THE
POISONED PARADISE
A ROMANCE OF MONTE CARLO
BY
ROBERT W. SERVICE
AUTHOR OF “THE TRAIL OF NINETY-EIGHT,” “RHYMES OF
A ROLLING STONE,” “THE PRETENDER,” ETC.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1922
COPYRIGHT, 1922,
BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.
First Printing, Oct., 1922
Second Printing, Nov., 1922
Third Printing, Jan., 1923
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY
The Quinn & Roden Company
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
RAHWAY NEW JERSEY
CONTENTS
PAGE
PROLOGUE 1
BOOK ONE--THE STORY OF MARGOT 5
BOOK TWO--THE STORY OF HUGH 77
BOOK THREE--THE WHEEL 131
BOOK FOUR--THE VORTEX 245
BOOK FIVE--THE MAN HUNT 341
THE POISONED PARADISE
PROLOGUE
The boy was sitting in a corner of the shabby room. The mother watched
him from her pillow.
“What are you doing, dear?”
“Drawing, Mother Lovely.”
“Strange! Always drawing. Did I ever tell you that your father was an
artist?”
The boy looked at her thoughtfully. His eyes were like her own, dark
and velvety; but his sunny hair contrasted with her black braids.
“No, Mother Lovely. Had I a father?”
“Yes, dearest. He died just before you were born. I came here hoping
that his people, so rich, so proud, would be glad to see you. But, no,
they cannot understand.... We’ll go home together, you and I, to my
home.”
“Where is that, Mother?”
“Monaco, the great rock that rises from the sea, where my family has
lived for generations. Listen, little son ... if I should not be able
to go with you, you must go alone. You will find the house where lives
my mother, a plain, quiet house with brown shutters near the Cathedral.
In front four pepper-trees shield it from the sun, and through the
pines one can see the blue glimmer of the sea....”
“Is it beautiful, my mother?”
“Always beautiful. The people sing from very joy. In the garden of the
Prince, just in front of our house, there is a broken pillar covered
with ivy. Beside it is a spring where flowers bloom even in summer
heat. It was there we used to meet, your father and I.... Ah! I have
never regretted it, never....”
Her girlish face was as sweet as a flower, but her eyes held memories
too tragic for tears.
Then the door opened and a woman entered with a masterful air.
“I’m preparin’ yer potion, ma’am. The doctor said you was to take it
at eight o’clock. Come on, sonny, it’s bedtime. Ma wants to get a good
long night.”
The child looked imploringly at his mother. She shook her head.
“No, dearest, you must do what the lady tells you. Come, good-night.”
She held him in her arms, kissing him again and again. “You, too, will
be an artist ... but you must be brave, my little son; for you have a
hard, hard life before you.”
Then she let him go, but he turned at the door. “Good-night, Mother
Lovely.”
“Good-night, darling one. Think of what I told you,--of _home_....”
She was alone now. Closing her eyes she saw a little _U_ shaped harbour
shielded from the sea. It was as delicate as a pastel, a placque of
sapphire set in pearl. In the crystal air the red-roofed houses crowded
close to it, the terraced town rose on tip-toe to peer at it. All was
glitter and gleam and radiant beauty. Yet yonder in sombre contrast
rose the Rock, monstrous, moody, mediæval.
Once more she climbed the long steep hill; she crossed the sunny
square in front of the palace; she passed into the cool gloom of the
narrow streets. Then at last she stood before the low brown house with
its tiny porch and its four pepper-trees....
Home.... Home. Would she ever see it again?
Moaning, she turned her face to the wall.
* * * * *
BOOK ONE
_The Story of Margot_
CHAPTER ONE
THE OUTCAST
1.
“That you, Margot?”
“Yes, Mother.”
“For God’s sake close the door. You don’t think I break my back
gathering wood that you may warm the wide world.”
There was a scuffle of sabots anxiously retreating.
“Margot!”
“Yes, Mother.”
“You’re not going away again, are you?”
“I....”
“Come here, little toad. I’ve something to say to you.”
Submissively from the shadow of the doorway slipped a girl. She had
twin braids of pale gold hair, and between them like a wedge, her face
showed waxen with cold.
“’Fraid I’ll eat you?” snapped the woman. “Come here, near to me.
Brought home any money?”
“No, Mother.”
“But I told you to ask.”
“I did not dare. Madame will not pay in advance. The last time I asked
her she almost sent me away.”
“_Nom de Dieu!_ Couldn’t you give her some story? Your little sister’s
sick. There’s no food in the house. Your poor mother’s.... Ugh! What
a fool I have for a daughter. So all you’ve brought back’s an empty
stomach. Oh, I could strike you, I could.”
She suited the gesture to the threat, and the girl arched her slender
arms to stave off the blow. But the woman dropped her hands disgustedly.
“Bah! what’s the use. If I could only make you cry there’d be some
relish in it. But no! I beat you till my arms ache and never a whimper.
That’s your stubborn nature. You’ll do nothing to please me. Oh, you’re
a stubborn little devil, still as a mouse, obstinate as a mule. There’s
something in you, daughter, I can’t get at. But I will. I’ll thrash it
out of you. You wait. Not to-night. I’m too tired to-night....”
From the tumbler at her elbow she took a gulp of cider and brandy,
then turned broodingly to the fire. The sickly flames betrayed the
wretchedness of the room, the gaunt rafters, the floor of beaten earth.
On a deal table lay a clasp knife, and beside it a loaf of bread. The
girl eyed the bread avidly. Then her hand, red and claw-cold, stole to
the knife, while her gaze rested fearfully on her mother. But the woman
no longer heeded.
“What a life!” she was muttering. “What a home! And to think I’d
have been rolling in my auto, and crackling in silk and satin, if I
hadn’t been a fool. That’s my weak point.... I always wanted to be
respectable, to be married--all that sentimental rot. Well, I’ve made
my bed and I’ve got to lie on it. But it’s hell....”
She stared dismally at her draggled skirts, her coarsely stockinged
feet, her wooden shoes so warped and worn. Seeing her absorbed, the
girl hacked off a piece of bread and fell to wolfing it. The woman went
on, her face harsh and haggard in the light of the fire:
“There was the American. Mad about me, he was. If I’d played my cards
right he’d have married me. What a time he gave me, Paris, Venice,
Monte Carlo.... Oh, Monte Carlo! But he had to go back home at last.
His wife! Told me to wait and he’d get a divorce. Gave me all the money
he had. Nearly five hundred pounds. Believe me, I was pretty in them
days.”
As if for confirmation, she stroked her hollow cheeks. Tears of
self-pity welled in her weary eyes.
“Ah! if I’d known, I would have waited. But there was Pierre plaguing
me to marry him. Told me he’d loved me since we’d worked together in
that hotel in Brighton; me as bar-maid, him as head-waiter. Mighty nice
he used to look too in his dress suit. He said he’d been left some
money and wanted to go back to the little town where he was born and
buy a pub. So we was married, once in England and once in France. God!
I was particular in them days.”
She laughed bitterly, and took another gulp of the mixture in her
glass. Her eyes went glassy. Her fingers clutched unseen things. She
maundered on.
“Yes, I was happy there. It was all so new to me. Then we began to get
ambitious. The landlord of the big hotel died suddenly. It was a great
chance for Pierre, but he had not money enough to take it. There was
where I came in. I gave him my five hundred pounds. Told him an aunt
had left it to me. He believed me. We bought the hotel and everything
seemed to go well. Yes, them were the happy days.”
A fit of coughing interrupted her. When it was over she took another
drink.
“I don’t know how Pierre got to know about the American. He was away a
month and when he came back he was changed. He explained nothing, but
he treated me like dirt. It was that made me take to the drink.”
She was silent awhile. Then....
“He didn’t seem to care about the business any more and I was drinking
too much to care; so we went from bad to worse. We lost the hotel and
went back to the _buvette_. Then we lost that too, and he had to take
a waiter’s place. By this time the drink was master of me. I tried to
give it up but it was no use. When Cécile was born I thought I’d be
able to stop, but I was worse than ever. If he’d only tried to help me!
But no, he hated me; and I began to hate him too. We fought day and
night, like cat and dog. Well, it’s a long, long story, and here’s the
end.”
She threw a withered branch of gorse on the fire. It blazed up gold as
its own May-day bloom. The girl had climbed on a bench by the high bed
and was bending fondly over.
“Margot!” screamed the woman.
The girl started. In the sudden flare, her face was an ashen mask of
fear.
“What are you doing there?”
“I’m just looking at Cécile, Mother.”
“Come away at once. Haven’t I told you a hundred times not to go
near her? I know you with your sneaking ways. You want to steal her
away from me. She’s the only one I’ve got left, and I want her to
myself,--all, all. If ever you go near her, I’ll kill you. See!”
A fit of coughing choked her utterance. Again the girl stole to the
door.
“Margot!”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Fetch the bottle of brandy from the cupboard.”
The woman poured herself a stiff glass and downed it in a gulp.
“Come here, you little imp; I want to look at you.”
She drew the shrinking girl to her. Her lips twitched with spite.
“His eyes, his mouth, his chin. The very image of him. And he says
you’re not his daughter. Ah! that was the knife in me. Do you hear,
girl? Your father says you’re not his daughter.”
She laughed harshly, scornfully.
“You’re so much his daughter that I hate you, hate you!”
The girl had begun to struggle, but the woman was holding her with
spiteful strength.
“Let me tell you something. He came to-day and told me he was going
away for ever. He tried to take Cécile, but I fought for her, fought
like a wild cat to hold her. You understand?”
The girl winced in her savage grip.
“Hear that. You’ve no father. He disowns you. And let me tell you
something more,--you’ve no mother.... I disown you, too. After to-night
I never want to see you again. You’re the dead image of him and I hate
him too much. Now go!”
She hurled the girl from her and took another gulp of the neat brandy.
The glass dropped from her hand. She sagged forward.
Except for the crackle of the burning twigs all was quiet. The girl
gathered a hurried armful of clothes. She was glad to go, but for
Cécile!
She stole over to the bed where her sister lay sleeping. She saw a
cluster of golden curls, a wan little face with lips parted and lashes
that seemed to cast a shadow. Bending down, she kissed the white cheek.
The heavy lashes stirred, the big blue eyes opened, the child’s silken
arm stole around her neck.
“You’ve come home, Margot?”
“Yes, but I’m going away again.”
“Don’t go, Margot. Don’t leave me. I’m afraid of Mother. Stay with me.
Stay with your little Cécile.”
“No, I can’t. Kiss me, dear.”
The child held her so tightly it was difficult to free herself. Then
the mother turned. She shrieked in sudden fury, and the girl in her
terror made a leap for the door. But the latch jammed; and, the while
she was fumbling with it, the woman made a rush for her.
The girl screamed with fright. The woman, in her haste, stumbled,
caught herself, and with a foul oath snatched the knife from the
table....
That was Margot’s last memory of her mother,--a harridan hurling curses
at her and threatening her with a naked knife....
Sobbing with terror, she stumbled over the stone sill of the doorway
and gained the sanctuary of the night.
2.
The night had on her robe of carnival, and her spangled skirts made
glorious the sky. The girl halted by the wayside, where a line of
clipped oaks blotted themselves against the stars. She did not cry, for
she had lost the habit of tears, but drew long sobbing breaths.
The night wore drearily on, the stars seemed to glitter in cruel
unconcern. The girl dozed and dreamed a little....
_She was a child of four, the happiest and best dressed in all the
village. She had robes of lace, and silk ribbands, and shoes of satin.
Her mother cared for her like a little princess, and her father carried
her proudly in his arms. Every one said she was spoiled. She had more
toys than all the other children put together. But the most precious of
all was a doll as big as a real baby, a doll that opened and shut its
eyes, and had jointed arms and legs. She had a dozen dresses for this
doll, and spent hours and hours caring for it...._
_She was a girl of ten. She wore a long white robe and a veil over
her head. Some said she looked like a fairy, some an angel. It was
her first Communion, and of a score of girls she was the prettiest by
far. She it was who headed the shining procession through the long
grey street of the village. The way was strewn with lily leaves, and
child-voices blended sweetly in the June sunshine...._
That was her last memory of happiness. Her father suddenly changed.
Where she had known only caresses, harsh words and bitter looks were
now her portion. The home once so joyful, was the scene of sordid
wrangling. She was allowed to go about shabby and dirty, and became
nothing but a slipshod drudge.
Her father never struck her, but her mother beat her cruelly. It was a
relief when she was apprenticed to the local dress-maker and spent her
day away from the misery of home. But oh, the nights when she ate her
slovenly supper and waited for the inevitable out-break! When it came
and the storm raged at its height, her father would retreat with Cécile
to the cottage of her grandmother and leave her to bear the brunt of
her mother’s drunken spite. How often had she been thrashed, how often
torn from her bed, and flung half-clad into the night! In the old barn
there was a corner where she had many a time crouched and shivered
until dawn. Ah, what bitter memories! Would any amount of happiness
ever efface them?
So half brooding, half dreaming, the night passed away. She opened her
eyes wide and found she had gained a ridge not far from a forest. She
looked down a billowy slope of tree-tops to the misty level of the
plain. It was a grim grey world; but even as she gazed, a silver wire
seemed to be drawn along the horizon. The stillness was intense, a
listening, waiting stillness; from the other side of the sky some god
seemed to be pouring over the cloud-fleece a solution of light.
Then as she looked she saw that the sinister quality of the light had
gone. The silver wire had broadened to a glint of pearl; slowly it
glowed to a pink as delicate as that of sea-shells. The pink deepened
to a rose, kindled and spread. Waves of colour rippled up the sky,
brightening with every wave. Shade succeeded shade. Rich crimson
battled with cerise and rose with coral pink. Then suddenly came a leap
of gold, the gold of daffodils. It brimmed into a dazzling flood. It
welled and glowed and spread; and before its radiant lucidity the orgy
of colour melted away. Then into that indomitable light,--a primrose
rim, a golden segment, the sun was launched in all its glory.
The sunshine and the song of birds gave her courage. The world began
to glitter. Warbling notes came from the bushes, and dew-drops
spangled the thread of gossamer. In this world, so fresh, so fair, the
happenings of the night before seemed to her an evil dream.
The few peasants she passed gazed at her curiously. Over her shoulder
was slung her bundle, and her pale, peaked face between its twin braids
of bright hair had all the entreaty of a beaten dog.
As she trudged wearily on she came to a glade, flooded with sunshine
and perfumed with pine. Bees droned in the wild thyme, from the fork of
a tree a squirrel scolded, on a hollow oak nearby a wood-pecker drummed
sonorously. And in the midst of this scene of peace an old man was
painting.
He was not a nice old man. His skin was white, the dead white of an
onion, and the girl noted that flies swarmed round and round him. They
settled on his blouse and walked over his beard but he took no notice
of them. He seemed to attract flies as carrion attracts them. He gave
the girl a contemptuous look.
“Well, what d’ye think of my picture?”
“It’s very pretty, sir.”
“Pretty be damned. Never tell an artist his work’s pretty.”
The girl was turning away when his voice arrested her.
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Why? Haven’t you got a home?”
“No, sir.”
He turned round and looked at her hard. He seemed to reflect.
“Wouldn’t you like to go to Paris?”
The girl started. Paris! It was the most beautiful, the most wonderful
city in the world. It had been one of her dreams that some day she
might visit it.
“Yes, sir,” she answered.
“Then, why not?”
“I have no money.”
“Is that the only reason?”
“I have no friends there.”
“You would make friends in time. Why not go?”
“Oh, no, sir. I should be afraid. Maybe, I could not find work.”
“Humph! Perhaps, I could help you to find work. Come here.”
Timidly she drew near. She did not like him, but she felt she must
obey. The flies were on his shoulders in a grey cloud. He had a very
small mouth, with lips that were shiny. He moistened these very often
with his tongue. In his ears were wads of pink cotton wool. He put out
a puffy, yellow hand and touched her. He tilted back her sharp chin. He
held one of the thick braids of her shiny hair.
“Bah! you won’t be much of a model for the figure. But I might make
something of your head. Wait till I finish my work, and I’ll see what I
can do for you.”
There was such an air of command in his tone that again she felt she
must obey. So she sat down on her bundle and waited patiently. He
worked without heeding her, until a little before noon, when he rose
and gathered together his materials.
“Come now. I’ll go with you to the station.”
Doglike she followed at his heels. The village was about two miles
away. He bought her some bread and chocolate and a bottle of cheap wine.
“You’re as hungry as a young wolf, eh! Well, you can eat on the train.
Come quickly or you will miss it.”
She went with him to the station. There he gave her a third class
ticket for Paris and a sealed letter.
“Go to the address on the envelope. Go direct. My housekeeper will make
you comfortable.”
Then the train arrived and he looked at her with eyes that shone
curiously.
“You will help Madame Mangepain with the housework till I come. After
that we will see.”
As the train moved off she saw him standing on the platform, licking
his lips and surrounded by a swarm of flies.
CHAPTER TWO
THE MAN ON WHOM FLIES SETTLED
Two o’clock in the morning at the Gare du Montparnasse. The girl was
dazed and weary. She sat on her bundle in the stale greyness of the
station, waiting anxiously for the dawn. About six o’clock she ventured
forth, and holding her precious envelope in her hand inquired her way
at the corner of every street.
A morning of exquisite metal, vivid, spacious, resplendent. As she
crossed the Seine by the Pont Royal, the sky was golden and against
it gloomed the twin towers of Notre Dame. The palaces of the Louvre
swam in lovely light and the Gardens of the Tuileries seemed washed
in yellow wine. Up the long rise of the Champs-Elysées, the Arc de
Triomphe was superbly radiant, its turquoise heart stillettoed by the
glittering lunge of the Luxor Column.
The girl gazed with awestruck eyes. As she thought of the sunrise in
the forest the violence of the change dulled her brain. The city amazed
and appalled her; but, impelled by fear, she came at length to the
heights of Montmartre. There before a gloomy house in the Rue Lepic she
paused, her heart beating thickly.
She knocked at the heavy oak-door, timidly at first, then loudly.
She had a sudden fear that there might be no one there. As she was
wondering what she should do she heard slow, shuffling footsteps, and
a withdrawal of bolts, then the door opened a little. An old woman
regarded her angrily. She was bent almost double, and held her head
sideways. Her face was hard and sour. She snarled:
“What are you making all this row for? Couldn’t you have the patience
to wait till I got down?”
The girl presented her letter. The old woman regarded it suspiciously.
“Who gave you this?”
“The old man who paints in the forest.”
“Ah! Monsieur Frossard. Well, you can’t expect me to read it without my
glasses. Wait there.”
She closed the door, leaving the girl on the step; but soon she came
back, and her face was grimmer than ever.
“Another of ’em. Well, I suppose I must take you in. He’s quite the
philanthropist, Monsieur Frossard. He! He!”
The old woman preceded her down a long corridor, her back bent and her
feet splayed out. They mounted a broad flight of stairs, then a narrow
one.
“There! that’s your room, and lucky you are to have it. I’ll warrant
a pig-stye is more in your line. You are a poor bit of skin and bone
anyway. Leave your bundle on the bed and come with me to the kitchen.”
The girl soon fell into the ways of the household. She rose at five and
prepared the coffee. She scrubbed and rubbed, washed and swept. She
did everything but the cooking and the marketing. The old woman seldom
spoke to her, and forbade her to put a foot out-of-doors.
The house was a private one, with a large studio facing the north, and
a small, weedy garden shut in by high walls. The girl was allowed to go
into the garden, but its damp melancholy oppressed her. Some headless
statues leaned against the mouldering wall. It was very quiet. She
felt as if she were in a prison.
One Sunday morning Monsieur Frossard arrived. For days before they had
been making preparations, dusting statuettes and bric-à-brac, sweeping
in unwonted nooks and corners. The old woman sidled everywhere like a
crab, with her neck twisted awry, her bent back and large splay feet in
felt slippers. She kept Margot at work, constantly impressing on her
the necessity of pleasing the Master. So much did she harp on this that
the girl looked forward to the old man’s return almost with dread.
On his arrival he went to his room and retired into his great
four-poster bed. The old woman attended to him, carrying him specially
prepared dishes, and dusty bottles of wine.
That evening she said to the girl: “Margot, put on a clean apron and
take this plate of peaches up to the Master.”
Tremblingly the girl obeyed. Monsieur Frossard was propped up in bed,
a skull cap on his head, and a cigar in his mouth. Around him was the
debris of his evening meal, the carcase of a lobster, some bones of
frog-legs, and a half finished bottle of champagne. As she approached
she was conscious of a strange odour of decay. The old man looked at
her, licking his little slimy lips while a score of flies buzzed and
settled around him. The pink cotton wool was still in his ears. She
wondered if there was any connection between the cotton wool and the
flies. An odd revulsion seized her, yet she continued to approach with
the fruit.
“_Tiens!_ it’s the little girl I found in the forest. What’s your name?”
“Margot, Sir.”
“Come here, Margot, close to me. Let me offer you a peach.”
The girl, standing with her head bent, refused.
“Ah! you are too timid. We must cure you of that.”
He put out one of his pudgy hands and took hold of a long bright strand
of her hair. The girl raised her startled blue eyes. The hand on her
shining hair made her think of a toad. She shuddered. The old man’s
face changed; it became hard and cruel.
“Go away,” he said harshly. “I will see you to-morrow.”
Next morning Madame Mangepain said to her:
“The Master wants to see you in the studio.”
The girl went reluctantly. The studio had always awed her. It was so
huge, so rich. There were costly rugs on the floor and lovely pictures
on the wall. The paintings all bore the signature of Abel Frossard, and
ranged from nudes to landscapes.
The painter, in his velvet cap and dressing-gown, was sitting before a
fresh canvas. He turned heavily and beckoned her to enter. His manner
was bland, even ingratiating.
“Well, Margot, you are commencing this morning your new career, that of
a model.”
“Yes, sir,” said the girl meekly.
“You’d better say ‘Yes, Master.’”
“Yes, Master.”
“Now as a model, you may be a success or you may be a failure. I
will do my best to make you a success, but it will largely depend
on yourself. There’s many a woman to-day with her limousine and her
appartement in the Champs-Elysées who began life as a model. On the
other hand, if you are a failure there is only the street for you, the
hospital, prison, death ... you understand.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Ah, good! By the way, why were you afraid of me last night?”
The girl did not answer. She was looking at a fly that was crawling on
the pink cotton wool in his ear.
“You mustn’t be afraid. You’ll never make a success as a model if you
are afraid. Now to work.”
He motioned her to a dais, on which stood a chair that seemed all
curves.
“Sit there and loosen your hair.”
The girl obeyed. It fell in a sheen of gold around her. He handed her a
brush.
“Brush it out so that it is like an aura.”
She did not understand, but brushed and brushed, with long, sweeping
strokes. The old man had forgotten he was anything but a painter.
“Fine,” he said enthusiastically. “Now raise your head and look at
the statuette above the book case. There! That’s good. Just hold the
position. I will make a preliminary study to-day.”
The girl sat quite still, and the old man painted intently. She posed
until luncheon, which she ate with Madame Mangepain in the kitchen, and
at two o’clock returned to the studio and resumed the pose. At five
o’clock the old man laid down his brush and rubbed his hands.
“There! I’ve finished. Come and see it.”
She looked at the beautiful bit of brush work. She could not believe
that this ethereal girl-face with the eyes so thrillingly blue and the
nimbus of bright gold hair was herself. The old man observed her awe
with satisfaction.
“You like it, eh? Yes, it’s good. A bit idealized. Well, it’s nothing
to what I will do before I finish. I’ll make Chabas look to his laurels
yet. Ah! your hair! it’s what inspires me. Tadé Stycka has no better
model. I’ll make your hair famous.”
Turning her to admire it the more, he parted it behind; then suddenly
the girl felt his lips pressed to the back of her neck. She started
as if a serpent had stung her and put her hand to the place. Again a
shudder passed over her. For a moment a strange look came into his
eyes, then they went cold again, and he laughed reassuringly.
“Ha! Ha! you mustn’t mind me. It’s purely paternal. It won’t do you any
harm. Now go and get a good supper. I’ll want you to-morrow. Don’t look
at me in such a frightened way. I’m not an ogre. I won’t eat you.”
The next day she posed for him again, but this time he did not attempt
to kiss her. He was very authoritative.
“Pull up your sleeves,” he said sharply.
She obeyed. He looked derisively at her skinny arms.
“Now, open your dress and show me your shoulders. Coil up your hair on
your head first.”
Again she obeyed. When he was like this she was not afraid of him. It
was as if there were two men in him, the artist and the satyr. He was
all artist as he continued:
“Humph! You’ll never do. You’re nothing but bones and green shadows.”
He threw down his palette and walked heavily about the room.
“Too bad you’re so thin. I feel I could do big things with you. But
I must, I must! We’ll fatten you up if it takes a year. Listen, I’m
going away to-morrow to Morocco. I’ll be gone a month. In that time I
want you to get fat. Do nothing, eat lots, read, amuse yourself. Turn
your angles into curves. You hear?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Now, don’t forget. If you’re not round and smooth by the time I come
back, I will have no more use for you. Then it’s the street. You know
what that means. Go!”
She went, and later on she heard him instructing the housekeeper.
“I’m going to-morrow, Madame Mangepain, to Morocco, and I want that
girl to be plumped up. Fatten her as you would a chicken. She’s going
to be my favourite model. I can do great things with her. Great things!
Let her do no work. Wait on her. Feed her dainty dishes. Buy her fine
clothes, silks and that sort of thing. Books too. Don’t let her move
about too much. Remember, it’s for my sake not hers. I rely on you,
Madame Mangepain. And I say, address her as mademoiselle.”
He left next morning and Margot felt a huge sense of relief. It was as
if something corrupt had gone out of the house. She could not get over
this feeling of _pourriture_ even when she was posing for him in the
big studio. Perhaps his breath was so fetid, that it pervaded every
room he entered.
When he had gone, her life changed completely. Madame Mangepain said to
her at supper:
“Don’t get up to-morrow morning. I’ll bring you your breakfast in bed.”
“Oh, no, madame.”
“I tell you I will. It’s the Master’s orders. I’ve been told to serve
you and I will ... mademoiselle.”
“Oh, please don’t call me mademoiselle.”
“It’s the Master’s orders.”
The next morning the girl remained in bed until the old woman sidled in
with a tray of _café au lait_, _croissants_ and fine butter.
“Now stay in bed till I come back.”
The girl heard her go out, locking the door. She returned an hour later
carrying a large parcel containing a kimono of mauve silk, fine lace
underwear, silk stockings, and velvet shoes.
“There! Put these on. It’s the Master’s orders. And I’ll go and prepare
your bath.”
It must be said that Madame Mangepain entered on her undertaking with
zeal if not with enthusiasm. She taught the girl the elegancies of the
toilette, the care of her skin, how to point and polish her nails and
to bring to perfection her teeth and her hair. She had quite a battery
of bottles and brushes, of oils and paints and perfumes. Margot spent
every morning in the white-tiled bathroom, meticulously following the
régime that the old woman demanded of her.
For luncheon, each day she was given dainty dishes such as she had
never dreamed of; then, wrapt in the mauve kimono and stretched out on
the great divan in the studio amid a pile of cushions, she would read
one of the luridly covered novels the old woman bought for her. Among
them were _Chéri-Bebé_, _Dracula_ and _Les deux Gosses_. These books
absorbed her, made her forget her strange surroundings, which otherwise
filled her with a vague fear. Sometimes she even thought of escape,
when she sat on fine afternoons in the wild unweeded garden amid the
headless statues. By climbing upon one of them she could have gained
the top of the wall and freedom. But after that ... what? The streets!
She had a horror of the outer world which the old woman never lost an
opportunity of developing. According to Madame Mangepain Paris was a
merciless ogre, demanding its daily tribute of a thousand girls such as
she, crushing and devouring them.
One day as she peered through a window into the street, she saw a girl
about her age in a violet blouse with black, oily hair banged on her
forehead, and at her side, a pale stunted youth with a reckless mouth
and eyes cold as those of a snake. They seemed to be having words.
Suddenly the youth struck the girl, knocking her down; then snatched
a cheap trinket from her throat, and with a final vicious kick, went
off laughing cynically. This typical scene of apache life made a deep
impression on her.
“It’s all like that,” she thought,--“the life out there. It’s what will
happen to me.”
“Ah, I’ll make a beauty of you yet,” said Madame Mangepain at the end
of the second week. “Monsieur Frossard won’t know you when he comes
back.”
And indeed the girl was amazed at the change in herself. Her skin had
become smooth and velvety, her limbs round and firm. Her face, too,
had changed. It had retained its quality of childishness, but had lost
its cowed and shrinking look. Hints of sweetness and charm revealed
themselves. If only she could get away, find decent work, escape from
the sinister old man into whose clutches she had fallen. Every day the
dread of his return grew upon her.
Then one night Monsieur Frossard came back.
When she brought Margot her coffee next morning Madame Mangepain said
to her:
“Get up and make yourself as beautiful as you can. Monsieur Frossard
wants to see you in the studio. Be sure you are a credit to me.”
The old woman went so far as to superintend her toilette, putting a
faint flush of rouge high on her cheeks, and brushing her hair like
spun gold down over the mauve kimono. But nothing could mask the
wretchedness in the depths of the girl’s eyes.
As she stood in the doorway of the studio Monsieur Frossard turned
ponderously.
“_Entrez, voyons._ Don’t stand there like a Christian martyr going to
the stake. Come here.”
With eyes cast down she obeyed. He pulled up the sleeve of her kimono
and looked at her arm with a critical, dispassionate gaze.
“_Ah, bon._ Now do up your hair in the glass and bare your shoulders.
I’m going to do a bust of you to-day.”
Again she obeyed, his eyes following her eagerly.
“Sit on the model’s chair. Bare your breast more. What are you afraid
of, you little fool? Remember, I’m an artist. I’ve been itching to
paint you, itching. I’ve thought of you all the time I’ve been away. I
have a dozen ideas. I’m going to make you famous.”
A passion almost cruel in its intensity seemed to seize him.
Imperiously he made her hold the pose and painted with swift sure
strokes. He stopped reluctantly for lunch and bade her hurry and again
take the pose. He worked until the light failed, then laid aside his
brush with a regretful sigh.
“_Voila!_ Come and look at this.”
Again the girl marvelled at what she saw. These curves of milky
shoulders, that slim, silky beauty of neck and throat, the shell-like
ear, the faintly hollow cheek with its suggestion of pathetic
sweetness, and above all the superb mass of hair,--here glinting with
the brightness of stubble in September sunshine, there richly gold as
the ripened grain. Could this really be she? Frossard might be a devil,
but he painted like an angel.
“I’m tired now,” he said, “I want to rest until dinner. You’ll take
dinner with me in the studio. We’ll celebrate.”
She heard him with a heaviness of heart. All his artistic fire had left
him and he seemed to be very old. More than ever she was conscious of
his odour, and the flies that followed him everywhere. The joy the
sight of her picture had given her was extinguished. She went away
quickly.
Madame Mangepain served them a dinner that excelled anything the girl
had ever conceived. Margot ate scarcely at all. Frossard, however, made
up for her lack of appetite. He filled himself with delicious food,
washed down with draughts of Beaunè from a dusty bottle. He lingered
long over the dessert, talking to her of his travels in Morocco, and
looking for all the world, like a bloated, heavy-eyed pasha.
“Have one of these cigarettes,” he said. “I get them specially in
Cairo.”
The girl refused.
“Then, you must have a glass of this champagne. It’s quite harmless.
You can dip one of those biscuits in it.”
He bade her finish the champagne. It was the first she had ever tasted
and it made her dizzy. The old man seemed to have grown very vivacious.
He was taking glass after glass, and talking more and more excitedly.
Suddenly he reached out and took hold of her.
Then fear seized her. She struggled to escape, but he held her tight.
All at once she felt his shiny little lips on her neck, cold as
the mouth of the fish called a sucker. She had just been reading
“_Dracula_,” a story about vampires, and the idea flashed into her mind
that this old man was going to bite her neck and suck her blood. She
screamed.
He was panting, and a wild light was in his eyes. “It’s no use to
squeal. Madame Mangepain has gone out. You are all alone in the house
with me.”
Terror gave her strength. With a wrench and a twist she broke away,
leaving the mauve kimono in his hands. She ran to the door of the
studio; but before she reached it he was after her. He had her again
in his arms. Great strength seemed suddenly to come to him. His eyes
glared, his breath came with a hiss.
“Ah! you won’t escape. I’ll have you. Ach! you struggle, you little
vixen! But your resistance only maddens me. It’s no use, you’re mine,
mine.”
Fighting with all the force that was in her, she was borne backward,
and thrown heavily on the divan. She saw his face bending over her,
his eyes alight, the saliva drooling from his mouth. Once more she
struggled but he held her with a grip of steel. She felt herself grow
faint. Again and again she shrieked. Oh God! Would no one come to her
aid?
She felt her strength leaving her. All she could see were his eyes,
flaming with cruel lust. How she hated those eyes. She would destroy
them, put out their light, if it cost the last effort of her life.
Wrenching her arms free she caught his head at the temples, and with a
fierce thrust pushed her small, pointed thumbs into the gloating eyes.
With an oath the man pulled himself free and struck her down. Then he
threw himself on the couch, screaming, screaming.
She ran to the front door but it was locked. She rushed up to her room
and bolted herself in. She lay on her bed sobbing hysterically. She
heard the sound of hurried feet, much coming and going. In the silence
that followed Madame Mangepain knocked at her door.
“Open, you little viper.”
The face of Madame Mangepain was cold and deadly in its fury. “You’ve
done it now. You’ve finished the Master. The doctor says he’ll never
see again. He’ll be blind, do you hear; blind. A great artist, a genius
worth a dozen little trollops like you. Now go, and an old woman’s
curse go with you!”
With that Madame Mangepain took her by the shoulders and threw her into
the street. She heard the door bang behind her. She was alone in Paris.
CHAPTER THREE
THE BISTRO ON THE RUE DE BELVILLE
The crash of the closing door struck a note of terror in the girl’s
heart. It was long after midnight, and she was at the mercy of this
sinister city. She tripped over a box of ash-pan refuse that stood on
the edge of the pavement; from it ran two large rats. Afraid to be
longer in the unlighted street she made her way down to the Boulevard
de Clichy.
On the Butte another hectic night had ended. In the cafés the waiters
were stacking the tables; the theatres were dark and silent, the girls
of the pavement loitering homeward with their men. Only from the
rakehell restaurants of the Place Pigalle did there issue sounds of
revelry. It was Montmartre of the profligate, of the apache. Under the
greenish glare of the electric light the girl cowered, a tiny black
shadow in a world of sinister shadows. Then sinking down on one of the
benches she gave herself up to despair.
Now and again a man addressed her; but she kept her face hidden in her
arched arms and did not answer. She trembled at every footstep; the
hours seemed endless; she longed for the dawn.
Chilled through she rose and walked on. Two gendarmes looked curiously
at her. She was afraid they would arrest her, and quickened her steps.
She kept moving until she was exhausted, then she sank down on another
bench.
Stale and jaded, like a drab after a night of excess the dawn came in.
The sallow light seemed to shudder up the sky. Already the city gave
signs of awakening to another day. The milk-merchants opened their
doors; boys on bicycles delivered bundles of newspapers; the bakers
took down their shutters. From where she sat, Margot watched a number
of work-girls buy fresh rolls, then go to a little bar across the way,
and eat their _déjeuner_ of bread and coffee. Soon bells sounded from
neighbouring factories, and the girls hurried away.
From the little bar came a woman. At first Margot thought she was a
dwarf, but a second glance showed her to be a hunchback. She was very
clean and tidy. Her face had that look of patient suffering so often
seen on the faces of hunchbacks. It was a very kind, sweet face, but
with a certain shrewdness. She nodded to Margot in a friendly way.
“Well, dearie, things going well?”
The girl looked at her with sad eyes.
“Ah! I see,--in the soup. Well, it arrives to all the world. One day
up, another down. Come and give me a hand with my shutters. _Sapristi!_
what it is not to have a man in the business.”
Margot helped the woman to take down the shutters. Over the shop was
painted the sign:
+-----------------------+
| |
| A LA MÈRE TRANQUILLE, |
| |
+-----------------------+
and this sign was repeated on the window and the door. Inside there
was a circular bar lined with zinc; and around it half a dozen
marble-topped tables.
“Now, come in, dearie,” said the little hunchback. “I’m just going to
sit down to breakfast, and you are going to join me.”
With that she took the girl by the arm and led her behind the bar. They
had fresh rolls and butter, and hot fragrant coffee. The girl devoured
the food as if famished and the woman watched her curiously.
“You certainly are hungry, my child,” she observed. “It’s good to see
you eat. You look tired too, as if you had been out all night. From the
country, aren’t you?”
Encouraged by the little woman’s sympathy the girl told her story. When
she had finished the Mère Tranquille looked at her thoughtfully.
“Just so,” she said, “a poor, pretty girl alone in Paris is about as
safe as a young lamb lost among wolves. You’ll get devoured, my dear,
as sure as sure. Look here, I can see you’re an honest girl. I tell
you what. I need some one to help me here. Come and stay with me for
a while,--at least till you find something better. You will live with
me and help me in the bar. You shall be at no expense and you can make
four or five francs a day in tips. Will you come?”
“Oh, madame, you don’t know how gladly! Let me begin work now.”
“No, you’re too tired. You want a good long rest. Come with me.”
In the little room behind the bar, the Mère Tranquille arranged a
folding bed, and soon the girl was sleeping soundly.
Thus there began for Margot a life that was strangely interesting.
Except at rush hours the little place was very quiet, and the work not
hard. She quickly got over her first timidity with the customers and
learned to turn a deaf ear to their rather crude pleasantries. There
was, too, a certain reserve in her manner that made her more respected
than popular. The little hunchback gave out that Margot was her niece
from the country, and her stiffness was not resented. Most of the
customers were working people, but there was also a certain backwash
of the underworld. Above the bar was one of those hotels that have no
name. By night its glowing transparency winked and signalled to the
amorous adventurer; by day it was haunted by yawning girls in greasy
dressing gowns, and by dark cynical men. Towards evening these girls
“put on their beauty,” and unbelievably transformed, sallied forth;
while the men played cards in cafés and awaited their return.
It was one of these men who took a great fancy to Margot and tried to
dominate her. He was familiarly known as Popol, and openly boasted that
he had already three girls earning money for him. He, indeed, aspired
to be a sort of leader among his fellows, a Napoleon of the bullies.
His ambition was fostered by the fact that he was born in the slums of
Agaccio, and bore a certain physical resemblance to the Great Corsican.
He was a stout, stocky fellow, with a large head, clean-shaven, regular
features and a certain cold impressiveness of manner. There, however,
the resemblance ended; for Popol had close-set eyes as cold and deadly
as those of a rattlesnake, a mouth that twisted cynically, and a nose
that had been broken in a fight.
Popol never quarrelled openly with any one; he had never been known to
draw a knife, yet other men were afraid of him, and those who offended
him met with unexpected misfortunes. It was even said he was a spy of
the police and did detective work of the dirtier kind. He had brains,
a cunning and subtlety that made him a power amid his fellows.
With his cynical conception of all women he thought Margot would be
flattered by his favours. One day in the street he barred her way,
accosting her with some foul banter. She tried to push past him, and
escape. He laughed sneeringly, then, gripping her arms, tried to kiss
her. Filled with a loathing she could not control, she struck him full
in the face. Popol swore vilely and released her.
It was with ashen cheeks and wildly beating heart that she regained
the little bar. The Mère Tranquille looked troubled when she heard the
story, but pretended to laugh it off.
“Don’t be alarmed, _chérie_; I can defend you against a dozen of these
swine. Just treat them like the dirt they are. Ah! if only I could sell
out and retire to the country! Since my husband died, the business is
not what it used to be. I got an offer last week of fifteen thousand
francs for the good will, but I am holding out for twenty. That’s what
we gave.... It’s curious how we got the money....”
The Mère Tranquille paused reminiscently, then continued:
“It was at Monte Carlo, where we went for our honeymoon. Josef would
play at the Casino, and on the second day he came to me: ‘I’ve lost
everything but that,’ he said, pressing a hundred franc bill into my
hand.
“‘A nice state of affairs,’ I cried indignantly. ‘It’s just enough to
take us back to Paris third class.’
“‘It’s not to take us back to Paris,’ he told me. ‘It’s make or break.
I want you to play with it. Perhaps, you’ll change the luck.’
“I knew what he meant and I never have forgiven him for it. You know,
my dear, that any one deformed as I am, is said to always win at games
of chance. Indeed, when we had stood around the tables I had noticed
people brush up against me and touch my back in passing. Well, I was so
angry with Josef I snatched the money from him.
“‘I’ll show you,’ I thought. ‘This money will go after the other. If I
don’t lose it, it won’t be my fault.’
“With that I threw it on the first vacant place on the table nearest my
hand. It happened to be rouge. I wanted to see that money swept away.
There were tears in my eyes, tears of rage. What do you think! Rouge
came. I left everything on the table. Again rouge came. Josef wanted to
take up half the winnings:
“‘No,’ I said vindictively; ‘let it all go.’
“Again rouge came. There were now eight hundred, francs on the table.
“‘Take it up,’ whispered Josef frantically; ‘It’s more than I lost.’
But I answered: ‘No, it’s my money. It stays there.’ For the thought of
his exploiting my deformity still rankled. Well, again I won. This time
Josef was crazy. He tried to take up the money himself, but I appealed
to the croupiers. The _chef de table_ said: ‘The money is madame’s. I
saw her put it down. Monsieur has no right to touch it.’
“Josef was foaming. He said, ‘But madame is my wife. What’s hers is
mine.’ The _chef_ shrugged his shoulders; ‘Maybe,’ he said, ‘that is
the law in France, but here you are in the Casino of Monte Carlo, and
that money is madame’s.’
“By this time the wheel had spun again. Again rouge. I had three
thousand two hundred francs on the table. The crowd began to gather
and every one to take sides, some with my husband, some with me.
Meantime the stake remained. Once more the ball spun round. Rouge!
“I had now six thousand four hundred francs on the table, four hundred
more than the maximum; and I refused to touch it. I threw the four
hundred on the next division of the table which happened to be impair.
Rouge--impair came up. I simply could not lose, however hard I tried.
People were coming from other tables to watch us. Josef had gone white
as a sheet and was speechless. He seemed paralyzed. I had now twelve
thousand eight hundred. I could see the croupiers were pleased that I
was winning, for that sort of thing is a great advertisement for the
Casino. I shifted my eight hundred to the division higher up,--manque,
I think, and put the six bills of a thousand on impair. I had now six
thousand on rouge; six thousand on impair and eight hundred on manque.
Once more the ball spun. This time I myself was quite excited. I felt
my heart beat. The place began to swim. Then like a person in a dream,
I heard the croupier say:
“‘Twenty-seven, rouge, impair and passe.’
“The spell was broken; I had lost the eight hundred I had put on manque
but I had won the other two. Twenty-four thousand francs were mine in
the space of ten minutes. I simply fainted....”
“Did you like Monte Carlo?” asked Margot.
“I did and didn’t. It’s a dangerous place, a wicked place. But, so
beautiful! After that experience we came away. Josef was sick of it and
swore he would never gamble again. We bought this café and here I have
been for fifteen years.”
“It seems to me I should like to go there,” said the girl dreamily.
“Don’t ever go. It’s no place for poor people. And yet I have heard
there are lots of women who make a living there.”
The subject dropped, but Margot was strangely interested and again
and again referred to it. Monte Carlo seemed to her like some strange
exquisite jewel glittering in a setting of sky, sea and mountain. It
held her imagination. It became part of her dreams.