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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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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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