Which she did weare of late."
It would be hard to imagine a prettier picture than there was to be seen in the apartments of Mlle de Tricotrin on the afternoon of the day following the eventful reception. The cold season was drawing to a close. The day had been very sultry; and clad in the rich déshabillé of the zenana, the beauty was lying listlessly on a luxurious1 divan2, pretending to finish her siesta3. A loose white robe of softest cotton was wrapped about her negligently4, and her bare feet peeped shyly out of it. Her rounded arms, her littered brown hair, the tumbled heap of gaily5 striped pillows, in which her flushed face was half buried, all told of the languorous6 unrest of the East; and the soft, rose-coloured light glimmered7 in from the domed9 ceiling upon a scene in which Europe seemed quite forgotten.
Indeed, it was in its only half-concealed10 Orientalism that Oneiria had the greatest charm for her. That was easy to see in all the decoration and appointments of the room,[Pg 149] in the harmonious11 shimmer12 of the arabesques13, with which the plastered walls were painted, and the dwarf14 tables, and scattered15 cushions and softly glowing mats, which almost hid the cool, polished floor. No less was it visible in her own dress, and that of Penelophon, who stood fanning her mistress with a large and gaudy16 palm-leaf fan. It has been said that Mlle de Tricotrin had a pretty taste in costume, and it was her delight to devise modifications17 of the Eastern attires18, which surrounded her amongst the lower orders, and dress her pretty maid in them. To-day Penelophon wore in the Moorish19 fashion, to which she was accustomed, a long robe that reached loosely from her shoulders to her feet, of a soft yellow hue20. Low about her waist it was girt by a band of scarlet21 cloth, richly embroidered22 with gold, and of almost extravagant23 breadth. Yet there is no other cincture which will so beautifully express the grace of a lithe24 young figure. It confined without restraint, and allowed the robe to fall open naturally at the breast, so as to show beneath it a glimpse of a scarlet bodice. A silken scarf, knotted about her head, almost concealed her dark hair. Her arms and feet were bare, and looked almost as white as the silver anklets and armlets with which they were clasped, and which jingled25 with a soft and pleasant sound as she gently moved the fan. All other noise was hushed, and Penelophon[Pg 150] stood quiet and content to look down with deepest admiration27 at the lovely face resting in the pillows, while she waited patiently till her mistress should be tired of pretending to sleep.
"'Tis useless," said Mlle de Tricotrin at last, rousing herself with a lazy toss of her arms; "I can sleep no more."
"Is it thinking of Trecenito that keeps you awake?" asked Penelophon, as her mistress sat up on the divan, and she kneeled at her feet to put on her dainty slippers28.
"Hush26! hush! my girl; a maid must not speak of such things to her mistress."
"Forgive me, madam, for indeed I meant no harm," said Penelophon, pausing in her work and looking up wistfully.
"And you did no harm," replied her mistress. "Yes, you may speak of this to me. I like to hear you, for you are maid and friend in one. Yes, child," she went on, taking the sweet upturned face in her hand caressingly30, "you are the only woman I ever loved; the only friend I ever had."
She sank back wearily upon the divan, and Penelophon stooped and kissed in deep devotion the little white foot she held in her hand before she hid it in the slipper29.
"Why do you do that, child?" asked her mistress.
"I don't know," answered Penelophon; "but you are so kind, and I am so happy, and you love Trecenito so."
[Pg 151]
The girls great dark eyes were brimming with tears as she looked up, and her mistress saw them. "Why, child," she said, "you love him too!"
"No, no," said Penelophon eagerly, a faint blush tinting31 her pale face. "I do not love him. He is high above where my love can reach. I adore him and worship him, and it is you I love because you love him. There is no one but you in the wide world whom such a man as he could love. It is only such a one as you who can know how to love him, and that is why you are so dear to me. You are the sweet saint that helps me to reach the throne of my heaven. It is like worship to tire your hair, and dress you, and send you away in all your beauty to make him glad. You are the prayers I say to him, and the hymns32 I sing, and the sweet incense33 I offer to my god."
"My child, my child," said her mistress in a hushed voice, as of one who speaks in some vast, solemn cathedral, "whence and what are you? It is only the angels who love like that. Surely it was one of them who whispered in my ear that I should ask him to give you to me."
"Yes," answered the maid, "and it was surely one that brought you to him, because they knew how good he would be to me. 'He must not wait for paradise,' they said. 'We will bring him a wife as bright and pure and beautiful as the heavens, and he[Pg 152] shall have a paradise on earth.' So they brought you to him, and they will show him the sunshine in your face, and the blue sky that slumbers34 in your eyes; he shall feel the warm glow of your lips, and know it is the spirit of life; he shall hear the murmur35 of your voice, and know it is the echo of the prayers which the saints have prayed."
"Hush! hush!" said her mistress, almost beneath her breath. "You must not speak so. You frighten me. I am not what you think. God help me! I am not what you think. And yet, child, yet I believe you would almost make me what you say. Ah me! if I had had a sister such as you! Sing to me, child, while I lie and think what I am and what I might have been."
Penelophon rose, and took a kind of lute36, which was the instrument of the people, and began to sing to it some half Moorish love-song, full of those slurs37 and weird38 modulations which sound so strange to European ears. But Penelophon's plaintive39 voice had a fascination40 for her mistress, and she lay quite still listening till the end. As the song finished, the door opened, and Monsieur de Tricotrin came in.
"My child," said he, "I want to speak to you."
"Alone?"
"Yes, alone."
"Go then, Penelophon," said Mlle de[Pg 153] Tricotrin; "but come back and talk to me before I dress."
"It is a pretty wench the King gave you," said the Marquis, as the beggar-maid left the room. "I doubt if she helps much when he sees you together."
"But I am very fond of her, sir!"
"That is what I fancy is the case with him."
"No, that is impossible. A man could never be taken with a child like her."
"You must remember, my dear," said the Marquis, "they have been playing hero and heroine together in a very romantic drama? You know?"
"Perfectly41, sir; Penelophon has told me."
"And yet you do not believe a man may be infatuated with her?"
"No, sir. She has nothing to charm a man."
"Well, I have reasons for what I say."
"Indeed, sir."
"Yes. To begin with, Turbo, the Chancellor42, is crazy about her."
"That was but the passing fancy of a brutal43 nature."
"My dear, you are quite mistaken. He is crazy still."
"You surely must be joking, sir."
"Not at all. In fact, it is on this very subject I came to speak. He wants you to give her up to him."
"I would rather give up the throne!" cried she warmly.
[Pg 154]
"Softly, my child," said the Marquis. "Do not decide this matter too hastily. A throne is not a thing to be lightly cast on one side for the sake of a miserable44 little beggar-girl."
"Yes; but that is not the question now."
"My dear, it is the question."
"You do not mean——"
"I mean simply that the Chancellor asks your maid as the price of his adhesion, and without his adhesion we cannot succeed. That is all. I call it really handsome."
"And I—I call it infamous45!" cried Mlle de Tricotrin hotly. "It is a villainy, and I will never consent to it!"
"My dear," said the Marquis soothingly46, "what a fuss to make about this miserable creature. It is a mere8 matter of business; for you can hardly call a beggar a human being. Equality and fraternity are all very well, but that would be going too far."
"I know your principles of equality well enough, sir, and I do not call this poor girl human. She is an angel, and he—he is a fiend that Penelophon dreams of and wakes screaming. She shudders47 when she even thinks of him, and the sight of him is a horror that paralyses her. No, no; I will not part with her. You have my answer, sir."
"My child," said the Marquis calmly, in spite of his vexation, "I am not pleased with you. You are talking very foolishly. I did not ask you for an answer now, and I will[Pg 155] not take one. This evening, ere you retire for the night, I will hear your decision. Turbo will be in waiting, and you can send the girl to him to be got out of the way, or else you can let her stay for the King to marry, whichever you like. Remember what has happened in this country before, and remember the character of the present sovereign. That is all I ask at present. I will leave you to consider the matter."
With these words M. de Tricotrin went abruptly48 from the room. He saw he had made an impression upon his daughter by what he had said, and he was an old enough hand at the game of persuading women to know the value of allowing impressions so made to ferment49 by themselves. He knew that further discussion would only disturb her and arrest the process, till perhaps what he considered a mere girlish fantastic mood would become solidified50 into a wholly illogical and obstinate51 determination which might afterwards prove quite insoluble.
"Women," he used to say, "have no opinions. They have merely contradictory52 states of mind, which serve them indifferently instead. They are states of mind which live upon contradictions. Failing this they perish, and, consequently, as a state of mind of some kind is a moral necessity, to women no less than to men, in the absence of external contradiction, they will soon contradict themselves."
Whether the Marquis's theory has any real[Pg 156] scientific value is a matter of doubt. It is merely interesting here as the one upon which he acted with his daughter. She was not always easy to manage. She was naturally a woman of spirit, and, moreover, quite understood the high pecuniary53 value her father placed upon her. She had known all her life that she was the best card he had to play, and that now she was the only one. It is not to be wondered at then, that, being human, she from time to time showed a strong disposition54 to have a say in the game. The Marquis saw she was in one of her antagonistic55 moods now; so, as we have said, he left the poisonous barm he had dexterously56 planted to ferment and produce the metamorphosis he desired.
Mlle de Tricotrin did not talk much to Penelophon when she returned. She was occupied in trying to convince herself that no man of the world could possibly admire the girl. She had always liked the pale, delicate face herself for its purity and dreamy simplicity57. She could imagine, perhaps, a painter, or a sculptor58, or a poet—yes, but was not Kophetua a poet after all? Were not all the high-flown democratic opinions which he was constantly expressing nothing but the love of a poet for nature, and the base multitude whom he idealised as the children of nature?
She was conscious of feeling distinctly colder to her maid, as she was being dressed[Pg 157] for Count Kora's rout59, to which she was going that evening. But Penelophon saw no difference, and she fondled her idol's lustrous60 hair, and caressed61 the soft folds of her gown as lovingly as ever; and when all was done rejoiced as unaffectedly in the surpassing beauty she was sending forth62 as her offering to the hero she worshipped.
The Marquis did not refer again to the subject at his heart; but as he ascended63 the stairs of the Kora Palace, he gently stirred the fermentation he had set up.
"You know, my child," he said blandly64, "that your presence here to-night finally marks you as the accepted candidate of the Kallists."
"You have told me so, sir."
"And you know that there remain now only two persons to gain."
"You mean, sir, I presume——"
"The Chancellor and the King. To-night you will either win or lose the former. You have to play a stroke which will count more than everything we have done. You understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then, as you are determined65 to refuse the price Turbo asks for his alliance, you had better try and win him by the other way in which you are so clever, my dear."
"He is invulnerable to those weapons, sir. I might as well try to charm the wind."
"Then I suppose we must call him lost."
Mlle de Tricotrin did not answer. It was a good sign. The Marquis felt hopeful, and determined to assure the Chancellor that if he would be present at the time and place appointed he would not be disappointed.
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1
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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divan
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| n.长沙发；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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siesta
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| n.午睡 | |
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negligently
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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languorous
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| adj.怠惰的，没精打采的 | |
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glimmered
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| v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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9
domed
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| adj. 圆屋顶的, 半球形的, 拱曲的 动词dome的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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10
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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11
harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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shimmer
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| v./n.发微光，发闪光；微光 | |
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arabesques
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| n.阿拉伯式花饰( arabesque的名词复数 )；错综图饰；阿拉伯图案；阿拉贝斯克芭蕾舞姿（独脚站立，手前伸，另一脚一手向后伸） | |
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14
dwarf
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| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
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15
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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modifications
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| n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变 | |
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attires
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| v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的第三人称单数 ) | |
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moorish
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| adj.沼地的，荒野的，生[住]在沼地的 | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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jingled
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| 喝醉的 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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27
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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slipper
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| n.拖鞋 | |
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caressingly
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| 爱抚地，亲切地 | |
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31
tinting
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| 着色，染色（的阶段或过程） | |
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32
hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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33
incense
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| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
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34
slumbers
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| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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lute
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| n.琵琶，鲁特琴 | |
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slurs
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| 含糊的发音( slur的名词复数 )； 玷污； 连奏线； 连唱线 | |
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38
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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40
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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41
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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42
chancellor
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| n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长 | |
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43
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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45
infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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46
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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47
shudders
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| n.颤动，打颤，战栗( shudder的名词复数 )v.战栗( shudder的第三人称单数 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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48
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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49
ferment
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| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
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50
solidified
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| （使）成为固体，（使）变硬，（使）变得坚固( solidify的过去式和过去分词 )； 使团结一致； 充实，巩固； 具体化 | |
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51
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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52
contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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53
pecuniary
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| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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54
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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55
antagonistic
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| adj.敌对的 | |
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56
dexterously
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| adv.巧妙地，敏捷地 | |
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57
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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58
sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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59
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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60
lustrous
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| adj.有光泽的；光辉的 | |
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61
caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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63
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64
blandly
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| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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