Don't!"
The woman looked at her wonderingly.
"Why, Miss Genevieve--Poor, little lamb."
"Nannie, Nannie." She made a tremendous effort to control herself. "What
was it you were going to say?"
"The scream, Miss. In the night. I rushed down. I knocked at his door.
He wouldn't let me in. He was moaning, Miss. And cursing. And moaning.
He was swearing about a knife. I listened, Miss--at the keyhole. I was
scared. He kept cursing and moaning about a knife; about his arm--"
"Nannie--"
She whispered the word beneath her breath. "Yes, Miss. Cut in the arm.
He would have it that way. And he wouldn't let me in. I waited for
hours. And this morning I went into his room myself. He was in his
shirt-sleeves. I pretended I wanted the linen for the wash. I was
looking for blood, Miss. Not a drop did I find. Not a pin prick stain.
But I seen him bandaging his arm; right in front of me he did it. And
then I seen him rip the bandage off."
"Nannie--"
"It's his reason I fear for, Miss. He turns to me and asks me if I can
see the cut."
"Yes? Yes, Nannie?"
"He shows me his arm. And, Miss--"
The woman stopped abruptly.
"Nannie--what? What?"
Genevieve Evans' hands had gone up to her throat.
"There wasn't a scratch;--not--a--scratch!"
"Oh--" She breathed.
"And that's why I came here, Miss. To ask if he'd said anything of it to
you. Or if--if you'd noticed anything, Miss."
Genevieve Evans waited a full second before she answered:
"No, Nannie. He wouldn't have told me. I didn't notice anything. I
wasn't there very long. You see I only went to ask him to let me get
away. Out in the country--by myself. I wanted the money to go. He
and--and Mr. Evans never give me money, Nannie. Just things--all the
things, I want. Only I'm tired of things. I don't quite know what to
do. When--I think about it I get very angry. I was very angry. Last
night I was very angry! I've such funny ideas when I'm angry, Nannie. I
mustn't get angry again. But I've got--to--get--away."
"I don't blame you, Miss Genevieve, for being angry. You've been an
angel all your life; all your life pent up like--like a
saint--with--with--devils."
"You--don't--blame--me--Nannie?"
"No, Lamb. Not your Nannie. Your Nannie knows what it's been like for
you. I know him, Miss Genevieve. I know he didn't give you the money."
"No, Nannie. He laughed at me. Laughed--"
"He's a beast! That's what he is, Miss. He should have give it to you.
And him going away himself. He was telling me only to-day. Into the
country."
"What?"
"Oh, Miss. I hate to say such things to you. He's going with that
black-haired woman;--the latest one, she is. He thinks she works too
hard. He's taking her off for a rest. Is anything the matter? Aren't you
well, darling?"
Genevieve Evans swayed dizzily for a second her one hand reaching out
blindly before her.
The woman came quickly and took the hand between both of her hands and
stroked it.
"Nannie, I'm sick--sick!"
"Nannie's darling--; Nannie's pet."
From somewhere in the house came the silvery, tinkling sound of a clock
striking seven times.
"I've got to go, Miss Genevieve, dear."
"All right, Nannie."
The woman drew a chair up and pushed her gently into it.
"You'll not be telling him, Miss?"
"No, Nannie--; no--"
The woman started for the door.
"Thank you, Miss Genevieve."
"Nannie--; you said he was taking her--; the black-haired one--; away
for a--a rest? Away into the country?"
With her hand on the door-knob the woman turned.
"Yes. Why--lamb!"
"Into the country." Genevieve Evans' voice was lifeless. "Into the
country where everything is quiet and big--; and clean. You said that,
Nannie?"
"I said the country, Miss Genevieve, dearie."
"Nannie--Nannie--;" her eyes were staring straight before her.
"I--want--to--go!"
"Lamb--darling."
The woman stood undecided.
"But he wouldn't let me. He laughed at me. Nannie, he laughed."
The woman made up her mind.
"Will Nannie stop with you a bit, Miss Genevieve, dearie?"
"You said;" Genevieve Evans' lifeless, monotonous voice went on; "you
said you wouldn't blame me for being angry. I get very angry, Nannie.
Very angry. It brings all kinds of things to me when I get angry. His
kind of things. Rotten things. And he's going to take her into the
country; where everything's clean; and he won't let me--go. God!"
"Will I stay, Miss Genevieve?"
"No, Nannie--go! Go quickly! Go--now!"
"Yes, Miss Genevieve. He'll be wanting to know where I am."
"Go, Nannie!" She half rose from her chair. The door closed quietly
behind the woman. "Go!" Genevieve Evans whispered. "He's going--into the
country--; he's taking that woman. He wouldn't let me. He wants to keep
me here. Just to feel his power--; his filthy power. He's not the only
one." She was muttering now. "He's not the only one who can do things.
Rotten--dirty things! His kind of things!"
She swayed to her feet. Her steps were short and uncertain. Her whole
body reeled. Her face was blanched; drained of all color. Her fingers
trembled wide spread at her sides. She was quivering from head to foot.
Only her eyes were steady; her eyes wide and dilated that were riveted
on the portrait hanging there above the wood carved mantel.
She backed toward the door, her eyes glued to the picture.
Her shaking fingers, fumbling behind her, found the key and turned it.
Feeling her way with her hands, her distended eyes still fixed on that
one thing, she got to the center table.
It took her a while to pull open the drawer.
Her breath came raspingly; as if she had been running.
The old Venetian dagger with the cracked jeweled handle was between her
fingers.
Very slowly now she went toward the fireplace.
The electric light flared over the colored gems that studded the handle
of the dagger, giving out small quick rays of blue and red and green.
"I'm angry;" she whispered hoarsely. "I--I'm very angry--with--you.
You've no right--; no right--to--ruin--my--life--and laugh! You
did--laugh--at--me!"
Her eyes stared up at the full, red face with the hard lines in it. Up
at the thick, sensual lips. Up at the cunning eyes. At the ponderous,
heavy-set figure. The powerful hands.
"Why--don't--you--laugh--now? You aren't afraid--are--you?
You--aren't--afraid of--anything? Not of--me--are--you--Daniel Drare--?
You've--done--your--best--to--keep--me--under--your--power--;
you--stood--behind--Ernest--to keep--me under--your--power.
You're--not--afraid--of--me? Why--don't--you--laugh--Daniel--Drare?"
Her right hand that held the dagger raised itself.
"Laugh, Daniel Drare! Laugh!"
She stood there under the portrait. Her left hand went stiffly out
feeling over the long cut in the painted arm.
"Angry--last--night." She whispered. "And--it--hurt--you. Daniel
Drare--I--could-hurt--you!"
For a second her eyes went up to the dagger held there above her head;
the dagger with the thousand colored gleams pointing from it.
She gave a quick choking laugh.
"I laugh--at--you--Daniel--Drare."
With all her strength she drove the dagger into the heart of the canvas.
She staggered back to the center of the room.
There was a gaping rent in the portrait.
She laughed again; stupidly. Her laughter trailed off and stopped.
She stood there waiting.
Once she thought some one paused outside the door.
Her hands were up across her eyes.
Motionless she waited.
Suddenly she gave a quick start.
Out there in the hall a telephone had rung.
She heard her husband answer it.
Her one distinct thought was that he must have been on his way out for
dinner.
His unbelieving cry came to her.
"My God! it can't--"
Her fingers were pressed into her ears. She did not want to hear the
rest. She knew it.
THE FAITH
The great lady fingered the pearls that circled her throat.
"Quite true," she murmured, and a smile crept up about the corners of
her lips and lingered there. "Really, surprisingly true."
The woman with the white hair and the heavily lidded eyes bent a bit
lower over her charts of stars and constellations.
"This year"--she went on in that low, undecided voice of hers--"this
year Madame has had a big sorrow. It was the loss to Madame of a young
man. He was tall and fair like Madame, but he had not Madame's eyes. He
had courage, Madame, and a soft voice; always a soft voice. He went on,
this young one, with his courage. The son of Madame died in the early
Spring."
The great lady's hands dropped into her lap and clinched there: the
knuckles showing white and round as her fingers strained against each
other. Her eyes stared hard at the cracked walls; up over the low
ceiling, toward the back of the small room that was divided off from the
kitchen by a loose-hung plush curtain; out through the one window which
gave on to the street. She could just see the heads of people who were
passing and the faint, gray shadows of the late evening that were
reaching in dark spots up along the rough, white walls of the house
opposite. Her eyes came dazedly back to the room and the chairs and the
table before which she sat. Two giant tears trickled down her cheeks.
The smile was wiped from off her mouth.
The woman with the white hair had waited.
"There is another here. He is perhaps a little older than the one who
died. He has not that one's courage. He is very careful of all the small
things; like his clothes and his cigarettes and his affections. The big
things he has never known. His eyes are like the eyes of Madame. Madame
has this son in the war now."
"No--no!" The great lady leaned across the table. "Don't tell me--not
that he--I couldn't bear it! Not--both--of--them!"
The woman with the white hair looked up quite suddenly from her charts
of stars and constellations. A pitying quiver shook over her face.
"You need have no fear, Madame. He is not ready. It is a wound. It is
not a wound that gives death."
The great lady fingered her pearls again.
"You--you quite carried me away. For a moment you startled me."
"I regret it, Madame. Perhaps I should not have said anything."
"Of course you should have. I told you that when I came in, didn't I? I
said I wanted to hear everything. Everything you could tell me."
"Ah--yes, Madame."
"Is that all, now? You're certain that you've not forgotten anything?"
And she pulled at her gold mesh bag, which was studded with sapphires.
"It is everything, Madame. Unless, perhaps, Madame has some question she
would like to ask of me?"
The great lady drew her money out and tossed it on the table.
The woman with the white hair and those heavily lidded eyes did not
touch it. The great lady got to her feet and started to the door. Quite
suddenly she stopped.
"When--" She made an effort to steady her voice. "When will this
thing--; this wound--come--?"
The woman with the white hair bent over the charts again. And then she
caught up a pencil and made little signs on the yellow paper and drew a
triangle through them and across them at the points.
"The fourth day of the second month from now, Madame."
The great lady came back to the table and stood there looking down.
"How do you do it?"
The woman with the white hair stared up in astonishment.
"Madame?"
The great lady's ringed fingers spread out, pale and taut at her sides.
The jewels of the rings showed in dark, glistening stains against the
white of her skin.
"What you've just told me--all of it. I don't see how you know--how you
can know. It's true. I can't understand how it can be true. But it is.
Every word of it."
The woman with the white hair fingered her pencil a bit wearily.
"But--of course, Madame."
"I came here;" the great lady spoke hurriedly. "I don't know why I came.
Only I didn't think: I wouldn't have believed it possible. I couldn't
tell you now why I came."
"There are many who come--these days."
"These days?"
"People would know more than they know of things they never thought of
before, Madame--these days. They would follow a bit further after the
lives that have been broken off so suddenly. They are impatient because
they cannot see where they have never before looked and so they come to
me because I have sat, staring into those places. They will see--all of
them--soon. They are going on, further, because they must know. These
days they must--know!"
The great lady stood quite still.
"You have a wonderful gift--wonderful."
"It is not mine, Madame."
The great lady's eyes went about the room.
"I'll be going," she said. "It's quite late."
Her eyes took in the cheap poverty of the mended carpet and the
paint-scratched walls and the dingy-threaded, plush-covered chairs.
The woman with the white hair got to her feet.
"I know what you are thinking." Her voice was low. "If I can do this for
others, you think, why should I not be able to do everything for myself?
If I can tell to others, what may I not tell to myself? If I can give
help to others, why can I not give help to myself?"
The silk of the great lady's dress gave out a faint rustle as she took a
step back.
"No--" She murmured uncertainly.
"It is not 'No.'" The woman's voice trembled. "It is 'Yes.' It is what
was going through your head--going around and around and fearing to be
asked. But I will answer you. I will say that the power is not mine. It
is the power that is given to me. It is not for myself. I do not want it
for myself. I shall never touch it for myself, because it is meant for
others. To help others and that is all."
"D'you mean you can't see things for yourself?"
The great lady was curious.
"But of course I can see. It is that which, sometimes--" The woman with
the white hair broke off abruptly. "Do you know what it is to see and
then to be able to do nothing--nothing? Not--one--thing--!"
"How can you?"
"I can, Madame, because that is what I am here for. It is by being
nothing myself that this thing comes through me so that I can feel what
other people are; what they are going to be. If I thought only of me, I
would be so full of myself I could not think of anything else. It is
from thinking a little bit beyond that the power first came. And now
that I keep on thinking away from the nearest layer of thought, it works
through me. And I can help. It is the wish of my life to help. It is
what I am here for. Placed in the field. They told it to me--the voices.
Put in the field,--by them."
The great lady shrugged her shoulders.
The woman with the white hair pulled herself up very suddenly. There was
a quick, convulsive movement of her hands and for a short second her
eyes closed. She went to the table and caught the money between her
fingers and dragged it across the red cover to her.
"I thank Madame."
The great lady walked slowly to the door.
"Good-by. Perhaps some day I'll be back."
"Perhaps--Madame. Good-by."
The great lady went out of the room and closed the door behind her. The
sound of her high-heeled footsteps tapped in sharp staccato down the
uncarpeted stairs, and died away into the stillness. The long-drawn
creak of rusty hinges and then the muffled thud of the front door
swinging to. In the street the soft diminishing whirr of a motor grew
fainter and was gone.
Silence.
The woman sank into a chair and buried her face between her two shaking
hands.
Shadows crept up against the uncurtained window and pressed, quivering,
against the pane. Shadows came into the room and stretched themselves
along the floor. Shadows reached up across the wall and over the chairs
and the table. Shadows spread in a gray, moving mass over the still
figure of the woman.
A young girl came quickly and silently through the curtain that
partitioned the room off from the kitchen.
"Maman--"
The woman did not move.
"I had not thought, Maman, that you were alone."
The woman slowly drew her face from out between her hands. She looked up
uncertainly, her eyes only half open.
"Leave me, Angele."
"But, Maman, supper is ready."
"Let it wait, Angele."
The girl came over to the table and put her hand on the woman's
shoulder.
"Was she then horrid, Maman?"
The woman sighed softly.
"It is not that, Angele. She was like the others. They come because they
are curious. Something, perhaps, brings them here, but they do not know
that. They are only curious. They do not believe. I tell them the truth.
They are shocked for a little moment. They do not believe, Angele."
"Pauvre petite Maman, you are tired."
"Non, non, Angele."
"Will you have Jean see you tired, Maman?"
The woman stared up into the girl's small, white face that was dimmed
with shifting shadows. The woman's heavily lidded eyes met the girl's
wide, dark eyes.
"Jean--"
"He will be home to eat, Maman. Soon, now, he will be home."
The woman passed her hands again and again over her forehead and then
she held them with the tips of her fingers pressed tight to her temples.
"He is such a child, Angele."
"Shall we have supper now?"
"Angele--"
"I will bring a light in here, Maman, and then when Jean is back we will
go in to supper."
"He--is--such--a--child,--Angele."
"And never on time, Maman!"
The woman caught the girl's fingers between her own.
"Answer me, Angele. Answer me!"
The girl looked down in surprise.
"But what, Maman?"
The woman's breath came quickly.
"He is a child. Say that he is a baby. He is all that I have. You and he
are all--everything! Say, Angele, that he is a child! Only yesterday,
you remember--the long curls? The velvet suit? Surely it was yesterday.
Say, Angele, that he--is--still--a--little--one."
The girl threw back her head and laughed. The shadows lay like long,
dark fingers on the white of her throat.
"Of course. He is young--too young even now when they take the young.
You have no need to worry, Maman. Maman--what is it?"
She had seen the sudden, far-away look in the woman's eyes.
She had seen her head stretch forward, the chin pointing, the mouth a
little open.
"Maman--"
The woman's hand reached out in a gesture commanding silence.
"The voices," the woman whispered. "They have been after me the whole
day. The voices. They--keep--coming--and--coming--to--me--I have not
been able to think--for the voices--"
"Maman--"
"You say 'yes.' You are coming--nearer--nearer. No--I cannot see. But
hear--Mais, it is good now! You speak distinctly. Of course I thank you
for speaking so beautifully. You--say--you--want--want--"
"Petite Maman, you will make yourself ill with those old horoscopes and
these voices. Petite Maman, have you not done enough for one day?"
The woman paid no attention to her. She did not seem to hear the girl.
Her face was pale; there were faint, bluish smudges about her mouth and
nostrils.
"You want--I cannot--cannot understand what you want. I'm trying to
understand. I'm trying hard! If you will tell it to me again.
And--slowly. With patience. It is better now. So that is it? More
slowly,--if you can. Of course. Is it that you wish to know?
Of--course--I--shall--give--you--what--you--want. I always give you
what--you want. I do my best for that. You--want--"
The woman's eyes were closed. She was breathing deeply. Her whole figure
was tense. The girl stood beside her, a puzzled, half incredulous look
coming into her face.
"I--should--look. It does no--good--to--look. I can never see--Beyond
the wood--I should look beyond.--What wood? Now? Is it perhaps
that--you--mean--gate? Swings to and fro? Now--you--want--;
this--moment--"
The door was flung wide open.
At the noise the woman slowly opened her eyes, staring blindly before
her.
"You--want--" She murmured.
A boy stood in the doorway. He was slight and young. His face was small
and rather like the girl's face, and his dark eyes were set far apart
like her eyes. Through the gray of the massing shadows gleamed the brass
buttons of his uniform.
The girl sprang forward.
"Jean--!"
"Maman." The boy came a step into the room. "See, Maman!"
"Hush, Jean." The girl turned to gaze at the woman sitting there with
that stony, frozen stare, staying in her eyes.
"Maman, they have taken me at last!"
"Oh," for a second the girl forgot the woman. "But I am proud of you!"
"Maman, I wear the uniform. They will let me go now. I knew they would
take me. Sooner or later; I knew they would have to! Aren't you glad?"
The girl remembered and interrupted him.
"Be still, Jean!"
The boy stood looking from one to the other, his eyes straining through
the gloom.
"Maman," he whispered.
The woman's voice came trailing softly to them.
"They--want--"
"Maman;" the girl threw her arm protectingly over the woman's shoulders.
"Jean is here. See, petite Maman; it is Jean. Your Jean."
The woman repeated the words in that gentle, plaintive singsong.
"They want--" and then she got to her feet. "Jean!--" Her voice rose
shrilly crescendo. "It was that! My--Jean--"
"Maman;" the boy came and stood beside her. "You would not have me stay
behind when they need me? You will be glad to have me go. Come, Maman,
you must say that you are glad!"
"My little one--"
"Say, Maman, that you are glad."
"So young, Jean."
"But old enough to fight when they need me. Old enough to fight for
France!"
"My baby--"
"You will not grieve, Maman."
She reached up and caught his face between her two hands and drew it
down and kissed him on the mouth.
"Ah, Jean!"
"And say, how do I look?" He turned around and around in front of them.
"But, Angele, fetch the lamp quickly. You cannot see in this dark. You
cannot see me."
The girl laughed a bit uncertainly, and then she went quickly, rushing
into the next room.
The woman gripped hold of the boy's hand. His fingers grasped hers.
"Petite Maman."
"Mon Jean--just--a--moment--still--so."
They stood there silent and very close to each other, in the room
crowded with moving, splotching shadows. The girl came back through the
curtain, a lighted lamp between her two hands. The flicker of it spread
broadly into her eager, anxious face. The glow of it trickled before her
and widened through the room. The shadows stuck to the walls in the
corners and rocked up against the ceiling, black among the uneven
streaks of yellow light.
"Now, Angele. Now, Maman. Put it there on the table, Angele. No, hold it
higher. Like that. Keep your hands steady, Angele, or how can Maman see?
Such a miserable lamp! Does not my uniform look magnificent? I am the
real poilu, hein? Something to be proud of, Maman?"
"The real poilu?" The girl questioned softly. "The grandchild of the
real poilu, maybe."
"She mocks me, Maman."
"Be quiet, Angele."
"I do not mock, Maman; but I will not have his head turned. The poor
little cabbage!"
"See, Maman. She will not stop. Tell her that I fight for France."
For a moment the woman hesitated. They could hear the deep breath she
took.
"For France. And for something else, my little son."
With great care the girl placed the lamp on the table.
"Something else, Maman?"
"The thing for which France stands--; and conquers."
He seized at her last word.
"Conquers? Of course she conquers. And I will help! I will kill the
Boches. Right and left. I shall fight until France will win!"
A strange light had filtered into the woman's heavily lidded eyes.
"Bravo!" The girl clapped her hands together. "And shall we have our
supper now, petite Maman, and my little rabbit?"
"Maman--when I have this uniform--"
"Go, children. In a moment I will be with you."
"Come, my cauliflower. Maman would be alone."
"Maman--"
"Jean--I do not mean to tease. Let us go in to supper. If I do not try
to be pleasant I shall weep. You would not have me weep, brother Jean? I
would wet the pretty shoulder of your uniform with my tears. That would
be a tragedy. So come along to supper, my rascal."
Hand in hand the boy and the girl went through the loose-hung, plush
curtain into the kitchen.
The woman stood rigid beside the table.
"Help me," she whispered beneath her breath. "You--"
She stumbled to her knees. Her head was pressed against the edge of the
table. Her hands fumbled over the top of it, the fingers widespread and
catching; clutching at whatever they touched.
From the kitchen came the sound of low voices. A knife rattled
clatteringly against a plate. Once the girl laughed and her laughter
snapped off in a half-smothered sob.
The woman moaned a little.
"Just to watch over him. That's all I ask.--You--across there,
just--to--protect--him--"
Her hands went to her throat, the fingers tightening.
"A sign," she implored. "Dieu--that--you--hear--me!"
Her eyes stared about the room, peering frantically from under their
heavy lids.