The night was like a veil of softest velvet dropping slowly from the
heavens. The moon, in its first quarter, displayed a very narrow,
horizontal sickle, like a Turkish crescent, between whose points
the unlit portion of the disk was faintly washed in against the
sky. A long avenue of tjemara-trees stretched in front of the house,
their trunks straight, their leafage like drawn plush or ravelled
velvet, showing like blots of cotton-wool against the clouds, which,
drifting low, announced the approaching rainy monsoon fully a month
beforehand. Wood-pigeons cooed at intervals and a gecko was calling,
first with two rattling, preliminary notes, as though tuning up,
then with his call of "Tokkè! Tokkè!" four or five times repeated:
first loudly, then submissively and more faintly.
A night watchman, in his hut in front of the house, on the high-road,
where the sleeping market-place now showed its empty stalls, struck
eleven blows on his hollow block of wood; and as yet one more belated
cart drove past, he cried, in a hoarse voice:
"Who goes there?"
The night was like softest velvet dropping slowly from the heavens,
like a whirling mystery, like an oppressive menace of the future. But,
in that mystery, under the frayed black blots, the ravelled plush
of the tjemaras, there was an inexorable incitement to love, in
the windless night, like a whisper that this hour should not be
wasted.... True, the gecko was gibing like a mocking imp, with a sort
of dry humour; and the watchman, with his "Who goes there?" startled
the hearer; but the wood-pigeons cooed softly and the whole night was
like a world of softest velvet, like a great alcove curtained by the
plush of the tjemaras, while the distant, sultry rain-clouds, hanging
all that month on the horizon, ringed the skies with an oppressive
spell. Mystery and enchantment hovered through the velvety night,
drifting down in the twilit alcove; and at their touch all thought
was dissolved; the very soul dissolved, leaving only a warm, sensuous
vision....
The gecko fell silent, the watchman dropped asleep; the velvety
night reigned like an enchantress crowned with the sickle of the
moon. They came walking slowly, two youthful figures, their arms
about each other's waists, lips seeking lips under the tyranny of
the enchantment. They were as shadows under the drawn velvet of the
tjemaras; and softly, in their white garments, they dawned on the
beholder like an eternal pair of lovers who are forever and everywhere
repeating themselves. And here above all were lovers inevitable,
in this enchanted night, were one with the night, conjured up by the
all-powerful spell; here they were inevitable, unfolding like a twin
flower of predestined love, in the velvet mystery of the compelling
heavens.
And the tempter seemed to be the son of that night, the son of that
inexorable queen of the night, bearing with him the yielding girl. In
her ears the night seemed to sing with his voice; and her small soul
melted in tender compliance, under these magic powers. She walked on
against his side, feeling the warmth of his body sinking into her
yearning maidenhood; and she lifted her brimming gaze to him, with
the languid light of her sparkling pupils glittering like diamonds
in her eyes. He, drunk with the power of the night, the enchantress,
who was as his mother, thought first of leading her still farther,
no longer conscious of reality, no longer feeling any awe of her or
of any one whatever; thought of leading her still farther, past the
slumbering watchman, across the high road, into the compound, which
lay hidden yonder between the stately plumes of the coco-palms that
would form a canopy to their love; of leading her to a hiding-place,
a house which he knew, a bamboo hut the door of which would be opened
to him ... when suddenly she stopped ... and started ... and gripped
his arm and pressed herself still more tightly against him and implored
him to go no farther. She was frightened.
"Why not?" he asked, gently, in his soft voice, which was as deep and
velvety as the night. "Why not to-night, to-night at last?... There
is no danger."
But she shuddered and shook and entreated:
"Addie, Addie, no ... no.... I daren't go any farther.... I'm
frightened that the watchman will see us ... and then ... there's a
hadji walking over there ... in a white turban...."
He looked out at the road: on the farther side the kampong lay waiting,
under the canopy of the coco-palms, with the bamboo hut whose door
would be opened to him.
"A hadji?... Where, Doddie? I don't see any one...."
"He crossed the road; he looked back at us; he saw us: I saw his eyes
gleaming; and he went into the compound, behind those trees."
"Darling, I saw nothing, there's no one there."
"Yes, there is! Yes, there is! Addie, I daren't go: oh, do let us
go back!"
His handsome Moorish face became overcast; he already saw the door of
the little hut opened by the old woman whom he knew, who worshipped him
as every woman worshipped him, from his mother to his little nieces.
And he again tried to persuade her, but she refused, stood still,
and clung to the ground with her little feet. Then they turned back
and the clouds were sultrier, low on the horizon, and the velvety
darkness fell more thickly, like warm snow, and the ravelled tjemaras
were fuller and blacker than before. The house loomed up before them,
sunk in sleep, with not a light showing. And he entreated her, he
implored her not to leave him that night, saying that he would die,
that night, without her.... Already she was yielding, promising, with
her arms around his neck ... when again she started and again cried:
"Addie! Addie!... There he is again!... That white figure!..."
"But you seem to see hadjis everywhere!" he said, banteringly.
"Look for yourself then ... over there!"
He looked, and now really saw a white figure approaching them in the
front-verandah. But it was a woman.
"Mamma!" cried Doddie, in dismay.
It was indeed Léonie, slowly coming towards them:
"Doddie," she said, gently, "I have been hunting for you everywhere. I
was so frightened, I didn't know where you were. Why do you go out
walking so late? Addie," she continued gently, in kind, motherly tones,
as though addressing two children, "how can you behave like this and
be out with Doddie so late? You really mustn't do it again: I mean
it! I know that there's nothing in it; but suppose any one saw you! You
must promise me never to do it again! You'll promise, won't you?"
She begged this prettily, in tones of engaging reproach, as though
to show that she quite understood him, quite realized that they were
yearning for each other in that velvet night of enchantment, forgiving
them at once in the words which she uttered. She looked like an angel,
with her round, white face in the loose, waving, fair hair, in the
white silk kimono which hung round her in supple folds. And she drew
Doddie to her and kissed the girl and wiped away her tears. And then,
gently, she pushed Doddie before her, to her room in the annexe,
where she slept safely amidst so many other rooms full of the
daughters and grandchildren of old Mrs. de Luce. And, while Doddie,
softly crying, went to the solitude of her room, Léonie continued to
speak words of gentle reproach to Addie, warning him, prettily now,
as a sister might do, while he, brown and handsome, with his Moorish
look, stood before her, bantering yet embarrassed. They were in the
dusk of the dark front verandah; and the night outside exhaled its
inexorable breath of luxuriance, love and velvety mystery. And she
reproached him and warned him and said that Doddie was a child and
that he mustn't take advantage of her. He shrugged his shoulders,
defended himself, in his bantering manner. His words fell upon her
like gold-dust, while his eyes glittered like a tiger's. As she
argued persuasively that he must really spare Doddie in the future,
she seized his hand, that hand of which she was enamoured, his fingers,
his palm, which she could have kissed that morning in her confusion;
and she pressed it and almost cried and implored him to have mercy on
Doddie.... He suddenly realized it, he looked at her suddenly with
the lightning of his wild-animal glance and he found her beautiful,
was aware of her as a woman, white as milk, and he knew her for
a priestess full of secret knowledge. And he too spoke of Doddie,
coming closer to Léonie, touching her, pressing her hands between
his two hands, giving her to understand that he understood. And,
still pretending to weep and entreat and implore, she led him on and
opened the door of her room. He saw a faint light and her maid, Oorip,
who disappeared through the outer door and lay down to sleep there,
like a faithful dog, on a little mat. Then she gave him a laugh of
welcome; and he, the tempter, was amazed at the glowing laugh of
this white, fair-haired temptress, who flung off her silken kimono
and stood before him, like a nude statue, spreading out her arms....
Oorip, outside, listened for a moment. And she was about to lie down
to sleep, smiling, dreaming of the lovely sarongs which the mem sahib
would give her to-morrow, when she started as she saw walking through
the grounds and disappearing in the night a hadji in a white turban....