"You've succeeded in slaying any consideration I entertained for your
sex. You've enlightened me. In future I'll take them as I find them,
easily, lightly, good-humoredly, with gaiety, with gratitude to the old
time gods when they send a pretty one my way."
And I smiled at Thusis who looked darkly back at me with the faintest
hint of uncertainty in her eyes.
"It is wonderful," said I, "how a word or two from a woman sometimes
clears up the most serious situations. Your revelations concerning my
sex in general have opened my eyes. I take your word for it that man is
always man, as you explain so convincingly, and that he is, first, last,
and all the time, merely a jackass endowed with speech."
I emptied my coffee cup and set it upon the tray which she held in her
left hand.
"I had," said I, "something else to tell you--and which had nothing
whatever to do with love. But, on second thoughts, I am so certain that
a self-sufficient girl like yourself is amply able to look out for
herself, that I shall not bother to say what I had intended saying."
Her gray eyes became intently fixed on mine while her color came and
went under the sting of irony.
But I made up my mind to let matters take their course. If she tried to
body-snatch this Greek and Bulgarian carrion, let her! If Smith
interfered, let him! What was it to me after all? I was becoming fed
up on love and feminine caprice--on kings and queens and shocking
manners,--on intrigue and treachery and counter plot.
Suddenly, as I stood there, a wave of disgust swept over me. I was sick
of Switzerland; sick of the ridiculous property which was causing me all
this trouble and discomfort; sick of the grotesque whim of Fate which
had yanked me out of an orderly, unaccented life and a peaceful
profession in Manhattan and had slammed me down here in the midst of
love and Alps and kings!
"I'll chuck the estate and go home!" I exclaimed. "I'll go now,
to-night!" And then I remembered the accursed avalanche.
She was watching me intently, curiously, and I noticed she had lost some
of her colour.
"Do you suppose," said I, "that there is any way of climbing over that
mass of snow?--any way of my getting out of this valley to-night?"
"Would you go if you could?" she asked in a rather colorless voice.
"Yes, I would," said I savagely. "I've had enough."
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry that I've had enough?" I sneered.
"Sorry you cannot leave the valley to-night," she said quietly.
"Then it is not possible?"
"I'm afraid not.... If it were, I also would leave this valley
to-night."
"With a bagful of kings," I added.
"Yes," she said simply.
"Oh, no, you wouldn't," said I with unworthy satisfaction in my
knowledge of Smith's mission. "And let me tell you a thing or two,
Thusis. You seem to resemble, more or less, a very naughty little girl,
spoiled but precocious, who has run away from school and is raising the
devil out of bounds, throwing stones and ringing door-bells and defying
policemen with derisive tongue. Pretty soon you'll be caught and led
home and soundly spanked. And," I added fervently, "I'd like to be in
the vicinity of that wood-shed when discipline begins."
My laughter was fairly genuine. I lighted a cigarette and, gazing at
this girl who had so outrageously maligned me, felt so much better that
a macabre sort of gaiety verging upon frivolity invaded me.
"All women," said I, "are women, first, last, and all the time."
Thusis flushed.
"I am wondering," said I airily, "whether the role of Adonis might suit
me."
"What!" she exclaimed.
"Adonis," I repeated. "He was that poor fish of an amateur who played
opposite Aphrodite. And got the hook. But the role is all right and
it's a no-character part if you play it straight.... I'm wondering--"
And I smiled at my own thoughts and blew three rings of smoke up at the
sun-lit grape leaves overhead.
Suddenly Thusis unclosed her soft, fresh lips, which seemed a trifle
tremulous:
"That woman," she said breathlessly, "is notorious in Vienna! And if
you are--sufficiently abandoned--to d-degrade yourself by--an
affair--with her----"
"But what do you care, Thusis?"
Her face flamed. "I care--_that_!" she said, snapping her white
fingers. And turned swiftly on her heel.
*XVI*
*THE COUNTESS*
I was very unhappy. I was not only madly in love with Thusis but also
mad enough to spank her. And I sat down in the arbor once more a prey
to mixed emotions.
The two silent little birds had gone to bed. Soft mauve shadows lay
across the scrubby foreland; snow peaks assumed the hue of pink pearls;
a wavering light played through the valley so that the world seemed to
quiver in primrose tints.
Then, through the pale yellow glory, a girl came drifting as though part
of the delicate beauty of it all,--her frail, primrose evening gown and
scarf scarcely outlined--scarcely detached from the golden clarity about
her. It was as though she were lost in the monotone of living light the
only accent the dusky symmetry of her head.