Maisie.= - =The Violin-Player.= - - -_BY W. MOY THOMAS._ - -=A Fight for Life.= - - -_BY WALTER THORNBURY._ - -=Tales for the Marines.= - - -_BY T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE._ - -=Diamond Cut Diamond.= - - -_BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE._ - - =The Way We Live Now.= - =The American Senator.= - =Frau Frohmann.= - =Marion Fay.= - =Kept in the Dark.= - - -_BY FRANCES ELEANOR TROLLOPE._ - -=Like Ships Upon the Sea.= - - -_BY MARK TWAIN._ - - =Tom Sawyer.= - =An Idle Excursion.= - =A Pleasure Trip on the Continent of Europe.= - =A Tramp Abroad.= - =The Stolen White Elephant.= - - -_BY SARAH TYTLER._ - - =What She Came Through.= - =The Bride's Pass.= - - -_BY J. S. WINTER._ - - =Cavalry Life.= - =Regimental Legends.= - - -_BY LADY WOOD._ - -=Sabina.= - - -_BY EDMUND YATES._ - - =Castaway.= - =The Forlorn Hope.= - =Land at Last.= - - -_ANONYMOUS._ - - =Paul Ferroll.= - - =Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wife.= - - * * * * * - - Fcap. 8vo, picture covers, =1s.= each. - - - =Jeff Briggs's Love Story.= By BRET HARTE. - - - =The Twins of Table Mountain.= By BRET HARTE. - - - =Mrs. Gainsborough's Diamonds.= By JULIAN HAWTHORNE. - - - =Kathleen Mavourneen.= By Author of "That Lass o' Lowrie's." - - - =Lindsay's Luck.= By the Author of "That Lass o' Lowrie's." - - - =Pretty Polly Pemberton.= By the Author of "That Lass o' Lowrie's." - - - =Trooping with Crows.= By Mrs. PIRKIS. - - - =The Professor's Wife.= By LEONARD GRAHAM. - - - =A Double Bond.= By LINDA VILLARI. - - - =Esther's Glove.= By R. E. FRANCILLON. - - - =The Garden that Paid the Rent.= By TOM JERROLD. - - J. OGDEN AND CO., PRINTERS, 172, ST. JOHN STREET, E.C. - - - * * * * * - -Transcriber’s Notes: - -Italic text is indicated by _underscores_. Bold text is indicated by -=equal signs=. - -Table of Contents created by the transcriber and placed into the -public domain. - -Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired. - -Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully -as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other -inconsistencies. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Princess Napraxine, Volume 2 (of 3), by -Maria Louise Ramé - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCESS NAPRAXINE, VOLUME 2 *** - -***** This file should be named 50836-0.txt or 50836-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/8/3/50836/ - -Produced by MWS, Christopher Wright and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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- margin-right: 10%; -} - -.half-title -{ - text-align: center; - font-size: x-large; - line-height:2; -} - -/* Table of Contents */ - -table { - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; -} - -table.toc { - margin: auto; - width:auto; - max-width: 40em; - margin-top: 4em; -} -th { - padding-bottom: 10px; -} - -td.cht { - text-align: left; - vertical-align: top; - padding-left: 1em; - text-indent: -1em; -} -td.pag { - text-align: right; - vertical-align: bottom; - padding-left: 2em; -} - -td.pag a { - /* color: black; */ - font-weight: bold; - text-decoration: none; -} - - -h1,h2,h3 { -text-align: center; -clear: both; -} - -.ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { /* Heading-like formatting */ - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: normal; - clear: both; -} - -.ph3 { - font-weight: bold; -} - -.ph2 { font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; font-weight: normal} -.ph3 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } -.ph4 { font-size: medium; margin: 1.12em auto; } - - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Princess Napraxine, Volume 2 (of 3) - -Author: Maria Louise Ramé - -Release Date: January 3, 2016 [EBook #50836] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCESS NAPRAXINE, VOLUME 2 *** - - - - -Produced by MWS, Christopher Wright and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> -<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover" /> -</div> - - - - -<p class="half-title smcap">Princess Napraxine -<br /> - -II.</p> - - - - -<div class="bbox"> -<p class="ph3"><strong>New Three-volume Novels at all Libraries.</strong></p> - -<p class="center spaced gesperrt">DOROTHY FORSTER. By <span class="smcap">Walter Besant</span>.</p> - -<p class="center spaced gesperrt">THE NEW ABELARD. By <span class="smcap">Robert Buchanan</span>.</p> - -<p class="center spaced gesperrt">A REAL QUEEN. By <span class="smcap">R. E. Francillon</span>.</p> - -<p class="center spaced gesperrt">THE WAY OF THE WORLD. By <span class="smcap">David Christie -Murray</span>.</p> - -<p class="center spaced">CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly, W.</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<table class="toc break-before" summary="Contents"> -<tr> -<th colspan="2" class="smcap">Table of Contents</th> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 14</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 15</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 16</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 17</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 18</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 19</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 20</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 21</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 22</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 23</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 24</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 25</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 26</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 27</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 28</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 29</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 30</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 31</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 32</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chapter 33</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_340">340</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="cht">Chatto & Windus’s</td> - <td class="pag"><a href="#Catalog">List of Books</a></td> -</tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - -<h1 class="mt2 gesperrt smcap break-before">Princess Napraxine</h1> - -<p class="ph4 mt4">BY</p> - -<p class="ph2 mb2 gesperrt">OUIDA</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_title_emblem.jpg" alt="Title Page Emblem" /> -</div> - -<p class="ph4 mt2">IN THREE VOLUMES</p> -<p class="ph4 spaced">VOL. II.</p> -<p class="ph4 oldeng spaced gesperrt mt4">London</p> - -<p class="ph4 spaced gesperrt">CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY</p> - -<p class="ph4 spaced">1884</p> - -<p class="ph4 mt2">[<em class="gesperrt">All rights reserved</em>]</p> - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> - - - - -<p class="ph2">PRINCESS NAPRAXINE.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>When her husband and her guests came -downstairs at one o’clock, they found the -Princess Nadine looking her loveliest.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, you lazy people!’ she cried to them. -‘Are you any the better for sleeping like that? -Look at me. I have been swimming half an hour; -I have dictated twenty letters; I have scolded -the gardeners, and I have seen three boxes from -Worth unpacked; it is only one o’clock, and I -can already feel as good a conscience as Titus. -I have already saved my day.’</p> - -<p>‘I daresay you have only been doing mischief,’ -said Lady Brancepeth. ‘I should like to -see the letters before I judge of the excellence -of your actions.’</p> - -<p>‘Anyone might see the letters; they are all -orders, or invitations, or refusals of invitations;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> -quite stupid, but very useful; epistolary omnibus -horses driven by the secretary. When I -had done with them, I had my half hour’s -swim. What nonsense the doctors talk about -not swimming in winter: the chill of the water -is delicious. In summer one always fancies -the sea has been boiled. Platon, if you had -not gone to bed, you would have seen your -friend Othmar. He was here for half an hour.’</p> - -<p>‘Othmar!’ exclaimed the Prince. ‘Here -at that time of the morning?’</p> - -<p>‘He does not want to go to sleep,’ she -retorted. ‘He had his chocolate with me, and -then rowed himself back to S. Pharamond -and Baron Fritz.’</p> - -<p>Lady Brancepeth glanced at her.</p> - -<p>‘You have certainly done a great deal, -Nadine, while we have been only dozing,’ she -said drily. The Princess looked at her good-humouredly, -with her little dubious smile.</p> - -<p>‘There is always something to do if one -only look for it. You feel so satisfied with -yourself too when you have been useful before -one o’clock.’</p> - -<p>‘Othmar!’ repeated the Prince. ‘If I had -known, I would have come downstairs.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘My dear Platon, you would have done -nothing of the kind; you would have sworn -at your man for disturbing you, and would -have turned round and gone to sleep again. -Besides, what do you want with Othmar? -You do not care about “getting on a good -thing,” nor even about suggesting a loan for -Odessa.’</p> - -<p>‘I like Othmar,’ said Napraxine with perfect -sincerity. His wife looked at him, with -her little dubious smile. ‘It is always so with -them,’ she thought. ‘They always like just the -one man of all others——!’</p> - -<p>‘I suppose, if I had done quite what I -ought, I should have asked Othmar to “put -me on” something,’ she said aloud. ‘It is not -every day that one has one of the masters of -the world all alone at eight o’clock in the -morning.’</p> - -<p>‘The masters of the world always find their -Cleopatras,’ said Lady Brancepeth. ‘At La -Jacquemerille, perhaps, as well as in Egypt.’</p> - -<p>‘Cleopatra must have been a very stupid -woman,’ said Nadine Napraxine, ‘to be able -to think of nothing but that asp!’</p> - -<p>‘I do not know that it was so very stupid;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> -it was a good <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">réclame</i>. It has sent her name -down to us.’</p> - -<p>‘Anthony alone would have done that. A -woman lives by her lovers. Who would have -heard of Héloïse, of Beatrice, of Leonora -d’Este?——’</p> - -<p>‘You are very modest for us. Perhaps -without the women the men might never have -been immortal.’</p> - -<p>‘I cannot think why you sent Othmar -away,’ repeated Prince Napraxine. ‘I wanted -especially to know if they take up the Russian -loan——’</p> - -<p>‘I did not send him away, he went,’ replied -his wife, with a little smile; ‘and you know -he will never allow anyone to talk finance -to him.’</p> - -<p>‘That is very absurd. He cannot deny that -his House lives by finance.’</p> - -<p>‘He would certainly never deny it, but he -dislikes the fact; you cannot force it on him, -my dear Platon, in the course of breakfast chit-chat. -I am sure your manners are better than -that. Besides, if you did commit such a rudeness, -you would get nothing by it. I believe he -never tells a falsehood, but he will never tell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> -the truth unless he chooses. And I suppose, -too, that financiers are like cabinet ministers—they -have a right to lie if they like.’</p> - -<p>‘I am sure Othmar does not lie,’ said -Napraxine.</p> - -<p>‘I dare say he is as truthful as most men of -the world. Truth is not a social virtue; tact -is a much more amiable quality. Truth says -to one, ‘You have not a good feature in your -face;’ tact says to one, ‘You have an exquisite -expression.’ Perhaps both facts are equally -true; but the one only sees what is unpleasant, -the other only sees what is agreeable. There -can be no question which is the pleasanter -companion.’</p> - -<p>‘Othmar has admirable tact——’</p> - -<p>‘How your mind runs upon Othmar! -Kings generally acquire a great deal of tact -from the obligation to say something agreeable -to so many strangers all their lives. He is a -kind of king in his way. He has learnt the -kings’ art of saying a few phrases charmingly -with all his thoughts elsewhere. It is creditable -to him, for he has no need to be popular, -he is so rich.’</p> - -<p>‘Ask him to dinner to-morrow or Sunday.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘If you wish. But he will not come; he -dislikes dinners as much as I do. It is the -most barbarous method of seeing one’s friends.’</p> - -<p>‘There is no other so genial.’</p> - -<p>She rose with a little shrug of her -shoulders. She seldom honoured Napraxine -by conversing so long with him.</p> - -<p>‘Order the horses, Ralph,’ she said to Lord -Geraldine; ‘I want a long gallop.’</p> - -<p>‘She has had some decisive scene with -Othmar,’ thought Lady Brancepeth, ‘and she -is out of humour; she always rides like a Don -Kossack when she is irritated.’</p> - -<p>‘There is no real riding here,’ said the -Princess, as she went to put on her habit. ‘One -almost loves Russia when one thinks of the way -one can ride there; of those green eternal -steppes, those illimitable plains, with no limit -but the dim grey horizon, your black Ukrane -horse, bounding like a deer, flying like a -zephyr; it is worth while to remain in Russia -to gallop so, on a midsummer night, with not -a wall or a fence all the way between you and -the Caspian Sea. I think if I were always in -Russia I should become such a poet as Maïkoff: -those immense distances are inspiration.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> - -<p>She rode with exquisite grace and spirit; -an old Kossack had taught her, as a child, the -joys of the saddle, on those lonely and dreamful -plains, which had always held since a certain -place in her heart. That latent energy and -daring, which found no scope in the life of the -world, made her find pleasure in the strong -stride of the horse beneath her, in the cleaving -of the air at topmost speed. The most indolent -of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mondaines</i> at all other times, when she -sprang into the saddle as lightly as a bird on a -bough, she was transformed; her slender -hands had a grip of steel, her delicate face -flushed with pleasure, the fiery soul of her -fathers woke in her—of the men who had -ridden out with their troopers to hunt down -the Persian and the Circassian; who had swept -like storm-clouds over those shadowy steppes -which she loved; who had had their part or -share in all the tragic annals of Russia; who -had slain their foes at the steps of the throne, -in the holiness of the cloister; who had been -amongst those whose swords had found the -heart of Cathrine’s son, and whose voices had -cried to the people in the winter’s morning, -‘Paul, the son of Peter, is dead; pray for his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> -soul!’ If she were cruel—now and then—was -it not in her blood?</p> - -<p class="mt2">Meanwhile Yseulte was helping her foster-mother -to pack tea-roses, to go to England for -a great ball, in their little hermetically-sealed -boxes. The roses were not wholly opened -before they were thus shut away from light -and air into darkness. They would not wither -in their airless cells, but they would pale a -little in that dull sad voyage from the sunshine -to the frost and fog. As she laid the rosebuds,—pink, -white, and pale yellow,—one by one -on their beds of moss, she thought for the first -time wistfully that her fate was very like theirs; -only the rosebuds, perhaps, when they should -be taken out of their prisons at their journey’s -end, though they would have but a very few -hours of life before them, yet would bloom a -little, if mournfully, in the northern land, and -see the light again, if only for a day. But her -life would be shut into silence and darkness for -ever; she would not even live the rose’s life -‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">l’espace d’un matin</i>.’</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>When Othmar went out from her presence, he -was more near to happiness than he had been -in his whole thirty years of life. He was -filled with vivid, palpitating, intoxicated hope. -He was passionately in love, and almost he -believed himself beloved in return. As much -as she had allowed to him she had certainly -allowed to no living man. The very force of -his passion, which had driven him to scorn the -conventional court which he might have paid -her in common with so many others—the -spaniel’s place of Geraldine, the slave’s place of -Boris Seliedoff—rendered him as willing to set -no limits to the sacrifices which she should -be free to exact from him, and he be proud to -make. Only he would never share her, even -in nominal union with her lawful lord. He -would be all to her, or nothing.</p> - -<p>He loathed the conventional adulteries of -his time and of his society; he sighed, im<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>patiently -for the means to prove that the old -fearless, high-handed, single-hearted passion -which sees in the whole teeming world only -one life, was not dead, but lived in him for -her.</p> - -<p>He foresaw all the loss of freedom and of -fair repute which would be entailed on him -by the surrender of his life to her; he knew -well that she was a woman who would be no -docile companion or unexacting mistress; he -knew that there were in her the habits of -dominance, the instincts of egotism, and that -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">esprit gouailleur</i> which compelled her, almost -despite herself, to jest at what she admired, to -ridicule her better emotions, to make a mockery -of the very things which were the dearest to her. -He did not because he loved her become blind -to all that was cold, merciless, and capricious in -her nature; he was conscious that she would -never lose her own identity in any passion, -never surrender her mind, even if she gave her -person, to any lover; he knew that she would -always remain outside those tropic tempests -of love which she aroused and controlled, and -which offended her or flattered her, according -to the mood in which they found her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> - -<p>He knew all these things, and was aware -that his future would not be one of peace. But -he loved her, and agitation, jealousy, suffering -beside her would, he felt, be sweeter to him -than any repose beside another. Even these -defects, these dangers, which he clearly perceived, -added to her sorcery for him. It is -the mistress who is indifferent who excites the -most vehement desires; and, by reason of his -great fortunes, women had been always to him -so facile, so eager, and so easily won, that the -coldness of Nadine Napraxine, which he knew -was a thing of temperament, not of affectation, -had but the more irresistible power over him. -The very sense with which she impressed everyone, -himself as well as others, of being no more -to be held or relied upon than the snowflake, -to which her world likened her, attracted a -man who had, from his boyhood, been wearied -by the adulation, insistence, and sycophancy -of almost all who approached him.</p> - -<p>The few days of his probation passed slowly -over his head, seeming as though they would -never end. He was restless, feverish, and -absent of mind; Friederich Othmar, who, -contrary to all his usual habits, remained at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> -S. Pharamond, tranquilly ignoring the visible -impatience of his host at his unasked presence, -was sorely troubled by the alternate exhilaration -and anxiety of spirit which all the reserve -and self-possession of Othmar himself could not -wholly conceal from the penetration of a person -accustomed to divine and dive into the innermost -recesses of the minds of men.</p> - -<p>‘What, in God’s name, is he meditating?’ -thought his uncle. ‘Some insanity probably. -I should believe he was about to disappear -from the world with Madame Napraxine if -I were not so persuaded that her pride and her -selfishness will never permit her to commit -a folly for anyone. Morality is nothing to her, -but her position is a great deal; her delight in -being insolent will never allow her to lose the -power of being so.’</p> - -<p>So accurately did this man of the world -read a character which baffled most persons by -its intricacy and its anomalies.</p> - -<p>To Friederich Othmar human nature presented -many absurdities but few secrets.</p> - -<p>He remained at S. Pharamond, despite his -own abhorrence of any place which was not a -capital. He passed his mornings in the con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>sideration -of his correspondence and his telegraphic -despatches, but in the later hours of -the day and in the evenings he was that -agreeable member of society whom society had -known and courted for so many years; and -beneath his pleasant subacid wit and his -admirable manner his acute penetration was -for ever <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en vedette</i> to penetrate his nephew’s -purpose and preoccupation. But a lover, on -his guard, will baffle an observer whom the -keenest of statesmen would, in vain, seek to -deceive or mislead, and the Baron learned -nothing of Othmar’s inmost thoughts. Although -Othmar and Nadine Napraxine met twice or -thrice in his presence at other people’s houses, -and once at S. Pharamond itself, where some -more choice music was given one evening, the -acute blue eyes of the elder man failed to read -the understanding which existed between them. -All he saw was that she appeared to treat -Othmar, before others, with more raillery and -more nonchalance than usual. He remarked -that Othmar did not seem either hurt or surprised -at this.</p> - -<p>‘Since he is as much in love with her -as ever, he must be aware of some intimacy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> -between them which renders him comparatively -insensible to her treatment of him in society,’ -thought the sagacity of his uncle, who was -alarmed and disquieted by a fact which would -have reassured less fine observers—the fact that -the master of S. Pharamond did not once, -during fifteen days, cross the mile or two of -olive-wood, orange orchard, and hanging field -which alone separated him from La Jacquemerille.</p> - -<p>‘No love is so patient but on some promise,’ -he reflected. He knew the romantic -turn of Othmar’s character, and he feared its -results as others would fear the issue of some -mortal or hereditary disease. A week or two -previous the ministers then presiding over the -fortunes of France had met, at his little house -in the Rue du Traktir, the representatives of -two great Powers, and in the newspapers of -the hour that informal meeting, which had led -to many important results, had been called the -Unwritten Treaty of Baron Fritz; and yet, at -such a moment, instead of being entranced with -such influence as such a nickname implied to -his House, instead of being occupied with the -power, the might, and the mission of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> -Othmars, which that gathering around the -library-table in the Rue du Traktir displayed -for the ten thousandth time to the dazzled -eyes of suppliant and trembling Europe, Otho -himself could only think of a woman with -larger eyes and smaller hands than usual, but -a woman absolutely useless to him in any -ambitions—likely, rather, to be his ruin in all -ways!</p> - -<p>‘I could understand it were she one of -the great political forces of the world. Some -women are that, and might so, to us, be of very -high value,’ thought Friederich Othmar, ‘but -Madame Napraxine is as indifferent to all political -movement as if she were made of the ivory -and mother-of-pearl which her skin resembles. -If she be anything, she is that horrible thing a -Nihilist, only because Nihilism embodies an -endless and irreconcilable discontent, which -finds in her some secret corner of vague sympathy. -But for politics in our meaning of the -word she has the most complete contempt. -What did she say to me the other day? “I am a -diplomatist’s daughter. I have seen the strings -of all your puppets. I cannot accept a Polichinelle -for a Richelieu, as you all do.” And she de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>clared -that if there were no statesmen at all, and -no journalists, life would go smoothly; everybody -would attend to their own affairs, the -world would be quiet, and there would be no -wars. What but disaster can such a woman -with such views bring into the life of Otho, -already paralysed as it is by poco-curantism?’</p> - -<p>He asked the question of himself in his own -meditations, and could give himself no answer -save one which grieved and alarmed him.</p> - -<p>Othmar himself bestowed on his guest but -little thought except a passing impatience that -his uncle should have taken that moment, of all -others, to instal himself at S. Pharamond.</p> - -<p>He had not the cynicism nor the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">insouciance</i> -of the woman he adored. He did not attempt -any sophisms with his own conscience. He -knew that to do a man dishonour was to do -him a violence unkinder, and perhaps even in a -way baser, than to take his life. But he was -ready to pledge himself to that which, unlike -her, he still considered was a sin. He was -entirely mastered by a force of passion which -she could have understood by the subtlety of -her intelligence, but was not likely ever to -share by any fibre of her nature. He was lost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> -in that whirlpool of emotion, anticipation, and -fear which carried his inner life away on it, -although his outer life remained in appearance -calm enough for no eyes save those of the -Baron to penetrate the disguise of his serenity.</p> - -<p>Yseulte he had forgotten.</p> - -<p>The simple and innocent tenderness which -she had momentarily aroused in him could not -hold its place beside the overwhelming passion -which governed him, more than a slender -soft-eyed dove can dispute possession with the -fierce, strong-pinioned falcon. Once or twice -he saw her and spoke to her with kindness, but -his thoughts were far away from her, and he -did not linger beside her, although each time -he chanced to meet her on the way to her -foster-mother’s, in lonely lovely country paths, -which might well have tempted him to tarry.</p> - -<p>On the thirteenth day of his probation, the -priest’s gown which, to please her, he had -ordered for the church of S. Pharamond, arrived -at the château, and, his attention being drawn -to it by his servants, he remembered his promise -to her. It was the last day of the year. A -passing remembrance of pity came over him as -he thought of her; she was so entirely alone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> -and she would go to the life of the cloister; a -fancy came to him to do some little thing to -give her pleasure; a mere evanescent breath of -innocent impulse, which passed like the cool -breeze of an April day, sweet with scent of -field flowers, across the heated atmosphere of -desire and expectation in which his soul was -then living. Conventional etiquette had seldom -troubled him greatly; he had always enjoyed -something of that sense which princes have, -that whatever he did the world would condone. -A man of the exceptional power which he -possessed can always exercise on his contemporaries -more or less of his own will. Whatever -he might have done no one would have -said of him anything more severe than that he -was singular.</p> - -<p>When he went into Nice that day he -chanced to see a very pretty thing, modern, -but admirable in taste and execution, a casket -of ivory mounted on silver, with a little angel -in silver on the summit. On its sides were -painted in delicate miniatures reproductions of -Fra Angelico and Botticelli. It was signed -by a famous miniaturist, and cost ten thousand -francs. Othmar, to whom the price seemed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> -no more than ten centimes, bought it at -once.</p> - -<p>‘It will please her,’ he thought. ‘It shall -go to her with the soutane;’ and he sent it -with the vestment to Millo, addressed to Mademoiselle -de Valogne. His knowledge of etiquette -told him that he ought to send it, if he sent it -at all, through the Duchesse; but he did not -choose to obey etiquette; he had discarded -social rules, more or less, all his life, according -to his inclination, and people had not resented -his rebellion simply because he was who he -was. He utterly disobeyed etiquette now, and -sent his present direct to Yseulte very early -on the morning of the New Year.</p> - -<p>It did not occur to him that he might only -run the risk of cruelly compromising the poor -child. He gave hardly more thought to the -action than he would have given to a rose -which he might have broken off its stalk to -offer to her. All his heart had gone with the -basket of flowers which he had sent at sunrise -to Nadine Napraxine, who allowed no other -offering.</p> - -<p>The chances were a million to one that his -casket would never reach its destination without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> -being seen, if not intercepted, by the governesses; -but as it happened, his messenger gave -it to the gatekeeper, and the gatekeeper gave -it in turn to the woman who served her as -maid during her stay at Millo, and who was -passing through the gates, on her way home -from matins. The woman was attached to her; -indeed, being a religious person herself, considered -that Yseulte was the only creature whose -presence saved Millo from the fate of Sodom -and Gomorrah; therefore, pleased that the girl -should have pleasure, she carried the packet -straight to her as she rose from her bed; and in -the cold, misty morning of the New Year the -first thing that greeted the astonished eyes of -Yseulte was the Coronation of the Virgin, -glowing like a jewel on the side of the ivory -casket.</p> - -<p>The whole day passed to her in an enchanted -rapture.</p> - -<p>In the large, idle, careless household there -was a general exchange of congratulations and -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">étrennes</i>, and a pleasant tumult of good wishes -and merriment. Blanchette and Toinon danced -about before a pyramid of bonbons and costly -playthings, and the Duchesse, descending at her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> -usual hour, two o’clock, gave and received a -multitude of felicitations, gifts, and visits. ‘The -most tedious day of the whole three hundred -and sixty-five,’ she said pettishly, giving her -cheek to the touch of her children’s pale little -lips.</p> - -<p>In the many occupations and ennuis of -the day no one heard or knew anything of -Othmar’s present. At noon some bouquets of -roses and some orchids, laid on a plate of old -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">cloisonné</i> enamel, were brought in his name to -Madame de Vannes, but she knew nothing of -her cousin’s casket. Meanwhile nothing could -hurt Yseulte. The contempt with which her -little cousins received the gifts she had made for -them in the convent, the oblivion to which she -was consigned by every one, the carelessness -with which the Duchesse received her timidly-offered -good wishes, the severity with which -the governesses forbade her to go out in such -weather to see Nicole or attend Mass in the -little church, the unconcealed ill-temper with -which Alain de Vannes flung her a word of -greeting—none of these things had any power -to wound her; she scarcely perceived them; -she was lifted up into a world all her own.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> -Unnoticed in the general <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">branle-bas</i> of the day, -she passed the hours, when she was not at -Mass in the chapel, locked safely in her own -room, before her treasure, in a rapt happiness, -in a wonder of ecstasy, which were so intense -that she feared they were cardinal sins.</p> - -<p>The weather was cold, some snow had even -fallen, and the north winds blew, making all the -chilly foreigners gathered on those shores -shiver and grumble like creatures defrauded of -their rights; but all the grey, cheerless, misty -landscape, and the fog upon the sea, appeared -more beautiful to her than they had ever done -before in its sunshine. From her window she -looked at the towers of S. Pharamond, and -on her table—all her own—was the ivory -casket.</p> - -<p>The Duchesse de Vannes, waking in the -forenoon after the Jour de l’An, cross, peevish, -sleepy, and yet sleepless, which is, in itself, the -most irritating and dispiriting of all human -conditions, and morbidly conscious that, as her -little daughter had said, she was beginning to -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">baisser un peu</i>, was in a mood of natural resentment -against all creation in general and the -human race in particular, and quite ready to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> -vent her ill-humour on the first object which -offered itself. That first object was one of the -little prim notes by which her children’s instructresses -were wont to communicate any -terrible event in the schoolroom, or any entreaty -for guidance when Mademoiselle Blanchette -had insisted on riding the wooden horses -at a village fair, or Mademoiselle Toinon had -dressed herself up in the smallest groom’s -clothes. ‘Ne m’ennuyez pas; vous savez vos -devoirs’ was the only reply they ever received; -but the good women continued to write the -notes as a relief to their consciences. They -wrote one now, signed in their joint names, -humbly entreating to be informed if it were -the pleasure of Madame la Duchesse that -Mdlle. de Valogne should receive presents of -which the donor was unknown. Mdlle. de -Valogne was in possession of a new and very -valuable locket; they believed also that she -was in the habit of going to the gardens -of S. Pharamond; they had deemed it their -duty to acquaint Madame la Duchesse, &c., &c.</p> - -<p>Blanchette, with the most innocent face in -the world, had said to them, ‘I have seen the -big pearl locket of Yseulte! <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Oh, vrai!</i> When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> -I am as old, I will not hide my handsome -things as she does. Who gave it her? Who -do you think could give it to her? She is -friends with that gentleman at S. Pharamond—the -one that is as rich as M. de Rothschild. -I think he gave it her! Do you tell mamma.‘</p> - -<p>Blanchette guessed very shrewdly that her -father had given the locket; but she was too -wary to offend him. Blanchette was like the -little cats who steal round and round to their -mouse by devious paths unseen. She had -alarmed the governesses, and the prim note was -the consequence.</p> - -<p>When the Duchesse read it, she flung it -away in a corner. ‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Tas d’imbéciles</i>,’ she said, -contemptuously; then said to one of her maids, -‘Request Mdlle. de Valogne to come hither.’</p> - -<p>Yseulte was presented in a fortuitous moment -as the whipping-boy on whom could be -spent all that useless irritation which she could -not spend on the real offenders, her ineffective -chloral, her increasing wrinkles, and the indifference -of Raymond de Prangins.</p> - -<p>‘Mamma is always cross,’ the wise little -Blanchette had reflected. ‘She is always angry, -even for nothing. That great baby will get<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> -a lecture, and she will be sure to say it was -papa; she always tells the truth—such a -simpleton!—and papa will hate her for ever -and for ever!’</p> - -<p>Then Blanchette made a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pied de nez</i> all by -herself in her little bedroom: when you were -a child you could not have many things your -own way, but you could spoil other people’s -things very neatly with a little pat here, a little -poke there, if you looked all the while like -your picture by Baudry, an innocent cherub -with sweet smiling eyes, who could not have -made a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pied de nez</i> to save your life. Blanchette -had already acquired the knowledge -that this was how the world was most easily -managed.</p> - -<p>When Yseulte was summoned to her cousin’s -presence, the girl was startled to see how old -she looked, for it was scarcely noon, and the -handsome face which ‘Cri-Cri’ was wont to -present to her own world had scarcely received -its finishing touches from the various embellishing -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">petits secrets</i> shut up in their silver -boxes and their china pots, which were strewn -about under the great Dresden-framed mirror -in front of her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘Good-day,’ she said, with irritation already -in her voice, as Yseulte timidly kissed her hand. -‘Is this true what they tell me, that you receive -presents without my knowledge and consent? -Do you not know that it is perfectly <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">inconvenable</i>? -Are you not taught enough of the -world in your convent to be aware that a -young girl cannot do such things without being -disgraced eternally? What is it you have -accepted? Is it a jewel? Can you realise the -enormity of your action?——’ she paused, in -some irritation and uncertainty. ‘Well, why -do you not speak? Can you excuse yourself? -What is it you have taken? From whom have -you taken it? My people have told me you -have a new and valuable jewel and refuse to -say who gave it.’</p> - -<p>‘My cousin, M. le Duc, gave it me,’ said -Yseulte. ‘He said that I was to tell you if you -asked me, but not anyone else.’</p> - -<p>She spoke frankly, without any hesitation. -The Duchesse stared at her, half rose in her -amazement; her face was dark with anger -for a moment, then cleared into a sudden -laughter.</p> - -<p>‘My husband!’ she echoed. ‘A <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fillette</i> like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> -you! And they say there are no miracles -now! Do you absolutely mean to say that -Alain gave you a jewel?——’</p> - -<p>‘He was so good as to give me a locket—yes,’ -murmured Yseulte, conscious that her -cousin was angry, insolent, and derisive, and -afraid that the Duc would be irritated at the -issue of his kindness to her.</p> - -<p>‘Pray, has he given you anything else?’ -echoed Madame de Vannes. ‘Has he given -you the diamonds he had bought for Mdlle. -Rubis, or the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">coupé</i> from Bender’s which he -meant for <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">la grande</i> Laure?’</p> - -<p>‘He has not given me anything else,’ -answered Yseulte, to whom these terrible names -conveyed no meaning.</p> - -<p>‘Where is this locket? Show it me.’</p> - -<p>‘It is in my room. Shall I fetch it?’</p> - -<p>‘No, no. It does not matter. You can -send it me. I will send Agnès for it. The -idea of Alain having even looked at you!—it -makes one laugh; it is too absurd.’</p> - -<p>She continued to laugh, but the laughter -did not convey to the ear of Yseulte any -impression either that she was pardoned or that -her cousin was amused. It was a laugh ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>pressive -of irony, irritation, wonder, contempt, -rancour, all in one.</p> - -<p>‘You should not have taken it. You should -have told me,’ continued the Duchesse. ‘To -be sure, he is your cousin. But it is not -proper to take a man’s gifts. It is not becoming. -It is too forward. It is even immodest. -Is that the sort of thing the Dames -de Ste. Anne have taught you? Surely you -might have known better.’</p> - -<p>These phrases she uttered in a staccato -rapid succession, as if she thought little of -what she said; she was indeed thinking as the -girl stood before her:</p> - -<p>‘What a skin! What shoulders! What a -throat! What a thing it is to be sixteen! -Why did not <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">le bon Dieu</i> make all that last -longer with us? It goes too soon; so horribly -soon; after one is five-and-twenty it is all one -can do to make up decently. If it were only -the complexion which went it would not matter; -that one can easily arrange; but it is the -features that change; they grow out or they -grow in; the mouth gets thin or the cheeks get -broad; the very lines alter somehow, and we -cannot alter that; and then to make oneself up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> -is as much trouble as to build a house, and the -house has to be built anew every day!—it is -horribly hard—and yet one has compensations, -revenges; it is not those children whom men -care to look at though they are fresh as roses; -at least not usually. Alain, I suppose, does—what -can he mean by giving her a medallion?’</p> - -<p>While these thoughts ran through her -mind, she was staring hard at Yseulte through -her eyeglass, as though they had never met -before then. The girl had coloured scarlet at -the epithet ‘immodest,’ but it had made her a -little angry, with the righteous indignation of -innocence. Respect kept her mute, but her -face spoke for her.</p> - -<p>‘Alain was right; she is really handsome,’ -reflected the Duchesse.</p> - -<p>She was herself only eight-and-twenty, but -in the world as on the racecourse it is the -pace that kills; and before she had passed -through all those arduous processes which she -had rightly compared to building a house anew -every day, she knew very well that she looked -cruelly old, though after two o’clock in the day -she was still one of the great beauties of France.</p> - -<p>She had been immersed in pleasures, pas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>times, -and excitements from the day of her -marriage; she had lived in a crowd, she had -gambled not a little, and she had had certain -intrigues, of whose dangers she had at times a -vivid and anxious consciousness, for the Duc -was indifferent but not base, and might any day -be roused if he came to be aware that men -laughed at him more than he liked. As a rule, -she and he understood each other very well, -and tacitly condoned each other’s indiscretions; -but there might come a time when he would -break that convenient compact, as she felt disposed -now to resent his admiration of her -young cousin. On the whole, perhaps, she -mused, she had been wrong to do so; she -would let the girl keep his present; he might, -if she provoked him, insist that Raymond de -Prangins should leave Millo. All these reflections -occurred to her during that one minute -in which her eyeglass watched the indignation -rise in Yseulte’s face.</p> - -<p>‘Have you seen M. de Vannes alone?’ she -resumed, with a sharpness in her voice, due -rather to her own sense of the girl’s beauty -than to her knowledge of her husband’s admiration -for it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘Now and then,’ said Yseulte without -hesitation. ‘He has come into the schoolroom——’</p> - -<p>‘For a lesson in A B C, I suppose?—or a -cup of Brown’s green tea?’ said the Duchesse -contemptuously. ‘Well, he may <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">conter ses -fleurettes ailleurs</i>. I should have thought he -had had better taste than to begin in his own -house: however,’ she continued, interrupting -herself, as she remembered that she was suggesting, -‘I do not suppose it is you who are to -blame. But another time, ask my permission -before you accept anything from anybody. I -will not deprive you of the Duc’s gift. He is -in a manner your cousin—your guardian—of -course he meant very kindly, but another -time remember to come to me. You will tell -the Duc that I said so.’</p> - -<p>‘Good heavens!’ she was thinking, ‘who -would have supposed that Alain had a taste for -a creature like that, half a saint and half a -baby? To be sure, her eyes are superb, and -the throat and bosom—what beautiful lines -they have; why did they send her here? She -shall go back next week. The wickedness of -the thing would charm him; the nearer it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> -to a crime, the more of a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">clou</i> it would be. To -play Faust under the respectable shade of -Brown’s teapot and the big dictionaries would -be sure to enthral him, out of its very drollery—men -are made like that.’</p> - -<p>Then a remembrance of S. Pharamond -passed over her, and she said aloud, with an -unkind sarcasm in her voice:</p> - -<p>‘Perhaps you have other friends beside M. -de Vannes? Pray tell me if you have. I fully -appreciate the effects of the education which -the Dames de Ste. Anne have given you.’</p> - -<p>Yseulte coloured scarlet, and the Duchesse’s -eyes scanned her face as Blanchette’s had done, -without mercy.</p> - -<p>‘Pray tell me,’ she continued, with a chill -dignity, which was in sharp contrast with the -sarcasm and railing of her previous manner. -‘You will be so good as to remember that I -stand in the place of your mother; your indiscretions -are not alone painful to me, but compromising -to me. Is it true that you are -intimate with Otho Othmar?’</p> - -<p>‘He has been kind to me,’ murmured -Yseulte, an agony at her heart and the hot -tears standing in her eyes. She did not under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>stand -enough of the world to justify herself by -the fact that the offender had been presented to -her by her cousin herself; nor, if she had done -so, would the position she stood in towards -Madame de Vannes have allowed her to use -such a justification without apparent impertinence. -For eight years she had owed everything -to the Duchesse.</p> - -<p>‘Kind to you!’ echoed her cousin, ‘a most -fortuitous phrase, but not one that young girls -can employ except to their own ridicule and -injury. Pray how has he been kind to you? -has <em>he</em> given you a locket?’</p> - -<p>Yseulte might easily have told a lie; no -one knew of the casket, no one could tell of it; -she loved it more dearly than anything she had -ever possessed. But she had been taught in -her childhood that falsehood was cowardice, -and the courage of the de Valogne was in her; -therefore she answered, with an unsteady voice -indeed, but with entire truthfulness, ‘He has -given me a very beautiful box, it is made of -ivory and painted, it came yesterday——’</p> - -<p>Madame de Vannes burst into another -laugh, which jarred on the child’s ear:</p> - -<p>‘Really,’ she cried, relapsing into the manner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> -most natural to her, ‘you begin well! Othmar -and my husband! and you are not quite -sixteen yet, and we all thought you such a -little demure saint in your grey clothes! Send -the casket to me. You cannot receive presents -in that way. From your cousin, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">passe encore</i>, -but from a man like Othmar—you might as -well go and sup with him at Bignon’s. Good -heavens! What are Schemmitz and Brown -about that they have let you meet him? -Where have you seen him? how have you -become intimate with him?’</p> - -<p>Yseulte had become very pale. She had -done her duty; done what honour, truth, obedience, -and gratitude all required; but it had -cost her a great effort, and she would lose the -casket.</p> - -<p>‘I have only seen him three times,’ she -said, with her colour changing; and she went -on to tell the story of her visit to his gardens, -of his conversation with her on the seashore, -of the priest’s soutane, and of their meeting -at the house of Nicole. It was a very simple -inoffensive little story, but it hurt her greatly -to tell it; cost her quite as much as it would -have done Madame de Vannes to unfold all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> -her manifold indiscretions in full confession -before a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">conseil de famille</i>.</p> - -<p>‘He has been very kind to me,’ she said -timidly, as she finished her little tale, ‘and if—if—if -you would only let me keep the casket -and take it to Faïel?’</p> - -<p>The Duchesse laughed once more:</p> - -<p>‘You do not care to keep the Duc’s locket—how -flattering to him! Really, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fillette</i>, you -are sagacious betimes; I would never have believed -you such a cunning little cat! Did you -learn all that at the convent? you convent-girls -are more <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">rusées</i> than so many rats! -Othmar, of all men of the world! My dear, -you might as well wish for an emperor. There -is not a marriageable woman in Europe who -does not sigh for Othmar! He is so enormously -rich! There is no one else rich -like that; all the other financiers have a tribe -of people belonging to them. “The family” is -everywhere, at Paris, at Vienna, at Berlin, at -London, and have as many branches as the -oak; but Othmar is absolutely alone—for old -Baron Fritz does not count—he is absolutely -alone, that is what is unique in him. Whoever -marries him will be the most fortunate woman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> -in Europe. Yes, I say it advisedly, it is fortune -that is power nowadays; our day is over; we -do not even lead society any longer.’</p> - -<p>The colour had rushed back into Yseulte’s -face; the Duchesse’s words tortured her as only -a very young and sensitive creature can be -tortured by an indelicate and cruel suspicion. -‘I never thought, I never meant,’ she murmured. -‘You know, my cousin, I am dedicated -to the religious life; you cannot suppose -that I—I——’ The words choked her.</p> - -<p>‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ne pleurnichez pas, de grâce!</i>’ said the -Duchesse impatiently. ‘I have no doubt you -have taken all kinds of impossibilities into your -head, girls are always so foolish; but you may -be sure that the gift of the casket means nothing—nothing. -Othmar is always giving away, -right and left; most very rich men are mean, but -he is not. It was a wrong thing, an impertinent -thing, for him to do, and it must be returned -to him instantly; but if you imagine you have -made any impression upon him, I can assure -you you are very mistaken, he only thinks of -Nadine Napraxine.’</p> - -<p>Yseulte remained very pale; her eyes were -cast down, her lips were pressed together. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> -had done her duty and told the truth, but she -was not recompensed.</p> - -<p>The Duchesse rang for her maids. To the -one who answered the summons, she said: -‘ Accompany Mdlle. de Valogne to her room, -and bring me a casket she will give you, which -is to be sold for the Little Sisters of the Poor. -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Va-t’ -en, Yseulte.</i>’</p> - -<p>She put out her hand carelessly, and the -girl bent over her.</p> - -<p>‘My cousin! I have never seen him but -three times,’ she murmured again. Her face -was very pale; she had been wounded profoundly -by the Duchesse’s words, even though -their full meaning was not known to her.</p> - -<p>Madame de Vannes laughed again; then, -with an assumption of dignity, which she could -take on at will, said coldly:</p> - -<p>‘Once was too much. Never accuse accident; -no one believes in it. Remember also, -that as one vowed to the service of Heaven, it -is already sin in you if you harbour one earthly -thought. Go, and send me the casket.’</p> - -<p>Without another word Yseulte curtsied and -withdrew from her presence.</p> - -<p>When the maid returned, she brought her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> -mistress the ivory casket; but inside it was the -Duc’s medallion. Madame de Vannes laughed -yet again as she saw.</p> - -<p>‘The little obstinate!’ she murmured. ‘It -is not often that Alain throws pearls, or anything -else away. And what a casket! Heavens! -it is fit for a wedding gift to a queen. Is it -possible that Othmar—— No, it is not possible; -he would never think of a child like -that. Perhaps he did it to rouse Nadine. -What a cunning little pole-cat these nuns have -sent me!’</p> - -<p>But a kind of respect awakened in her -towards her young cousin. A girl who could -charm Alain de Vannes and Othmar was not -to be dismissed scornfully as a novice and a -baby. The Duchesse drew some note-paper to -her, and wrote a little letter to her neighbour, -in which she expressed herself very admirably, -with dignity and grace, as the guardian of a -motherless child who was dedicated to the -service of Heaven. She suggested, without -actually saying so, that he had failed in reverence -towards Heaven, and towards the Maison -de Vannes and the Maison de Creusac, in -permitting himself to offer gifts to Mdlle. de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> -Valogne; she recalled to him, without any -positive expression of the sort, that a young -girl of noble descent could not be approached -with gifts as a young actress might be, and -that if any had been offered they should have, -at least, been offered through herself.</p> - -<p>She was honestly irritated with Othmar for -having thus been wanting, as she considered, -in full respect for those great families from -which Yseulte de Valogne had sprung. She -was excessively angry with her children’s -governesses, whose negligence had rendered it -possible for the girl to wander about alone, and -she gave them a short but very terrible audience -in her dressing-room; yet, on the whole, -the affair amused her a little, and the high-breeding -in her made her do justice to the -honour which had forced her young cousin to -tell unasked all the truth.</p> - -<p>Later on she had a little scene with her -husband, half comic, half tragic, in which they -flung the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">tu quoque</i> liberally one at the other, -apropos of many vagaries less innocent than -his fancy for Yseulte de Valogne; but she did -not tell him about Othmar’s casket, for she -reasoned, with admirable knowledge of men’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> -natures, that they cared so much more if they -thought any one else cared too.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Yseulte, having given the casket -into the hands of the maid without a word or a -sign of regret, locked herself in, threw herself -on her bed, and sobbed as piteously as though -the magic box had been that of Pandora, and -bore all hope away within it.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Nadine Napraxine kept her promise to Othmar. -She did for him what she had done for no -other human being; she meditated on his -entreaties as a thing which might possibly be -granted by her. She looked for a little while -through the play and the glow of his impassioned -words as through some painted window -into some agreeable land whither, perchance, -she might travel.</p> - -<p>The very sternness and daring of his manner -of demand had its attraction for her. None of -her courtiers had wooed her quite in that way: -some had been too timid, some too submissive, -some too worldly-wise. The insane desire to -fly with her from the world to some far-away, -semi-barbaric, mysterious Eden of his own -making had never been so boldly and uncompromisingly -set forth to her by any lover as -now by Othmar. It had a certain fascination -for her even while the philosophy and irony in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> -her ridiculed the idea. It responded to the -vague but very real dissatisfaction with which -life, as it was, filled her. She was tired of the -routine of it. Everyone said the same thing. -Its very triumphs were so monotonous that -they might just as well have been failures. -Half her provocation and cruelty to men arose -from a wish which she could not resist, to find -something vivid and new to interest her. She -succeeded in causing tragedies, but she did not -succeed in being interested in them herself.</p> - -<p>Othmar did interest her—in a measure.</p> - -<p>He had done so from the first moment that -she saw him coming in—tall, slight, grave, -with great repose and more dignity than most -men of his day—through the vague light, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">entre -chien et loup</i>, into the hall of a country house -in the green heart of the Ardennes, where -she and her hosts and a great party, wearing -the russet and gold and pale blue of their -hunting clothes, were waiting for the signal of -the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">curée</i> from the terraces without.</p> - -<p>He had interested her then and always in a -degree; but only in a degree.</p> - -<p>‘It certainly cannot be love that <em>I</em> feel,’ -she said to herself, with regret. ‘I am glad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> -when he comes because he—almost—excites -me, but I am glad when he is gone because he—almost—disturbs -me. I can imagine certain -follies being possible to me when he is here, -but they never quite become possible. If I -were sure they would become so, and in becoming -so be agreeable to me, I would go -away with him. But—but—but——.’</p> - -<p>The objections seemed many to her, in a -way insuperable; they lay in herself, not in -him, and so appeared never to be removed.</p> - -<p>She respected him because he would have -scorned one of those intrigues screened under -conventional observances, of which the world -is so full. If she could have entirely persuaded -herself that his life was absolutely necessary -to hers, she would not have hesitated to let -society become aware of the truth. She had no -grain in her of the hypocrite or of the coward.</p> - -<p>But she was not sure: and to break up -your life irrevocably, to throw it into a furnace -and fuse it into a wholly new shape, to fling -your name to all the hounds who fed on the -offal of calumny, and then to find, after all this -<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Sturm und Drang</i>, that you had only made a -mistake, and were only a little more bored than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> -before!—this possibility seemed to be at once -so dreary and so ridiculous that she did not -dare to put it to the proof. Her own potential -weariness in the future to which he wooed -her, rose before her in a ghastly shape and -barred the way.</p> - -<p>She pondered on the matter fully and -sincerely for some days: days in which nothing -pleased her: days in which her riding-horse felt -her spurs, and her friends her sarcasms: days -in which her toilettes had little power to interest -her; Worth himself seemed worn out; -her admirable tire-woman did nothing well; -and her husband seemed to her to have grown -heavier, stouter, stupider, more Kalmuck, and -more intolerable than ever during the hours of -breakfast and dinner, which were the only -hours weighted by his presence. In those few -hours she felt almost persuaded to take her -lover at his word. Platon Napraxine was so -densely, so idiotically, so provocatively unalarmed -and secure! He would have tempted -almost any woman to make him suddenly awake -to find himself ridiculous.</p> - -<p>‘He would howl like a wounded bear!’ -she thought contemptuously, ‘and then some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>body -would bring him brandy, and somebody -would mention the tables, and somebody would -talk about Mdlle. Chose, and he would be all -right again. He is too stupid to feel. There -are prairie dogs, they say, which hardly know -when they are shot or beaten; he has got the -soul of one of them. Because I have married -him he is convinced that I shall never leave -him;—<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">la belle raison</i>! There are so many -men like that. They marry just as they buy -a cane; they put the cane in the stand; it -is bought and it cannot move; they are sure -it will always be there. One fine day some -one comes and takes it; then they stare and -they swear because they have been robbed.’</p> - -<p>This time of uncertainty and doubt, which -was to Othmar fraught with such wild alternations -of hope and of fear, which now swung -him in his fancy high as heaven and now sunk -him deep in the darkness of despair, was to her -a period rather of the most minute analysis -and of the most subtle self-examination. In -the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">naïveté</i> of her profound and unconscious -egotism she never once considered his loss or -gain: she was entirely occupied with the consideration -of her own wishes. Everything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> -bored her; would she, if she took this step, -which to most women would have looked so -big with fate, be less bored—or more? This -seemed to her the one momentous issue which -trembled uncertain at the gate of choice.</p> - -<p>She considered it thoughtfully and dispassionately. -She was not troubled by any moral -doubts, or any such reasons for hesitation as -would have beset many women of more prejudices -and of less intelligence than herself. All -these things were <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">le vieux jeu</i>. She was far -too clear-sighted and too highly-cultured to be -scared by such bogies as frighten narrow minds. -She saw no sanctity whatever in the marriage -ties which bound her to Platon Napraxine. -You might as well talk of a contract for eggs -and butter, or an operation on the Bourse being -sacred! No human ordinances can very well -be sacred, and we cannot be sure there are -any divine ones, logically, all the probabilities -are that there are none; so she certainly would -have said had anyone challenged her views -on such a subject.</p> - -<p>In a manner, this crisis of her life amused -her like a comedy. The unconsciousness of her -husband whilst the unseen cords of destiny<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> -were tightening about him; the revolt and -impatience of Othmar, conveyed to her by -many a restless glance and half-uttered word as -they passed each other in his drawing-rooms or -in those of others; the ignorance of her lovers -and her friends; and her own meditations as to -the many comments that the world would make -if ever it knew: all these diverted her.</p> - -<p>What alone troubled her was her own pride. -Would she ever be able to endure any loss of -that? ‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Je serai honnête femme</i>,’ she had said -to her father in her childhood, and when she -had repeated the words in her womanhood her -mind had been made up not so much by coldness, -chastity, or delicacy as by hauteur. She -could not have endured to feel that there were -any doors in Europe which could be shut in her -face, or that she could not shut her own whensoever -and against whomsoever she might -choose.</p> - -<p>His term of probation came to an end one -morning when the day had nothing of winter -save its date; a morning rosy and golden, -with distant mists transparent as a veil, and the -mild air soundless and windless amongst the -mimosa and eucalyptus groves of the grounds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> -of La Jacquemerille. For once Nadine Napraxine -condescended to be true to an appointment; -whilst the day was still young and all -the lazy world of the modern Baiæ still dozed -or, at the utmost, yawned itself awake, she -moved, with that lovely languor which was as -much a portion of her as the breath she drew, -along the sea-terrace of her house, and smiled -to see Othmar already standing at the foot of -the sea-steps.</p> - -<p>‘What children men are!’ she thought, -with that ridicule which the ardour of her -lovers was always most apt to awake in her, as -he bent over her hand and pressed on it lips -which trembled.</p> - -<p>‘It must be really delightful,’ she continued -in her own reflections, ‘to be able to be so very -eager and so very much in earnest about anything. -Instead of abusing us, men ought to -be infinitely thankful to us for giving them -emotions which do, for the time at least eclipse -those of baccarat and of pigeon-shooting. In -a moment or two he will be inclined to hate -me, but he will be very wrong. He will always -be my debtor for fifteen days of the most exquisite -agitation of his life. Twenty years hence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> -he will look back to this time, and say, “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Oh, -le beau temps quand j’étais si malheureux!</i>”’</p> - -<p>Whilst she so mused she was saying little -careless, easy phrases to him, pacing her terrace -slowly, with her great mantle of iris-coloured -plush, lined with silver-fox fur drawn -close about her, and its hood about her face, -like its spathe around the narcissus. She was -serene, affable, nonchalante; he was silent, and -deeply agitated; so passionately eager for his -fate to be spoken, that he could find no light -sentences with which to answer hers.</p> - -<p>‘He looks very well in that kind of excitement,’ -she thought, as she glanced sideways -at him. ‘He is poetic in it, instead of -being only awkward, like poor Ralph. Really, -if one could only be sure of one’s self——’</p> - -<p>She amused herself awhile by keeping him -upon the terrace, on which all the windows -of the house looked, and where regard for her -must perforce restrain him from any betrayal of -his own emotions. She felt as if she held in -leash some panting, striving, desert animal which -she forced to preserve the measured pace and -decorous stillness of tamed creatures.</p> - -<p>At length, compassion or prudence made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> -her relent, and enter the little oriental room -where his eloquent avowals had been made a -fortnight before. She closed the glass doors, -threw off her furs, and stood in the subdued -light and the heated air of the room, cool, -pale, delicate as the April flower which she -resembled, long trailing folds of the primrose-coloured -satin which formed her morning -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">négligé</i> falling from her throat to her feet in -the long lines that painters love; one great -pearl fastened a few sprays of stephanotis at -her throat. She sank into a chair which stood -against a tree of scarlet azalea set in an antique -vase of brass. She was one of those women -who naturally make pictures of themselves for -every act and in every attitude.</p> - -<p>The moment they were secure from observation -Othmar knelt at her feet and kissed -her hands again; his eyes, uplifted, told their -tale of rapture, hope, fear, and imploring -prayer more passionately than any words. He -would have cut his heart out of his breast if -she had bidden him.</p> - -<p>She glanced down on the agitation which -his features could not conceal with a sense of -that wonder which never failed to come to her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> -before the intensity of feeling with which she -inspired others.</p> - -<p>‘When I really do nothing to make them -like that!’ she reflected for the hundredth -time before the tempest which she raised -almost without endeavour.</p> - -<p>Othmar had recovered his presence of mind, -though none of his tranquillity; his words, -impetuous, persuasive, at times broken by the -force of his emotion, at times eloquent with -the eloquence natural to passion, fell on her -ear uninterrupted by her. She listened, much -as she might have listened to the sonorous -swell of the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Marche au Supplice</i> of Berlioz, or -any other harmony which should have pleased -her taste if only by contrast of its own vehemence -and strength with the serenity of her -own nature. She listened, without any sign of -any sort, save of so much acquiescence as might -be indicated by the gentleness of her expression -and the passiveness with which she left her -hand in his. He believed her silence to be -assent.</p> - -<p>‘This is what I have always fancied might -conquer me,’ she thought, whilst his ardent -protestations and entreaties held her for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> -moment pleased and fascinated. ‘And yet, I -do not know. To leave the world, to be always -together, to go, heaven knows where, into a sort -of Mahometan paradise—would it suit me? I -am afraid not. The idea pleases one in a -way, but not quite enough for that. Always -together, and alone—one would tire of an -angel!’</p> - -<p>So still she was, as these thoughts drifted -through her mind, so unresistingly she let his -forehead, and then his lips, lie on her hand, -that he believed himself successful in his prayer. -He lifted his eyes and looked at her with a -gaze full of rapturous light, of adoration and -of gratitude.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, my love! my love!’ he murmured. -‘Never shall you regret an hour your mercy to -me!’</p> - -<p>His lips would have sought hers as his -words ended in a sigh, the lover’s sigh of happiness, -but she moved and disengaged herself -quickly, and motioned to him to rise. On her -mouth there was the slight smile he knew so -well—the smile that was the enemy of men.</p> - -<p>‘My dear friend,’ she said, in her melodious -voice, sweet as the south wind, and never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> -sweeter than when it uttered cruel truths to -ears that were wounded by them, ‘I will do -you the justice to grant that I quite believe -you care very much for me’ (he made an indignant -gesture); ‘well, that you love me <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">un -peu, beaucoup, passionnément</i>, as the convent -girls say to the daisies. But I am equally convinced -that you do not understand me in the -least. I understand myself thoroughly. We -are all enigmas to others, but we ought to be -able to read our own riddle ourselves. I can -read mine; many people never can read theirs -all their lives long, and that is why they make -so many mistakes. Now, I do know myself so -very well. I know that no kind of sin, if there -really be such a thing as sin, would frighten -me much. I think my nerves would stand -even a crime without wincing, if it were a bold -one. If the world threw stones at me, it would -amuse me. I cannot fancy anybody being unhappy -about it. Therefore you will comprehend -me when I say that it is not any kind of -commonplace nonsense about doing anything -wrong which moves me for a moment, but,—I -have thought of it all very much and very -seriously, and really with a wish to try that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> -other kind of life you speak of, but—I cannot -go with you!’</p> - -<p>She said it as quietly and as lightly as if she -were saying that she could not drive with him -to the Col di Guardia that morning. She was -smiling her pretty, slight, mysterious smile, -which might have meant anything, from pity to -derision. She had a sprig or two of the leafless -calycanthus in her fingers, which she played -with as she spoke. He hated the fragrance of -that winter blossom ever afterwards.</p> - -<p>‘You cannot? You cannot?’ he murmured -almost unconsciously. ‘And why?’</p> - -<p>He did not well know what he said, the -paralysis of a sudden and intense disappointment -was upon him; he forgot that he had no -right to interrogate her, that no faintest breath -of promise from her had ever given him title -to upbraid her; the noise as of a million waves -of stormy seas was surging in his ears.</p> - -<p>‘Why?’ she repeated, with the same serenity, -and with a kind of indulgence as to a wayward, -imperious child. ‘Oh, for so many -reasons!—not at all, believe me, from any kind -of hesitation about Platon; he would do very -well without me, though he would try to kill<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> -you, I suppose, because men have such odd -ideas; besides they are always fretting about -what the world thinks, just as when they play -billiards they think about the opinion of the -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">galerie</i>; no, not for that, believe me; that is -not my kind of feeling at all; but I have -thought over it all very much, and I have decided -that it would not do—for me. I should -be irritable and unhappy in a false position, -because I should have lost the power to shut -my doors, other people would shut theirs instead; -I should be quite miserable if I could -not be disagreeable to persons whom I did not -care to know, and no one in a false position -ever dares be that; they smile, poor creatures, -perpetually, like so many wax dolls from -Giroux’s. Of course the moral people say it -is the loss of self-respect which makes them -so anxious to please, but it is not that: it is -really the sense that it is of no use for them -to be rude any more, because their rudeness -cannot vex anybody. I quite understand Marie -Antoinette; I should not mind the scaffold in -the least, but I should dislike going in the cart. -“<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le roi avait une charrette</i>,” you remember.’</p> - -<p>Othmar had risen; as she glanced up at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> -him, even over her calm and courageous temperament, -a little chill passed that was almost -one of alarm. Yet her sense of pleasure was -keener than her fear: men’s souls were the -chosen instrument on which she chose to play; -if here she struck some deeper chords than -usual, the melody gained for her ear. Profound -emotions and eager passions were unknown -to her in her own person, but they -constituted a spectacle which diverted her if it -did not weary her—the chances depended upon -her mood. At this moment they pleased her; -pleased her the more for that thrill of alarm, -which was so new to her nerves.</p> - -<p>Othmar did not speak: all the strength -which was in him was taxed to its breaking -point in the effort to restrain the passionate -reproaches and entreaties which sprang to his -lips, the burning tears of bitter disillusion and -cruel disappointment which rushed to his sight -and oppressed his breath. What a fool, what -a madman, he had been again to throw down -his heart like a naked, trembling, panting thing -at her feet to be played with by her.</p> - -<p>‘How well he looks like that!’ she thought. -‘ Most men grow red when they are so angry,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> -but he grows like marble, and his eyes burn—there -are great tears in them—he looks like -Mounet-Sully as Hippolytus.’</p> - -<p>Once more the momentary inclination came -over her to trust herself to that stormy force -of love which might lead to shipwreck and -might lead to paradise; there were a beauty, a -force, a fascination for her about him as he -stood there in his silent rage, his eyes pouring -down on her the lightnings of his reproach; but -the impulse was not strong enough to conquer -her; the world she would have given up with -contemptuous indifference, but she would not -surrender her own power to dictate to the world.</p> - -<p>Her soft tranquil voice went on, as a waterfall -may gently murmur its silvery song while -a tempest shakes the skies.</p> - -<p>‘I know you think that love is enough, but -I assure you I should doubt it, even if I did—love -you. Rousseau has said long before us -that love lacks two things,—permanence and -immutability; they seem to me synonymous, -and I do not think that their absence is a defect; -I think it even a merit. Yet, as they <em>are</em> absent, -it cannot be worth while to pay so very much -for so very defective a thing.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘God forgive you!’ cried her lover in passionate -pain. ‘You betray me with the cruelest -jest that woman ever played off on man, -and you think that I can stand still to hearken -to the pretty tinkling bells of a drawing-room -philosophy!’</p> - -<p>‘You do not stand still,’ she answered languidly, -‘you walk to and fro like a wounded -panther in a cage. I have in no way betrayed -you, and I am not jesting at all. I am saying -the very simplest truth. You have asked me -to do a momentous and irrevocable thing; and -I have answered you truthfully that I should -not shrink from it if I were convinced that I -should never regret it. But I am not convinced——’</p> - -<p>‘If you loved me you would be so!’ he -said in a voice which was choked and almost -inaudible.</p> - -<p>‘Ah!—if!’ said Nadine Napraxine with a -smile and a little sigh. ‘The whole secret lies -in that one conjunction!’</p> - -<p>His teeth clenched as he heard her as if in -the intolerable pain of some mortal wound.</p> - -<p>‘Besides, besides,’ she murmured, half to -herself and half to him, ‘my dear Othmar, you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> -are charming. You are like no one else; you -please me; I confess that you please me, but -you could not ensure me against my own unfortunate -capacity for very soon tiring of -everybody, and,—I have a conviction that -in three months’ time <em>I should be tired of -you</em>!’</p> - -<p>A strong shudder passed over him from -head to foot, as the words struck him with a -greater shock than the blow of a dagger in his -side would have given. He realised the bottomless -gulf which separated him from the woman -he adored,—the chasm of her own absolute -indifference.</p> - -<p>He, in his exaltation, was ready to give up -all his future and fling away all his honour for -her sake, and would have asked nothing more of -earth and heaven than to have passed life and -eternity at her feet; and she, swayed momentarily -towards him by a faint impulse of the -senses and the sensibilities, yet could draw back -and calmly look outward into that vision of -the possible future, which dazzled him as the -mirage blinds and mocks the desert-pilgrim -dying of thirst; she, with chill prescience could -foresee the time when his presence would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> -become to her a weariness, a chain, a yoke-fellow -tiresome and dull!</p> - -<p>She looked at him with a momentary compassion.</p> - -<p>‘Dear Othmar, I am quite sure you have -meant all you said,’ she murmured softly. -‘But, believe me, it would not do; it would -not do for you and me, if it might for some -people. I am not in the least shocked. I -think your idea quite beautiful, like a poem; -but I am certain it would never suit myself. -I tire of everything so quickly, and then you -know I am not in love with <em>you</em>. One wants -to be so much in love to do that sort of thing, -we should bore one another so infinitely after -the first week. Yes, I am sure we should, -though I know you are quite sincere in saying -you would like it.’</p> - -<p>Then, still with that demure, satisfied, -amused smile, she turned away and lifted up -the Moorish chocolate pot and poured out a -little chocolate into her cup.</p> - -<p>‘It has grown cold,’ she said, and tinkled -a hand-bell which was on the tray to summon -Mahmoud.</p> - -<p>Othmar, who had sprung to his feet and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> -stood erect, seized her wrist in his fingers and -threw the bell aside.</p> - -<p>‘There is no need to dismiss me,’ he said in -a low tone. ‘Adieu! You can tell the story -to Lord Geraldine.’</p> - -<p>His face was quite colourless, except that -around his forehead there was a dusky red -mark where the blood had surged and settled -as though he had been struck there with a -whip.</p> - -<p>He bowed low, and left her.</p> - -<p>She stood before the Moorish tray and its -contents with a sense of cold at her heart, but -her little self-satisfied smile was still on her -mouth.</p> - -<p>‘He will come back,’ she thought. ‘He -came back before; they always come back.’</p> - -<p>She did not intend to go with him to Asia, -but she did not, either, intend to lose him altogether.</p> - -<p>‘He was superb in his fury and his grief,’ -she thought, ‘and he meant every word of it, -and he would do all that he said, more than -he said. Perhaps it hurt him too much, perhaps -I laughed a little too soon.’</p> - -<p>She was like the child who had found its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> -living bird the best of all playthings, but -had forgotten that its plaything, being alive, -could also die, and so had nipped the new toy -too cruelly in careless little fingers, and had -killed it.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Othmar, as he left La Jacquemerille, forgot -the boat in which he had come thither. He -walked mechanically through the house, and -out by the first gate which he saw before him. -He was in that state of febrile excitation in -which the limbs move without the will in an -instinctive effort to find outlet to mental pain -in bodily exertion. The gate he had passed -through opened into a little wood of pines, -whence a narrow path led upward into the -hills above. With little consciousness of what -he did, he ascended the mule-road which rose -before him, and the chill of the morning air, -as it blew through the tops of the swaying -pines, was welcome to him. He had that cruel -wound within him which a proud man suffers -from when he has disclosed the innermost secrets -of his heart in a rare moment of impulse, and -has seen them lightly and contemptuously -played with for a jest.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> - -<p>He had gone through life receiving much -adulation but little sympathy, and giving as -little confidence; in a moral isolation due to the -delicacy of his own nature and to the flattery -he received, which had early made him withhold -himself from intimate friendships, fearing -to trust where he would be only duped.</p> - -<p>To her, in an unguarded hour, he had -shown the loneliness and the longing which he -felt, he had disclosed the empty place which -no powers or vanities of the world could fill; -he had staked the whole of his peace on the -caprice of one woman, and he knew that, in -the rough phrase which men would have used -to him, he had been made a fool of in return; -he had betrayed himself, and had nothing in -return but the memory of a little low laughter, -of a tranquil voice, saying: ‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Tout cela c’est le -vieux jeu!</i>’</p> - -<p>He never knew very well how that day of -the 2nd of January passed with him. He was -sensible of walking long, of climbing steep -paths going towards the higher mountains, -of drinking thirstily at a little woodland fountain, -of sitting for hours quite motionless, looking -down on the shore far below, where the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> -blue sea spread in the sunlight, and the towers -of S. Pharamond were mere grey points amidst -a crowd of evergreen and of silvery-leafed -trees.</p> - -<p>There was an irony in the sense that he -could have purchased the whole province which -lay beneath his feet, could have bought out the -princeling who reigned in that little kingdom -under old Turbia, as easily as he could have -bought a bouquet for a woman, could have set -emperors to war with one another by merely -casting his gold into the scales of peace, -could have created a city in a barren plain with -as little effort as a child builds up a toy village -on a table, and yet was powerless to command, -or to arouse, the only thing on earth which he -desired, one whit of feeling in the woman he -loved!</p> - -<p>It was late in the afternoon when he -took his way homeward, having eaten nothing, -only drunk thirstily of water wherever a little -brook had made a well amongst the tufts of -hepatica in the pine woods. He was a man -capable of a spiritual love; if she had remained -aloof from him for honour’s sake, but had -cared for him, he would not have demurred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> -to her choice, but would have accepted his fate -at her hands and would have served her loyally -with the devotion of a chivalrous nature.</p> - -<p>All the passion, the pain, as of a boy’s first -love, blent in him with the bitter revolts of -mature manhood. He believed that Nadine -Napraxine had never intended more than to -amuse herself with his rejection; he believed -that for the second time he had been the toy -of an unscrupulous coquette. Whatever fault -there might be in his love for her, it was love—absolute, -strong, faithful, and capable of an -eternal loyalty; he had laid his heart bare -before her, and had meant in their utmost -meaning all the words which he had uttered, -all the offers which he had made. Despite -his knowledge of her, he had allowed himself -to be beguiled into a second confession -of the empire she possessed over him, and -for the second time he had been not alone -rejected, but gently ridiculed with that quiet -amused irony which had been to the force -and heat of his passion like a fine spray of -ice-cold water falling on iron at a white-heat. -She had not alone wounded and stung -him: she had humiliated him profoundly. If<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> -she had rejected him from honour, duty, or -love for any other, he would have borne what -men have borne a thousand times in silence, -and with no sense of shame; but he was conscious -that in her absolute indifference she -had drawn him on to the fullest revelation of -all he felt for her, only that her ready satire -might find food in his folly, and her fine wit -play with his suffering, as the angler plays -the trout. She seemed to him to have betrayed -him in the basest manner that a woman could -betray a man who had no positive right to her -loyalty. She had known so well how he loved -her. He had told her so many times; unless -she had been willing to hear the tale again, -why had she bidden him come there in that -charmed solitude in the hush and freshness of -the early morning? When women desire not -love, do they seat their lover beside them -when all the world sleeps? He had been -cheated, laughed at, summoned, and then dismissed; -his whole frame thrilled with humiliation -when he recalled the smiling subdued -mockery of her voice as she had dismissed -him.</p> - -<p>He had been willing to give her his life,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> -his good repute, his peace, his honour, his very -soul; and she had sent him away with the -calm, cool, little phrases with which she would -have rejected a clumsy valser for a cotillon!</p> - -<p>He had little vanity, but he knew himself -to be one of those to whom the world cringes; -one of those of whom modern life has made -its Cæsars; he knew that what he had been -willing to surrender to her had been no little -thing; that he would have said farewell to -the whole of mankind for her sake, and would -have loved her with the romantic devoted force -and fealty of a franker and fiercer time than his -own; and she had drawn him on to again -confess this, again offer this, and all it had -seemed to her was <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vieux jeu</i>, an archaic thing -to laugh at, to yawn at, to be indulgent to, and -tired by, in a breath!</p> - -<p>He was a very proud man, and a man who -had seldom or never shown what he either -desired or suffered, yet he had laid his whole -heart bare to her; and she, the only living -being who had either power over him, or real -knowledge of him, had looked at him with her -little cool smile, and said, ‘In three months I -should be tired of you.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> - -<p>If, when the knight had killed his falcon for -his lady, she had scoffed at it and thrown it out -to feed the rats and sparrows he would have -suffered as Othmar suffered now. He had killed -his honour and his pride for her sake, and she -had held them in her hands for a moment, and -then had laughed a little and had thrown them -away.</p> - -<p>Where he sat all alone he felt his cheeks -burn with the sense of an unendurable mortification. -At this moment, for aught he knew, -she, with her admirable mimicry and her -merciless sarcasm, might be reacting the scene -for the diversion of her companions! Passion -was but <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vieux jeu</i>; it could expect no higher -distinction than to be ridiculed as comedy by a -witty woman. Did not the universe only exist -to amuse the languor of Nadine Napraxine?</p> - -<p>The world, had it heard the story, would -have blamed him for an unholy love, and -praised her for her dismissal of it; but he -knew that he had been as utterly betrayed as -though he had been sold by her into the hands -of assassins. She had drawn him on, and on, -and on, until all his life had been laid at her -feet, and then she had looked at it a little, care<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>lessly, -idly, and had said she had no use for it, -as she might have said so of any sea-waste -washed up on the sea-steps of her terrace with -that noon.</p> - -<p>Of course the world would have praised -her; no doubt the world would have blamed -him; but he knew that women who slay their -lovers after loving them do a coarser but a -kinder thing.</p> - -<p>It was almost dark as he descended the road -to S. Pharamond, intending when he reached -home to make some excuse to his uncle and -leave for Paris by the night express or by a -special train. The path he took led through -the orange-wood of Sandroz, which fitted, in a -triangular-shaped piece of ground, between the -boundaries of his own land and that of Millo. -Absorbed as he was in his own thoughts, he recognised -with surprise the figure of Yseulte as he -pushed his way under the low boughs of the -orange trees, and saw her within a yard of him. -She was with the woman Nicole.</p> - -<p>She did not see him until he was close to -her, where she sat on a low stone wall, the -woman standing in front of her. When she did -so, her face spoke for her; it said what Nadine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> -Napraxine’s had never said. The emotion of -joy and timidity mingled touched him keenly -in that moment, when he, with his millions of -gold and of friends, had so strongly realised his -own loneliness.</p> - -<p>‘<em>She</em> loves me as much as she dare—as -much as she can, without being conscious of -it,’ he thought, as he paused beside her. She -did not speak, she did not move; but her -colour changed and her breath came quickly. -She had slipped off the wall and stood irresolute, -as though inclined to run away, the glossy -leaves and the starry blossoms of the trees -consecrated to virginity were all above her and -around her. She glanced at him with an -indefinite fear; she fancied he was angered by -the return of the casket; he looked paler and -sterner than she had ever seen him look.</p> - -<p>He paused a moment and said some commonplace -word.</p> - -<p>Then he saw that her eyes were wet with -tears, and that she had been crying.</p> - -<p>‘What is the matter?’ he said, gently. -‘Has anything vexed you?’</p> - -<p>‘They are sending her away,’ said Nicole -Sandroz, with indignant tears in her own eyes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> -finding that she did not reply for herself. -‘They are sending her to the Vosges, where, as -Monsieur knows very well, I make no doubt, -the very hares and wolves are frozen in the -woods at this month of the year.’</p> - -<p>‘Are you indeed going away?’ he asked of -Yseulte herself.</p> - -<p>She did not speak: she made a little affirmative -gesture.</p> - -<p>‘Why is that? Bois le Roy, in this season, -will be a cruel prison for you.’</p> - -<p>‘My cousin wishes it,’ said the girl; she -spoke with effort; she did not wish to cry -before him; the memory of all that her cousin -had said that morning was with her in merciless -distinctness.</p> - -<p>Nicole broke out in a torrent of speech, -accusing the tyrants of Millo in impassioned -and immoderate language, and devoting them -and theirs to untold miseries in retribution.</p> - -<p>Yseulte stopped her with authority; ‘You -are wrong, Nicole; do not speak in such a -manner, it is insolent. You forget that, whether -I am in the Vosges or here, I equally owe my -cousin everything.’</p> - -<p>She paused; she was no more than a child.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> -Her departure was very cruel to her; she had -been humiliated and chastised that day beyond -her power of patience; she had said nothing, -done nothing, but in her heart she had rebelled -passionately when they had taken away her -ivory casket. They had left her the heart of -a woman in its stead.</p> - -<p>Othmar was ignorant that his casket, fateful -as Pandora’s, had been returned, but he -divined that his gift had displeased those who -disposed of her destiny, and had brought about -directly or indirectly her exile from Millo.</p> - -<p>‘When do you go?’ he asked abruptly.</p> - -<p>‘To-morrow.’</p> - -<p>As she answered him the tears she could -not altogether restrain rolled off her lashes. -She turned away.</p> - -<p>‘Let us go in, Nicole,’ she murmured. ‘You -know Henriette is waiting for me.’</p> - -<p>‘Let her wait, the cockered-up Parisienne, -who shrieks if she see a pig and has hysterics -if she get a spot of mud on her stockings!’ -grumbled Nicole, who was the sworn foe of -the whole Paris-born and Paris-bred household -of Millo. But Yseulte had already moved -towards the house. When she had gone a few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> -yards away, however, she paused, returned, and -approached Othmar. She looked on the ground, -and her voice trembled as she spoke: ‘I ought -to thank you, M. Othmar—I do thank you. It -was very beautiful. I would have kept it all -my life.’</p> - -<p>‘Ah!’ said Othmar.</p> - -<p>He understood; he was moved to a sudden -anger, which penetrated even his intense preoccupation. -He had meant to do this poor -child a kindness, and he had only done her -great harm.</p> - -<p>Yseulte had turned away, and had gone -rapidly through the orange-trees towards the -house.</p> - -<p>‘She is not happy?’ said Othmar to her -foster-mother, whose tongue, once loosed, told -him with the eloquence of indignation of all -the sorrows suffered by her nursling. ‘And -they will make her a nun, Monsieur!’ she -cried; ‘a nun! That child, who is like a June -lily. For me, I say nothing against the black -and grey women, though Sandroz calls them -bad names. There are good women amongst -them, and when one lies sick in hospital one is -glad of them; but there are women enough in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> -this world who have sins and shame to repent -them of to fill all the convents from here to -Jerusalem. There are all the ugly ones too, -and the sickly ones and the deformed ones, -and the heart-broken; for them it is all very -well; the cloister is home, the veil is peace, -they must think of heaven, or go mad; it is -best they should think of it. But this child to -be a nun!—when she should be running with -her own children through the daisies—when -she should be playing in the sunshine like the -lambs, like the kids, like the pigeons!’ ——</p> - -<p>Othmar heard her to the end; then without -answer he bade her good-day, and -descended the sloping grass towards his house.</p> - -<p>‘They say he has a million a year,’ said -Nicole to herself, as she looked after him. -‘Well, he does not seem to be happy upon it. -The lads that bring up the rags on their heads -from the ships look gayer than he, all in the -stench and the muck as they are, and never -knowing that they will earn their bread and -wine from one day to another.’</p> - -<p>She kicked a stone from her path, and -hurried after her nursling.</p> - -<p>Othmar went quickly on to his own woods.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> -‘They could not even let her have that toy,’ -he thought with an emotion, vague but sincere, -outside the conflict of passion, wrath, and mortification -which Nadine Napraxine had aroused -in him. He saw the sudden happiness, so soon -veiled beneath reserve and timidity, which had -shone on the girl’s face as she had first seen him -under the orange boughs. He saw her beautiful -golden eyes misty with the tears she had had -too much courage to shed; he saw her slender -throat swell with subdued emotion as she had -approached him and said shyly, ‘I would have -kept it all my life.’</p> - -<p>All her life,—in the stone cell of some -house of the Daughters of Christ or the Sisters -of St. Marie!</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>‘To love is more, yet to be loved is something,’</p></div> - -<p>he thought. ‘What treasures for one’s heart -and senses are in her—if one could only care!’</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>When he reached home that evening he found -on his writing-table the ivory casket and the -letter of Madame de Vannes. In the pain and -the passion which wrestled together against his -manhood in him, he scarcely heeded either, yet -they brought before his memory the face of -Yseulte, and the sound of her soft grave voice -with that sweet thrill of youth in it which is -like the thrill of the thrush’s in the woods at -spring-time. She had youth, but she would -have no spring-time.</p> - -<p>And in the strong and impotent rage which -consumed him, in the pain of bruised and -aching nerves, and the sickening void which -the certain loss of what alone is loved brings with -it, Othmar, seeing the ivory casket, and glancing -at the letter which he had had no patience to -read through, thought to himself, ‘The child -loves me; she will have a wretched life; what -if I try to forget? They threw virgins to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> -Minotaur. Shall I try to appease with one this -cruel fire of love, which leaves me no peace or -wisdom?’</p> - -<p>It was the act of a madman to attempt to -make one woman take the place of another -to the senses or to the heart, but in that -moment he was not master of himself. He -was only sensible of a cruel insult which he -had received from the hand he loved best on -earth; of a cruel betrayal which was but the -more merciless because wrought with so sweet a -smile, so apparent an unconsciousness, so seemingly -innocent a malice.</p> - -<p>He passed the night and the next morning -locked in his own room; when he left it, and -met the Baron Friederich, he said to him:</p> - -<p>‘I have thought over all you said the other -day. You are right, no doubt. Will you go -across to our neighbours at Millo and ask of -them the honour of the hand of their cousin, -of Mademoiselle de Valogne?’</p> - -<p>The Baron stared at him with a little cry of -amaze.</p> - -<p>‘For you?’ he stammered.</p> - -<p>‘For me,’ said Othmar. ‘What have you -said yourself? I do not want wealth; I want<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> -good blood, beauty, and innocence; they are -all possessed by Mademoiselle de Valogne. Go; -your errand will please them. They will -pardon some breach of etiquette. It will be a -mission which you will like.’</p> - -<p>As the Baron, a little later, rolled through -the gates of Millo in full state, his shrewd -knowledge of men and their madnesses made -him think:</p> - -<p>‘So the Princess Napraxine evidently will -have nothing to say to him! <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">A la bonne heure!</i> -There are some honest women left then amongst -the great ladies. She could so easily have -ruined him! He takes a droll way to cure -himself, but it is not a bad one. The worst is, -that this sort of cure never lasts long, and when -she can make the unhappiness of two persons, -instead of only the happiness of one, perhaps -Madame la Princesse will be tempted to make -it!’</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>On the following day Platon Napraxine drove -home from Monte Carlo at sunset with a -piece of news to carry there which amused -and unusually animated him.</p> - -<p>He went up the stone stairs of the terrace -of La Jacquemerille with the quick step of one -who is eager to deliver himself of his tidings, -and approached, with a rapidity unfrequent -with him, the spot where his wife sat with -her guests under the rose and white awning -beside the marble balustrade and the variegated -aloes.</p> - -<p>The Princess Nadine was also full of unwonted -animation; her cheek had its sea-shell -flush, her eyes a vague and pleased expectancy; -she was laughing a little and listening a good -deal; besides her usual companions, she had -there a group of Austrian and Russian -diplomatists and some Parisian boulevardiers. -They were just taking their leave as she was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> -taking her tea, but it was not very greatly of -them that she was thinking: she was thinking -as she heard the roll of her husband’s carriage -wheels beneath the carouba trees;——‘Ten to -one Othmar will return with him.’</p> - -<p>She lost her gay expression as she saw that -he was alone.</p> - -<p>All the day she had expected the man whom -she had banished to return. She was accustomed -to spaniels who crawled humbly up after -a beating to solicit another beating rather than -remain unnoticed. She had dismissed a certain -apprehension which had told her that she had -gone too far with the reflection that a man -who loved her once did so for ever, and that, -as he had returned from Asia, so he would -return this morning, however great his offence -or his humiliation might have been.</p> - -<p>‘He is more romantic than most,’ she had -thought, ‘but after all, he must be made of the -same stuff.’</p> - -<p>Napraxine approached her hurriedly, and -scarcely giving himself time to formally greet -the gentlemen there, cried to her aloud:</p> - -<p>‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ecoutez donc, Madame!</i> You will never -guess what has happened.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘It is of no use for us to try then,’ said his -wife. ‘You are evidently <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">gonflé</i> with some -tremendous intelligence. Pray unburden yourself. -Perhaps the societies for the protection of -animals have had Strasburg <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pâtés</i> made illegal?’</p> - -<p>‘I have seen the Duchesse, I have seen -Baron Fritz, I have seen Melville,’ answered -her husband impetuously and triumphantly, -‘and they all say the same thing, so that there -cannot be a doubt that it is true. Othmar -marries that little cousin of Cri-Cri: the one -of whom they meant to make a nun. What -luck for her! But they say she is very beautiful, -and only sixteen.’</p> - -<p>The people assembled round her table -raised a chorus of exclamation and of comment. -Napraxine stood amidst them, delighted; his -little social bomb had burst with the brilliancy -and the noise that he had anticipated.</p> - -<p>Nadine Napraxine turned her head with an -involuntary movement of surprise.</p> - -<p>‘Othmar!’ she repeated; her large black -eyes opened fully with a perplexed expression.</p> - -<p>‘It must be the girl who was in the boat,’ -said Lady Brancepeth. ‘She was very handsome.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> - -<p>Geraldine looked at Madame Napraxine -with curiosity, eagerness, and gratification.</p> - -<p>‘Who told you, Platon?’ she asked, with -a certain impatience in her voice.</p> - -<p>‘Three of them told me; Melville first, -then Cri-Cri herself, in the Salle de Jeu. -She did not seem to know whether to be -affronted or pleased. She said the whole thing -was a great surprise, but that she could not -refuse Othmar; she declared that her projects -were all upset, that her young cousin had been -always destined to the religious life; that she -regretted to have her turned from her vocation; -in short, she talked a great deal of nonsense, -but the upshot of it all was that Baron Fritz had -made formal proposals, and that she had accepted -them. In the gardens, coming away, I met -the Baron himself; he was in a state of ecstasy; -all he cares for is the perpetuation of the name -of Othmar; but he declares that Mademoiselle -de Valogne is everything he could desire, that -she was excessively timid, and scarcely spoke -a word when they allowed him to see her for -five minutes, but that it was a very graceful -timidity, and full of feeling.’</p> - -<p>‘Baron Fritz in the operatic <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">rôle</i> of Padrone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> -d’Amore is infinitely droll,’ said Nadine, with a -little cold laugh.</p> - -<p>‘Of course Othmar was obliged to marry -some time,’ continued Napraxine, who did not -easily abandon a subject when one pleased him. -‘And he is—how old is he?—I saw the Baron -as I left; he is delighted. He says the poor -child fainted when they told her she was to be -saved from a religious life.’</p> - -<p>‘My dear Platon,’ said his wife impatiently, -‘ we can read Daudet or Henri Greville when -we want this sort of thing. Pray, spare us. -I hope Baron Fritz explained to her that all -she is wanted for is to continue a race of -Croatian money-lenders which he considers the -pivot of the world. If she fail in doing that -he will counsel a divorce, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">à la</i> Bonaparte.’</p> - -<p>‘He might marry an archduchess,’ said one -of the diplomatists. ‘Surely, it is throwing -himself away.’</p> - -<p>‘It must be for love,’ said Geraldine, with -an ironical smile.</p> - -<p>‘The de Valogne was a great race, but -impoverished long ago,’ said a Russian minister. -‘ I think, if he had married at all, he should -have made an alliance which would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> -brought him that unassailably great rank which -is usually the ambition of all financiers. For -a man of his position to make a mere romantic -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mariage d’amour</i> is absurd—out of place;—and -who knows if it be even that?’ he pursued, -with an involuntary glance at the Princess -Napraxine.</p> - -<p>‘Why on earth should we doubt it?’ said -her husband. ‘It cannot be anything else, -and they say the girl is quite beautiful. -Surely, if anyone can afford to marry to -please himself, that one is Othmar.’</p> - -<p>‘At any rate, it is his own affair,’ said -Nadine, in a voice which was clear and sweet, -but cold as steel. ‘I cannot see why we should -occupy ourselves about it, or why you should -have announced it as if it were the dissolution -of the world.’</p> - -<p>‘Mademoiselle de Valogne is very beautiful,’ -said Geraldine, ‘I have seen her once at Millo. -Why should they pretend to hesitate?’</p> - -<p>‘They hesitated because she is <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vouée à -Marie</i>,’ replied Napraxine, ‘and also the de -Vannes and the de Creusac scarcely recognise -the princes of finance as their equals. Still -the marriage is magnificent; they felt they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> -had no right to regret it since it fell to them -from heaven.’</p> - -<p>‘Do you still believe, Platon, that heaven -has anything to do with marriage?’ said his -wife, with her little significant smile; a slight -colour had come upon her cheeks, tinging -them as blush-roses are tinged with the faintest -flush; her eyes retained their astonished and -annoyed expression, of which her husband saw -nothing.</p> - -<p>‘Heaven made mine at least,’ he said, with -his unfailing good-humour, and a bow in which -there was some grace.</p> - -<p>‘Louis Quatorze could not have answered -better,’ said Nadine. ‘I cannot say I see the -hand of heaven myself in it, but if you do, -so much the better. "Les illusions sont des -zéros, mais c’est avec les zéros qu’on fait les -beaux chiffres."’</p> - -<p>‘I do not know whether Mademoiselle de -Valogne has illusions, but her settlements will -certainly have <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">de beaux chiffres</i>,’ continued -Napraxine, who was still full of the tidings he -had brought. ‘Did Othmar say nothing to -you the other morning of what he intended -to do?’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘Nothing; why should he? I am no -relation of his or of Mademoiselle de Valogne.’</p> - -<p>‘He might have done so; he was a long -time alone with you. Perhaps he did not know -it himself.’</p> - -<p>‘Perhaps not.’</p> - -<p>‘It seems a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">coup de tête</i>. Madame de -Vannes told me that he had only seen her -cousin four times.’</p> - -<p>‘That is three times more than is necessary.’</p> - -<p>‘They say the girl is very much in love -with him, and burst into tears when they -told her of his proposals.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, my dear Platon! That the girl -marries Othmar one understands; she would -be an imbecile, a lunatic, to refuse; but that -she weeps because she will enjoy one of the -hugest fortunes in Europe—do not make such -demands on our credulity!’</p> - -<p>‘They say their acquaintance has been an -idyl; quite <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">hors d’usage</i>; they both met in -his gardens by chance, and he——’</p> - -<p>‘Chance? I thought it was heaven? You -may be quite sure neither had anything to do -with it. Aurore is a very clever woman; she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> -knew very well what she did when she brought -her cousin down to Millo this winter; if the -girl had been honestly <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vouée à Marie</i>, would -they have had her in the drawing-room after -their dinner-parties? Ralph says he has seen -her there.’</p> - -<p>‘Well, if it were a conspiracy, it has succeeded.’</p> - -<p>‘Of course it has succeeded. When women -condescend to conspire, men always fall. Our -Russian history will show you that.’</p> - -<p>Being, however, an obstinate man, who -always adhered to his own opinion, even in -trifles which in no way concerned him, Napraxine -reiterated that Baron Fritz had expressed -himself satisfied that the girl was in -love with his nephew.</p> - -<p>‘And why not?’ he said stoutly, with more -courage than he usually showed. ‘Most women -would soon care for Othmar if he wished them -to do so.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">grand dada</i>!’ murmured Nadine, in -supreme disdain, whilst her eyes glanced over -him for a moment with an expression which, -had he been wise enough to read it, would -have made him less eager to extol the absent.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘After all,’ she said aloud, ‘what is his marriage -to us, that we should talk about it? I -suppose it is the sole act of his life which -would have no effect on the Bourses. We get -into very base habits of discussing our neighbours’ -affairs. Let us say, once for all, that -he has done a very charitable action, and that -we hope it will have a happy result: <i lang="it" xml:lang="it">e basta!</i> -We will call at Millo to-morrow. I am curious -to see the future Countess Othmar.’</p> - -<p>‘They say she is very shy.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, we all know Ste. Mousseline,’ said -Nadine Napraxine, with scorn. ‘Besides, convent-reared -girls are all of the same type. I -only hope Cri-Cri will not assume any hypocritical -airs of regret before me; the only regret -she can really have is that Blanchette was -not old enough to have won this matrimonial -Derby.’</p> - -<p>‘You always speak so slightingly of Othmar,’ -said Napraxine, with some reproach.</p> - -<p>‘I really thought I paid him a high compliment,’ -said his wife.</p> - -<p>‘Why has he done it?’ said one of the -Russian diplomatists to another, when they -had taken leave of the Princess and her party.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘I imagine that Madame Napraxine piqued -him,’ said another. ‘You know he has been -madly in love with her for two years.’</p> - -<p>‘She does not seem to like his marriage.’</p> - -<p>‘They never like it,’ returned the Russian -minister. ‘They may not look at you themselves, -but they never like you to look at any -one else.’</p> - -<p>‘If he marry her because he is in love elsewhere, -and if she have the Princess Nadine for -an enemy at the onset, this poor child’s path -will not be of roses.’</p> - -<p>‘She will be almost the richest woman in -Europe; that must suffice.’</p> - -<p>‘That will depend on her character.’</p> - -<p>‘It will depend a little on whether she will -be in love with her husband. If she be not, all -may go smoothly.’</p> - -<p>‘Do you know what I thought as I looked -at Madame Napraxine just now?’ said the -younger man. ‘I thought of that Persian or -Indian tale where the woman, leaning over -the magic cup, dropped a pearl from her necklace -into it, and spoilt the whole charm for all -eternity. I dare say it will be only a pearl -which she will drop into Othmar’s future life,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> -but it will spoil the whole charm of it for ever -and ever.’</p> - -<p>‘You never liked her,’ said the elder man. -‘She is a woman capable of an infinitude of -things, good and bad. She has the misfortune -to have a very excellent and very stupid husband. -There is nothing so injurious for a -clever woman. A bad man who had ill-treated -her would not have done her half as much -harm. She would have had courage and energy -to meet an unhappy fate superbly. But a perfectly -amiable fool whom she disdains from all -the height of her own admirable wit, coupled -with the habits of our idiotic world, which is -like a mountain of wool steeped in opium, into -which the strongest sinks indolent and enfeebled, -have all tended to confirm her in her egotism -and her disdain, and to send to sleep all her -more noble impulses. Whatever men may be, -women can only be “saved by faith,” and what -faith has Nadine Napraxine except her perfect -faith in her own irresistible and incomparable -power over her innumerable lovers?’</p> - -<p>‘Well,’ said the younger man, ‘if she chose -to drop that pearl in, as I said, I would not -give much for the chances of Othmar’s wife<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> -against her. I have seen the girl. She is very -lovely, serious, simple; no match at all against -such a woman as Princess Napraxine.’</p> - -<p>‘She will have the advantage of youth, -and also—which, perhaps, will count for something -with such a man as Othmar, though it -would not with most men—she will be his -wife.’</p> - -<p>‘Perhaps. He has been always eccentric,’ -rejoined the other.</p> - -<p>Watching her with all the keen anxiety of -jealousy Geraldine had been unable to discover -that the intelligence of Othmar’s marriage -caused her any more surprise or interest than -any other of the hundred and one items of news -which make up the daily pabulum of society. -But then he knew very well that she was of -such a character that though she might have -suffered intolerably she would have shown no -sign of it any more than she would have shown -any fear had a dozen naked sabres been at her -breast.</p> - -<p>Left alone beside his sister for a moment, -he said to her, with doubting impatience: ‘Does -she care, do you think?’</p> - -<p>‘What affair is it of yours if she does?’ re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>turned -Lady Brancepeth. ‘Does she ever care -for anything? And why should she care here? -Othmar has been known to be violently in love -with her—as you are—but no one has ever -had the slightest reason to suppose that she -had any feeling in return for him. He does a -foolish thing in marrying one woman while he -loves another. Some men have faith in that cure. -Myself I should have none. But whatever -his reasons for this sudden choice of Mdlle. de -Valogne, I imagine that his marriage is a matter -of as perfect indifference to Nadine as your -own would be.’</p> - -<p>Geraldine grew red, and his mortification -kept him silent. But the insight of a man in -love told him that his keen-eyed sister was for -once in error.</p> - -<p>Nadine Napraxine herself had gone to her -own rooms to change her gown for dinner, -but she dismissed her maids for twenty minutes -and threw herself on a couch in her bedroom. -She was herself uncertain what she felt, and -angered that she should feel anything. She -was conscious of a sense of offence, irritation, -amazement, almost chagrin, which hurt her -pride and alarmed her dignity. If a month<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> -before she had been told that Othmar was -dead, she would have felt no more than a -momentary regret. But the strength of his -passion in the morning interviews with her had -touched some fibre, some nerve in her, which -had been dumb and numb before. Again and -again she had recalled the accents of his voice, -the sombre fire and pathetic entreaty of his -eyes; they had not moved her at the time to -anything more than the vague artistic pleasure -which she would have taken in any emotion -admirably rendered in art or on the stage, but -in remembrance they had haunted her and -thrilled through her with something more -nearly resembling response than had ever been -aroused in her.</p> - -<p>The expectation of his return had been as -strong as certainty; the sense that she had gone -too far with him had heightened the interest -with which she had awaited her next meeting -with him. One of the greatest triumphs of -her fascination had been the power she had -exercised over him. She was the only living -person who could say to this man, who could -have purchased souls and bodies as he could -have purchased strings of unpierced pearls if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> -he had chosen: ‘You desire something of -which you will never be master.’</p> - -<p>That she had had influence enough on such -a career as his to drive him out from the -world where all his interests, pursuits, and -friendships lay, had pleased her with more -keenness in her pleasure than similar victories -often gave her. She had seen his return to -Europe with amusement, even with derision; -she had seen at a glance that he had fled in -vain from her; she had been diverted, but she -had remained indifferent.</p> - -<p>In those morning hours when he had -addressed her with an almost brutal candour, -he had taken a hold upon her admiration -which he had never gained before. His accents -had lingered on her ear; his regard had -burned itself into her remembrance; she had -begun to look forward to his next approach, -after her rejection, with something more than -the merely intellectual curiosity with which -before she had studied the results of her -influence upon him. The news of his intended -marriage came to her with a sense of -surprise and of affront which was more nearly -regret than any sentiment she had ever ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>perienced. -It seemed to her supremely ridiculous -that a man who adored <em>her</em> should seek -or hope to find any oblivion elsewhere; she -even understood that it was no such hope -which had actuated him, but rather his -wounded pride which had rebelled against herself -and been unwilling to allow the world to -consider him her slave. Of the more delicate -and more tender motives which had led him -towards Yseulte de Valogne she could know -nothing; but of those more selfish and embittered -ones she comprehended accurately all -the sources and all the extent.</p> - -<p>‘He does it to escape me,’ she thought as -she sat in solitude, while the last faint crimson -of the winter’s sunset tinged the light clouds -before her windows; a smile came slowly on -her beautiful mouth,—a smile, proud, unkind, -a little bitter. There was resentment in her, -and there was also pain, two emotions hitherto -strangers to her heart; but beyond these, and -deeper than these, there was a caustic contempt -for the man’s cowardice in seeking asylum in an -unreal love, in endeavouring to cheat himself -and another into belief in a feigned passion.</p> - -<p>‘I thought him more brave!’ she said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> -bitterly to herself. ‘He is like a beaten -warrior who makes a rampart of a virgin’s -body!’</p> - -<p>And yet, in that moment she was nearer -love for him than she had ever been before.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Blanchette was dancing round her cousin in -the twilight of the January day, making her -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pied de nez</i> triumphantly, but pausing every -now and then to look up in her face with her -habitual inquisitiveness, yet with a respect -quite new to her.</p> - -<p>‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Tiens, tiens, tiens!</i>’ she was crying in her -little shrill voice, like the tiniest of silver -trumpets. ‘To think you are going to be -married after all! You will be ever so much -richer than mamma, they say; you will be as -rich as all the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Juiverie</i> put together, and you -will be as great a lady as all the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">grandes -dames</i>. You will have as many jewels as -Madame de Talleyrand; you will have as many -horses and houses as Madame de Sagan; you -will have two new gowns every day if you like. -Have you seen the Hôtel Othmar? I have -seen it; it is as big as the Louvre. What will -you ask him for first? If I were you, I should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> -ask him for a rope of pearls, all as big as -pigeons’ eggs. What are the Othmar liveries? -I never saw them; the state liveries, I mean. -I like canary-colour best, and Louis Treize -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">tricornes</i>. What will he settle on you? He -will give you what you wish; I heard mamma -say so. Make him give you S. Pharamond for -your very own. I am sure you will not get -half you might, you are such a silly little snipe; -you are as tall as a Venetian mast on a feast -day, but you are a simpleton. You cried when -mamma told you he would marry you. The idea! -You should have danced for joy. It would be -delicious to marry him if he were as old as the -hills and as ugly as Punch, but he is not old -and he is handsome: all that <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">par-dessus le -panier</i>, and thirty thousand francs a day, Julie -says; and Brown and Schemmitz wanted to kiss -your hand! What fun you would make of -them if you were me. You should skip and -shout all day;—I should. To be sure, he is <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">dans -la finance</i>, but they are the only royalties nowadays; -I have heard mamma say so. Whatever -can he see in you? You are pretty and tall, -but you don’t know it; you stand and stare -like an owl with your big eyes. What can he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> -want with you? He will give you everything, -he must be a simpleton, too! he might marry -somebody quite great; none of them can -imagine what he wants you for——’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, Blanchette!’ said Yseulte de Valogne, -with a look of pain, as she tried to silence her -little tormentor, whose words she only vaguely -heard as she stood lost in the golden mists of -an incomparable dream.</p> - -<p>‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Vrai!</i>’ said the cruel little child. ‘Nobody -can think what he can see in you. It is -Madame Napraxine whom he loves.’</p> - -<p>Yseulte coloured with sudden anger, and a -look of severity and sternness came on her -youthful face, while its happy wistful eyes lost -their light and grew cold:</p> - -<p>‘You must not say these things, Blanchette,’ -she said sternly; ‘you may laugh at me as -you like, but you must respect M. Othmar.’</p> - -<p>The red deepened in her cheeks as she -spoke, and realised that she had the right to -defend his name thus. She was thinking in -herself as she did so: ‘If it were true, if I -thought it were true, I would bury myself in -the convent for ever.’</p> - -<p>The quick little mind of Blanchette divined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> -the direction of her thoughts, and dearly as the -child loved to do mischief and to torment, she -loved her own pleasure and gain better. She -had no wish for this <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">beau mariage</i> to be broken -off, as she foresaw from it endless diversion, -gifts, and bonbons for herself.</p> - -<p>‘Othmar will give us each at least a medallion -with diamonds on the back,’ she reflected; -and she was conscious, too, that if the marriage -fell through by any doing of hers, her mother -would be unsparing in her punishment, of -which not the least portion would be banishment -to Bois de Roy; for Blanchette adored -her spring-time in Paris, her summer months -at Deauville and Homburg and Biarritz, her -wagers on the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">petits chevaux</i>, her exploits in the -water, and the many whispers of scandals and -naughty witticisms which she caught, when -apparently engrossed with her toy balloon or -her ball, behind the chairs of her mother and -other great ladies on the sand by the sea or -under the trees of the fashionable inland -baths.</p> - -<p>With a rapid remembrance of all that she -herself would lose if there were no grand wedding -at which she would assist at the Madeleine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> -or S. Philippe du Roule, she threw her arms -about her cousin with her most coaxing -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">câlinerie</i>: ‘It was only my fun,’ she whispered; -‘ pray don’t tell any one, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chérie</i>. It was years -and years ago that they laughed about Madame -Napraxine; of course, it is you he loves now. -Why should he marry you if he did not? He -could marry anywhere, anybody,—mamma says -so. And you <em>are</em> handsome, if you would only -think it! Mamma says when you shall have -been married a week, and have all your jewels -you will be superb.’</p> - -<p>Her cousin’s face flushed more warmly till -it was the hue of those Charles Raybaud roses -which she had used to pack for Nicole. Her -heart beat in that tumult of emotion, of joy, and -of vague, most sweet, fear, in which she had -lived for the last twenty-four hours. She -thought: ‘Why, if he did not care for me, -why, indeed, should he seek me?’</p> - -<p>It seemed marvellous to her that it should -be so, but she could not doubt it.</p> - -<p>She had only seen him for ten minutes that -morning, in the presence of the Duchesse de -Vannes, but though her confusion had been too -great to let her eyes meet his, the few soft grave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> -words he had spoken, and the touch of his lips -on her hand, had left with her an ineffable -sense of protection and affection received. If -it were not for love, why should he have paused -on his way to thrust back the gates of the -convent and take her to himself?</p> - -<p>As for herself, the timid, pure, half-unconscious -feeling which he had awakened in her -was growing in strength with every hour now -that it had recognised its own existence and -been permitted its expansion without shame. -It remained as shy and fearful as a freshly -captured wood-dove, but it had in it all the -elements of an intense and devoted passion.</p> - -<p>She did not hear the child’s chatter, which -rippled on like a little brook, asking her a -thousand questions of what she would do, of -what she would wear, of what she would give -away. Blanchette was herself half sympathetic, -half envious; disposed to resent her cousin’s -sudden and splendid change of destiny, yet -inclined to rejoice in it, as it would secure to -herself a spectacle, a new costume, and a costly -gift. She kept looking at the girl critically, -with her head on one side, and affecting to -help her only hindered her, as she dressed for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> -the first ceremonious dinner at which she had -ever assisted.</p> - -<p>‘To think you can dress yourself; how -queer!’ cried the little censor. ‘I cannot put -on a stocking, nor Toinon either. I never -mean to do it. Mamma could not to save her -life. How many women will you have? Two? -three? Never let your maids carry your jewel-box; -have it always put in the train by your -major-domo, between two footmen. Mamma -says all the robberies are done by the maids. -What are you going to put on? You have -only white frocks. Don’t you long to wear -satin and velvet? Oh, you are so stupid; you -ought to marry a shepherd, and wear lambs’-wool -that you spun yourself. You must not -be so simple. A Countess Othmar ought to -be very magnificent. The finance is nothing -if it do not look gorgeous. Oh, what are you -doing? You must not put a black sash on; -you are a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fiancée</i>. Have you got nothing but -black? Wait a minute; I will run and get -one of mine.’</p> - -<p>‘I have always worn something black or -grey since my grandmother died,’ said Yseulte, -a little sadly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p> - -<p>But Blanchette made a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pirouette</i>.</p> - -<p>‘Henri IV. est sur le Pont-Neuf!’ she cried. -‘Oh, you silly! You were Cendrillon yesterday; -now you are the prince’s betrothed. Yesterday -you were a little brown grub; now you -are a butterfly. I will go and get my sash.’</p> - -<p>The child flew out of the room and left -Yseulte standing before the mirror, looking -shyly at her own reflection as though she saw -a stranger. She felt, indeed, a stranger to -herself; so long she had been resigned to -the religious life, so long she had been accustomed -to regard obscurity, neglect, sadness, -loneliness, as her natural lot; so long she had -been trained to submission, lectured to the -shade and the silence of resignation, that to be -thus suddenly called out into the light, and lifted -on to a pedestal, dazzled and almost paralysed -her.</p> - -<p>It seemed to her as though it could never -be herself, Yseulte de Valogne, to whom her -cousin had said, with an admiration that was -almost reverence: ‘You will be the most -enviable woman in Europe. Do you understand -all you have done for yourself?’</p> - -<p>She did not understand it; she only un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>derstood -that he had rescued her from the -conventual life, and that he loved her—surely -he loved her, or he would not wish?——</p> - -<p>Blanchette flew back into the room, accompanied -by the maid Françoise.</p> - -<p>‘Yseulte! Yseulte!’ she shrieked, waving -a blue sash in one hand and with the other -clasping to her a square parcel tied with silver -cord. ‘Here is something he sends you: -Françoise was bringing it. Open it quick, -quick. Oh, what a happy creature you are, -and you only stand and stare like the statues in -the Luxembourg! Open it quick! It is sure -to be something worth thousands and thousands -of francs.’</p> - -<p>‘Hush, Blanchette!’ said the girl, with a -look of pain, as she took the packet and undid -its covering. Within was the ivory casket; -and within the casket was a necklace of great -pearls.</p> - -<p>A little note lay on them, which said -merely:—</p> - -<p>‘<em>No one can dispossess you of the casket -now. Receive what is within as a symbol of -your own innocence and of my reverence for it.—Yours, -with devotion</em>, <span class="smcap">Othmar</span>.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> - -<p>On the other side of the paper was written -more hastily:—‘<em>Pardon me that I must leave -immediately after dinner for Paris and shall -not see you for a few days. I have explained -to the Duchesse.</em>’</p> - -<p>Yseulte grew very pale. If the eyes of her -little tormentor and of the woman Françoise -had not been on her, she would have kissed his -note and fallen on her knees and wept. As it -was, she stood still in silence, reading the lines -again and again, with sweet, warm tears in her -eyes. It was Blanchette who took out the -pearls and held them up in the lamplight, and -appraised their value with the keenness of a -jeweller and screamed in rapture over their -size and colour.</p> - -<p>‘They <em>are</em> the pigeon’s eggs!’ she cried, -‘ and four ropes of them; they must be worth -an empire. They are as fine as mamma’s, -and she has only three rows. I will marry into -the finance myself. Oh, what a happy creature -you are! Brown says it all came out of your -going to gather flowers in his garden. Is that -true? How clever it was of you! Who would -ever have believed you were so clever, with -your silent ways and your countryfied scruples.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> -Let me see his note? You will not? What -nonsense! You must put the pearls on. Let -me fasten them. Four ropes! They are fit -for a Court ball. What a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">corbeille</i> he will send -you!’</p> - -<p>As she chattered she clasped it round the -throat of her cousin, who grew red, then white, -as the pearls touched her skin. They made -her realise the immense change which one short -day had made in her lot. They made her -realise that Othmar henceforth was her lover.</p> - -<p>While Blanchette chirped and skipped -around her, directing her toilette with the accurate -instinct in decoration of a little Parisienne, -the eyes of the girl were suffused with unshed -tears of gratitude and tremulous joy.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - - <p>‘What can I render thee, O princely giver?’</p> - -</div> - -<p>she was saying in her heart, although she had -never read the Portuguese sonnets; while her -little cousin babbled on of jewels and ball-dresses, -and horses and establishments, and -dowries and settlements, and the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">régime dotal</i>, -and all the many matters which meant marriage -to the precocious comprehension of Blanchette.</p> - -<p>‘You will have your box at all the theatres,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> -will you not? You have never been to a -theatre, but I have. Mind that you go the -evening after your marriage. When will your -marriage be? I heard mamma say that he -wished it to be very soon: but then there is all -your <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">lingerie</i>, and all your gowns to be made. -I suppose mamma will give you your trousseau; -she must. Oh, how happy you ought to -be, and you look just as grave as an owl! Nobody -would guess you were going to be the -Countess Othmar. Do you know that he could -be made a prince if he liked? You have -never learned to ride, Yseulte. What a pity! -It is so <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chic</i> to ride early in the Bois. Well, -you will have a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">coupé</i> for the early morning, -and then you will have a Daumont for the -afternoon, of course. There is nothing so -pretty as postillions in velvet jackets and -caps—if you only knew what colour his -liveries are? Won’t you have out-riders? I do -not know, though, whether you can; I think -it is only ambassadresses and princesses of -the blood who may have out-riders——You -might have a special train every day,’ -continued Blanchette, exciting herself with her -own visions. ‘There is nothing such fun as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> -special train; we had one when grandmère was -dying at Bois le Roy all in a moment and -wanted to see us; it is so diverting to go on, -on, on, through all the stations, past all the -other trains, never stopping—pr-r-r-rut!’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, hush, Blanchette! What do I care -about those things?’ murmured Yseulte, as she -put his note into the casket, locked it, and -slipped the little silver key in her bosom, blushing -very much as she did so.</p> - -<p>It seemed so very wonderful to her that -such lines should have been written to her. -She wanted to be all alone to muse upon the -marvel of it. She remembered a little nook -in the convent garden where a bench was fixed -against the high stone wall, under the branches -of an old medlar tree; a place that she had -gone to with her sorrows, her fancies, her -visions, her tears, very often; she would have -liked to have gone now to some such quiet -and solitary nook, to realise in peace this -miracle which had been wrought for her. -But that was impossible; they had ordered her -to dine with them at eight—her first great -dinner. She must submit to be gazed at, commented -on, complimented, felicitated.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> - -<p>The sensitive, delicate nature of the child -shrank from the publicity of her triumph; but -she understood that it was her duty, that henceforth -these things would be a prominent portion -of her duties; the wife of Othmar could not -live shut away from the world.</p> - -<p>Blanchette tossed her golden head with immeasurable -contempt.</p> - -<p>‘It is all “those things” that make a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">grand -mariage</i>. If you think you do not care now, -you will care in a year’s time. Mamma said so. -Mamma said you will be just like anybody else -when you shall have been in the world six -months.’</p> - -<p>Yseulte shook her head with a smile, but -she sighed a little also; it pained her that the -world, and all it gave, was so intermingled with -this beautiful, incredible, dream-like joy which -had come to her like some vision brought by -angels. In the singleness and sincerity of her -young heart she thought: ‘Ah! if only he -were poor!—how I wish he were poor!—then -they would know and he!——’</p> - -<p>But he was not poor, and he had sent her -pearls worthy of an empress, and Blanchette -was dancing before her in envy, longing to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> -sixteen years old too and betrothed to an archi-millionaire.</p> - -<p>She cast one last timid glance at herself -and at the great pearls lying beneath the -slender ivory column of her throat, then she -drew on her long gloves, and went, with a -quickly-beating heart, down the staircase, Blanchette -shouting after her Judic’s song,—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">On ne peut pas savoir ce que c’est,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Ce que c’est,</div> - <div class="verse">Si on n’a pas passé par là!</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>which the child had caught up from the echoes -of the boulevards, and sang with as much by-play -and meaning as Judic herself could have -put into it.</p> - -<p>There were some twenty people assembled -in the oval drawing-room when Yseulte entered -it. It was not of them she was afraid: it was -of seeing Othmar before them. There was a -murmur of admiration as she appeared in her -childish white dress, with the superb necklace -on, which a queen might have worn at a -Court ball. Her shyness did not impair her -grace; the stateliness and pride which were in -her blood gave her composure even in her -timidity; her eyes were dark and soft with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> -conflicting feelings, her colour came and went. -She never spoke audibly once in answer to all -the compliment and felicitation she received, -but she looked so lovely and so young that no -one quarrelled with her silence. When Othmar -gave her his arm she trembled from head to -foot, but no one noticed it save Othmar himself.</p> - -<p>‘Do not be afraid of me, my child,’ he -murmured, and for the first time she took -courage and looked at him with a rapid glance -that was like a beam of sunlight. The look -said to him, ‘I am not afraid, I am grateful; I -love you, only I dare not say so, and I hardly -understand what has happened.’</p> - -<p>The dinner seemed both to her and to -him interminable; she was quite silent through -it, and ate nothing. She was conscious of -a sullen gaze which her cousin, de Vannes, -fastened on her, and which made her feel -that, by him, she was unforgiven. She was -confused by the florid speech made to her by -the Baron Friederich, who was so enchanted by -her that he put no measure to his audible -admiration. Othmar, seated beside her, said -very little. The party was gay, and the conversation -animated. The silence of each of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> -them passed unnoticed. The Duchesse, who -alone remarked it, said to Raymond de Prangins:</p> - -<p>‘It is their way of being in love; it is the -old way, which they have copied out of Lamartine -and Bernardin de St. Pierre. It is infinitely -droll that Othmar should play the sentimental -lover, but he does. I want Nadine Napraxine -to see him like that. I asked her to dinner, -but they had a dinner party at home. She -sent me a little line just now, promising, if her -people were gone, to come for an hour in the -evening. The child looks well, does she not? -What jewels he has given her! They are -bigger than mine. It is the least he can do; -the Finance is bound to buy big jewels. Who -would ever have supposed he would have seen -anything in that baby, that convent mouse? To -be sure, she is handsome. Such a marriage -for that little mouse to make! a mere baby -like that, a child proud of being the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">médaillon</i> -of her convent yesterday! After all, nothing -takes some men like that air of innocence, -which bores them to death as soon as they have -put an end to it. It is like dew; it is like -drinking milk in the meadow in the morning; -we don’t care for the milk, but the doctors say<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> -it is good for us, and so——I wonder what -she is thinking about. About her gowns, I -dare say, or about her jewels. She is just like -a vignette out of “Paul et Virginie.” She -need not pretend to be in love with him; no -one will believe in it; he will not believe in -it himself; he is too rich. What can he have -seen in her more than in five thousand other -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fillettes</i> he might have married? To be sure -she is handsome. She will be handsomer——’</p> - -<p>She put up her eyeglass and looked down -the table at her young cousin with amusement -and envy, mingled as they mingled in little -Blanchette. The amusement was at the girl’s -evident embarrassment, the envy was of her -youth, of her complexion, of her form, of all -which told her own unerring instincts that -Yseulte in a few years, even in a few months, -would be one of the most beautiful women of -her world.</p> - -<p>And she said angrily to de Prangins, ‘Some -men like children; it is as boys like green -apples.’</p> - -<p>‘At least the green apples are not painted,’ -thought the young man as he murmured aloud -a vague compliment. Raymond de Prangins,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> -like most men of his age, had never looked -twice at a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fillette</i>; he had been three weeks in -the same house with this child and had never -addressed a word to her or noticed whether -her eyes were black or brown; but now that -she had become the betrothed wife of Othmar, -the charm of the forbidden fruit had come to -her; she had suddenly become an object of -interest in his sight; he was never tired of -finding out her beauties, he was absorbed in -studying the shape of her throat, the colour of -her hair, the whiteness of her shoulders, which -came so timidly and with a little shiver, like -shorn lambs, out of the first low bodice that -she had ever worn. To know that she was -about to belong to another man, gave her all at -once importance, enchantment, and desirability -in his sight.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Immediately that the dinner was over Othmar -made his excuses and left Millo to take the -night express to Paris. When once she knew -that he was absent, she lost all fear.</p> - -<p>Her innocent love was at that stage when -the presence of a lover is full of trouble and -alarm, and the happiest hours are those in -which his absence permits its dreams to wander -about her memory undisturbed. When he was -there he was still, to her, a stranger whose gaze -embarrassed her, whose touch confused her, -whose association with herself was unfamiliar -and unreal; but, away from him, there was -nothing to check or dismay those spiritual and -poetic fancies which had lodged their ideal in -him. No one of those around her would ever -have imagined that she had these fancies, or -would have understood them in the slightest -degree; they only thought that she was very -naturally enraptured to be chosen by a very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> -rich man, and did not doubt that in her mind -she was musing, as Blanchette had suggested, -on the colour of her liveries, the number of -her horses, the places of her residence, and the -prospect of her jewels.</p> - -<p>Baron Fritz, who made her blush with the -fervour of his compliments, and was so delighted -with her that he could not cease from gazing at -her as though she were a water-colour of Copley -Fielding’s, was alone sufficiently sympathetic, -despite all his seventy years of cynicism, to -perceive that the things of this world had little -place in her thoughts, and he thought to himself -as he looked at her:</p> - -<p>‘Will Otho be wise enough to appreciate -all that? He will have the carnation in its -bud, the peach in its flower; he will make just -what he pleases of them; the worse will be if -he should leave them altogether alone: then -the carnation will unfold, the peach will ripen -and come out into fruit unnoticed, and if he -be an ingrate, they will both come to their -perfection for someone else—which will be a -pity. The child is in love with him—<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">parbleu!</i>—he -does not deserve it; he only cares for his -Russian woman, his hothouse narcissus; he only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> -wants to cure himself of Nadine Napraxine; -as if one blush of this child’s cheek were not -worth a century of Madame Napraxine’s languor!’</p> - -<p>And he felt a passing regret that he was -not forty years younger and in the place of -his nephew.</p> - -<p>After dinner he seated himself beside Yseulte, -and talked to her of Othmar, of his boyhood, -of his talents, of his opportunities, and of his -destinies, with so much tact and so much skill -that she was moved to an affectionate gratitude -towards the speaker and to a sense of infinite -awe before all the ambitions and responsibilities -with which he filled her future.</p> - -<p>‘She is a baby, but she is not a fool,’ -thought the wise old man. ‘When the love -fever has passed, we shall make of her just what -we want, provided only that she has influence -over Otho. But will she have any? In marriage -there is always one who rules the other: -“<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">un qui se baisse, et l’autre qui tend la joue</i>”: -and it is always the one who <em>cares</em> who goes -under.’</p> - -<p>Even as he had eaten his truffles and drunk -the fine wines grown on the de Vannes’ estates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> -in Gironde, he had been more troubled by an -impersonal anxiety than he had ever allowed -himself to be in the whole course of his existence. -The child had sat opposite to him, -looking so youthful beside the faces, more or -less <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">maquillées</i>, of the women around her, -with her soft surprised eyes, happy as those of -a child that wakes from sleep, and her colour -coming and going, delicate and warm: ‘And -he will not stay here to see, just because the -desire for another woman is in him like a fly -in the ear of a horse!’ had thought the Baron -impatiently. He guessed very accurately that -the departure of Othmar was due to a restless -unwillingness to face the fate which he had -voluntarily made for himself.</p> - -<p>He himself had had no heed of Othmar’s -marriage except as a means of legally continuing -his race; his only notion of a woman -was Napoleon’s, that she should bear many -children; but as he looked at Yseulte de -Valogne, something kinder and more pitiful -stirred in his selfish old heart; she seemed to -him too good to be sacrificed so; he understood -that there would be other things than -money and children which this sensitive plant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> -would want; and worldly, unemotional, and unprincipled -as he was, Baron Fritz was the only -person present who divined something of the -dreams which she was dreaming and felt a compassionate -regret for them, as for flowers which -opened at dawn to die perforce at noonday.</p> - -<p>About eleven o’clock in the evening, when -Yseulte was beginning to feel her eyelids grow -heavy, and was thinking wistfully of her little -white bed amidst the murmur of conversation -unintelligible to her and the stare of inquisitive -eyes, she heard with a little thrill of an emotion -quite new to her the voice of the groom of the -chambers, which announced Madame la Princesse -Napraxine.</p> - -<p>Jealousy she was too young, too simple, -and too innocent to know; but a strange -eagerness and an unanalysed pain moved her -as she saw the woman whom they said that -Othmar loved.</p> - -<p>‘Is that really Madame Napraxine?’ she -said in a low voice to the Baron, who was -beside her.</p> - -<p>‘Who has told you of Madame Napraxine?’ -he thought, as he answered her: ‘Yes! that is -the name of the lady coming in now; she is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> -famous European beauty, though to my taste -she is too slender and too pale.’</p> - -<p>The girl did not reply; her eyes followed -the trail of Princess Nadine’s pale primrose-coloured -skirts laden with lace, and fastened -here and there with large lilies and lilac. Before -that inimitable grace, that exquisite languor -and ease, that indescribable air of indifference -and of empire and of disdain which made the -peculiar power of Nadine Napraxine, the poor -child felt her own insignificance, her own childishness, -her own powerlessness; she fancied she -must look rustic, awkward, stupid: she grew -very pale, and her throat swelled with pain -under her lover’s pearls.</p> - -<p>‘It is too early for you to have that adder -in your breast,’ thought Friederich Othmar, as -he watched her. ‘What a coward he was to -go away, instead of standing his ground beside -you! After all, why is everyone so afraid of -this Russian woman?’</p> - -<p>Aloud, he only said: ‘The Princess is -coming to you; courage, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mon enfant</i>. A woman -of the world is certainly an alarming animal, -but you will have to meet many such, and -you will be one yourself before very long.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Fillette</i>, come and be presented to Mme. -Napraxine; she wishes it,’ said her cousin at -that moment in her ear. The girl shrank back -a little, and the colour came into her face; she -rose, nevertheless, obediently.</p> - -<p>Nadine Napraxine came half-way to meet -her, with an indulgent little smile, of which the -compassion and disdain penetrated the inmost -soul of Yseulte with a cruel sense of inferiority. -Yet had she not been so humble and so embarrassed -she might have seen a look of surprise -in the eyes of her rival. Nadine saw at a -glance that in this child there was no ‘Sainte -Mousseline’ to be easily derided and contemned.</p> - -<p>‘How beautiful a woman she will be in a -year or two!’ she thought, with that candour -which was never lacking in her in her judgments -of her greatest foes. ‘He is going to -possess all that, and he only sighs in his soul -for me!—what fools men are!’</p> - -<p>While she so thought, she was still smiling -as she came to meet Yseulte with that slow, -soft, indescribable grace of which she had the -secret.</p> - -<p>‘I am an old friend of Count Othmar’s;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> -you must let me be yours in the future,’ she -said with gracious kindliness. ‘Shall I offend -you if I venture to say that I am sure he is a -very happy and fortunate person? I dare say -I shall please you better if I say that he deserves -to be so.’</p> - -<p>The girl could not have found words to -answer to save her life. Instinctively she made -her grand eighteenth-century curtsy in acknowledgment. -She was very pale; her heart -seemed to sink within her as she realised all -the charm of this her rival.</p> - -<p>Mme. de Vannes murmured a few amiable -words, and left them opposite to one another; -the girl trembled despite herself, as those indolent -lustrous eyes scanned her with merciless -investigation and smiled at her embarrassment.</p> - -<p>It was her first experience of that obligation, -so constant in the world, to meet what is -dreaded and disliked with suavity and compliment.</p> - -<p>‘I am a great friend of your cousin, too,’ -continued Nadine Napraxine, with all the -amiable condescension of a woman of the world -to a child. ‘We shall be sure to meet con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>stantly -in the years to come, which will leave -you so young and make us so old! Where -have you lived? In an old Breton convent? -I wish I had lived in a Breton convent too! -Come and sit by me and talk to me a little. -Do you know that I am here to-night on -purpose to see you. I had a tiresome dinner, -all of Russian people, or I should have come -here earlier.’</p> - -<p>She drew the girl down beside her on a sofa -with that pretty imperiousness of which women -as well as men often felt the charm and the -command. She was most kindly, most gentle, -most flattering, yet Yseulte suffered under all -her gracious compliments as under the most -poignant irony. She answered in monosyllables -and at random; she was ill at ease and confused, -she looked down with the fascination of -a bird gazing at a snake on the hand which -held hers, such a slender hand in its tan-coloured -glove and with its circles of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">porte-bonheurs</i> -above the wrist, and its heavy bracelets -crowding one another almost to the elbow.</p> - -<p>She would not have spoken more than Yes -or No to save her life, and she said even these -in the wrong places; but Nadine Napraxine did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> -not make the mistake of thinking her stupid, as -less intelligent women would have done.</p> - -<p>She studied her curiously whilst she continued -to speak those amiable and careless -nothings which are the armoury of social life; -toy weapons of which the young know neither -the use nor the infinite value. She had all -the kindly condescension, the good-humoured, -amused indulgence, of a grown woman of the -world for a schoolgirl; by dates she was only -seven years older than Yseulte de Valogne, but -in experience and knowledge she was fifty years -her senior.</p> - -<p>‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Elle est vraiment très bien</i>,’ she said, as -she turned away from the girl and took the -arm of Friederich Othmar. ‘At present she is -like a statue in the clay, like a sketch, like -a magnolia flower folded up; but Othmar will -change all that. You must be so glad; his -marriage must have been such an anxiety to -you. Suppose he had married a Mongol! -What would you have done?’</p> - -<p>‘It was not precisely of the Mongol that -I was most afraid, Madame,’ replied the Baron. -‘ Do you think too that a marriage is a termination -to anyone’s anxieties? Surely, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> -dangerous romance begins afterwards in life as -in novels.’</p> - -<p>‘It would be very dull reading in either if -it did not,’ said Madame Napraxine. ‘But we -will hope that Mademoiselle and your nephew -will read theirs together, and eschew the -dangers; that is possible sometimes; and she -will have one great advantage for the next five -years; she will be handsomer every year.’</p> - -<p>‘It will be a great advantage if he find her -so, but perhaps only others will find her so; -marriage does not lend rose-coloured spectacles -to its disciples,’ thought the Baron, as he -answered aloud, ‘There can be no one’s opinion -that he could value as much as he is sure to do -that of Madame Napraxine.’</p> - -<p>‘I imagine my opinion matters nothing at -all to him,’ she answered, with her enigmatical -smile. ‘But when I see him I shall certainly -be able to congratulate him with much more -truth than one can usually put into those -conventionalities. Mademoiselle de Valogne is -very beautiful.’</p> - -<p>The Baron sadly recalled the saying of that -wise man who was of opinion that it makes -little difference after three months whether<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> -your wife be a Venus or a Hottentot; but he -did not utter this blasphemy to a lovely woman.</p> - -<p>The girl remained on her sofa gazing wistfully -after this <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">élégante</i> who had all the knowledge -which she lacked, and who impressed her -so sadly with an indefinite dull sense of inferiority -and of helplessness. She put her hand -up to her throat and felt for his pearls; they -seemed like friends; they seemed to assure her -of his affection and of the future. People -thought she was proud of them because they -were so large, so perfect in colour and shape, -so royal in their value; she would have been as -pleased with them if they had been strings of -berries out of the woods, and he had sent them -with the same message and meaning.</p> - -<p>She watched Nadine Napraxine with fascinated -eyes; wondering where was the secret -of that supreme seduction which even she, in -her convent-bred simplicity, could feel was in -her. In the few words which had been addressed -to her she was dimly conscious that -the other disdained her as a child, and derided -Othmar as a fool.</p> - -<p>Madame de Vannes roused her from her -preoccupation with a tap of her fan.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘How grave you look, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fillette</i>,’ she said with -some impatience. ‘You must never look like -that now you are in the world. Everyone -detests grave people. If you cannot always -smile, stay in your convent.’</p> - -<p>‘I beg your pardon,’ murmured Yseulte, -waking from her meditation with a little shock. -‘I did not know—I was thinking——’</p> - -<p>‘That is just what you must not do when -you are in society. What were you thinking -of? You looked very sombre.’</p> - -<p>The girl coloured and hesitated, then she -said very low:</p> - -<p>‘The other day—the day of the casket—you -said he loved her—was it true?’</p> - -<p>She glanced across the room at Nadine -Napraxine as she spoke.</p> - -<p>‘Did I say so?’ answered the Duchesse, -with annoyance at herself. ‘Then I talked -great nonsense. But how was I to know then -that he was thinking of you? Listen to me, -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fillette</i>,’ she continued, with more real kindness -in her tone than the girl had ever heard there. -‘ You will hear all kinds of scandals, insinuations, -stories of all sorts in the world that you -will live in; never listen to them, or you will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> -be perpetually irritated and unhappy. People -say all sorts of untruths out of sheer idleness; -they must talk. M. Othmar must certainly -have some very especial esteem for you, or -why should he choose you out of all womankind -for his wife? That is all you have to -think of; do not perplex yourself as to whom -he may, or may not, have loved beforehand. -All your care must be that he shall love no one -else afterwards. You are tired, I think; go to -bed, if you like: you can slip away unnoticed. -You are only a child yet.’</p> - -<p>Yseulte went at once, thankful for the -permission, yet looking wistfully still at the -delicate head of Nadine Napraxine, as it rose -up from a collar of emeralds. Madame de -Vannes passed to the music room, where a -little operetta was being given, with a vague -compassion stirring in her.</p> - -<p>‘I am sure the old Marquise could not have -given her more moral advice than I,’ she -thought, ‘but I am afraid the silly child will -have trouble, she is so old-fashioned. Why -cannot she marry the man, and enjoy all he -will give her, without perplexing herself as to -what fancies he may have had for other people?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> -What does it matter? She will have to get -used to that sort of thing. If it be not Nadine -who makes her jealous, it will be someone else; -but one could not tell her that. How right I -was not to send Blanchette and Toinon to a -convent! The holy women make them so -romantic, so emotional, so <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pleurnicheuses</i>!’</p> - -<p>At the same moment Nadine Napraxine -said, when she had left her and was speaking -to Melville of her:</p> - -<p>‘She is very interesting. She will have -plenty of character; he thinks that he is marrying -a child; he forgets that she will grow up, and -that very rapidly. Marriage is a hothouse for -women who are young. I was married at her -age; in three months’ time I felt as old—as -old—as old as I do now. Nobody can feel -older! You are sixty-five, you say, and you are -so young. That is because you are not married -and can believe in Paradise.’</p> - -<p>‘You mean that I hope for compensation?’ -said Melville, with his pleasant laugh.</p> - -<p>‘Or that you keep your illusions. There -is so much in that. People who do are always -young. I do not think I ever had any to -lose!’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘It is great emotions which make happy illusions, -and I believe you have never permitted -those to approach you?’</p> - -<p>‘I have viewed them from afar off, as -Lucretius says one ought to see a storm.’</p> - -<p>‘I do not doubt you have seen them very -often, Princess,’ said Melville, with significance. -‘But as you have not shared them, they have -passed by you like great waves which leave no -mark upon the smoothness of the sand on which -they break.’</p> - -<p>‘Perhaps,’ she said, while her mind reverted -to the scene of which her boudoir had been the -theatre three days before; then she added a -little abruptly: ‘You know Mlle. de Valogne -well—you are interested in her? What do -you think of her marriage?’</p> - -<p>‘I have known her from the time she was -four years old,’ replied Melville. ‘I have seen -her at intervals at the convent of Faïel. I am -convinced she has no common character; she is -very unlike the young girls one sees in the -world, who have had their course of Deauville, -Aix, and Biarritz. She is of the antique French -patrician type; perhaps the highest human type -that the world has ever seen, and the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> -capable of self-restraint, of heroism, of true distinction, -and of loyalty. I fancy Elizabeth de -France must have been just such a girl as is -Yseulte de Valogne.’</p> - -<p>‘What eulogy!’ returned his companion, -with a little incredulous accent. ‘I have -always wondered that your Church did not -canonize the Princess Elizabeth. But you -do not tell me what you think of the marriage.’</p> - -<p>Melville smiled.</p> - -<p>‘I might venture to prophecy if the success -of a marriage depended on two persons, but -it depends on so many others.’</p> - -<p>‘You are very mysterious; I do not see -what others have to do with it.’</p> - -<p>‘And yet,’ thought Melville, ‘how often -you have stretched out your delicate fingers -and pushed down the most finely-wrought web -of human happiness—just for pastime!’</p> - -<p>Aloud he said: ‘If she and he were about -to live their lives on a desert island, I am convinced -they would be entirely suited to each -other. But as they will live in the world, and -perforce in what they call the great world, who -shall presume to say what their marriage will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> -become? It may pass into that indifferent and -amiable friendship which is the most usual -issue of such marriages, or it may grow into -that direct antagonism which is perhaps its still -commoner result; on the other hand, it may -become that perfect flower of human sympathy -which, like the aloe, blossoms once in a century; -but, if that miracle happen, such flowers -are not immortal; an unkind grasp will suffice -to break them off at the root. On the whole, -I am not especially hopeful; she is too young, -and he——’</p> - -<p>‘And he?’ said Nadine Napraxine, with a -gleam of curiosity in her glance.</p> - -<p>‘I am not his confessor; I doubt if he ever -confess—to his own sex,’ replied Melville; -‘but if I had been, I should have said to him: -“My son, one does not cure strong fevers with -meadow-daisies; wait till your soul is cleansed -before you offer it to a child whom you take -from God.” That is what I should have said -in the confessional; but I only know Othmar -on the neutral ground of society. I cannot -presume to say it there.’</p> - -<p>‘You are too serious, Monsignore,’ said -Nadine, with her enigmatical smile. ‘Marriage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> -is not such a very serious thing, I assure you. -Ask Platon.’</p> - -<p>‘Prince Napraxine is exceptionally happy,’ -said Melville, so gravely that she laughed gaily -in his face.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Yseulte dismissed the maid, -undressed herself slowly, kissed the pearls -when she had unclasped them; and, kneeling -down under her crucifix, said many prayers for -Othmar.</p> - -<p>She was soon asleep, like a tired child, and -she had his note under her pillow; nevertheless, -she dreamed of Nadine Napraxine, and -her sleep was not the pure unbroken rest that -she had always had before. Once she awoke -in a great terror, her heart beating, her limbs -trembling.</p> - -<p>‘If he did not love me!’ she cried aloud; -then the light of the lamp fell on the open -casket, on the necklace of pearls. They seemed -to say to her, ‘What should he want with you, -unless he loved you?’</p> - -<p>She fell asleep again, and with a smile on -her face.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>The fortnight passed away rapidly and dizzily -for her. They took her at once to Paris, and -gave her no time for thought. She lived in a -perpetual movement, which dazzled her as a -blaze of fireworks would dazzle a forest doe. -All the preparations of a great marriage were -perpetually around her, and she began to -realise that the world thought her lot most -enviable and rare. Often her head ached and -her ears were tired with the perpetual stream -of compliment and felicitation, the continual -demands made on her time, on her patience, on -her gratitude. What would have been ecstasy -to Blanchette was to her very nearly pain. -There were moments when she almost longed -for the great, still, walled gardens of the Dames -de Ste. Anne, for her little whitewashed room, -her rush chair in the chapel, her poor grey -frock.</p> - -<p>Then she thought of Othmar, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> -colour came into her face and she was happy, -though always unquiet and a little alarmed, as -a dove is when its owner’s hand is stretched -out to it.</p> - -<p>To Yseulte he was a hero, a saint, an ideal. -He had come so suddenly into her life, he had -transformed it so completely, that he had something -of a magical fascination and glory for her. -She knew nothing of the House of Othmar, or -of their position in finance; if she had understood -it, she would have disliked it with the -instinctive pride of a daughter of ‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">les preux</i>;‘ -she had a vague, confused idea of him as the -possessor of great power and wealth, but that -taint of commerce, which in Othmar’s eyes -soiled every napoleon he touched, had not -dimmed his majesty for her.</p> - -<p>She was never allowed to see him alone; -her cousin insisted on the strictest observance of -’<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">les convenances</i>,’ and though a Romeo would -have found means to circumvent these rules, her -lover did not. He was glad of the stiff laws -of etiquette which forbade him unwitnessed -interviews. He felt that if she asked him -straightway, with her clear eyes on his, what -love he had for her, a lie would not come<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> -easily to his lips. He was lavish of all offerings -to her, as though to atone materially for the -feeling that was wanting in him. The Duchesse -was herself astonished at the magnificence and -frequency of his gifts. Unasked, he settled -S. Pharamond and an estate in Seine et Oise -upon her in absolute possession, while a commensurate -income was secured to her to render -her wholly independent in the future of any -whim or will of his own.</p> - -<p>‘He is really very generous,’ said the -Duchesse to herself. ‘But what perplexes me -is, he is not in love; not the very least in love! -If he were, one would understand it all. But -he is not in the very slightest degree <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">amouraché</i>; -not half as much as Alain is.’</p> - -<p>But she was heedful that no suggestion of -this fact, which her observation made clear to -her, should escape her before Yseulte or anyone -else. If he were not in love, yet still wished to -marry, it was his own affair; and she was not -his keeper.</p> - -<p>To Yseulte, it was absolute shame to find -that she was regarded by all who approached -her as having done something clever, won -something enviable in the lottery of life. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> -vague distress weighed on her before the -motives which she felt were attributed to her.</p> - -<p>When her cousin said to her, ‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Fillette</i>, you -were really very audacious when you went -to gather those flowers at S. Pharamond. But -audacity succeeds—Voltaire and Napoléon were -right,’ she could have wept with humiliation -and indignation.</p> - -<p>‘Perhaps he thinks as badly of me, too!’ -she thought, in that perplexity which had never -ceased, since his gift of the ivory casket, to torment -her.</p> - -<p>‘There is storm in the air,’ said the Duc once -to his wife; ‘Othmar will be like one of those -magicians who used to raise a force that they -could neither guide nor quell. He is making a -child worship him, and forgetting that he will -make her a woman, and that then she will -not be satisfied with being hung about with -trinkets, and set ankle-deep in gold like an -Indian goddess. I am quite sure that this -marriage, which pleases you all so much, will -be a very unhappy one—some day.’</p> - -<p>‘You think what you wish—all men do,’ said -his wife. ‘I have not a doubt that it will be -perfectly happy—as happy as any marriage is,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> -that is to say. She will adore him; men like -to be adored. You can only get that from somebody -very young. He will never say an unkind -word to her, and he will never object, however -much she may spend. If she cannot be content -with that——’</p> - -<p>The Duc laughed derisively.</p> - -<p>‘Gold! gold! gold! That is the joy of the -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">cabotine</i>, not of Yseulte de Valogne. What -she will want will be love, and he will not give -it her. With all deference to you, I see the -materials for a very sombre poem in your -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">épopée</i>.’</p> - -<p>‘I repeat, your wish is father to your -thought. On the theatres women do rebel, and -stab themselves, or other people, but in real life -they are very much more pliable. In a year’s -time she will not care in the least about Othmar -himself, but she will have grown to like the -world and the life that she leads in it. She -will have learnt to amuse herself; she will not -fret if he pass his time elsewhere——’</p> - -<p>‘You are entirely wrong,’ said de Vannes, -with irritation. ‘She is a child now, but in a -few weeks she will be a woman. Then he will -find that you cannot light a fire on grass and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> -leave the earth unscorched. She has the blood -of Gui de Valogne. She will not be a saint -always. If she find herself neglected, she will -not forgive it when she shall understand what -it means. If he be her lover after marriage, all -may be well; I do not say the contrary. But -if he neglect her then, as he neglects her -now——’</p> - -<p>‘Pray, do not put such follies into her head. -Neglected! When not a day passes that he -does not send her the most marvellous presents, -does not empty on her half the jewellers’ cases -out of Europe and Asia.’</p> - -<p>‘He makes up in jewels what he wants in -warmth,’ said Alain de Vannes. ‘At present -she is a baby, a little saint, an innocent; as -ignorant as her ivory Madonna; but in six -months’ time she will be very different. She -will know that she belongs to a man who does -not care for her; she will want all that he -does not give her; she will be like a rich red -rose opening where all is ice——’</p> - -<p>‘You go to the theatres till you get melodramatic,’ -said his wife, with contempt. ‘I do -not believe she will ever have any passions at -all; she will always be the ivory saint.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p> - -<p>Alain de Vannes laughed grimly.</p> - -<p>‘Women who are beautiful and have good -health are never saints,’ he said, ‘and saints are -not married at sixteen.’</p> - -<p>‘Françoise Romaine was,’ said his wife, -who always had the last word in any discussion.</p> - -<p>Othmar was more restless than he had ever -been in his life, more dissatisfied, and more impatient -of fate. Yet he was not sure that he -would have undone what he had done, even if -honour would have allowed him.</p> - -<p>The tenderness which Yseulte had awakened -in him, though it could not compete with the -passion another had aroused in him, made him -feel a charm in her presence, a solace in her -youthfulness. The restrictions imposed on their -intercourse sustained the mystic spiritual grace -which the young girl had in his eyes, and it -prevented any possible chance of disillusion or -of fatigue on his part. Hers was really the -virginal purity, as of a white rosebud which -has blossomed in the shade. He was not insensible -to its beauty, even whilst a beauty of -another kind had fuller empire upon him. He -had done an unwise thing, but he said to him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>self -continually, ‘At least I have made one innocent -creature happy, and surely I shall be -able to continue to do so; she can hardly be -more difficult to content than a dove or a fawn.’</p> - -<p>He forgot, as so many men do forget, that -in this life, which seemed to him like the dove’s, -like the fawn’s, there would be all the latent -ardours of womanhood; that in the folded -rosebud there was the rose-tinted heart, in -which the bee would sting. They met at ceremonies, -banquets, great family réunions, solemn -festivities, in which all the Faubourg took part. -She was intensely, exquisitely, happy when she -was conscious that he was near her, but she -was as silent as a statue and as timid as a -bird when he looked at her or addressed her. -Every day, every hour, was increasing what -was to become the one absorbing passion of -her life, but he was too indifferent, or too -engrossed by other thoughts, to note the -growth of this innocent love. Alain de Vannes -saw much more of it than he.</p> - -<p>She had the spiritual loveliness for him -which S. Cecilia had in the eyes of the Roman -centurion who wedded with her; a more delicate -and more ethereal charm than that which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> -only springs from the provocation of the senses. -A caress to her seemed almost a profanity: to -disturb her innocent soul with the grossness of -earthly love seemed like a sort of sacrilege.</p> - -<p>The whole of this time was a period of -restless doubt with him, and the sense that he -had not been honest with her rebuked him -whenever he met the timid worship of her -wistful eyes. He thought, ‘She would not give -herself to me, if she knew!’</p> - -<p>He was impatient to have all the tumult -and folly which precede a great marriage over -and done with. Every detail annoyed him; -every formula irritated him.</p> - -<p>‘All I entreat is, that there may be no -delay,’ he said so often to her cousin, that -Madame de Vannes ended in believing that -he must be much more enamoured than his -manner had betokened, and said with amusement -to her husband:</p> - -<p>‘It has often been disputed whether a man -can be in love with two persons at one time: -Othmar is so, unquestionably. It is like the -bud and the fruit on the same bough of -camellia.’</p> - -<p>‘It is to be hoped that when the bud is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> -flower the fruit will fall,’ said de Vannes, with -a grim smile.</p> - -<p>‘You are not sincere when you say that,’ -said the Duchesse, ‘and you know that both -always fall—after a time.’</p> - -<p>‘A law of nature,’ said her husband. ‘And -it is a law of nature also that others come in -their place.’</p> - -<p>‘My dear friend,’ said Aurore de Vannes, -with good-natured contempt, ‘when Yseulte -shall have followed the laws of nature in that -way, believe me, it is not you who will profit -by them. You were good-looking ten years -ago—or more—but absinthe and bacarat does -not improve the looks after five-and-twenty, and -you have crow’s-feet already, and will soon -have to dye your hair if you wish still to look -young. Yseulte will never think of you except -as a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vieux cousin</i> who was kind enough to give -her a locket—if she will even do that when she -has got all the diamonds that she will get as -Countess Othmar.’</p> - -<p>Meantime, Othmar himself was constantly -saying to the Duchesse:</p> - -<p>‘I put myself completely in your hands; -only, all I beseech of you, Madame, is not to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> -delay my marriage longer than you are absolutely -obliged.’</p> - -<p>‘He does not say his happiness,’ thought -Madame de Vannes, as she said aloud, ‘Well, -what will seem terrible to you? I think I -ought to exact a delay of at least six months. -She is so very young.’</p> - -<p>‘It is her youth that is delightful to me,’ he -replied abruptly. ‘I am old enough to need -its charm. I should be glad if you would consent -to our nuptials very soon—say within a -fortnight. I have already instructed my solicitors -to meet you and to make whatever settlements -you and the Duc de Vannes may desire -upon Mademoiselle de Valogne.’</p> - -<p>‘What! carte blanche?’ thought Cri-Cri, -with a wonder which she took care to conceal, -whilst she objected that such speed as he desired -was impossible, was quite unheard of, would be -indecorous: there were so many things to be -done; but in the end she relented, consented to -name that day month, and reflected that he -should pay for his haste in the marriage contract. -It would make no difference to herself -whether he settled ten millions or ten pence -on her young cousin, but it seemed to her that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> -she was not doing her duty unless, in condescending -to ally herself with la Finance, she -did not shear its golden fleeces unscrupulously.</p> - -<p>In her own mind she reflected that it was -as well the marriage should take place speedily, -for she perceived that his heart was not much -in it. She divined that some alien motive -actuated him in his desire for it, and she would -have regretted if any breach had occurred to -prevent it; for, although she professed to her -intimate friends that she disliked the alliance -excessively, she was nevertheless very gratified -at her own relative having borne off such a -great prize as Othmar. One never knew either -how useful such a connection as his might not -become.</p> - -<p>‘I would never have let her marry into -the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Juiverie</i>,’ she said to her husband. ‘But -Othmar is quite different; his mother was an -English duke’s daughter, his grandmother was a -de Soissons-Valette, he has really good blood.’</p> - -<p>‘And besides that,’ said de Vannes savagely, -‘he is a man whom all Europe has sighed to -marry ever since he came of age. Why do -you talk such nonsense to me? It is waste of -good acting!’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘As you wasted your medallion,’ said his -wife, with a malicious enjoyment. ‘If she had -taken the veil, you would have been quite -capable of eloping with her, the very infamy of -the action would have delighted you. But -Othmar will certainly not let you make love to -his wife; he is just the sort of man to be -jealous.’</p> - -<p>‘Of Nadine Napraxine, not of his own -wife!’ said de Vannes, with an angry laugh. -‘Marry them quickly, while he is in the mind, -and before Madame Napraxine can spoil the -thing. In six months’ time he will return to -her, but that will not matter; our little cousin -will be Countess Othmar, and will probably -learn to console herself.’</p> - -<p>‘You are not hopeless?’ said his wife, -much amused. ‘Well, I do not think with -you. I believe that Nadine Napraxine has -never been anything to Othmar; that the child, -on the contrary, is passionately in love with -him; and that the marriage will be a very -happy one.’</p> - -<p>Alain de Vannes shrugged his shoulders. -He was very angry that the matter had turned -out as it had done; the more angry that it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> -wholly impossible for him to display or to -express his discomfiture, and that he was compelled -to be amiable to Othmar and to all the -world in relation to it, and bear himself before -everyone as the friend and guardian of his -wife’s cousin. His fancy for her had been a -caprice rather than anything stronger, but it -was resentful in its disappointment and impotence, -and might even be capable of some -vengeance.</p> - -<p>Faïel had left sweet, solemn memories with -the girl: the green gloom of the fern-brakes -and the wooded lanes, the soft grey summers, -and the evenings with their mysterious silvery -shadows; the silent corridors, the tolling bells, -the altars with their white lilies, the pathetic -monotonous voices of the nuns—all were blent -together in her recollection into a picture full -of holiness and calm. Now that she knew -what the gipsy woman had meant, she wished -to be there for a little while to muse upon her -vast happiness, her wondrous future, and consecrate -them both.</p> - -<p>She asked for, and obtained, permission to -go to her old convent in retreat for the two -weeks before her marriage. Madame de Vannes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> -was inclined to refuse what she regarded as -excessive and eccentric, but Othmar obtained -her consent.</p> - -<p>It pleased him that she should pass her -time before her marriage with the holy women -who had trained her childhood; it was not so -that Nadine Napraxine had spent the weeks -preceding her soulless union.</p> - -<p>‘You wish not to see her for two whole -weeks?’ said the Duchesse, suspiciously.</p> - -<p>‘I wish her to do always what she wishes,’ -he answered.</p> - -<p>‘She will be a very happy woman then,’ -said Cri-Cri, drily.</p> - -<p>He added, with a little hesitation: ‘It is -her unlikeness to the world, her spirituality, -which has charmed me; I wish her to retain -them.’</p> - -<p>‘It will be difficult,’ said the Duchesse, with -a laugh. ‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Fillette</i>,’ she said with amusement -to her young cousin, ‘I do not know why you -are so very solemn about it all; I assure you -the soul has very little to do with marriage, as -you will find out soon enough. Why should -you go in retreat as if you were about to enter -religion?’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> - -<p>Yseulte coloured; she answered timidly: -‘I am forgetting God; it is ungrateful; I am -too happy; I mean—I grow selfish, I want to -be quiet a little while to remember——’</p> - -<p>The Duchesse laughed, much amused: -‘ You ought decidedly to have taken the veil; -you will be a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">religieuse manquée</i>! At your age -I thought of nothing but of my balls and my -bouquets, and of the costumes they gave me, -and of the officers of the Guides—Alain was in -the Guides, he was very good-looking at that -time. I must say Othmar and you are like no -lovers in the world that I have ever known.’</p> - -<p>However, she gave her permission, and -Yseulte went to the ancient stonebuilt fortress-like -house of Faïel, where the quiet corridors -were filled with the smell of dried herbs from -the nuns’ distillery and the little grey figures of -the children played noiselessly under the leafless -chestnut avenues of the tranquil gardens.</p> - -<p>It was all so welcome to her after the -babble of Blanchette, the tumult of congratulation, -the succession of compliments, the perpetual -sense of being exhibited and examined, discussed -and depreciated; but it did not change -her thoughts very much, for even in her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> -prayers her wondrous change of fate always -seemed with her, and she found that even -amongst her pious and unworldly Dames de -Ste. Anne the betrothed of Count Othmar was -received as a very different being to the dowerless -Yseulte de Valogne; and something of -that bitterness which so often came to her -lover reached her through all her guilelessness. -Even Nicole, also, embracing her with ardour -and tenderness, with the tears running down -her brown cheeks, and pleading for the right -to send her <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pétiote</i> the orange-blossoms and -the lilies-of-the-valley for her bridal-dress, yet -amidst her joyful tears and tearful joy had -not forgotten to whisper: ‘And, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">dis donc, ma -mignonne</i>, you will say a word now to the -Count Othmar to get my husband the municipal -concession to put up the steam mill? It will -make our fortune, my angel, and I know what -a happiness that will be to you!’</p> - -<p>‘A fortune! Money, money! It seems -all they think of in the world!’ the child -reflected sadly. ‘What can Nicole and Sandroz -want with more money? They are very -well off, and they have no children, no relations -even; and yet all they think about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> -is laying by one napoleon on the top of -another! It is horrible! Even the Mother -Superior has never said to me how good he -is, how kind, how generous; she only says that -I am fortunate because he is so rich! They -make me feel quite wicked. I want to tell -them how mean they are! Why am I so -much better and greater in their sight because -I am going to become rich too? I thought -they cared for none of those things. But our -Reverend Mother asks me for a new altar -service as Blanchette asked me for a turquoise -necklace! I understand why he is always a -little sad. He thinks no one cares for him, for -himself.’</p> - -<p>And, after many days and nights of most -anxious thought and most entreating prayer, -she gathered up all her courage and wrote a -little letter to Othmar, the only one which she -had ever addressed to him; she was afraid it -was a strange thing to do, and one perhaps -unmaidenly, but she could not resist her longing -to say that one thing to him, and so she -wrote:</p> - -<p>‘Monsieur,—I do not know whether I -ought to say it, and I hope you will forgive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> -me if it be wrong to say so, but I have thought -often since I hear and see so much of your -great wealth that perhaps—perhaps—you may -imagine it is that which I care for; but indeed -I do not; if you were quite poor, very poor -to-morrow, it would be just the same to me, -and I should be just as happy. I do pray you -to believe this.</p> - -<p> -‘Yours, in affection and reverence,<br /> -’<span class="smcap">Yseulte</span>.’ <br /> -</p> - -<p>She had hesitated very long before she -ventured to sign herself so, but in the end it -seemed to her that it could not be very -wrong as it stood: she owed him both affection -and reverence—even the Mother Superior -herself would say so.</p> - -<p>She enclosed the little note in a letter to -her cousin the Duchesse, knowing that otherwise -it would not be allowed to pass the convent -walls. When Madame de Vannes received it -she looked at it with suspicion.</p> - -<p>‘If it should be any nonsense about Nadine -Napraxine?’ she thought with alarm; ‘if it -should be any folly that would break the marriage?’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p> - -<p>She decided that it would be unwise to -send it to Othmar without knowing what it -said, so she broke the little seal very carefully -and read it. Something in it touched her as -she perused the simple words, written so evidently -with a hand which trembled and a heart -that was full. She sealed it again and despatched -it to its destination. ‘Poor little simpleton,’ -she thought, ‘why did she take the -trouble to say that? She will not make him -believe it!’</p> - -<p>But he did believe it.</p> - -<p>It was because she made the belief possible -to him that the child had seemed to him like -a young angel who brought healing on her -wings; and the love which did not venture to -avow itself, but yet was visible in every one -of these timid sentences, went to his heart with -sweetness and unconscious reproach. He wrote -back to her:</p> - -<p>‘I believe you, and I thank you. You give -me what the world cannot give nor command.’</p> - -<p>And he added words of tenderness which, -if they would have seemed cold to an older or -a less innocent recipient, wholly contented her, -and seemed to her like a breath from heaven.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p> - -<p>The fortnight soon passed, and after its quiet -days at Faïel, filled with the sounds so familiar -to her of the drowsy bells, the rolling organ -swell, the plaintive monotonous chaunts and -prayers, the pacing of slow steps up and down -long stone passages, the grinding of the winch -of the great well in the square court, she felt -calmed and strengthened, and not afraid when -the Mother Superior spoke of all the responsibilities -of her future.</p> - -<p>To her, marriage was a mystic, spiritual -union; all she knew of it was gathered from -the expressions borrowed from it to symbolise -the union of Christ and His saints. She went -to it with as religious and innocent a faith as -she would have taken with her to the cloister -had they sent her there. If any human creature -can be as pure as snow, a very young girl who -has been reared by simple and pious women -is so. Even the Duchesse de Vannes felt a -vague emotion before that absolute ignorance -of the senses and of the passions of life.</p> - -<p>‘It is stupid,’ she said to herself. ‘But it -is lovely in its way. I can fancy a man likes -to destroy it—slowly, cruelly—just as a boy -pulls off butterflies’ wings.’</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>The first days of February came all too soon -for the vague fears of Yseulte, which throbbed -in her as the heart beats in a bird which feels a -captor’s hand approaching. All the ridicule of -Blanchette and Toinon, all the good-natured -banter of their mother, and all the endless -congratulations of society which rained on her -like the almond blossoms which were falling in -showers in the wind, could not make her otherwise -than bewildered and alarmed, and as the -time of her marriage drew closer and closer her -terror almost obscured her happiness. No one -would have believed in it; everyone, had they -known the secrets of her shy and silent mind, -would have laughed at it as hypocrisy; but -with her it was most real.</p> - -<p>Away from Othmar, she adored him; but -near him, she dreaded him as a stranger who -was about to lead her into the strangest and -most terrible mysteries of life. But time stays<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> -not for the sinking or the fluttering of any -poor human heart, and they brought her from -the dim, cold, misty Breton country back into -the gay and crowded world of Paris; and the -great rooms of her cousin’s house, filled by -brilliant throngs for the signing of the contract, -brought home to her the inexorable fact -that her marriage would itself take place in -another forty-eight hours.</p> - -<p>‘You are so pale, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fillette</i>!’ said the Duchesse -in some impatience. ‘One would think that -we were forcing your inclinations!’</p> - -<p>Yseulte said nothing; she could not have -explained the tumult of agitation which was -in her. She was marvellously happy; and -yet——</p> - -<p>A lover who had loved her would have -divined and penetrated all those mingled -emotions, which were unintelligible to herself; -but Othmar was too <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">distrait</i> and too absorbed -in thought, wherein she had no share, to do so. -Though she was the centre of the world around -her for the moment, the child remained in an -absolute solitude.</p> - -<p>Friederich Othmar, studying her with his -exquisite power of penetration, alone perceived<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> -her trouble, and thought with pleasure: ‘The -poets are not quite the fools I deemed them; -there <em>is</em> such a thing as a virginal soul in which -the senses do not speak, and to which the gewgaws -of the world say nothing either. I should -never have believed that, but I see it. He has -found a pearl, but he will not care for it. He -will absorb it into the acid of his own disappointed -passions, and then will be surprised -if it disappear.’</p> - -<p>If he had been told a month earlier that he -would have had such sentimental regrets, he -would have been wholly incredulous, but something -in the sight of the young girl, in her innocent -gravity, with her wistful, changeful eyes, -touched him, as she stood by the table where -the marriage contract was signed. She seemed -to him too good to be wedded with indifference, -taught the fever of passion, the suffering -of maternity, and then be forsaken—as she -would be.</p> - -<p>‘I am glad that I did not meet her, or one -like her, thirty years ago; she would have -unnerved me,’ he thought, as he stooped and -wrote his own name.</p> - -<p>Amongst the nuptial gifts had been one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> -great value from the Princess Napraxine. It -was a gold statuette of Love, modelled by -Mercié and standing on a base of jade and -agate. It had all the cruelty and irony of the -modern Italian school in it, for the poor Amorino -was trying to drink out of a gourd which was -empty, and the expression of his disappointed, -distressed, pathetic features was rendered with -admirable mockery and skill. He turned his -sad eyes ruefully on those who looked at him; -some withered passion-flowers and a little asp -were near his feet. When Othmar saw it, his -face darkened; he thought it a jest at himself, -nor had the giver selected it without intention. -Behind the gold Amorino he seemed to see her -smiling, serene, jewel-like eyes, her delicate, -contemptuous mouth, which said: ‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Va donc! -C’est le vieux jeu!</i>’</p> - -<p>‘The only woman that I shall ever love!’ -he thought with a thrill of remorse, of shame, -and of anger, all in one.</p> - -<p>What right had he, while his veins were -hot with those unholy fires, to simulate love -for an innocent and virgin life?</p> - -<p>The morning came for which Blanchette and -Toinon had been longing for a month; and clothed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> -in palest blue velvet, carrying white bouquets as -large as themselves, they wore at their throats -the new diamond lockets of their ambition, -with the miniature of their cousin within each, -for which they cared nothing at all. But the -diamonds were as large and as numerous as -ever their hearts could desire. ‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Vrai! Il est -bon prince!</i>’ they cried in chorus, as they -skipped round each other, and made the sun -sparkle in the jewels, and sang the song of -Judic.</p> - -<p>Then they went to the church of S. Philippe -du Roule, and made their little naughty faces -as grave as mice that see a cat, while the -incense rose and the organ pealed, and the -Latin words rolled out sonorously, and the pale -wintry sunshine shone over the brilliant crowd -assembled there for the marriage.</p> - -<p>Yseulte herself looked like a slender white -lily.</p> - -<p>The deep peace and serenity of her convent -days had come there with her; certain -instincts of her race kept her still and composed -with the eyes of so many strangers upon her; a -dignity that was exquisitely graceful blended -with her childish air; she looked like some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> -young princess of the Valois time, such as -poets and painters still see in their dreams.</p> - -<p>One of those special trains which Blanchette -thought the supreme privilege of marriage bore -them without a pause through the wintry landscapes -between Paris and Blois.</p> - -<p>The day was fine and windless; there was -a scent of spring which breathed through the -leafless poplars and willows, and over the frosted -fields and vineyards, with sweet, vague promise; -here and there burst in to sight, out from a -forest glade beside some château, some gaily-clad -hunting party, the last of the season; ever -and anon there was some little town, with its -old ruined castle, or its monastic church, shut -in, in leafless orchards. The broad river glistened -in the light under the burden of its many -islands, its breaking blocks of ice drifting on -turbid green waters, its flood of mud and melted -snow rolling heavily beneath the colliers and -the merchant craft, which made their way -slowly against the floes. In the drear blackened -vineyards, peasants, like pictures by Millet, -were at work; sometimes a woman with faggots -on her bowed shoulders straightened herself to -watch the swiftness of the train, or a blue<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>frocked -herd-boy stopped his cattle at a crossing.</p> - -<p>All these pictures passed before the eyes of -Yseulte like the panorama of a dream: the -early morning hours had been one long bewilderment -to her; though she had carried -herself so bravely, her heart had beaten all -the while like a caught bird’s: even now the -scent of the incense, the waves of sound from -the organ, the sonorous voice of the great prelate -in its admonitions, seemed to come with -her into the still, brown, fresh country; the -sense of some infinite and solemn obligation, -accepted and irrevocable, was upon her.</p> - -<p>They had left Paris immediately after the -ceremony; and the evening sun was glowing -in the west and lighting the pastoral country -with its leafless woods and glancing rivers as -they reached the château.</p> - -<p>Amyôt was a place of great beauty and -stateliness; it had been built for François -Premier, and had the salamander and the -crown carved on its stones and blazoned on -its metal work; it was surrounded by water -like Chenonceaux, and in the sunset-glow its -pinnacles and towers and high steep roof<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> -gleamed as if made of gold; it stood on a hill -amidst great woods, overlooking the fruitful -valleys and fertile plains which lie between the -Loire and Cher, and in its gardens all the art -that modern horticulture can boast was united -to the stately avenues, the close-shorn turf, the -long grey stone terraces with the motto of the -Valois and the fleur-de-lis of France carved upon -their pilasters, which had in their day seen -the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mignons</i> of Henri II., and felt the feet of -Diane de Poitiers and of Mary Stuart.</p> - -<p>Amyôt was a poem, epic and epopee -in one; she had never seen it before; she -gazed at it with entranced eyes, glad that her -home would be in such a place; then she -looked timidly at Othmar.</p> - -<p>He was not looking at her.</p> - -<p>She sighed, hardly knowing why, but with -a vague sense of neglect and disappointment. -She was in a trance of mingled joy and dread. -She saw the dusky avenue of yews through -which they passed, the long lines of majestic -terraces, the sheets of glancing water, the -masses of camellias and azaleas, brought from -the hothouses to make the wintry gardens -bloom for that momentous hour, the vast fan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>tastic -solemn pile towering up against the -evening skies. She saw them all as in a dream; -she was wondering wistfully in her ignorance -whether it were possible that she had offended -him, or possible that already he regretted what -he had done. She shrank a little from him, -and sat quite silent as their carriage rolled -under the great stone gateway.</p> - -<p>There had been enough in his caresses, in -his words, as they had come thither, to startle -her innocent ignorance into some sense of the -meaning and the demands of love, but they had -left her dimly alarmed and troubled, as before -some great mystery, and he had soon grown -abstracted, almost indifferent, and had abandoned -himself to his own thoughts.</p> - -<p>Amyôt even in its winter silence and -sombreness, was a place where lovers could -well forget the world; yews and bay trees made -perpetual verdure around its lawns, and orangeries -and palm-houses made ceaseless summer -within its walls; in its halls and galleries old -tapestries and Eastern hangings muffled every -sound and excluded every draught; and in the -warm air of its chambers, ceiled with cedar-wood, -embossed with the salamander, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> -‘F.’ in solid gold, and having embayed windows, -all looking straightway south over the Loire -water, the winter’s landscape, seen through -its painted casements, was but as a decorative -scene set there for the strong charm of contrast.</p> - -<p>They passed through the ranks of the -bowing servants, and remained at last alone in -the great suite of drawing-rooms, whose oriel -windows all looked southward. They were -rooms hung with pale satins, still ceiled with -cedar, and keeping the Valois crown and arms -upon their gilded carvings and lofty archways. -They preserved the style and charm of the age -which had begotten them. She was in harmony -with them as she moved there, the dull red light -which preceded evening falling through the -painted panes on the dove-hued velvet and -dusky furs of her travelling-gown, and touching -the light gold of her fair hair coiled in a great -knot above her throat.</p> - -<p>He, when his servants had retired, kissed -her hand with a ceremony which seemed, even -to her innocence, very cold.</p> - -<p>‘You are at home,’ he said gently. ‘Here -it will be for you to command, for all to obey.’</p> - -<p>She stood before him in one of the em<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>brasures -of the windows; the cream-hued -velvet of her travelling-dress trimmed with -sable, caught the rays of the setting sun.</p> - -<p>‘You are châtelaine of Amyôt,’ he added, -with a smile. ‘Here I shall be but the first -of your servants.’</p> - -<p>The words were gracious, and even tender, -but they touched her with a sense of chillness; -she felt, without knowing why she felt -it, that it was not with this courteous ceremony -that he would have welcomed her if he -had loved her—much.</p> - -<p>She said nothing, though she coloured a -little as he kissed her hands.</p> - -<p>She moved to one of the great windows -and looked out a little wistfully towards the -rolling waters, the deep, dark brown forests -with their purple shadows. The dim afternoon -light spread over the landscape without, and -through the gorgeous and majestic chambers, -which had once heard the love words of -the Valois. She had laid her hat down on a -table near, the lingering glow of the dying -day fell on her white throat, on her cheek -with its changing colour, on the knot of orange -blossom fastened amongst the lace at her breast;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> -she thrilled through all her nerves as she -suddenly realised that she was altogether his, -to be used as he chose, never to be apart from -him unless by his wish.</p> - -<p>She gazed at the scene around her, troubled, -perplexed, wistfully, vaguely alarmed, afraid -she knew not of what; whilst he watched her -with a certain futile anger against himself that -her loveliness did not excite him and content -him more, a remorseful sense that he was not -the lover she merited and should have won.</p> - -<p>A sort of self-reproach moved him as he -looked at her in her innocence, which seemed -too holy a thing to be profaned by the grossness -of sensual approach—on the morrow she -would not look at him with those serene, childlike -eyes.</p> - -<p>It seemed to him almost cruel to rouse that -perfect innocence from its unsuspicious repose.</p> - -<p>Before he could speak again she had turned -towards him; her lips trembled a little as she -gathered her courage and said aloud what had -been in her thoughts all the day through.</p> - -<p>‘It will be for me to obey,’ she murmured, -with the colour deepening in her cheeks. ‘And -I will do it always, so gladly: but would you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> -tell me one thing: did you—I mean—if you -had not cared for me a little, surely you would -never have wished——?’</p> - -<p>She paused, overcome by the sense of her -own hardihood, and her eyes filled with tears; -she longed to say to him, ‘Instead of all your -jewels, instead of all this luxury, give me one -fond word,’ but her timidity and her modesty -would not let her lips frame the supplication. -He was still as a stranger to her—a man whom -she had seen scarce a dozen times.</p> - -<p>The question in its timid commencement had -said enough: his conscience shrank from it; -he had always dreaded the moment inevitable -of the fatal—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - - <p>‘If this be love, tell me how much.’</p> - -</div> - -<p>‘Would you tell me?’ she repeated very -low, then paused with an overwhelming sense -of her own hardihood and great immodesty.</p> - -<p>She made a beautiful picture as she stood -before him; the cream-hued satin falling about -her, the warm cedar-wood panels behind her, -the red light of the sunset shed like a glory -upon her head and shining about her feet.</p> - -<p>‘Who would not love you, dear?’ he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> -murmured, with a hesitation of which her own -confusion spared her from being conscious. -‘Never doubt my affection. I have not been -as happy as the world thinks me, but if I -be not happy beside you, fate will indeed find -me thankless.’</p> - -<p>Nor was it altogether untrue; she looked -infinitely lovely to him in that moment, with -the tears shining in her upraised eyes, and the -blue veins of her throat swelling where the -orange flowers touched them; and all this was -his—his as wholly as the budding primrose in -the woods is the child’s that finds it and may -pluck and rifle it at will.</p> - -<p>An emotion that was more nearly passion -than he had hitherto felt for her moved him -as he looked on her.</p> - -<p>With a sudden impulse of the joy and -mastery of possession, warmer and more eager -than any she had roused in him before, he -took her in his arms and kissed her throat -where the orange flowers were fastened, and, -with a tender touch, unloosed them.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>‘Othmar <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">filant le parfait amour</i> while he -gathers wet violets under his Valois woods, is a -truly admirable idyl!’ said the Princess Napraxine, -with her unkind little smile, a month -later, while her eyes, from under an umbrella -covered with old point duchesse, went indolently -from the shining sea upon her right -to the romantic gorge leading up to distant -peaks of snow, which could be seen on -her left through boughs of eucalyptus and -mimosa. She was seated on the white -terraces of a famous villa, crowning a promontory -which carried luxuriant and fantastic -gardens far out into the lazy blue water, across -whose then smiling plains of azure light it -looked straight southward to the cloud which -was Corsica. It was the villa of another Russian -magnate, Prince Ezarhédine, with whom -there was at that time staying a mighty statesman -at whose nod or frown Europe breathed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> -lightly or held her breath; and under the guise -of a breakfast there was an informal conference -of diplomatists at his house that day.</p> - -<p>Friederich Othmar was staying at S. Pharamond -for two days to meet the great Russian, -and conduct, over a cigarette and a glass of -kümmel, one of those delicate and intricate -negotiations in which finance and diplomacy -had equal parts, and which were the delight of -his soul, and made the special fame of the -House of Othmar.</p> - -<p>The great statesman was a charming person, -Oriental in morals, Athenian in mind, and -French in manners; and Nadine Napraxine, -who so seldom could be persuaded to go anywhere, -had deigned to come and breakfast -with him there and allow him to recall her -childhood.</p> - -<p>‘You would never give me a smile,’ he said -to her. ‘At five years old you were as cruel -as you are now. I remember taking you what -I thought an irresistible bribe; a gardener in -Saxe driving a wheelbarrow of bonbons. -But you just looked at it—smileless—and said -cruelly, “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Merci, Monsieur—mais j’en ai tant!</i>” -You were five years old then.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘“<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Tant</i>” and “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">trop</i>” are the spoilers of our -existence,’ she replied. ‘I remember as a child -I never cared for bonbons; I used to say that -if they hung up where the church bells were, -and one could not get them, one would -care——’</p> - -<p>‘My intention was good,’ said the great -man piteously; ‘you might have smiled on me -for that.’</p> - -<p>‘That would have been very commonplace, -everybody is amiable in that kind of way; I -am not amiable, they say, and yet I am never -out of temper—which seems to me the first requisite -for amiability.’</p> - -<p>‘Serenity is unkind when it means indifference.’</p> - -<p>‘But indifference is so comfortable to the -indifferent!’ she had replied, and the reply -admitted of no refutation.</p> - -<p>Now, when the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">déjeuner</i>, which had been -the pretext and cover of the morning’s informal -but pregnant discussion, was over, and she was -about to go to her carriage, she had smiled -with gentle condescension on the Baron, and -asked him the tidings of Amyôt. Friederich -Othmar, in his answers, had been incautiously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> -and unusually enthusiastic in the hearing of -a person who to all enthusiasm was merciless; -the more merciless, because in a far-down and -never-investigated corner of her own nature she -was a little conscious that she also could have -been enthusiastic—if it had been worth while.</p> - -<p>She had laughed a little unkindly, and had -made the remark about the wet violets; the -Baron, slightly irritated and considerably in -earnest, had replied, that to gather violets with -your own wife was less exciting, but perhaps -sweeter, and certainly wiser, than to purchase -orchids for the wife of someone else.</p> - -<p>‘A most moral opinion, turned with classic -elegance, and quite indisputable,’ said Madame -Napraxine, with much amusement. ‘And -orchids are so short-lived! Do you think home-grown -violets live longer? Dear Baron, I am -so glad to see you so pleased, and so poetical; -Napoleon’s desire for an heir made him quite -brutal; your desire for your nephew’s heir -makes you quite full of pretty sentiment. Pray -go on, you interest me! it is as if one heard -Bismarck playing a guitar!’</p> - -<p>‘Like Napoleon, I dislike <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">les amours -stériles</i>,’ replied Friederich Othmar, with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> -smile. ‘My nephew was in danger of letting -his life drift away in a dream; I know no -means of recalling a man to the practical -happiness of existence so efficacious as a young -girl’s beauty.’</p> - -<p>‘You are very primitive in your ideas, dear -Baron, for a person who has lived all his life -in Paris,’ said the Princess Nadine, with her -little air of fatigue and of irony. She knew -very well what had been implied in his words, -and she resented them.</p> - -<p>‘Nature is primitive, Madame,’ said the -Baron. ‘But after all, we do not improve on -her, nor exclude her, do what we may.’</p> - -<p>‘You think not?’ said Madame Napraxine, -much amused. ‘Well, for my part, I have -never been able to discover that Nature is very -charming: if we attended to her, she would -make us eat with our fingers, fight with our -teeth, drink only water, and wear no clothes; -she would certainly, also, give Otho Othmar a -score of wives instead of one Sainte Mousseline. -Do not take to admiring Nature, Baron; she -will lead you astray. It is too late for you to -begin; no one after twenty can eat green fruit -with impunity.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘Sainte Mousseline!’ echoed the old man, -with more temper than prudence. ‘Surely that -epithet would not apply to Yseulte!’</p> - -<p>‘Of course not now,’ said Nadine, serenely. -‘Sainte Mousseline has given way to the nuptial -white satin. Only you spoke of Nature;—and -if I were you I would not wish for Nature -to prevail too much at Amyôt, for Nature has -a sad trick of being soon satisfied, and dissatisfied, -and disposed to change. You know -it is only the poets who invented Constancy, at -the same time that they created the Phœnix and -the Hippogriff.’</p> - -<p>‘If I thought he could be unfaithful to so -much youth and so much innocence——,’ began -the Baron, with some heat.</p> - -<p>‘He will not be so yet, at all events,’ said -Prince Ezarhédine. ‘Men are not quite so -fickle as Madame Nadine thinks.’</p> - -<p>‘Men are what women make them,’ she -replied, with her most contemptuous tranquillity. -‘ As a rule, they are always faithless to women -who love them. It is tiresome to be loved; -“<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">ça vous donne des nerfs</i>.” You get out of -temper and you go away; then silly people -say you are inconstant.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘You will admit that at least it seems very -like it,’ said Baron Fritz.</p> - -<p>The great statesman, standing near, looked -a little wistfully at her. He thought that he -would not have found it tiresome to be loved -by the wife of Napraxine.</p> - -<p>‘The Countess Othmar will be too young -to understand all that,’ continued Nadine. -‘ She will give too much of herself. She will -not have the first essential: <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">savoir se reprendre</i>. -Love is like all other fine arts—it should be -treated scientifically. Do you remember Sergius -Veriatine? He was devoted to the Princess -Platoff—my cousin Sophie. All at once he -broke with her. Some one asked him why he -did so. He answered honestly: “Un jour, elle -faisait la faute de me prier de rester quand je -voulais m’en aller.” Serge Veriatine put the -whole of male human nature into that sentence. -Othmar’s wife will be always begging him to -stay when he will want to go; she is so young. -She is, of course, in love with him; very much -in love with him; and she is so unhappily inexperienced -that she will be sure to tell him so -a hundred times a day. Now, however pretty -a story is, still when you hear it very often it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> -grows dull: you see she is beginning with an -immense mistake: Amyôt in the winter!’</p> - -<p>‘Amyôt is his choice as much as hers,’ said -Friederich Othmar. ‘You know he always -liked solitude. They will be in Paris in the -first days of April——’</p> - -<p>‘Two months, or to speak precisely, seven -weeks, of Amyôt in midwinter is precisely the -mistake that a very young girl would be sure -to make,’ continued his tormentor. ‘Amyôt -is a delightful place in its way; it is like a -page of Brantôme. I remember the admirable -hunting parties he gave there for the Orleans -princes. But all the same, seven whole weeks -of Amyôt in the rain of February and March -would damp any ardour that he might begin -with—do you think he began with very much? -What a pity there was no one to tell her that a -man is bored so soon! And Othmar is like -Chateaubriand; he is the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">grand ennuyé</i> just -because his ideals are so high that it is wholly -impossible to find anything like them anywhere. -I am quite sure that he has imagined in this -poor child an angel and a goddess; a kind of -Greek nymph and Christian virgin blent in one. -When he finds that she is only a child, who has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> -had the narrowest of all educations, and is not -even a woman in her comprehension or her -sympathies, he will be intolerably wearied. If -they were in the world, the disillusion might -be postponed; at Amyôt it must come in -two days.’</p> - -<p>‘You are very clever, Madame,’ said the -Baron with some irritation, ‘but even you may -perhaps for once be mistaken. She is very -young, as you say; but for that very reason -she will be like clay in his hands which he can -mould as he will.’</p> - -<p>‘If he take the trouble to model it at all,’ -said Nadine Napraxine. ‘If the sculptor do -not touch the clay, it lies in a lump neglected -till somebody else comes. She will not know, -I fear, how to tempt him to make anything of -her. Do you suppose they have taught her the -art of provocation in her Breton convent? She -will only sob aloud if he go away for an hour, -and be plunged into despair if his kisses be one -less in number. My dear Baron, you lost all -your wisdom when you failed to persuade -them to leave Amyôt. They say there is no -living woman who can be seen at sunrise after -a ball and keep her lover; I am sure there is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> -not one who can be shut up with a man for -two months in the country, in winter, and -retain his belief in her.’</p> - -<p>‘You are very learned in these matters,’ -said the Baron, more and more irritated, ‘and -yet everyone knows that the Princess Napraxine -has always herself despised all human affections!’</p> - -<p>‘It is not necessary to have sat in the midst -of a maelstrom to have studied the laws of -whirlpools,’ said his tormentor. ‘And what -have human affections to do with it? You -know as well as I do that humanity has only -caprices and passions, with their natural issue, -disillusions.’</p> - -<p>Friederich Othmar thought of the terrace at -Amyôt and the face of Yseulte.</p> - -<p>Walking with her a moment, alone, in the -afternoon sunshine, he had ventured on a word -of counsel.</p> - -<p>‘My dear child, you are very young. Let -an old man tell you something. Otho has one -serious malady; nay, do not look so alarmed, -it is only the malady of his generation—caprice -and ennui. He has not an idea that he is -capricious, but he is so. Do not let his caprices<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> -pain you; but, as far as you can, vary with his -varying moods; I think that is the secret of -sympathy. Just now it is high noon with you; -so there are no shadows; but shadows will fall. -I want you to understand that. Otho is not -perfect; in a way, he is very weak, though he -has more intellect than most men. Do not -make a god of him. You will only spoil him -and blind yourself.’</p> - -<p>And then she had looked at him with that -look which he recalled now as he sat by Nadine -Napraxine, and had said with a dignity of reproach -which had sat very prettily on her -youthfulness: ‘If he have faults, I shall never -see them—you maybe sure of that; and if you -will tell me how to please him, I will never -think of myself.’</p> - -<p>Remembering this, the Baron, who had -never in his life cared greatly for any woman or -believed much in one, felt a restless anger -against the prophetess of woe.</p> - -<p>‘When they predict fire they have already -laid the powder,’ he thought, impatiently.</p> - -<p>Friederich Othmar was surprised himself at -the feeling of affection and of anxiety which -Yseulte had aroused in him. He had wished<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> -Othmar to marry that the race might be continued, -but he had never supposed that any -young girl would fill him with the solicitude -for her own welfare which she made him feel -for hers.</p> - -<p>Women had always been <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">la femelle de -l’homme</i> with him; no more; he was astonished -at himself for being moved by a genuine -desire to secure for her those more subtle joys of -the soul which he had always derided. Before -her he felt ashamed of his own grosser convictions -(which a month before would have -been so confident) that she could want nothing -more than the riches her marriage conferred on -her. Though he had been a man of little feeling -he was not altogether without kindliness, -and his keen penetration told him that hers -was a nature which the glories and gewgaws -of the world would do very little to console if -its affections were starved or its higher instincts -humiliated, and the prophecies of Nadine Napraxine -but irritated him more because he -knew that her merciless intelligence was as a -seismographic pendulum which foretold truly -the convulsions of the future.</p> - -<p>‘Surely,’ she continued, ‘S. Pharamond<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> -would have been a more natural place to select -at this season. Amyôt is superb, but it must -be sunk fathoms deep in snow.’</p> - -<p>‘There is no snow; it was open weather, -and even mild,’ replied the Baron, who was -ready to declare that roses were blossoming in -the ditches of the Orleannais.</p> - -<p>‘But why did he not come to S. Pharamond? -It is a paradise of azaleas and tulips -at the present moment.’</p> - -<p>‘It is a pretty place,’ he answered; ‘but perhaps -more suggestive of Apates and Philotes -than of the true Eros.’</p> - -<p>‘The vicinity of the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">tripots</i> hardly accords -with the solemnity of Hymen? Do you mean -that?’ she said, with her enigmatical little -smile. ‘Who would ever have thought to -live to hear Baron Friederich mention Eros! -Well, we will hope that the god for once will -be like the Salamander which is emblazoned, -and carved so liberally, all over Amyôt. We -will hope the fire that feeds him may not go -out; but I am afraid the motto really means -that what nourishes extinguishes.’</p> - -<p>With that she rose and took herself and her -sunshade, with its point duchesse, and her mar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>vellous -gown with its cascades of lace and soft -pale hues, like tea roses, her provocative languor, -and her admirable grace, from the -terraces of the Prince Ezarhédine. She was -followed by longing eyes and a silence which -was the truest of compliments. To more than -one there, the sun had set whenever she had -passed from their sight.</p> - -<p>‘What makes the world of men so fanatic -about that woman?’ asked Friederich Othmar, -exhaling all the unspoken grievances of his own -soul in a rude grumble, as the sound of the -whirling wheels of her carriage died away. -‘Why? Why? There are numbers more -beautiful; few, perhaps, with so perfect a form, -yet there are some who equal her even in that. -She is as cruel as death, as cold as frost; no -one ever saw a flush on her cheek or a tear in -her eyes, and when she smiles it is like the -sirocco and the north wind blent together; and -yet there is no woman so blindly loved.’</p> - -<p>‘Yet!’ echoed Prince Ezarhédine. ‘Surely, -you should say “therefore.” The sirocco and -the north wind blent together are electric -shocks to the most sated senses.’</p> - -<p>‘Yes,’ added the great statesman who was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> -his guest, ‘and if it will not sound too pedantic, -I will add also why it is. She is to her lovers -very much what the worship of Isis became to -the Latins. She blends an infinite subtlety of -sentiment with an infinite potentiality of sensual -delight.’</p> - -<p>‘Sensual! She is as cold as snow——’</p> - -<p>‘I know; she has that sobriquet. But -every one feels what a paradise would lie -within if the snow were melted. Every -one hopes—more or less conscious or unconscious -of his hope—to pass that frosty barrier. -I think if Madame Napraxine ever loved any -man, she would make such a heaven for him -that he would be the most enviable of all -human beings. But it would only last a month; -perhaps six weeks. Although,’ he added, with -a faint sigh, ‘it would be worth losing all the -rest of life to be the companion of those six -weeks.’</p> - -<p>‘If I may differ with you, Prince, I would -say that, on the contrary, if ever Madame -Nadine can be touched to love she will be -most tenacious and most constant,’ said Ezarhédine.</p> - -<p>‘Perhaps too much so for the felicity of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> -the person whom she might honour,’ added the -Baron with a smile that was a little impertinent. -He had always disliked and dreaded her; she -had wasted two years of his nephew’s life, and -he shrewdly suspected that she was the cause of -Othmar’s too slight ardour towards his young -wife.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, the subject of their meditations -and desires was borne by her fleet horses over -the sea-road homeward to La Jacquemerille. -She felt astonished, irritated, offended at the -idyl of Amyôt. To have loved herself, and -then to be content shut up within the stone -walls of a country-house with a girl taken from -a convent!</p> - -<p>‘He is like Gilles de Retz,’ she thought, -with bitter disdain. ‘He takes the white flesh -of a child to try and cure his malady.’</p> - -<p>It seemed to her cowardly, sensual, contemptible.</p> - -<p>She drove homeward through the olives -and the lemon-yards and the green fields -that were full of anemones and narcissus and -of the bright gold and sea-shell hues of the -crocus. The grey towers of S. Pharamond -were on her left as she went, and beyond them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> -the fantastic pinnacles and gilded crockets of -Millo. She looked at them with an anger -foreign to her character.</p> - -<p>‘Who could have dreamed he would have -done so absurd a thing?’ she thought, irritated -against him and against herself. Never before -in her life had the actions of any other person -had the slightest effect upon her own feelings. -She had not lived very long, it is true, but -to herself she seemed to have an illimitable -experience; and within her memory there was -no record of any time in which she had cared -one straw what another did. That she should -care now, ever so slightly, irritated her pride -and wounded her delicacy. She was a woman -at all times truthful with herself, however it -might be her amusement to mislead others. -She was quite as cruel to herself as to anyone -else in her unrelenting and inquisitive mental -dissection. She pursued her self-analysis with -a mercilessness which, had she been less witty -and less worldly, might have been morbid; and -she did not disguise from herself now that the -tidings of Amyôt were an irritation if not a pain -to her. She did full justice to the loveliness -with which Othmar had sought to find oblivion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> -of her own; and she knew that it might very -well be that, as the Baron had said, he had -become the girl’s lover as well as her husband.</p> - -<p>‘Men are such poor creatures,’ she thought -with scorn. ‘They are all the slaves of their -senses; they have no character; they are only -animals. They talk of their souls, but they -have got none; and of their constancy, but -they are only constant to their own self-indulgence.’</p> - -<p>The contempt of a woman, in whom the -senses have never awakened, and for whom all -the grosser appetites have no attraction, for -those easy consolations which men can find in -the mere gratification of those appetites, is very -real and very unforgiving.</p> - -<p>Her scorn for Othmar, seeking forgetfulness -of herself in the fresh and budding life of a -child of sixteen, was equal to that which she -felt for Napraxine finding solace for her own -indifference in the purchasable charms of the -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">belles petites</i>; the one seemed as trivial to her -as the other. When men spoke of their -devotion, they only meant their own passions; -if these were denied, they sought refuge in mere -physical pleasures, which at all events partially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> -consoled them. She thought of him with increasing -intolerance. She answered only by -monosyllables to the remarks of her companions, -and her mind wandered away to that stately -place where life might well seem a love-lay of -the Renaissance.</p> - -<p>‘He will soon be tired,’ she mused, with -cruel wisdom. ‘In a week the child will have -become a romance read through; a peach with -its bloom rubbed off; a poor little bird which -has only one note, and has sung that one till -its master is ready to wring its throat. It is -always so. I never see a baby run through -the fields gathering daisies and throwing them -down but what I think of men with their loves. -The only passion that lasts with them is one -which is denied, and even that is a poor affair. -To be sure, sometimes they kill themselves, but -that is rather out of rage than out of any higher -despair. And for one who kills himself for us -there are a hundred who kill themselves for -their debts. Othmar never can have any debts, -so he invents woes for himself, and captivity -for himself, and he will die of neither.’</p> - -<p>Yet, contemptuous of him for what seemed -to her his weakness and his unreason as she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> -was, her thoughts attached themselves persistently -to him. He was the only living being -who had never wearied her, who had always -perforce interested her, who had seemed to -her unlike the rest of the world, and capable -of a master-passion, which might have risen -beyond mediocrity. How would it have been -with them if he had stood in the stead of Napraxine, -whilst she was vaguely open to dim -and noble ideals, to spiritual emotions, to human -affections?</p> - -<p>‘Pooh!’ she thought. ‘It would have -been just the same thing. Love is gross and -absurd in its intimacies; it is like the hero to -his valet. Maternity is first a malady, and then -an ennui; that <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">biche blanche</i> at Amyôt will -learn that as I learned it. He would have -been much more poetic than Platon, and much -more agreeable; but I dare say he would have -been much more exacting, and much more -jealous.’</p> - -<p>Yet the remembrance of Amyôt pursued her, -and made her restless; with her lips she had -ridiculed the idea of nuptial joys enshrouded -in the wet woods and falling mists of the -Orleannais; but in her heart she did not laugh;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> -almost—almost—she envied that child, with -the innocent, serious eyes, whom she called contemptuously -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">la biche blanche</i>, who was learning -the language of love in the earliest dawn of -womanhood.</p> - -<p>‘Only he does not love her!’ she reflected, -with pity, disdain, and satisfaction, all commingled. -No! He loved herself. She believed -in few things, and in few emotions; but -she believed that so long as Othmar lived he -would love her alone.</p> - -<p>‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Quand on tient la dragée haute!</i>’ she -thought, with her unkindest smile at the -fractiousness and ingratitude of men, as she -descended at the doors of La Jacquemerille, -and with displeasure heard her servants say, -‘M. le Comte Seliedoff awaits Madame la -Princesse.’</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Boris Fedorovich Seliedoff was a young -cousin of Napraxine’s; he was twenty-two years -old, tall and well made, with a beautiful face -on his broad shoulders, a face given him by a -Georgian mother. He had been an imperial -page, and was now a lieutenant in the Imperial -Guard. He was an only son, and his father -was dead; he had a great position, and was -much indulged by all his world, and was as -headstrong and as affectionate as a child. -Nadine Napraxine alone did not indulge him, -and he adored her with all the blind ecstasies -of a first love; he had obtained his leave of -absence only that he might follow her southward. -He was extremely timid in his devotion, -but he was impassioned also; the moral -question of his love for his cousin’s wife weighed -no more with him than it weighed with Othmar. -His world was not given to consideration of -such scruples. As far as she could be enter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>tained -by such stale things, she was amused by -the worship of this boy. In Russia he had -done the maddest follies at her whim and -word; once he had come from Petersburg to -the Krimea only to be able to dance one valse -with her at a ball at her villa on the Black -Sea; he had ridden his horse up the staircase -of her house in Petersburg, and taken an incredible -leap over a river in Orel, because she -wished for a stalk of foxglove growing on the -other bank; he had risked life and limb, position -and honour, again and again, to attract -her attention or to go where she was, and she -had smiled on him the more kindly the more -headstrong were his acts and the more perilous -his follies.</p> - -<p>Once Napraxine had dared to say to her:</p> - -<p>‘Could you not spare Boris? He is only -a lad, and his mother trusts to me to keep him -out of harm.’</p> - -<p>She had answered in her chilliest tones:</p> - -<p>‘Pray keep him so. I do not think, however, -that you give him the best of examples. -Your clubs, your play, your various distractions, -are not all of them virtuous?’</p> - -<p>And he had been dumb, afraid to offend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> -her more, though he was vaguely uneasy for -his young cousin. The lad was terribly in -earnest, and she only saw in him a young lion-whelp -whose juvenile ardours and furies were -half grotesque, half amusing. Napraxine knew -that if the lion-whelp went too far, or if she -tired of his rage and fret, she would strike him -with a whip like any other cur. But he dared -not remonstrate more; and Boris Seliedoff, on -a brief term of leave, had followed them to the -sea-shores of the south-west, and was fretting -his soul in futile rage before the indifference -of his idol and the presence of her other lovers. -It would have been very easy at the onset to -have checked the growth of this boyish passion, -but she had diverted herself with it, permitted -its exaggerations, smiled at its escapades, -fanned its fires as she so well knew how to do, -and it had sprung to a giant growth in giant -strength. This day, when she drove homeward -from the breakfast at Ezarhédine’s, he -was waiting for her at La Jacquemerille. For -anyone to wait for her was a thing she detested; -it was a disobedience to all those unspoken -laws which she required her courtiers -implicitly to obey. She expected everyone, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> -whichever sex, of whatever rank, in however -high a degree of favour, to be the humble -suer of her commands, the meek attendant -of her pleasure. To be waited for without -her desires being previously ascertained, made -her instantly in a chill and irritable mood; it -was a presumption. This morning she was -especially ready to be irritated. When she -saw the tall figure of the young soldier pacing -to and fro, with feverish steps, the marble -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">perron</i> of her villa, she grew suddenly and disproportionately -angry.</p> - -<p>‘The boy becomes audacious,—intolerable,—impertinent,’ -she thought. ‘I should have -taken him to Ezarhédine’s if I had wanted him. -He has had too much sugar, he needs the whip.’</p> - -<p>All that was most cruel, most intolerant, -most tyrannical in her, came with a cold hard -look upon her delicate features; the temper of -those of her people who had thrust their swords -into the body of Paul began to awake in her. -She was in the humour to hurt something, the -first thing she saw; her eyes were full of scorn -and of command as they looked haughtily at -Seliedoff, and arrested him by a glance as he -sprang towards her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘Who told you that I sent for you?’ she -said, with that chill contemptuous gaze which -froze the boy and magnetised him in the same -moment.</p> - -<p>‘No one,’ he said piteously; ‘I thought,—I -imagined——’</p> - -<p>‘You imagined you were always welcome!’ -she replied. ‘A very erroneous imagination. -You may be so to Prince Napraxine, you are -his cousin; but as the house is mine, I shall -prefer that you shall await my invitation.’</p> - -<p>She spoke slightingly, and with a coldness -like the New Year ice of Russia.</p> - -<p>Boris Seliedoff stood and gazed at her helplessly, -fascinated by the anger of the gaze -which swept over him in such supreme contempt. -He had before offended, before had -seen what her caprices and her unkindness -could become when she was displeased; but -all those previous moments had been as -summer showers compared with this glacial -censure which froze all his hot young blood. -So often she had been content to see him; so -often she had laughed at him with indulgence -and benignity; so often she had called him -‘ <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">beau cousin</i>,‘ ’<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">cher enfant</i>,’ and smiled at his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> -haste and eagerness when he had done much -more than this. Might not any stranger -have waited to see her pass, to hear her -speak?</p> - -<p>Nadine Napraxine, with that one comprehensive -disdainful glance, passed across the -marble floor, and entered through the open -glass doors of the house. She said nothing -more. The young Seliedoff, who had grown -first very red, then very pale, followed her -timidly like a chidden hound, and paused upon -the threshold, hesitating; he scarcely ventured -to enter also without some sign from her. But -she gave him none. She passed on through the -salons, and ascended the low broad staircase -without bestowing on him a single glance. -Then he knew that she was gone to her own -apartments, where no man living dared follow -her. Boris Seliedoff stole into a little <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">salon</i> -humbly, and threw himself down on the first -seat he saw. He covered his face with his -hands; there were tears in his eyes, which fell -slowly through his clasped fingers.</p> - -<p>He was a young dare-devil who had eaten -fire and played with death, and had hewed -down men and women and children without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> -mercy by Skobeleff’s side; but he was a mere -frightened, timid, wretched lad beneath the -lash of her displeasure. He would have crawled -for her pardon like her spaniel, even whilst he -groped about in bewilderment and darkness to -discover his own offence, and could not tell -what it had been. An older man would have -told him that it had only been the supreme -fault of arriving at the wrong moment.</p> - -<p>How long he sat there he never knew; he -waited in the vague hope of a gentler word, a -more kind dismissal, at least for permission -to return. He did not remember that he -would only increase his offence, prolong his -error. The bright day was shining without on -all the gay array of shining marbles, many-coloured -azaleas, dancing waves, white sails, -blue skies; within, the shaded light fell subdued -and roseate on the porcelains, the tapestries, -the bronzes, the stands and bowls of -flowers, all the fantastic details of modern -luxury. He might have been in a peasant’s -<i lang="ru" xml:lang="ru">isba</i> in the midst of a frozen plain for aught he -knew. Two or three clocks chimed five, and -the carillon in the stable-tower of La Jacquemerille -answered them; for anything he could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> -tell, he might have been there a whole day or -only fifteen minutes.</p> - -<p>Whilst it was still quite daylight, servants -came in and brought lamps with rose-coloured -shades and set them down noiselessly and -went away. Seliedoff raised his head, but he -did not leave his place; he sat like a figure of -stone. He heard a sound of voices and of -laughter; through the parted curtains of the -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">portières</i> he saw the vista of the three drawing-rooms -which opened out of the small one in -which he was. People were coming in and -standing about conversing with one another in -the rose-hued light of the lamps, lit whilst the -sun was still shining. He then remembered -that it was Thursday, her day, on which, from -five to seven, the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">dessus du panier</i> could come -there and idle and flirt and sip caravan tea, or -syrups or liqueurs, and have the honour of a -word from her, perhaps even of a word of -welcome. As he looked and remembered, she -herself entered the little room in which he sat, -and which was the nearest to her own apartments. -She cast a glance upon him, severe, -astonished, then passed through to the larger -salons. She wore a pale-mauve-coloured velvet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> -gown, with a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">jabot</i> of old point lace, and the -same lace peeping here and there from the -folds of its skirts; she had some natural yellow -roses at her throat; she had her hair <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">à l’empire</i>; -she had never looked lovelier, colder, more -utterly beyond the imitation of other women -or the solicitations of men. He watched her -receive the little crowd of people already there, -and those who came after them; he heard her -sweet chill voice, now and then her laugh; he -saw all the men whom he hated gathered -about her; and the murmur of the voices, the -whispers of the discreet mirth, the scent of the -flower-laden air, the rosy gleams of the lamplight, -the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">frou-frou</i> of the dresses, the tinkle of -the tea-cups, came to his ear as the sounds of -the outer world come to a sick man in fever.</p> - -<p>Geraldine was not there. She had always -prohibited his appearance more than once a -month at her <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">jour</i>.</p> - -<p>‘I will have no one seen in my rooms as -regularly and certainly as Paul,’ she had always -said to him. Paul was her groom of the -chambers. ‘Whenever any man is seen perpetually -anywhere, as immovably as though he -were a clock or a bracket, he becomes ridi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>culous; -and the woman who allows him to be -there, still more so.’</p> - -<p>Geraldine had been forced to obey, with -whatever reluctance; usually he had consoled -himself, as well as he could, with the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">tripot</i>. -A man is not often jealous of a day in which -he knows there exists for him, in his absence, -that safety which lies in numbers.</p> - -<p>Boris Seliedoif sat on where he was with -dogged persistence, his eyes riveted on those -pretty salons in which the comedy of society -was being acted, and where he perceived nothing -save that one form, when it came -within his sight, with the grace of movement, -the charm of attitude, which were especial -to Nadine Napraxine. He thought the -coming and going of her many guests would -never end; that the buzz of the many voices -would never cease. Once or twice men -and women whom he knew came into the -little room, and sat down there for a few -moments; then he was forced to rise and -speak to them, to say he knew not what. But -he took his seat again immediately, and resumed -his silent vigil. Some of them looked -at him in surprise, for his expression was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> -strange, and his black Georgian eyes were -misty yet fierce; but he was not conscious of -the notice he excited, he was only conscious -that she never glanced towards him, never -summoned him, once.</p> - -<p>The two hours seemed to him endless. -When seven had struck, the last carriage rolled -away from before the windows, the last lingering -visitor, the Duc de Prangins—he who had -killed young d’Ivrea—made his profound bow -over her hand, and took himself and his elegant -witticisms and his admirable manners back to -the Hotel de Paris at Monte Carlo. When the -doors had closed on him, Nadine Napraxine -stood a moment alone in the centre of her -salon; then swiftly turned, and came towards -Seliedoff. He rose, and awaited her sullenly.</p> - -<p>Her right hand was clenched as though it -grasped the handle of a knout, and was about -to use it; a terrible anger shone from the -lustre of her eyes; her lips were pale with the -force of her displeasure.</p> - -<p>‘How dare you! how dare you!’ she said -between her teeth.</p> - -<p>So might an empress have spoken to a -moujik.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p> - -<p>To have waited unbidden in her room, -seen by all the world, sulking there as though -he were a lover once favoured, now dispossessed; -making of himself a spectacle, a ridicule, -a theme for the comment and chatter of -society—it seemed to her such intolerable presumption, -such infinite insolence, that she -could have struck him with her clenched hand -if her dignity had not forbade her. For all -her world to see this love-sick boy half-hidden -in an inner room, as though by her welcome -and authority! She, who had dismissed kings -as others dismiss lackeys when she had found -them too presuming, could find no chastisement -vast enough for such a sin against her -authority and her repute.</p> - -<p>Seliedoff was but a spoilt child; he had -had his own will and way unchecked all his -short life, and all his companions and servants -had existed only for his pleasure. A foolish -and doting mother had never bridled his wishes -or tamed his passions. Before Nadine Napraxine -alone had the arrogant young noble -become submissive, suppliant, and humble. -Now, in his torture and his sense of wrong, -the natural self-will and fury of a spoilt child<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> -crossed, of an adoring youth checked and repudiated, -broke away from the bonds of fear -in which she had always held them. He -answered her with a torrent of words, unconsidered -and unwise, beyond all pardon.</p> - -<p>‘You have treated me like a dog!’ he said -in conclusion, his voice choked in his throat, -the veins of his forehead injected. ‘You have -caressed me, called me, allowed me every -liberty, been pleased with my every folly; and -now you turn me out of your house as you -would turn the dog if he misbehaved himself. -But I am not a dog, I am a man, and that you -shall know, by God——’</p> - -<p>He came nearer to her, his eyes red and -covetous, his boyish face inflamed with fiercest -passion, his arms flung out to seize her.</p> - -<p>She looked at him, such a look as she -would have given to a madman to control, -and awe him; he paused, trembled, dared not -draw nearer to her.</p> - -<p>She was deeply, implacably offended by -what had passed. For him to permit himself -such language and such actions, seemed to -her as intolerable an insult as if the African -boy in her service had dared to disobey her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> -It was the first time that anyone had ever -ventured to insult her; it irritated all her -delicacy, infuriated all her pride. She never -paused to think what provocation she had -given; she would have struck him dead with -a glance had she been able.</p> - -<p>‘You are unwell, and delirious,’ she said in -her serenest, chillest tones. ‘You know neither -what you do or say. I have been kind to you, -and you have presumed to misinterpret my -kindness. Your cousin would treat you like -a hound, if he knew. But you are ill, so there -is excuse for you. Go home, and I will send -you my physicians.’</p> - -<p>Then she rang; and when a servant entered -from the antechamber she turned to -him:</p> - -<p>‘M. le Comte Seliedoff desires his carriage.’</p> - -<p>The boy looked at her with a terrible look -in his eyes—pitiful, baffled, imploring, delirious.</p> - -<p>‘Nadine, Nadine,’ he whispered hoarsely, -‘will you send me away like that—to die?’</p> - -<p>But she had passed, with her slow soft -grace, into the adjoining room. He heard her -say to Melville, who had been asked there:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘You are after my hours, Monsignore, but -you are always welcome.’</p> - -<p>Seliedoff, with a mist like blood before his -eyes, staggered out of the little salon into the -mild primrose-scented evening air, hearing, as -in a dream, the voices of the servants who told -him that his horses waited.</p> - -<p>‘She will never forgive; she will never -forgive,’ he thought, with a sickening sense -that this one moment of insanity had severed -him for ever from the woman he worshipped. -‘She will never forgive; I shall never enter -her house again!’</p> - -<p>All the lovely scene stretching before him -in its peace and luxuriance, as the stars came -out in the deep blue skies and the daylight -still lingered upon shore and sea, was blotted -out for him by a red haze as of blood and of -tears.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Meanwhile Melville, who had come to take -his leave before proceeding to Paris under -orders from the Vatican, found his hostess -evidently <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">ennuyée</i>; she was not in her usual -serene humour.</p> - -<p>‘What has irritated you, Princess?’ that -very observant person presumed at last to ask. -‘Have you actually discovered that doubled -rose-leaf of whose existence you have been -always sure and I always sceptical?’</p> - -<p>‘The doubled rose-leaf is that enormous -nuisance, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">la bêtise humaine</i>,’ she replied with -ennui, breaking off some blossoms of an -odontoglossum standing near her. ‘It is like -the fog in London, it penetrates everywhere, -you cannot escape it; there has been no rose-glass -made which could shut it out. If Balzac -had written for centuries, he would never have -come to an end of it. Do you ever find any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> -variety in your confessional? I never do in -my drawing-rooms.’</p> - -<p>‘And yet who should find it, if not Madame -Napraxine?’ said Melville, who, when in his -worldly moods, did not especially care to be -reminded that he was a churchman.</p> - -<p>‘I do not know who should,—I know that I -never do,’ she replied. ‘I have made <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">la chasse -au caractère</i> ever since I was old enough to -know what character meant; and my only -wonder is how, out of such a sameness of -material, St.-Simon and La Bruyère and Ste.-Beuve, -and all those people who write so well, -ever were able to make such entertaining -books. I suppose it is done by the same sort -of science which enables mathematicians to -make endless permutations out of four numbers. -For myself, I should like other numbers -than those we know by rote.’</p> - -<p>‘Good heavens!’ thought Melville, ‘when -men have died because she laughed! Is that -so very commonplace? or, is it not tragic -enough?’</p> - -<p>Aloud he said, in his courtliest manner:</p> - -<p>‘Princess, I fear the sameness of human -nature tries you so greatly because of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> -sameness of the emotions which you excite in -it; I can imagine that too much adoration -may cloy like too much sugar. Also, in your -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chasse au caractère</i> you have, like all who -hunt, left behind you a certain little bourgeois -quality called pity; an absurd little quality, no -doubt, still one which helps observation. I -am sure you have read Tourguenieff’s little -story of the quail?’</p> - -<p>‘Yes; but one eats them still, you know, -just the same as if he had never written it. -Pity may be a microscope, I do not know; besides, -you must admit that a quail is a much -lovelier little life than a man’s, and so can -excite it so much more easily. A quail is quite -a charming little bird. Myself, I never eat -birds at all; it is barbarous.’</p> - -<p>‘What I meant to say was,’ suggested -Melville, ‘that, in that tiny tale, Tourguenieff, -like a poet, as he was, at heart, describes precisely -what sympathy will do to open the -intelligence to the closed lives of others, -whether bird or man. Perhaps, madame, sympathy -would even do something to smooth the -creases out of your rose-leaf—if you tried it.’</p> - -<p>‘I suppose I am not sympathetic,’ said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> -Nadine Napraxine, stripping the petals of the -odontoglossum; ‘they all say so. But I think -it is their own fault; they are so uninteresting.’</p> - -<p>‘The quail,’ said Melville, ‘to almost -everybody is only a little juicy morsel to be -wrapped in a vine-leaf and roasted; but Tourguenieff -had the vision to see in it the courage -of devotion, the heroism of maternity, the loveliness -of its life, the infinite pathos of its death. -Yet, the exceptional estimate of the student’s -view of it was quite as true as the general -view of the epicure.’</p> - -<p>‘Am I an epicure?’ said Nadine Napraxine, -amused.</p> - -<p>‘Spiritually, intellectually, you are,’ replied -Melville; ‘and so nothing escapes the fastidiousness -of your taste; yet perhaps, madame, -something may escape the incompleteness of -your sympathies.’</p> - -<p>‘That is very possible; but, as I observed -to Lady Brancepeth when she made me a -similar reproach, one is as one is made. One -is Tourguenieff or one is Brillat-Savarin, all -that is arranged beforehand for one—somewhere.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p> - -<p>Melville had learned the ways of the world -too well not to know how to glide easily, with -closed eyes and averted ears, over such irreverences; -but he ventured to say:</p> - -<p>‘One cannot dispute the fact of natural -idiosyncrasy and inclination, of course; but -may not one’s self-culture be as much of the -character as of the mind? Might it not become -as interesting to strive and expand one’s -moral as one’s intellectual horizon? It seems -so to me, at the least.’</p> - -<p>She laughed, and rang a little silver bell -for Mahmoud to bring them some fresh tea.</p> - -<p>‘My dear Monsignore,’ she said, with -amusement and admiration; ‘for enwrapping -a kernel of religious advice in an envelope -of agreeable social conversation, there is not -your equal anywhere—you may well be beloved -of the Propaganda! But, alas! it is all -wasted on me.’</p> - -<p>Melville reddened a little with irritation:</p> - -<p>‘I understand,’ he answered. ‘I fear, -Princess, that you are like Virschow or Paul -Bert, who are so absorbed in cutting, burning, -and electrifying the nerves of dogs that the -dog, as a sentient creature, a companion, and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> -friend, is wholly unknown to them. Humanity, -poor Humanity, is your dog.’</p> - -<p>‘Will you have some tea?’ she said, as -Mahmoud brought in her service made by -goldsmiths of the Deccan, who sat on mats -under their banana trees, with the green -parrots flying over the aloes and the euphorbia, -and who produced work beside which all the -best which Europe can do with her overgrown -workshops is clumsy, inane, and vulgar.</p> - -<p>‘What you suggested was very pretty,’ -she continued, pouring out the clear golden -stream on the slices of lemon; ‘and I had -no right to laugh at you for wrapping up a -sermon in <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">nougat</i>. Of course the character -ought to be trained and developed just like the -body and the mind, only nobody thinks so; no -education is conducted on those lines. And -so, though we overstrain the second, and pamper -the third, we wholly neglect the first. I -imagine that it never occurs to anyone out of -the schoolroom to restrain a bad impulse or -uproot a bad quality. Why should it? We -are all too busy in trying to be amused, and -failing. Do you not think it was always so in -the world? Do you suppose La Bruyère, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> -instance, ever turned his microscope on himself? -And do you think, if he had done, that -any amount of self-scrutiny would have made -La Bruyère Pascal or Vincent de Paul?’</p> - -<p>‘No; but it might have made him comprehend -them, or their likenesses. I did not -mean to moralise, madame; I merely meant -that the issue of self-analysis is sympathy, -whilst the issue of the anatomy of other organisations -is cruelty even where it may be -wisdom.’</p> - -<p>‘That may be true in general, and I daresay -is so; but the exception proves the rule, -and I am the exception. Whenever I do think -about myself I only arrive at two conclusions; -the one, that I am not as well amused as I -ought to be considering the means I have at -my disposal, and the other is that, if I were -quite sure that anything would amuse me very -much, I should sacrifice everything else to -enjoy it. Neither of those results is objective -in its sympathies; and you would not, I -suppose, call either of them moral.’</p> - -<p>‘I certainly should not,’ said Melville, ‘except -that there is always a certain amount of -moral health in any kind of perfect frankness.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘I am always perfectly frank,’ said the -Princess Nadine; ‘so is Bismarck. But the -world has made up its mind that we are both -of us always feigning.’</p> - -<p>‘That is the world’s revenge for being -ruled by each of you.’</p> - -<p>‘Is it permitted in these serious days for -churchmen to make pretty speeches? I prefer -your scoldings, they are more uncommon.’</p> - -<p>‘The kindness which permits them is uncommon,’ -said Melville, as he took up his tea-cup.</p> - -<p>‘Ah! I can be kind,’ said Nadine Napraxine. -‘ Ask Mahmoud and my little dog. -But then Mahmoud is dumb, and the dog is—a -dog. If humanity were my dog, too, as you -say, I should make it <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">aphone</i>!’</p> - -<p>‘Poor humanity!’ said Melville, with a -sigh. ‘If it would not offend you, Princess, -there are two lines of Mürger which always -seem to me to exactly describe the attitude, or -rather the altitude, from which you regard all -our sorrows and follies.’</p> - -<p>‘And they are?’</p> - -<p>‘They are those in which he thinks he -hears:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">“Le fifre au son aigu railler le violoncelle,</div> - <div class="verse">Qui pleure sous l’archet ses notes de crystal;”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>only we must substitute for <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">aigu</i> some prettier -word, say <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">perlé</i>.’</p> - -<p>She laughed, thinking of Boris Seliedoff, -with more perception of his absurdities than of -his offences, as her first movement of wrath -subsided into that ironical serenity which was -most natural to her of all her varying -moods.</p> - -<p>‘The violoncello does not know itself why -it weeps,’ she replied, ‘so why should the fife -not laugh at it? Really, if I were not so impious -a being, I would join your Church for -the mere pleasure of confessing to you; you -have such fine penetration, such delicate suggestion. -But then, there is no living being -who understands women as a Catholic priest -does who is also a man of the world. Adieu! -or rather, I hope, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">au revoir</i>. You are going -away for Lent? Ours will soon be here. I -shock every Russian because I pay no heed to -its sanctity. Did you ever find, even amongst -your people, any creatures so superstitious in -their religion as Russians? Platon is certainly -the least moral man the sun shines on, but he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> -would not violate a fast nor neglect a rite to -save his life. It is too funny! Myself, I have -fish from the Baltic and soups (very nasty -ones) from Petersburg, and deem that quite -concession enough to Carême. My dear Monsignore, -why <em>should</em> there be salvation in -salmon and sin in a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">salmis</i>?’</p> - -<p>Melville was not at all willing to enter on -that grave and large question with so incorrigible -a mocker. He took his leave, and -bowed himself out from her presence; whilst -Nadine Napraxine went to her own rooms to -dress for dinner and look at the domino which -she would wear some hours later at a masked -ball which was to take place that night in her -own house in celebration of the last evening of -the Catholic Carnival.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - - <p>‘Le masque est si charmant que j’ai peur du visage,’</p> - -</div> - -<p>she murmured inconsequently, as she glanced -at the elegant disguise and the Venetian -costume to be worn beneath it which had -been provided for her. ‘That is the sort of -feeling which one likes to inspire, and which -one also prefers to feel. Always the mask, -smiling, mysterious, unintelligible, seductive,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> -suggestive of all kinds of unrealised, and therefore -of unexhausted pleasures; never the face -beneath it, the face which frowns and weeps -and shows everything, is unlovely, only just -because it is known and must in due time even -grow wrinkled and yellow. How agreeable -the world would be if no one ever took off -their masks or their gloves!’</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>On the following day as she returned from her -drive, she was met, to her great surprise, by -Napraxine, who descended the steps of the -house with a face unusually pale, and a manner -unusually grave.</p> - -<p>‘What can possibly be the matter, Platon?’ -she said, with a vague sense of alarm, but with -her inevitable mockery of him dominating her -transient anxiety. ‘Have you had a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">culotte</i> -yonder? Has Athenais gone away with my -jewel-safe? Or have our friends the Nihilists -fired Zaraizoff?’</p> - -<p>Napraxine gave her his hand to help her -to alight.</p> - -<p>‘Do not jest,’ he said simply. ‘Boris has -shot himself.’</p> - -<p>‘Boris?—Boris Fédorovitch?’</p> - -<p>She spoke in astonishment and anger rather -than sorrow: an impatient frown contracted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> -her delicate brows, though she grew ashen -pale. Why would men do these things?</p> - -<p>Napraxine was silent, but when they had -entered the house he spoke very sadly, almost -sternly.</p> - -<p>‘This afternoon he had lost a hundred -thousand francs; no doubt on purpose to have -an excuse. The ruse can deceive nobody. A -Count Seliedoff could lose as much all day -for a year, and make no sign. He shot himself -in the gardens, within a few yards of us -all.’</p> - -<p>He paused and looked at his wife. A -shadow passed over her face without changing -its narcissus-like fairness; she shrugged her -shoulders ever so slightly, her eyes had had for -a moment an expression of awe and regret, -but, beyond any other sentiment with her, were -her impatience and irritation.</p> - -<p>‘Why will men be so stupid?’ she thought. -‘As if it did any good! The foolish boy!’</p> - -<p>‘Nadine,’ murmured her husband in a -voice that was timid even in its expostulation -and reproach. ‘I am sorry for Boris; for the -other I have never cared, but for Boris;—you -know that I promised his mother to take what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> -care I could of him—and now—and now—and -so young as he was!—and how shall I tell -her?—My God!’</p> - -<p>She was silent; a genuine pain was on -her face, though still mingled with the more -personal emotion of impatience and annoyance.</p> - -<p>‘It was no fault of yours!’ she said at last, -as she saw two great tears roll down her husband’s -cheeks.</p> - -<p>‘Yes, it was,’ muttered Platon Napraxine. -‘I let him know you.’</p> - -<p>The direct accusation banished the softer -pain which had for the minute moved her; she -was at all times intolerant of censure or of -what she resented as a too intimate interference; -and here her own surprise at an unlooked-for -tragedy, and her own self-consciousness of -having been more or less the cause and -creatress of it, stung her with an unwelcome -and intolerable truth.</p> - -<p>‘You are insolent,’ she said, with the regard -which always daunted Napraxine, and -made him feel himself an offender against her, -even when he was entirely in the right.</p> - -<p>‘You are insolent,’ she repeated. ‘Do you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> -mean to insinuate that I am responsible for -Seliedoff’s suicide? One would suppose you -were a journalist seeking <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chantage</i>!’</p> - -<p>The power which she at all times possessed -over her husband making him unwilling to -irritate, afraid to offend her, and without courage -before her slightest sign of anger, rendered -him timid now. He hesitated and grew pale, -but the great sorrow and repentance which were -at work in him gave him more resolution than -usual; he was very pale, and the tears rolled -down his cheeks unchecked.</p> - -<p>‘Every one knows that Boris loved you,’ he -said simply. ‘All the world knows that; he was -a boy, he could not conceal it; I cannot tell -what you did to him, but something which broke -his heart. You know I never say anything; -you give me no title. I am as much of a -stranger to you as if we had met yesterday; -and do not fancy I am ever—jealous—as men -are sometimes. I know you would laugh at -me, and besides, you care for none of them any -more than you care for me. I should be a fool -to wish for more than that;—if it be always -like that, I shall never say anything. Only you -might have spared this lad. He was so young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> -and my cousin, and the only one left to his -mother.‘</p> - -<p>He paused, in stronger agitation than he -cared to allow her to see. It was the first time -for years that he had ventured to speak to her -in any sort of earnestness or of upbraiding. -She had allotted him his share in her life, a -very distant one; and he had accepted it without -dispute or lament, if not without inward -revolt; it was for the first time for years -that he presumed to show her he had observed -her actions and had disapproved them, -to hint that he was not the mere lay figure, the -mere good-natured dolt, ‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">bon comme du pain</i>,’ -and as commonplace, which she had always -considered him.</p> - -<p>She looked at him a little curiously; there -was a dangerous irritation in her glance, yet a -touch of emotion was visible in her as she said -with impatience, ‘You are growing theatrical. -It does not become you. Boris was a boy, -foolish as boys are; he had no mind; he -was a mere spoilt child; he was grown up -in inches, not in character; so many Russians -are. If he have killed himself, who can help -it? They should have kept him at home.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> -Why do you play yourself? He is not the -first.’</p> - -<p>‘No, he is not the first,’ said Napraxine, -with a curt bitterness. ‘He is not the first, -and it was not play; he only played to have -an excuse. He thought of your name, perhaps -of mine; he did not wish the world to know -he died because you laughed at him.’</p> - -<p>‘Laughed! I used to laugh; why not? -He was amusing before he grew tragical. I -rebuked him yesterday, for he deserved it. -Everyone scolds boys. It is good for them. -No one supposes——’ her tone was impatient -and contemptuous, but her lips quivered a -little; she was sorry that the boy was dead, -though she would not say so. It hurt her, -though it annoyed her more.</p> - -<p>‘Did he—did he suffer?’ she asked, abruptly.</p> - -<p>Napraxine took out of the breast-pocket -of his coat a sheet of note-paper, and gave it -her.</p> - -<p>‘He died instantly, if you mean that,’ he -answered. ‘He knew enough to aim well. -They brought me that note; he had written it -last night, I think.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p> - -<p>In the broad, rude handwriting of the -young Seliedoff there was written:—</p> - -<p>‘Pardonnez-moi, mon cousin: je l’adore, et -elle se moque de moi; je ne peux pas vivre, -mais j’aurai soin que le monde n’en sache rien. -Soignez ma pauvre mère. Tout à vous de -cœur</p> - -<p> -‘<span class="smcap">Boris Fédorovitch</span>.’ <br /> -</p> - -<p>She read it with a mist before her eyes, and -gave it back to him without a word.</p> - -<p>Napraxine looked at her wistfully; he wondered -if he had killed himself whether she -would have cared more than she cared now—no, -he knew she would have cared as little, -even less.</p> - -<p>‘You say nothing?’ he murmured wistfully.</p> - -<p>‘What is there to say?’ she answered. ‘It -was a boy’s blunder. It was a grievous folly. -But no one could foresee it.’</p> - -<p>‘That is all the lament you give him?’</p> - -<p>‘Would it please you better if I were weeping -over his corpse? I regret his death profoundly; -but I confess that I am also unspeakably -annoyed at it. I detest melodramas. -I detest tragedies. The world will say, as you -have the good taste to say, that I have been at -fault. I am not a coquette, and a reputation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> -of being one gives me no satisfaction. As you -justly observed, no one will believe that a -Count Seliedoff destroyed his life because he -lost money at play. Therefore, they will say, -as you have been so good as to say, that the -blame lies with me. And such accusations -offend me.’</p> - -<p>She spoke very quietly, but with a tone -which seemed chill as the winter winds of -the White Sea, to Napraxine, whose soul was -filled with remorse, dismay, and bewildered -pain. Then she made him a slight gesture of -farewell and left him. As usual, he was entirely -right in the reproaches he had made, yet -she had had the power to make himself feel -at once foolish and at fault, at once coarse and -theatrical.</p> - -<p>‘Poor Boris!’ he muttered, as he drew his -hand across his wet lashes.</p> - -<p>Had it been worth while to die at three-and-twenty -years old, in full command of all -which the world envies, only to have that cruel -sacrifice called a boy’s blunder? His heart -ached and his thoughts went, he knew not -why, to his two young children away in the -birch forests by the Baltic Sea. She would not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> -care any more if she heard on the morrow that -they were as dead in their infancy as Boris -Seliedoff was in his youth, lying under the -aloes and the palms of Monte Carlo in the -southern sunshine.</p> - -<p>Platon Napraxine was a stupid man, a man -not very sensitive or very tender of feeling, a -man who could often console himself with -coarse pleasures and purchasable charms for -wounds given to his affections or his pride; -but he was a man of quick compunction and -warm emotions; he felt before the indifference -of his wife as though he stretched out his hand -to touch a wall of ice, when what he longed -for was the sympathetic answering clasp of -human fingers. He brushed the unusual moisture -from his eyes, and went to fulfil all those -innumerable small observances which so environ, -embitter, and diminish the dignity of -death to the friends of every dead creature.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, Nadine passed on to her own -rooms, and let her waiting-woman change her -clothes.</p> - -<p>A momentary wish, wicked as a venomous -snake, and swift as fire, had darted through her -thoughts.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘Why had not Othmar died like that? -I would have loved his memory all my life!’ -she thought, with inconsistency.</p> - -<p>Though she had almost refused to acknowledge -it, the suicide of Seliedoff pained and -saddened her. Foremost of all was her irritation -that she who disliked tragedies, who -abhorred publicity, who disbelieved in passion, -should be thus subject to having her name in -the mouths of men in connection with a melodrama -which, terrible as it was, yet offended -her by its vulgarity and its stupidity. The hour -and the scene chosen were vulgar; the transparency -of the pretext was stupid. It was -altogether, as she had said, a boy’s blunder—a -blunder, frightful, irreparable, with the horror -of youth misspent and life self-destroyed upon -it—still a blunder. She thought, with impatience, -that what they called love was only a -spoilt child’s whim and passionate outcry which, -denied, ended in a child’s wild, foolish fit of rage, -with no more wisdom in it than the child has.</p> - -<p>All Europe would say that, indirectly, she -had been the cause of his death; every one -had seen him, moping and miserable, in her -rooms the previous day. She disliked a sensa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>tional -triumph, which was fit for her husband’s -mistresses, for Lia, for Aurélie, for la belle -Fernande. Men were always doing these -foolish things for her. She had been angry -certainly: who would not have been so? He -had been ridiculous, as youth and intense -emotion and unreasonable suffering constantly -are in the sight of others.</p> - -<p>There had been only one man who had not -seemed to her absurd when passion had moved -him, and that had only been because he had -remained master of himself even in his greatest -self-abandonment. If it had been Othmar who -had been lying dead there with the bullet in -his breast, she would have felt—she was not -sure what she would have felt—some pleasure, -some pain. Instead, he was at Amyôt finding -what pleasures he might in a virginal love, like -a spring snowdrop, timid and afraid. She, who -always analysed her own soul without indulgence -or self-delusion, was disgusted at the -impulses which moved her now.</p> - -<p>‘After all,’ she thought, ‘Goethe was right; -we are always capable of crime, even the best -of us; only one must be Goethe to be capable -of acknowledging that.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p> - -<p>She sat alone awhile, thoughtful and regretful; -indisposed to accept the blame of -others, yet not unwilling to censure herself if -she saw cause. But she saw no cause here; -it was no fault of hers if men loved her as she -passed by them without seeing they were there. -True, she had been annoyed with the youth; -she had been irritated by him; she had treated -him a little as some women treat a dog,—a -smile one day, the whip the next; but she had -thought so little about him all the time, except -that his high spirits were infectious and his face -was boyishly beautiful, and that it had diverted -her to annoy Geraldine. But who could have -supposed that it would end thus? And amidst -her pain and her astonishment was foremost -a great irritation at his want of thought for -her.</p> - -<p>The journals, with their innuendoes, their -initials, their transparent mysteries; the condolences -and the curiosities of her own society; the -reproaches of his family; the long ceremonious -Russian mourning and Russian rites—‘ <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Quelle -corvée!</i>’ she murmured impatiently, as at some -pebble in her embroidered shoe, at some clove -of garlic in her delicate dinner.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> - -<p>After all, were the great sorrows of life -one-half so unendurable in themselves as the -tiresome annoyances with which the foolish -habits of men have environed them?</p> - -<p>That our friend dies is pain enough, why -must we have also the nuisance of following -his funeral?</p> - -<p>‘Men only think of themselves!’ she said -irritably, in her own unconscious egotism. If -Boris Seliedoff had considered her as he should -have done, he would not have killed himself -within three miles of her garden terrace, at a -moment when all their own gossiping world -was crowding on the sunny shores of the -Mediterranean. A sense of the wrong done to -herself divided the regret, tinged almost with -remorse, which weighed on her.</p> - -<p>As she moved through her boudoir to write -the inevitable and most difficult letter which -must be penned to his mother far away in the -province of the Ekaterinoslaf, a photograph, in -a frame of blue plush, caught her eye as it stood -amongst all the pretty costly nothings of her -writing-table. It was a photograph of Seliedoff; -it had been tinted with an artist’s skill, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> -boyish handsome mouth smiled tenderly and -gaily at her.</p> - -<p>For almost the first time in her life she felt -the tears rise to her throat and eyes. She laid -the picture face downward, and wept.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>A few days later when the remains of Boris -Seliedoff had been removed to Russia, there to -find their last home in the sombre mausoleum -of his family on their vast estates in Ekaterinoslaf, -Geraldine, who was one of the few who -were admitted to La Jacquemerille in these -days of mourning, coming thither one afternoon -to find her in the garden alone and to -entreat for permission to follow her in the -various travels which she was about to undertake, -since the Riviera had grown distasteful -to her, was accosted by her abruptly, if in her -delicate languor she could ever be termed -abrupt:</p> - -<p>‘My dear Ralph,’ she said briefly, ‘why do -you not go home?’</p> - -<p>Geraldine drew his breath quickly, and -stared at her.</p> - -<p>‘Go home!’ he repeated stupidly.</p> - -<p>‘Well, you have a home; you have several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> -homes,’ she said, with her usual impatience at -being questioned or misunderstood by wits -slower than her own. ‘You are an Englishman; -you must have a million and one duties. -It is utterly wrong to live so much away from -your properties. We do it, but I do not think -it matters what we do. Whether we be here -or there, it is always the stewards who rule -everything, but in your country it is different. -Your sister says you can do a great deal of good. -I cannot imagine what good you should do, -but no doubt she knows. I do not like England -myself. Your châteaux are very fine, but the -life in them is very tiresome. You all eat far -too much and far too often, and you have -lingering superstitions about Sunday; your -women are always three months behind Paris, -and never wear shoes like their gowns; your -talk is always of games, and shooting, and flat-racing. -You are not an amusing people; you -never will be. You have too much of the -Teuton, and the Hollander, and the Dane in -you. Your stage makes one yawn, your books -make one sleep, your country-houses make one -do both. Your women clothe themselves in -Newmarket coats, get red faces, and like to go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> -over wet fields; your men are well built very -often, but they move ill; they have no <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">désinvolture</i>, -they have no charm. The whole thing -is tiresome. I shall never willingly go to England; -but you, as a great English noble, ought -to go there, and stay there——’</p> - -<p>‘And marry there!’ said Geraldine, bitterly. -‘Is that the medicine you prescribe for -all your friends?’</p> - -<p>‘Of course you will marry some time,’ she -said indifferently. ‘Men of your position always -do; they think they owe it to their country. -But whether you marry or not, go home and -be useful. You have idled quite too much time -away in following our changes of residence.’</p> - -<p>He turned pale, and his eyes grew dark -with subdued anger.</p> - -<p>‘You want to be rid of me!’</p> - -<p>‘Ah, that is just the kind of rough, rude -thing which an Englishman always says. It is -the reason why Englishmen do not please women -much. No Italian or Frenchman or Russian -would make such a stupid, almost brutal, remark -as that; he would respect his own dignity -and the courtesy of words too greatly.’</p> - -<p>‘We are unpolished, even at our best; you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> -have told me so fifty times,’ he said sullenly. -‘Well, let me be a savage, then, and ask for a -savage mercy; a plain answer. You want me -away?’</p> - -<p>Nadine’s eyes grew very cold.</p> - -<p>‘I never say uncivil things,’ she answered, -with an accent that was chill as the mistral. -‘But since for once you divine one’s meaning, I -will not deny the accuracy of your divination.’</p> - -<p>She blew a little cloud from a tiny cigarette -as she paused. She expressed, as clearly as -though she had spoken, the fact that her companion -was as little to her as that puff of -smoke.</p> - -<p>‘Does sincerity count for nothing?’ he -muttered stupidly.</p> - -<p>‘Sincerity!’ she echoed. ‘Ah! English -people always speak as if they had a monopoly -of sincerity, like a monopoly of salt or a -monopoly of coal! My dear Lord Geraldine, -I am not doubting your sincerity in the very -least; it is not <em>that</em> which is wanting in -you——’</p> - -<p>‘What is?’ he asked in desperation.</p> - -<p>‘So much!’ said the Princess Napraxine -with a little comprehensive smile and sigh.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘If you would deign to speak definitely—’ -he murmured in bitter pain, which he strove -clumsily to make into the likeness of serenity -and irony.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, if you wish for details!—It is just -that kind of wish for details which shows what -you fail in so very much; tact, finesse, observation, -flexibility. My dear friend, you are -thoroughly insular! Everything is comprised -in that!’</p> - -<p>He was silent.</p> - -<p>‘I have not the least wish to vex you,’ she -continued. ‘I am quite sorry to vex you, but -if you will press me——A painter teased me -the other day to go to his studio and see what -he had done for the salon. I made him polite -excuses, the weather, my health, my engagements, -the usual phrases, but he would not be -satisfied with them, he continued to insist, so -at last he had the truth. I told him that I -detested almost all modern art, and that I did -not know why anyone encouraged it at all -when it was within everyone’s power to have -at least line-engravings of the old masters. He -was not pleased—take warning. Do not be as -stupid as he.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p> - -<p>Geraldine understood, and his tanned cheek -grew white with pain. He was a proud man, -and had been made vain by his world. He -was bitterly and cruelly humbled, but the love -he had for her made him almost unconscious -of the offence to him, so overwhelming in its -cruelty was the sentence of exile which he -received.</p> - -<p>He did not speak at once, for he could not be -sure to command his voice, and he shrank from -betraying what he felt. She rose, and threw the -cigarette over the balustrade into the sea, and -turned to go indoors. She had said what her -wishes were, and she expected to have them -obeyed without more discussion. But the young -man rose too, and barred her way.</p> - -<p>He had only one consciousness, that he was -on the point of banishment from the only -woman whom he had cared for through two -whole years. It had become so integral a part -of his life that he should follow Nadine Napraxine -as the moon follows the earth, that -exile from her presence seemed to him the -most terrible of disasters, the most unendurable -of chastisements.</p> - -<p>‘After all this time, do you only tell me to go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> -away?’ he muttered, conscious of the lameness -and impotency of his own words, which might -well only move her laughter. But a certain -anger rather than amusement was what they -stirred in her; there was in them an implied -right, an implied reproach, which were both -what she was utterly indisposed to admit his -title to use.</p> - -<p>‘All this time!’ she echoed; ‘all what -time? You are leading a very idle life, and -all your excellent friends say that you leave -many duties neglected; I advise you to return -to them.’</p> - -<p>‘Is it the end of all?’ he said, while his -lips trembled in his own despite.</p> - -<p>‘All? All what? The end? No; it is -the end to nothing that I know of; I should -rather suppose that you would make it the -beginning—of a perfectly proper life at home. -Evelyn Brancepeth says you ought to reduce -all your farmers’ rents; go and do it; it will -make you popular in your own county. I know -you good English always fancy that you can -quench revolutions with a little weak tea of that -sort. As if people who hate you will not hate -you just the same whether they pay you half<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> -a guinea, or half a crown, for every sod of -ground! Our Tsar Alexander thought the -same sort of thing <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en grand</i>, and did it; but -it has not answered with him. To be sure, -he was even sillier—he expected slaves to be -grateful!’</p> - -<p>‘You really mean that you are tired of my -presence?’ he said, with no sense of anything -except the immense desolation which seemed -suddenly to cover all his life.</p> - -<p>‘You <em>will</em> put the dots on all your i’s!’ she -said impatiently. ‘That kind of love of explanation -is so English; all your political men’s time -is wasted in it. Nobody in England understands -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">à demi-mot</i>, or appreciates the prettiness -of a hint.’</p> - -<p>‘I understand well enough—too well,’ he -muttered, with a sigh that was choked in its -birth. ‘But—but—I suppose I am a fool; I -did not think you really cared much—yet I -always fancied—I suppose I had no right—but -surely we have been friends at the least?’</p> - -<p>His knowledge of the world and of women -ought to have stopped the question unuttered; -but a great pain, an intense disappointment, -had mastered him, and left him with no more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> -tact or wisdom than if he had been a mere -lad fresh from college. It cost him much to -make his reproach so measured, his words so -inoffensive. He began to understand why men -had said that Nadine Napraxine was more -perilous in her chastity and her spiritual cruelty -than the most impassioned Alcina.</p> - -<p>She looked at him with a little astonishment -mingled with a greater offence.</p> - -<p>‘Friends? certainly; why not?’ she said, -with entire indifference. ‘Who is talking of -enmity? In plain words, since you like them -so much, you do—bore me just a little; you -are too often here; you have a certain manner -in society which might make gossips remark it. -You do not seem to comprehend that one may -see too much of the most agreeable person -under the sun. It is, perhaps, a mistake ever -to see much of anyone; at least, I think so. -Briefly, I do not wish to have any more stories -for Nice and its neighbourhood; this one of -Boris Seliedoff is quite enough! They are beginning -to give me a kind of reputation of -being a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">tueuse d’hommes</i>. It is so vulgar, that -kind of thing. They are beginning to call me -Marie Stuart; it is absurd, but I do not like that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> -sort of absurdities. I had nothing to do with the -folly of poor Boris, but no one will ever believe -it; he will always be considered my victim. -It is true you are certain not to kill yourself; -Englishmen always kill a tiger or a pig -if they are unhappy, never themselves. I am -not afraid of your doing any kind of harm; you -will only go home and see your farmers and -please your family; and you will give big -breakfasts in uncomfortable tents, and be -toasted, and your county newspapers will have -all sorts of amiable paragraphs about you, and -sometime or other you will marry—why not? -Please stand back a little and let me pass; we -shall meet in Paris next year when you take a -holiday on your reduced rents.’</p> - -<p>She laughed a little, for the first time since -Seliedoff’s suicide; her own words amused her. -Those poor English gentlemen, who fancied -they would stem the great salt tide of class -hatred, the ever-heaving ocean of plebeian -envy, by the little paper fence of a reduced -rental! Poor Abels, deluding themselves with -the idea that they could disarm the jealousy of -their Cains with a silver penny!</p> - -<p>But the thoughts of Geraldine were far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> -away from any political ironies with which -she might entertain her own discursive mind.</p> - -<p>‘Nadine, Nadine,’ he said stupidly, ‘you -cannot be so cruel. I have always obeyed -you; I have never murmured; I have been -like your dog; I have been content on so -little. Other men would have rebelled, but -I—I——’</p> - -<p>Her languid eyes opened widely upon him -in haughty surprise and rebuke.</p> - -<p>‘Now you talk like a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">jeune premier</i> of -the Gymnase!’ she said, contemptuously. -‘Rebelled? Content? What words are those? -You have been a pleasant acquaintance—amongst -many. You cannot say you have -been ever more. If you have begun to misunderstand -that, go where you can recover -your good sense. I have liked you; so has -Prince Napraxine. Do not force us to consider -our esteem misplaced.’</p> - -<p>She spoke coldly, almost severely; then, -with an enchanting smile, she held out her -hand.</p> - -<p>‘Come, we will part friends, though you -are disposed to <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">bouder</i> like a boy. You know -something of the world; learn to look as if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> -you had learned at least its first lesson—good -temper. Affect it if you have it not! And—never -outstay a welcome!’</p> - -<p>He looked at her and his chest heaved with -a heavy sigh that was almost a sob. Passionate -upbraiding rose to his lips, a thousand -reproaches for delusive affabilities, for patiently-endured -caprices, for wasted hours and wasted -hopes, and wasted energies, all rose to his -mouth in hot hard words of senseless, irrepressible -pain; but they remained unuttered. -He dared not offend her beyond pardon, he -dared not exile himself beyond recall. He -was conscious of the futility of any reproach -which he could bring, of the absence of any -title which he could allege. For two years -he had been her bondsman, her spaniel, her -submissive servant in the full sight of the -world, yet looking backward he could not -recall any sign or word or glance which could -have justified him in the right to call himself -her lover. She had accepted his services, -permitted his presence—no more; and yet, he -felt himself as bitterly wronged, as cruelly -deluded, as ever man could have been by -woman.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span></p> - -<p>There is a little song which has been given -world-wide fame by the sweetest singer of our -time: the little song which is called, ‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Si vous -n’avez rien à me dire</i>.’ Just so vague, and so -intense, as is the reproach of the song, was the -cry of his heart against her now.</p> - -<p>If she had never cared, had never meant, -why then——?</p> - -<p>But he dared not formulate his injury in -words; he knew that it would condemn him never -to see her face again except in crowds as strangers -saw it. He had never really believed that she -would care for him as he cared for her, but it -had always seemed to him that habit would in -the end become affection, that the continual -and familiar intercourse which he had obtained -with her would become in time necessary to -her, an association, a custom, a friendship not -lightly to be discarded. He had believed that -patience would do more for him than passion; -he had endured all her caprices, followed all -her movements, incurred the ridicule of men, -and, what was worse, his own self-contempt, in -the belief that, with her, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Festina lente</i> was the -sole possible rule of victory. And now she -cast him aside, with no more thought than she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> -left to her maids a fan of an old fashion, a -glove that had been worn once!</p> - -<p>She gave him no time to recover the shock -with which he had heard his sentence of exile, -but, with a little kindly indifferent gesture, -passed him and went into the house.</p> - -<p>He had not the courage of Othmar; he -had never had as much title as Othmar to -deem himself preferred to the multitude; -looking back on the two years which he had -consecrated to her memory and her service, -he could not honestly recall a single word or -glance or sign which could have justified him -in believing himself betrayed.</p> - -<p>She had accepted his homage as she accepted -the bouquets which men sent her, to die in -masses in her ante-chambers.</p> - -<p>His pain was intolerable, his disappointment -was altogether out of proportion to the frail, -vague hopes which he had cherished; but he -felt also that his position was absurd, untenable; -he had never been her lover, he had -none of the rights of a lover; he was only one -of many who had failed to please her, who had -unconsciously blundered, who had committed -the one unpardonable sin of wearying her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p> - -<p>Resistance could only make him ridiculous -in her eyes. She had plainly intimated that -she was tired of his acquaintance and companionship. -It was an intense suffering to him, -but it was not one which he could show to the -world, or in which he could seek the world’s -sympathy. If he had failed to please her—failed, -despite all his opportunities, to obtain -any hold upon her sympathies—it was such -a failure as is only grotesque in the esteem -of men, and contemptible in the sight of -women.</p> - -<p>‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">A qui la faute?</i>’ she would have said -herself, with a pitiless amusement, which the -world would only have echoed.</p> - -<p>It was late in February, but already spring -in the Riviera; a brilliant sun was dancing -on all the million and one pretty things in her -boudoir, for she liked light, and could afford, -with her exquisite complexion and her flower-like -mouth, to laugh at the many less fortunate -of her sex, who dared not be seen without -all the devices of red glass and rose-coloured -transparencies and muffled sunbeams. She -caressed her little dog, and bade the negro boy -bring her some tea, and stretched herself out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> -on a long low chair with a pleasant sense -of freedom from a disagreeable duty done and -over.</p> - -<p>‘I will never be intimate with an Englishman -again,’ she thought. ‘They cannot understand; -they think they must be either your -Cæsar or <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">nullus</i>: it is so stupid; and then, -when you are tired, they grumble. Other men -say nothing to you, but they fight somebody -else,—which is so much better. It is only the -Englishman who grumbles, and abuses you as -if you were the weather!’</p> - -<p>The idea amused her.</p> - -<p>Through her open windows she could see -the sea. She saw the boat of Geraldine, with -its red-capped crew pulling straightway to the -westward; he was going to his yacht; the -affair was over peaceably; he would not kill -himself like Seliedoff. Her husband would -miss him for a little time, but he was used -to men who made themselves his ardent and -assiduous friends for a few months or more, -and then were no more seen about his house, -being banished by her; he was wont to call -such victims the Zephyrs after that squadron of -the mutinous in the Algerian army, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> -receives all those condemned and rejected by -their chiefs. He would ask no questions; he -would understand that his old companion had -joined the rest; he had never cared for the -fate of any save for that of young Seliedoff. -There were always men by the score ready to -amuse, distract, and feast with Prince Napraxine.</p> - -<p>She drank her yellow tea with its slice -of lemon, and enjoyed the unwonted repose -of half an hour’s solitude. She was conscious -at once of a certain relief in the definite exile -of her late companion, yet of a certain magnanimity, -inasmuch as she would enable other -women to presume that he had grown tired of -his allegiance.</p> - -<p>But the latter consideration weighed little -with her; she had been too satiated with -triumph not to be indifferent to it, and she -was at all times careless of the opinions of -others. She would miss him a little, as one -misses a well-trained servant, but there would -be so many others ready to fill his place. -Whenever her groom-of-the-chambers told her -hall-porter to say ‘Madame reçoit,’ her rooms -were filled with young men ready to obey her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> -slightest sign or wildest whim as poodles or -spaniels those of their masters. There were -not a few who, like Geraldine, regulated their -seasons and their sojourns by the capricious -movements of the Princess Napraxine, as poor -benighted shepherds follow the gyrations of -an ignis-fatuus. Whether north, south, east, -or west, wherever she was momentarily resident, -there was always seen her <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">corps de -garde</i>.</p> - -<p>As she sat alone now for the brief half-hour -before her usual drive, her past drifted before -her recollection in clear colours, as though she -were quite old. She remembered her childhood, -spent at the embassies of great cities, -where her father was the idol of all that was -distinguished and of much that was dissolute; -the most courtly, the most witty, the most -elegant, of great diplomatists. She remembered -how, sitting in her mother’s barouche in the -Bois or the Prater, or petted and caressed by -sovereigns and statesmen in her mother’s -drawing-rooms, she had seen so much with her -opal-like eyes, heard so much with her sea-shell-like -ears, and had, at ten years old, said to -Count Platoff, ‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Je serai honnête femme; ce<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> -sera plus chic</i>;’ and how his peal of laughter -had disconcerted her own serious mood and -solemnity of resolve. Then she remembered -how, when she was seventeen years old, her -mother had advised her to marry her cousin; -and how her father, when she had been -tempted to ask his support of her own adverse -wishes, had twisted his silken white moustaches -with a little shrug of his shoulders, and had -said: ‘Mais, mon enfant, je ne sais—nous -sommes presque ruinés; ça me plaira—et un -mari, c’est si peu de chose!’</p> - -<p>‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Si peu de chose!</i>’ she thought, now; and -yet a bullet that you drag after you, a note of -discord always in your music, a stone in your -ball slipper, dance you ever so lightly—an -inevitable ennui always awaiting you!</p> - -<p>‘If they had not been in such haste, I -should have met Othmar and have married -him!’ she mused, with that frankness which -was never missing from her self-communion. -‘Life would have looked differently;——I -would have made him the foremost man in -Europe; he has the powers needful, but he -has no ambitions; his millions have stifled -them.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p> - -<p>She thought, with something that was -almost envy, of the fate of Yseulte, and with -a remembrance, which was almost disgust, of -the early hours of her own marriage, when all -the delicacy and purity of her own girlhood -had revolted against the brutality of obligations -which she had in her ignorance submitted to -accept.</p> - -<p>How could she care for the children born -of that intolerable degradation to which no -habit or time had had power to reconcile -her?</p> - -<p>In her own eyes she had been as much -violated as any slave bought in the market.</p> - -<p>‘If I had daughters, they should at least -know to what they surrendered themselves -before they were given away in marriage,’ she -had often reflected, with a bitter remembrance -of the absolute innocence in which she herself -had repeated the vows, and broken the glass, -which had indissolubly united her to her cousin -Platon.</p> - -<p>Then, with the irony even of herself, and -the doubt even of herself, which were stronger -than any other instincts in her, she laughed at -her own momentary sentiment.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘I dare say I should have been tired of -him in six months,’ she thought, ‘and very -likely we should have hated one another in -another six. He would not have been as -easy as Platon; he would have had his prejudices——’</p> - -<p>Before her mind there rose the vision of a -place she had once seen as she had sailed in a -yacht down the Adriatic one cool autumnal -month; a place not far from Ragusa, somewhat -farther to the southward; a fantastic pile, half -Greek, half Turkish, with an old Gothic keep -built by Quattrocentisto Venetians rising in its -midst; gardens of palms and woods of ilex -sloping from it to meet the lapis-lazuli-hued -sea, cliffs of all the colours of precious stones -towering up behind it into the white clouds -and the dazzling sunshine. Fascinated by the -aspect of the place, she had asked its name and -owner, and the Austrians with her had -answered her, ‘It is called Zama, and it -belongs to the Othmars.’</p> - -<p>She had often remembered the Herzegovinian -castle, lonely as Miramar after the -tragedy of Quetaro.</p> - -<p>‘I would not have lived at Amyôt, but at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> -Zama,’ she thought now; then, angry and impatient -of herself, she dismissed her fancies as -you banish with a light clap of your hands a -flock of importunate birds, which fly away as -fast as they have come.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>‘Are you very happy?’ said Baron Fritz -to Yseulte in his occasional visits to Amyôt. -And she answered without words, with a blush -and a smile which were much warmer than -words. He saw that she was perfectly happy, -as yet; that whatever thorns might be beneath -the nuptial couch, they had not touched her.</p> - -<p>He did not venture to put the same question -to Othmar. There were times when he would -no more have interrogated his nephew than he -would have put fire to a pile of powder; he -had at once the vague fear and the abundant -contempt which a thoroughly practical, artificial, -and worldly man has for one whose -dreams and desires are wholly unintelligible to -him.</p> - -<p>‘Otho,’ he said once to her, ‘is like an -Eastern sorcerer who holds the magic ring with -which he can wish for anything under heaven; -but, as he cannot command immortality, all his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> -life slips through his fingers before he has decided -on what is most worth wishing for. Do -you understand?’</p> - -<p>Yseulte did not understand; to her this -sorcerer, if not benignant to himself, had at -least given all her soul desired. He treated -her with the most constant tenderness, with the -most generous delicacy, with the most solicitous -care; if in his love there might be some of the -heat of passion, some of the ardours of possession, -lacking, it was not the spiritual affection -and the childish innocence of so young a girl -which could be capable of missing those, or -be conscious of their absence. To Yseulte, love -was at once a revelation and a profanation: -she shrank from it even whilst she yielded to -it; it was not to such a temperament as hers -that any lover could ever have seemed cold.</p> - -<p>She did not understand her husband; physical -familiarity had not brought much mental -companionship. She adored him; the distant -sound of his step thrilled her with excitement, -his lightest touch filled her with delight; the -intense love she bore him often held her silent -and pale with an excess of emotion which she -would have been afraid to render into speech<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> -even if she had been able to do so; and she -was utterly unable, for the strength of her own -feelings alarmed her, and the mode of her -education had made her reticent.</p> - -<p>He was to her as a god who had suddenly -descended upon her life, and changed all its -poor, dull pathways into fields of light. That -she gave, or that she might give him, much -more than he gave her, never occurred to her -thoughts. That any ardour of admiration, or -force of emotion, might be absent in him towards -her, never suggested itself to her. Such -love as he bestowed on her, indifferent though -it was in reality, seemed to her the very height -of passion. She could not tell that mere sensual -indulgences mingled with affectionate compassion, -may produce so fair a simulacrum of love -for awhile that it will deceive alike deceiver -and deceived.</p> - -<p>Othmar knew that nothing tenderer, purer, -or nearer to his ideal, could have come into -his life than this graceful and most innocent -girl. She satisfied his taste if not his mind; -she was as fresh as a sea-shell, as a lily, as a -summer-dawn; and he felt an entire and illimitable -possession in her such as he had never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> -felt in any living woman; she was so young, -it seemed like drinking the very dew of morning; -and yet he could not have told whether -he was most restless or most in peace at -Amyôt.</p> - -<p>‘Love me a little, dear; I have no one,’ -he had said to her on the day of their betrothal, -and it had always seemed to him that -he had no one; all his mistresses had never -cared for him, but only for the golden god -which was behind him; or, he had thought so. -And now, she loved him with an innocence -and a fervour of which he could not doubt -the truth; and he was grateful, as the masters -of the world are usually grateful, for a handful -of the simple daily bread of real affection; -and she gave him all her young untouched -loveliness in pledge of that, as she might have -given him a rosebud to pluck to pieces. And -he felt the sweetness of the rosebud, he resigned -himself to the charm of the dawn, and endeavoured -to believe that he was happy; but -happiness escaped him as the vermilion hues of -the evening sky may escape the dreamer watching -for them, who looks too closely or looks -too far.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p> - -<p>Yet he remained willingly at Amyôt through -these winter weeks; as willingly as though he -had been the most impassioned of lovers. -Amyôt was as far from the world, if he chose, -as though its pastures and avenues had been -an isle in the great South Ocean; he wished to -forget the world with the ivory arms of Yseulte -drawn about his throat: he would gladly have -forgotten that any other woman lived beside -this child, on whose innocent mouth, sweet as -the wild rose in spring, he strove to stay the -fleeting fragrance of his own youth.</p> - -<p>‘No man had ever sweeter physician to his -woes,’ he thought as he looked at her in her -sleep, the red glow from the angry winter sunrise -touching with its light the whiteness of -her sculptural limbs. But what drug cures for -long?</p> - -<p>Friederich Othmar often went to the château -for a few hours on matters of business, and -was persuaded that the shining metal roofs of -the great Valois house of pleasure sheltered a -perfect contentment.</p> - -<p>‘But you must not remain for ever here,’ -he said to his nephew. ‘They will give you -some foolish name which will run down the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> -boulevards like magic; they will say you are -in love with your wife, or that you are educating -her; we all know what comes of that -latter attempt.’</p> - -<p>‘I stay at Amyôt,’ answered Othmar, ‘because -I like it, because we both like it.’</p> - -<p>‘My dear Otho, since you have pleased -yourself persistently all your life, it is improbable -that you will cease to do so at an age -when most men are only just able to begin. -Amyôt is an historic place, very old, admirably -adapted for a museum; but since it is to your -taste, well and good; only none will comprehend -that you stay here <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">filant le parfait amour</i> -for two months. If you continue to do so, -Paris will believe that your wife has a club-foot -or a crooked spine.’</p> - -<p>‘You think she must show the one in a -cotillon, or the other in something <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">très collant</i>?’ -said Othmar.</p> - -<p>‘Are you afraid of that?’ said the Baron, -who knew by what means to attain his own -ends.</p> - -<p>‘I am not in the least afraid,’ replied -Othmar, with impatience. ‘But I confess -Amyôt, with the cuckoo crying in its oak<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> -woods, seems a fitter atmosphere for her than -the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">endiablement</i> of Paris.’</p> - -<p>‘You could return to the cuckoo. I am -not acquainted with his habits, but I should -presume he is a stay-at-home, countryfied -person.’</p> - -<p>‘You do not understand the spring-time,’ -said Othmar, with a smile.</p> - -<p>‘It has always seemed to me the most uncomfortable -period of the year,’ confessed the -Baron. ‘It is an indefinite and transitory -period, such as are seldom agreeable, except to -poets, who are naturally unstable themselves.’</p> - -<p>‘I suppose you were never young?’ said -Othmar, doubtfully.</p> - -<p>‘I must have been, pathologically speaking,’ -replied Friederich Othmar. ‘But I have no -recollection of it; I certainly never remember -a time when I did not read of the state of -Europe with interest: I think, on the contrary, -there was never a time in which you took any -interest in it.’</p> - -<p>‘Europe is such a very small fraction of -such an immeasurable whole!’</p> - -<p>‘It is our fraction at least; and all we -have,’ said the Baron; all the gist of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> -matter seemed to him to lie in that. ‘You -would like to live in Venus, or journey to the -rings of Saturn, but at present science limits us -to Earth.’</p> - -<p>‘Can you not persuade him to take any -interest in mankind?’ he continued to Yseulte, -as she approached them at that moment. He -was about to leave Amyôt after one of his -brief and necessary visits, and stood smoking -a cigarette before his departure in the great -central hall, with its dome painted by Primaticcio.</p> - -<p>‘In mankind?’ she repeated with a smile. -‘That is very comprehensive, is it not? I am -sure,’ she added with hesitation, for she was -afraid of offending her husband, ‘he is very -good to his own people, if you mean that?’</p> - -<p>‘He does not mean that at all, my dear,’ -said Othmar. ‘He means that I should be -very eager to ruin some states and upraise -others, that I should foment war and disunion, -or uphold anarchy or absolutism, as either best -served me, that I should free the hands of one -and tie the hands of another; do not trouble -your head about these matters, my child; let -us go in the woods and look for primroses,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> -which shall remind you of the green lanes of -Faïel.’</p> - -<p>Yseulte, whose interest was vaguely aroused, -looked from one to another.</p> - -<p>‘If you really can do so much as that,’ -she said timidly, ‘I think I would do it if I -were you; because surely you might always -serve the right cause and help the weak people.’</p> - -<p>Othmar smiled, well pleased.</p> - -<p>‘My dear Baron, this is not the advocate that -you wish to arouse. Remember Mephistopheles -failed signally when he entered a cathedral.’</p> - -<p>‘I do not despair; I shall have Paris on -my side,’ said the Baron, as he made his farewells.</p> - -<p>The day was bright, and a warm wind was -stirring amidst the brown buds of the trees and -forests; the great forests wore the purple haze -of spring; from the terraces of Amyôt, where -once Francis and the Marguerite des Marguerites -had wandered, the immense view -of the valleys of the Loire and of the Cher -was outspread in the noon sunlight, white -tourelle and grey church spire rising up -from amid the lake of golden air like ‘silver -sails upon a summer sea.’ From these stately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> -terraces, raised high on colonnades of marble, -with marble statues of mailed men-at-arms -standing at intervals adown their length, the -eyes could range over all that champaign -country which lies open like a chronicle of -France to those who have studied her wars and -dynasties.</p> - -<p>Yseulte loved to come there when the sun -was bright as when it was at its setting, and -dream her happy dreams, whilst gazing over -the undulations of the great forests spreading -solemn and hushed and shadowy, away, far -away, to the silver line of the vast river and to -the confines of what once was Touraine.</p> - -<p>‘What do you find to think so much of, -you, with your short life and your blameless -conscience?’ asked Othmar that day, looking -at her as she leaned against the marble parapet.</p> - -<p>She might have answered in one word, -‘You,’ but love words did not come easily to -her lips; she was very shy with him still.</p> - -<p>She answered evasively: ‘Does one always -think at all when one looks, and looks, and -looks, idly like this? I do not believe reverie -is real thinking; it is an enjoyment; everything -is so still, so peaceful, so bright—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> -then it cannot go away, it is all yours; we -may leave it, it cannot leave us.’</p> - -<p>‘You are very fond of the country?’</p> - -<p>‘I have never been anywhere else, except -when I was a little child in Paris. I love -Paris, but it is not like this.’</p> - -<p>‘No woman lives who does not love Paris; -but I think Amyôt suits you better. You have -a Valois look; you are of another day than -ours. I should not like to see you grow like -the women of your time; you are a true -patrician—you have no need of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chien</i>.’</p> - -<p>He put a hothouse rose in her bosom as he -spoke, and kissed her throat as he did so. The -colour flushed there at his touch. She stooped -her face over the rose.</p> - -<p>‘I do not think I shall ever change,’ she -said, hurriedly. ‘It seems to me as if one -must remain what one is born.’</p> - -<p>‘The ivory must; the clay changes,’ said -Othmar. ‘You are very pure ivory, my love. I -robbed you from Christ.’</p> - -<p>He was seated on one of the marble benches -in the balustrade of the terrace; she stood -before him, while his hand continued to play -with the rose he had put at her breast. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> -wore a white woollen gown, which fell about -her in soft folds, edged with ermine; a broad -gold girdle clasped her waist, and old guipure -lace covered her heart, which beat warm and -high beneath his touch as he set the great -crimson rose against it. In an innocent way -she suddenly realised her own charm and its -power which it gave her over any man; she -lost her timidity, and ventured to ask him a -question.</p> - -<p>‘What is it that the Baron wishes you so -much to do?’ she said, as she stood before him. -‘I did not understand.’</p> - -<p>‘He wishes me, instead of putting roses in -your corsage, to busy myself with setting the -torch of war to dry places.’</p> - -<p>‘I do not understand. What is it you can -do?’</p> - -<p>‘I will try and tell you in a few words. -There are a few men, dear, who have such an -enormous quantity of gold that they can -arrange the balance of the world much at -pleasure. One man, called Vanderbilt, could, -for instance, make such a country as England -bankrupt if he chose, merely by throwing his -shares wholesale on the market. The Othmar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> -are such men as this. My forefathers made -immense fortunes, mostly very wickedly, and -by force of their own unscrupulousness have -managed to become one of these powers of the -world. I have no such taste for any such -power. It is with my indifference that my -uncle reproaches me. He thinks that if I -bestowed greater attention to the state of -Europe I could double the millions I possess. -I do not want to do that; I do not care to do -that; so a great chasm of difference yawns -for ever between him and me.’</p> - -<p>‘He loves you very much?’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, in his way; but I irritate him and -he irritates me. We have scarcely a point in -common.’</p> - -<p>‘Perhaps,’ said Yseulte, amazed at her own -boldness in suggesting a fault in him, ‘perhaps -you have not quite patience with his difference -of character?’</p> - -<p>‘That is very possible,’ said Othmar, himself -astonished at her insight. ‘I could pardon -anything if he would not speak of the Othmar -as Jews speak of Jehovah. It is so intolerably -absurd.’</p> - -<p>‘But they are your people.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘Alas! yes. But I despise them; I dislike -them. They were intolerably bad men, my -dear; they did intolerably bad things. All -this,’ he continued, with a gesture of his hand -towards the mighty building of Amyôt, with its -marble terraces and its many towers dazzling -in the sunlight, ‘they would never have possessed -save through hundreds of unscrupulous -actions heaped one on the other to make -stepping-stones across the salt-marsh of poverty -to the yellow sands of fortune. Oh, I do not -mean that Amyôt was not bought fairly. It -was bought quite fairly, at a very high price, -by my great grandfather, but the wealth which -enabled him to buy it was ill-gotten. His -father was a common Croat horse-dealer, which -is a polite word for horse-stealer, who lived in -the last century in the city of Agram. There -are millions of loose horses in the vast oak -woods of Western Hungary and the immense -plains of Croatia, and to this day there are many -men who live almost like savages, and steal -these half-wild horses as a means of subsistence. -There were, of course, many more of these -robbers in the last century than in this. Marc -Othmar did not actually steal the horses, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> -he bought them at a tenth part of their value -from these rough men of the woods and plains -when stolen, and the large profits he made by -this illegal traffic laid the foundations of the -much-envied fortunes which I enjoy, and which -you grace to-day.’</p> - -<p>He had spoken as though he explained -the matter to a child, but Yseulte’s ready -imagination supplied the colour to his bare -outlines. She was silent, revolving in her -thoughts what he had said.</p> - -<p>‘I would rather your people had been warriors,’ -she said, with hesitation, thinking of her -own long line of crusaders.</p> - -<p>‘I would rather they had been peasants,’ he -returned. ‘But being what they were, I must -bear their burdens.’</p> - -<p>‘Then what is it he wishes you to do that -you do not?’</p> - -<p>‘He wishes me to have many ambitions, but -as I regard it, the fortunes which I have been -born to entirely smother ambition; whatever -eminence I might achieve, if I did achieve it, -would never appear better than so much preference -purchased. If I had been as great a -soldier as Soult, they would have said I bought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> -my victories. If I had had the talent of Balzac, -they would have said I bought the press. -If I had written the music of the “Hamlet” -or the “Roi de Lahore,” they would have said -that I bought the whole musical world for my -claque. If I could have the life that I should -like, I should choose such a life as Lamartine’s, -but a rival of the Rothschilds cannot be either -a poet or a leader of a revolution. The <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">monstrari -digito</i> ruins the peace and comfort of -life: if I walk down the boulevard with the -Comte de Paris the fools cry that I wish to -crown Philippe VII., if I speak to M. Wilson -in the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">foyer</i> of the Français they scream that -there is to be a concession for a new loan; -if the Prince Orloff come to breakfast with -me a Russian war is suspected, and if Prince -Hohenlohe dine with me I have too German -a bias. This kind of notoriety is agreeable -to my uncle. It makes him feel that he holds -the strings of the European puppet show. -But to myself it is detestable. To come and -go unremarked seems to me the first condition -of all for the quiet enjoyment of life, -but I have been condemned to be one of those -unfortunates who cannot drive a phaeton down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> -to Chantilly without the press and the public -becoming nervous about the intentions of M. -d’Aumale. Last year, one very hot day, I was -passing through Paris, and I asked for a glass -of water at a little café at the barrière. They -stared, and brought me some. When I told -them that I only wanted water, the waiter said, -with a smile, “Monsieur ne peut pas être sérieux! -nous avons l’honneur de le connaître.” -The world, like the waiter, will not let me have -plain water when I wish for it. I dare say -my wish may be perversity, but, at any rate, it -is always thwarted by the very people who -imagine they are gratifying me with indulgences.’</p> - -<p>‘But some of the people love you,’ she insisted. -‘Did not the workmen of Paris give -you that beautiful casket the other day? Was -it not bought by a two-sous subscription?’</p> - -<p>‘That was more a compliment to the Maison -d’Othmar than to myself. We have always -been popular in Paris; so was Louis Napoléon—once. -We have much the same titles as he -had; we have committed many crimes, and -caused immeasurable misery.’</p> - -<p>‘Not you,’ she said softly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘I inherit the results,’ said her husband.</p> - -<p>‘But you have done great things,’ she said -timidly. ‘The curé here was telling me yesterday -of all you have done for the poor of -Paris. He says that the hospitals you have -founded, the charities you maintain——’</p> - -<p>‘The curé knows his way to your heart -and your purse! My dear, the Emperor -Napoléon Trois thought that he did a great -thing for the poor of Paris when he pulled -down their rookeries and built them fine and -healthy <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">cités ouvrières</i>; there was only one -thing the Emperor could not do: he could not -make the poor live in them; and the Convalescent -Home he erected at Vincennes did -not save him from Sedan, or Paris from the -Commune. We who are rich shall always have -the Emperor’s fate; we shall build as much as -we like, and spend as much as we like, but we -shall never reach the hearts of the great -multitudes, who all hate us. It is very natural -they should. Never say a word about what -they call my charities. They are blunders -like the Emperor’s, many of which seem now to -be very absurd ones. If I ever come to my -Sedan, they will not be remembered for an hour.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> -The one thing I can do, and will do, is, that I -will prevent, as long as I live, the use of the -great mill of gold which we grind being turned -to immoral purposes—such purposes, for instance, -as the oppression of peoples, as the -barter of nationalities, as the supply of the -sinews of unjust and unholy wars, as the many -intolerable iniquities which, whilst professing -Christianity, modern statesmen employ under -spurious names to most intolerable ends. So -much I can do; and, for doing it, I am -thought a fool. All the rest is wholly indifferent -to me. The machine swings on as -it will; it is so admirably organised that it -requires little guidance, and, that little, Baron -Friederich gives, whilst I am free, my dear, to -stay at Amyôt and gather you another rose, -for I have spoilt this one.’</p> - -<p>He had spoken more gaily, frankly, and -fully than was his wont, and kissed her softly -on the throat once more.</p> - -<p>Yseulte’s thoughts were with his earlier -words; her eyes were moist, and very serious. -It was the first time that he had ever alluded -before her to his family or his position; she -had never at all understood what they had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> -meant around her when they had spoken of la -Finance; she had seen that he was <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">très grand -seigneur</i>, and was treated, wherever he moved, -with the greatest marks of deference. It -seemed very strange to her that so much power -and state should be possible without unblemished -descent: it was outside of her creed and -her comprehension. If she had loved him -less, it would have shocked her.</p> - -<p>‘I am sorry,’ she said softly, ‘it must have -troubled you so much. I understand why you -are sometimes sad. It must be like holding -lightning in your hands; and then there is the -fear of using it ill——’</p> - -<p>‘My greatest fault has been to be too -careless of it,’ he answered. ‘To have used -my power neither way, neither for good nor -ill. I have comforted myself that I have done -no harm;—a negative praise. Come, let us go -and choose another rose for you; or shall we -go into the woods? You like them better. -Do not trouble your soul with the gold or the -crimes of the Othmar. You are come to purify -both; and you will make your children in -your own likeness out of that consecrated ivory -of which heaven has made you!’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘She is the first woman of them all,’ he -thought, as they descended the marble stairs -towards the glades of the park, ‘the first who -has had any sympathy with me. They have all -thought me a fool for not turning round like -the sluggard, and lying drugged in my golden -nest. She understands very little because she -does not understand the world; but she can -imagine how all which the vulgar think so -delightful drags me down like a wallet of -stones.’</p> - -<p>‘Yseulte,’ he said aloud, ‘do you know -what all my millions cannot buy, and what -I would give them all to be able to buy? Well, -something like the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mort sur le champ d’honneur</i>, -which was said for a hundred and fifty years -when the name of Philippe de Valogne was -called in the roll-call of the Grenadiers.’</p> - -<p>The memory he recalled was one of the most -glorious of her race; one of those traditions of -pure honour which are common enough in the -nobility of France. The Counts de Valogne -had been behind none in high courage and lofty -codes; and the local history of their province -was studded with the exploits and the martial -self-sacrifice whereby they had continually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> -redeemed their extravagance and their idleness -as courtiers and men of pleasure.</p> - -<p>She turned to him with her brightest smile, -and her hand touched his with a gesture -caressing and timid.</p> - -<p>‘He is mine; I will give him to you,’ she -said, with a child’s abandonment and gaiety. -‘I am so glad that I have something to give!’</p> - -<p>‘You will give his blood to my sons,’ said -Othmar. ‘So you will give it to me.’</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Melville came one day to Amyôt.</p> - -<p>‘You have followed my advice,’ he said to -Othmar. ‘You have made yourself a home. -It is the nearest likeness to heaven that men -get on earth. Believe a homeless man when -he tells you so.’</p> - -<p>Othmar smiled.</p> - -<p>‘It is odd that you, the purest priest I know, -and my uncle, the worldliest of philosophers -and money-makers, should coincide in your -counsels. Perhaps to make a home is as -difficult as to make a discovery in astronomy -or mathematics, or to appreciate a sunrise or -sunset.’</p> - -<p>‘Do you mean to say?——’</p> - -<p>‘I mean to say nothing in especial; except -that one’s life, as the world goes, does not fit -one to be the hourly companion of a perfectly -virginal mind. My dear Melville, she makes me -ashamed; my society seems infinitely too coarse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> -for her. I have never seemed to myself such -a brute.’</p> - -<p>‘That is, I fear, because you are not very -much in love, and so are at liberty to analyse -your own sensations: a lover would not feel -those scruples,’ reflected Melville; but he -merely said aloud: ‘If a woman have not a -little of the angelic, she goes near to having -something of the diabolic. Women are always -in extremes.’</p> - -<p>‘Her soul is like a crystal,’ said Othmar. -‘But in it I see my own soul, and it looks unworthy.’</p> - -<p>He could not say even to Melville, tried -physician of sick souls as he was, that there -were moments when the perfect purity of the -young girl wearied him, when her innocent -tenderness fretted him, and failed to supply all -the stimulant to his senses that women less -lovely but more versed in amorous arts could -have given, when he was, in a word—the most -fatal word love ever hears—wearied.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Othmar cueillant les marguerites aux bois!</i>’ -said Nadine Napraxine, with her most unkind -smile, when she heard that he remained -under the Valois woods until autumn.</p> - -<p>She herself was in Russia; forced also to -gather daisies in her own manner, which always -wearied her. It was necessary to be seen -awhile at Tsarkoe Selo, or wherever the -Imperial people were; and then to visit for -a few months the immense estates of Prince -Napraxine. They had gone thither earlier -than usual through the suicide of Boris Seliedoff, -which had cast many noble northern -families into mourning, and had for a moment -chilled the feeling of Europe in general towards -herself.</p> - -<p>‘It was so inconsiderate of him!’ she said -more than once. ‘Everyone was sure to put -it upon me!’</p> - -<p>It seemed to her very unjust.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p> - -<p>She had been kind to the boy, and then had -rebuked him a little as anybody else would -have done. Who could imagine that he would -blow his brains out under the palms and aloes, -like any <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">décavé</i> without a franc?</p> - -<p>She was exceedingly angry that the world -should venture to blame her. When her Imperial -mistress, receiving her first visit, gave -some expression to this general sentiment, and -presumed to hazard some phrases which suggested -a hint of reproof, Nadine Napraxine -revolted with all the pride of her temper, and -did not scruple to respond to her interlocutor -that the Platoff and the Napraxine both were -of more ancient lineage and greater traditions -in Russia than those now seated on the throne.</p> - -<p>To her alone would it have been possible -to make such a reply and yet receive condonation -of it, as she did. There was in her a -force which no one resisted, a magnetism which -no one escaped.</p> - -<p>She was, however, extremely angered, both -by the remarks made to her at Court, and -about her in European society, and withdrew -herself to the immense solitudes of the province -of Kaluga in an irritation which was not with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>out -dignity. Men who adored her, of whom -there were many, noticed that her self-exile to -Zaraïzoff coincided with that of Othmar to -Amyôt; but there was no one who would have -dared to say so. Geraldine had gone to North -America, which had amused her.</p> - -<p>‘<em>He</em> will not shoot himself,’ she thought. -‘He will shoot a vast number of innocent -beasts instead. Seliedoff was the manlier of -the two.’</p> - -<p>Zaraïzoff was a mighty place set amongst -the endless woods and rolling plains of the -north-eastern provinces; a huge rambling structure -half fortress, half palace, with the village -clustering near as in other days when the -Tartars might sweep down on it like vultures. -The wealth of the Napraxines had made it -within almost oriental in its luxury; without, it -had much of the barbaric wildness of the -country, and it had been here in the first two -intolerable years after her marriage that she -had learned to love to be drawn by half-wild -horses at lightning speed over the snow plains, -with the bay of the wolves on the air, and the -surety of fatal frost-bite if the furs were incautiously -dropped a moment too soon.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p> - -<p>At Zaraïzoff, when she established herself -there for the summer, she brought usually a -Parisian household with her, and inviting a succession -of guests, filled with a great movement -and gaiety of life the sombre courts, the silent -galleries and chambers, the antique walls all -covered with vivid paintings like a Byzantine -church, the long low salons luxurious as a -Persian harem. But this summer it saw her -come almost alone. Her children came also -from southern Russia, and Platon Napraxine -at least was happy.</p> - -<p>‘Is it possible to be uglier than that; not -surely among the Kalmucks!’ she thought, -looking in the good-tempered little Tartar-like -faces of her two small sons.</p> - -<p>They were absurdly like their father; but, -as they promised to be also, like him, tall and -well-built, would probably, as they grew up, -find many women, as he had found many, to -tell them they were handsome men; but that -time was far off, and as yet they were but ugly -children. Sachs and Mitz (Alexander and -Demetrius) were respectively five and six years -old, big, stout, ungainly little boys, with flat -blunt features, in which the Tartar blood of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> -Napraxine was prominently visible. They had -a retinue of tutors, governesses, bonnes, and -attendants of all kinds, and had been early -impressed with the opinion that a Napraxine -had no superior on earth save the Gospodar.</p> - -<p>‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ils ont pris la peine de naître!</i>’ quoted -their mother with contempt as she beheld their -arrogant little pomposities: she could never -forgive them that they had done so. It was -natural that when she looked in her mirror she -could scarcely bring herself to believe that they -had been the issue of her own life.</p> - -<p>‘I suppose I ought to adore them, but I -certainly do not,’ she said to Melville, who, -having been sent on a mission to Petersburg -by the Vatican in the vain hope of mitigating -by the charm of his manner the hard -fate of the Catholic Poles, had paused for a -day at Zaraïzoff to obey the summons of its -mistress, travelling some extra thousand versts -to do so. It was to him that she had made -the remark about the daisies.</p> - -<p>Melville, though he was a priest whose -vows were truly sacred obligations in his eyes, -was also keenly alive to those enjoyments of -the graces and luxuries of life which his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> -frequent employment in diplomatic missions for -the head of his Church made it not only permissible -but desirable for him to indulge in -at times. His brief visit to Zaraïzoff, and other -similar diversions, were agreeable episodes in -months of spiritual effort and very serious -intellectual work, and he abandoned himself -to the amusement of such occasional rewards -with the youthful ardour which sixty years had -not tamed in him.</p> - -<p>Nadine Napraxine was not only charming -to his eyes and taste, as to those of all men, -but she interested him with the attraction which -a complicated and not-easily-unravelled character -possesses for all intellectual people. He -had perceived in her those gifts mental and -moral which, under suitable circumstance, make -the noblest of temperaments, and he also perceived -in her an indefinite potentiality for -cruelty and for tyranny; the conflict between -the two interested him as a psychological study. -He could not but censure her intolerance of -Napraxine; yet neither could he refuse to sympathise -with it. The Prince was the last man -on earth to have been able to attain any power -over that variable, contemptuous, and subtle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> -temperament and over an intelligence refined -by culture to the utmost perfection of taste and -hypercriticism of judgment. He adored her -indeed, but <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">c’est le pire défaut</i> in such cases; -and a hippopotamus in his muddy sedges might -have done so, with as much hope as he, of -exciting anything more than her impatience -and contempt.</p> - -<p>‘I certainly do not,’ she repeated, as she -lay on a divan after dinner, in a grand hall imitated -from the Alhambra, with a copy of the -Lion fountain in white marble in the centre, and -groves of palms in white marble vases lifting -their green banners against the deep glow of -the many-coloured fretwork and diapered gold -of the walls. ‘They are two quite uninteresting -children, stupid, obstinate, proud, already -convinced that a Prince Napraxine has only to -breathe a wish to see it accomplished. At -present they are good tempered and are fond -of each other, but that will not last long; -they will soon feel their claws and use them. -They are quite wonderfully ugly;—an ugliness -flat, heavy, animal, altogether Tartar. I imagine -I could have been fond of a child like -any other woman, but then I think with any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> -mother it must be always the child of a man -she loves; it must be the symbol of sympathy -and the issue of joy——’</p> - -<p>She spoke dreamily, almost regretfully, her -delicate head lying back amongst the pillows -of golden silk, while she sent a little cloud of -smoke into the air.</p> - -<p>Melville looked at her: he thought that -there were persons who were like the Neva -river; the Neva does not freeze of itself, but it -has so many huge blocks of ice rolled down -into it from above that it looks as if it did.</p> - -<p>He hesitated a moment; he was too sagacious -a man of the world to intrude his own beliefs -where they would only have met with unbelief.</p> - -<p>‘What can I say?’ he murmured. ‘Only -that I suppose maternal love, after all, like all -other love, does not come at command; human -nature has always been under the illusion that -it was a spontaneous and irresistible growth.’</p> - -<p>‘Human nature has so many illusions,’ said -Nadine Napraxine. ‘But I have never heard -that much reason underlies any one of them.’</p> - -<p>‘But does not our happiness?’ said Melville.</p> - -<p>She laughed a little.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘Do you believe much in happy people? -I think there are passions, vanities, titillations, -desires, successes—those one sees in full motion -on the earth, like animalculæ in a drop of -water; but happiness, I imagine, died with -Paul et Virginie, with Chactas and Atala. To -be happy, you must be capable of being unhappy. -We never reach that point; we are -only irritable, or grow <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">anémique</i>, according -to the variety of our constitutions.’</p> - -<p>‘I knew a perfectly happy woman once,’ -said Melville; ‘happy all her life, and she lived -long.’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, you mean some nun,’ said Nadine -Napraxine, with impatience. ‘That is not -happiness; it is only a form of hysteria or -hypogastria.’</p> - -<p>‘Not a nun,’ replied Melville, making himself -a cigarette, while the sun played on the -red sash of his gown, the gown which Raffael -designed for Leo. ‘Not a nun. The woman -I mean was a servant in a little dirty village -near Grenoble; she had been in the service of -two cross, miserly people ever since she was -fifteen. At the time I knew her first she was -forty-seven. The old people had a small shop of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> -general necessaries; she attended to the shop, -cooked, and cleaned, and washed, and spun, -dug, too, in a vegetable garden, and took care -of a donkey, and pigs, and fowls. When she -was about thirty, the old man first, and then the -old woman, became incapable, from paralysis. -Rose—her name was Rose—worked on harder -than ever. She had many offers of better service, -even offers of marriage, for she was a -famous housewife, but she refused them; she -would not leave the old people. They were -poor; they had never been good or grateful to -her; they had even beaten her when she was a -girl; but she would never leave them. She -had been a foundling, and theirs had been the -only form of human ties that she had ever -known. She was perfectly happy all the day -long, and she even found time to do many a -good turn for neighbours worse off than herself. -She had never had more than twenty francs a -year in money, but then “you see, I live well, I -want nothing,” she said to me once. And such -living! Black cabbage and black bread! Well, -she was perfectly happy, as I say. You do not -seem to believe it?’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, yes; so is a snail,’ said the Princess<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> -Nadine. ‘Besides, you know, if she had been -a pretty woman——’</p> - -<p>Melville felt almost angry.</p> - -<p>‘You are very cruel. Why will you divorce -beauty and virtue?’</p> - -<p>‘I do not divorce them, nature usually does,’ -she answered, amused. ‘Perhaps they divorce -themselves. Well, what became of this paragon?’</p> - -<p>‘She was no paragon,’ said Melville, annoyed. -‘ She was a hard-working, good, honest -woman, perfectly content with a horrible lot, -and loyal unto death to two tyrannical old -brutes who never thanked her. When they -died they left all the little they had to a nephew -in the Jura, who had taken no notice of them -all their days—a rich tradesman. Poor Rose, -at fifty-three years old, was sent adrift on the -world. She cried her heart out to have to -leave the house, and the ass, and the chickens. -I got her the grant from the Prix Montyon, -and she was set up in a tiny shop of her own -in her own village, but she did not live long. -“<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Quand on a été heureuse, après—c’est long</i>,” -she said in her dying hour. She was afraid -to seem ungrateful, but “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">sans mes vieux</i>,” as -she said, apologetically, her life was done. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> -seems a terrible life to us, but I can solemnly -declare that it was one of the few happy ones -of which I have ever been witness. There is a -sustaining, vivifying force in duty, like the heat -of the sun, for those who accept it.’</p> - -<p>‘For those who accept it, no doubt,’ said -Nadine Napraxine, drily; ‘but then, you see, -my dear and reverend Melville, it requires some -organ in one’s brain—superstition, I think, or -credulity—before one can do that. Every one -is not blessed with that organ. Pray believe,’ -she resumed, with her softer smile, perceiving -a vexed shadow on his face, ‘I am not insensible -to the quiet unconscious heroism of those -lowly lives of devotion. They are always -touching. Those revelations which the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">discours</i> -of the Prix Montyon give from time to time -always make one envious of so much belief, -of so much endurance, of so much unobtrusive -and unselfish goodness. But, though I dare say -you will be very angry, I cannot help reminding -you that what makes the sparrow very happy -would have no sort of effect on the swallow, except -that he would feel restless and uncomfortable; -and also that—pray forgive me, for you -are a priest—to be contented with doing one’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> -duty one must believe in duty as a Divine ordinance. -To do that one must have—well, just -that bump of credulity of which I spoke—of -easy, unquestioning, unintelligent, credulity. -Now, that it is a happy quality I am certain, -but is it,—is it, an intellectual one?’</p> - -<p>She spoke very sweetly, but with a demure -smile, which made Melville feel that there was -a great deal more which she did not say out of -respect for his sacred calling and his position -as her guest.</p> - -<p>‘Do not repeat over to me all the stock -arguments,’ she said quickly, as he opened his -lips; ‘I have heard them all ten thousand times. -I have the greatest possible regard for your -doctrines, which have satisfied Chateaubriand, -Lacordaire, Montalembert, Manning, Newman, -and yourself, but I have always failed to understand -how they did satisfy any of you. But -we will not discuss theology. Your poor Rose -proves, if she prove anything, that Heaven is -not in a hurry to reward its servitors. Perhaps, -after all, she might have been wiser if she had -married some Jeannot, all over flour or coal dust, -and had half a dozen children and fifty grand -children.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘There is common brute enjoyment all over -the earth,’ said Melville, almost losing his -temper. ‘It must be well that it should be -leavened here and there with lives of sublime -self-sacrifice; one heroic or unselfish act raises -the whole of human nature with it.’</p> - -<p>Nadine Napraxine took a cigarette.</p> - -<p>‘There are ten thousand such acts in Russia -every year, but they do not produce much -effect. Juggernauth rolls on,——’</p> - -<p>Melville looked at her quickly.</p> - -<p>‘You have a certain sympathy with the -people, though you deride my poor Rose.’</p> - -<p>‘I do not deride her; I admire her within -certain limits. Only, I ascribe her actions more -to ignorance and to superstition, whereas you -ascribe them entirely to a clear-eyed devotion. -Yes; I could have been a revolutionist, I think, -only all the traditions of the Platoff and the -Napraxine forbid it; and then, as I said to you -once before, I do not like <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Pallida Mors</i> carried -about in a hat-box or a sardine-case. It is grotesque. -Without jesting,’ she continued, ‘I think -if I saw my way to do something truly great or -of lasting benefit, I should be ready to sacrifice -my life to it; but there is nothing. If a Princess<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> -Napraxine joined the Nihilists, she would only -cause an intolerable scandal and set an example -which would be very injurious to the country -at large. Some day, Russia will be in revolt -from one end to another, but the day is not -yet, and I doubt much that any good will be -done when it comes. The evil lies too deep, -in the drunkenness, in the lying, in the -bestiality——’</p> - -<p>She saw a look of surprise on Melville’s -face, and continued quickly:</p> - -<p>‘Do you suppose I never think? I believe I -have read every socialistic writer from Rousseau -to Bakounine. They do not convince me of -anything except of the utter improbability that -any real liberty will ever be obtainable from -any congregation of men. Humanity is tyrannical -and slavish at once; its governments are -created in its own likeness, it makes little -difference what they are called, they are -human offspring, so they are narrow and arrogant.’</p> - -<p>‘Poor humanity!’ said Melville. ‘It is -only we priests who can lend it wings.’</p> - -<p>‘Because you say to it, like Schiller, “Cheat -yourself, and dream,”’ she replied. ‘But even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> -there how narrow still! You say to each unit, -"Save yourself!"’</p> - -<p>‘Well,’ said the Englishman with good -temper, ‘if every one sweep out his own -little chamber, the whole city will be clean.’</p> - -<p>‘The city will be for ever unclean. You -know that as well as I do. Only, all Churchmen -can hide their eyes ostrich-like in the sand -of sonorous phrases. Your Christianity has -been toiling for eighteen centuries, and, one -may say, has accomplished nothing. It mouths -a great deal, but practical result it has scarcely -any. Its difficulty has always been that, being -illogical in its essence and traditions, it must -be restrained to words. Reduced to practice, -all the modern world would fade away, riches -would disappear, effort would be impossible, -and the whole machinery of civilisation come -to a standstill and entire disuse. You are as -aware of that as I am, only you do not like to -say so.’</p> - -<p>She rose, amused at his discomfiture, and -lighted another cigarette. She smoked as -gracefully as a bird pecks at the dew in a rose.</p> - -<p>‘She is the only woman who makes me -irritable,’ the courtly Gervase Melville had once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> -said of her, and he might have said also, ‘the -only woman who reduces me to silence.’</p> - -<p>‘Allow, Princess,’ he said irritably now, -‘ that whether we accredit Christianity with -it or not, the life of poor Rose in her wooden -shoes was much more useful than yours is in -those pearl-embroidered <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mules</i>.’</p> - -<p>‘Ah,’ she answered with a smile. ‘You -are indeed worsted in your logic if you must -descend to personalities! Certainly I grant -that; my life is of a most absolute inutility. -It is, perhaps, now and then useful to my tailors, -because I give them ideas they would not have -without me. But to no one else. <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">À qui la faute?</i> -I arrived in this world without any option. -As Mr. Gladstone said when he was an Eton -boy, responsibilities which are thrust upon us -do not exact our obedience. It is the only -sentiment of Mr. Gladstone with which I have -ever been able to agree. Life is clearly thrust -upon us. We none of us seek it, that is -certain. If we are able to disport ourselves in -it, like butterflies in a south wind, it says much -in praise of the lightness of our hearts.’</p> - -<p>‘Or of the levity of our consciences,’ said -Melville, a little gloomily.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘Conscience is only the unconscious cerebral -action of transmitted influence, is it? Oh, -I have read the Scientists as well as the Socialists. -They are not much more convincing, if one -goes to them with an unprejudiced mind——’</p> - -<p>‘Does your conscience never tell you that -you have done any harm, Princess?’</p> - -<p>‘Oh, very often—a great deal,’ she answered -candidly. ‘But it does not tell me that I ought -not to have done it. I suppose my chain of -transmitted influences is not as strong as it -should be. Seriously,’ she continued, ‘I do not -think hereditary influences are nearly sufficiently -allowed for at any time. Think what -my people were for ages and ages; the most -masterful of autocratic lords who had no single -law save their own pleasure, and who, when -they helped slay a Tzar, were washing out -some blood-feud of their family; pleasure, vice, -bloodshed, courage no doubt, rough justice -perhaps, were all their lives knew; they lived -in the saddle or beside the drinking-horn; they -rode like madmen; they had huge castles set in -almost eternal snows; they were the judge and -the executioner of every wrong-doer in their -family or their province; it was not until Letters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> -came in with the great Catherine that the least -touch of civilisation softened them, and even -after Catherine they were amongst the slayers of -Paul; for though they could read Bossuet and -Marmontel, their culture was but the merest -varnish still. Now, I come from these men -and women, for the women were not better -than the men. Do you suppose their leaven -is not in me? Of course it is, though I am—perhaps -as civilised as most people.’</p> - -<p>Melville looked at her with a smile.</p> - -<p>‘Yes, certainly civilisation has in you, -Princess, reached its most exquisite and most -supreme development; the hothouse can do no -more. You are its most perfect flower. Are -we really to credit that you have beneath all -that the ferocity and the despotism of a thousand -centuries of barbaric Boyars?’</p> - -<p>‘I have no doubt something of it,’ said -Nadine Napraxine, whilst the dark velvet of -her eyes grew sombre and her delicate hand -clenched on an imaginary knout. ‘I could use -<em>that</em> sometimes,’ she said with significance: -Melville understood what she meant.</p> - -<p>‘You can hurt more than with the knout, -Princess,’ he answered.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span></p> - -<p>Nadine Napraxine smiled. The suggestion -pleased her.</p> - -<p>Then a certain regretfulness came upon her -face.</p> - -<p>‘I think I might have been tender-hearted,’ -she said involuntarily and inconsistently, with a -pathos of which she was unconscious. ‘I do not -know—perhaps not—I am not compassionate.’</p> - -<p>She forgot that Melville was seated on a -divan near her in the great golden room of -Moorish work, whose arches opened on to the -marble court of the Lion. She thought of -her spoilt, artificial, frivolous childhood, spent -in great drawing-rooms listening to political -rivalries and calumnious stories and wit that -was always polished but not always decent; -she thought how her keen eyes had unravelled -all the threads of intrigue about her, and how -her heart had scorned the duplicity of her -mother; when she had been only eight years -old, she had known by intuition her mother’s -secrets and had shut them all up in her little -silent soul with vague ideas of honour and -dishonour, and never had said anything to her -father—never, never—not even when he lay -on his deathbed.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p> - -<p>And then they had married her to Platon -Napraxine as <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">si bon garçon</i>. ‘Oh, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">si bon -garçon</i>, no doubt!’ she had thought contemptuously -then as she thought now—only he -had outraged her, revolted her, disgusted her. -Her marriage night still remained to her a -memory of ineffaceable loathing.</p> - -<p>She looked up to see the intelligent eyes of -Melville fixed on her in some perplexity.</p> - -<p>She laughed and walked out on to the -marble pavement of the great court, above -which shone the blue of a northern sky; beyond -its colonnades were immense gardens, -and beyond those stretched the plains like a -green sea covered with forests of birch and -willow.</p> - -<p>‘I think I should have liked to be your -Rose,’ she said, as she did so. ‘After all, she must -have been content with herself when she died. -A philosopher can be no more.’</p> - -<p>‘A philosopher can rarely be as much,’ said -Melville. ‘He may be resigned, but resignation -and content are as different as a cold hand -and a warm one. My poor Rose was certainly -content whilst she lived, but not when she died, -for she thought she had not done nearly enough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> -in return for all the blessings which she had -received throughout her life.’</p> - -<p>‘Now you cannot get that kind of absurdly -grateful feeling without pure ignorance,’ said -Nadine Napraxine, a little triumphantly. ‘It -would be impossible for an educated person to -think that misery was comfort; so you see, -after all, ignorance is at the bottom of all -virtue. Now in your heart of hearts, you -cannot deny that, because, though you are a -priest, you are beyond anything a man of the -world?’</p> - -<p>Melville did not dislike to be called a man -of the world, for he was one, and liked to -prove, or think he proved, that worldly wisdom -was not incompatible with the spiritual life.</p> - -<p>At that moment Napraxine crossed the -court. It was the first of the brief hours -between sunset and sunrise; there was a full -moon in the midsummer skies; he was smoking -a cheroot, and talking with some young men, -neighbouring gentlemen, who had dined there; -he looked big and coarse, and his face was -red; his wife gazed at him with an intolerant -dislike; he could have a grand manner when -he chose, but in the country he ‘let himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> -go;’ he did not remember that he was in -the presence of the most inexorable of his -critics, of the most implacable of his enemies, -of the one person in the whole world whom it -would have been most desirable, and was most -impossible, for him to propitiate.</p> - -<p>‘Sachs turned the knife round and round -in the wolf’s throat; he did, on my honour, -while it was alive; we blooded him at five -years old, and the child never winked. When -the blood splashed him he shouted!’ he was -saying audibly, with much pride, to one of his -guests, as he lounged across the marble court. -Sachs was his eldest son. He was relating -a hunting exploit, crowned by the presence of -his heir.</p> - -<p>Nadine glanced at Melville with an expression -of sovereign contempt.</p> - -<p>‘Butchers before they can spell!’ she said, -with ineffable distaste.</p> - -<p>‘Shall I venture to say anything?’ he -murmured.</p> - -<p>‘It would be of no use. Slaughter is the -country gentleman’s god. Prince Napraxine -is just now wholly <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fourré</i> in his character of -a country gentleman. It is perhaps as useful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> -as that of a Monte Carlo gamester. Only here -the beasts suffer—there, the fools. I prefer -that the fools should do so.’</p> - -<p>The young men gathered about her; Napraxine -approached Melville.</p> - -<p>‘How does the Othmar marriage succeed?’ -he asked. ‘I suppose you have seen them?’</p> - -<p>‘I have been once to Amyôt,’ returned -Melville. ‘You know Amyôt? A magnificent -place. They appeared very happy. She seems -to have grown years in a month or two.’</p> - -<p>‘That of course,’ said Napraxine, with his -loud laugh. ‘She is very handsome. Why on -earth do they stay on in the provinces?’</p> - -<p>‘She is fond of Amyôt,’ replied Melville. -‘Probably he thinks that as she is so young, -there is time and to spare for the world.’</p> - -<p>‘Perhaps Nadine will believe now that it is -a love marriage?’ insisted her husband, turning -towards her.</p> - -<p>‘Did I ever say it was not?’ she replied, -with a little yawn.</p> - -<p>‘I do not see, if it were not, why it should -possibly have taken place,’ said Melville. -‘Othmar is lord of himself.’</p> - -<p>‘With a slave for his master?’ she mur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>mured, -too low to be heard by the not quick -ears of her husband.</p> - -<p>Melville heard, and the doubt crossed him -whether Othmar might not have been the lover -of the Princess Napraxine, and the marriage -arranged by her, as great ladies often arrange -such matters to disarm suspicion; for Melville, -despite the acumen on which he prided himself, -did not by any means wholly understand the -very complicated character of his hostess, in -which a supreme courage was to the full as -strong as were its disdain and its indifference.</p> - -<p>She shook off the importunities of the -young nobles, who seemed rustic and tiresome -enough to a woman to whom the wittiest society -of Europe had seemed dull and too tame, and -strolled by herself through the half wild gardens, -which reached and touched the virgin -forests of the East. Her Kossack Hetman, -who never lost her from sight when she was -out of doors, paced at a respectful distance -behind her, but he was no more to her than a -big dog would be to others. The high seeding -grass which grew in the unused paths -screened him from sight.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p> - -<p>As she looked back, the moonlit mass of the -vast house gathered a dignity and austerity not -its own by daylight, but to her it only resembled -a prison. She hated it: she would -have liked to raze it to the ground and make -an end of it. There were so many prisons in -Russia!</p> - -<p>She laughed a little to herself, not mirthfully, -as she strolled through the intense light -of the Northern night, her Kossack following -like her shadow. A poor drudge like that -servant woman in Jura had been content with -her life, whilst she, the Princess Napraxine, -in all the perfection of youth, beauty, and -great rank, was often so dissatisfied with it -that she could have drugged herself out of it -with morphine from sheer ennui!</p> - -<p>What was the use of the highest culture, -if that was all it brought you? A whimsical -fancy crossed her that she wished her Kossack -would try and assassinate her; it would be -something new, it might make her life seem -worth the having, if somebody would try and -take it away. She was only three-and-twenty -years old, and her future seemed so immensely -long that she felt tired at the very prospect of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> -it, as one feels tired at the sight of a long dull -road which one is bound to follow.</p> - -<p>The eternal monotony of the great world -would be for ever about her. She had too -great rank, too great riches, for ambition to -present any prizes to her. To attempt to -thrust Platon Napraxine into high offices of the -State would have been as absurd as to make a -bear out of Finland a magistrate or a general. -He was a very great noble, but he would never -have wit enough even to play a decent hand at -whist, much less to conduct a negotiation or -sway a Council.</p> - -<p>‘One might have had ambition for Othmar,’ -she thought involuntarily, as his image rose -unsummoned from the sea of silvery shadows -around her; ‘he had none for himself, but he -might have been spurred, stimulated, seduced, -by a woman he had loved. There would have -been many things possible to him; the financier -is the king, the Merlin, of the modern world, -and might become its Arthur also.’</p> - -<p>She thought with impatience of that summer -night, as it was shining on the towers and woods -of Amyôt. She felt as if something of her -own had been stolen from her, some allegiance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> -due to her unlawfully transferred. He should -have had patience, he should have waited on -her will, he should have accepted her rebuffs, -he should have followed her steps through life -as the Kossack was following them through the -dewy grass.</p> - -<p>Poor stupid Geraldine would have been -grateful to do so much, or Seliedoff, or so -many others. Othmar alone had dared to say -to her, ‘I will be nothing or all.’</p> - -<p>Therefore his memory abided with her and -moved her, and had power over her, and at -times an irritable gnawing sense of something -which might have been stole upon her. What -could that child give him at Amyôt?—white -limbs, clear eyes, a rose-bloom of blushes; but -besides? what sympathy, comprehension, inspiration? -what of the higher delights of the -passions?</p> - -<p>The thought of him irritated her. There -was a defiance, an insolence, in his assumption -of being able to command his destiny in independence -of herself, which offended her; it was -unlike what others did. She was aware that it -was done out of bravado, or so she believed; -but it was not thus that the fates on which she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> -had deigned to lay her finger had usually been -closed. Something even of contempt for him -at seeking such a refuge from herself mingled -with her irritation. It seemed to her weak -and commonplace.</p> - -<p>‘Madame,’ said the voice of Melville -through the shadows, ‘is it quite safe to -ramble so late, despite the trusty Kossack and -his lance?’</p> - -<p>She turned; her head enwrapped in gossamer, -till he saw nothing but the cloud of lace -and the two dusky, jewel-like eyes.</p> - -<p>‘I was just wishing, almost wishing,’ she -answered, ‘that the trusty Kossack were of the -new doctrines, and would take advantage of -the opportunity to make away with his <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">barina</i>. -I am not sure that I would have called out; it -would have saved one a great deal of sameness. -When my chocolate comes to my bedside I -always think of Pierre Loti’s childish protest, -“Toujours se lever, toujours se coucher, et -toujours manger de la soupe qui n’est pas -bonne!” Our soup is good, perhaps. It is -rather the appetite which is lacking.’</p> - -<p>‘Your generation is born tired,’ said Melville. -‘ Mine was happier; it believed in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> -the possibility of enjoyment—an illusion, no -doubt, but one which cheers life considerably. -Princess, I wish you would pardon me an -indiscretion; you are always so merciful to me, -you make me over-bold; but I have always so -much wanted to know whether a story that I -heard, of a winter’s journey of yours across -Russia, was true. It was in the newspapers, -but one never knows what is true there, and I -was in India at the time.’</p> - -<p>She smiled. ‘Oh! I know what you mean. -Yes, it was true enough. That was nothing; -nothing at all. I had all kinds of people to -help me. There was no difficulty of any sort. -It was amusing——’</p> - -<p>‘It was a very heroic thing to do,’ said -Melville gravely.</p> - -<p>‘Not at all,’ she interrupted quickly. -‘There was no heroism about it. The Tzar was -always very kind to me. I had every assistance, -every comfort on my journey. You, -imaginative being, have a picture instantly -in your mind of me as enduring all the dangers -of poor Elizabeth in the French classic; on the -contrary, I slept nearly all the way, and read -a novel the rest.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘All the same,’ said Melville, ‘no one but -yourself will deny that it was a very noble -thing to travel in November, the most hideous -part of the year, through mud and snow, right -across Russia, to have a few facts reach the -Emperor in their true aspect, and then post to -Tobolsk with his pardon, that a dying mother -might know her son was free before she -died——’</p> - -<p>Nadine Napraxine shrugged her shoulders -slightly, with a gesture of indifference.</p> - -<p>‘It amused me. I had a fancy to see -Siberia in winter. The pity was that Fedor -Alexowitch Boganof was an ugly and uninteresting -fellow—with plenty of brains, indeed, -which brought his ruin, but quite ugly, rather -misshapen, and blessed with five children. If -the hero of my journey had only been a fine -officer of cuirassiers, or a romantic-looking revolutionist, -the story would have been delightful, -but poor Boganof no one could turn into a -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">jeune premier</i>; not even the gossips of -Petersburg. He was only a clever writer, with -a mother and a wife who idolised him. The -truth is, I had read his novel and liked it; -that is why, when his people came to me, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> -did what I could. Anybody who knew the -Tzar as well as I could have done as much. -As for going to Siberia—well, I went myself -because I have a profound distrust of Russian -officials. Even an Imperial pardon has a knack -of arriving too late when it is desirable that it -should do so. It was certainly a disagreeable -season of the year, but behind strong horses -one does not mind that. Very soon Siberia -will have lost its terrors and its romance; there -will be a railway across the Urals, and all chance -of the little excitements attendant on such a -journey as mine will be over. When the -Governor saw me actually in Tobolsk, he could -not believe his eyes. If his beard had not -been dyed, it would have turned white with -the extremity of his amazement. I think he -could have understood my taking the trouble if -it had been for a Tchin; but for a mere scribbler -of books, a mere teller of stories! I told -him that Homer, and Ariosto, and Goethe, and -ever so many others had been only tellers of -stories too, but that produced no impression -on him. He was compelled to let Boganof go, -because the Tzar ordered him, but he could -not see any valid reason why Boganof should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> -not be left to rot away, brain downwards, -under the ice.’</p> - -<p>She laughed a little at the recollection of it -all; it had been called an eccentric hair-brained -thing at the time by all her world, -but she had taken Boganof back with her in -triumph, and had not left him until she had -seen him seated by the stove of his own humble -house in Odessa.</p> - -<p>It had been one of the best moments of -her life—yes, certainly—but it did not seem -to her that she had done anything remarkable. -It had been so absurd to send a man to dwell -amidst eternal snows and semi-eternal darkness -because he had written a clever novel in which -the wiseacres of the third section had seen fit to -discover revolutionary doctrines, that when the -wife and mother of Boganof, knowing her influence -at Court, and having chance of access -to her through her steward, threw themselves -at her feet one day, and besought her compassion -and assistance, she had been surprised -into promising her aid, from that generosity -and sympathy with courage which always lived -beneath the artificiality and indifference of her -habits and temper. No doubt they had suc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>ceeded -because they had come upon her in a -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">bon moment</i>; no doubt they might have found -her in moods in which they might as well have -appealed to the Japanese bronzes in her vestibule; -but, having been touched and surprised -into a promise, she had kept it through much -difficulty and with an energy which bore down -all opposition.</p> - -<p>‘She looks as frail as a reed, but she has -the force of a lance,’ the autocrat to whom -she appealed, and who was at the onset utterly -opposed to her petition, had thought as he had -answered her coldly that Boganof was a dangerous -writer.</p> - -<p>‘So were all the Encyclopædists; but the -great Catherine was not afraid of them; will -you, the Father of your people, refuse to one -of those the protection which she was proud -to grant to Frenchmen?’ she had said to the -Emperor, with many another persuasive and -audacious argument, to which he had listened -with a smile because the lovely mouth of the -Princess Napraxine had spoken them.</p> - -<p>‘It was a very noble thing to do,’ repeated -Melville.</p> - -<p>‘Oh, no,’ she also repeated; ‘it amused<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> -me. It frightened everybody else. The Tzar -was at Livadia unusually late; there was first -to go to him from here; when I reached -Livadia, he was everything that was kind to me -personally, but I found him terribly angered -against the poor novelist, and all his courtiers -were of course ready to swear that Boganof -was Satan; poor innocent Boganof, with his -tender heart always aching over the sorrows -of the poor, and the mysteries of animal -suffering! I told the Emperor that Boganof -was, on the contrary, a type of all that was best -in the Russian people; of that obedience, of -that faith, of that fortitude, which the Russian -possesses in a stronger degree than any other -of the races of man. Where will you find as -you find in Russia the heroic silence under -torture, the unwavering adherence to a lost -cause, the power of dying mute for sake of an -idea, the uncomplaining surrender of youth, of -beauty, of all enjoyment, often of rank and -riches, to a mere impersonal duty? They are -all sacrificed to dreams, it is true; but they -are heroic dreams which have a greatness that -looks fine in them, beside the vulgar greeds, -and the vulgar content of ordinary life. I said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> -something to that effect to the Tzar. “You -fill your mines and prisons, sir, with these -people,” I said to him. “Greece would have -raised altars to them. They are the brothers -of Harmodius; they are the sisters of Læna.” -I suppose it is wonderful that he did not send -me to the prisons; I dare say, if I had been an -ugly woman he would have done; he was, on -the contrary, very indulgent, and, though he -was hard to move at first, he ended with the -utmost leniency.</p> - -<p>‘I was really quite in earnest at the time,’ -she continued, now, with a little wondering -astonishment at such remembrances of herself. -‘ I urged on the Tzar the truth that, when -the intellect of a nation is suppressed and persecuted, -the nation “dies from the top,” like -Swift. I think I convinced him for the moment, -but then there were so many other people -always at his ear to persuade him that universal -convulsion was only to be avoided by corking -all the inkbottles, and putting all the writers -and readers down the mines. Prince Napraxine, -by the way, was in a terrible state when he -heard of it all. He was away in Paris at the -time, and you may imagine that I did not tele<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>graph -to ask his consent. Indeed, he first learnt -what I had done from the Russian correspondent -of <cite>Figaro</cite>, and took the whole story for -one of <cite>Figaro’s</cite> impudent fictions. He went to -the bureau in a towering rage, and, I think, -broke a Malacca cane over a sub-editor. Then -he telegraphed to me, and found it was all true -enough; he might more wisely have telegraphed -first, for the sub-editor brought an action for -assault against him, and he had a vast deal of -money to pay. He abhors the very name of -Boganof. Last New Year’s day I had all -Boganof’s novels in the Russian text, bound in -vellum, as a present from him; I thought he -would have had an apoplectic fit.’</p> - -<p>Her pretty, chill laughter completed the -sentence.</p> - -<p>‘My honesty, however, compels me to confess,’ -she continued, ‘that for an unheroic <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">boulevardier</i> -and a strongly conservative <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">tchin</i> like -my husband, the position was a trying one. -He abhors literature, liberal doctrines, and -newspaper publicity; and the story of my -journey for and with Boganof met him in -every journal, in every club, in every city of -Europe. The publicity annoyed me myself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> -very much. I think the way in which -journalists seize on everything and exaggerate -it to their own purposes will, in time, prevent -any action, a little out of the common, ever -taking place at all. People will shut themselves -up in their own shells like oysters. I -should have left Boganof to the governor of -Tobolsk, who was so anxious to keep him, if I -had ever foreseen the annoyance which the -Press was destined to cause me about him. -When I met the Tzar afterwards he said, -“Well, Princess, are you still convinced now -that the ink-bottle contains the most harmless -and holy of fluids?” and I answered him that -I granted it might contain a good deal of gas -and a good deal of gall, yet still I thought it -wiser not to cork it.’</p> - -<p>‘Princess,’ said Melville, with a little hesitation, -‘one cannot but regret that a person -capable of such fine sympathy and such noble -effort as yourself should pass nearly the whole -of her time in sedulously endeavouring to persuade -the world that she has no heart and -herself that she has no soul. Why do you -do it?’</p> - -<p>She gave a little contemptuous gesture.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> -‘I do not believe I have either,’ she said. -‘ When I was a tiny child, my father said to -me, “Douchka, you will have no dower, but -you will have plenty of wit, two big eyes, and -a white skin.” The possession of these three -things has always been the only fact I have -ever been sure of, really! Do not begin to talk -theologically; you are delightful as a man of -the world, but as a priest you would bore me -infinitely. One thinks out all that sort of thing -for oneself: ostensibly, I am of the Greek -Church; actually, I am of Victor Hugo’s creed, -which has never been able to find a key to the -mystery of the universe, “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Quelle loi a donné la -bête effarée à l’homme cruel?</i>” The horse -strains and shivers under the whip, the brutal -drunkard kicks him in his empty stomach: -God looks on, if He exist at all, in entire indifference -throughout tens of thousands of ages. -You say the patient animal has no soul, and -that the sodden drunkard has one. I do not -admire your religion, which enables you -placidly to accept such an absurdity, and such -an injustice, as a Divine creation. Do not say -that poets do no good; they do more than -priests, my dear friend. I had been reading<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> -that poem of Hugo’s, the <cite>Melancholia</cite>, at the -moment when Boganof’s wife and mother -brought their petition to me. It had made me -in a mood for pity. You know that is the -utmost a woman ever has of any goodness—a -mere mood. It is why we are so dangerous in -revolutions: we slay one minute, and weep the -next, and dance the next, and are sincere enough -in it all. If they had come to me when I had -been annoyed about anything, or when I had -had a toilette I disliked, or a visit that had -wearied me, I should have said “No,” and left -Boganof in Siberia. It was the merest chance, -the merest whim—all due to the <cite>Melancholia</cite>.’</p> - -<p>‘Whim, or will, I am sure Boganof was -grateful?’ asked Melville.</p> - -<p>Her voice softened: ‘Oh yes, poor soul! -But he died six months afterwards of tubercular -consumption, brought on by exposure -and bad food in Siberia. You see, imperial -pardons may arrive too late, even if one carry -them oneself!’</p> - -<p>‘But he died at home,’ said Melville; -‘think how much that is!’</p> - -<p>‘For the sentimentalists,’ she added, with -her cruel little smile, but her eyes were dim<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> -as she glanced upward at the stars in the -north.</p> - -<p>‘Poor Boganof!’ she said, after a pause, -with a vibration of unresisted emotion in her -voice. ‘There is another problem to set beside -your Rose. The world is full of them. -Your Christianity does not explain them. He -was the son of a country proprietor, a poor -one, but he had a little estate, enough for his -wants. He was a man of most simple tastes -and innocent desires: he might have lived, as -Tourguenieff might have lived, happy all his -humble days on his own lands; but he had -genius, or something near it. He believed in -his country and in mankind; he had passionate -hopes and passionate faiths; he knew he would -lose all for saying the truth as he saw it, but -he could not help it; the truth in him was -stronger than he, he could not restrain the fire -that was in him—a holy fire, pure of all personal -greed. Well, he has died for being so -simple, being so loyal, being so impersonal and -so unselfish. If he had been an egotist, a -time-server, a sycophant, he would have lived -in peace and riches. Your Christianity has no -explanation of that! Musset’s “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">être immobile<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> -qui regarde mourir</i>” is all we see behind the -eternal spectacle of useless suffering and unavailing -loss.’</p> - -<p>She turned and drew her laces closer about -her head, and passed quickly through the -shadows to the house.</p> - -<p>Melville in answer sighed.</p> - -<p>That night, when Melville stood at his windows -looking over the immense flat landscape, -green with waving corn and rolling grass lands -and low birch woods which stretched before -him silvered by the effulgence of a broad -white moon, he thought of Nadine Napraxine -curiously, wistfully, wonderingly, as a man -who plays chess well puzzles over some chess -problem that is too intricate for him. The -explanation we give of ourselves is rarely -accepted by others, and he did not accept hers -of herself; that she was the creature of the -impression of the moment. It seemed to him -rather that hers was a nature with noble and -heroic impulses crusted over by the habits of -the world and veiled by the assumption rather -than the actuality of egotism. She, too, could -have been a sister of Læna, he thought.</p> - -<p>What waste was here of a fine nature,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> -sedulously forcing itself and others to believe -that it was worthless, wearied by the pleasures -which yet made its only kingdom, cynical, -lonely, incredulous, whilst at the height of -youth and of all possession!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Othmar, faithful to his word, remained at the -château of Amyôt throughout the spring and -summer months, indifferent to the laughter of -the world, if it did laugh. He divined very -accurately that one person at least laughed and -made many a satiric sketch to her friends of -himself <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">filant le parfait amour</i>, and gathering -wood violets, wood anemones, wood strawberries, -beneath the shadows of his Valois -trees in glades which had been old when the -original of Jean Goujon’s Diane Chasseresse -had been young.</p> - -<p>Amyôt seemed to him to suit the youth, -the grace, and the gravity of Yseulte better -than any babble of the great world;—Amyôt, -which was like a stately illuminated chronicle -of kingly and knightly history, which was as -silent as the grave of a king in a crypt, and -which was shut out from the fret of mankind -by the screen of its Merovingian forests.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span></p> - -<p>He was scarcely conscious that he lingered -in this seclusion from an unacknowledged unwillingness -to go where he would see and hear -of another woman; he persuaded himself that -he chose to stay on in the provinces partially -because the tumult of the world was always -vulgar, noisy, and offensive to him, chiefly -because nowhere else in the world so surely as -in one of his own country houses could he be -certain not to meet the woman who had -wounded him mortally, yet whom he loved far -more than he hated her.</p> - -<p>‘It is absolutely necessary that you should -be seen in Paris, and that you should receive -there; it is absolutely necessary that you should -sustain your position in the world,’ said -Friederich Othmar, with much emphasis as he -sat at noon one day on the great terrace of -Amyôt. Othmar laughed a little, and shrugged -his shoulders.</p> - -<p>‘Amyôt is magnificently kept up—that I -admit,’ continued the elder man. ‘It is a -place that it is well to have, to spend six weeks -of the autumn in, to entertain princes at; it is -quite royal, and was one of the best purchases -that my father ever made. But to bury your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>self -here!—when the Kaiser comes to Paris, -to whom you owe by tradition every courtesy——’</p> - -<p>‘The Othmars were never received at the -Court of Vienna.’</p> - -<p>The Baron made an impatient gesture.</p> - -<p>‘We are Parisians, but we are Croats before -all. Sometimes you are pleased to insist very -strongly that we are Croats, and nothing else. -If we are so, the Emperor is our sovereign.’</p> - -<p>‘It is disputed in Croatia, which has never -been too loyal!’</p> - -<p>‘Croatia be——,’ said Friederich Othmar, -with difficulty restraining the oath because -Yseulte was seated within hearing; and he returned -to his old arguments, which were all -brought to bear upon the fact that at the approach -of winter Othmar owed it as a duty to -society and to himself to throw open the doors -of that vast hotel on the Boulevard S. Germain, -which had always seemed to him the most -hateful embodiment of the wealth, the unscrupulousness, -and the past history of his -race.</p> - -<p>The hotel had been purchased from the Duc -de Coigny during the White Terror by Marc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> -Othmar for a nominal price; and under the -reign of Louis Philippe, Stefan Othmar, deeming -it neither grand nor luxurious enough, had had -it changed and redecorated in the worst taste -of the epoch, and, in the early days of the -Second Empire, had farther enlarged and overloaded -it, until to his son it was as a very -nightmare of gilding, marble, and allegorical -painting, a Cretan labyrinth of enormous and -uninhabitable chambers, fit for such motley -crowds as cram the Elysée in the days of Grevy.</p> - -<p>It was one of the show-houses of Paris, -and had, indeed, many real treasures of art -amidst its overloaded luxury, but Othmar hated -it in its entirety, from its <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">porte-cochère</i>, where -the arms which the heralds had found for Marc -Othmar had replaced the shield and crown of -the Ducs de Coigny, to the immense library, -which did not contain a single volume that he -cared to open; an ‘upholsterer’s library,’ with -all its books, from Tacitus to Henri Martin, -clad in the same livery of vellum and tooled -gold.</p> - -<p>‘Absolutely necessary to sustain your position -in the world!’ repeated Othmar when his -uncle had left him. ‘That is always the in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>cantation -with which the fetish of the world -obtains its sacrifices. Translated into common -language, he means that as I have a great deal -of money, other people expect me to spend much -of it upon them. I do not see the obligation, -at least not socially.’</p> - -<p>‘Do you desire the life of Paris?’ he added -abruptly to Yseulte, who hesitated, coloured -slightly, and said with timidity:</p> - -<p>‘I should prefer S. Pharamond.’</p> - -<p>‘S. Pharamond is yours,’ said Othmar -with some embarrassment, knowing why every -rood of that sunny and flowering shore seemed -to him nauseous with sickening memories. -‘S. Pharamond is yours, my dear; but I -scarcely think that we can pass this winter -there. There are tedious duties from which -we cannot escape; to entertain in Paris is one -of them.’</p> - -<p>An older woman would have perceived -that he contradicted himself, but Yseulte was -blinded to such anomalies by her adoration of -him; an adoration as intense as it was meek, -dumb, and most humble.</p> - -<p>‘I am so perfectly happy here,’ she answered, -with hesitation; ‘but——’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span></p> - -<p>She was not actuated by the sentiment -which he attributed to her hesitation; she -infinitely preferred the country to the city, as -all meditative and poetic tempers do, and the -little she had seen of the great world at Millo -made her dread her entry into it in Paris. What -she wished, but lacked the courage to say, was, -that she perceived that the country did not -satisfy him himself. She was not so dull of -comprehension that she did not see the melancholy -of her husband, the listless indifference, -the unspoken ennui, which spoiled his years -to him, and left him without energy or interest -in life. She could discern the wound she knew -not how to cure, and Friederich Othmar in -his conversations with her had repeatedly assured -her that the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vie de province</i> stifled the -intelligence of a man as moss grows over the -trunk of a tree.</p> - -<p>‘I am so happy here,’ she answered now -with hesitation, ‘but still——’</p> - -<p>‘But still you are a daughter of Eve,’ he -added with indulgence. ‘My poor child, it is -quite natural, you are so young; all young -girls long for the life of the world. It robs -them of their lilies and roses, it draws bistre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> -shadows under their eyes, it makes them old -before they are twenty, but still they kiss the -feet of their Moloch! I do not think, though, -that you will ever be hurt by the world yourself. -You are too serious, and have at once too -much humility and too much pride: they are -safe warders at the door of the soul; you will -not easily become a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mondaine</i>.’</p> - -<p>‘What is the difference?’</p> - -<p>‘In the world, when she belongs to it, a -woman crushes her soul as she crushes her -waist; she is a butterfly, with the sting of an -asp; she wastes her brain in the council-chambers -of her tailors, and her time in a -kaleidoscope of amusements that do not even -amuse her; she would easily make the most -hideous thing beautiful if she put it on once, -and the most flagrant vice the fashion if she -adopted it for a week; she has given the -highest culture possible to her body and to her -brain, only to spend her years in an ennui and -an irritation beside which the life of the South -Sea islanders would seem utility and wisdom; -she has the clearest vision, the finest intelligence, -the shrewdest wit, only to set her ambition -on having a whole audience of a theatre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> -forget the stage because she has entered her -box, or the entire journals of a city chronicle -the suicide of some madman who has taken -his life because she crossed out his name on -her tablets before a cotillon——’</p> - -<p>He paused abruptly, becoming suddenly -conscious that he was speaking in no general -terms, and had only before his thoughts the -vision of one woman.</p> - -<p>‘No, my dear,’ he said kindly, passing his -hand over the shining tresses of Yseulte; ‘I -am not afraid that you will become a coquette -or a lover of folly; you will not learn the -slang of the hour, or yellow your white skin -with <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">maquillage</i>; you will always be the young -patrician of the time of the Lady of Beaujeu. -You shall go to Paris if you wish, and do just -as you like there; you must not blame me if -it do not suit you better than it suits those -roses which your foster-mother sends up in moss -from her garden.’</p> - -<p>‘Poor child!’ he thought, with a pang of -conscience. ‘She has a right to enjoy any -amusement she can. She is young; the world -will be a play-place to her; if she can make -for herself friends, interests, pastimes, I should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> -be the last to prevent her. Sooner or later -she will find out that she is so little to me. -She is content now because she takes kindness -for love, and because, in her innocence, she cannot -conceive how one’s senses may be roused -while one’s heart may lie dumb and cold as a -stone. But when she is older she will perceive -all that, and then the more friends she has -found, and the less she leans on me, the less -unhappy she will be. I will give her everything -that she can wish for; all women grow -contented and absorbed in the world.’</p> - -<p>So he argued with himself, but he knew all -the while that he was to blame in desiring that -sort of compensation and consolation for her; -and that delicacy of taste, which has over some -temperaments a stronger control than conscience, -made him feel that there was a kind -of vulgarity in thus persuading himself that -material gifts and material triumphs would -atone to her for the indifference of his feelings -and the absence of his sympathy.</p> - -<p>It was something better than mere material -possessions and indulgences which he had meant -to give the child whose lonely fate had touched -him to so much pity under the palm trees of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> -S. Pharamond and the gilded roofs of Millo. -But he dismissed the rebuke of this memory -with impatience. The world had so repeatedly -told him that his gold was capable of purchasing -heaven and earth, that, though he -found it of no avail for himself, he fell instinctively -into the error of imagining that with it -at least he could heal all wounds not his own. -She should have all her fancy could desire. -His experience of women told him that she -would be very unlike them if, in all the -pleasure of acquisition, emulation, and possession, -she did not find at least a fair simulacrum -of happiness. She would be one out of a -million—but if she were that one? Then her -soul might starve in the midst of all her -luxuries and pageants, like a bird in a golden -cage that dies for want of the drop of water -which the common brown sparrow, flying over -the ploughed brown field, can find at will. -But he did not think of that.</p> - -<p>He knew that it was unworthy to speculate -upon the power of the lower life to absorb into -itself a soul fitted by its affinities to discover -and enjoy the higher. He shrank from his -own speculations as to the possibility of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> -world replacing himself in her affections. He -had honestly intended, when he had taken her -existence into his charge, to study, reverence, -and guide this most innocent and docile nature; -and endeavour, beside her, to seek out some -trace of the purer ideals which had haunted his -youth. And he felt, with remorse, that the -failure to do so lay with himself, not with her. -She remained outside his life; she had no -sorcery for him. She was a lovely and almost -faultless creature, but she was not what he -loved. He realised, with bitter self-reproach, -that in a moment of impulse, not ignoble in -itself, but unwise, he had burdened his own -fate and perhaps unconsciously done a great -wrong to her, since, in the years to come, she -would ask at his hands the bread of life and he -would only be able to give her a stone.</p> - -<p>She herself had as yet no idea that she was -not beloved by Othmar with a lover’s love. -She knew nothing of men and their passions. -She had not the grosser intuitions which could -have supplied the place of experience. She -did not perceive that his tenderness had little -ardour, his embraces nothing of the fervour -and the eagerness of delighted possession. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> -had no standard of comparison by which to -measure the coldness or the warmth of the -desires to which she surrendered herself, and -it was not to so spiritual a temperament as -hers that the familiarities of love could ever -have seemed love. But her nerves were sensitive, -her perceptions quick; and they made -her conscious that mentally and in feeling -Othmar was altogether apart from her; that -in sorrow she would not have consoled him, -and that in his meditations she never had any -place.</p> - -<p>‘When I am older he will trust me more,’ -she reflected, in her innocence, and she had -been so long used to repression and obedience -that it cost her much less than it would have -cost most women of her years to accept, uncomplainingly, -that humble place before the -shut doors of his life.</p> - -<p>She was too modest to be offended at a -distraction which would have been certain to -excite the offence and the suspicion of a more -selfish or self-conscious nature; and she was -too young to be likely to penetrate by intuition -the secret of that evident joylessness which -might well have excited her jealousy. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> -rather the same sense of pity which had come -to her for him in the weeks before her marriage -which grew strongest in her as the months -passed on at Amyôt. He enjoyed and -possessed so much, yet could not enjoy or -possess his own soul in peace.</p> - -<p>‘I do not think he is happy, and it is not -I who can make him happy,’ she said once, -very timidly, to Friederich Othmar, who answered -with considerable impatience:</p> - -<p>‘My love, the fault does not lie with you. -Otho, who believes himself, like Hamlet, out of -joint with his time, is in reality a man of his -times in everything; that is, he is a pessimist; -he has a mental nevrose, to borrow the jargon -of scientists; he has so cultivated his conscience -at the expense of his reason, that I sometimes -believe he will be satisfied with nothing but -the abandonment of all he possesses; and no -doubt he would have tried this remedy long -since, only he has no belief in any Deity who -would reward him for it. The misfortune of -all the thoughtful men of Otho’s generation is, -that they combine with their fretful consciences -an entire disbelief in their souls, so that they -are a mass of irritable anomalies. The mirth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>ful -sceptics of Augustan Rome, of Voltairian -France, and of Bolingbroke’s England, were all -consistent philosophers and voluptuaries; they -disbelieved in their souls, but they believed in -their bodies, and were amply content with -them. They never talked nonsense about duty, -and they passed gaily, gracefully, and consistently -through their lives, of which they made -the best they could materially, which is only -reasonable in those who are convinced that the -present is the sole sentient existence they will -ever enjoy. But the tender-nerved pessimists -of Otho’s kind and age are wholly inconsistent. -They believe in nothing, and yet they are -troubled by a multitude of misgivings; they -think the soul is merely a romantic word for -the reflex action of the brain, and yet they distress -themselves with imagining that the human -animal has innumerable duties, and should have -innumerable scruples, which is ridiculous on -the face of it, for, religion apart and Deity -denied, there is no possible reason why man -should have any more duties than a snail has, -or a hare. The agnostics of the present generation -do not perceive this contradiction in -themselves, and that is why they look so incon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span>sistent -and so entirely valetudinarian beside the -robust Atheism of the past century, and are, -indeed, the mere <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">malades imaginaires</i> of the -moral hospital.’</p> - -<p>‘If I could only make him as happy as I -am myself,’ she said again; but she had not -the talisman which the woman who is beloved -in return holds in the hollow of her hand.</p> - -<p>‘She is too young,’ thought Friederich -Othmar, angrily. ‘She is too innocent; she is -a daisy, a dove, a child. She knows nothing -of persuasion or provocation; she is not even -aware of her own charms. She waits his -pleasure to be caressed or let alone; she -knows neither how to deny herself or make -herself desired. She wearies him only because -she does not know how to torment him. He -will drift away to someone else who does, while -he will expect her—at seventeen!—to be satisfied -with bearing him children and owning his -name!’</p> - -<p>A few months before, the Baron himself -would have emphatically declared that no -living woman could or should ever need -more. But his nephew’s wife had touched -a softer nerve in him; something which was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> -almost tenderness and almost regret smote -him when he saw the tall, graceful form of -Yseulte like a garden lily, standing alone in -the warmth of the sunset on the terraces at -Amyôt, or saw Othmar, when he approached -after a day’s absence, kiss her hand with the -calm and serious courtesy which he would have -displayed to any stranger, and turn away from -her with an indifference which all his deference -of manner and careful <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">prévoyance</i> of thought -for her could not conceal from the keen eyes -of the elder man.</p> - -<p>‘He gives her his caresses, not his companionship,’ -thought the old man, angrily, but -he was too prudent and too wise to draw her -attention to a fault against herself of which she -was unconscious.</p> - -<p>A few months earlier he would have said -with Napoléon, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘Qu’elle nous donne des marmots; -c’est le nécessaire.</i>’ But before this young mistress -of this stately place as she moved, in her -white gown, with her great bouquet of roses -in her hand and her clear eyes smiling gravely -on these men who so brief a while before had -been unknown to her, and now held all her -destiny in their hands, Friederich Othmar for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> -the first time in his life saw a little way into a -soul unsoiled, and began to dimly comprehend -some desires not wholly physical, some necessities -sheerly of the mind and heart. The impression -came to him—a purely sentimental one -for which he chid himself—that this child was -entirely alone; more alone in her wedded life -perhaps than she would have been in the -monastic. She was surrounded with every -species of material indulgence; day after day -her husband gave her new pleasures, as people -give children new toys; if she had wished for -the impossible he would have endeavoured to -obtain it for her; but Friederich Othmar twice -or thrice in his hurried visits to Amyôt had -found her in solitude, and walking alone in the -stately gardens or sitting alone in some little -rustic temple in the woods, and the fact, though -insignificant enough, seemed to him indicative -of a loneliness which would certainly become -her fate unless she learned as so many other -women have learned, to console herself for -neglect by folly.</p> - -<p>‘And that she will not do,’ the old man said -to himself. ‘She is a pearl; but a pearl thrown, -not before swine, but wasted on a pessimist,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> -an <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">ennuyé</i>, a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">délicat</i> whom nothing pleases -except that which he cannot possess.’</p> - -<p>He pitied her for what he foresaw would -befall her in the future, rather than for any -thing which troubled her at that present time, -for although vaguely conscious of a certain discordance -and dissatisfaction in her husband’s -life, Yseulte was, in her own, as happy as a very -young girl can be to whom kindliness seems -love and the external beauty surrounding her -appears like a lovely dream.</p> - -<p>Othmar left her often to shut himself in his -library, to lose himself in his forests, or to go -for the affairs of his House to Paris; but he was -always gentle, generous, and kind; he was even -prodigal of caresses to her, because they spared -him words in whose utterance he felt himself -untrue; and if the reflex of his own sadness -fell at times across herself, it became a light -soft shadow without name, such as seemed to -suit better than mere vulgar joys the silence -of the gardens and the grandeur of the -courts, where a life of the past, once so -gracious, so vivid, so impassioned in love and -so light in laughter, had been extinguished -like a torch burned out in the night. A riotous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> -or exuberant happiness would not have so well -pleased her nature, made serious beyond her -years whilst yet so mere a child, by the pains -of poverty, the companionship of old age, and -the sights and sounds of the siege of Paris. -The long, light, warm days of spring and -summer at Amyôt, with all the floral pomp -around her, and the château itself rising, golden -and silvery in the brilliant air, historic, poetic, -magnificent, airy as a madrigal, martial as an -epic, were days of an ecstatic but of an almost -religious joy to her.</p> - -<p>‘What have I done that all this should come -to me?’ she said often in her wonder and humility, -and Othmar seemed ever to her as a -magician, at whose touch the briars and -brambles in her path had blossomed like the -almond and the may.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>With October days an accident as her boat -crossed the Loire water, when the autumn -currents were rolling strong and wide, brought -on the premature delivery of a child, who -barely breathed for a few moments, and then -took with him into darkness the hopes of the -Maison d’Othmar. The fury and the grief of -Friederich Othmar were so great that they far -surpassed the moderate regret shown by his -nephew, who appeared to him intolerably cold -and little moved save by his sympathy with -the sorrow of the child’s young mother.</p> - -<p>‘You would care, I believe, nothing if there -were no one to succeed you when you die!’ -said the elder man with indignation.</p> - -<p>Othmar gave a gesture of indifference.</p> - -<p>‘I hope I should care for my sons as much -as most men care for theirs,’ he replied. ‘But -the “succession” does not seem to me to be of -vital importance. If you would only believe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> -it, we are not Hohenzollerns nor Guelfs, and -even they would be easily replaced, though -perhaps Moltke or Wolseley would not be so.’</p> - -<p>‘Why do I, indeed, care so little?’ said -Othmar to himself when he was alone. ‘I am -neither inhuman nor heartless. I used to be -quickly touched to any kind of feeling; but the -whole of life seems cold to me, and profitless. -I was dry-eyed whilst that poor child wept over -that little, frail, waxen body which was so much -to her; would have been so much to her if it -had lived to lie on her breast. It is the most -pathetic of all possible things—a girl still sixteen -sorrowing for her offspring which has -perished before it had any separate existence; -has died before it lived; and yet, I feel hardly -more than if I had seen a bird flying round an -empty nest, or a brood of leverets wailing in an -empty form. I think she took my heart out of -my chest that day she fooled me, and put a -stone there——’</p> - -<p>He meant Nadine Napraxine, who remained -the one woman on the earth for him.</p> - -<p>A woman of unstable impulses, of incalculable -caprices, of an infinite intelligence, of as -infinite an egotism; absorbed in herself, save so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> -far as her merciless eyes scanned the whole world -as players, whilst her fastidious taste found them -the poorest players, and judged them inexorably -as dunces and as fools; a woman who had -treated the tragedy of his own passion as a mere -comedy, and had listened to it seriously for a -moment only the better to turn it into jest.</p> - -<p>Yet the one woman upon earth whom he -adored, whom he desired.</p> - -<p>For love is fate, and will neither be commanded -nor gainsaid.</p> - - -<p class="center gesperrt mt4 mb4">THE END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.</p> - - -<div class="figemblem"> -<img src="images/i_343.jpg" alt="Emblem" /> -</div> - - - -<div class="catheader"> - <p class="pagenum"><a name="Catalog" id="Catalog"> - [<i>March, 1884.</i></a> - </p> - - <div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/i_345.jpg" alt="Catalog Header" /> - </div> - - <h2 class="gesperrt nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chatto & Windus’s<br /> - - <em>List of Books</em></span>.</h2> - - <hr class="chap" /> -</div> - -<p><b>About.—The Fellah:</b> An Egyptian -Novel. By <span class="smcap">Edmond About</span>. -Translated by Sir <span class="smcap">Randal Roberts</span>. -Post 8vo, illustrated boards, <b>2s.</b>; cloth -limp, <b>2s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Adams (W. Davenport), Works -by:</b></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>A Dictionary of the Drama.</b> Being -a comprehensive Guide to the Plays, -Playwrights, Players, and Playhouses -of the United Kingdom and -America, from the Earliest to the -Present Times. Crown 8vo, half-bound, -<b>12s. 6d.</b></p> - -<p><b>Latter-Day Lyrics.</b> Edited by <span class="smcap">W. -Davenport Adams</span>. Post 8vo, cloth -limp, <b>2s. 6d.</b></p> - -<p><b>Quips and Quiddities.</b> Selected by -<span class="smcap">W. Davenport Adams</span>. Post 8vo, -cloth limp, <b>2s. 6d.</b></p> - </div> - - -<p><b>Advertising, A History of</b>, from -the Earliest Times. Illustrated by -Anecdotes, Curious Specimens, and -Notices of Successful Advertisers. By -<span class="smcap">Henry Sampson</span>. Crown 8vo, with -Coloured Frontispiece and Illustrations, -cloth gilt, <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Agony Column (The) of “The -Times,”</b> from 1800 to 1870. Edited, -with an Introduction, by <span class="smcap">Alice Clay</span>. -Post 8vo, cloth limp, <b>2s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Aide (Hamilton), Works by:</b></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>Carr of Carrlyon.</b> Post 8vo, illustrated -boards, <b>2s.</b></p> - -<p><b>Confidences.</b> Post 8vo, illustrated -boards, <b>2s.</b></p> - </div> - - -<p><b>Alexander (Mrs.).—Maid, Wife, -or Widow?</b> A Romance. By Mrs. -<span class="smcap">Alexander</span>. Post 8vo, illustrated -boards, <b>2s.</b>; cr. 8vo, cloth extra, <b>3s 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Allen (Grant), Works by:</b></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>Colin Clout’s Calendar.</b> Crown 8vo, -cloth extra, <b>6s.</b></p> - -<p><b>The Evolutionist at Large.</b> Crown -8vo, cloth extra, <b>6s.</b></p> - -<p><b>Vignettes from Nature.</b> Crown 8vo, -cloth extra, <b>6s.</b></p> - </div> - - -<p><b>Architectural Styles, A Handbook -of.</b> Translated from the German -of <span class="smcap">A. Rosengarten</span>, by <span class="smcap">W. Collett-Sandars</span>. -Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with -639 Illustrations, <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Art (The) of Amusing:</b> A Collection -of Graceful Arts, Games, Tricks, -Puzzles, and Charades. By <span class="smcap">Frank -Bellew</span>. With 300 Illustrations. Cr. -8vo, cloth extra, <b>4s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Artemus Ward:</b></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>Artemus Ward’s Works:</b> The Works -of <span class="smcap">Charles Farrer Browne</span>, better -known as <span class="smcap">Artemus Ward</span>. With -Portrait and Facsimile. Crown 8vo, -cloth extra, <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - -<p><b>Artemus Ward’s Lecture on the -Mormons.</b> With 32 Illustrations. -Edited, with Preface, by <span class="smcap">Edward P. -Hingston</span>. Crown 8vo, <b>6d.</b></p> - -<p><b>The Genial Showman:</b> Life and Adventures -of Artemus Ward. By -<span class="smcap">Edward P. Hingston</span>. With a -Frontispiece. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, -<b>3s. 6d.</b></p> - </div> - - -<p><b>Ashton (John), Works by:</b></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>A History of the Chap-Books of the -Eighteenth Century.</b> With nearly -400 Illusts., engraved in facsimile of -the originals. Cr. 8vo, cl. ex., <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - -<p><b>Social Life in the Reign of Queen -Anne.</b> From Original Sources. With -nearly 100 Illusts. Cr. 8vo, cl. ex., <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - -<p><b>Humour, Wit, and Satire of the -Seventeenth Century.</b> With nearly -100 Illusts. Cr. 8vo, cl. extra, <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - -<p><b>English Caricature and Satire on -Napoleon the First.</b> With 120 Illustrations -from the Originals. Two -Vols., demy 8vo, <b>28s.</b></p> - -<p class="right"> -[<em>In preparation.</em> -</p> - </div> - - -<p><b>Bacteria.—A Synopsis of the -Bacteria and Yeast Fungi and Allied -Species.</b> By <span class="smcap">W. B. Grove</span>, B.A. With -over 100 Illustrations. Cr. 8vo, cloth -extra, <b>3s. 6d.</b></p> - -<p class="right"> -[<em>In preparation.</em> -</p> - - -<p><b>Balzac’s “Comedie Humaine”</b> -and its Author. With Translations by -<span class="smcap">H. H. Walker</span>. Post 8vo, cl. limp, <b>2s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Bankers, A Handbook of London</b>; -together with Lists of Bankers -from 1677. By F. G. <span class="smcap">Hilton Price</span>. -Crown 8vo, cloth extra, <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Bardsley (Rev. C. W.), Works by:</b></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>English Surnames:</b> Their Sources and -Significations. Cr. 8vo, cl. extra, <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - -<p><b>Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature.</b> -Crown 8vo, cloth extra, <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - </div> - - -<p><b>Bartholomew Fair, Memoirs -of.</b> By <span class="smcap">Henry Morley</span>. With 100 -Illusts. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Beauchamp.—Grantley -Grange:</b> A Novel. By <span class="smcap">Shelsley -Beauchamp</span>. Post 8vo, illust. bds., <b>2s.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Beautiful Pictures by British -Artists:</b> A Gathering of Favourites -from our Picture Galleries. In Two -Series. All engraved on Steel in the -highest style of Art. Edited, with -Notices of the Artists, by <span class="smcap">Sydney -Armytage</span>, M.A. Imperial 4to, cloth -extra, gilt and gilt edges, <b>21s.</b> per Vol.</p> - - -<p><b>Bechstein.- As Pretty as -Seven</b>, and other German Stories. -Collected by <span class="smcap">Ludwig Bechstein</span>. -With Additional Tales by the Brothers -<span class="smcap">Grimm</span>, and 100 Illusts. by <span class="smcap">Richter</span>. -Small 4to, green and gold, <b>6s. 6d.</b>; -gilt edges, <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Beerbohm.—Wanderings in -Patagonia</b>; or, Life among the Ostrich -Hunters. By <span class="smcap">Julius Beerbohm</span>. With -Illusts. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, <b>3s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Belgravia for 1884.</b> One -Shilling Monthly, Illustrated by P. -<span class="smcap">Macnab</span>.—Two Serial Stories are now -appearing in this Magazine: “<b>The -Lover’s Creed</b>,” by Mrs. <span class="smcap">Cashel -Hoey</span>; and “<b>The Wearing of the -Green</b>,” by the Author of “Love the -Debt.”</p> - -<p class="center">⁂<em>Now ready, the Volume for</em> <span class="smcap">November</span>, -1883, <em>to</em> <span class="smcap">February</span>, 1884, <i>cloth extra</i>, -<i>gilt edges</i>, <b>7s. 6d.</b>; <i>Cases for binding -Vols.</i>, <b>2s.</b> <i>each</i>.</p> - - -<p><b>Belgravia Holiday Number.</b> -With Stories by <span class="smcap">James Payn</span>, <span class="smcap">F. W. -Robinson</span>, <span class="smcap">J. Arbuthnot Wilson</span>, -and others. Demy 8vo, with Illustrations, -<b>1s.</b></p> - -<p class="right"> -[<em>Preparing.</em> -</p> - - -<p><b>Bennett (W. C., LL.D.), Works by:</b></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>A Ballad History of England.</b> Post -8vo, cloth limp, <b>2s.</b></p> - -<p><b>Songs for Sailors.</b> Post 8vo, cloth -limp, <b>2s.</b></p> - </div> - - -<p><b>Besant (Walter) and James -Rice, Novels by.</b> Post 8vo, illust. -boards, <b>2s.</b> each; cloth limp, <b>2s. 6d.</b> -each; or crown 8vo, cloth extra, -<b>3s. 6d.</b> each.</p> - - <div class="blockquot"> -<p><b>Ready-Money Mortiboy.<br /> -With Harp and Crown.<br /> -This Son of Vulcan.<br /> -My Little Girl.<br /> -The Case of Mr. Lucraft.<br /> -The Golden Butterfly.<br /> -By Celia’s Arbour.<br /> -The Monks of Thelema.<br /> -‘ Twas in Trafalgar’s Bay.<br /> -The Seamy Side.<br /> -The Ten Years’ Tenant.<br /> -The Chaplain of the Fleet.</b><br /> -</p> -</div> - -<p><b>Besant (Walter), Novels by:</b></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>All Sorts and Conditions of Men:</b> -An Impossible Story. With Illustrations -by <span class="smcap">Fred. Barnard</span>. Crown -8vo, cloth extra, <b>3s. 6d.</b>; post 8vo, -illustrated boards, <b>2s.</b></p> - -<p><b>The Captains’ Room</b>, &c. With -Frontispiece by <span class="smcap">E. J. Wheeler</span>. -Crown 8vo, cloth extra, <b>3s. 6d.</b>; post -8vo, illustrated boards, <b>2s.</b></p> - -<p><b>All in a Garden Fair.</b> Three Vols., -crown 8vo.</p> - -<p><b>Dorothy Forster.</b> Three Vols., crown -8vo.</p> - -<p class="right"> -[<em>Shortly.</em> -</p> - </div> - - -<p><b>Betham-Edwards (M.), Novels -by.</b> Crown 8vo, cloth extra, <b>3s. 6d.</b> -each.; post 8vo, illust. bds., <b>2s.</b> each.</p> - -<p> -<b>Felicia.</b><br /> -<b>Kitty.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><b>Bewick (Thomas) & his Pupils.</b> -By <span class="smcap">Austin Dobson</span>. With 100 Illustrations. -Square 8vo, cloth extra, -<b>10s. 6d.</b></p> - -<p class="right"> -[<em>Preparing.</em> -</p> - - -<p><b>Birthday Books:—</b></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>The Starry Heavens:</b> A Poetical -Birthday Book. Square 8vo, handsomely -bound in cloth, <b>2s. 6d.</b></p> - -<p><b>Birthday Flowers:</b> Their Language -and Legends. By <span class="smcap">W. J. Gordon</span>. -Beautifully Illustrated in Colours by -<span class="smcap">Viola Boughton</span>. In illuminated -cover, crown 4to, <b>6s.</b></p> - -<p><b>The Lowell Birthday Book.</b> With -Illusts., small 8vo, cloth extra, <b>4s. 6d.</b></p> -</div> - - -<p><b>Bishop.—Old Mexico and her -Lost Provinces.</b> By <span class="smcap">William Henry -Bishop</span>. With 120 Illustrations. Demy -8vo, cloth extra, <b>10s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Blackburn’s (Henry) Art Handbooks.</b> -Demy 8vo, Illustrated, uniform -in size for binding.</p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>Academy Notes</b>, separate years, from -1875 to 1883, each <b>1s.</b></p> - -<p><b>Academy Notes, 1884.</b> With Illustrations. -1s.</p> - -<p class="right"> -[<em>Preparing.</em> -</p> - -<p><b>Academy Notes, 1875-79.</b> Complete -in One Vol., with nearly 600 Illusts. in -Facsimile. Demy 8vo, cloth limp, <b>6s.</b></p> - -<p><b>Grosvenor Notes, 1877.</b> <b>6d.</b></p> - -<p><b>Grosvenor Notes</b>, separate years, from -1878 to 1883, each <b>1s.</b></p> - -<p><b>Grosvenor Notes, 1884.</b> With Illustrations. -<b>1s.</b></p> - -<p class="right"> -[<em>Preparing.</em> -</p> - -<p><b>Grosvenor Notes, 1877-82.</b> With -upwards of 300 Illustrations. Demy -8vo, cloth limp, <b>6s.</b></p> - -<p><b>Pictures at South Kensington.</b> With -70 Illustrations. <b>1s.</b></p> - -<p><b>The English Pictures at the National -Gallery.</b> 114 Illustrations. <b>1s.</b></p> - -<p><b>The Old Masters at the National -Gallery.</b> 128 Illustrations. <b>1s. 6d.</b></p> - -<p><b>A Complete Illustrated Catalogue -to the National Gallery.</b> With -Notes by <span class="smcap">H. Blackburn</span>, and 242 -Illusts. Demy 8vo, cloth limp, <b>3s.</b></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p><b>The Paris Salon, 1884.</b> With over 300 -Illusts. Edited by <span class="smcap">F. G. Dumas</span>. -Demy 8vo, <b>3s.</b></p> - -<p class="right"> -[<em>Preparing.</em> -</p> - -<p><b>The Art Annual, 1883-4.</b> Edited by -<span class="smcap">F. G. Dumas</span>. With 300 full-page -Illustrations. Demy 8vo, <b>5s.</b></p> - </div> - - -<p><b>Boccaccio’s Decameron</b>; or, -Ten Days’ Entertainment. Translated -into English, with an Introduction by -<span class="smcap">Thomas Wright</span>, F.S.A. With Portrait, -and <span class="smcap">Stothard</span>’ s beautiful Copperplates. -Cr. 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, <b>7s. 6d.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Blake (William):</b> Etchings from -his Works. By <span class="smcap">W. B. Scott</span>. With -descriptive Text. Folio, half-bound -boards, India Proofs, <b>21s.</b></p> - - -<p><b>Bowers (G.) Hunting Sketches:</b></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>Canters in Crampshire.</b> Oblong 4to, -half-bound boards, <b>21s.</b></p> - -<p><b>Leaves from a Hunting Journal.</b> -Coloured in facsimile of the originals. -Oblong 4to, half-bound, <b>21s.</b></p> - </div> - - -<p><b>Boyle (Frederick), Works by:</b></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>Camp Notes:</b> Stories of Sport and -Adventure in Asia, Africa, and -America. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, -<b>3s. 6d.</b>; post 8vo, illustrated bds., <b>2s.</b></p> - -<p><b>Savage Life.</b> Crown 8vo, cloth extra, -<b>3s. 6d.</b>; post 8vo, illustrated bds., <b>2s.</b></p> - </div> - - -<p><b>Brand’s Observations on Popular -Antiquities</b>, chiefly Illustrating -the Origin of our Vulgar Customs, -Ceremonies, and Superstitions. 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BESANT & JAMES RICE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Ready-Money Mortiboy.</b><br /> -<b>My Little Girl.</b><br /> -<b>The Case of Mr. Lucraft.</b><br /> -<b>This Son of Vulcan.</b><br /> -<b>With Harp and Crown.</b><br /> -<b>The Golden Butterfly.</b><br /> -<b>By Celia’s Arbour.</b><br /> -<b>The Monks of Thelema.</b><br /> -<b>‘ Twas in Trafalgar’s Bay.</b><br /> -<b>The Seamy Side.</b><br /> -<b>The Ten Years’ Tenant.</b><br /> -<b>The Chaplain of the Fleet.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY WALTER BESANT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>All Sorts and Conditions of Men.</b><br /> -<b>The Captains’ Room.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY ROBERT BUCHANAN.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>A Child of Nature.</b><br /> -<b>God and the Man.</b><br /> -<b>The Shadow of the Sword.</b><br /> -<b>The Martyrdom of Madeline.</b><br /> -<b>Love Me for Ever.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. H. LOVETT CAMERON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Deceivers Ever.</b><br /> -<b>Juliet’s Guardian.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MORTIMER COLLINS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Sweet Anne Page.</b><br /> -<b>Transmigration.</b><br /> -<b>From Midnight to Midnight.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>MORTIMER & FRANCES COLLINS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Blacksmith and Scholar.</b><br /> -<b>The Village Comedy.</b><br /> -<b>You Play me False.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY WILKIE COLLINS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Antonina.</b><br /> -<b>Basil.</b><br /> -<b>Hide and Seek.</b><br /> -<b>The Dead Secret.</b><br /> -<b>Queen of Hearts.</b><br /> -<b>My Miscellanies.</b><br /> -<b>Woman in White.</b><br /> -<b>The Moonstone.</b><br /> -<b>Man and Wife.</b><br /> -<b>Poor Miss Finch.</b><br /> -<b>Miss or Mrs.?</b><br /> -<b>New Magdalen.</b><br /> -<b>The Frozen Deep.</b><br /> -<b>The Law and the Lady.</b><br /> -<b>The Two Destinies.</b><br /> -<b>Haunted Hotel.</b><br /> -<b>The Fallen Leaves.</b><br /> -<b>Jezebel’s Daughter.</b><br /> -<b>The Black Robe.</b><br /> -<b>Heart and Science.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY DUTTON COOK.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Paul Foster’s Daughter.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY WILLIAM CYPLES.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Hearts of Gold.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY JAMES DE MILLE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>A Castle in Spain.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY J. LEITH DERWENT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Our Lady of Tears.</b><br /> -<b>Circe’s Lovers.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Felicia.</b><br /> -<b>Kitty.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. ANNIE EDWARDES.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Archie Lovell.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY R. E. FRANCILLON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Olympia.</b><br /> -<b>Queen Cophetua.</b><br /> -<b>One by One.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>Prefaced by Sir BARTLE FRERE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Pandurang Hari.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY EDWARD GARRETT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The Capel Girls.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY CHARLES GIBBON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Robin Gray.</b><br /> -<b>For Lack of Gold.</b><br /> -<b>In Love and War.</b><br /> -<b>What will the World Say?</b><br /> -<b>For the King.</b><br /> -<b>In Honour Bound.</b><br /> -<b>Queen of the Meadow.</b><br /> -<b>In Pastures Green.</b><br /> -<b>The Flower of the Forest.</b><br /> -<b>A Heart’s Problem.</b><br /> -<b>The Braes of Yarrow.</b><br /> -<b>The Golden Shaft.</b><br /> -<b>Of High Degree.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY THOMAS HARDY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Under the Greenwood Tree.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Garth.</b><br /> -<b>Ellice Quentin.</b><br /> -<b>Sebastian Strome.</b><br /> -<b>Prince Saroni’s Wife.</b><br /> -<b>Dust.</b><br /> -<b>Fortune’s Fool.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY SIR A. HELPS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Ivan de Biron.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. ALFRED HUNT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Thornicroft’s Model.</b><br /> -<b>The Leaden Casket.</b><br /> -<b>Self-Condemned.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY JEAN INGELOW.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Fated to be Free.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY HENRY JAMES, Jun.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Confidence.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY HARRIETT JAY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>The Queen of Connaught.</b><br /> -<b>The Dark Colleen.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY HENRY KINGSLEY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Number Seventeen.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY E. LYNN LINTON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Patricia Kemball.</b><br /> -<b>Atonement of Leam Dundas.</b><br /> -<b>The World Well Lost.</b><br /> -<b>Under which Lord?</b><br /> -<b>With a Silken Thread.</b><br /> -<b>The Rebel of the Family.</b><br /> -<b>“My Love!”</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY HENRY W. LUCY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Gideon Fleyce.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY JUSTIN McCARTHY, M.P.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>The Waterdale Neighbours.</b><br /> -<b>My Enemy’s Daughter.</b><br /> -<b>Linley Rochford.</b><br /> -<b>A Fair Saxon.</b><br /> -<b>Dear Lady Disdain.</b><br /> -<b>Miss Misanthrope.</b><br /> -<b>Donna Quixote.</b><br /> -<b>The Comet of a Season.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY GEORGE MACDONALD, LL.D.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Paul Faber, Surgeon.</b><br /> -<b>Thomas Wingfold, Curate.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. MACDONELL.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Quaker Cousins.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY KATHARINE S. MACQUOID.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Lost Rose.</b><br /> -<b>The Evil Eye.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY FLORENCE MARRYAT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Open! Sesame!</b><br /> -<b>Written in Fire.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY JEAN MIDDLEMASS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Touch and Go.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY D. CHRISTIE MURRAY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Life’s Atonement.</b><br /> -<b>Joseph’s Coat.</b><br /> -<b>A Model Father.</b><br /> -<b>Coals of Fire.</b><br /> -<b>Val Strange.</b><br /> -<b>Hearts.</b><br /> -<b>By the Gate of the Sea.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. OLIPHANT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Whiteladies.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY MARGARET A. PAUL.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Gentle and Simple.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY JAMES PAYN.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Lost Sir Massingberd.</b><br /> -<b>Best of Husbands.</b><br /> -<b>Fallen Fortunes.</b><br /> -<b>Halves.</b><br /> -<b>Walter’s Word.</b><br /> -<b>What He Cost Her.</b><br /> -<b>Less Black than We’re Painted.</b><br /> -<b>By Proxy.</b><br /> -<b>High Spirits.</b><br /> -<b>Under One Roof.</b><br /> -<b>Carlyon’s Year.</b><br /> -<b>A Confidential Agent.</b><br /> -<b>From Exile.</b><br /> -<b>A Grape from Thorn.</b><br /> -<b>For Cash Only.</b><br /> -<b>Kit: A Memory.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY E. C. PRICE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Valentina.</b><br /> -<b>The Foreigners.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY CHARLES READE, D.C.L.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>It is Never Too Late to Mend.</b><br /> -<b>Hard Cash.</b><br /> -<b>Peg Woffington.</b><br /> -<b>Christie Johnstone.</b><br /> -<b>Griffith Gaunt.</b><br /> -<b>The Double Marriage.</b><br /> -<b>Love Me Little, Love Me Long.</b><br /> -<b>Foul Play.</b><br /> -<b>The Cloister and the Hearth.</b><br /> -<b>The Course of True Love.</b><br /> -<b>The Autobiography of a Thief.</b><br /> -<b>Put Yourself in His Place.</b><br /> -<b>A Terrible Temptation.</b><br /> -<b>The Wandering Heir.</b><br /> -<b>A Woman-Hater.</b><br /> -<b>A Simpleton.</b><br /> -<b>Readiana.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. J. H. RIDDELL.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Her Mother’s Darling.</b><br /> -<b>Prince of Wales’s Garden-Party.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY F. W. ROBINSON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Women are Strange.</b><br /> -<b>The Hands of Justice.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY JOHN SAUNDERS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Bound to the Wheel.</b><br /> -<b>Guy Waterman.</b><br /> -<b>One Against the World.</b><br /> -<b>The Lion in the Path.</b><br /> -<b>The Two Dreamers.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY T. W. SPEIGHT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The Mysteries of Heron Dyke.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY R. A. STERNDALE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The Afghan Knife.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY BERTHA THOMAS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Proud Maisie.</b><br /> -<b>Cressida.</b><br /> -<b>The Violin-Player.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>The Way we Live Now.</b><br /> -<b>The American Senator.</b><br /> -<b>Frau Frohmann.</b><br /> -<b>Marion Fay.</b><br /> -<b>Kept in the Dark.</b><br /> -<b>Mr. Scarborough’s Family.</b><br /> -<b>The Land Leaguers.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY FRANCES E. TROLLOPE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Like Ships upon the Sea.</b><br /> -<b>Anne Furness.</b><br /> -<b>Mabel’s Progress.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY T. A. TROLLOPE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Diamond Cut Diamond.</b></p> - - -<p><em>By IVAN TURGENIEFF and Others.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Stories from Foreign Novelists.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY SARAH TYTLER.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>What She Came Through.</b><br /> -<b>The Bride’s Pass.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY J. S. WINTER.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Cavalry Life.</b><br /> -<b>Regimental Legends.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p>CHEAP EDITIONS OF POPULAR NOVELS.</p> - -<p>Post 8vo, illustrated boards, <b>2s.</b> each.</p> - - -<p><em>BY EDMOND ABOUT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The Fellah.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY HAMILTON AÏDÉ.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Carr of Carrlyon.</b><br /> -<b>Confidences.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. ALEXANDER.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Maid, Wife, or Widow?</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY SHELSLEY BEAUCHAMP.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Grantley Grange.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY W. BESANT & JAMES RICE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Ready-Money Mortiboy.</b><br /> -<b>With Harp and Crown.</b><br /> -<b>This Son of Vulcan.</b><br /> -<b>My Little Girl.</b><br /> -<b>The Case of Mr. Lucraft.</b><br /> -<b>The Golden Butterfly.</b><br /> -<b>By Celia’s Arbour.</b><br /> -<b>The Monks of Thelema.</b><br /> -<b>‘ Twas in Trafalgar’s Bay.</b><br /> -<b>The Seamy Side.</b><br /> -<b>The Ten Years’ Tenant.</b><br /> -<b>The Chaplain of the Fleet.</b><br /> -<b>All Sorts and Conditions of Men.</b><br /> -<b>The Captains’ Room.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY FREDERICK BOYLE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Camp Notes.</b><br /> -<b>Savage Life.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY BRET HARTE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>An Heiress of Red Dog.</b><br /> -<b>The Luck of Roaring Camp.</b><br /> -<b>Californian Stories.</b><br /> -<b>Gabriel Conroy.</b><br /> -<b>Flip.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY ROBERT BUCHANAN.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>The Shadow of the Sword.</b><br /> -<b>A Child of Nature.</b><br /> -<b>God and the Man.</b><br /> -<b>The Martyrdom of Madeline.</b><br /> -<b>Love Me for Ever.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. BURNETT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Surly Tim.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. LOVETT CAMERON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Deceivers Ever.</b><br /> -<b>Juliet’s Guardian.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MACLAREN COBBAN.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The Cure of Souls.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY C. ALLSTON COLLINS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The Bar Sinister.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY WILKIE COLLINS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Antonina.</b><br /> -<b>Basil.</b><br /> -<b>Hide and Seek.</b><br /> -<b>The Dead Secret.</b><br /> -<b>Queen of Hearts.</b><br /> -<b>My Miscellanies.</b><br /> -<b>Woman In White.</b><br /> -<b>The Moonstone.</b><br /> -<b>Man and Wife.</b><br /> -<b>Poor Miss Finch.</b><br /> -<b>Miss or Mrs.?</b><br /> -<b>The New Magdalen.</b><br /> -<b>The Frozen Deep.</b><br /> -<b>Law and the Lady.</b><br /> -<b>The Two Destinies.</b><br /> -<b>Haunted Hotel.</b><br /> -<b>The Fallen Leaves.</b><br /> -<b>Jezebel’s Daughter.</b><br /> -<b>The Black Robe.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MORTIMER COLLINS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Sweet Anne Page.</b><br /> -<b>Transmigration.</b><br /> -<b>From Midnight to Midnight.</b><br /> -<b>A Fight with Fortune.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>MORTIMER & FRANCES COLLINS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Sweet and Twenty.</b><br /> -<b>Frances.</b><br /> -<b>Blacksmith and Scholar.</b><br /> -<b>The Village Comedy.</b><br /> -<b>You Play me False.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY DUTTON COOK.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Leo.</b><br /> -<b>Paul Foster’s Daughter.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY J. LEITH DERWENT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Our Lady of Tears.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY CHARLES DICKENS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Sketches by Boz.</b><br /> -<b>The Pickwick Papers.</b><br /> -<b>Oliver Twist.</b><br /> -<b>Nicholas Nickleby.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. ANNIE EDWARDES.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>A Point of Honour.</b><br /> -<b>Archie Lovell.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Felicia.</b><br /> -<b>Kitty.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY EDWARD EGGLESTON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Roxy.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY PERCY FITZGERALD.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Bella Donna.</b><br /> -<b>Never Forgotten.</b><br /> -<b>The Second Mrs. Tillotson.</b><br /> -<b>Polly.</b><br /> -<b>Seventy-five Brooke Street.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY ALBANY DE FONBLANQUE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Filthy Lucre.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY R. E. FRANCILLON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Olympia.</b><br /> -<b>Queen Cophetua.</b><br /> -<b>One by One.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>Prefaced by Sir H. BARTLE FRERE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Pandurang Hari.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY HAIN FRISWELL.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>One of Two.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY EDWARD GARRETT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The Capel Girls.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY CHARLES GIBBON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Robin Gray.</b><br /> -<b>For Lack of Gold.</b><br /> -<b>What will the World Say?</b><br /> -<b>In Honour Bound.</b><br /> -<b>The Dead Heart.</b><br /> -<b>In Love and War.</b><br /> -<b>For the King.</b><br /> -<b>Queen of the Meadow.</b><br /> -<b>In Pastures Green.</b><br /> -<b>The Flower of the Forest.</b><br /> -<b>A Heart’s Problem.</b><br /> -<b>The Braes of Yarrow.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY WILLIAM GILBERT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Dr. Austin’s Guests.</b><br /> -<b>The Wizard of the Mountain.</b><br /> -<b>James Duke.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY JAMES GREENWOOD.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Dick Temple.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY ANDREW HALLIDAY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Every-Day Papers.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY LADY DUFFUS HARDY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Paul Wynter’s Sacrifice.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY THOMAS HARDY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Under the Greenwood Tree.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Garth.</b><br /> -<b>Ellice Quentin.</b><br /> -<b>Prince Saroni’s Wife.</b><br /> -<b>Sebastian Strome.</b><br /> -<b>Dust.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY SIR ARTHUR HELPS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Ivan de Biron.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY TOM HOOD.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>A Golden Heart.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. GEORGE HOOPER.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The House of Raby.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY VICTOR HUGO.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The Hunchback of Notre Dame.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. ALFRED HUNT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Thornicroft’s Model.</b><br /> -<b>The Leaden Casket.</b><br /> -<b>Self-Condemned.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY JEAN INGELOW.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Fated to be Free.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY HARRIETT JAY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>The Dark Colleen.</b><br /> -<b>The Queen of Connaught.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY HENRY KINGSLEY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Oakshott Castle.</b><br /> -<b>Number Seventeen.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY E. LYNN LINTON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Patricia Kemball.</b><br /> -<b>The Atonement of Leam Dundas.</b><br /> -<b>The World Well Lost.</b><br /> -<b>Under which Lord?</b><br /> -<b>With a Silken Thread.</b><br /> -<b>The Rebel of the Family.</b><br /> -<b>“My Love!”</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY HENRY W. LUCY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Gideon Fleyce.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY JUSTIN McCARTHY, M.P.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Dear Lady Disdain.</b><br /> -<b>The Waterdale Neighbours.</b><br /> -<b>My Enemy’s Daughter.</b><br /> -<b>A Fair Saxon.</b><br /> -<b>Linley Rochford.</b><br /> -<b>Miss Misanthrope.</b><br /> -<b>Donna Quixote.</b><br /> -<b>The Comet of a Season.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY GEORGE MACDONALD.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Paul Faber, Surgeon.</b><br /> -<b>Thomas Wingfold, Curate.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. MACDONELL.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Quaker Cousins.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY KATHARINE S. MACQUOID.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>The Evil Eye.</b><br /> -<b>Lost Rose.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY W. H. MALLOCK.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The New Republic.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY FLORENCE MARRYAT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Open! Sesame!</b><br /> -<b>A Harvest of Wild Oats.</b><br /> -<b>A Little Stepson.</b><br /> -<b>Fighting the Air.</b><br /> -<b>Written in Fire.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY J. MASTERMAN.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Half-a-dozen Daughters.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY JEAN MIDDLEMASS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Touch and Go.</b><br /> -<b>Mr. Dorillion.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY D. CHRISTIE MURRAY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>A Life’s Atonement.</b><br /> -<b>A Model Father.</b><br /> -<b>Joseph’s Coat.</b><br /> -<b>Coals of Fire.</b><br /> -<b>By the Gate of the Sea.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. OLIPHANT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Whiteladies.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. ROBERT O’REILLY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Phœbe’s Fortunes.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY OUIDA.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Held in Bondage.</b><br /> -<b>Strathmore.</b><br /> -<b>Chandos.</b><br /> -<b>Under Two Flags.</b><br /> -<b>Idalia.</b><br /> -<b>Cecil Castlemaine.</b><br /> -<b>Tricotrin.</b><br /> -<b>Puck.</b><br /> -<b>Folle Farine.</b><br /> -<b>A Dog of Flanders.</b><br /> -<b>Pascarel.</b><br /> -<b>Two Little Wooden Shoes.</b><br /> -<b>Signa.</b><br /> -<b>In a Winter City.</b><br /> -<b>Ariadne.</b><br /> -<b>Friendship.</b><br /> -<b>Moths.</b><br /> -<b>Pipistrello.</b><br /> -<b>A Village Commune.</b><br /> -<b>Bimbi.</b><br /> -<b>In Maremma.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MARGARET AGNES PAUL.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Gentle and Simple.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY JAMES PAYN.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Lost Sir Massingberd.</b><br /> -<b>A Perfect Treasure.</b><br /> -<b>Bentinck’s Tutor.</b><br /> -<b>Murphy’s Master.</b><br /> -<b>A County Family.</b><br /> -<b>At Her Mercy.</b><br /> -<b>A Woman’s Vengeance.</b><br /> -<b>Cecil’s Tryst.</b><br /> -<b>Clyffards of Clyffe.</b><br /> -<b>The Family Scapegrace.</b><br /> -<b>Foster Brothers.</b><br /> -<b>Found Dead.</b><br /> -<b>Best of Husbands.</b><br /> -<b>Walter’s Word.</b><br /> -<b>Halves.</b><br /> -<b>Fallen Fortunes.</b><br /> -<b>What He Cost Her.</b><br /> -<b>Humorous Stories.</b><br /> -<b>Gwendoline’s Harvest.</b><br /> -<b>Like Father, Like Son.</b><br /> -<b>A Marine Residence.</b><br /> -<b>Married Beneath Him.</b><br /> -<b>Mirk Abbey.</b><br /> -<b>Not Wooed, but Won.</b><br /> -<b>£200 Reward.</b><br /> -<b>Less Black than We’re Painted.</b><br /> -<b>By Proxy.</b><br /> -<b>Under One Roof.</b><br /> -<b>High Spirits.</b><br /> -<b>Carlyon’s Year.</b><br /> -<b>A Confidential Agent.</b><br /> -<b>Some Private Views.</b><br /> -<b>From Exile.</b><br /> -<b>A Grape from a Thorn.</b><br /> -<b>For Cash Only.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY EDGAR A. POE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The Mystery of Marie Roget.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY E. C. PRICE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Valentina.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY CHARLES READE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>It is Never Too Late to Mend.</b><br /> -<b>Hard Cash.</b><br /> -<b>Peg Woffington.</b><br /> -<b>Christie Johnstone.</b><br /> -<b>Griffith Gaunt.</b><br /> -<b>Put Yourself in His Place.</b><br /> -<b>The Double Marriage.</b><br /> -<b>Love Me Little, Love Me Long.</b><br /> -<b>Foul Play.</b><br /> -<b>The Cloister and the Hearth.</b><br /> -<b>The Course of True Love.</b><br /> -<b>Autobiography of a Thief.</b><br /> -<b>A Terrible Temptation.</b><br /> -<b>The Wandering Heir.</b><br /> -<b>A Simpleton.</b><br /> -<b>A Woman-Hater.</b><br /> -<b>Readiana.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY MRS. J. H. RIDDELL.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Her Mother’s Darling.</b><br /> -<b>Prince of Wales’s Garden Party.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY F. W. ROBINSON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Women are Strange.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY BAYLE ST. JOHN.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>A Levantine Family.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Gaslight and Daylight.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY JOHN SAUNDERS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Bound to the Wheel.</b><br /> -<b>One Against the World.</b><br /> -<b>Guy Waterman.</b><br /> -<b>The Lion in the Path.</b><br /> -<b>Two Dreamers.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY ARTHUR SKETCHLEY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>A Match in the Dark.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY T. W. SPEIGHT.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The Mysteries of Heron Dyke.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY R. A. STERNDALE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>The Afghan Knife.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY R. LOUIS STEVENSON.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>New Arabian Nights.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY BERTHA THOMAS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Cressida.</b><br /> -<b>Proud Maisie.</b><br /> -<b>The Violin-Player.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY W. MOY THOMAS.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>A Fight for Life.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY WALTER THORNBURY.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Tales for the Marines.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Diamond Cut Diamond.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>The Way We Live Now.</b><br /> -<b>The American Senator.</b><br /> -<b>Frau Frohmann.</b><br /> -<b>Marion Fay.</b><br /> -<b>Kept in the Dark.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY FRANCES ELEANOR TROLLOPE.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"><b>Like Ships Upon the Sea.</b></p> - - -<p><em>BY MARK TWAIN.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Tom Sawyer.</b><br /> -<b>An Idle Excursion.</b><br /> -<b>A Pleasure Trip on the Continent of Europe.</b><br /> -<b>A Tramp Abroad.</b><br /> -<b>The Stolen White Elephant.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY SARAH TYTLER.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>What She Came Through.</b><br /> -<b>The Bride’s Pass.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY J. S. WINTER.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Cavalry Life.</b><br /> -<b>Regimental Legends.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>BY LADY WOOD.</em></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> -<p><b>Sabina.</b></p> - </div> - - -<p><em>BY EDMUND YATES.</em></p> - -<p class="blockquot"> -<b>Castaway.</b><br /> -<b>The Forlorn Hope.</b><br /> -<b>Land at Last.</b><br /> -</p> - - -<p><em>ANONYMOUS.</em></p> - - <div class="blockquot"> - -<p><b>Paul Ferroll.</b><br /> - -<b>Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wife.</b></p> - </div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Fcap. 8vo, picture covers, <b>1s.</b> each.</p> - - -<p><b>Jeff Briggs’s Love Story.</b> By <span class="smcap">Bret -Harte</span>.</p> - - -<p><b>The Twins of Table Mountain.</b> By -<span class="smcap">Bret Harte</span>.</p> - - -<p><b>Mrs. Gainsborough’s Diamonds.</b> By -<span class="smcap">Julian Hawthorne</span>.</p> - - -<p><b>Kathleen Mavourneen.</b> By Author -of “That Lass o’ Lowrie’s.”</p> - - -<p><b>Lindsay’s Luck.</b> By the Author of -“That Lass o’ Lowrie’s.”</p> - - -<p><b>Pretty Polly Pemberton.</b> By the Author of -“That Lass o’ Lowrie’s.”</p> - - -<p><b>Trooping with Crows.</b> By Mrs. -<span class="smcap">Pirkis</span>.</p> - - -<p><b>The Professor’s Wife.</b> By <span class="smcap">Leonard -Graham</span>.</p> - - -<p><b>A Double Bond.</b> By <span class="smcap">Linda Villari</span>.</p> - - -<p><b>Esther’s Glove.</b> By <span class="smcap">R. E. Francillon</span>.</p> - - -<p><b>The Garden that Paid the Rent.</b> -By <span class="smcap">Tom Jerrold</span>.</p> - -<p class="ph4"> -J. OGDEN AND CO., PRINTERS, 172, ST. JOHN STREET, E.C.<br /> -</p> - -<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber’s Notes:</h3> - - <p>Table of Contents created by the transcriber and placed into the public domain.</p> - - <p>Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired.</p> - - <p>Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as - possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other - inconsistencies.</p> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Princess Napraxine, Volume 2 (of 3), by -Maria Louise Ramé - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCESS NAPRAXINE, VOLUME 2 *** - -***** This file should be named 50836-h.htm or 50836-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/8/3/50836/ - -Produced by MWS, Christopher Wright and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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