Velasco sat in his Studio before the great tiled fire-place, dreaming,
with his violin across his knees. His servant had gone to bed and he
was alone.
The coals burned brightly, and the lamp cast a golden, radiant light on
the rug at his feet, rich-hued and jewel tinted as the stained rose
windows of Notre Dame. Tapestries hung from the walls, a painting here
and there, a few engravings. In the centre stood an Erard, a
magnificent concert-grand, open, with music strewn on its polished lid
in a confusion of sheets; some piled, some fluttering loose, still
others flung to the floor where a chance breeze, or a careless hand,
may have scattered them. Near it was the exquisite bronze figure of a
young satyr playing the flute, the childish arms and limbs, round and
molded, glowing rosy and warm in the lamp light. In one corner was a
violin stand, a bow tossed heedlessly across it; and all about were
boxes, half packed and disordered. The curtains were drawn. The
malachite clock on the mantel-piece was striking two.
Velasco stirred suddenly and his dark head turned from the fire light,
moving restlessly against the cushions. He was weary. The applause,
the uproar of the Mariínski was still in his ears; before his eyes
danced innumerable notes, tiny and black, the sound of them boring into
his brain.
"Ye gods--ye gods!"
The young Violinist sprang up and began pacing the room, pressing his
hands to his eyes to drive away the notes, humming to himself to get
rid of the sound, the theme, the one haunting, irrepressible motive.
He walked up and down, lighting one cigarette after the other, puffing
once, twice, and then hurling it half-smoked into the coals.
Every little while he stopped and seemed to be listening. Then he went
back to his seat before the fire-place and flinging himself down began
to play, a few bars at a time, stopping and listening, then playing
again. As he played, his eyes grew dreamy and heavy, the brows seemed
to press upon them until they drooped under the lids, and his dark hair
fell like a screen.
When he stopped, a strange, moody look came over his face and he
frowned, tapping the rug nervously with his foot. Sometimes he held
the violin between his knees, playing on it as on a cello; then he
caught it to his breast again in a sudden fury of improvisation--an
arpeggio, light and running, his fingers barely touching the
strings--the snatch of a theme--a trill, low and passionate--the rush
of a scale. He toyed with the Stradivarius mocking it, clasping it,
listening.
His overwrought nerves were as pinpoints pricking his body. His brain
was like a church, the organ of music filling it, thundering,
reverberating, dying away; and then, as he lay back exhausted, low,
subtle, insinuating ran the theme in his ears, the maddening motive.
Beside him was a stand, with a decanter of red wine and a glass. The
wine was lustrous and sparkling. He drank of it, and lit another
cigarette and threw it away. Presently Velasco took from his pocket a
twist of paper blotted, and studied it, with his head in his hands.
"_Will you help me--life or death--tonight? Kaya._"
He listened again.
The theme was still running, the black notes dancing; but between them
intertwined was a face, upturned, exquisite, the eyes pleading, the
lips parted, hands clasped and beckoning. That night at the
Mariínski--ah!
He had searched for her everywhere. Ushers had flown from loggia to
loggia, ransacking the Theatre. Next to the Imperial Box, or was it
the second? To the right?--no, the left! Below, or perhaps on the
Bel-Etage?--All in vain. Was it only a dream? He stared down at the
twist of paper blotted "_Kaya--to-night._"
Her name came to his lips and he repeated it aloud, smiling to himself,
musing. His eyes gazed into the coals, dreamy, heavy, half open,
gleaming like dark slits under the brows. They closed gradually and
his head fell lower. His hands relaxed. The violin lay on his breast,
his pale cheek resting against the arch.
He was asleep.
All of a sudden there came a light tap on the door. A pause, a tap,
still lighter; then another pause.
Velasco raised his head and tossed back his hair restlessly; his eyes
drooped again.
"Tap--tap."
He started and listened.
Some one was at the Studio door--something. It was like the flutter of
a bird's wing against the oak, softly, persistently.
"Tap--tap."
He rose slowly, reluctantly to his feet and went to the door. It was
strange, inexplicable. After two, and the moon was gone, the night was
dark--unless--An eager look came into his eyes.
"Who is there?" he cried, "Who are you? What do you want?"
A silence followed, as if the bird had poised suddenly with wings
outstretched, hovering. Then it came again against the oak: "Tap--tap."
Velasco threw open the door: "Bózhe moi!"
As he did so, a woman's figure, slim and small, hooded and wrapped in a
long, black cloak, darted inside, and snatching the door from his hand,
closed it behind her rapidly, fearfully, glancing back into the
darkness. The woman was panting under the hood. She braced herself
against the door, still clasping the bolt as though a weapon. Her back
was crooked beneath the cloak and she seemed to be crippled.
Velasco drew back. His eagerness vanished and the light died out of
his face. "Who in the name of--" He hesitated: "What in the world--"
Then he hesitated again, his dark eyes blinking under his brows.
The woman stretched her hands from under the cloak, clasping them. She
was fighting hard for her breath.
"Tell me, Monsieur," she whispered, "Tell me quickly--are you married?
Are you going alone to Germany?" Her voice shook and trembled: "Oh,
tell me,--quickly."
"Married, my good woman!" exclaimed Velasco. His eyes opened wide and
he drew back a little further: "Why really, Madame--Of course I am
going alone to Germany. What do you mean? How extraordinary!"
"Quite alone?" repeated the woman, "no friend, no manager? Oh then,
sir, do me the little favour, the kindness--it will cost you nothing--I
shall never forget it--I shall bless you all the days of my life."
She took a step forward, limping. Velasco recovered himself.
"Sit down, Madame," he said, "and explain. You are trembling so. Let
me give you some wine.--Wait a minute. There,--is it money you want?
Tell me."
His manner was that of a prince to a beggar, lofty, authoritative,
kindly, indifferent. "Sit down, Madame."
The woman shrank back against the door and her hand fled to the bolt as
if seeking support. "No--no!" she murmured. "You don't understand.
It's not for--not money! I'm in trouble, danger. Don't you see? I
must flee from Russia--now, at once. You are going to Germany alone,
to-morrow night. Take me with you--take me with--you!"
An irritated look came over Velasco's face. Was the creature mad?
"That is nonsense," he said, "I can't take any one with me, and I
wouldn't if I could. Besides there is only one passport."
The woman put her hand to her breast. It was throbbing madly under the
cloak. "You could take--your--wife," she whispered, "Your wife. No
one would suspect."
"Really, my dear Madame!"
Velasco yawned behind his palm. "What you say is simply absurd. I
tell you I have no wife."
She stretched out her hands to him: "You are a Pole, a Pole!" Her
voice rose passionately. "Surely you have suffered; you hate Russia,
this cruel, wicked, tyrannous government. Your sympathy is with us,
the people, the Liberals, who are trying--oh, I tell you--I must go, at
once! After tomorrow it is death, don't you understand,--death? What
is it to you, the matter of another passport? You are Velasco?--Every
one knows that name, every one. Your wife goes with you to Germany.
Oh, take me--take me--I beseech you."
The Violinist stared down at the hooded face. Her voice was tense and
vibrating like the tones of an instrument. It moved him strangely. He
felt a curious numbness in his throat and a wave passed over him like a
chill. She went on, her hands wrung together under the cloak:
"It isn't much I ask. The journey together--at the frontier we
part--part forever. The marriage, oh listen--that is nothing, a
ceremony, a farce, just a certificate to show the police--the police--"
Her voice died away in a whisper, broken, panting. She fell back
against the door, bracing herself against it, gazing up into his eyes.
Velasco stood motionless for a moment; then he turned on his heel and
strode over to the fire-place, staring down into the coals. The sight
of that bent and shrinking figure, a woman, old and feeble, trembling
like a creature hunted, unmanned him.
"I can't do it," he said slowly, "Don't ask me. I am a musician. I
have no interest in politics. There is too much risk. I can't,
Madame, I can't."
He felt her coming towards him. The flutter of her cloak, it touched
him, and her step was light, like a bird limping.
"You read it?" she whispered, "I saw you at the Mariínski; and
there--there are the violets on the table, by the violin. Have you
forgotten?"
Velasco started: "Who are you?" he exclaimed. "Not Kaya!" He wheeled
around and faced her savagely: "You Kaya, never! Was it you who threw
the violets--you?"
His dark eyes measured the shrinking form, bent and crippled, shrouded;
and he cried out in his disappointment like a peevish boy: "I thought
it was she--she! Kaya was young, fair, her face was like a flower; her
hair was like gold; her lips were parted, arched and sweet; her
eyes--You, you are not Kaya!--Never!"
His voice was angry and full of scorn: "It was all a dream, a mistake.
Go--out of my sight; begone! I'll have nothing to do with anarchists."
He snatched the violets from the table and flung them on the hearth:
"Begone, or I'll call the police." He was in a tempest of rage. His
disappointment rose in his throat and choked him.
The old woman shrank back from him step by step. He followed
threateningly:
"Begone, you beggar."
His heart beat unpleasantly. Devil take the old woman! Impostor! She
was old and ugly as sin. He was sleepy and weary. Why had he taken
the violets; why had he read the note? If the girl were not Kaya, then
who--who?
"Come," he cried sharply, "Be off!"
Suddenly the woman buried her head in her hands. She began to sob in
long drawn breaths; they shook her form. She fell back against the
Erard, trembling and sobbing.
Velasco stared down at her. His anger left him like a flash and his
heart softened. Poor thing, poor creature! She was old and feeble,
and crippled. He had forgotten. He had only thought of her, Kaya, the
girl with the flower-like face. He shook himself, as if out of a
dream, and his hand patted the woman's shoulder soothingly. His voice
lost its sharpness.
"Don't," he said, "Don't cry like that, my dear Madame--no, don't! It
will be all right. I was hasty. Don't mind what I said,--don't--no!"
She dashed his hand from her shoulder and broke into passionate
weeping: "You play like a god," she cried, "but you are not; you are a
brute. You have no heart. It is your violin that has the heart.
Don't touch me--let me go! It was so little I asked, so little!"
She struggled away from him, but Velasco pursued her. His heart
misgave him. He grasped her cloak with one hand, the hood with the
other, trying to raise it; "Stop!" he said, "I can't stand a woman
crying, young or old. I can't stand it; it makes me sick. Stop, I
tell you! I'll do anything. I'll--I'll marry you--You shall go to
Germany with me. Only stop for heaven's sake. Don't cry like
that--don't!"
He stooped over the shrinking figure still lower; his arm pressed her
shoulder. She struggled with him blindly, still sobbing.
"Now, by heaven," cried Velasco, "If you are to be my wife, I'll see
your face at least. Be still, Madame, be still!"
The woman cowered away from him, holding out her hands, pressing him
back. "I beg of you--I beseech you," she said, "Not my face! No--no,
Monsieur!"
She gazed at him in terror, and as she gazed, the hood slipped back
from her hair; it fell in a golden flood to her shoulders, curling in
little rings and waves about her forehead, her neck; veiling her face.
She gave a cry.
Velasco stood for a moment petrified, staring down into the frightened
eyes that were like twin wells of blue fixed on his own. Then he
leaped forward, snatched at the cloak, flung out his arms,--he had
clasped the air. She was gone. The door slammed back in his face and
the sound of her hurrying footsteps, light as a bird's, fled in the
distance.
He was all alone in the room.
Velasco rubbed his eyes with his hand and stared about him, strangely,
mechanically, like a sleep-walker. "What a dream! Ye gods, what a
dream!" He stretched his limbs yawning and laughed aloud; then he
paled suddenly. Was it a dream; or no--impossible. On the sleeve of
his black velvet jacket something glistened and sparkled, a thread as
of gold, fine and slender like silk, invisible almost as the fibrous
strings of his bow.
He raised it between his fingers. Then slowly, heavily, he went back
to his seat before the fire-place and flung himself down.
The lamp-light fell on the Persian rug dimly, flickeringly, the colours
were soft as an ancient fresco; the jewels were gone, and the coals
burned lower, dying. He lit a cigarette and began to smoke. The
violin was in his arms. He played low to himself, dreamily, fitfully,
his eyes half closed, dark slits beneath the brows.
At his feet lay the violets crushed and strewn; a twist of paper
creased, blotted.
The light of the lamp grew dimmer. The malachite clock struck again
and again. The night passed.