THE BOUDOIR OF THE BARONESS
A woman's counsel brought us first to woe.--_Dryden_.
"Wait!" she said. "We shall have candles." She clapped her hands
sharply, and again there entered the silent old serving-woman, who,
obedient to a gesture, proceeded to light additional candles in the
prism stands and sconces. The apartment was now distinct in all its
details under this additional flood of light. Decently as I might I
looked about. I was forced to stifle the exclamation of surprise which
rose to my lips.
We were plain folk enough in Washington at that time. The ceremonious
days of our first presidents had passed for the democratic time of
Jefferson and Jackson; and even under Mr. Van Buren there had been
little change from the simplicity which was somewhat our boast.
Washington itself was at that time scarcely more than an overgrown
hamlet, not in the least to be compared to the cosmopolitan centers
which made the capitals of the Old World. Formality and stateliness of a
certain sort we had, but of luxury we knew little. There was at that
time, as I well knew, no state apartment in the city which in sheer
splendor could for a moment compare with this secret abode of a woman
practically unknown. Here certainly was European luxury transferred to
our shores. This in simple Washington, with its vast white unfinished
capitol, its piecemeal miles of mixed residences, boarding-houses,
hotels, restaurants, and hovels! I fancied stern Andrew Jackson or plain
John Calhoun here!
The furniture I discovered to be exquisite in detail, of rosewood and
mahogany, with many brass chasings and carvings, after the fashion of
the Empire, and here and there florid ornamentation following that of
the court of the earlier Louis. Fanciful little clocks with carved
scrolls stood about; Cupid tapestries had replaced the original tawdry
coverings of these common walls, and what had once been a dingy
fireplace was now faced with embossed tiles never made in America. There
were paintings in oil here and there, done by master hands, as one could
tell. The curtained windows spoke eloquently of secrecy. Here and there
a divan and couch showed elaborate care in comfort. Beyond a
lace-screened grille I saw an alcove--doubtless cut through the original
partition wall between two of these humble houses--and within this
stood a high tester bed, its heavy mahogany posts beautifully carved,
the couch itself piled deep with foundations of I know not what of down
and spread most daintily with a coverlid of amber satin, whose edges
fringed out almost to the floor. At the other extremity, screened off as
in a distinct apartment, there stood a smaller couch, a Napoleon bed,
with carved ends, furnished more simply but with equal richness.
Everywhere was the air not only of comfort, but of ease and luxury,
elegance and sensuousness contending. I needed no lesson to tell me that
this was not an ordinary apartment, nor occupied by an ordinary owner.
One resented the liberties England took in establishing this manner of
ménage in our simple city, and arrogantly taking for granted our
ignorance regarding it; but none the less one was forced to commend the
thoroughness shown. The ceilings, of course, remained low, but there was
visible no trace of the original architecture, so cunningly had the
interior been treated. As I have said, the dividing partitions had all
been removed, so that the long interior practically was open, save as
the apartments were separated by curtains or grilles. The floors were
carpeted thick and deep. Silence reigned here. There remained no trace
of the clumsy comfort which had sufficed the early builder. Here was no
longer a series of modest homes, but a boudoir which might have been
the gilded cage of some favorite of an ancient court. The breath and
flavor of this suspicion floated in every drapery, swam in the faint
perfume which filled the place. My first impression was that of
surprise; my second, as I have said, a feeling of resentment at the
presumption which installed all this in our capital of Washington.
I presume my thought may have been reflected in some manner in my face.
I heard a gentle laugh, and turned about. She sat there in a great
carved chair, smiling, her white arms stretched out on the rails, the
fingers just gently curving. There was no apology for her situation, no
trace of alarm or shame or unreadiness. It was quite obvious she was
merely amused. I was in no way ready to ratify the rumors I had heard
regarding her.
She had thrown back over the rail of the chair the rich cloak which
covered her in the carriage, and sat now in the full light, in the
splendor of satin and lace and gems, her arms bare, her throat and
shoulders white and bare, her figure recognized graciously by every line
of a superb gowning such as we had not yet learned on this side of the
sea. Never had I seen, and never since have I seen, a more splendid
instance of what beauty of woman may be.
She did not speak at first, but sat and smiled, studying, I presume, to
find what stuff I was made of. Seeing this, I pulled myself together
and proceeded briskly to my business.
"My employer will find me late, I fear, my dear baroness," I began.
"Better late than wholly unsuccessful," she rejoined, still smiling.
"Tell me, my friend, suppose you had come hither and knocked at my
door?"
"Perhaps I might not have been so clumsy," I essayed.
"Confess it!" she smiled. "Had you come here and seen the exterior only,
you would have felt yourself part of a great mistake. You would have
gone away."
"Perhaps not," I argued. "I have much confidence in my chief's
acquaintance with his own purposes and his own facts. Yet I confess I
should not have sought madam the baroness in this neighborhood. If
England provides us so beautiful a picture, why could she not afford a
frame more suitable? Why is England so secret with us?"
She only smiled, showing two rows of exceedingly even white teeth. She
was perfect mistress of herself. In years she was not my equal, yet I
could see that at the time I did scarcely more than amuse her.
"Be seated, pray," she said at last. "Let us talk over this matter."
Obedient to her gesture, I dropped into a chair opposite to her, she
herself not varying her posture and still regarding me with the laugh
in her half-closed eyes.
"What do you think of my little place?" she asked finally.
"Two things, Madam," said I, half sternly. "If it belonged to a man, and
to a minister plenipotentiary, I should not approve it. If it belonged
to a lady of means and a desire to see the lands of this little world, I
should approve it very much."
She looked at me with eyes slightly narrowed, but no trace of
perturbation crossed her face. I saw it was no ordinary woman with whom
we had to do.
"But," I went on, "in any case and at all events, I should say that the
bird confined in such a cage, where secrecy is so imperative, would at
times find weariness--would, in fact, wish escape to other employment.
You, Madam"--I looked at her directly--"are a woman of so much intellect
that you could not be content merely to live."
"No," she said, "I would not be content merely to live."
"Precisely. Therefore, since to make life worth the living there must be
occasionally a trifle of spice, a bit of adventure, either for man or
woman, I suggest to you, as something offering amusement, this little
journey with me to-night to meet my chief. You have his message. I am
his messenger, and, believe me, quite at your service in any way you may
suggest. Let us be frank. If you are agent, so am I. See; I have come
into your camp. Dare you not come into ours? Come; it is an adventure to
see a tall, thin old man in a dressing-gown and a red woolen nightcap.
So you will find my chief; and in apartments much different from these."
She took up the missive with its broken seal. "So your chief, as you
call him, asks me to come to him, at midnight, with you, a stranger?"
"Do you not believe in charms and in luck, in evil and good fortune,
Madam?" I asked her. "Now, it is well to be lucky. In ordinary
circumstances, as you say, I could not have got past yonder door. Yet
here I am. What does it augur, Madam?"
"But it is night!"
"Precisely. Could you go to the office of a United States senator and
possible cabinet minister in broad daylight and that fact not be known?
Could he come to your apartments in broad daylight and that fact not be
known? What would 'that man Pakenham' suspect in either case? Believe
me, my master is wise. I do not know his reason, but he knows it, and he
has planned best to gain his purpose, whatever it may be. Reason must
teach you, Madam, that night, this night, this hour, is the only time in
which this visit could be made. Naturally, it would be impossible for
him to come here. If you go to him, he will--ah, he will reverence you,
as I do, Madam. Great necessity sets aside conventions, sets aside
everything. Come, then!"
But still she only sat and smiled at me. I felt that purple and amber
glow, the emanation of her personality, of her senses, creeping around
me again as she leaned forward finally, her parted red-bowed lips again
disclosing her delicate white teeth. I saw the little heave of her
bosom, whether in laughter or emotion I could not tell. I was young.
Resenting the spell which I felt coming upon me, all I could do was to
reiterate my demand for haste. She was not in the least impressed by
this.
"Come!" she said. "I am pleased with these Americans. Yes, I am not
displeased with this little adventure."
I rose impatiently, and walked apart in the room. "You can not evade me,
Madam, so easily as you did the Mexican gentleman who followed you. You
have him in the net also? Is not the net full enough?"
"Never!" she said, her head swaying slowly from side to side, her face
inscrutable. "Am I not a woman? Ah, am I not?"
"Madam," said I, whirling upon her, "let me, at least, alone. I am too
small game for you. I am but a messenger. Time passes. Let us arrive at
our business."
"What would you do if I refused to go with you?" she asked, still
smiling at me. She was waiting for the spell of these surroundings, the
spirit of this place, to do their work with me, perhaps; was willing to
take her time with charm of eye and arm and hair and curved fingers,
which did not openly invite and did not covertly repel. But I saw that
her attitude toward me held no more than that of bird of prey and some
little creature well within its power. It made me angry to be so rated.
"You ask me what I should do?" I retorted savagely. "I shall tell you
first what I _will_ do if you continue your refusal. I will _take_ you
with me, and so keep my agreement with my chief. Keep away from the bell
rope! Remain silent! Do not move! You should go if I had to carry you
there in a sack--because that is my errand!"
"Oh, listen at him threaten!" she laughed still. "And he despises my
poor little castle here in the side street, where half the time I am so
lonely! What would Monsieur do if Monsieur were in my place--and if I
were in Monsieur's place? But, bah! you would not have me following
_you_ in the first hour we met, boy!"
I flushed again hotly at this last word. "Madam may discontinue the
thought of my boyhood; I am older than she. But if you ask me what I
would do with a woman if I followed her, or if she followed me, then I
shall tell you. If I owned this place and all in it, I would tear down
every picture from these walls, every silken cover from yonder couches!
I would rip out these walls and put back the ones that once were here!
You, Madam, should be taken out of luxury and daintiness--"
"Go on!" She clapped her hands, for the first time kindling, and
dropping her annoying air of patronizing me. "Go on! I like you now.
Tell me what Americans do with women that they love! I have heard they
are savages."
"A house of logs far out in the countries that I know would do for you,
Madam!" I went on hotly. "You should forget the touch of silk and lace.
No neighbor you should know until I was willing. Any man who followed
you should meet _me_. Until you loved me all you could, and said so, and
proved it, I would wring your neck with my hands, if necessary, until
you loved me!"
"Excellent! What then?"
"Then, Madam the Baroness, I would in turn build you a palace, one of
logs, and would make you a most excellent couch of the husks of corn.
You should cook at my fireplace, and for _me!_"
She smiled slowly past me, at me. "Pray, be seated," she said. "You
interest me."
"It is late," I reiterated. "Come! Must I do some of these things--force
you into obedience--carry you away in a sack? My master can not wait."
"Don Yturrio of Mexico, on the other hand," she mused, "promised me not
violence, but more jewels. Idiot!"
"Indeed!" I rejoined, in contempt. "An American savage would give you
but one gown, and that of your own weave; you could make it up as you
liked. But come, now; I have no more time to lose."
"Ah, also, idiot!" she murmured. "Do you not see that I must reclothe
myself before I could go with you--that is to say, if I choose to go
with you? Now, as I was saying, my ardent Mexican promises thus and so.
My lord of England--ah, well, they may be pardoned. Suppose I might
listen to such suits--might there not be some life for me--some life
with events? On the other hand, what of interest could America offer?"
"I have told you what life America could give you."
"I imagined men were but men, wherever found," she went on; "but what
you say interests me, I declare to you again. A woman is a woman, too, I
fancy. She always wants one thing--to be all the world to one man."
"Quite true," I answered. "Better that than part of the world to one--or
two? And the opposite of it is yet more true. When a woman is all the
world to a man, she despises him."
"But yes, I should like that experience of being a cook in a cabin, and
being bruised and broken and choked!" She smiled, lazily extending her
flawless arms and looking down at them, at all of her splendid figure,
as though in interested examination. "I am alone so much--so bored!" she
went on. "And Sir Richard Pakenham is so very, very fat. Ah, God! You
can not guess how fat he is. But you, you are not fat." She looked me
over critically, to my great uneasiness.
"All the more reason for doing as I have suggested, Madam; for Mr.
Calhoun is not even so fat as I am. This little interview with my chief,
I doubt not, will prove of interest. Indeed"--I went on seriously and
intently--"I venture to say this much without presuming on my station:
the talk which you will have with my chief to-night will show you things
you have never known, give you an interest in living which perhaps you
have not felt. If I am not mistaken, you will find much in common
between you and my master. I speak not to the agent of England, but to
the lady Helena von Ritz."
"He is old," she went on. "He is very old. His face is thin and
bloodless and fleshless. He is old."
"Madam," I said, "his mind is young, his purpose young, his ambition
young; and his country is young. Is not the youth of all these things
still your own?"
She made no answer, but sat musing, drumming lightly on the chair arm.
I was reaching for her cloak. Then at once I caught a glimpse of her
stockinged foot, the toe of which slightly protruded from beneath her
ball gown. She saw the glance and laughed.
"Poor feet," she said. "Ah, _mes pauvres pieds la_! You would like to
see them bruised by the hard going in some heathen country? See you have
no carriage, and mine is gone. I have not even a pair of shoes. Go look
under the bed beyond."
I obeyed her gladly enough. Under the fringe of the satin counterpane I
found a box of boots, slippers, all manner of footwear, daintily and
neatly arranged. Taking out a pair to my fancy, I carried them out and
knelt before her.
"Then, Madam," said I, "since you insist on this, I shall choose.
America is not Europe. Our feet here have rougher going and must be shod
for it. Allow me!"
Without the least hesitation in the world, or the least immodesty, she
half protruded the foot which still retained its slipper. As I removed
this latter, through some gay impulse, whose nature I did not pause to
analyze, I half mechanically thrust it into the side pocket of my coat.
"This shall be security," said I, "that what you speak with my master
shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
There was a curious deeper red in her cheek. I saw her bosom beat the
faster rhythm.
"Quite agreed!" she answered. But she motioned me away, taking the stout
boot in her own hand and turning aside as she fastened it. She looked
over her shoulder at me now and again while thus engaged.
"Tell me," she said gently, "what security do _I_ have? You come, by my
invitation, it is true, but none the less an intrusion, into my
apartments. You demand of me something which no man has a right to
demand. Because I am disposed to be gracious, and because I am much
disposed to be _ennuyé_, and because Mr. Pakenham is fat, I am willing
to take into consideration what you ask. I have never seen a thin
gentleman in a woolen nightcap, and I am curious. But no gentleman plays
games with ladies in which the dice are loaded for himself. Come, what
security shall _I_ have?"
I did not pretend to understand her. Perhaps, after all, we all had been
misinformed regarding her? I could not tell. But her spirit of
_camaraderie_, her good fellowship, her courage, quite aside from her
personal charm, had now begun to impress me.
"Madam," said I, feeling in my pocket; "no heathen has much of this
world's goods. All my possessions would not furnish one of these rooms.
I can not offer gems, as does Señor Yturrio--but, would this be of
service--until to-morrow? That will leave him and me with a slipper
each. It is with reluctance I pledge to return mine!"
By chance I had felt in my pocket a little object which I had placed
there that very day for quite another purpose. It was only a little
trinket of Indian manufacture, which I had intended to give Elisabeth
that very evening; a sort of cloak clasp, originally made as an Indian
blanket fastening, with two round discs ground out of shells and
connected by beaded thongs. I had got it among the tribes of the far
upper plains, who doubtless obtained the shells, in their strange savage
barter, in some way from the tribes of Florida or Texas, who sometimes
trafficked in shells which found their way as far north as the
Saskatchewan. The trinket was curious, though of small value. The
baroness looked at it with interest.
"How it reminds me of this heathen country!" she said. "Is this all that
your art can do in jewelry? Yet it _is_ beautiful. Come, will you not
give it to me?"
"Until to-morrow, Madam."
"No longer?"
"I can not promise it longer. I must, unfortunately, have it back when I
send a messenger--I shall hardly come myself, Madam."
"Ah!" she scoffed. "Then it belongs to another woman?"
"Yes, it is promised to another."
"Then this is to be the last time we meet?"
"I do not doubt it."
"Are you not sorry?"
"Naturally, Madam!"
She sighed, laughing as she did so. Yet I could not evade seeing the
curious color on her cheek, the rise and fall of the laces over her
bosom. Utterly self-possessed, satisfied with life as it had come to
her, without illusion as to life, absorbed in the great game of living
and adventuring--so I should have described her. Then why should her
heart beat one stroke the faster now? I dismissed that question, and
rebuked my eyes, which I found continually turning toward her.
She motioned to a little table near by. "Put the slipper there," she
said. "Your little neck clasp, also." Again I obeyed her.
"Stand there!" she said, motioning to the opposite side of the table;
and I did so. "Now," said she, looking at me gravely, "I am going with
you to see this man whom you call your chief--this old and ugly man,
thin and weazened, with no blood in him, and a woolen nightcap which is
perhaps red. I shall not tell you whether I go of my own wish or because
you wish it. But I need soberly to tell you this: secrecy is as
necessary for me as for you. The favor may mean as much on one side as
on the other--I shall not tell you why. But we shall play fair until,
as you say, perhaps to-morrow. After that--"
"After that, on guard!"
"Very well, on guard! Suppose I do not like this other woman?"
"Madam, you could not help it. All the world loves her."
"Do you?"
"With my life."
"How devoted! Very well, _on guard_, then!"
She took up the Indian bauble, turning to examine it at the nearest
candle sconce, even as I thrust the dainty little slipper of white satin
again into the pocket of my coat. I was uncomfortable. I wished this
talk of Elisabeth had not come up. I liked very little to leave
Elisabeth's property in another's hands. Dissatisfied, I turned from the
table, not noticing for more than an instant a little crumpled roll of
paper which, as I was vaguely conscious, now appeared on its smooth
marquetry top.
"But see," she said; "you are just like a man, after all, and an
unmarried man at that! I can not go through the streets in this costume.
Excuse me for a moment."
She was off on the instant into the alcove where the great amber-covered
bed stood. She drew the curtains. I heard her humming to herself as she
passed to and fro, saw the flare of a light as it rose beyond. Once or
twice she thrust a laughing face between the curtains, held tight
together with her hands, as she asked me some question, mocking me,
still amused--yet still, as I thought, more enigmatic than before.
"Madam," I said at last, "I would I might dwell here for ever, but--you
are slow! The night passes. Come. My master will be waiting. He is ill;
I fear he can not sleep. I know how intent he is on meeting you. I beg
you to oblige an old, a dying man!"
"And you, Monsieur," she mocked at me from beyond the curtain, "are
intent only on getting rid of me. Are you not adventurer enough to
forget that other woman for one night?"
In her hands--those of a mysterious foreign woman--I had placed this
little trinket which I had got among the western tribes for Elisabeth--a
woman of my own people--the woman to whom my pledge had been given, not
for return on any morrow. I made no answer, excepting to walk up and
down the floor.
At last she came out from between the curtains, garbed more suitably for
the errand which was now before us. A long, dark cloak covered her
shoulders. On her head there rested a dainty up-flared bonnet, whose
jetted edges shone in the candle light as she moved toward me. She was
exquisite in every detail, beautiful as mind of man could wish; that
much was sure, must be admitted by any man. I dared not look at her. I
called to mind the taunt of those old men, that I was young! There was
in my soul vast relief that she was not delaying me here longer in this
place of spells--that in this almost providential way my errand had met
success.
She paused for an instant, drawing on a pair of the short gloves of the
mode then correct. "Do you know why I am to go on this heathen errand?"
she demanded. I shook my head.
"Mr. Calhoun wishes to know whether he shall go to the cabinet of your
man Tyler over there in that barn you call your White House. I suppose
Mr. Calhoun wishes to know how he can serve Mr. Tyler?"
I laughed at this. "Serve him!" I exclaimed. "Rather say _lead_ him,
_tell_ him, _command_ him!"
"Yes," she nodded. I began to see another and graver side of her nature.
"Yes, it is of course Texas."
I did not see fit to make answer to this.
"If your master, as you call him, takes the portfolio with Tyler, it is
to annex Texas," she repeated sharply. "Is not that true?"
Still I would not answer. "Come!" I said.
"And he asks me to come to him so that he may decide--"
This awoke me. "No man decides for John Calhoun, Madam," I said. "You
may advance facts, but _he_ will decide." Still she went on.
"And Texas not annexed is a menace. Without her, you heathen people
would not present a solid front, would you?"
"Madam has had much to do with affairs of state," I said.
She went on as though I had not spoken:
"And if you were divided in your southern section, England would have
all the greater chance. England, you know, says she wishes slavery
abolished. She says that--"
"England _says_ many things!" I ventured.
"The hypocrite of the nations!" flashed out this singular woman at me
suddenly. "As though diplomacy need be hypocrisy! Thus, to-night Sir
Richard of England forgets his place, his protestations. He does not
even know that Mexico has forgotten its duty also. Sir, you were not at
our little ball, so you could not see that very fat Sir Richard paying
his bored _devoirs_ to Doña Lucrezia! So I am left alone, and would be
bored, but for you. In return--a slight jest on Sir Richard to-night!--I
will teach him that no fat gentleman should pay even bored attentions to
a lady who soon will be fat, when his obvious duty should call him
otherwhere! Bah! 'tis as though I myself were fat; which is not true."
"You go too deep for me, Madam," I said. "I am but a simple messenger."
At the same time, I saw how admirably things were shaping for us all. A
woman's jealousy was with us, and so a woman's whim!
"There you have the measure of England's sincerity," she went on, with
contempt. "England is selfish, that is all. Do you not suppose I have
something to do besides feeding a canary? To read, to study--that is my
pleasure. I know your politics here in America. Suppose you invade
Texas, as the threat is, with troops of the United States, before Texas
is a member of the Union? Does that not mean you are again at war with
Mexico? And does that not mean that you are also at war with England?
Come, do you not know some of those things?"
"With my hand on my heart, Madam," I asserted solemnly, "all I know is
that you must go to see my master. Calhoun wants you. America needs you.
I beg you to do what kindness you may to the heathen."
"_Et moi?_"
"And you?" I answered. "You shall have such reward as you have never
dreamed in all your life."
"How do you mean?"
"I doubt not the reward for a soul which is as keen and able as your
heart is warm, Madam. Come, I am not such a fool as you think, perhaps.
Nor are you a fool. You are a great woman, a wonderful woman, with head
and heart both, Madam, as well as beauty such as I had never dreamed.
You are a strange woman, Madam. You are a genius, Madam, if you please.
So, I say, you are capable of a reward, and a great one. You may find it
in the gratitude of a people."
"What could this country give more than Mexico or England?" She smiled
quizzically.
"Much more, Madam! Your reward shall be in the later thought of many
homes--homes built of logs, with dingy fireplaces and couches of husks
in them--far out, all across this continent, housing many people, many
happy citizens, men who will make their own laws, and enforce them, man
and man alike! Madam, it is the spirit of democracy which calls on you
to-night! It is not any political party, nor the representative of one.
It is not Mr. Calhoun; it is not I. Mr. Calhoun only puts before you the
summons of--"
"Of what?"
"Of that spirit of democracy."
She stood, one hand ungloved, a finger at her lips, her eyes glowing. "I
am glad you came," she said. "On the whole, I am also glad I came upon
my foolish errand here to America."
"Madam," said I, my hand at the fastening of the door, "we have
exchanged pledges. Now we exchange places. It is you who are the
messenger, not myself. There is a message in your hands. I know not
whether you ever served a monarchy. Come, you shall see that our
republic has neither secrets nor hypocrisies."
On the instant she was not shrewd and tactful woman of the world, not
student, but once more coquette and woman of impulse. She looked at me
with mockery and invitation alike in her great dark eyes, even as I
threw down the chain at the door and opened it wide for her to pass.
"Is that my only reward?" she asked, smiling as she fumbled at a glove.
In reply, I bent and kissed the fingers of her ungloved hand. They were
so warm and tender that I had been different than I was had I not felt
the blood tingle in all my body in the impulse of the moment to do more
than kiss her fingers.
Had I done so--had I not thought of Elisabeth--then, as in my heart I
still believe, the flag of England to-day would rule Oregon and the
Pacific; and it would float to-day along the Rio Grande; and it would
menace a divided North and South, instead of respecting a strong and
indivisible Union which owns one flag and dreads none in the world.