A few months after this I returned to Europe, and some three years
elapsed. I had been living in Paris, and, toward the end of October, I
went from that city to Havre, to meet my sister and her husband, who
had written me that they were about to arrive there. On reaching Havre
I found that the steamer was already in; I was nearly two hours late.
I repaired directly to the hotel, where my relatives were already
established. My sister had gone to bed, exhausted and disabled by her
voyage; she was a sadly incompetent sailor, and her sufferings on this
occasion had been extreme. She wished, for the moment, for undisturbed
rest, and was unable to see me more than five minutes; so it was agreed
that we should remain at Havre until the next day. My brother-in-law,
who was anxious about his wife, was unwilling to leave her room; but
she insisted upon his going out with me to take a walk and recover his
landlegs. The early autumn day was warm and charming, and our stroll
through the bright-colored, busy streets of the old French seaport was
sufficiently entertaining. We walked along the sunny, noisy quays, and
then turned into a wide, pleasant street, which lay half in sun and
half in shade--a French provincial street, that looked like an old
water-color drawing: tall, gray, steep-roofed, red-gabled, many-storied
houses; green shutters on windows and old scroll-work above them;
flower-pots in balconies, and white-capped women in doorways. We walked
in the shade; all this stretched away on the sunny side of the street
and made a picture. We looked at it as we passed along; then, suddenly,
my brother-in-law stopped, pressing my arm and staring. I followed his
gaze and saw that we had paused just before coming to a _café_, where,
under an awning, several tables and chairs were disposed upon the
pavement The windows were open behind; half a dozen plants in tubs were
ranged beside the door; the pavement was besprinkled with clean bran.
It was a nice little, quiet, old-fashioned _café_; inside, in the
comparative dusk, I saw a stout, handsome woman, with pink ribbons in
her cap, perched up with a mirror behind her back, smiling at some one
who was out of sight. All this, however, I perceived afterwards; what I
first observed was a lady sitting alone, outside, at one of the little
marble-topped tables. My brother-in-law had stopped to look at her.
There was something on the little table, but she was leaning back
quietly, with her hands folded, looking down the street, away from us.
I saw her only in something less than profile; nevertheless, I instantly
felt that I had seen her before.
“The little lady of the steamer!” exclaimed my brother-in-law.
“Was she on your steamer?” I asked.
“From morning till night She was never sick. She used to sit perpetually
at the side of the vessel with her hands crossed that way, looking at
the eastward horizon.”
“Are you going to speak to her?”
“I don’t know her. I never made acquaintance with her. I was too seedy.
But I used to watch her and--I don’t know why--to be interested in her.
She’s a dear little Yankee woman. I have an idea she is a schoolmistress
taking a holiday, for which her scholars have made up a purse.”
She turned her face a little more into profile, looking at the steep
gray house-fronts opposite to her. Then I said, “I shall speak to her
myself.”
“I would n’t; she is very shy,” said my brother-in-law.
“My dear fellow, I know her. I once showed her photographs at a
tea-party.”
And I went up to her. She turned and looked at me, and I saw she was in
fact Miss Caroline Spencer. But she was not so quick to recognize me;
she looked startled. I pushed a chair to the table and sat down.
“Well,” I said, “I hope you are not disappointed!”
She stared, blushing a little; then she gave a small jump which betrayed
recognition.
“It was you who showed me the photographs, at Grimwinter!”
“Yes, it was I. This happens very charmingly, for I feel as if it were
for me to give you a formal reception here, an official welcome. I
talked to you so much about Europe.”
“You didn’t say too much. I am so happy!” she softly exclaimed.
Very happy she looked. There was no sign of her being older; she was as
gravely, decently, demurely pretty as before. If she had seemed before a
thin-stemmed, mild-hued flower of Puritanism, it may be imagined whether
in her present situation this delicate bloom was less apparent. Beside
her an old gentleman was drinking absinthe; behind her the _dame de
comptoir_ in the pink ribbons was calling “Alcibiade! Alcibiade!” to the
long-aproned waiter. I explained to Miss Spencer that my companion
had lately been her shipmate, and my brother-in-law came up and was
introduced to her. But she looked at him as if she had never seen him
before, and I remembered that he had told me that her eyes were always
fixed upon the eastward horizon. She had evidently not noticed him, and,
still timidly smiling, she made no attempt whatever to pretend that she
had. I stayed with her at the _café_ door, and he went back to the hotel
and to his wife. I said to Miss Spencer that this meeting of ours in
the first hour of her landing was really very strange, but that I was
delighted to be there and receive her first impressions.
“Oh, I can’t tell you,” she said; “I feel as if I were in a dream. I
have been sitting here for an hour, and I don’t want to move. Everything
is so picturesque. I don’t know whether the coffee has intoxicated me;
it’s so delicious.”
“Really,” said I, “if you are so pleased with this poor prosaic Havre,
you will have no admiration left for better things. Don’t spend your
admiration all the first day; remember it’s your intellectual letter of
credit. Remember all the beautiful places and things that are waiting
for you; remember that lovely Italy!”
“I’m not afraid of running short,” she said gayly, still looking at the
opposite houses. “I could sit here all day, saying to myself that here I
am at last. It’s so dark and old and different.”
“By the way,” I inquired, “how come you to be sitting here? Have you not
gone to one of the inns?” For I was half amused, half alarmed, at the
good conscience with which this delicately pretty woman had stationed
herself in conspicuous isolation on the edge of the _trottoir_.
“My cousin brought me here,” she answered. “You know I told you I had a
cousin in Europe. He met me at the steamer this morning.”
“It was hardly worth his while to meet you if he was to desert you so
soon.”
“Oh, he has only left me for half an hour,” said Miss Spencer. “He has
gone to get my money.”
“Where is your money?”
She gave a little laugh. “It makes me feel very fine to tell you! It is
in some circular notes.”
“And where are your circular notes?”
“In my cousin’s pocket.”
This statement was very serenely uttered, but--I can hardly say why--it
gave me a sensible chill At the moment I should have been utterly
unable to give the reason of this sensation, for I knew nothing of Miss
Spencer’s cousin. Since he was her cousin, the presumption was in his
favor. But I felt suddenly uncomfortable at the thought that, half an
hour after her landing, her scanty funds should have passed into his
hands.
“Is he to travel with you?” I asked.
“Only as far as Paris. He is an art-student, in Paris. I wrote to him
that I was coming, but I never expected him to come off to the ship. I
supposed he would only just meet me at the train in Paris. It is very
kind of him. But he _is_ very kind, and very bright.”
I instantly became conscious of an extreme curiosity to see this bright
cousin who was an art-student.
“He is gone to the banker’s?” I asked.
“Yes, to the banker’s. He took me to a hotel, such a queer, quaint,
delicious little place, with a court in the middle, and a gallery all
round, and a lovely landlady, in such a beautifully fluted cap, and
such a perfectly fitting dress! After a while we came out to walk to the
banker’s, for I haven’t got any French money. But I was very dizzy from
the motion of the vessel, and I thought I had better sit down. He found
this place for me here, and he went off to the banker’s himself. I am to
wait here till he comes back.”
It may seem very fantastic, but it passed through my mind that he would
never come back. I settled myself in my chair beside Miss Spencer and
determined to await the event. She was extremely observant; there was
something touching in it. She noticed everything that the movement of
the street brought before us,--peculiarities of costume, the shapes of
vehicles, the big Norman horses, the fat priests, the shaven poodles.
We talked of these things, and there was something charming in her
freshness of perception and the way her book-nourished fancy recognized
and welcomed everything.
“And when your cousin comes back, what are you going to do?” I asked.
She hesitated a moment. “We don’t quite know.”
“When do you go to Paris? If you go by the four o’clock train, I may
have the pleasure of making the journey with you.”
“I don’t think we shall do that. My cousin thinks I had better stay here
a few days.”
“Oh!” said I; and for five minutes said nothing more. I was wondering
what her cousin was, in vulgar parlance, “up to.” I looked up and
down the street, but saw nothing that looked like a bright American
art-student. At last I took the liberty of observing that Havre was
hardly a place to choose as one of the æsthetic stations of a European
tour. It was a place of convenience, nothing more; a place of transit,
through which transit should be rapid. I recommended her to go to Paris
by the afternoon train, and meanwhile to amuse herself by driving to the
ancient fortress at the mouth of the harbor,--that picturesque circular
structure which bore the name of Francis the First, and looked like a
small castle of St. Angelo. (It has lately been demolished.)
She listened with much interest; then for a moment she looked grave.
“My cousin told me that when he returned he should have something
particular to say to me, and that we could do nothing or decide nothing
until I should have heard it. But I will make him tell me quickly, and
then we will go to the ancient fortress. There is no hurry to get to
Paris; there is plenty of time.”
She smiled with her softly severe little lips as she spoke those last
words. But I, looking at her with a purpose, saw just a tiny gleam of
apprehension in her eye.
“Don’t tell me,” I said, “that this wretched man is going to give you
bad news!”
“I suspect it is a little bad, but I don’t believe it is very bad. At
any rate, I must listen to it.”
I looked at her again an instant. “You didn’t come to Europe to
listen,” I said. “You came to see!” But now I was sure her cousin
would come back; since he had something disagreeable to say to her, he
certainly would turn up. We sat a while longer, and I asked her about
her plans of travel She had them on her fingers’ ends, and she told over
the names with a kind of solemn distinctness: from Paris to Dijon and
to Avignon, from Avignon to Marseilles and the Cornice road; thence to
Genoa, to Spezia, to Pisa, to Florence, to Home. It apparently had
never occurred to her that there could be the least incommodity in her
travelling alone; and since she was unprovided with a companion I of
course scrupulously abstained from disturbing her sense of security.
At last her cousin came back. I saw him turn towards us out of a side
street, and from the moment my eyes rested upon him I felt that this was
the bright American art-student. He wore a slouch hat and a rusty black
velvet jacket, such as I had often encountered in the Rue Bonaparte. His
shirt-collar revealed the elongation of a throat which, at a distance,
was not strikingly statuesque. He was tall and lean; he had red hair and
freckles. So much I had time to observe while he approached the _café_,
staring at me with natural surprise from under his umbrageous coiffure.
When he came up to us I immediately introduced myself to him as an old
acquaintance of Miss Spencer. He looked at me hard with a pair of little
red eyes, then he made me a solemn bow in the French fashion, with his
sombrero.
“You were not on the ship?” he said.
“No, I was not on the ship. I have been in Europe these three years.”
He bowed once more, solemnly, and motioned me to be seated again. I sat
down, but it was only for the purpose of observing him an instant; I saw
it was time I should return to my sister. Miss Spencer’s cousin was a
queer fellow. Nature had not shaped him for a Raphaelesque or Byronic
attire, and his velvet doublet and naked neck were not in harmony with
his facial attributes. His hair was cropped close to his head; his ears
were large and ill-adjusted to the same. He had a lackadaisical carriage
and a sentimental droop which were peculiarly at variance with his keen,
strange-colored eyes. Perhaps I was prejudiced, but I thought his eyes
treacherous. He said nothing for some time; he leaned his hands on his
cane and looked up and down the street Then at last, slowly lifting
his cane and pointing with it, “That’s a very nice bit,” he remarked,
softly. He had his head on one side, and his little eyes were half
closed. I followed the direction of his stick; the object it indicated
was a red cloth hung out of an old window. “Nice bit of color,” he
continued; and without moving his head he transferred his half-closed
gaze to me. “Composes well,” he pursued. “Make a nice thing.” He spoke
in a hard vulgar voice.
“I see you have a great deal of eye,” I replied. “Your cousin tells
me you are studying art.” He looked at me in the same way without
answering, and I went on with deliberate urbanity, “I suppose you are at
the studio of one of those great men.”
Still he looked at me, and then he said softly, “Gérôme.”
“Do you like it?” I asked.
“Do you understand French?” he said.
“Some kinds,” I answered.
He kept his little eyes on me; then he said, “J’adore la peinture!”
“Oh, I understand that kind!” I rejoined. Miss Spencer laid her hand
upon her cousin’s arm with a little pleased and fluttered movement;
it was delightful to be among people who were on such easy terms with
foreign tongues. I got up to take leave, and asked Miss Spencer where,
in Paris, I might have the honor of waiting upon her. To what hotel
would she go?
She turned to her cousin inquiringly, and he honored me again with his
little languid leer. “Do you know the Hôtel des Princes?”
“I know where it is.”
“I shall take her there.”
“I congratulate you,” I said to Caroline Spencer. “I believe it is the
best inn in the world; and in case I should still have a moment to call
upon you here, where are you lodged?”
“Oh, it’s such a pretty name,” said Miss Spencer gleefully. “À la Belle
Normande.”
As I left them her cousin gave me a great flourish with his picturesque
hat.