"For all things born one gate
Opens, . . . and no man sees
Beyond the gods and Fate."
SWINBURNE.
WHEN Emile arrived at the Hippodrome, only a few minutes after his
usual time, he found no one but the dresser, who was clearing away the
litter of clothes, jewellery, powder-puffs and flowers.
Arithelli had vanished.
She had never before failed to wait for him, and he knew she would not
have started alone without some very good reason. He questioned the
dresser and found she knew nothing beyond that "La Nina," as she called
the girl affectionately, had left immediately after her last turn. She
had asked if the Señor had been in yet, but hearing he had not, she had
dressed and gone at once. She had not even stayed to put on a cloak,
and had left her hair still in a plait, and only a _velo_ over it. She
had seemed in great haste (but that was always so with the English!)
and had looked ill. The Señor must not be alarmed, she added, folding
Arithelli's blue habit with wrinkled, careful hands. True, Barcelona
was an evil place for one so young as "La Nina," but the blessed
saints--
Emile gave her a _peseta_, and left her to her invocations. In the
long passage that led from the dressing-rooms he ran into Estelle, who
was just sufficiently drunk to be excitable and quarrelsome. She still
had on her dancer's costume of short skirts of poppy-coloured tulle,
and scarlet shoes and tights. She was further adorned with long,
dangling, coral ear-rings, and a black bruise on the left side of her
face under the eye, the outward and visible sign of her last encounter
with the Manager.
She saluted Emile with a vindictive glare from her black eyes, and
tried to push past him. She hated him in a spiteful feminine way for
his complete appropriation of Arithelli, of whom, thanks to him, she
now saw very little. She had quarrelled with all the other women
employed in the Circus, but Arithelli had always helped her to dress,
and given her cigarettes and listened to her woes.
Emile blocked the way, catching the dancer by the wrist as she
attempted to slip by, leaving his question unanswered. He repeated it,
and after a minute's sullen refusal to speak, Estelle stamped her foot
savagely upon the floor, and collapsed into a state of hysterical
volubility. No, she had seen nothing, nothing! she protested in
French. Scarcely ever did she see her little friend now, and whose
fault was that? Would Monsieur Poleski answer her? As Monsieur
Poleski did nothing of the kind, she continued to rage. All men were
brutes! Yes, all! She had no friends now and if she did console
herself--what would he have?
Emile decided that she was speaking the truth, and that there was no
use wasting time in making other enquiries.
One thing seemed certain--that Arithelli had left the building. From
the Hippodrome he went next to her lodgings, also with no result. He
could only now suppose that Sobrenski had sent her off at a moment's
notice on some unusual errand. The possibility of her having gone to
the house in the Calle de Pescadores did not occur to him. According
to the last arrangement they were not expected there till after
midnight. It was only eleven now. He would go to the Café Colomb, and
spend the hour there. It was no use to search for her further, and as
he assured himself there was not the least reason to become alarmed.
She was not likely to lose her head, and she knew her way about the
place.
The Colomb was more or less a recognised resort of the many
revolutionaries with whom the city abounded. The proprietor was known
to be in sympathy with their schemes, though he took no active part in
them himself. He was considered trustworthy, for notes and messages
were often left in his charge, and his private room was at the disposal
of those who wished for a few minutes' secret interview. When Emile
entered he was greeted by several of the men who sat in groups of two
and three at little tables, busy with Monte and other card games.
The smoke of many cigarettes obscured their figures, and clouded the
mirrors with which the place was lined from floor to ceiling. Emile
sat down alone and ordered an _absinthe_.
When called upon to join in the play, he refused with a scowl and a
rasping oath in his native tongue, and as the evening grew on towards
midnight he was left to himself and his meditations.
His thoughts were still with Arithelli, the weird witch-girl, whose
eyes were like those of Swinburne's fair woman,
"Coloured like a water-flower,
And deeper than the green sea's glass."
He, who now never opened a book, had once known that most un-English of
all poets by heart.
In her many phases Arithelli passed before him, as he stared moodily at
the shifting opal-coloured liquid in his glass. He thought of her as
he had often seen her, fighting through her work at the Hippodrome, the
little weary head always gallantly carried, and then when she had
dismounted and was in her dressing-room, the rings round her eyes, her
shaking hands and utter weariness. He remembered her consideration for
her horses, her loathing of the ill-treatment of all dumb things so
common here. Once he had found her in the market-place, remonstrating
in her broken Spanish with the country women for the inhuman manner in
which they carried away their purchases of live fowl, tied neck to
neck, and slung across a mule, to die of slow strangulation under the
blazing sun. All the animals at the Hippodrome had been better treated
since she had been there. It was characteristic of the man that he
laughed at her to her face for her campaign against the national
cruelty, and in secret thought of her with admiration.
In many ways sexless, in others purely a woman, to every mood she
brought the charm of individuality.
_Tiens_! He was falling in love, he jeered to himself, cynically. In
love with that tall, silent creature, who was never in a hurry and
never in a temper, and who walked as if she had been bred in Andalusia.
Absurd! He was only interested. She had brains, and she never bored
him.
Besides, she was only twenty-four, and one could hardly allow a girl of
that age to be thrown warm and living to the wolves and vampires of
Barcelona. Perhaps he had been wrong in letting her do some
things--drink _absinthe_, for example. One lost one's sense of mental
and moral perspective in a place like this. At least he had guarded
her well. If he had not met her that day at the station, she might
have fallen into worse hands than his own. Things could not go on
indefinitely as they had been going. What was to be the end of it all?
Eventually she would fall in love, and a woman was no more use to the
Cause once that happened. No vows would be strong enough to keep her
from a man's arms once she cared. She would not love lightly or
easily, and where would she find love, here in Barcelona?
Half unconsciously, he found himself comparing Arithelli with the woman
who had betrayed him. Emile never lied, even to himself, and he knew
now that Marie Roumanoff had almost become a shadow.
A plaything she had been, a child, a doll, a being made for caresses
and admiration. To a woman of her type camaraderie would have been
impossible. He had not wanted it, and it had not been in her nature to
give it.
A man, who had been sitting opposite, got up, gesticulated, put on his
hat at a reckless angle, and, with a noisy farewell to his companions,
swaggered out.
In the mirror that faced him Emile saw the quick furtive glance
bestowed upon him, though he sat apparently unconscious of it.
Something at the back of his brain suggested to him that he knew the
man's face, that he had seen him before. A spy probably. It was
nothing unusual for any of them to be "shadowed," and for their
out-goings and in-comings to be noted.
The highly gilded French clock on the mantel-piece at the far end of
the room announced the hour as being a quarter to twelve. Emile
stooped down to pick up his sombrero which had tumbled off a chair on
to the floor, when he remained with outstretched hand, arrested by the
sound of a woman's voice which came through the partly opened door of
the proprietor's private room and office. A woman's voice? It was
Arithelli's unmistakably.
He recovered himself and the sombrero together, and twisted round in
his seat so as to get a view of the door, which was on his left hand,
half way down the long room. It had a glass top, across which a dark
green curtain was drawn. Emile knew that it was possible to enter this
room without passing through the _café_. There was another door which
led into a passage through the kitchen and back part of the house, and
from thence into a side-street, or rather a small alley.
He had often been that way, and it was generally used by the
frequenters of the place when they had reason to guard their movements.
He listened again.
The voice was even more hoarse than usual and more uncertain. Though
he could not hear the words, the broken sentences gave an impression of
breathlessness. When she stopped speaking he heard the voice of the
proprietor raised in an emphatic stage-whisper. Yes, Monsieur Poleski
was within. Mademoiselle was fortunately in time to find him. If
Mademoiselle would give herself the trouble to wait but for one
moment--.
The little man fancied himself an adept at intrigue, and his methods
were often a cause of anxiety to those he befriended. His nods and
gestures and meaning glances as he emerged would have been enough to
arouse suspicion in the most guileless.
He stood blinking his short-sighted eyes through the haze in his effort
to attract Emile's attention without being detected. The latter got up
and sauntered towards him.
"_Bon soir, Monsieur Lefévre_," he said carelessly. "We have a little
account to settle, you and I, is it not so?"
Fat Monsieur Lefevre rose gallantly to the occasion. He bowed Emile
into the room, locked the door by which they had entered, and with
another bow and a muttered apology scuttled through the passage into
the back regions. Two minutes later he made his reappearance in the
_café_ by the front way, and went to his place behind the counter with
the satisfied face of a successful diplomatist.
His little sanctum was typical in its arrangement of the Parisian
_bourgeois_.
Numerous picture post-cards of a famous chanteuse of the Folies
Bergeres proclaimed Monsieur's taste in beauty. For the rest,
everything was neat and rather bare of furniture. There were chairs
symmetrically arranged like sentinels along the walls, tinted lace
curtains, a gilded mirror, and a few doubtful coloured pictures, all of
women. An unshaded electric light flared in a corner. Arithelli stood
resting one hand on the round polished table in the centre of the
apartment. Her dark blue dress was torn in two places, and smeared
with patches of dust. The _velo_, or piece of drapery worn on ordinary
occasions instead of the mantilla, hung down her back in company with
the long plait of hair, which had come untwisted at the ends. Her face
was strained and haggard, and the tense attitude spoke of tortured
nerves.
She was still struggling for breath, and appeared almost unable to
speak, but Emile was not minded to allow her much time for recovery.
Patience was not numbered among such virtues as he possessed.
"_Tiens_!" he began. "What is it now, Fatalité? You look as if you
had been having adventures. Have you been getting into mischief? And
where have you been?"
"In the Calle de Pescadores out at Barcelonetta. Sobrenski sent me
with a message to you. The place is being watched. If they see you go
in you may be arrested. The others got to hear about the spies, and
went early. They are going to stay there all night because it isn't
safe to leave." Her tone was that of one who repeats a well-learned
lesson.
Emile shrugged. "Spies? So that's it! There was a man just now in
the _café_ who looked like it. Probably he is waiting to go outside
now to 'shadow' me. He may wait till--! And how did you get out?"
"They let me down from a window at the back of the house. I got on to
the quay and came here by the long way and through the Rambla." There
was a pause, and then she said in the same mechanical voice, "Sobrenski
said I was to tell you not to come. It isn't safe."
Emile did not answer. He could see that she was trembling violently
and on the verge of an hysterical crisis. He rather hoped she would
break down. It would seem more natural. Women were privileged to cry
and scream, not that it was possible to imagine her screaming. He
dragged forward a chair from the immaculate row against the wall.
As he did so he noticed that she kept her left hand behind her back as
if to conceal something.
"Sit down," he ordered. "What's the matter with your hand? Are you
hurt?"
The girl retreated before him.
"No!" she answered defiantly.
But Emile's quick eyes had seen a crumpled handkerchief flecked with
red stains.
"Don't tell lies, Fatalité!" he said sharply. "Give me your hand at
once."
Arithelli obeyed, holding it out palm upwards.
Emile looked, and ripped out a fiery exclamation. The smooth flesh was
scarred and torn across in several places, and was still bleeding. The
mark of Sobrenski's grip on her wrist had turned from crimson to a dull
discoloured hue.
"It doesn't hurt so very much," she said. "Only I can't bear the sight
of blood. All Jewish people are like that. I can't help it. It makes
me feel queer all over."
She turned her head aside with a shudder. Emile muttered another
expletive, adding:
"Then if you feel like that, don't look."
He told her again to sit down, tore her handkerchief into strips,
soaked them in water from a carafe, and bandaged up the wounds in a
rough but effectual fashion.
She said nothing during the process, but kept her head still turned
away so that he could not see her face.
"Voilà!" said Emile. "That will be all right to-morrow. What did they
do to you?"
"I cut my fingers on the window sill when they let me down. There was
a piece of iron or a nail or something. I don't remember. It didn't
hurt at the time."
"H'm!" commented Emile. "But this?" he touched her wrist lightly. "It
looks like--"
"That? Oh, Sobrenski did that. He--"
"Well?" said Emile. He waited but there came no answer, so he
continued the interrogation. "You didn't make a scene, Fatalité?"
He heard her flinch and draw in her breath as she covered her face with
her free hand. Her low painful sobbing reminded him of the
inarticulate moaning of an animal.
Even in her grief, her abandonment, she was unlike all other women.
Emile stood beside her in watchful silence, and neither attempted to
interfere nor to console her. He was wise enough to know that to a
highly strung nature like hers too much self-repression might be
dangerous, and he was humane enough to be glad that she had the relief
of tears.
At length he said quietly, "I didn't know you could cry, Fatalité. I
didn't know you were human enough for that."
She still fought desperately for composure, thrusting a fold of the
torn _velo_ between her teeth. The naked light shone on her bent head,
and on her glittering rope of hair.
A strange impulse suddenly moved Emile to finger a loose strand with a
touch that had in it something of a caress.
Gamin she had been, _equestrienne_, heroine, and now she was only a
sorrowful Dolores.
At last words came.
She stood up and faced him, shaking back her hair.
"Emile! Emile! I must give it up. I can't go on!"
"And you can't turn back, _mon enfant_."
"I'll run away."
"Do you think they wouldn't find you? You know enough about our
organisation now. No one who has once joined us is ever allowed to
escape. You would be found sooner or later, and then--you remember
what I told you once? That I am responsible for you to the
Brotherhood?"
He spoke calmly, patiently, as if he were explaining things to a child.
If his associates could have seen the cynical Emile Poleski of ordinary
life they would have found reason to marvel!
The gesture of uncontrollable horror told him that she understood only
too well. What should the upholders of the Cause care for ties, for
friendships, for pity?
If she were recaptured Emile would be her executioner. He might
refuse, but that would not save her and he would be shot as well. Why
should he suffer because she had lost her courage and turned traitress?
She tried to collect her senses, and to think properly. Everything
felt blurred and far off. One thing alone seemed certain--that there
was no way out of the _impasse_.
Emile had walked to the glass-door and unlocked it. Then he came back
to her.
"It's time we were going," he said. "It will not do to be here too
long. As our friend the spy is patrolling the street outside in
readiness for my appearance, we will go out the other way. The Calle
Santa Teresa is nearly always deserted. It's just as well you should
be seen with me. They don't know yet that you are working for us, so
it will look less as if I were _en route_ for a meeting. But before we
start, have you decided to be wise and to save me from an unpleasant
duty?"
"Yes. I'll stay. At least while you are here."
"While I am here?" the man echoed. "Et alors--?"
"Then?" She threw out her arms in a hopeless gesture. "Who knows?
Who can read the future? And after all, as you have said, 'What does
one life more or less matter?'"