DIAPORESIS
The discussion at dinner that evening was unexpectedly animated. We all
had our theories to propound, our notes to compare and our criticisms to
offer. To this I contributed my share, but reserved a conclusion to
which I had been approaching all through the tale. I wished to submit it
to the tests of coffee and music, to become more familiar with it before
I exposed it to Bill's shrewd scrutiny and Mac's sardonic judgment.
To my surprise they insisted upon the strangeness of the story.
"To my mind," I said, "the story can scarcely be called strange, so
far."
"I wonder where his brother got to after he was expelled," said Bill.
"Do you think Cecil's man is the brother?" asked Mac.
"You mean interesting," I continued.
"Well," said Mac, "interesting if you like. That don't make it any the
less strange. Is Cecil's man----?"
"The really strange part of this man's story," I declared, oracularly,
"is the fact that he is telling it; mark that! And a stranger thing
still is the _way_ he is telling it!"
"Ex cathedra!" said Mac, sarcastically.
"Explain it all over again," said Bill.
I did so, but they saw no brilliance in my explanation. They were
artistic, but not artistic enough to appreciate the nuance of the
story-telling art. Perhaps this is nothing against them. Each to his
trade. And yet--_sugar-plums_!
It pleased my friend that evening to undertake the rendering of a work
which, unfortunately, can only be butchered on a piano. Of all Wagner's
music the _Walkueren_ Ride is least adapted to our homely instrument.
Nevertheless the wild clatter, the exciting crepitation of the treble,
the thunderous booming of the bass, and above all the tremendous crash
with which it ends, always stimulates me to fresh mental effort. I saw
plainly, as I listened, that my surmise was correct. I saw that I had no
need to wait for the explanation of the phrase: "An author? Ah!" I saw,
in short, that Mr. Carville, whatever he might be in the eyes of his
wife, his brother, or of the world, was a potential artist. As I
recapitulated to myself the various points in his tale, the careful
balancing of his narrative with sententious criticism of life, the
occasional fiction, to give verisimilitude to trivial events (the
incident of Belvoir for example), and particularly his abrupt departure
in the dusk, leaving us guessing, I felt certain that for me his tale
would have a denouement of peculiar interest. Already I perceived the
deliberate attempt of the man to convey the obscure and rare emotion
which dominated his intellectual life.
Afterwards, in the studio, I suggested that the story of Turner's
sugar-plums might throw some light upon Mr. Carville's story.
"How?" said Mac, who is reluctant to see profane hands touch the
master-colourist's memory. I explained again.
"He is taking a lot of romantic episodes, mixing them up, adding a
little imaginary landscape and offering it to us," I said. "We asked for
a story. We shall have it, says he."
"He's such an ordinary looking chap," began Mac. Bill laughed.
"So am I," I retorted with a grin.
"You know what I mean," he protested. "I meant ordinary in voice and
general tone. But if what you say is true he must be a damn clever
chap."
"An artist," I agreed.
"I can't make him out," said Bill, sewing busily. "What in the world has
all this to do with his children? _I_ want to know where they met."
"So you will, dear lady, never fear," I said, smiling. "I think Mr.
Carville understands your desire perfectly."
"Oh, I know I'm a very simple person----" she began.
"By no means," I cried. "Mr. Carville would never suggest such a thing.
But think for a moment! Is it not a fair guess that a man like our
neighbour, who has had such a varied career, who can divine _my_
interest in him as an author, and Mac's as an artist, will be able to
fathom the reason why you watch him with a tense and silent stare?"
"Did I stare?" she said. "I'm sorry."
"We all stared," I returned. "Anyone would."
The telephone rang and Mac went to answer it. We could hear his voice
plainly on the staircase.
"Hello! Who is it? Oh, good evening, Miss Fraenkel--yes, do. We're not
going out to-night. How long will you be? Right. Good-bye."
"She'll be up in half an hour," he said, going back to his easel.
I was by no means certain that Miss Fraenkel would be able to help us to
forecast accurately the future instalments of the Carville history. Of
course if we could induce her to assume that the painter-cousin's
strange companion was Mr. Carville's brother, she might begin to treat
the subject with the necessary seriousness. But I had no hope of this. I
was too conscious of the extreme subtlety of Mr. Carville's art (we may
grant him that now in advance) to think that we could transmit its
fascination to Miss Fraenkel. She would probably be astonished at the
continuance of our curiosity.
She was. She began, the moment she arrived, to tell us the vicissitudes
of a cause to which she had been rapidly and earnestly converted, the
cause of female suffrage. It was evident that her reason for calling was
to "let off steam," as Mac irreverently phrased it afterwards. A number
of millionaires' daughters had drawn upon themselves the eyes of the
world by tramping on foot to Washington to plead for the vote. Miss
Fraenkel's eyes dilated as she told us. We had seen the account of what
the _New York Daily News_ called "The Hike of the Golden Girls," but our
eyes had not dilated. We had even acrimoniously hinted that the
millionaires' daughters were seeking notoriety rather than a relief for
civil disabilities by this undignified tramp across New Jersey and
Maryland. But to Miss Fraenkel we said nothing of this. Even if we had
been averse to Miss Fraenkel having a vote, we would have said nothing.
Only Bill suggested with a smile that the leading "hiker" need not have
offered to kiss the President when he good-humouredly granted them an
interview. Miss Fraenkel could not see it. There was no divinity that
she knew of to hedge a President from a kiss.
"What about the President's wife?" asked Bill.
"Why, _she's_ one of us!" cried Miss Fraenkel. "She approves!"
"Of kissing her husband?" asked Bill.
But Miss Fraenkel's mind was fashioned in water-tight compartments. She
could not switch her enthusiasm from the vote long enough to appreciate
this lapse from good taste. Her mind did not work that way. We would
have to begin at the beginning and lead up to kissing as a moral or
immoral act, before she could give it any serious attention. And when
she asked Bill to join the local league I interposed, lest the harmony
of the evening should be violated.
"We want your vote on another question," I said, and recounted the
events of the afternoon. She listened with apparent attention, playing
with a string of beads that hung round her neck. Long before I finished
I saw she was ready to speak.
"I'll go right in and ask her if she'll join!" she said.
"They've gone to Newark," said Mac.
"To-morrow, then."
"Well," said Bill. "Come up here to-morrow. He's coming in to tell us
some more. You'll meet him first and he can introduce you to his wife."
"That'll do first rate! I'm just crazy to get all the members I can."
The conversation rambled on irrelevantly after that, and we realized
that for Miss Fraenkel at least, the story of Mr. Carville's life was
not absorbingly attractive. We enjoyed her visit, as we always did, but
her influence, in her present preoccupation, was feverish and to a
certain slight degree disturbing.
The problem that presented itself when I retired that night was
immaterial, perhaps, but new. I wondered quietly in what manner Mr.
Carville would regard Miss Fraenkel. Doubtless I was over-exacting, but
I desired to discover, in our neighbour's attitude towards the lady,
some clue to his attitude towards us. I felt vaguely that his candour
was not at all a mere casual fit of communicativeness of which we "just
happened" to be the recipients. If this were the case, it would
infallibly appear in his manner towards our voteless friend. It would be
... but no. My vanity did not carry me that far. The vanity of a man of
forty is generally a steed broken to harness; it will not prance far
into the unknown. I decided to wait until Mr. Carville decided the
matter for himself.
* * * * *
The spectacle, while I was shaving next morning, of Mr. Carville
proceeding sedately down Van Diemen's Avenue with his children, gave a
fresh vagueness to his image in my mind. It was as though a hand had
been passed over the picture, smudging the outlines and rendering the
whole thing of dubious value. A model father! In my bewilderment I
nearly cut myself. And yet, supposing, as I had been supposing, that Mr.
Carville had set out with the definite object of contrasting himself
vividly with his prodigal brother, would he not eventually take up the
role of dutiful parentage? The extraordinary thing was that the model
father should be also the artist.
I determined to abandon the Carville problem for an hour or two after
breakfast in favour of Maupassant. It is my custom to read once a year
at least, the chief works of that incomparable writer. The forenoon of
our Sunday has this peculiarity: no moral obligation to work is imposed
by our unwritten laws. If, on Sunday morning, I am discovered by Bill
leisurely turning over a pile of old magazines, or reading a story, I am
not greeted with "Do you call that work?" On the contrary, she will
probably sit down beside me and indulge in what may be charitably
described as gossip. Mac, too, will leave his palette and boards in
peace, will lie luxuriantly in the big rocker, or, spade on shoulder,
disappear among the shrubs at the lower end of the estate. We neglect
collars and appear brazenly at breakfast in shirt-sleeves on Sunday
mornings. It is for us a day of rest from the insistent badgering of
ideas. Our minds go into neglige; we forget editors and
advertising-managers for a while. Imagine then our dismay when I
reported my view of Mr. Carville in his brushed blue serge and Derby
hat, his glazed linen collar and dark green tie, passing sedately down
the Avenue, a neat child in each hand. There seemed to be no rift in
this man's armour of respectability. He seemed determined to maintain a
great and terrible contrast between his inner and outer life. O supreme
artist! I stretched myself on my sofa and opened Maupassant:
"_Monsieur_," I read. "_Doctor James Ferdinand does not exist, but the
man whose eyes you saw does, and you will certainly recognize his eyes.
This man has committed two crimes, for which he does not feel any
remorse, but, as a psychologist, he is afraid of some day yielding to
the irresistible temptation of confessing his crimes._"
I laid down the book, drawn by the aptness of the text to my problem.
Had Maupassant given me the key of the whole enigma? Was this
astonishing genius, who had so wrought upon our imaginations, was he a
criminal irresistibly driven to tell us the story of his evil life? Were
the police of Europe and America even now scouring the surface of the
globe for him? That brother, that dare-devil gentleman of the
painter-cousin's letter, was a fitting accomplice for him, the quiet,
unobtrusive, impeccable "seaman." He had a number, what was it?
Three-nine-(fool not to write it down!) three-nine-something. Was that
his number during his last imprisonment? Had he spoken in terrific
hyperbole when he admitted that no doubt it was "a picturesque life"?
Good God! How blind we had been! And Miss Fraenkel's shot in the dark,
was it after all the truth? Had he really been "held for something"?
I let my pipe go out, so possessed was I, temporarily, with the
diabolical possibility. A double knock at the door sent the blood to my
heart. I rose, and passing into the front room opened the door. Mr.
Carville stood in the porch in an attitude of profound meditation. The
sight of him, phlegmatic and isolated from all emotion, restored the
balance of my mind somewhat. We shook hands and he still stood there,
trying to remember something.
"Another fine day," I said. "I saw you out early this morning."
He nodded absently, and then his face lightened.
Somewhat to my surprise, if any further surprise was possible, he lifted
his steady grey-blue eyes to mine, raised his right hand as high as his
shoulder and began to recite.
"When that the Knight had thus his tale i-told,
In al the route was ther young ne old
That he ne seyde it was a noble story,
And worthy to be drawen to memory."
And extending a finger he pointed to the little brass Canterbury Pilgrim
that served us for a knocker. "They told stories too, eh?" he said,
smiling.
"You read Chaucer?" I murmured, staggering to a chair in the porch.
"Why, sure!" he said, "don't you?" And he took out his pipe.
I did not pursue the subject, even when I had recovered my poise. The
clever application of the Chaucerian verse to his own case was crushing.
I said nothing of it to Mac when he appeared with a pair of shears
intended for the borders.
"Hullo, Mr. Carville," he said. "Come to finish the story? Wait till I
tell the wife."
"Now where's the hurry?" said our neighbour, deprecatingly, and sitting
down he began to cut up some tobacco. I looked across at New York, still
surrounded in diaphanous mist, and endeavoured to adjust my mind to the
immediate business. Since dinner the night before I had been indulging
in somewhat frothy speculation. It was only fair that Mr. Carville
should have the floor and speak for himself. Bill came out and nodded
brightly. None of us suggested waiting for Miss Fraenkel. I think we
were anxious to hear a little more of Mr. Carville before Miss Fraenkel
arrived; a sort of presentiment, if you like.
"Do tell us about your brother, Mr. Carville," said Bill. "What happened
to him?"
Mr. Carville struck a match and puffed away in the conscientious manner
demanded by a corn-cob.
"Why, of course," he said, carefully expelling a jet of smoke from the
corner of his closed lips, "he came back, my brother did."
Bill looked at him in tragic annoyance.