KARL GROWS A MOUSTACHE.
For several days Mr. Incoul was much occupied. He left the house
early and returned to it late. One afternoon he sent for Karl. Since
the return to Paris the courier’s duties had not been arduous; they
consisted chiefly in keeping out of the way. On this particular
afternoon he was not immediately discoverable, and when at last he
presented himself it was in the expectation that the hour of his
dismissal had struck. He bowed, nevertheless, with the best grace in
the world, and noticing that his employer’s eyes were upon him, gazed
deferentially at the carpet.
Mr. Incoul looked at him in a contemplative way for a moment or two.
“Karl,” he said at last, and Karl raised his eyes.
“Yes, sir.”
“Have you any objections to shaving your whiskers?”
“I, sir? not the slightest.”
“I will be obliged if you will do so. This afternoon you might go to
Cumberland’s and be measured. I have left orders there. Then take
a room at the Meurice; you have money, have you not? Very good,
keep an account of your expenditures. In a week I will send you my
instructions. That will do for to-day.”
An hour later Mr. Incoul was watching a game of baccarat at the Cercle
des Capucines.
Meanwhile Lenox Leigh had given much of his time to the pleasures
of Mirette’s society. In making her acquaintance at Biarritz he had
been actuated partly by the idleness of the moment and partly by the
attracting face of celebrity. He had never known a danseuse; indeed,
heretofore, his acquaintance with women had been limited to those of
his own _monde_, and during the succeeding days he hovered about her
more that he might add a new photograph to a mental album than with any
idea of conquest. She amused him extremely. In her speech she displayed
a recklessness of adjective such as he had never witnessed before. It
was not that she was brilliant, but she possessed that stereotyped form
of repartee which is known as _bagou_, and which the Parisian takes to
naturally and without effort. Mirette seemed to have acquired it in
its supremest expression. One day, for instance, the curiosity of her
circle of admirers was aroused by a young actress who, while painfully
plain, squandered coin with remarkable ease. “Whom do you suppose she
gets the money from?” some one asked, and Mirette without so much
as drawing breath answered serenely, “A blind man.” In spite of the
_bagou_ Mirette was not a Parisian. She was born in the provinces, at
Orléans, and was wont to declare herself a lineal descendant of Joan
of Arc. She lied with perfect composure; if reproached she curled her
lips. “Lies whiten the teeth,” she would say, an argument which it was
impossible to refute.
Under the empire she would have been a success; under a republic she
complained of the difficulty of making two ends meet. Now Lenox was not
rich, but he was an American, and the Americans have assumed in Paris
the position which the English once held. Their coffers are considered
inexhaustible. On this subject, thanks to Mrs. Mackay, Mr. Incoul, the
Vanderbilts, the Astors and a dozen others, there is now no doubt in
the mind of the French. To be an American is to be a Vesuvius of gold
pieces.
As a native of the land of millions, Lenox found that his earliest
attentions were received with smiles, and in time when a Russian became
so scratched that the Tartar was visible, Mirette welcomed him with
undisguised favor.
Like many another, Lenox had his small vanities; he would have liked
to have thought himself indispensable to Maida’s happiness, but in her
absence he did not object to being regarded as the _cavaliere servente_
of the first lady of the ballet. Between the two women the contrast
was striking. Mirette, as has been hinted, was reckless of adjective;
she was animal, imperious, and at times frankly vulgar. Maida was
her antithesis. She shrank from coarseness as from a deformity.
Both represented Love, but they represented the extremes. One was
as ignorant of virtue as the other was unconscious of vice. One was
Mylitta, the other Psyche. Had the difference been less accentuated,
it would have jarred. But the transition was immeasurable. It was like
a journey from the fjords of Norway to the jungles of Hindustan. That
Psyche was regretted goes without the need of telling, but Mylitta has
enchantments which are said to lull regret.
In the second week of October the bathing was still delicious. The
waves encircled one in a large, abrupt embrace. Mirette would have
liked to remain, the beach was a daily triumph for her. There was not
a woman in the world who could have held herself in the scantiest of
costumes, under the fire of a thousand eyes, as gracefully as she. No
sedan-chair for her indeed. No hurrying, no running, no enveloping
wrap. No pretense or attempt to avoid the scrutiny of the bystanders.
There was nothing of this for her. She crossed the entire width of
sand, calmly, slowly, an invitation on her lips and with the walk and
majesty of a queen. The amateurs as usual were tempted to applaud.
It was indeed a triumph, an advertisement to boot, and one which she
would have liked to prolong. But she was needed at the Opéra and so she
returned to Paris accompanied by Lenox Leigh.
In Paris it is considered inconvenient for a pretty woman to go about
on foot, and as for cabs, where is the self-respecting chorus-girl who
would consent to be seen in one? Mirette was very positive on this
point and Lenox agreed with her thoroughly. He did not, however, for
that reason offer to provide an equipage. Indeed the wherewithal was
lacking. He had spent more money at Biarritz than he had intended,
perhaps ten times the amount that he would have spent at Newport or at
Cowes, and his funds were nearly exhausted.
As every one is aware a banker is the last person in the world to be
consulted on matters of finance. If a client has money in his pocket a
banker can transfer it to his own in an absolutely painless manner, but
if the client’s pocket is empty what banker, out of an opéra-bouffe,
was ever willing to fill it? Lenox reflected over this and was at a
loss how to act. The firm on whom his drafts were drawn held nothing on
their ledgers to his credit. He visited them immediately on arriving
and was given a letter which for the moment he fancied might contain
a remittance. But it bore the Paris postmark and the address was in
Maida’s familiar hand. As he looked at it he forgot his indigence,
his heart gave an exultant throb. He had promised himself that when
he met her again matters should go on very much as they had before,
and he had further promised himself that so soon as his former footing
was re-established he would give up Mirette. He was therefore well
pleased when the note was placed in his hands. It had a faint odor of
orris, and he opened it as were he unfolding a lace handkerchief. But
from what has gone before it will be understood that his pleasure was
short lived. The note was brief and categoric, he read it almost at a
glance, and when he had possessed himself of the contents he felt that
the determination conveyed was one from which there was no appeal, or
rather one from which any appeal would be useless. He looked at the
note again. The handwriting suggested an unaccustomed strength, and in
the straight, firm strokes he read the irrevocable. “It is done,” he
muttered. “I can write Finis over that.” He looked again at the note
and then tore it slowly into minute scraps, and watched them flutter
from him.
He went out to the street and there his earlier preoccupation
returned. It would be a month at least before a draft could be sent,
and meanwhile, though he had enough for his personal needs, he had
nothing with which to satisfy Mirette’s caprices. _Et elle en avait,
cette dame!_ The thought of separating from her did not occur to him,
or if it did it was in that hazy indistinguishable form in which
eventualities sometimes visit the perplexed. If Maida’s note had been
other, he would have washed his hands of Mirette, but now apparently
she was the one person on the Continent who cared when he came and
when he went. In his present position he was like one who, having
sprained an ankle, learns the utility of a crutch. The idea of losing
it was not agreeable. Beside, the knowledge that his intimacy with the
woman had been envied by grandees with unnumbered hats was to him a
source of something that resembled consolation.
Presently he reached the boulevard. He was undecided what to do or
where to turn, and as he loitered on the curb the silver head of a
stick was waved at him from a passing cab; in a moment the vehicle
stopped. May alighted and shook him by the hand.
“I am on my way to the Capucines,” he explained, in his blithesome
stutter. “There’s a big game on; why not come, too?”
“A big game of what?”
“B-b, why baccarat of course. What did you suppose? M-marbles?”
Lenox fumbled in his waistcoat pocket. “Yes, I’ll go,” he said.
Five minutes later he was standing in a crowded room before a green
table. He had never gambled, and hardly knew one card from another,
but baccarat can be learned with such facility that after two deals a
raw recruit can argue with a veteran as to whether it is better to
stand on five or to draw. Lenox watched the flight of notes, gold and
counters. He listened to the monotonous calls: _J’en donne! Carte!
Neuf!_ The end of the table at which he stood seemed to be unlucky.
He moved to the other, and presently he leaned over the shoulder of a
gamester and put down a few louis. In an hour he left the room with
twenty-seven thousand francs.
A fraction of it he put in his card-case, the rest he handed to
Mirette. It was not a large sum, but its dimensions were satisfactory
to her. “_Ce p’tit chat_,” she said to herself, “_je savais bien
qu’il ne ferait pas le lapin_.” And of the large azure notes she made
precisely one bite.
Thereafter for some weeks things went on smoothly enough. Mirette’s
mornings were passed at rehearsals, but usually the afternoons were
free, and late in the day she would take Lenox to the Cascade, or meet
him there and drive back with him to dinner. In the evenings there was
the inevitable theatre, with supper afterwards at some _cabaret à la
mode_. And sometimes when she was over-fatigued, Lenox would go to the
club and try a hand at baccarat.
He was not always so fortunate as on the first day, but on the
whole his good luck was noticeable. It is possible, however, that he
found the excitement enervating. He had been used to a much quieter
existence, one that if not entirely praiseworthy was still outwardly
decorous, and suddenly he had been pitch-forked into that narrowest of
circles which is called Parisian life. He may have liked it at first,
as one is apt to like any novelty, but to nerves that are properly
attuned a little of its viciousness goes a very great way.
It may be that it was beginning to exert its usual dissolvent effect.
In any event Lenox, who all his life had preferred water to wine, found
absinthe grateful in the morning.
One afternoon, shortly after the initial performance of the new
ballet, he went from his hotel to the apartment which Mirette occupied
in the Rue Pierre-Charon. He was informed that she was not at home.
He questioned the servant as to her whereabouts, but the answers he
received were vague and unsatisfactory. He then drove to the Cascade,
but Mirette did not appear. After dinner he made sure of finding her.
In this expectation he was again disappointed.
The next day his success was no better. He questioned the servant
uselessly. “Madame was not at home, she had left no word.” To each
of his questions the answer was invariable. It was evident that the
servant had been coached, and it was equally evident that at least for
the moment his companionship was not a prime necessity to the first
lady of the ballet.
As he left the house he bit his lip. That Mirette should be capricious
was quite in the order of things, but that she should treat him like
the first comer was a different matter. When he had last seen her, her
manner had left nothing to be desired, and suddenly, without so much as
a p. p. c., her door was shut, and not shut as it might have been by
accident; no, it was persistently, purposely closed.
Presently he reached the Champs-Elysées. It was Sunday. A stream of
carriages flooded the avenue, and the sidewalks were thronged with
ill-dressed people. The crowd increased his annoyance. The possibility
of being jostled irritated him, the spectacle of dawdling shop-keepers
filled him with disgust. He hailed a cab in which to escape; the
driver paid no attention; he hailed another; the result was the same,
and then in the increasing exasperation of the moment he felt that
he hated Paris. A fat man with pursed lips and an air of imbecile
self-satisfaction brushed against him. He could have turned and slapped
him in the face.
Without, however, committing any overt act of violence, he succeeded
in reaching his hotel. There he sought the reading-room, but he found
it fully occupied by one middle-aged Englishwoman, and leaving her in
undisturbed possession of the _Times_, he went to his own apartment. A
day or two before he had purchased a copy of a much applauded novel,
and from it he endeavored to extract a sedative. Mechanically he turned
the pages. His eyes glanced over and down them, resting at times
through fractions of an hour on a single line, but the words conveyed
no message to his mind, his thoughts were elsewhere, they surged
through vague perplexities and hovered over shadowy enigmas, until at
last he discovered that he was trying to read in the dark.
He struck a light and found that it was nearly seven. “I will dress,”
he told himself, “and dine at the club.” In half an hour he was on his
way to the Capucines. The streets were still crowded and the Avenue de
l’Opéra in which his hotel was situated, vibrated as were it the main
artery of the capital. As he approached the boulevard he thought that
it would perhaps be wiser to dine at a restaurant; he was discomfited
and he was not sure but that the myriad tongue of gossip might not
be already busy with the cause of his discomfiture. He did not feel
talkative, and were he taciturn at the club he knew that it would
be remarked. Bignon’s was close at hand. Why not dine there? In his
indecision he halted before an adjacent shop and stood for a moment
looking in the window, apparently engrossed by an assortment of strass
and imitation pearls. The proprietress was lounging in the doorway.
“_Si Monsieur veut entrer_”--she began seductively, but he turned from
her; as he did so, a brougham drew up before the curb and Mirette
stepped from it.
Lenox, in his surprise at the unexpected, did not at first notice that
a man had also alighted. He moved forward and would have spoken, but
Mirette looked him straight in the eyes, as who should say _Allez vous
faire lanlaire, mon cher_, and passed on into the restaurant.
Her companion had hurried a little in advance to open the door, and as
he swung it aside and Mirette entered Lenox caught a glimpse of his
face. It was meaningless enough, and yet not entirely unfamiliar. “Who
is the cad,” he wondered. Yet, after all, what difference did it make?
He could not blame the man. As for jealousy, the word was meaningless
to him. It was his _amour propre_ that suffered. He smiled a trifle
grimly to himself and continued his way.
At the corner was a large picture shop. An old man wrapped in a loose
fur coat stood at the window looking at the painting of a little girl.
The child was alone in a coppice and seemingly much frightened at the
approach of a flock of does. Unconsciously Lenox stopped also. He had
been so bewildered by the suddenness of the cut that he did not notice
whether he was walking or standing still.
And so it was for this, he mused, that admittance had been denied him.
But why could she not have had the decency to tell him not to come
instead of letting him run there like a tradesman with a small bill?
Certainly he had deserved better things of her than that. It was so
easy for a woman to break gracefully. A note, a word, and if the man
insists a second note, a second word; after that the man, if he is
decently bred, can do nothing but raise his hat and speed the parting
guest. Beside, why would she want to break with him and take up with
a fellow who looked like a barber from the Grand Hôtel? Who was he any
way?
His eyes rested on the picture of the little girl. The representation
of her childish fright almost diverted his thoughts, but all the while
there was an undercurrent which in some dim way kept telling him that
he had seen the man’s face before. And as he groped in his memory the
picture of the child faded as might a picture in a magic lantern, and
in its place, vaguely at first and gradually better defined, he saw,
standing in the moonlight, on a white road, a coach and four. To the
rear was the terrace of a hôtel, and beyond was a shimmering bay like
to that which he had seen at San Sebastian.
“My God,” he cried aloud, “it’s Incoul’s courier!”
The old man in the fur coat looked at him nervously, and shrank away.