IN A HOUSE IN CURZON STREET.
Armed with a defiant scepticism, and yet conscious of an unusual
interest and expectation, George Brand drove up to Curzon Street on the
following evening. As he jumped out of his hansom, he inadvertently
glanced at the house.
"Conspiracy has not quite built us a palace as yet," he said to himself.
The door was opened by a little German maid-servant, as neat and round
and rosy as a Dresden china shepherdess, who conducted him up-stairs and
announced him at the drawing-room. It was not a large room; but there
was more of color and gilding in it than accords with the severity of
modern English taste; and it was lit irregularly with a number of
candles, each with a little green or rose-red shade. Mr. Lind met him at
the door. As they shook hands, Brand caught a glimpse of another figure
in the room--apparently that of a tall woman dressed all in cream-white,
with a bunch of scarlet geraniums in her bosom, and another in her
raven-black hair.
"Not the gay little adventuress, then?" was his instant and internal
comment. "Better contrived still. The inspired prophetess. Obviously
not the daughter of this man at all. Hired."
But when Natalie Lind came forward to receive him, he was more than
surprised; he was almost abashed. During a second or two of wonder and
involuntary admiration, he was startled out of his critical attitude
altogether. For this tall and striking figure was in reality that of a
young girl of eighteen or nineteen, who had the beautifully formed bust,
the slender waist, and the noble carriage that even young Hungarian
girls frequently have. Perhaps the face, with its intellectual forehead
and the proud and firmly cut mouth, was a trifle too calm and
self-reliant for a young girl: but all the softness of expression that
was wanted, all the gentle and gracious timidity that we associate with
maidenhood, lay in the large, and dark, and lustrous eyes. When, by
accident, she turned aside, and he saw the outline of that clear,
olive-complexioned face, only broken by the outward curve of the long
black lashes, he had to confess to himself that, adventuress or no
adventuress, prophetess or no prophetess, Natalie Lind was possessed of
about the most beautiful profile he had ever beheld, while she had the
air and the bearing of a queen.
Her father and he talked of the various trifling things of the moment;
but what he was chiefly thinking of was the singular calm and
self-possession of this young girl. When she spoke, her dark, soft eyes
regarded him without fear. Her manner was simple and natural to the last
degree; perhaps with the least touch added of maidenly reserve. He was
forced even to admire the simplicity of her dress--cream or canary white
it was, with a bit of white fur round the neck and round the tight
wrists. The only strong color was that of the scarlet geraniums which
she wore in her bosom, and in the splendid masses of her hair; and the
vertical sharp line of scarlet of her closed fan.
Once only, during this interval of waiting, did he find that calm
serenity of hers disturbed. He happened to observe the photograph of a
very handsome woman near him on the table. She told him she had had a
parcel of photographs of friends of hers just sent over from Vienna:
some of them very pretty. She went to another table, and brought over a
handful. He glanced at them only a second or two.
"I see they are mostly from Vienna: are they Austrian ladies?" he asked.
"They live in Austria, but they are not Austrians," she answered. And
then she added, with a touch of scorn about the beautiful mouth, "Our
friends and we don't belong to the women-floggers!"
"Natalie!" her father said; but he smiled all the same.
"I will tell you one of my earliest recollections," she said: "I
remember it very well. Kossuth was carrying me round the room on his
shoulder. I suppose I had been listening to the talk of the gentlemen;
for I said to him, 'When they burned my papa in effigy at Pesth, why was
I not allowed to go and see?' And he said--I remember the sound of his
voice even now--'Little child, you were not born then. But if you had
been able to go, do you know what they would have done to you? They
would have flogged you. Do you not know that the Austrians flog women?
When you grow up, little child, your papa will tell you the story of
Madame von Maderspach.'" Then she added, "That is one of my valued
recollections, that when I was a child I was carried on Kossuth's
shoulders."
"You have no similar reminiscence of Gorgey, I suppose?" Brand said,
with a smile.
He had spoken quite inadvertently, without the slightest thought in the
world of wounding her feelings. But he was surprised and shocked by the
extraordinary effect which this chance remark produced on the tall and
beautiful girl standing there; for an instant she paused, as if not
knowing what to say. Then she said proudly, and she turned away as she
did so,
"Perhaps you are not aware that there are some names you should not
mention in the presence of a Hungarian woman."
What was there in the tone of the voice that made him rapidly glance at
her eyes, as she turned away, pretending to carry back the photographs?
He was not deceived. Those large dark eyes were full of sudden,
indignant tears; she had not turned quite quickly enough to conceal
them.
Of course, he instantly and amply apologized for his ignorance and
stupidity; but what he said to himself was, "That child is not acting.
She may be Lind's daughter, after all. Poor thing! she is too beautiful,
and generous, and noble to be made the decoy of a revolutionary
adventurer."
At this moment Lord Evelyn arrived, throwing a quick glance of inquiry
toward his friend, to see what impression, so far, had been produced.
But the tall, red-bearded Englishman maintained, as the diplomatists
say, an attitude of the strictest reserve. The keen gray eyes were
respectful attentive, courteous--especially when they were turned to
Miss Lind; beyond that, nothing.
Now they had not been seated at the dinner-table more than a few minutes
before George Brand began to ask himself whether it was really Curzon
Street he was dining in. The oddly furnished room was adorned with
curiosities to which every capital in Europe would seem to have
contributed. The servants, exclusively women, were foreign; the table
glass and decorations were all foreign; the unostentatious little
banquet was distinctly foreign. Why, the very bell that had summoned
them down--what was there in the soft sound of it that had reminded him
of something far away? It was a haunting sound, and he kept puzzling
over the vague association it seemed to call up. At last he frankly
mentioned the matter to Miss Lind, who seemed greatly pleased.
"Ah, did you like the sound?" she said, in that low and harmonious voice
of hers. "The bell was an invention of my own; shall I show it to you?"
The Dresden shepherdess, by name Anneli, being despatched into the hall,
presently returned with an object somewhat resembling in shape a
Cheshire cheese, but round at the top, formed of roughly filed metal of
a lustrous yellow-gray. Round the rude square handle surmounting it was
carelessly twisted a bit of old orange silk; other decoration there was
none.
"Do you see what it is now?" she said. "Only one of the great bells the
people use for the cattle on the Campagna. Where did I get it? Oh, you
know the Piazza Montenara, in Rome, of course? There is a place there
where they sell such things to the country people. You could get one
without difficulty, if you are not afraid of being laughed at as a mad
Englishman. That bit of embroidered ribbon, though, I got in an old shop
in Florence."
Indeed, what struck him further was, not only the foreign look of the
little room and its belongings, but also the extraordinary familiarity
with foreign cities shown by both Lind and his daughter. As the rambling
conversation went on (the sonorous cattle-bell had been removed by the
rosy-cheeked Anneli), they appeared to be just as much at home in
Madrid, in Munich, in Turin, or Genoa as in London. And it was no vague
and general tourist's knowledge that these two cosmopolitans showed; it
was rather the knowledge of a resident--an intimate acquaintance with
persons, streets, shops, and houses. George Brand was a bit of a
globe-trotter himself, and was entirely interested in this talk about
places and things that he knew. He got to be quite at home with those
people, whose own home seemed to be Europe. Reminiscences, anecdotes
flowed freely on; the dinner passed with unconscious rapidity. Lord
Evelyn was delighted and pleased beyond measure to observe the more than
courteous attention that his friend paid to Natalie Lind.
But all this while what mention was there of the great and wonderful
organization--a mere far-off glimpse of which had so captured Lord
Evelyn's fervent imagination? Not a word. The sceptic who had come among
them could find nothing either to justify or allay his suspicions. But
it might safely be said that, for the moment at least, his suspicions as
regarded one of those two were dormant. It was difficult to associate
trickery, and conspiracy, and cowardly stabbing, with this beautiful
young Hungarian girl, whose calm, dark eyes were so fearless. It is true
that she appeared very proud-spirited, and generous, and enthusiastic;
and you could cause her cheek to pale whenever you spoke of injury done
to the weak, or the suffering, or the poor. But that was different from
the secret sharpening of poniards.
Once only was reference made to the various secret associations that are
slowly but eagerly working under the apparent social and political
surface of Europe. Some one mentioned the Nihilists. Thereupon Ferdinand
Lind, in a quiet and matter-of-fact way, without appearing to know
anything of the _personnel_ of the society, and certainly without
expressing any approval of its aims, took occasion to speak of the
extraordinary devotion of those people.
"There has been nothing like it," said he, "in all the history of what
men have done for a political cause. You may say they are fanatics,
madmen, murderers; that they only provoke further tyranny and
oppression; that their efforts are wholly and solely mischievous. It may
be so; but I speak of the individual and what he is ready to do. The
sacrifice of their own life is taken almost as a matter of course. Each
man knows that for him the end will almost certainly be Siberia or a
public execution; and he accepts it. You will find young men, well-born,
well-educated, who go away from their friends and their native place,
who go into a remote village, and offer to work at the commonest trade,
at apprentices' wages. They settle there; they marry; they preach
nothing but the value of honest work, and extreme sobriety, and respect
for superiors. Then, after some years, when they are regarded as beyond
all suspicion, they begin, cautiously and slowly, to spread abroad
their propaganda--to teach respect rather for human liberty, for
justice, for self-sacrifice, for those passions that prompt a nation to
adventure everything for its freedom. Well, you know the end. The man
may be found out--banished or executed; but the association remains. The
Russians at this moment have no notion how wide-spread and powerful it
is."
"The head-quarters, are they in Russia itself?" asked Brand, on the
watch for any admission.
"Who knows?" said the other, absently. "Perhaps there are none."
"None? Surely there must be some power to say what is to be done, to
enforce obedience?"
"What if each man finds that in himself?" said Lind, with something of
the air of a dreamer coming over the firm and thoughtful and rugged
face. "It may be a brotherhood. All associations do not need to be
controlled by kings and priests and standing armies."
"And the end of all this devotion, you say is Siberia or death?"
"For the man, perhaps; for his work, not. It is not personal gain or
personal safety that a man must have in view if he goes to do battle
against the oppression that has crushed the world for centuries and
centuries. Do you not remember the answer given to the Czar by Michael
Bestoujif when he was condemned? It was only the saying of a peasant;
but it is one of the noblest ever heard in the world. 'I have the power
to pardon you,' said the Czar to him, 'and I would do so if I thought
you would become a faithful subject.' What was the answer? 'Sire,' said
Michael Bestoujif, 'that is our great misfortune, that the Emperor can
do everything, and that there is no law.'"
"Ah, the brave man!" said Natalie Lind, quickly and passionately, with a
flash of pride in her eyes. "The brave man! If I had a brother, I would
ask him, 'When will you show the courage of Michael Bestoujif?'"
Lord Evelyn glanced at her with a strange, admiring, proud look. "If she
had a brother!" What else, even with all his admiration and affection
for her, could he hope to be?
Presently they wandered back into other and lighter subjects; and Brand,
at least, did not notice how the time was flying. When Natalie Lind
rose, and asked her father whether he would have coffee sent into the
smoking-room, or have tea in the drawing-room, Brand was quite
astonished and disappointed to find it so late. He proposed they should
at once go up to the drawing-room; and this was done.
They had been speaking of musical instruments at dinner; and their host
now brought them some venerable lutes to examine--curiosities only, for
most of the metal strings were broken. Beautiful objects, however, they
were, in inlaid ivory or tortoise-shell and ebony; made, as the various
inscriptions revealed, at Bologna, or Padua, or Venice; and dating, some
of them, as far back as 1474. But in the midst of all this, Brand espied
another instrument on one of the small tables.
"Miss Lind," said he, with some surprise, "do you play the zither?"
"Oh yes, Natalie will play you something," her father said, carelessly;
and forthwith the girl sat down to the small table.
George Brand retired into a corner of the room. He was passionately fond
of zither music. He thought no more about that examination of the lutes.
"_Do you know one who can play the zither well?_" says the proverb. "_If
so, rejoice, for there are not two in the world._" However that might
be, Natalie Lind could play the zither, as one eager listener soon
discovered. He, in that far corner, could only see the profile of the
girl (just touched with a faint red from the shade of the nearest
candle, as she leaned over the instrument), and the shapely wrists and
fingers as they moved on the metallic strings. But was that what he
really did see when the first low tremulous notes struck the prelude to
one of the old pathetic _Volkslieder_ that many a time he had heard in
the morning, when the fresh wind blew in from the pines; that many a
time he had heard in the evening, when the little blue-eyed Kathchen and
her mother sung together as they sat and knitted on the bench in front
of the inn? Suddenly the air changes. What is this louder tramp? Is it
not the joyous chorus of the home-returning huntsmen; the lads with the
slain roedeer slung round their necks; that stalwart Bavarian keeper
hauling at his mighty black hound; old father Keinitz, with his three
beagles and his ancient breech-loader, hurrying forward to get the first
cool, vast, splendid bath of the clear, white wine? How the young
fellows come swinging along through the dust, their faces ablaze against
the sunset! Listen to the far, hoarse chorus!--
"Dann kehr ich von der Haide,
Zur hauslich stillen Freude,
Ein frommer Jagersmann!
Ein frommer Jagersmann!
Halli, hallo! halli, hallo!
Ein frommer Jagersmann!"
White wine now, and likewise the richer red!--for there is a great
hand-shaking because of the Mr. Englishman's good fortune in having shot
three bucks: and the little Kathchen's eyes grow full, because they have
brought home a gentle-faced hind, likewise cruelly slain. And Kathchen's
mother has whisked inside, and here are the tall schoppen on the table;
and speedily the long, low room is filled with the tobacco-smoke. What!
another song, you thirsty old Keinitz, with the quavering voice? But
there is a lusty chorus to that too; and a great clinking of glasses;
and the Englishman laughs and does his part too, and he has called for
six more schoppen of red.... But hush, now! Have we come out from the
din and the smoke to the cool evening air? What is that one hears afar
in the garden? Surely it is the little Kathchen and her mother singing
together, in beautiful harmony, the old, familiar, tender _Lorelei_! The
zither is a strange instrument--it speaks. And when Natalie Lind, coming
to this air, sung in a low contralto voice an only half-suggested
second, it seemed to those in the room that two women were singing--the
one with a voice low and rich and penetrating, the other voice clear and
sweet like the singing of a young girl. "_Die Luft ist kuhl und es
dunkelt, und ruhig fliesset der Rhein._" Was it, indeed, Kathchen and
her mother? Were they far away in the beautiful pine-land, with the
quiet evening shining red over the green woods, and darkness coming over
the pale streams in the hollows? When Natalie Lind ceased, the elder of
the two guests murmured to himself, "Wonderful! wonderful!" The other
did not speak at all.
She rested her hands for a moment on the table.
"Natalushka," said her father, "is that all?"
"I will not be called Natalushka, papa," said she; but again she bent
her hands over the silver strings.
And these brighter and gayer airs now--surely they are from the laughing
and light-hearted South? Have we not heard them under the cool shade of
the olive-trees, with the hot sun blazing on the garden-paths of the
Villa Reale; and the children playing; and the band busy with its
dancing _canzoni_, the gay notes drowning the murmur and plash of the
fountains near? Look now!--far beneath the gray shadow of the
olive-trees--the deep blue band of the sea; and there the double-sailed
barca, like a yellow butterfly hovering on the water; and there the
large martingallo, bound for the cloud-like island on the horizon. Are
they singing, then, as they speed over the glancing waves?... "_O dolce
Napoli! O suol beato!_" ... for what can they sing at all, as they leave
us, if they do not sing the pretty, tender, tinkling "Santa Lucia?"
"Venite all' agile
Barchetta mia!
Santa Lucia!
Santa Lucia!"
... The notes grow fainter and fainter. Are the tall maidens of Capri
already looking out for the swarthy sailors, that these turn no longer
to the shores they are leaving?... "_O dolce Napoli! O suol beato!_" ...
Fainter and fainter grow the notes on the trembling string, so that you
can scarcely tell them from the cool plashing of the fountains ...
"_Santa Lucia!... Santa Lucia!_"....
"Natalushka," said her father, laughing, "you must take us to Venice
now."
The young Hungarian girl rose, and put the zither aside.
"It is an amusement for the children," she said.
She went to the piano, which was open, and took down a piece of
music--it was Kucken's "Maid of Judah." Now, hitherto, George Brand had
only heard her murmur a low, harmonious second to one or other of the
airs she had been playing; and he was quite unprepared for the passion
and fervor which her rich, deep, resonant, contralto voice threw into
this wail of indignation and despair. This was the voice of a woman, not
of a girl; and it was with the proud passion of a woman that she seemed
to send this cry to Heaven for reparation, and justice, and revenge. And
surely it was not only of the sorrows of the land of Judah she was
thinking!--it was a wider cry--the cry of the oppressed, and the
suffering, and the heart-broken in every clime--
"O blest native land! O fatherland mine!
How long for thy refuge in vain shall I pine?"
He could have believed there were tears in her eyes just then; but there
were none, he knew, when she came to the fierce piteous appeal that
followed--
"Where, where are thy proud sons, so lordly in might?
All mown down and fallen in blood-welling fight!
Thy cities are ruin, thy valleys lie waste,
Their summer enchantment the foe hath erased.
O blest native land! how long shalt decline?
When, when will the Lord cry, 'Revenge, it is Mine!'"
The zither speaks; but there is a speech beyond that of the zither. The
penetrating vibration of this rich and pathetic voice was a thing not
easily to be forgotten. When the two friends left the house, they found
themselves in the chill darkness of an English night in February. Surely
it must have seemed to them that they had been dwelling for a period in
warmer climes, with gay colors, and warmth, and sweet sounds around
them. They walked for some time in silence.
"Well," said Lord Evelyn, at last, "what do you think of them?"
"I don't know," said the other, after a pause. "I am puzzled. How did
you come to know them?"
"I came to know Lind through a newspaper reporter called O'Halloran. I
should like to introduce you to him too."
George Brand soon afterward parted from his friend, and walked away down
to his silent rooms over the river. The streets were dark and deserted,
and the air was still; yet there seemed somehow to be a tremulous,
passionate, distant sound in the night. It was no tinkling "Santa Lucia"
dying away over the blue seas in the south. It was no dull, sonorous
bell, suggesting memories of the far Campagna. Was it not rather the
quick, responsive echo that had involuntarily arisen in his own heart,
when he heard Natalie Lind's thrilling voice pour forth that proud and
indignant appeal,
"When, when will the Lord cry, 'Revenge, it is Mine!'"