TWIN DEVILS
Jacqueline came to the conclusion that she had better seriously consult
Madame Strahlberg. She therefore stopped at Monaco, where this friend,
whom she intended to honor with the strange office of Mentor, was passing
the winter in a little villa in the Condamine quarter--a cottage
surrounded by roses and laurel-bushes, painted in soft colors and looking
like a plaything.
Madame Strahlberg had already urged Jacqueline to come and make
acquaintance with her "paradise," without giving her any hint of the
delights of that paradise, from which that of gambling was not excluded,
for Madame Strahlberg was eager for any kind of excitement. Roulette now
occupied with her a large part of every night--indeed, her nights had
been rarely given to slumber, for her creed was that morning is the time
for sleep, for which reason they never took breakfast in the pink villa,
but tea, cakes, and confectionery were eaten instead at all hours until
the evening. Thus it happened very often that they had no dinner, and
guests had to accommodate themselves to the strange ways of the family.
Jacqueline, however, did not stay long enough to know much of those ways.
She arrived, poor thing, with weary wing, like some bird, who, escaping
from the fowler's net, where it has left its feathers, flies straight to
the spot where a sportsman lies ready to shoot it. She was received with
the same cries of joy, the same kisses, the same demonstrations of
affection, as those which, the summer before, had welcomed her to the Rue
de Naples. They told her she could sleep on a sofa, exactly like the one
on which she had passed that terrible night which had resulted in her
expulsion from the convent; and it was decided that she must stay several
days, at least, before she went on to Paris, to begin the life of hard
study and courageous work which would make of her a great singer.
Tired?--No, she was hardly tired at all. The journey over the enchanting
road of the Corniche had awakened in her a fervor of admiration which
prevented her from feeling any bodily needs, and now she seemed to have
reached fairyland, where the verdure of the tropics was like the hanging
gardens of Babylon, only those had never had a mirror to reflect back
their ancient, far-famed splendor, like that before her eyes, as she
looked down upon the Mediterranean, with the sun setting in the west in a
sky all crimson and gold.
Notwithstanding the disorder of her travelling-dress, Jacqueline allowed
her friend to take her straight from the railway station to the Terrace
of Monte Carlo. She fell into ecstasies at sight of the African cacti,
the century plants, and the fig-trees of Barbary, covering the low walls
whence they looked down into the water; at the fragrance of the
evergreens that surrounded the beautiful palace with its balustrades,
dedicated to all the worst passions of the human race; with the sharp
rocky outline of Turbia; with an almost invisible speck on the horizon
which they said was Corsica; with everything, which, whether mirage or
reality, lifted her out of herself, and plunged her into that state of
excited happiness and indescribable sense of bodily comfort, which
exterior impressions so easily produce upon the young.
After exhausting her vocabulary in exclamations and in questions, she
stood silent, watching the sun as it sank beneath the waters, thinking
that life is well worth living if it can give us such glorious
spectacles, notwithstanding all the difficulties that may have to be
passed through. Several minutes elapsed before she turned her radiant
face and dazzled eyes toward Wanda, or rather toward the spot where Wanda
had been standing beside her. "Oh! my dear--how beautiful!" she
murmured with a long sigh.
The sigh was echoed by a man, who for a few moments had looked at her
with as much admiration as she had looked at the landscape. He answered
her by saying, in a low voice, the tones of which made her tremble from
head to foot:
"Jacqueline!"
"Monsieur de Cymier!"
The words slipped through her lips as they suddenly turned pale. She had
an instinctive, sudden persuasion that she had been led into a snare. If
not, why was Madame Strahlberg now absorbed in conversation with three
other persons at some little distance.
"Forgive me--you did not expect to see me--you seem quite startled," said
the young man, drawing near her. With an effort she commanded herself
and looked full in his face. Her anger rose. She had seen the same look
in the ugly, brutal face of Oscar de Talbrun. From the Terrace of Monte
Carlo her memory flew back to a country road in Normandy, and she
clenched her hand round an imaginary riding-whip. She needed coolness
and she needed courage. They came as if by miracle.
"It is certain, Monsieur," she answered, slowly, "that I did not expect
to meet you here."
"Chance has had pity on me," he replied, bowing low, as she had set him
the example of ceremony.
But he had no idea of losing time in commonplace remarks--he wished to
take up their intimacy on the terms it had been formerly, to resume the
romance he himself had interrupted.
"I knew," he said in the same low voice, full of persuasion, which gave
especial meaning to his words, "I knew that, after all, we should meet
again."
"I did not expect it," said Jacqueline, haughtily.
"Because you do not believe in the magnetism of a fixed desire."
"No, I do not believe any such thing, when, opposed to such a desire,
there is a strong, firm will," said Jacqueline, her eyes burning.
"Ah!" he murmured, and he might have been supposed to be really moved,
so much his look changed, "do not abuse your power over me--do not make
me wretched; if you could only understand--"
She made a swift movement to rejoin Madame Strahlberg, but that lady was
already coming toward them with the same careless ease with which she had
left them together.
"Well! you have each found an old acquaintance," she said, gayly.
"I beg your pardon, my loveliest, but I had to speak to some old friends,
and ask them to join us to-morrow evening. We shall sup at the
restaurant of the Grand Hotel, after the opera--for, I did not tell you
before, you will have the good luck to hear Patti. Monsieur de Cymier,
we shall expect you. Au revoir."
He had been on the point of asking leave to walk home with them. But
there was something in Jacqueline's look, and in her stubborn silence,
that deterred him. He thought it best to leave a skilful advocate to
plead his cause before he continued a conversation which had not begun
satisfactorily. Not that Gerard de Cymier was discouraged by the
behavior of Jacqueline. He had expected her to be angry at his
defection, and that she would make him pay for it; but a little skill on
his part, and a little credulity on hers, backed by the intervention of a
third party, might set things right.
One moment he lingered to look at her, admiring her as she stood in the
light of the dying sun, as beautiful in her plain dress and her indignant
paleness, while she looked far out to sea, that she might not be obliged
to look at him, as she had been when he had known her in prosperity.
At that moment he knew she hated him, but it would be an additional
delight to overcome that feeling.
The two women, when he left them, continued walking on the terrace side
by side, without a word. Wanda watched her companion out of the corners
of her eyes, and hummed an air to herself to break the silence. She saw
a storm gathering under Jacqueline's black eyebrows, and knew that sharp
arrows were likely to shoot forth from those lips which several times had
opened, though not a word had been uttered, probably through fear of
saying too little or too much.
At last she made some trifling comment on the view, explaining something
about pigeon-shooting.
"Wanda," interrupted Jacqueline, "did you not know what happened once?"
"Happened, how? About what?" asked Madame Strahlberg, with an air of
innocence.
"I am speaking of the way Monsieur de Cymier treated me."
"Bah! He was in love with you. Who didn't know it? Every one could see
that. It was all the more reason why you should have been glad to meet
him."
"He did not act as if he were much in love," said Jacqueline.
"Because he went away when your family thought he was about to make his
formal proposal? Not all men are marrying men, my dear, nor have all
women that vocation. Men fall in love all the same."
"Do you think, then, that when a man knows he has no intention of
marrying he should pay court to a young girl? I think I told you at the
time that he had paid court to me, and that he afterward--how shall I say
it?--basely deserted me."
The sharp and thrilling tone in which Jacqueline said this amused Madame
Strahlberg.
"What big words, my dear! No, I don't remember that you ever said
anything of the sort to me before. But you are wrong. As we grow older
we lay aside harsh judgments and sharp words. They do no good. In your
place I should be touched by the thought that a man so charming had been
faithful to me."
"Faithful!" cried Jacqueline, her dark eyes flashing into the cat-like
eyes of Madame Strahlberg.
Wanda looked down, and fastened a ribbon at her waist.
"Ever since we have been here," she said, "he has been talking of you."
"Really--for how long?"
"Oh, if you must know, for the last two weeks."
"It is just a fortnight since you wrote and asked me to stay with you,"
said Jacqueline, coldly and reproachfully.
"Oh, well--what's the harm? Suppose I did think your presence would
increase the attractions of Monaco?"
"Why did you not tell me?"
"Because I never write a word more than is necessary; you know how lazy
I am. And also because, I may as well confess, it might have scared you
off, you are so sensitive."
"Then you meant to take me by surprise?" said Jacqueline, in the same
tone.
"Oh! my dear, why do you try to quarrel with me?" replied Madame
Strahlberg, stopping suddenly and looking at her through her eyeglass.
"We may as well understand what you mean by a free and independent life."
And thereupon ensued an address to which Jacqueline listened, leaning one
hand on a balustrade of that enchanted garden, while the voice of the
serpent, as she thought, was ringing in her ears. Her limbs shook under
her--her brain reeled. All her hopes of success as a singer on the stage
Madame Strahlberg swept away, as not worth a thought. She told her that,
in her position, had she meant to be too scrupulous, she should have
stayed in the convent. Everything to Jacqueline seemed to dance before
her eyes. The evening closed around them, the light died out, the
landscape, like her life, had lost its glow. She uttered a brief prayer
for help, such a prayer as she had prayed in infancy. She whispered it
in terror, like a cry in extreme danger. She was more frightened by
Wanda's wicked words than she had been by M. de Talbrun or by M. de
Cymier. She ceased to know what she was saying till the last words, "You
have good sense and you will think about it," met her ear.
Jacqueline said not a word.
Wanda took her arm. "You may be sure," she said, "that I am thinking
only of your good. Come! Would you like to go into the Casino and look
at the pictures? No, you are tired? You can see them some evening.
The ballroom holds a thousand persons. Yes, if you prefer, we will go
home. You can take a nap till dinner-time. We shall dine at eight
o'clock."
Conversation languished till they reached the Villa Rosa. Notwithstanding
Jacqueline's efforts to appear natural, her own voice rang in her ears in
tones quite new to her, a laugh that she uttered without any occasion,
and which came near resulting in hysterics. Yet she had power enough
over her nerves to notice the surroundings as she entered the house.
At the door of the room in which she was to sleep, and which was on the
first story, Madame Strahlberg kissed her with one of those equivocal
smiles which so long had imposed on her simplicity.
"Till eight o'clock, then."
"Till eight o'clock," repeated Jacqueline, passively.
But when eight o'clock came she sent word that she had a severe headache,
and would try to sleep it off.
Suppose, she thought, M. de Cymier should have been asked to dinner;
suppose she should be placed next to him at table? Anything in that
house seemed possible now.
They brought her a cup of tea. Up to a late hour she heard a confused
noise of music and laughter. She did not try to sleep. All her
faculties were on the alert, like those of a prisoner who is thinking of
escape. She knew what time the night trains left the station, and,
abandoning her trunk and everything else that she had with her, she
furtively--but ready, if need were, to fight for her liberty with the
strength of desperation--slipped down the broad stairs over their thick
carpet and pushed open a little glass door. Thank heaven! people came
in and went out of that house as if it had been a mill. No one
discovered her flight till the next morning, when she was far on her way
to Paris in an express train. Modeste, quite unprepared for her young
mistress's arrival, was amazed to see her drop down upon her, feverish
and excited, like some poor hunted animal, with strength exhausted.
Jacqueline flung herself into her nurse's arms as she used to do when,
as a little girl, she was in what she fancied some great trouble, and she
cried: "Oh, take me in--pray take me in! Keep me safe! Hide me!" And
then she told Modeste everything, speaking rapidly and disconnectedly,
thankful to have some one to whom she could open her heart. In default
of Modeste she would have spoken to stone walls.
"And what will you do now, my poor darling?" asked the old nurse, as
soon as she understood that her young lady had come back to her, "with
weary foot and broken wing," from what she had assured her on her
departure would be a brilliant excursion.
"Oh! I don't know," answered Jacqueline, in utter discouragement; "I am
too worn out to think or to do anything. Let me rest; that is all."
"Why don't you go to see your stepmother?"
"My stepmother? Oh, no! She is at the bottom of all that has happened
to me."
"Or Madame d'Argy? Or Madame de Talbrun? Madame de Talbrun is the one
who would give you good advice."
Jacqueline shook her head with a sad smile.
"Let me stay here. Don't you remember--years ago--but it seems like
yesterday--all the rest is like a nightmare--how I used to hide myself
under your petticoats, and you would say, going on with your knitting:
'You see she is not here; I can't think where she can be.' Hide me now
just like that, dear old Modeste. Only hide me."
And Modeste, full of heartfelt pity, promised to hide her "dear child"
from every one, which promise, however, did not prevent her, for she was
very self-willed, from going, without Jacqueline's knowledge, to see
Madame de Talbrun and tell her all that had taken place. She was hurt
and amazed at her reception by Giselle, and at her saying, without any
offer of help or words of sympathy, "She has only reaped what she has
sown." Giselle would have been more than woman had not Fred, and a
remembrance of the wrongs that he had suffered through Jacqueline, now
stood between them. For months he had been the prime object in her life;
her mission of comforter had brought her the greatest happiness she had
ever known. She tried to make him turn his attention to some serious
work in life; she wanted to keep him at home, for his mother's sake,
she thought; she fancied she had inspired him with a taste for home life.
If she had examined herself she might have discovered that the task she
had undertaken of doing good to this young man was not wholly for his
sake but partly for her own. She wanted to see him nearly every day and
to occupy a place in his life ever larger and larger. But for some time
past the conscientious Giselle had neglected the duty of strict self-
examination. She was thankful to be happy--and though Fred was a man
little given to self-flattery in his relations with women, he could not
but be pleased at the change produced in her by her intercourse with him.
But while Fred and Giselle considered themselves as two friends trying to
console each other, people had begun to talk about them. Even Madame
d'Argy asked herself whether her son might not have escaped from the
cruel claws of a young coquette of the new school to fall into a worse
scrape with a married woman. She imagined what might happen if the
jealousy of "that wild boar of an Oscar de Talbrun" were aroused; the
dangers, far more terrible than the perils of the sea, that might in such
a case await her only son, the child for whose safety her mother-love
caused her to suffer perpetual torments. "O mothers! mothers!" she
often said to herself, "how much they are to be pitied. And they are
very blind. If Fred must get into danger and difficulty for any woman,
it should not have been for Giselle de Talbrun."