"You will come in?" said Leonora when they reached the gate.
"Thanks; I should like to very much," answered Batiscombe, and he
followed her through the gate into the garden. They passed into the
house, and Leonora received from the servant a telegram which had come
when she was out. It was the one Marcantonio had dispatched when he had
decided to stay a few days in Rome and to bring his sister to Sorrento.
Leonora opened it quickly and glanced over the message. It was very
evident from her expression that she was annoyed and somewhat surprised.
Batiscombe looked away.
"It is too bad!" she exclaimed; her companion examined the handle of his
stick, as though there were something wrong with it. He was not curious,
and he had very good manners. Leonora folded the dispatch and put it
away.
"Let us go out again," she said, "it is so close indoors."
Batiscombe followed her in silence, obediently. They sat down among the
orange-trees on an old stone bench. The air was still and very warm, and
the lizards were taking their last peep at the sun wherever they could,
climbing up the trunks of the trees and the wall of the house to catch a
glimpse of him before he set.
"My husband telegraphs that he will be away some time," said Leonora
after a minute. "He has business that keeps him, and his sister is in
Rome."
"You must be very lonely here," remarked Batiscombe in answer.
"Do you know Madame de Charleroi?" asked Leonora, taking no notice of
the observation.
"Yes," said Batiscombe, "I know her. Somebody told me she was in Pegli."
"So she was. But she had to come to Rome on business, and now my husband
is going to bring her here."
"Indeed?" exclaimed Batiscombe. "To pass the summer?"
"Oh no; only for a week, I suppose. Do you know? I am rather glad; I
hardly know her at all, and she seems so hard to know."
"Hard to know?" repeated Julius. "Perhaps she is. It is always hard to
know very charming women."
"Is it?" asked Leonora, smiling at the frankness of the remark; it
seemed to her that he had found it easy enough to swear friendship with
her half an hour ago. "Is it? Is she such a very charming woman?"
"Yes, indeed," he answered.
"Yes to which question?"
"Both," said Julius. "Madame de Charleroi is charming, and it is very
hard to know women of her sort well. Think how long it is since I first
met you, Marchesa, and we are just beginning to know each other."
"Do you think we are?" asked Leonora. She was full of questions.
"I think so--yes. At least, I hope so," he said with a pleasant smile.
"If you were writing a book about us, Mr. Batiscombe, would you say that
we were beginning to know each other? no one would believe that we
stopped in the road and shook hands and swore to be friends. It would be
very amusing, would it not? I do not know why we did it; I wish you
would explain." She laughed a little, and stuck the point of her parasol
into the earth. Batiscombe laughed too.
"When people have known each other in society for a long time," he said,
"and then begin to be friends, there is always some ice to break, and it
always seems odd for a little while after it is broken."
"I suppose that is the reason that such things always seem improbable in
books, until you know about them yourself."
"Amusing books, and interesting ones, are made up of improbabilities,"
answered Julius. "And the people who write them are even more
improbable. It is always improbable that a man who has lived a great
deal should have the talent, or the patience if you like, to make
stories out of his own experience,--or that a man who has not seen a
great deal of the world should be able to evolve a good novel out of his
inner consciousness. The probabilities for most men are that they will
eat and drink and wear out their clothes and be buried. All those things
are a great bore to do, a greater bore to describe, and an intolerable
bore to read about. The most amusing books are either true stories of a
very exceptional kind, or else they are rank, glaring, stupendous
improbabilities, invented to illustrate a great theory, or a great play
of passions,--like Bulwer's 'Coming Race,' or Goethe's 'Faust.' I am
sure I am boring you dreadfully."
"Oh no!" cried Leonora, who was interested and taken out of herself by
his talk. "But I think I prefer the 'exceptional true stories,' as you
call them, like Shakespeare,--the historical part, I mean."
"The worst of it is," said Batiscombe, "that the true stories are
generally the ones that no one believes. Critics always say that such
things are a tissue of utter impossibilities."
"Oh, the critics," exclaimed Leonora; "they must be the most horrid
people. I wonder you authors let them live!"
"Thanks," said Batiscombe, laughing, "I was a critic myself before I was
an author, and I do not think I was a very horrid person."
"That is different," said Leonora. "Of course a man may do ever so many
things before he finds his real vocation."
"Authors owe a great deal to critics," continued Julius. "More men have
come to grief at their hands by over-praise than by too much
discouragement. A very little praise is often enough to ruin a man, and
a man who has much talent will always survive a great deal of abuse and
disappointment. If any one asked my advice about adopting literature as
a career, I would certainly tell him to have nothing to do with it; I
should be quite sure that if he were born to it nothing would keep him
from it for long."
"That is the way with other things," said Leonora, looking rather
wistfully away at the setting sun, just below the green leaves of the
orange grove. "It is the way with everything, good and bad. Some people
are born to be saints, and some people are quite sure to turn out the
most dreadful sinners, whatever they do."
"What a depressing theory!" exclaimed Batiscombe, who had much more
cause to think so than Leonora.
"Depressing is no name for it," she answered. "One makes such mistakes
in life, and then there is no way out of it but to make others."
"And the worst of it is, that one knows one is making them, and cannot
help it."
"Yes," said she, "one always knows,--if one only knew." Then she laughed
suddenly. "What a ridiculous speech!"
"No," said Batiscombe, "I understand exactly what you mean. Just when
one is doing the wrong thing, there is always a little instinct against
it. But it is often so very little, that one does not quite know it from
ever so many other instincts. And then, before one is quite sure that
one knows what is right,--before one's mind has time to think it over
logically,--one has done the wrong thing. At least, it seems afterwards
as if that were what happened; but I suppose it is because we are weak."
Leonora looked at Julius, who seemed deep in his thoughts. He had
exactly put her idea into words, but she could not tell whether he
believed what he said, or was merely amusing himself with his faculty
for explanation. He interested her extremely. It was just this kind of
introspection that most delighted her,--this cutting up and skinning of
conscience and soul. Nevertheless she did not think that Batiscombe was
the man to analyse his own actions. It was more likely, she thought,
that he was very clever, and could talk to please his listener. But he
interested her greatly, and she was curious to know how he had got his
knowledge of human nature.
"You must have had a wonderful life," she said, presently, saying aloud
what she was thinking, rather than hoping to draw him on to talk about
himself.
"Oh no--very commonplace, I assure you," said he, with a laugh that
sounded natural enough. "Only, you see, I have had to make capital of
what I know. But it spoils one's own enjoyment to analyse anything, and
I shall have to give it up, or resign myself to a miserable existence."
"I wonder whether you are right," said Leonora, reflectively.
"Of course I am," he answered gayly. "The man who carves the pheasant
does not enjoy it, but the man who eats it does."
"Then let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Is that the end of
your experience?" asked Leonora, gloomily.
"Oh--well--if you put it so. Only if you do not eat and drink too much,
you may possibly not die until the day after to-morrow."
"Or you may spend your life in cooking the dinner, and die before it is
served?" suggested Leonora.
"Or anything--what carnal similes!" laughed Batiscombe. "But they are
very apt for any one who cares for eating. If that is really an
important enjoyment, it may as well stand as the type."
"Exactly--'if.' I am sure you do not think it is, nor that any material
satisfaction can possibly stand as a type, nor that we should enjoy
to-day without thought of to-morrow, nor a great many other things you
have said." She watched him as she spoke, and he liked to feel her eyes
on him.
"No," he answered, "you are quite right. I do not think those things at
all. But I am sure I generally do them," he added, smiling.
"But what do you think--really? Is there anything really high and noble
in the world? It all seems so little and so hollow, sometimes."
She sighed, thinking how, formerly, she had said such things
speculatively, and for the sake of raising an argument with her friends.
Batiscombe turned on the stone seat, so that he faced her.
"Of course there are high and noble things in the world," he answered.
"It is when you look into the small workings of the mind and soul, as
you have been making me do, that you lose sight of the great ones.
Material nature is most interesting under a microscope, and generally
most beautiful in great masses at a distance. But if you walk close to
the grandest cliff in nature, and flatten your face against it, and hold
your eye half an inch from the rock, the grandeur and the beauty are all
gone, and without a microscope wherewith to examine your particular
point, you will find the close inspection tiresome after a time. There
is no microscope for the soul, any more than for the heart, or the mind.
You gain nothing by looking too closely at it. It is ten to one that you
hit upon a diseased spot for your examination. It may amuse you for a
time to study other people's souls, because you can hardly get so near
to them as to lose all impression of the whole, as you can with
yourself. What does it matter what you know about your soul, so long as
you do what is right?"
"That sounds true," said Leonora, "but I suppose there is something
wrong about it."
"All good similes sound true," said Batiscombe, laughing. "That is the
reason why popular orators and preachers are so fond of them. The real
use of a simile is for an explanation; the moment you make an argument
upon it, you are revelling in words without logic, calling illustrations
facts and generally making game of your audience."
"What a discouraging person you are," said Leonora. "You make one almost
believe a thing, and then you turn round and tell one there is nothing
to believe after all."
"Not so bad as that," said Batiscombe, leaning back and clasping his
brown hands over his knee. "I have not said there was nothing to believe
in. Only take care you do not believe in anything because it bears a
tempting resemblance to something you like."
"That is ingenious, but I wish you would be positive about something. I
wish you would tell me, for instance, what you yourself believe in." Her
eyes turned towards him in the twilight. For the sun had gone down, and
the orange-trees brought the shadows early where the two were sitting.
"What I believe in?" he repeated. "I suppose that, apart from religious
matters, I believe most in sympathy and antipathy."
"That is not exactly a course of action or a rule of life," remarked
Leonora, smiling and looking away.
"No. But in nine cases out of ten they are what determine both. At all
events I believe in them. They always carry the day over logic,
philosophy, and all manner of calculation and forethought. You may
determine that it is your duty to like a person, you may induce yourself
to think that you do, and you may make every one believe you do; but if
you really do not--there is an end of it. And the reverse is just as
true."
"I should think every one knew that," said Leonora in an indifferent
way. But she was wondering why he had said it, whether he had any
suspicion of her own state of mind. "It is very safe to say you believe
in things of that sort--everybody does. You are a very indefinite
person, Mr. Batiscombe."
"What is the use of defining everything? Lots of people have been burned
alive, and have had their heads cut off for defining things they knew
nothing about. Of course they were quite sure they knew better; but
then, is it worth while to die for your personal opinion of an abstract
question?"
"It is very fine and noble, though," said Leonora.
"There is a tradition that it is fine and noble to 'die for' anything.
It sounds well. Every one admires it. But reflect that the common
murderer 'dies for' his individual views of the social state. The woman
who maintained that scissors were better than a knife for cutting an
apple suffered her husband to drown her rather than give up the point,
and as she sank her fingers still opened and closed, to imitate the
instrument she preferred. She 'died for' her opinion, just as much as
Savonarola or Giordano Bruno, whom my countrymen are so fond of raving
about."
"You know that is not what I mean," said Leonora. "I mean it is noble to
die for what is right."
"The question is, what is right? There are cases when it is eminently
heroic to sacrifice one's life."
"For instance?"
"For instance, to die for the liberty of one's own country,--for the
defence and safety of one's king, who represents the embodiment of the
social principle,--or for the honour of an innocent woman."
"But about liberty and one's king, and that sort of thing," said
Leonora, "where can you draw the line? There is no successful treason,
you know, because when it succeeds it is called by other names. There
must be a standard of absolute good--or something."
"I should think you must be a very unhappy person, Marchesa, if you are
always trying to draw a line and to define absolute good. What is the
use? Every one knows that it cannot be done."
Leonora was silent. It had interested her to hear the brilliant,
successful man, apparently so happy and contented with his lot, talk
seriously about the things she was always puzzling over. But what did it
come to? What was the use? Those were his last words.
The warm gloom of the night settled softly round them, laden with the
sweetness of the oranges and the aromatic scent of the late carnations.
Batiscombe could just see Leonora by his side, her head bent forward as
she rested her chin upon her hand. The indescribable atmosphere and
faint perfume that surrounds women of high beauty and degree intoxicated
him. She was so English in her beauty and so Russian in her delicate
exuberance of vitality; above all, she was so intensely feminine, that
Batiscombe felt his senses giving way to the magnetic influence. He
leaned forward in the dark till he was nearer to her, looking at the
faint outline of her face. Leonora sighed, and the gentle sound seemed
like the softened echo of past weeping.
"Marchesa," said Julius in a low voice, "can I really be your friend?
Will you let me help to make your life happier, if I can?"
Leonora felt the blood rise blushing to her face in the dark, and her
heart trembled in its beating. A friend! Oh, if she really could find a
strong, true friend to help her!
"How can you?" she asked faintly.
"I do not know," he answered. "Let me try. I will try very hard. I am
sure I can succeed."
She let him take her hand for one moment. It was a consent, not spoken,
but given and understood. Leonora rose to her feet, and they walked
silently toward the house.
"When may I come?" he asked, as he bade her good night. He spoke quite
naturally, as though it were already a matter of course that he should
see her every day. She hesitated a moment, standing in the doorway with
the warm light of the lamp upon her.
"Come at eleven," she said at last, and with a pleasant smile she left
him and went in.
The aspect of life seemed changed for her when he was gone. That
afternoon she had suffered intensely. Now there was a strange, calm
sense in her heart that soothed all her thoughts, and made the lonely
evening sweet and restful. She asked no questions, she made no
self-examination, she desired of herself no reasons for her conduct. It
was enough that the storm had passed and that the calm was come, she
knew not how. A man had spoken to her as no man ever spoke to her
before, and the earnestness of his words still rang in her ear. He was
loyal, strong, and true. He would be her friend,--he had asked it, she
had granted it.
She dined alone and read a little afterwards, closing her eyes now and
again to enjoy the peace that had descended upon her. For the first time
in many months she was happy, supremely, quietly happy, and she asked no
questions.
As for Batiscombe, he wandered homewards through the dark lanes, not
heeding or caring where he went. He was wholly absorbed in recalling the
events of the afternoon, revelling in the memory of Leonora's face and
looks and words. He, too, was wholly disinclined to reflect on the
possible consequences of his action; he took it as a matter of course
that he should keep his word and be indeed a friend to her; at all
events he thought neither of the future nor the past, but only ever and
ever of herself, clinging tenderly to the images he called up, and
asking nothing better than to call them up again, dreaming and waking.
He might be in love, or he might not,--the question no longer entered
his head. He was fascinated, charmed, and beside himself with enjoyment
of his thoughts.
It was the state he had dreaded a day or two ago. To avoid it he had
tried to escape, by a stratagem, beyond the possibility of seeing
Leonora again. He had cursed his folly in going to see her. He had
promised himself that he would not go again; he had reviewed his past
troubles, and had remembered how plausibly they had begun. And at last
he had fallen into the ancient trap, the snare of fair friendship set
out to catch men and women and to destroy them. But the mouth of the pit
was garnished with roses and lilies, sweet and innocent enough.
At eleven o'clock of the next day Julius was again with Leonora, and on
the day following and the day after that. They walked together, read
together, sailed together, and lunched together. A few stray callers
came in now and then, but as they never came twice, not one of them
thought it at all worthy of remark that Mr. Batiscombe should happen to
be calling at the same time.
Leonora found an extraordinary pleasure in his conversation. He had a
fund of varied study and experience from which to draw, that amused her
and made her think in new grooves; and when he talked about her ideas
and interests he always succeeded in showing them to her in a new light.
His comments were by turns light and sarcastic, and then again very
serious; and his general readiness to make things seem amusing made his
graver sayings doubly strong by contrast. He had a bold way of asserting
that accumulated knowledge was of very little importance as compared
with action, which would have sounded foolish enough from an ignorant
man; but Julius was far from ignorant. He had studied a great many
questions, and he possessed the faculty of speaking sensibly in a
general way about subjects of which he did not profess to know anything.
Most of all she found in him a ready sympathy and a love of human nature
and of life for life's sake, that were utterly different from the
artificial views she had cultivated. She found in him the strong love of
enjoyment and the activity of mind and body, that best harmonised with
her own real character; and in their long days together the hollowness
and emptiness of life never once recalled themselves to her memory,
except as things for her to wonder at and for Batiscombe to turn into
jest and laugh to scorn.
The whole situation was utterly new and unexpected to her. After the
first few days at Sorrento with her husband she had made up her mind
that the beauties of nature were very tedious, and that she would be
glad to go back to Rome and begin the duties of society,--anything,
rather than go on from day to day longing for a sensation, and finding
only a great deal of weariness. But now, in the discovery of a new
friend, a man of talent and tact, who made all gloomy musings seem
ridiculous by the side of his sanguine activity, the place was
transformed into a paradise for her. Not a day but brought some new
thought, some witty saying, some bit of novelty with it, so that she
found herself happy when she was alone in going over what they had said
and done together.
As for Marcantonio, she should be very glad when he came back. It seemed
to her that he must be much more amusing now, and that she could say
things to rouse him and make him talk. She wrote affectionate notes
every day, telling him how beautiful everything was, and how he was to
enjoy it, now that the first difficulties of settling were over. She
even said she had sent for the cook, and had ascertained that he was
very well, having had no return of the fever; she thought it must please
her husband to know that she was taking care of the household and
looking after the people.
In the meanwhile Batiscombe fell in love, studiously consoling his
conscience with the reflection that he was doing a good deed, and was
acting the part of a friend in making the time pass pleasantly for
Leonora in her solitude. But his conscience did not trouble him greatly,
though it would be sure to, by and by. At present everything was
swamped in a sea of glorious enjoyment, and he was no less really happy
than Leonora. Day after day began and ended alike, but yet ever
different. They never referred to the singularity of the arrangement by
which Julius came every day in the morning and stayed till dark. There
seemed no reason why they should not leave well alone, and enjoy each
other's society to the very utmost. And they did, most fully, each
wholly engrossed in the other.
At the end of a week Marcantonio telegraphed that he and his sister
would leave Rome by the night train and arrive in the morning. Leonora
in the innocence of her heart was glad, anticipating all manner of new
pleasure in her husband's society, the result of her own cure from
morbid ennui. But Batiscombe felt his heart sink within him.