THE BUTTERFLY ROSA IN THE FORM OF MINING CATERPILLAR--THORN-CROWNS,
AND THISTLE-HEADS OF JEALOUSY.
The last chapter was as brief as our delusions. It was one itself,
alas! poor Firmian. After the first stormy mutual catechisings, and
particularly, after the giving and receiving of all the mutual news, he
saw more and more clearly that Lenette's invisible church, in which
Stiefel filled the part of soul's bridegroom, was become very much of a
_visible_ one. It was as if the earthquake of the recent happiness had
rent in twain the veil of the Holy of Holies, the inmost sanctuary,
wherein Stiefel's head fluttered by way of cherub. But, to speak the
truth, I am telling a lie here, because it was Lenette's special
_object_ to _show_ and _display_ a _particular_ liking for the
Schulrath, who, in his delight thereat, went fluttering on from Arcadia
to Otaheite, and from thence to Eldorado, and from thence to Walhalla,
which was a certain indication, that, up to this point, his good
fortune, during Firmian's absence, had been _less_. He related that,
"Rosa had broken with the Heimlicher; that the Venner, whom the latter
had wanted to utilise as a spinning machine, had turned into an engine
of war against him. The cause of all this had been the niece in
Bayreuth, whose engagement the Venner had broken off, because he had
caught her being kissed by a gentleman there."
Firmian grew red as fire, and cried "Miserable cockroach! It was _she_
who broke off her engagement with that wretched lying scoundrel, not
_he_ who broke off his with her. Ah! Herr Schulrath, be that poor
lady's true knight and champion, and run this wretched abortion of a
lie through and through wherever you came across it. From whom did you
get hold of this evil weed?" Stiefel pointed calmly to Lenette, saying,
"From _her_!" "And where did _you_ get hold of it?" Firmian cried to
her in amazement. "Mr. Von Meyern," she answered, with her face all
glowing red, "was here calling, and told it me himself." "But I was
fetched immediately," Stiefel interrupted, "and I skilfully sent him
about his business." Stiefel then asked for a correct version of what
had happened. Firmian thereupon, timidly, and with many changes of
tone, made a highly favourable report of the rose-maiden and her
conduct of the matter ("rose-maiden" in a threefold sense, on account
of the roses in her cheeks, of her victorious virtue, and the green
rosebuds she had given to him). But on Lenette's account he awarded her
a _proxima accessit_ only, not the gold medal. He had to bind the
Venner, by way of sacrificial ram, to the horns of the altar in place
of Nathalie, or, at all events, harness him by way of saddle-horse to
her triumphal car, and relate without disguise how Leibgeber had been
the person who broke off the engagement, and, as it were, dragged her
back by the sleeve, as she was making the first step into the
Minotaur's cave--by means of his satiric sketches of Meyern.
"But it was _you_, of course," said Lenette, _without_ any tone of
interrogation, "who told Leibgeber all about him, to begin with."
"Yes," said he.
We of the human race give to words of one syllable, to "Yes," and "No,"
at all events, more intonations, and shades of intonations, than the
Chinese themselves. The yes in question was a rapid, toneless, cold
yes, being merely meant for a "What then," or "Suppose I did." She
interrupted a digressive speech of Stiefel's with a point-blank,
target, bull's-eye question:
"_When_ had you been with her V"
At last Firmian, with his battle-telescope, saw hostile movements of
all kinds going on in her heart; he made a playful diversion, and said,
"Herr Schulrath, _when_ did you come to see Lenette?"
"Three times every week at least, and, very often, oftener than that;
always about this time of the evening," he answered.
"_Very_ well," said Firmian, in a kindly and playful fashion. "I'm not
going to be jealous, but be good enough to remark--and my Lenette will
please to do so too--that _I_ was with Nathalie, _along with Leibgeber,
twice_ in all; once in the afternoon, once in the evening, walking
about the grounds of Fantaisie.
"Well, Lenette?"
She parted her cherry lips, and her eyes were like Volta's electric
condensers.
Stiefel went away, and Lenette (from a countenance on which there
seemed _two_ fires burning, the fire of anger and a lovelier fire)
flashed after him a spark of eye love, calculated to blow up the whole
powder-mill of a jealous husband. The married pair were scarce alone,
when, by way of propitiating her, he asked her if that confounded
Venner had been plaguing her again; and then the firework which had
been fixed ready on the scaffold of her face, went hissing off.
"Oh! of course _you_ can't endure him. You are jealous of him, on
account of this beautiful, _learned_, INTELLECTUAL, Nathalie of yours.
Do you suppose I don't know quite well about you and her going about a
whole night among the trees--and hugging and kissing! A pretty story!
Ah fie! I never would have believed it of you. No wonder Mr. Meyern
said 'Good morning' to her, learning and all. Oh yes! you'll excuse
yourself, no doubt."
"I should have talked to you about all that most innocent affair,"
answered Firmian, tranquilly, "while Stiefel was here, if I had not
seen quite well that you knew of it. Am _I_ annoyed because _he_ kissed
_you_ while I was away?"
This irritated her still more; firstly, because it was impossible
that Firmian could know of a certainty that it was true--(and it
_was_!),--and secondly, because she thought "You can forgive it very
easily now that you care more for another woman than you do for me."
But then, for the self-same reason (inasmuch as _she_ cared more for
another man than she did for _him_), _she_, of course, ought to have
found no difficulty in forgiving him too. But, as usual, instead of
answering his question, she put one herself: "Did _I_ ever give anybody
silk forget-me-nots, as _somebody_ did to _somebody_? Thank goodness!
mine are still in my drawer."
Here _two_ hearts contended within him--a _tender_ heart which was
pierced by this unintentional association of forget-me-nots so
dissimilar--and a _man's_ heart, which was powerfully stirred and stung
by this detestable defensive and offensive alliance with the fellow
who, as was evident now, had sent the innocent child, whom Nathalie had
rescued, to Fantaisie by way of a stalking-horse, behind which to
conceal and mask himself, and the toils he had spun. As Siebenkæs now,
with an outburst of anger, converted his judgment-seat into a stool of
repentance for the Venner, whom he stigmatised as a canker-worm of
feminine buds, a sparrowhawk, a housebreaker as regarded matrimonial
treasures, and a crimp, trepanner, and soul-stealer of mated
souls--vowing with the utmost warmth that it was Nathalie who had
scornfully sent Rosa to the right-about, not Rosa who had rejected her:
and as, of course, he interdicted her in the most peremptory terms from
everything in the nature of dissemination or repetition of the Venner's
lying demi-romance, he turned his unfortunate wife into a sour,
pungent, Erfurt radish, from head to foot.
Let us not fix our eyes too long, or too magisterially, upon this
heat-rash or purulent fever of poor Lenette's. For my part, I am going
to leave _her_ alone, but make an onslaught on her entire sex at once.
I shall be doing so, I trust, when I assert that women never paint with
more caustic colours (Swift's black art is but weak water-colour in
comparison) than when they have to portray the bodily unlovelinesses of
other women. Further, that the prettiest of faces roughens and bristles
into an ugly one, when it expresses anger with the feminine recruiting
officer more than pity for the deserter. To speak accurately: Every
woman is jealous of all other women, because--not, perhaps, her own
husband (or lover, as the case may be), but--all other men are
attracted by them, and are consequently not true to _her_. Therefore
every woman takes the same vow concerning these vice-queens of this
earth that Hannibal took concerning the Romans, and keeps it just as
religiously. For which reason every woman has the power which Fordyce
says all animal bodies possess--that of making all others cold; and,
indeed, every woman must of necessity be an enemy and persecutor
of a sex which consists entirely of rivals. And it is probable that
many--for instance, nuns in their convents, and Moravians--call each
other sisters, or sister-souls, with the view of giving some sort of
expression to the nature of their sentiments for each other; since
sisters are just the very people who quarrel the most. This is why
Madame Bouillon's _parties quarrées_ consisted of three men and only
one woman. It may be that it led St. Athanasius, Basilius, Scotus, and
other teachers of the Church to entertain the belief that, with the
single exception of the Virgin Mary, all women would rise as men at the
Day of Judgment, in order that there may be no anger, or envy, or
bickerings in heaven. There is but one queen who is beloved, nourished
and cherished by many thousands of her own sex--the queen-bee of the
workers (who are of the feminine gender, according to the most recent
observations).
I shall close this chapter with a sort of preliminary word for Lenette.
The foul fiend Rosa, by way of giving like for like (or rather _worse_
for like) had emptied whole basketsful of the seed of evil-weeds into
Lenette's open heart, and unpacked compliments, to commence with, and
news of her husband; then, afterwards, disparaging matter. She had
believed him all the more readily because it was a clever, learned, and
intellectual woman whom he was nigrifying, breaking with, and offering
up as a sacrifice. What she most hated in Nathalie _was_ her
cleverness, her learning, and intellectualness; for it was the want of
those that had brought _herself_ to such shame. Like many women, she
thought that the _heads_ of Venuses were not "the true article" (as
some connoisseurs think is the case with the Venus de Medici). What
provoked her most of all was that Firmian should take another woman's
part more than his own wife's--nay, at his own wife's expense; and that
Nathalie, in her _conceit_ and _pride_, had got ready a _sack_ to give
such a nice, _rich_ gentleman, instead of weaving a _net_ to hold him
with. She was also very much annoyed that her husband had _admitted_
everything, as she considered his candour was only lordly indifference
as to what she might feel on the subject.
What did Firmian do? He forgave. His two reasons for doing so were good
ones--"Bayreuth" and "the grave." The former had parted him from her so
long; the latter was soon to part him from her for ever. A _third_
reason might perhaps be this: Lenette, as regarded his love for
Nathalie, was _not_ so very utterly the reverse of right.