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but because there was still such a freshness of mind between us that our
thoughts were a little frightened, I think, to find themselves at last in
words. And so they went softly.
"Presently we were hungry and we went from our apartment, going by a strange
passage with a moving floor, until we came to the great breakfast room--there
was a fountain and music. A pleasant and joyful place it was, with its
sunlight and splashing, and the murmur of plucked strings. And we sat and ate
and smiled at one another, and I would not heed a man who was watching me from
a table near by.
"And afterwards we went on to the dancing-hall. But I cannot describe that
hall. The place was enormous--larger than any building you have ever seen--and
in one place there was the old gate of Capri, caught into the wall of a
gallery high overhead. Light girders, stems and threads of gold, burst from
the pillars like fountains, streamed like an Aurora across the roof and
interlaced, like--like conjuring tricks. All about the great circle for the
dancers there were beautiful figures, strange dragons, and intricate and
wonderful grotesques bearing lights. The place was inundated with artificial
light that shamed the newborn day. And as we went through the throng the
people turned about and looked at us, for all through the world my name and
face were known, and how I had suddenly thrown up pride and struggle to come
to this place. And they looked also at the lady beside me, though half the
story of how at last she had come to me was unknown or mistold. And few of the
men who were there, I know, but judged me a happy man, in spite of all the
shame and dishonour that had come upon my name.
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"The air was full of music, full of harmonious scents, full of the rhythm of
beautiful motions. Thousands of beautiful people swarmed about the hall,
crowded the galleries, sat in a myriad recesses; they were dressed in splendid
colours and crowned with flowers; thousands danced about the great circle
beneath the white images of the ancient gods, and glorious processions of
youths and maidens came and went. We two danced, not the dreary monotonies of
your days--of this time, I mean--but dances that were beautiful, intoxicating.
And even now I can see my lady dancing--dancing joyously. She danced, you
know, with a serious face; she danced with a serious dignity, and yet she was
smiling at me and caressing me--smiling and caressing with her eyes.
"The music was different," he murmured. "It went--I cannot describe it; but
it was infinitely richer and more varied than any music that has ever come to
me awake.
"And then--it was when we had done dancing--a man came to speak to me. He was
a lean, resolute man, very soberly clad for that place, and already I had
marked his face watching me in the breakfasting hall, and afterwards as we
went along the passage I had avoided his eye. But now, as we sat in a little
alcove, smiling at the pleasure of all the people who went to and fro across
the shining floor, he came and touched me, and spoke to me so that I was
forced to listen. And he asked that he might speak to me for a little time
apart.
"'No,' I said. 'I have no secrets from this lady. What do you want to tell
me?'
"He said it was a trivial matter, or at least a dry matter, for a lady to
hear.
"'Perhaps for me to hear,' said I.
"He glanced at her, as though almost he would appeal to her. Then he asked me
suddenly if I had heard of a great and avenging declaration that Evesham had
made? Now, Evesham had always before been the man next to myself in the
leadership of that great party in the north. He was a forcible, hard, and
tactless man, and only I had been able to control and soften him. It was on
his account even more than my own, I think, that the others had been so
dismayed at my retreat. So this question about what he had done reawakened my
old interest in the life I had put aside just for a moment.
"'I have taken no heed of any news for many days,' I said. 'What has Evesham
been saying?'
"And with that the man began, nothing loth, and I must confess even I was
struck by Evesham's reckless folly in the wild and threatening words he had
used. And this messenger they had sent to me not only told me of Evesham's
speech, but went on to ask counsel and to point out what need they had of me.
While he talked, my lady sat a little forward and watched his face and mine.
"My old habits of scheming and organising reasserted themselves. I could even
see myself suddenly returning to the north, and all the dramatic effect of it.
All that this man said witnessed to the disorder of the party indeed, but not
to its damage. I should go back stronger than I had come. And then I thought
of my lady. You see--how can I tell you? There were certain peculiarities of
our relationship--as things are I need not tell you about that--which would
render her presence with me impossible. I should have had to leave her;
indeed, I should have had to renounce her clearly and openly, if I was to do
all that I could do in the north. And the man knew that, even as he talked to
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her and me, knew it as well as she did, that my steps to duty were--first,
separation, then abandonment. At the touch of that thought my dream of a
return was shattered. I turned on the man suddenly, as he was imagining his
eloquence was gaining ground with me.
"'What have I to do with these things now?' I said. 'I have done with them. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]