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BY
of childish awe she surveyed the weird surroundings of Leroux's studio.
"Everything was new, strange, and astounding, to
the Ana-Capri maiden: the numberless canvases that
leant against the lower part of the walls, the worm-eaten
tapestries that covered their upper portions, the
yataghans, the shields, the chain-mail that hung on
them, the pictures on the easel, the casts, the masks,
the anatomical écorchés that filled all spaces, the hollow
suit of armour that shone in one dark corner, the
skeleton with a pipe in its mouth that filled another;
and, more horrific than all, the lay-figure which, in its
silk dress and ringlets, she mistook for the lady of the
house, and which elicited a little scream from her as
she noticed its vacant stare and oddly twisted fingers.
Then there was the portrait of the Cardinal that would
stare at her, move to which side she would; the gorgeous
Persian cat that sprang loudly purring on its master's
shoulders; the brilliant and clamorous macaw, and the
dreadful little black monkey, that, shocking to relate,
had caught her by the silk train, for which it received
a caning. All this, and much more, filled her with
speechless amazement.
"But before she had time to grow a little more
accustomed to these wonders, she was hurried off by
Margutta?, Raoul's factotum and housekeeper, to the
room that for the present was allotted her. During
her absence, ever more anxiously did Raoul and myself
discuss the problem of what was to be done with her.
I had given my friend a hasty sketch of all that you
know already, and though demurring at first to the
resolution I had taken, he was quite willing to help me
on finding me fixed in my resolution. After a few minutes he exclaimed: 'I have it! There's a priest I know, who has often sat to me, he frequents a café not far from here; many's the bottle we've emptied and the song we've sung together. He is a little rakish, I won't deny, too fond of double-entendres and good living: still a priest is a priest; I'll ask him how to set about this marriage business. We'll keep him in the dark about that convent escapade of your bella donna; but as long as we're fairly married according to the rules of the Church, I suppose we need have no further apprehension of pursuit or detection, as Mademoiselle Antonella had taken no vows, and was therefore free to leave. However, I don't think the Signor Curato will ask many questions. But tell us, mon vieux--for I can hardly make you out--are you in bitter earnest? Do you love her--I mean head over ears?'
"'By all means seek out the priest at once,' I cried;
'I am in earnest. I know I am doing what is wild
and reckless; I know that this is but a simple contadina
of Capri, but I love her--I love her as madly as though
she were Queen of Naples. Between her and me there
exist occult, magnetic affinities; for me she has got
into this strait; she has entered a convent, and run
away from it, and I could no more abandon her now,
or be her ruin, than I could at this moment abandon
the hopes of life itself, with all its prospects of gratified
ambition. I don't understand the laws of this singular,
unprogressive country, but I will marry her this hour,
if they will permit it, and,arrange all else afterwards.'
"Raoul slightly raised his eyebrows, and rolled up a
cigarette. His cat pricked up her ears as the rustling
of a silk dress was again heard along the corridor, and Antonella, refreshed and resplendent, with her black, lustrous plaits newly arranged, came sweeping into the room in her long black skirt, whose dark lines brought into strong relief her embroidered chemise, her 'mat' ivory shoulders, and grandly moulded arms. Raoul, assiduously placing a chair for her at the breakfast-table, which had been laid out by this time, whispered in French: 'How maddeningly those corals on the faded red handkerchief bring out her flesh-tints. I already see her hung in next year's "Salon," with a crowd of my despairing rivals beneath her!'
"'Softly, softly, friend,' I answered in the same
tongue; 'you have to catch the Signor Curato first.'
"'I will, I will!' cried Raoul, jumping up enthusiastically,
as he hastily gulped down the remainder
of his chocolate; then smilingly kissing his hand to
Antonella, he skipped out of the room.
"He returned ere long bursting with his good news;
for he entered into his friends' affairs with about the
same zest with which he would begin a new picture.
Taking me aside, he informed me that the priest whom
he had consulted was ready to marry us himself this
very morning if I liked, although it would be a
disciplinary offence on his part--a consideration which he
waived on hearing he would be well rewarded for it.
'I dare say,' he went on, 'twenty-five scudi will appear
ample payment to him. If your finances are exhausted
I have the money all ready for you; at least you'll be
at no expense for a wedding garment or banquet.'
"When the priest arrived, we accordingly received
the nuptial benediction in the studio, after very scant
ceremony, Raoul and his housekeeper being the witnesses.
"After discussion with my friend, it was decided that
it would be positively ruinous to my prospects to
acknowledge the peasant girl Antonella openly as my
wife for the present; and that my best plan would be
to place her with some lady who might help in forming
her manners and developing her mind.
"Such a person I remembered my former landlady to
be, the widow of an impoverished Cavaliere, who had
left her for sole property a small palazzo in the
'Trastevere.' There in some top rooms she lived and
held state by herself, the rest being let out in
apartments, mostly to hard-up characters such as I had
been myself.
"This lady--for lady she was in every sense of the
word--I thought might be willing to carry out my views
with respect to Antonella. She was fairly well educated,
spoke French, and yet was poor enough to make it likely
that she would gladly avail herself of such an addition
to her income. Moreover, I judged that my visits would
not attract attention in the quiet, out-of-the-way
neighbourhood where she lived.
"As I expected, Signora di Volterra readily fell in
with my views. 'Your wife shall be as safe with me
as in her mother's lap,' she said; 'and as to education,
I flatter myself that though my poor dear Cavaliere
was only third under-secretary to the Santo Padre's
confessor, yet the Di Volterras have ever known the
business and duties of the nobility.'
"When Antonella was introduced to her, she seized
her fervidly in her arms, said she was the daughter
that she and the Cavaliere had always longed for; and with a look at me, observed that with such eyes she would not be long without admirers when I introduced her into society; ending by inviting her to put away her bonnet and things in the room allotted to her. My wife turned round, pouted her lips at me, and disappeared with her chaperon."
"Good God! you are a married
man, then!" he exclaimed as his,
friend made a pause in his story,
looking at him with knitted brows; and then he began
whistling as though to relieve his mind.
Just then the watchman passed down the street,
droning out in a monotonous voice--
"Good folk, the Minster bell strikes two,
May Christ the Lord watch over you."
Sontheim, seeing that his friend still remained silent,
remarked more calmly: "Well, I suppose there's more
behind it than meets the eye! No one that I know
of has ever heard of this wife of yours. From what
I can make out, she'd the spirit of twenty unbroken
fillies in her, and you can't surely have kept her in
durance vile with that old Di Volterra up to the present hour!"
Emanuel laughed rather sardonically; then he said,
shrugging his shoulders, "You shall hear in due time
how well I kept her shut up there, and what a docile
wife I found her! In the meantime she did not show
much docility as a pupil, though she possessed all sorts
of natural talents, but she was incorrigibly lazy and
pleasure loving. Some things, it is true, she learned
at once and as by instinct, such as to drape and wear
a shawl in the last new fashion, to speak pure Roman,
and to behave like a lady. On discovering, for example,
that finely shaped aid trimmed nails were considered a
sign of high breeding, she actually devoted three hours
every morning to paring and polishing hers; and in
spite of my teazing, persevered till she had eradicated
all traces of plebeian origin from her long, shapely hands.
"Reading, writing, and arithmetic, however, were
profoundly distasteful to her; but as soon as she found
them to be necessary accomplishments to a person in
society, she arduously prosecuted their study by original
processes of her own. For instance, I have known her
secrete notes from fashionable ladies, and use them as
models for her own caligraphy, despising the more
rounded commonplace characters of her instructress;
by this means, with the aid of gilt-edged, scented notepaper
and golden sand, she used to send me billets-doux
that would in no wise have been a disgrace to me if left
lying about.
"For some time after we were married her great
delight was to go out walking with me through the
streets of Rome, and I indulged her in this fancy as
much as I could and dared. I soon discovered, however, that the grand monuments of antiquity and the historical associations of the Eternal City possessed no attractions for her. How should they? you will perhaps say, considering she knew next to nothing of their past history. Still, in many of the Italians, quite as uncultivated as herself, there seems a kind of inborn, hereditary instinct for these things.
"No; what she liked was going to the Corso, and the
evening walks on the Pincio, decked out in her finest
clothes, and watching the people of wealth and title
drive by in their carriages, who stared at her in turn.
But, afraid of the notice she attracted, I was forced to
check a taste which, though harmless enough in itself,
incurred too much risk under the circumstances.
"Our first memorable quarrel, I remember, arose
when I told her that I was not a Marchese or Milord,
as she seemed to think, with nothing to do but waste
his time in showing off his wife to the world on the
Corso; but a hard-worked musician, bound to strain
every nerve for some years to come to place her in the
position he wished to see her in.
"You will remember that Raoul had stipulated that
he should be allowed to paint Antonella, and under the
circumstances I could of course refuse him nothing.
He had set his heart on painting a picture of the
dance amidst the ruins--had actually gone to Capri
to make some studies on the spot itself, and was now
all on fire to begin his subject with such a splendid
model for his central figure.
"Antonella's delight on finding that she was to be
painted knew no bounds; Signora di Volterra, on the
other hand, looked, or pretended to look, scandalized. But the impetuous girl paid small heed to what she called her owlish humours, and began trying on all her dresses by turns before she was ready to start.
"She always naturally fell into the most graceful
attitudes, and Raoul's only difficulty, on our reaching the
studio, was which selection he should make from among
this wealth of posture. She put up with this troublesome
and apparently interminable trial with the utmost
complacency, but grew restive when he had at last
fixed on the right position and she found that she was
henceforth expected to remain motionless.
"Raoul, like a skilled veteran, did not at first inform
her of the many hours she would be required to sit, and
she kept continually turning her head the wrong way,
and inquiring if he did not think that a better view of
it, or if he had not yet done. But by degrees, what
with sweetmeats, and blandishments, and his amusing
stories, she got, as it were, surprised into sitting properly;
perhaps also philosophically making up her mind that
one must suffer for the privilege of future greatness as
a beauty.
"Later on, when I found the sittings so much more
numerous than I had expected--for these great artists
often work out their conceptions at immense toil to
themselves--I would play to them on my violin, and we would
pass our time in a sort of blissful intoxication of blended
art, friendship, and love. This would only be interrupted
at moments when things went wrong with Raoul's
painting, when, after rushing back to look at his work
from a distance, he would curse himself for a fool, and
tear his wild locks, and fiercely wipe out what he had
done with his paint rag. At such times my wife would stare at him as though he were mad, and then burst into peals of laughter, and I would fiddle away with desperate energy to drown his exclamations, and rail at him for his wastefulness; or, again, when the mood seized me I would pull out my roll of music-paper and begin composing, when we all three became as silent as mice. But frequently I had to go off to concerts, or to give lessons, which were now, however, chiefly to marchionesses and bankers' wives, leaving Raoul and my wife together in a fervour of confidence in their affection and honour.
"Antonella had the faculty of getting her own way with
everybody. With the Signora di Volterra, who was, I
feared, a lazy instructress, she did as she liked; me, of
course, she twisted round her little finger; and now
came Raoul's turn. He had promised me not to let
her be seen by any one, but on the many occasions
when he was called into the adjoining room to speak
to important visitors she had managed in one way or
another to bring herself to their notice. It seems that
one or two of Raoul's rich patrons, connoisseurs of art
and men of fashion, had caught glimpses of Antonella
in the corridor of the house, opportunities which I now
imagine she must herself have sought for. These now
began whispering amongst each other of the magnificent
beauty of this artist's mysterious model.
"To my no small annoyance, I myself heard the
Princess Tortonia rallying my friend at her house about
the model he so sedulously kept all to himself--so all
unlike the beings they saw grouped on the steps of
the Trinity di Monte. I had found out, indeed, that
one morning when Raoul had been unexpectedly called away, she had been discovered amiably chatting with several of his male friends on his return.
"The picture for which she had been sitting was
now finished, and attracted a great deal of attention;
and although my wife herself had now begun dabbling
in colours and babbling of turning artist, I insisted for
many reasons on her discontinuance of her visits to the
studio, and resuming her prearranged mode of life and
occupations.
"Although she apparently acquiesced in this decision,
I began to notice a great change in her temper and
manner to myself. We had now been married over a
year. The season had been a very unhealthy one; my
chief supporters had left Rome in a panic, there were
no concerts going on, and financially speaking I was
anything but flourishing.
"It is true I was beginning to make a great name,
but a large income does not invariably keep pace with
that.
"Antonella, already irritated at the imposed restrictions,
would evince by degrees considerable impatience,
nay, contempt, on my refusing her certain expensive
trifles or expeditions that she had set her heart on.
"On one occasion, indeed, she was so exceedingly
unreasonable, that, forgetting my wonted forbearance,
I roundly taxed her with her extravagance and love of
amusement; when, to my astonishment, she poured out
on me such a torrent of invective, mingled with
complaints and accusations, that for the moment I was
utterly taken aback.
"Feverishly pacing up and down the room she cried:
'You wish to keep me hidden away, I see; to deny me all the privileges of my station, my position as your wife. Ah, how do I know that I am your wife at all! What could a poor girl like me do to protect herself from treachery and shame? Unhappy me! I see it all now; the holy hermit was right when he said you were luring me to destruction--it was a mock marriage into which you entrapped me! Fool! Idiot! I see it all! That is why I am stowed away with the old dolt on this top-floor; that is why you tell me you have no money, and go to all the grand people alone, so that no one should hear of my miserable, miserable story! Oh, my poor mother, God was good to you to take you to Himself before you knew what had become of your wretched Tolla. We were honest people always, and now they would point their finger at me in Ana-Capri; the girls would titter and turn their backs upon me. He is ashamed of you, they would say; would he be ashamed of his lawful wife? No, no, I will not stand it; I was an honest girl. I will go to the Santo Padre and tell him of the foul trick played upon me; he will see me righted, he will not let me be ground down to the dust!
"'Ah me, but he will know that I ran away from
the convent, wretched girl that I am, and punish me
perhaps! It was wicked, oh, very wicked of me; but
it was your fault, yes, your fault--you have been my
ruin! My soul will go to perdition, and all through you!
you! you!'
"The last words came half-stifled through her
clenched teeth, while she was pointing her finger at
me. Her features worked more and more convulsively,
and then, with a succession of gurgling moans, she
suddenly, before I could catch her, fell backwards like a log, and, to my horror, remained quite rigid and deathlike.
"I lifted her on to the sofa, called her by a thousand
tender names, rushed into the next room for a jug of
cold water, bathed her face and rubbed her temples--but
all to no purpose; and at last, thoroughly frightened,
I rang the bell furiously, and on the Signora's appearance
bade her watch by my wife's side while I rushed
out for a doctor.
"Though half beside myself, I remembered the
address of a rising young medical man, whom I found in,
and brought back with me. On the way, I informed
him of the death-like state in which I had left my wife,
and of the extraordinary circumstances under which I
had first seen her.
"By this time we had reached our destination, and
in another moment the doctor was feeling Tolla's pulse,
and examining the pupils of her eyes. She lay in the
same awful immobility in which I had left her. But
my worst fears were allayed by the cool, business-like
manner in which he ordered her head to be laid low,
and her clothes to be loosened, saying: 'Don't be
alarmed! You must leave her perfectly quiet; she will
come to herself presently. She has one of those nervous
temperaments that would be specially affected by such
an accident as you have described. I remember that
similar cases often came within my father's cognizance
while in practice at Taranto. I have it on his authority
that this affection is not merely the superstition
ordinarily represented, but that for some occult reason
the inhabitants of those parts are liable to this hysterical
disorder on being bitten by the tarantula; and he attributed the beneficial effect produced by the tarantella music to the perspiration incident to the violent dancing, a view he found corroborated when in Russia with the Grande Armée, where the peasants use their vapour-bath as a cure for hydrophobia. But I should not advise your playing to her again in this manner, as it will only tend to renew the impression produced on the nerves; and you must try to make her forget it.'
"Then surveying her beautiful countenance with
about as much animation as though she were a wax
figure, he added that, with her highly excitable nature,
I must try by all means to keep her amused, and then
took his leave.
"When Antonella at last came to herself, everything
was forgotten in the joy of seeing her well again. She
appeared unconscious of the scene that had led to her
trance. She was more captivating than ever; and to
celebrate our reconciliation I took her to Tivoli, and
we spent the day there in all manner of lover-like follies
and playful pranks.
"For a little while everything went charmingly.
She now resumed her visits to the studio, which I was
henceforth afraid to interfere with; and there, while
sitting or painting under his direction, she now often
met patrons and visitors of Raoul's.
"By and by I noticed that she began to alternate
more than hitherto between fits of strange excitability
and utter languor, which again gave place to the wildest
caprices. She coquetted, with the men that came to
see my friend, took to smoking cigarettes at times, and
in certain moods ignored me altogether. But if on such
occasions I flew into a violent rage, and gave vent to spurts of jealousy, all at once, by a curious revulsion, she would manifest the most extravagant love for me; and no matter how angry I felt, if she looked at me with that seductive smile of hers, showing the milk-white teeth, it was all up with me again."
"One afternoon, towards the end of March, I had
come in, and was twanging the mandolin, as was my
wont, while Raoul and Tolla worked away with most
meritorious seriousness.
"One by one three gentlemen had dropped in to take
leave, as it happened, for after a winter residence at
Rome they were all going back to their respective
countries. There was the French banker, Raoul's
intimate and self-constituted agent; a Russian Count
Ogotshki, reputed of immense wealth--a grey-haired,
pale-eyed, paternal sort of man--with high cheek-bones,
weak chin, and of exceedingly courtly manners; and an
English M.P., in a grey tweed suit of irreproachable
cut, who spoke the most wonderful Anglo-French, only
seasoned rather too plentifully with 'Oh uee!'
"Tolla, in some occult fashion of her own, had by
this time picked up French, in which she rattled on
with most commendable self-assurance and facility.
"'You should have seen the crowd round you in the
salon,' said the French banker, M. G----, looking
benignantly at Tolla. 'Had you been there yourself,
you would have been the toast of all Paris, and the
lioness of the Bois de Boulogne. I heard Madame
Agadeau say, if that girl were her daughter she should
be covered with diamonds; as she considered these
Italian peasants of a higher and nobler race than us
Gauls.'
"'I have a picture of an Italian peasant-woman by
Williams,' remarked the M.P. sententiously; 'a woman
of Sorrento with a goat. But what is singular is that
both are precisely similar to a woman with a goat that
a friend of mine had of him thirty years before; and yet
a goat will not live thirty years though the woman might.
But I say to him, if you would only borrow some of
Robert's, and your splendid models to----'
"'Mr. Williams is too polite to wish to interfere
with our models; and, moreover, after painting a goat for twenty years he may well do it de chic.'
"'I know what that is,' said the M.P., 'it is what
our sailors put in their cheeks.'
"'Yes,' retorted Raoul, 'and is usually associated
with blague; and he began shouting out in operatic
tones--
'Debit de tabac des manufa ....
Des manufa ...
Debit de tabac des manufa ...
Des manufa ...
Tures royales
Tures royaux.' ....
"All this time the Count said little or nothing, but
sat smoking his cigarette and watching Tolla painting.
Suddenly turning to Raoul, he pointed to the picture of
'The Dance among the Ruins,' and said--
"'So the Duchess of D---- has been beforehand with
me in that. It seems my destiny always to play second
fiddle. I was born a day too late, and have never been
able to make it up since. You dislike making replicas,
I believe?'
"'Ah, we have no time for that now,' said the
banker, pompously; 'but there's the "Silk-spinner of
Ana-Capri," mademoiselle is in that also.'
"All this time Raoul uttered not a word, but went
on with his 'Debit de tabac.'
"'But of course that is mine,' exclaimed the Count,
eagerly; 'I always looked upon it as such--and as
many others of yours as you will let me take back to
Russia, for the matter of that.' (The banker looked
slightly astonished.) 'I am sure England has had more
than her share already of mademoiselle's effigies--but
that was not exactly what I meant,' he said, tugging at his grey moustache and smoking more vigorously than before.
"'In truth, for the last year our M. Leroux has
painted no one else,' here put in the Englishman; 'as
indeed who would, who had once beheld this enchanting
profile. You should paint her as Circe, M. Leroux; I
for one should be proud to figure as one of her pigs!'
"While he was speaking Antonella had looked about
her once or twice, and there was something strangely
intoxicating in the glance of her eye and the smile on
her lips, as she cried, 'Oh, I would rather paint you as
St. Anthony; our hermit at Ana-Capri had a picture
of the saint--but now that I think of it, it was not
unlike the Count here. I will paint you, Count,' she said,
as if the idea had just struck her; then casting down
her eyes with a charming air of modesty, 'that is, if
you will sit to such a tyro as myself, when you might
have great artists like M. Raoul to do justice to your
air de grand seigneur.'
"One might almost have fancied that the Count,
elderly and case-hardened though he was, blushed a
little at this; but before he could muster his wits to do
justice to this offer, our English M.P. broke in with--
'And will you not deign to paint me, too, fair artist? if
not as the saint, why stick me in as the demon tempting
him.'
"Antonella laughed gaily, and looking from one to the
other of the three elderly gentlemen, said: 'Messieurs,
you all look so extremely amiable that I, as a good
Catholic, should consider it sacrilege to invest the devil
with your attribute; but yonder sits M. Sturm, whose
scowl would not ill-become the arch-fiend himself!' and with a low, provoking laugh, she pointed her brush at me, who, sick of this vain chatter, had sat far back in the embrasure of the huge studio window, dividing my time between teazing the monkey and twanging the mandolin; but now, losing all patience, I began violently striking it, shouting out the jeering carnival tune, 'Au clair de la lune.'
"Raoul, who, while painting away, had occasionally
joined the conversation with a laugh or witticism
here quickly put in with an air of mock-injury--
"'Every one of the present company, I see, is to
have the distinction of sitting to the most peerless of
painters--saint or devil matters little--only I have
proved such a bore of a teacher that I am to be cut
out altogether it seems. Won't you, at least, let me
play second demon in your "Temptation of St. Anthony?"
or stay, rather let me put you in myself, for
I am sure the arch-tempter could never devise a bait
more fatal than those eyes!'
How they sparkled at that moment! There was
something almost insolently triumphant about her
person just then, which seemed to radiate beauty as
a star does light. All the men present succumbed more
or less to its influence; I only felt it as an insult to me
in the jealous rage that gripped me within.
"'No, no! the temptation would be too irresistible,'
here interposed the gallant Frenchman; 'St. Anthony
never was so sorely tried.'
"The Count, who seemed to have been following up
a train of thoughts of his own, now remarked: 'I'd
sooner be painted as St. Nicholas--he is my country's
patron saint; and I would be represented as showering gifts on a fair maiden.'
"Their conversation appeared to me to be growing
more and more insipid, and while twanging loudly on
the mandolin, I remarked: 'For the matter of that,
Antonella, you'll make us what you'll make us; but I,
for my part, have little ambition to sit for either pig or
devil.'
"'No, you had better sit for a bear in your present
mood,' said Tolla, smiling; 'and the monkey, to whom
so much of your attention is devoted, shall play the
fiddle to you--sha'n't you, Jacko?'
"Raoul, slightly raising his eyebrows, looked at his
watch, and put down his palette; and the three gentlemen,
with smiles and sweet parting speeches to Antonella,
now bowed themselves out.
"Raoul, who had an engagement, departed immediately
afterwards; and left alone with Antonella, I
said brutally, 'What devil has seized you, to go on
tormenting me as you have been doing? Don't you
know that I hate those foolish banterings with stolid
bankers and thick-sculled Russians?'
"Antonella, for all answer, broke into a defiant laugh,
that stung me beyond endurance.
"'What is the meaning of this?' I cried, going close
up to her, and looking fixedly in her eyes. 'Do you
take me for a fool, your humble servant, madame?'
"She twirled herself round on her heel, and again
broke into her unendurable laugh. 'Tut, tut, fool or
not,' she said, insolently, 'at least you shall not befool
me.'
"For the moment I felt an almost overpowering
inclination to seize and shake the devil out of her; but I mastered myself with a strong effort, and said in a cold, significant voice, 'Antonella, this is a strange tone to adopt towards your husband. Do you consider that I fail towards you in aught?'
"'Husband!' she sneered. 'A fine husband! who
keeps his wife in a top-floor, and lets her want for half
the necessaries of life!'
"'Are you mad, or what?' I cried. 'Have I not
explained my position to you from the beginning? Did
you not acquiesce in my decision? If you want me to
provide those luxuries for you which madame now calls
the necessaries of life, suffer me to act in a manner
which will be conducive to that end. To acknowledge
you openly now, before my position is more firmly
secured, will retard what you so ardently desire. We
are both, it seems, ambitious; but,' I added, bitterly,
'in what different ways! In another year or two, if
I----'
"'Another year or two!' exclaimed Antonella,
stamping on the floor; 'that's what you said at the
first, and I'm already tired of----' but she stopped
abruptly.
"'Tired of what?'--I snapped her up now, in a
concentrated rage--'tired of my love, I suppose; because,
forsooth, my lady can't ride in her carriage, and be
smothered in diamonds as those drivelling bankers
propose! Tired, indeed! Is it so long since you had
to spin the silk just good enough now for you to trail
in the dust! You surely ought to know what toil
means. And do I not toil for you? While dressing
yourself, or coquetting with half a dozen men at a time,
now forms your one occupation, am I not slaving away for you day and night?'
"'Fiddling and dancing attendance on the great, you
mean! Toiling you call that! Why cannot you make
money like your friend Raoul, if you are as clever as
you would have me think?' she asked, contemptuously.
'But it's all castles in the air with you, and promises--with
that endless music-writing which never brings
in anything that I can see, but prevents you ever taking
me out, of course.'
"A sort of numb despair was creeping over me at
her words: an impassable gulf seemed yawning
between us. What could ever heal speech such as this?
"'They tell me,' she went on, scarcely heeding me,
but looking at herself in the glass and arranging her
hair, 'that a woman like me ought to have the wealth
of Golconda at her feet!'
"'Who tells you?' I hissed, half beside myself,
seizing her by the wrist. 'You shall tell me who tells
you!'
"Jealousy, love, anger, despair, were almost turning
my brain.
"'Why, every man who sees me!' she laughed out,
but her colour deepened, and there was a defiant flash
in her eyes.
"'You shall tell me!' I repeated, and there must
have been something in the tone of my voice, in the
look of my eyes, that terrified her, for suddenly, without
previous warning, she burst into wild tears and sobs,
and hiding her face between her hands, dropped down
on the nearest sofa. But for once I did not heed her
tears. I had let go her wrist again, and was pacing up
and down the studio, muttering to myself, and feeling as though we were divided for ever. Was there then anything in common between this woman and myself? And the anger I felt against her so worked within me, that I was tempted to dash my brains out on the wall I was leaning against.
"Louder and louder grew the sobs, and finding I
paid no attention to them, Tolla, to my utter amazement,
suddenly flung herself at my feet, and seizing
my hand she moaned plaintively--
"'How hard you are on a poor girl who loves you,
Emanuele! Do not look so strangely at me. I am
your Tolla! What did I say just now? I have
forgotten. Will you not forgive me?' And looking at
me with a beseeching grace which swept away all sense
of alienation, she sighed softly--'Did I not risk my
here and hereafter because I loved you so?'
"Strange inconsistency! she was not lying when she
spoke thus. And there was delirium in the passion
this behaviour inspired me with. I pressed her to my
heart; I covered her with kisses; I promised she should
star it yet in all the capitals of Europe with me! I
painted our future to her in the most glowing colours,
and this picture so enchanted me that, putting my arm
round her waist, I waltzed her madly round the room,
almost lifting her off the floor at times, till we sank
down at last, quite giddy and out of breath, on the first
seat that came in our way; where, laughing like the
veriest children, and pelting each other with his sofa
cushions, Raoul found us on his return. In the wildest
of spirits we all went out together into the glorious
Roman sunlight and balmy air."
"On the following afternoon, more
light-hearted than usual, having
recently finished the composition of a particularly difficult
piece for the violin, I made my way to the Signora
di Volterra. On the previous evening Tolla, under the
influence of our reconciliation, had said of her own
accord, and with many caresses, that she would not
frequent Raoul's studio as constantly as heretofore,
but paint in her own room.
"She had long coveted a certain exquisite necklace
of pink coral cameos, which, had belonged to a Russian
princess, and which happened to be on sale at a certain
dealer's. In my present elated state, and having made
a good sum by the copyright of my new work, I spent
the whole of my gains on this truly artistic trinket.
As I hurried along, I pictured to myself Tolla's delight and her smile, and the look of her glorious eyes, and her cajoling words, when I should clasp the necklace round her throat.
"I reflected that, all things considered, it would be
better, shortly, to make the fact of our marriage public;
and though, like a dark shadow, the thought swept
over me that it was wealth that she seemed to crave
above everything, I put the thought aside again as
being in all likelihood probably only a childish whim of
hers.
"'Tolla, Tolla!' I cried, as I ran up the stairs,
expecting to see her come to meet me. I opened the
door of her sitting-room. 'Tolla, are you making yourself
fine for a walk on the Pincio?' said I, in a bantering
tone; going towards her bedroom. 'Look, here's something
towards beautifying the beautiful--something that
you've long wished for;' and I looked behind the window-curtains,
seeing that once or twice before she had playfully
hidden herself on hearing my footsteps, and enjoyed
my mystification.
"But no, she was not there. She must be sitting with
Signora di Volterra, though such of late had not been
her habit, and I knocked at the latter's door.
"'Come in,' called the Signora, in a drowsy voice;
and on entering I saw that she was alone, and that I
had just disturbed her in a nap.
"'I had thought to find my wife with you, as she is
not in her own rooms,' I said. 'I am afraid I have
disturbed you.'
"'Your wife!' said the Signora, rubbing her eyes in
drowsy astonishment; 'your wife with me!'
"'Well,' I said, with an impatient laugh, 'considering
she lives with you, is there anything astonishing
in that? Has she gone out on some errand or other,
and do you know in what direction? because I will go
to meet her.'
"'Eh, Dio mio,' cried the woman, now thoroughly
roused, and opening her sleepy eyes to the widest;
'why, she went out quite early this morning to go
with you, Signor, on a little expedition to Albano. She
didn't think she'd be home till to-morrow.'
"'Gone to Albano!--' I repeated, blankly. 'Gone
with me to Albano.'
"'Didn't she say Albano, Concetta?' she called out
to the servant in the kitchen, who thereupon showed
her frowsy head at the half-opened door.
"'Yes, yes, Signora,' she replied, 'I heard her saying
she was going to meet the Signor, her husband; and I
watched her as she went down the street and stepped
into a carriage at the left-hand corner, Signora.'
"I felt a chill creep from my heart through the
marrow of my bones, but I only said quite calmly in a
matter-of-fact tone, 'Thanks, that will do;' and
muttering, 'Gone to Albano!--' again retreated to Tolla's
room. I shut the door very softly, as though there
was some one somewhere who might be disturbed by
it. Then I stood quite still, gazing vacantly about me,
with the same icy sensations running through me. I
heard the ticking of the clock, loud and fast, loud and
fast; I heard the clatter of horses' hoofs drawing near
and nearer from a long way off, and then again faint
and fainter in the distance; I heard a Hebrew clothesman
crying over and over again, in a nasal voice, 'Roba,
roba vecch!'--and I could not have told whether minutes or hours rolled by as those sounds, still repeating themselves, struck upon my ear with preternatural distinctness, and I listened as if there were nothing to do in the world but to stand there listening to them. But suddenly I became conscious of a burning, consuming thirst. Mechanically I walked to the table, poured myself out a tumbler of water, and emptied it at a draught. Then I looked about me as though I had just awakened from a deep sleep, and with a noiseless step, as though it were I that had committed some crime, hurried from one room to the other.
"I tossed all her dresses about as though she might
be in one of them; tore open the wardrobe, pulled
out the drawers, tumbled everything upside down in
savage haste. All at once I came upon an old faded
red handkerchief, the same she had worn over her
bosom when I had known her first; it seemed to melt
the heart within me, and I pressed it to my lips and
kissed it, as though it could feel my kisses. Then with
a great cry flinging myself on the bed, I wept--wept
as I hope I may never weep again.
"Those tears brought no relief; each one seemed
to sear me as it fell. Suddenly, as I tossed about in
my anguish, I felt a scrap of paper under my face on
the pillow; and there, pinned to it, was a note in my
wife's handwriting. With avidity I tore it off, and with
eyes blinded with tears, and almost frantic in my impatience,
I painfully deciphered the hurried scrawl--
"'I must leave you. No one knows about us; no one need know now. I will never come back to you. Do not come after me.
TOLLA.'
"That was all! Clenching the paper in my hand
as though it were a sentient thing I could crush and
annihilate, I threw myself off the bed with an imprecation;
rushing swiftly down the stairs, out of the house,
along the streets, on and on, as though I were following
in some shadowy track, till I was far out of Rome.
A storm of conflicting passions tore me asunder. I
would dog them to the ends of the earth, wherever they
might be, shoot both, and myself after! Nothing should
deter, nothing stop me, till I had been avenged on them.
Then suddenly, as in a kind of vision, I seemed to see
her whom I had loved clasp my knees--then reel back,
with blood, red blood, staining the grass, staining my
hands, staining everything between me and heaven;
and the voice of her mother smote me like a sword as
she wailed, 'Murderer, give me back my child!'
"I stopped, shivering, in my headlong course, with a
horrible fear in my veins; indeed, the agony which I
now endured through my own imagination, went a long
way to deaden my feelings. I was humbled and impotent,
as unfit to act as to forgive; and I looked about
me scared, dazed, bewildered. Whither was I going?
what would I do? Slowly I retraced my steps again,
with a great change at my heart.
"Quite late at night I got to Raoul's studio, and,
utterly worn out, dropped into a chair, muttering
'Antonella.' It was doubtful whether I was trying to
ask a question, or impart information.
"'Antonella?' repeated Raoul, looking at me with
deep concern.
"I could get no other word out of my parched throat,
but silently held out her note to him, and remained
motionless, staring on the floor, He went pacing up and down the room with the paper in his hand, muttering and swearing. Neither of us spoke again for a long time.
"'What is the meaning of it? I thought she was
madly attached to you,' said Raoul, at length, topping
still in front of me; and then, as I made no sign, he
asked, 'Shall I go after her? Shall I make inquiries?
What can I do for you?'
"This I only negatived by signs, and my head and
hands dropped as if they had no power left in them.
"After a long interval, Raoul said, 'Have you any
notion who it is she's gone off with?' Then, as I made
no answer, he added--'Perhaps it's as well she is gone.
Luckily no one knows you were married, and if you
take my advice you will let her go in silence; depend
upon it you never could have done anything with that
girl.'
"'I'll do with her in such fashion that I'll kill her
and her paramour,' I cried, starting up as about to rush
off, being again stung to madness by Raoul's mention of
our marriage. But Raoul interposed, and gently slipping
his arm round my heck said, 'There now, don't
excite yourself, mon vieux; fellows with a mission like
you and me don't go mad about a woman.'
"I seemed to acquiesce, and seated myself again, but
began sobbing like a child. No one unless he has
experienced this kind of desertion can perhaps ever
know the deep sense of humiliation it carries with it to
a man.
"Raoul had seated himself opposite to me in a helpless
way, as though he were quite at the end of his
eloquence. At last he said very tenderly, 'You suffer very much.'
"'To be betrayed by her I loved so dearly,' I
murmured, amid unmanly sobs.
"'If it's from this house she was led astray, the
man shall have to do with me, cried Raoul, striking
his breast. 'But who can it be? So many of them
have been leaving these last few days. Fool that I
was to have her to paint! Can you ever forgive me
for my share in this sad business, Emanuel?'
"But here I broke in: 'Whoever's to blame I know
that thou art the soul of honour, and would'st never in
ought have acquiesced in this dire treachery. 'But it is
enough. I have wept tears that disgrace me. Could
she come back now the past could never be replaced.
Bitter as it is, it must be borne in silence.'"
"Soon after this I left Rome. The place had
become hateful to me. I had besides got my first
regular engagement at Vienna. It was then that I
began to be popular in Germany, which for musical
culture is, of course, far ahead of other countries. I
did not stay long, however, in my native country,
although two cities, Carlsruhe and Weimar, offered me
engagements for the season.
"A demon of restlessness possessed me. I hurried
from country to country. Wherever I went my stay
was a triumph. Germany, England, Russia, America, were visited in turn. Money poured in, fame increased, but where was the happiness that should have accompanied them! The one being for whom I craved, and for whom I had chiefly craved this great success, was lost to me; and what was worse, had deserted, basely and cruelly deserted me. It was torture to think of. For to lose what we love by death sanctifies grief--then we may find some consolation even in our tears; but in such a loss as mine our very sorrow turns to shame, and the tears that should relieve seem to disgrace us. Thus the envenomed grief rankled in me; and yet, strange to say, the more it rankled, the greater my agony, the higher the spirit of music raised me on her wings, and my very torture seemed a cause of endless delight to the public."
"Hark!" said Sontheim, "there's the Minster bell
actually striking three o'clock! How the night is
passing; but your story is so engrossing that one loses
all count of time. What an experience to have undergone,
my poor friend. But as Racine has it, 'Aucun
chemin de fleurs ne conduit à la gloire'--and glory you
certainly have achieved; no doubt those great emotions
serve to fertilize the imagination."
Emanuel seemed hardly to hear him; he had buried
his head in his hands, and appeared to be silently
absorbed in the past.
The moon had long since set, but there was now a
faint tinge of dawn, making the stars look more remote
as though slowly departing. A little breeze had sprung
up, and went shivering and rustling through the leaves; and had the summer not been at its height this might have been chilling instead of delightfully refreshing. Suddenly on the stillness there broke the twitter of a bird--then all was quiet again.
Sontheim, who had left off smoking for the last
few minutes, said reflectively: "I verily believe that
one enjoys existence more and more as one gets older.
This morning now makes me feel quite lyrical, and
as glad as the little songster we have just heard. For
the life of me I cannot help quoting a poem though
it is of my own manufacture--
"Now God be praised for my delight
In His creation's goodly shows;
Meseems its beauty on my sight
With each revolving season grows.
This joy, which old age cannot tame,
May still burn clear for many a day,
Unless a gust put out the flame
Long ere the taper's burnt away."
This poem still producing no response from his
friend, the philosophic professor once more withdrew,
and reappeared with fresh bottles, one of which he
uncorked. Emanuel still refused everything but a
glass of water. "You are like one of the gods themselves,"
said Sontheim, filling his pipe afresh, and
resettling himself in his chair: "you seem above our
common wants. But pray go on now, I should like to
hear about some of your triumphs. Your music is so
new that it was not likely to become popular all at
once."
"Well, as to that," said Emanuel, "it would be too
long a story, but certainly if I met with enthusiasm
there was also no want of the most virulent opposition,
especially in Paris, where I now arrived after about seven
year of this erratic existence. The French capital, of
course, is the goal of a musician's career. It is there
alone we can now receive that cachet which ensures us
a permanent European reputation."
"Yes, unfortunately it is so at present," sighed
Sontheim; "but wait till we are a united Germany--then
it is we who shall dispense the laurel crown as
well as supply the wearers of it. But now I must not
interrupt you again."
"Well, I had been about a month in Paris, and was
preparing to give a great concert. I was more than
usually excited and agitated. Life there, with its
brilliant society, its grand entertainments, its convivialities,
luxuries, and dissipations of all kinds, is something
so swift and tumultuous that you are swept along by it
as on a resistless current.
"I was divided between this social whirl--which even
had I so wished I could not dare neglect--and the
thousand and one preparations which were necessary
for the success of my undertaking.
"The new or German school, it is true, idolized me;
but there was a strong cabal against me formed by the
old French faction. I was reviled, not only as artist,
but in my private character. My name was trailed in
the mud; outrageous stories were bruited about, and
in some of the comic papers I was held up to public
ridicule. The most absurd rumour invented by these
infernal Parisians was, that having strangled my wife
in her own hair I had been incarcerated for years--whence all my skill as a virtuoso.
"You may imagine how all this served to exasperate
my naturally irritable temperament. I seemed to have
lost the faculty of sleep, and after passing half my
nights at assemblies or with boon companions, I used
to spend the other half pacing the streets of the capital
to appease my excitement.
"At last arrived the day of the concert, which was
to be given at the Salle Hertz. No pains had been
spared by my adherents to make it an unquestionable
success; still I knew that my enemies were busily
working against me in secret, and, the public is like
a woman, you know--it is impossible to predict what
turn it is going to take next.
"The Salle Hertz was crowded when I arrived; but
whether with friends or detractors I knew not. Cries
proceeded from the entrance lobbies, owing to the pushing
and crushing of the throng. The best places had
been all taken for weeks beforehand. People sat in the
narrow passages leading to the different parts of the
hall, many having even managed to perch themselves
on the steps of the platform. It was frightfully hot
when I took my place there.
"Never since the beginning of my career had I felt
so nervously excited. One side of me was burning
hot, while the other was cold as ice. My throat and
mouth were parched as with fever. All those faces
swayed in front of me in a blurred, indistinct cloud
alive with a thousand eyes; and all those thousand eyes
focussed upon me emitted curious magnetic vibrations
like little arrows flying in my direction.
"In this feverish condition I took up my instrument,
and in the short interval before my bow fell on the
strings with that first thrilling energy of sound which
rivets our audience, the silence was so intense that the
motion of a fan, even a sigh, might have been heard.
"The orchestra hung upon the movements of my
bow with an enthusiasm of obedience; for a time they
and I seemed to move with the unity of one existence.
We were giving my fifth Concerto, since so celebrated in
the first part, which is vivace in D minor--but, by-the-bye,
you don't understand this.
"The public listened with the most absorbed and
edifying attention; but at the first short break in my
own individual part, as soon as they saw my bow drop
when the orchestra were carrying on the motive, the
inimical clique began their preconcerted efforts to
annihilate me. Owing, however, to defection in their
own ranks through changes of opinion, or to the
formidable opposition displayed by the general public, this
attempt became indistinguishable in the general enthusiasm.
In despite of all etiquette murmurs of approbation
were heard, which soon grew into a perfect storm
of clapping and applause. The orchestra played the
louder, and laughed at each other in their efforts to
drown the roar of applause by a still louder instrumental
roar.
"I now felt at home again, as with my dear Viennese
or my enthusiastic Russian audiences. The rest of
the piece went off in a sort of rhythmic balance of
mutual confidence between public and musicians.
"Further details about the progress of this concert,
important as they were to me, would not interest you.
Enough that it carried everything before it, quelled all opposition; it was an unparalleled success, in short.
"I now came on for the final piece, which was my
Tarantella, of course. For this, though not really one
of my best considered from a musician's point of view,
always remained the popular favourite. It has all the
freshness and go of a first work, and certainly bears the
impress of the fantastic circumstances to which it owed
its birth.
"Well, I had got to that part in the piece where, as
the tempo quickened--the whole scene always lived
before me as I played--Antonella of old had begun her
swift convulsive movements, when the profound stillness
that reigned in the Salle Hertz was broken by a
low, convulsive sobbing.
"I had noticed that this particular tarantella of mine
sometimes wrought upon women of highly nervous
organizations to this pitch, and therefore thought
nothing of it, but went on with my playing. But the
sobbing, which had ceased for awhile, seemed to grow
louder and more irrepressible; there was an unusual
stir and hubbub in the orchestra stalls to the left, and
looking up I saw--with an indescribable pang I saw--the
woman who had betrayed and forsaken me,
magnificent in beauty and wealth, the centre of anxious
attentions, her head thrown back, her dark, mysterious
eyes fixed upon me.
"The turbulent emotions which leaped to life in me
again at sight of this vision, it would be impossible to
describe. To fling down my bow, jump from the platform,
rush towards her--what for I knew not--was my
first distinct impulse.
"But a virtuoso on the boards is like a general at
the head of his troops--he dare no more desert his post
than the latter could. My heart gave a kind of bound
like a caged tiger, but I remained immovable, and my
arm went on playing as though nothing had happened.
All this time I acutely saw, felt, and suffered--I might
say--the presence of the woman whose heart had once,
and never again might beat against my own.
"Her sobs had ceased now, and she was turning to
livid pallor; her white hands, glittering with rings,
clutched at the air; and once or twice I fancied she
showed an impulse to break from the restraint that
encircled her, and launch forth into her old dancing
frenzy. But as compassionate hands were fanning and
sprinkling her with scent, she now went into one of
those death-like trances that I remembered only too
well. Still I went on playing vivace vivacissimo, the
glee of my music sounding perfectly diabolical to me
as I saw them carrying her, like a dead and rigid body,
through the dense throng which, awe-stricken, made
way for the bearers.
"For all that I played on to the end--the end that
was never coming, it seemed to my tortured feelings.
When it did come I almost flung down my beloved old
Stradivarius, as I automatically bowed to the audience,
that clapped, shouted, stamped, wept, laughed, seeming
indeed to have gone clean mad with delight, and burst
into such a clamour that, much against my will, I had
to turn back as I was hastening away, when they rose
to their feet like one man. Then I felt arms embracing
me, and hands shaking me by the hand, and some
one kissing me on the cheek, while a torrent of congratulations
were poured into my ear. Vainly trying to get free, I cried out in desperation at last, 'Pray, pray let me go; I have a friend who's dying, I tell you!'
"Released at length, I hurried through a passage,
and, I don't exactly know how, found my way to the
door through which she had disappeared into a small
kind of waiting-room, with its unavoidable red velvet
sofa. On it, with closed eyes and a face of unearthly
pallor, the demon-angel of my existence lay stretched
like a corpse, in the long, stiff folds of her white brocade
dress; with the mass of her long black, now disordered,
hair shed all about her. Seeing her in this state, my
heart yearned relentingly as towards one dead. Could
I turn and fly from her presence, and leave her thus?--and,
yet, should I not!
"Only a few of the puzzled and frightened concert-room
attendants, having exhausted all sorts of remedies,
were still standing about her now. They believed some
one had gone for a doctor, but no one of them seemed to
consider himself responsible. Thereupon I told them
that I knew this lady; that she did not want the doctor;
that they should go and call her carriage. Although
they assured me that there was none, I bade them go
and look for it again.
"In the impulse of the moment everything was
forgotten but that she lay there seemingly lifeless, alone
and forsaken for aught I knew, left to the care of
mercenary attendants, with no hand to succour, no eye to
watch over her. I could not deliberate--deliberation, I
fear, is not my forte--but when the attendants returned
after a fruitless search, I ordered a voiture de place; and
then taking the insensible woman in my arms, I carried
her into it, telling the man to drive to my apartment in the Rue de Rivoli.
"On reaching home, with the assistance of my servant
I carried her, still unconscious, to my rooms on the
entresol; and hardly knowing how to act, or what to do
next, I bade my valet to keep himself in readiness if
wanted.
"Who was she? What was she? She who had
been my wife, and the life of my life at one time--now
here, an unknown stranger to me!
"The unmistakable perfection of her Parisian attire,
which had none of the garishness of hastily acquired
meretricious wealth, seemed indicative of rank and high
station; yet here she lay, to all appearances quite
forlorn and unattended.
"While I stood there, looking at her beautiful figure
in its helpless abandonment, with a sudden return of
the old passionate feeling warring with my sense of
self-respect and outraged honour, I confess to you that
I wished she might never waken again from her deathlike
trance.
"Had she expired then, expired seemingly from the
poignancy of emotion which my playing had called up
in her, must I not have forgotten, forgiven all! Had
she not come there perchance drawn as by some
magnetic, overmastering force? At these thoughts my heart
relented within me. And while gazing on her pallid
features, oblivious of everything, my eyes grew wet with
unaccustomed tears. Yes, had she died then, the mute
majesty of death would have wiped out her guilt from
my memory, to have left there alone the image of my
incomparable Capri maiden.
"But all at once, even as I thought thus, there
passed a slight tremor over her whole frame, like the
sudden ruffling of a wind-swept lake. Slowly she opened
her eyes, and mistily as yet their gaze dwelt upon me.
Then her lips quivered, and softly, scarcely audibly,
she sighed, 'Emanuele.'
"The well-known sound of my name thus pronounced
by her gave me a kind of electric commotion. I started
to my feet and away from her.
"'Emanuele,' she sighed, a little louder than before,
'Emanuele, dove sono? Was it all a dream? Are you
with me still?'
"I approached a step nearer, and our eyes met. With
her returning life, returned upon me the full consciousness
of her treachery; then I vehemently put out my
hand as though to thrust her far, far away from me.
'No, not a dream,' I said, in a strangled voice; 'you
must be dreaming now, Madame ----?'
"'Oh, not that--not that from you!' she cried.
"But seeing me move to the door, as I said in a
voice I tried to render as hard as possible, 'Now that
Madame has recovered, perhaps she will say where it is
she wishes to be conveyed to,' she suddenly sprang to
her feet, and with my hand already on the door handle
I felt two soft arms clasping me round the neck, and a
warm cheek laid against mine and her kisses on my
lips as she murmured--
"'Through all, through everything, I was yet true to
you.'
"Heigho, my friend," sighed Emanuel, after a
considerable pause--abruptly breaking into a jaunty laugh;
then in a blasé tone he added, "Let us laugh and love
while we may, for the night cometh when no man can do so! To escape the Sirens we should keep well out of arm's reach of their enchantments.
"Was it not shameful to fall in love with one's own
wife over again?"
"I never heard so extraordinary a story," cried
Sontheim, excitedly. "Go on! Who on earth was
she?"
The clock of the Minster here struck four. Emanuel's
face looked strangely haggard in the pure, clear morning
light. He tossed off a tumbler of water, and then said--
"I went to see her again next day. Five minutes
before the time appointed I stood in front of the Porte
Cochère of the hotel Mortemar.--Despise me, Sontheim,
I give you leave!
"A sedate-looking powdered footman answered the
bell, and I handed him my card in silence, as I did not
know under what name to ask for her. But he merely
said 'Madame la Comtesse would receive me,' as he
led the way to the compact, elegant house standing between courtyard and garden.
"Somewhat surprised I followed the domestic, and
was ushered into a dim, richly-scented, heavily-draped
boudoir.
"With the consummate grace of a lady of the highest
'ton,' Madame, la Comtesse half rose from the causeuse
on which she was languidly reclining, and held out
the tips of her fingers, glittering with rings, as the
domestic retired.
"'Not my Capri girl,' I half muttered, 'but her
double perhaps!' And I sat down, almost embarrassed,
I swear.
"'All the world is talking about you and nothing
else!' said she, with perfect self-possession, playing
with one of her rings. 'Do you know that all the
ladies are dying to make your acquaintance? Indeed
it is a privilege to have you coming here in this way,
sans façon.'
"I was utterly aghast! The calm assurance of her
manner literally took my breath away. If she had
forgotten all our antecedents, nay, the very meeting
last night, she could not have looked or spoken more
unconcernedly. I grew furious, but kept my countenance.
She should not fool me to the top of her bent!
"'How well you act!' I said, clapping my hands
and bowing admiringly. 'Had Madame vouchsafed to
go on the stage, I make no doubt her fame would
completely have eclipsed mine. But pardon my rudeness.
There is no need for Madame to become famous in
order that all the men should be dying to make her
acquaintance."
"'How charming it is not to be taken au grand sérieux,
she cried, and her dazzling eyes laughed out more than
her mouth did. 'But Monsieur is spoilt with all his
triumphs, I see, and expects us to bow down to his
genus. Allow me to throw my modicum of homage at
your feet as I could not clap you yesterday,' she said,
with her enigmatic smile; and taking a half-blown
rose from some she wore fastened in a knot on her white
dress, she for an instant put it to her lips, then with a
sudden indescribable look that seemed to mount to my
brain like a sweet narcotic, she flung it at my feet.
"I stooped and picked up the rose, but that was all.
"'You do not prize what others would go mad after,'
she said, pouting and pulling another of her roses to
pieces. You are----'
"'What?' I exclaimed savagely.
"She looked into my eyes, and then all at once, as
though struck with dismay, clasped her hands, crying--'Ah,
you will not betray me! Say you will not betray
me, Emanuele!"
"'Not take a leaf out of your book, in fact,
Madame!' I rejoined, in the same bitter tone.
"Did I love, did I hate this woman? It was difficult
to tell, so strange a conflict raged within me.
"'You know I have always loved you, none but you!'
she exclaimed passionately, with all her languor gone,
as she rose and made a step towards me.
"'That is why you left me some four years ago or
so,' I remarked; 'but Madame la Comtesse has no
doubt forgotten that little episode. She sees in me
now the great virtuoso--then, it is true, I was but a
struggling fiddler.'
"Rage and contempt were violently struggling with
the unreasoning passion that again threatened to
master my better self.
"'Ah, I was a fool, though I meant for the best,'
she cried, impatiently; and then with glowing emotion--'You
do not know, you can never know, Emanuele,
how bitterly I have repented it,' and she again advanced
a little nearer.
"'Not a fool, though this may be a fool's paradise, at
any rate for me!' I remarked, looking around me
significantly.
"'Ah, you were always hard, and cruel, and cold,'
she cried; 'but if I am the unfeeling thing you would
make me out, say why, why did your music almost kill
me yesterday?' she asked, tremulously.
"'Oh, Antonella! Antonella!' burst from me almost
in despite of myself; 'I should like to kill us both and
have done with this shameful situation!' and had there
been a knife or dagger about just then, I think I should
have verified some of the dreadful stories that were
afloat about me.
"'I would rather be killed than despised by you,' she
sobbed, pointing to her throat, and looking at me with
swimming eyes.
"She had once again triumphed over me! She had
broken through the artificial barriers I had vainly
tried to erect between us. Indeed, she had grown in
all the secrets of allurement, in all the sorceries of
love. And I--I--got still more entangled with the
woman who was my wife, but bore some other man's
name."
"She had beguiled me into believing
that if she were no longer mine, at least
she was free from other ties. How she had come by
her Countess-ship I did not care to inquire. I quaffed
the poisoned cup of pleasure she held to my lips and
drained it feverishly; but I was not happy--I never was
so miserable in all my life, I believe.
From some innate perversity of nature she now
developed an ardour of passion for me far different
from her feelings when she might have loved me
innocently. When I, in my excess of self-disgust, at times
tried to be brutal to her--for my feelings, too, had
undergone a complete revolution--she seemed to love
me all the more.
"It is true I was now a celebrity; great people
prized my greatness; fair ladies vied with each other for my presence, and lavished their smiles and what not upon me, Forgive me--this sounds like foppery, but it is not; one soon gets to prize these things at their true value.
"None of these 'Grandes Dames' ever felt the soul
of music as that dreamy, heavenly god-child of yours!
She herself is music, indeed! But I beg her pardon
for mentioning her dear name in such company as this!
"It was neither the musician nor his music--it was
the musician's fame that Antonella adored.
"Sometimes I could hardly believe her the same
the 'Tolla' of Rome and Capri: the same with the
petted model of Raoul's studio, or the short-skirted
peasant girl dancing in the ruins of Tiberius.
"She had certainly developed since then, if not in
actual beauty, at least in grace, and in all those indefinable
witcheries and mysteries of dress and manner that
charm us men even more. In my own despite I felt all
that charm only too acutely, and yet hated myself for
feeling it. There was something of provocation in the
way she would wear her laces, or a sprig of damask
roses; and the scents about her resembled subtle
combinations of harmony.
"And then how brilliantly had she not learned to
discourse--on all the topics of the day, or of nothings,
which often amounts to the same? From the picture
of the year at the 'Salon,' to the latest attempt upon
Louis Philippe, or some new-fledged socialistic Utopia
of Cabet or Proudhon--nothing came amiss to her;
and all subjects possessed about equal advantages in
showing off to admiring listeners.
"I confess I often forgot to listen to what she was
saying, lost in admiration, as in the old times, of the
delicious curves of her lips while speaking. I had thus
passed rather more than a week, seeing her daily, in
a frame of mind which possibly resembled that of an
opium-eater's dreams. All action of the will held in
abeyance, all recollection of the past or forethought for
the future annulled. Held by the magic darkness of
her eyes, the world with its imperative claims and duties
was expunged, obliterated.
"This state of things could not last, of course. But it
happened to be the beginning of June, a time when the
fashionable world of Paris disperses to the country or
the sea-side.
"One afternoon when I went at the usual hour to
see Antonella, I noticed an unwonted stir and commotion
about the place. On being admitted, I was told that
Madame la Comtesse was on the point of leaving Paris,
but would see me for a few minutes, if I would wait
for her, in her boudoir.
"I was quite taken by surprise. She had not hinted
at a journey yesterday.
"Moodily I threw myself into a chair. Five minutes
passed. 'Will she never come!' I muttered impatiently,
and I began tossing the knick-knacks on the table about.
"The door opened abruptly, and the Countess, with
a certain white look, almost as though she had seen a
ghost, glided swiftly towards me, and, putting her hands
on my shoulders, said in her most caressing tones--
"'We must part for a little while, my love, for I go
out of town for a few days, but will write to you
immediately on my return.'
"Why, you look, my dear, as though you had just
had a visit from the defunct Count--that soi-disant
husband of yours,' I said, ironically. 'I hope he did
not indulge in useless recriminations!'
"'Hush, hush!' she cried, quite taken aback;'what
do you mean by defunct?'
"'Alive, then!' I cried. 'Your----'
"For a moment I felt as though I could rush upon
the man that instant and fight him to the death. Then
I burst into a long, immoderate fit of laughter.
"'It is stifling here,' I cried, and then I threw open
the window and the persienne.
"Why should I fight that unhappy man, thought I,
the next instant. He certainly had the worst of it; and
there was something too ridiculous in the situation.
God forbid I should make it public!
"Antonella, seeing that I remained doggedly at the
window--having, indeed, come to the conclusion that
the sudden journey was all a hoax--cried imperiously--
"'Go! go! Do you wish to--to----'
"'I have no objection whatever to meeting Monsieur
le Comte--perhaps you will kindly acquaint me now
with his name as well as your own.'
"There was a loud ringing of bells, and the sound of
a heavy travelling equipage was heard rumbling across
the courtyard. I was still standing by the window.
Suddenly I felt myself pulled backwards with the
energy of desperation. Antonella was in a towering
rage; but it became her superbly.
"'Do not put yourself out so!' said I, quietly,
shrugging my shoulders; 'I shall be charmed to
make the Count's acquaintance.'
"'But it is--it is--Ogotshki!' she gasped. 'I only
heard from him this--you--he will----'
"'Be delighted, no doubt, as you yourself were, to
renew his acquaintance with a person now so celebrated
as myself.'
"'You will not----' she cried, and there was a
dangerous gleam in her eyes.
"'Calm yourself! I will not compromise Madame
la Comtesse Ogotshki,' I said, with great composure.
"She now, by a consummate effort of will, regained
an almost unnatural calm. Without looking at me
she left the room. She met the Count below, and
remained absent about five minutes. Presently she
returned, hanging on his arm in the most natural
manner while gaily talking to him.
"'Wenceslaw, here is an old friend of ours,' she said
graciously, introducing us; 'you remember him, no
doubt, as one of the little coterie that used to assemble
in M. Leroux's studio. He happened to call in just
before your arrival, and I begged him to stay a minute,
and see you. I daresay the furore which his concert
created here may even have reached your idyllic retreat
at Ems.'
"There was an imperceptible movement of the
Count's eyebrows, which no one but myself would
probably have noticed; then he held out his hand
most affably to me and said--
"'Very glad to see you--very charmed indeed, M.
Sturm! Are you making a long stay in Paris? And
how is your friend, M. Leroux? He does not often
brighten our Paris with his presence!'
"The Count, I thought, had aged very much since I
had last seen him that memorable, never-to-be-forgotten day.
"And here was I face to face with the man that had
done me the greatest injury that they say, in ordinary
parlance, one man can do to another. It is true that
perhaps from his point of view he might say as much
of me; but here we sat amicably together, and for
some ten minutes kept up a trivial kind of conversation,
during which I learnt that the Count had been taking
the waters at Ems for some chronic disease or other,
but had found his nerves so irritated by the cure that
he came away without stopping the full term fixed
upon.
"Having discussed the Ems waters, music, the
threatening aspect of the political horizon, I took my
leave, after accepting an invitation to dine there on the
following Tuesday. The state of mind in which I left
the house is indescribable. But I determined to go
back, for the sake of appearances. The daring of this
woman in ever having permitted us two to meet was
stupendous! But now I feared nothing so much as
the ridicule of a disclosure."
From the arbour close by the house where Emanuel
was sitting, he dreamily surveyed the stretch of neighbouring
gardens, all lit up and sparkling in the dew
and early sunlight. An unwonted sensation of well-being
crept over him as little puffs of air, smelling of
sweetbriar and honeysuckle, played about his temples.
The leaves and grass, slightly shivering now and then,
looked as though they had just risen from a bath.
Here and there from the fresh-lit fires of neighbouring
chimneys blue smoke began to rise straight up to the
cloudless sky: two white-winged pigeons darted across
it, while from a dove-cot near, the loud yet mellow
"rooke-te-koo" of others was heard. A cock was crowing
his loudest in honour of his majesty the Sun, and another somewhere in the distance responded to it like an echo.
The glad singing of birds all together filled the air
with an indistinct musical murmur, and now and then
some human voices, such as the milkmaid's cry,
blended not unpleasantly with these rural sounds.
Sontheim now returned and resumed his old seat.
A neighbour, as round as an egg, with a long china
pipe hanging from his mouth, gave them a husky "good
morning" as he toddled down his garden path to dig at
his potatoes.
"Don't let us lose any more time," said Sontheim,
eagerly, for Emanuel, lost in thought, was tracing all
manner of figures in the sand with a light cane; "you
had just accepted an invitation to dinner, and I want
to hear what came of it."
"Oh, nothing came of that," said Emanuel; plucking
a spray of honeysuckle, smelling at it, and sticking
it in his button-hole.
"I don't know whether any one had got wind of the
affair by this time; but at any rate these things do not
usually get reported to the husband, especially in Paris.
"The dinner was a grand affair; everybody who was
somebody had been raked together at this the beginning
of the dull time of year.
"I was lionized. Antonella outdid even herself--all
cobweb laces and rubies: nothing could surpass the
fascinating elegance of this woman at the head of her
table; and the Count followed suit in this three-handed
game.
"'I am so glad'--said the latter, coming up to me in
the drawing-room, now that the imperious conversationalists of his dinner-table allowed him to edge in a word--'that I at last have an opportunity of thanking you, M. Sturm, for the kindness you showed my wife at Rome.'
"I bowed silent acquiescence.
"'She told me all about it long ago,' he went on, in
his courteously drawling tones: 'how she, an orphan,
was forced into a convent by hard-hearted relatives,
and half driven out of her mind there; how gallantly
M. Leroux, who had made her acquaintance while
painting at Capri, and you, M. Sturm, rescued her at
great peril to yourselves. How you both placed her
with a poor but well-connected Roman lady, and paid
for her education there; when your friend, discovering
her turn for painting, set about making an artist of her,
only unfortunately that my own appearance at this
juncture diverted the fair pupil's gifts into another
channel.'
"He laughed rather feebly at what I suppose was
meant for a joke. I wondered whether the poor old
man was credulous enough to be taken in by so palpable
an untruth, or whether he merely wished to make me
believe that he believed it.
"However, I don't think he was deep enough for that.
Unlike most of the Russian nobles I have come across,
usually so full of cunning, dissimulation, and astuteness,
he seemed to be curiously gullible, while in a certain
slackness of moral fibre he again bore a strong resemblance
to them.
"But it was easy to see that he was completely
subjugated by Antonella's beauty and subtle fascination.
I think, had she chosen, she might at last have made him believe that the moon was made of cream cheese.
"You see she had so many arrows in her quiver. If
her charms for once missed their aim, she could always,
in extremity, resort to that extraordinary hysterical
condition, so nearly resembling death, that no man with
the slighest feeling for her in his heart could possibly
resist the mute appeal.
"But I am wandering from the point. Well, the
Count further complimented me on what he was pleased
to term such noble conduct on the part of two young
men; while I, quite overcome by this new version of my
story, could only murmur some words in deprecation.
"The Count, apparently in perfect good faith, went
on to say: 'Perhaps you may have thought my conduct,
on the other hand, less commendable at the time.
But the fact is'--he hesitated for a moment--'I was
so taken with her that I thought it best to carry her
off, quite out of reach of two such attractive young
men!' he smiled with self-satisfaction at his own acuteness.
'In fact my wife had hinted at the state of M.
Leroux's feelings towards her, and considering the
excitability of his temper I thought it best to take her
for a time to some outlying estate of mine in Russia.
She wrote to you both from there, but we were never
honoured with a reply from either of you gentlemen.'
"'Oh, I believe we both left Rome almost immediately
after you did, Count,' I hastened to put in.
"'Ah, that accounts for your silence,' he replied.
'I hope M. Leroux has long ago forgiven me;' then,
with a rather vacuous smile, 'You know, M. Sturm,
you artists are all so wrapt in your art that you cannot
possibly care for a woman as we ordinary mortals do.'
He was moving away, but turning round again, said
blandly, 'While you are staying in Paris, I hope that
you will make yourself quite at home here.'
"Indeed I was making myself quite at home!
Presently, to oblige my hosts, I played some trifles on
the violin. Whilst I did so, Antonella was leaning
with her back against a glass-door leading into the
conservatory. I could only see her in profile. She was
exceedingly pale, and her dark eyes, full of smouldering
passion, were gazing straight in front of her. Her
pose was superb; she held a cactus flower in her clasped
hands, but now and then, with a nervous action, pulled
out one of its petals.
"When I had ceased; she came up to me for the first
time that evening, and, after a few words, said, with
that strange, subtle smiling of hers, 'The Count was
talking to you for a long time; may one know, sir, what
it was all about?'
"I quite understood her, however. She knew
perfectly what effect she had produced upon me just now;
even the cactus flower had not been there by mere
accident. She thought she would wind me round her
little finger again.
"'It was all about your powers of original invention,
Madame, which ought certainly to have secured you a
foremost place among----'
"'Among--among whom, sir, pray?' she asked,
looking tauntingly at me.
"'That I must allow Madame to find out at her
leisure,' I said, and abruptly took my leave.
"My leave for good, I vowed, as I threw myself back
in the carriage. It was too intolerable--too disintegrating
to one's whole moral nature! This coil of deceit
and the ignoble figure I played in it filled me with
loathing. Now that I knew that the weak-minded,
uxorious Count was really amongst the living, I would
not set my foot in the house again, since I had saved
appearances by my visit. In order to keep my resolution,
I avoided all the streets that led near the Count's
hotel, as though in my own despite I might get within
the radius of the siren's attraction and be drawn afresh
within its irresistible current. I was occupied in the
meanwhile in winding up my affairs in Paris, previous
to my starting for New York."
"She caught sight of me before I could make my
escape, had I had the will as well as the wish.
"'Here is the very man we were speaking of,' she
said, coming towards me with her long, swaying walk
that, like everything else about her, had an indescribable
grace. She was all sweetness, all amiability. 'Madame
de G---- was just telling me how much she wished
to make your acquaintance, M. Sturm. She raves
about your Concerto in D minor, which I unfortunately
missed the other evening at your concert, coming in
late as I did; for I happened to be at the soirée of
some friends with whom I had come up from the
country that day, But when I heard of your concert, nothing could stay me, and in spite of my friends' assurances of the impossibility of procuring a seat, I came off all by myself, and fortunately for me golden arguments prevailed, and one of the attendants made a place for me.'
"'What charming enthusiasm!' cried the other lady.
'I remember now seeing you come in----'
"'Ah, yes,' said Antonella, looking at me significantly,
'but you did not see me carried out again fainting,
all owing to M. Sturm's Tarantella--for the heat had
nothing to do with it. But here comes the carriage;
let us drive you back to Paris, Monsieur.'
'"I could not summon resolution enough to refuse.
'Suddenly turning round, she cried, with the most
taunting of little smiles: 'Succès! Succès!'
"I looked at her in astonishment; did she so cynically
proclaim her triumph! But I found the subject of her
exclamation was a small Maltese poodle, who now
scrambled into the carriage.
"'Having followed her friend into the carriage, the
Countess motioned to me to take the seat opposite, and
placed the little brute in her lap.
"'Poor little Succès,' she said, looking at me while
pressing her red lips on its fluffy white head.
"'Succès, Succès!'--it echoed mockingly in my ears.
But I inwardly set my teeth against the enchantress.
I felt sullen as a captive dragged along in an Imperator's
triumphal procession.
"Madame de G---- was put down at her door, after
profuse invitations to me to her town and country
house thenceforth and for ever.
"'Home,' said the Countess to the bearded chasseur,
as he put his head in at the door.
"I let myself drift with the tide--which means that
I allowed Antonella to carry me off at her will.
"Again the huge chasseur stood by the door, and I
found myself handing the Countess out of her carriage.
We entered the house together, and went into her
boudoir.
"'Emanuele,' she said, when we were alone, lightly
laying her hand on mine, 'what makes you look so
sad? Why are you so silent? Is it because it's so
long since you have been to see me?' and she looked
at me languidly and sighed.
"For some reason or other the look, the tone, brought
vividly before me the hour at Capri when, sitting on
the Sirens' rock, she had looked at me with her dark
eyes swimming in tears. No other woman's beauty
ever thrilled my senses as hers did; but my heart had
no longer any part in it.
"'It is,' I said slowly, making a strong effort to
master my unmanly weakness, for I felt all my resotion
melting again like snow before her glance--'it is,
that I am where I am.'
"For a minute or two she was, or else affected to be,
struck dumb by this sudden new light thrown on my
feelings. Indignation seemed contending with another
passion--I hardly know what name to give it; then with
trembling lips she said: 'You--you--you are----' but
suddenly, with a rapid change of tone and manner quite
astonishing, she continued mockingly--'a German,
Emanuele, a German! And Germans, we know, are
not exactly pre-eminent for tact.'
"It was bewitchingly coquettish. These swift
transitions from one emotion to another were of the highest
effect. But I was becoming inured to them, and the
enjoyment they afforded me resembled that inspired by
a great actress's oft-repeated part.
"'Madame la Comtesse speaks truly,' I replied.
Politeness is not our forte. The virtue we Germans
prize above all others is--faithfulness.'
"Antonella simply ignored my answer with most
unmistakable tact.
"'This dark frown between the eyebrows does not
become you, Emanuele,' she said archly, and leaning
over to me she passed the tips of her fingers across my
forehead. 'Let me smooth out your naughty wrinkles
and make you happy, spoilt child that you are; for
the Count is gone to a dinner at the "Trois Frères," and
will be home late.'
"She poured out a glass of iced punch, sipped a few
drops and held it to my lips; then putting it down, she
began softly humming my Tarantella, and twirling round
and round me in that old, swift, fantastic way.
"I sat looking at her under a sort of spell. Her
eyes were glittering under her dark, heavy hair, her
heart palpitating wildly, when suddenly, as though
spent with her exertions, she alighted on my knees.
"'Maëstro,' she murmured, in the old Capri voice and dialect.
"I believe there are certain impressions that stamp
themselves on the brain till they become part of its
very tissue. This old word spoken in the old voice
brought all the old feelings back with a rush like
a torrent.
"'Oh, Tolla!' I sighed, as she began kissing my
hair and my eyes. Suddenly I pushed her far from me,
sprang to my feet, and cried with an ungovernable
outburst of pent-up disgust, 'Away, away! This must
not, shall not go on! Never again will I enter this
house to become a party to such treachery and the fool
of your caprices. A deceived deceiver! What a position,
ye gods! What a depth to have sunk to! What
shame to be inflicting and to endure! Rest satisfied
with yourself, Madame! You have destroyed all
self-respect in me. I hate myself for having loved you!
In bitterness I still loved you when you had basely
deserted me. It was an unreasoning, despicable love;
but it is over, all over now! Save your blandishments
for others; they have lost their effect on me. If you
must deceive, do so, but with me you shall not! Be
content that you have nothing to fear from me, and let
me go. I will be silent as the dead about the past;
but in the future our paths must cross never again.
Let me go.'
"I struggled to the door, for she had thrown her
arms round me exclaiming--
"'No, no! You shall not!'
"The demon of vanity that possessed her could not
abide, I believe, that any man should defy her fascinations.
"'I am your wife, after all,' she said, with rising
anger, then getting quite beside herself in her passion
when she saw me remaining unmoved. 'You shall
not! I will leave the Count--rank--station--the
world--all--all--and come with you! You are mine,
Emanuele. I will not let you go! I will not let you go!'
"'My wife!' I sneered--'my wife, you say! Beware
how you let Count Ogotshki hear that.'
"'I don't care who hears it,' she panted, in a livid
rage. 'I will tell him myself! You shall not defy
me!'
"'Take care, for God's sake take care!' I said.
'Some one may overhear you. Do you wish to be
ruined?'
"I saw she was working herself up to such a pitch
that she was utterly reckless. She no longer looked
the bewitching creature of a few instants before; a
demon of vindictiveness seemed to shoot from her
eyes; hatred, not love, now glistened there; even her
beautiful mouth was deformed by it. I did not know
what to do. The only thing was to soothe her, if
possible, and get off as quickly as I could.
"'Antonella,' I said, 'listen to me, Antonella.'
"'I will not let you go! I will not let you go!
You are mine, Emanuele!' she reiterated fiercely,
seizing me by the hands as though she would retain
me by force.
"I was perfectly cool, my pulse was calm; henceforth
she could never move me again. But I determined
to simulate a certain remains of the love that
was dead in order to get off for the present. So I
turned away from the door as if yielding to her.
"'Antonella,' I again said, as tenderly as I could,
'dear Antonella, calm yourself. Is it safe for me to be
seen here at this hour, when the Count may surprise
us at any moment?'
"'The Count! A nullity!' said Antonella,
contemptuously.
"'Has just had the pleasure of overhearing some
words probably not intended for him,' said the
grey-headed man, suddenly confronting us, in a veiled,
quavering voice, and with a curiously blank look in
his eyes.
"Antonella stared at him, turned deathly white, and
fell back heavily as if she had been shot. Those fits
of hers were certainly exceedingly convenient at times.
I almost envied her.
"'Madame la Comtesse is sometimes scarcely herself,'
I remarked coolly, wondering within myself how
much the old man had overheard, and what he must
think of the scene, if not cognizant of the whole situation.
He could hardly regard me in the light of a very
ardent lover.
"'I know not what you may think,' I continued,
seeing he still remained silent; 'but I am ready to give
you explanations whenever you may desire it.'
"'This is not the moment for explanations,' said the
Count, vaguely waving his hand in the direction of the
door as he went towards the Countess himself.
"'I shall remain in Paris some days longer than
was my intention in order that Monsieur le Comte may
know where to write to me,' I said, with that controlled
utterance which seizes every man by the throat when
he finds himself face to face with a deadly quarrel.
"Then I left the room without another look at the
woman who had blighted my existence.
"I waited a whole week, but no letter or message
arriving from the Count, I started on my voyage to
New York."
"Oh yes!" said Emanuel, getting
up and stretching his arms; "I assure
you not doomsday itself could have resuscitated my
love."
"Did you ever heat anything more about her?"
asked the Professor, with a certain anxiety in his tone.
"Such a creature is a psychological puzzle; one would
like to pursue her career to its close."
"Such a creature," said Emanuel, "is a mixture of
morbid passion, caprice, and boundless vanity, and
what may be its ultimate fate concerns me not at all,
I confess."
"Ah well," said Sontheim, "your feelings were too
deeply involved, of course, to be a dispassionate judge;
but I consider her a very curious problem. An arrested development somewhere, no doubt. The rudimentary conscience of a child, with a woman's full-blown perfections."
"You are a lenient judge, Leopold, at any rate where
the fair sex are concerned. For my own part I look at
it differently. But here comes breakfast. I am famishing,
I perceive, and the scent of the coffee ascends
gratefully to my nostrils."
When the tray had been set down on the table,
Emanuel threw himself on the victuals, and began
ravenously demolishing everything he could lay his
hands on.
Leopold, for once, did not develop an appetite equal
to that of his friend. His habitual joviality seemed
considerably abated.
"Well, you must see," cried Emanuel, eagerly, when
his hunger was somewhat appeased, "that I am not
really a married man--no one ought strictly to consider
me as such; perhaps it was not even a legal union,
from things that I have heard since. But, morally
speaking, there can be no doubt that I am free as air!"
"Hm, hm!" said Sontheim, "there's such a thing
as imprisoned air!"
"What is more," interposed Emanuel, impatiently,
"I have good reasons for supposing Antonella dead!"
"Ah!" exclaimed the Professor, with an air of relief,
"really dead! I wish you would tell me exactly all
that you still know or have heard concerning her."
"Certainly," replied his friend; "the remainder is
quickly told. After about nine months or so I found
myself again giving concerts in Paris, during the
winter and spring of the present year. There I came across my dear old friend Raoul again. Men of his stamp always worm out everything that is to be known in a place, and a good deal more too. At any rate, I found that a great deal of what I have been telling you was not only no secret to him, but that, on the contrary, he was able to give me a good deal of fresh information regarding the Count and Countess Ogotshki.
"The former, it appears, had had a slight stroke of
paralysis after the scene of which he had been a partial
witness. On his recovery; Antonella impressed her
husband with an idea that her own conduct, on that
occasion was pure hysteria induced by my music, and
that for virtue I was a worthy rival of Joseph of Egypt
himself.
"However, it seems, in spite of all her subtle arts, the
memory of the words he had heard rankled in the old
man's mind, and he once or twice reproached her with
them.
"Whereupon Antonella, incredible as it may sound,
informed the Count, in a fit of ungovernable temper, of
her previous marriage with me. Then terrified, I
suppose, at what she had done, she, as Raoul put it,
took the bit in her teeth, and ran off with her diamonds,
and her securities and all, leaving the old man, older
and more broken down than ever, to take refuge on his
estates in Russia.
"My friend had these details from the herculean
chasseur, who had turned model at this time. But
with all his inquisitiveness even Raoul had failed in
tracing the Countess's hiding-place. She had completely
disappeared."
"Completely disappeared!" muttered Sontheim,
owning deeply. "Strange, strange!"
"Well, nothing that this unaccountable creature
could do would ever take me by surprise. But enough
of her! Indeed, after the inquiries I have set on foot, I
have every reason to think that she must be dead! She
was not a woman to give up wealth, station, and all
the luxuries of life, for a whim of love or remorse; she
would have sought a reconciliation with her husband,
and he, like the foolish old man he was, would no
doubt have granted it. I think, therefore, that she
must be dead; and under the circumstances, I should
be a hypocrite if I did not feel it a relief. For if so, I
am free once more; my life's incubus is gone, and I
may love Mina. I do love Mina! she will be the
better angel of my life. Say, what do you think of it,
Leopold?"
As he uttered these words a sort of boyish radiance
lit up his features, different, indeed, from the sombre
and impatient expression his countenance had hitherto
worn.
Sontheim made no reply, but sat looking before him
with an air of profound perplexity.
After a pause Emanuel said again, with almost
pathetic gentleness--
"Well, Leopold, you do not seem to give me much
encouragement. I know nothing for certain, of course.
Are you afraid for your sweet god-child?"
Sontheim, however, seemed hardly to hear him. He
was now pacing up and down in front of the arbour,
looking unusually perturbed.
The slatternly servant at this moment came from the
house with a letter in her hand, and gave it to her master.
He opened it quickly, perused its contents, and
flushed with evident delight.
"It is from the Countess," he said after a while to
Emanuel, and began reading his letter over again.
"The Countess! what Countess?" cried his friend,
in a wondering tone.
"My Countess, not yours this time!" said Sontheim,
with a smirk. "I forgot for the moment that there
was another in the world. Look! does she not write
a charming letter?"
Emanuel took the letter, looked at it, stared at it,
stared at his friend, then looked at the letter again.
"This is Antonella's writing," he gasped.
Sontheim gave a kind of cry, reeled as a bullock
might struck with an axe; then calling out "Oh, oh!"
smote the table heavily with his elbows, and with his
face hidden by his hands sobbed like a woman.
Emanuel had started up and seized his friend by the
shoulders. At last the latter looked up with heavy red
eyes, and a countenance which showed what havoc
these few moments had wrought in him.
For a space the two men remained eyeing each other
in silence. Of speech there was no further need.
What could they say? Nothing. Each felt the
impossibility of the situation. The coil that seemed
to entwine them equally must be broken asunder
somehow.
Emanuel, grasping his friend's hands, wrung them
violently, and saying, "I am off--you will hear from
me," dashed out of the garden.
"Behind the hedge on yonder lea
Stands a goodly apple-tree;
A finch sits singing on a bough,
Singing, sweetly singing--"
She had been toiling in the sweat of
her brow ever since three o'clock that morning, it being
her quarterly washing-day--a day of dread to the whole
household; for if the weather misbehaved itself by any
chance, the storm overhead was as nothing to that
which raged in the circle of the Lichtenfelds. But the
sun was in a glorious humour this bright September
morning, and only playing at hide-and-seek with the clouds, in which it hid itself every now and then to burst forth with a more triumphant splendour.
Therefore the Professorinn was bustling about with
redoubled activity in a huge apron, tied over her tucked-up
skirts; now scolding the servant, who, standing over
an enormous tub in the corner, fed by the spout from
the roof, was rinsing out the clothes; now pouncing
unexpectedly on the hired washerwoman, who ever
since yesterday had been at work in boiling, beating,
and scrubbing the same.
Mina came forward languidly, and began assisting
her mother in hanging some of the wet clothes on the
lines, while others; half dried, had to make way for
them, as the boys tumultuously haled them off in
baskets to the bleaching field behind the garden.
There they not only dutifully obeyed their mother's
behest of spreading them out on the green grass in the
sun, but so zealous were they that they fought over one
of the sheets, which, disfigured with bootmarks, was at
last carried off by the incorrigible Hans, who, waving
it like a triumphal flag, came tearing down the garden
with it, Otto and Conrad dashing after him like hounds
after a hare.
"Mother, mother, I didn't do it!" shouted Hans,
displaying the sheet before her.
"Nor I"--"Nor I," panted Conrad and Otto,
simultaneously; for whatever his elder said, the other was
sure to repeat like an echo.
"Oh, these boys will be the death of me!" cried
Frau Lichtenfeld, snatching the sheet from Hans and
giving him a sounding box on the ear, which made him
take to his heels; and he and Wolf--who had been skulking behind the hedge in order to see how to shape his further course--disappeared for the rest of the day.
"What's the matter with the girl--you're as limp
as a wet rag?" suddenly cried Frau Lichtenfield in
an injured tone, facing round upon Mina. "You're
every bit as bad as those boys, only worse; they're
merry at least, but you look like a cat in a thunderstorm.
Oh, goodness me, there's Lulu at it again; she
will kill herself one of these days, I know she will,
with eating all the windfalls littering about the grass.
Do go, for heaven's sake, girl, and keep her and those
two mischievous ne'er-do-weel out of harm's way,
while I see to the linen; for you're no more good at it
than they are, I declare. I am sick of teaching you!"
Mina had already run off to where Lulu, standing
up to her knees in the long rank grass under their one
apple-tree, was digging her little teeth lustily into a
large green apple, and tightly clutching another still
bigger one with her disengaged hand. When Mina
gently but firmly forced her to yield up her treasures,
she set up a loud howl, and it was only after much
patient coaxing that the elder sister at last got her and
the boys to settle down on the grass under the tree, by
a promise to sing their favourite songs. But as each
of them immediately clamoured to have his own favourite,
Mina now hit upon the device of plucking three
blades of grass of differing lengths, and told them that
whoever drew the longest should have his choice first,
and so on.
Otto gained the prize, but as he always went by what
his brother said, he was rather puzzled.
"Sing, sing!" he said, gleefully; and then stopped
short, till Conrad, coming to the rescue, suggested the
"Cuckoo song." "The Cuckoo song!" said Otto, quite
unabashed, as though it had just occurred to him.
Mina, in a low, sweet voice that had an indefinably
plaintive ring, began singing--
"The cuckoo flies to the green grass,
Cuckoo, cuckoo!
And when it rains he's wet, alas,
Cuckoo, cuckoo!
The cuckoo has two golden feet,
Cuckoo, cuckoo!
That's why forbidden love's so sweet,
&#