"How do you know?"
"I know very well. You are so infatuated by that young woman that you will believe nothing against her."
"I am infatuated with her voice; I know what she is going to do in the world. Old Barytone told me that he had never heard such a voice from a woman's mouth since the days of Malibran; and if there is a man who knows one voice from another, it is Barytone. He can taste the richness of the instrument down to its lowest tinkling2 sound."
"And you would marry such a one as she for her voice."
"And she can act. Ah! if you could have acted as she does, it might have been different."
"She has got a husband just the same as me."
"I don't believe it; but never mind, I would risk all that. And I will do it yet. If you will only keep your toe in your pump, we will have such a company as nothing that Le Gros can do will be able to cut us down."
"And she is taking money from that lord."
"They all take money from lords," he replied. "What does it matter? And she is as stout3 a piece of goods as ever you came across. She has given me more impudence4 in the last eight months than ever I took from any of them. And by Jupiter I never so much as got a kiss from her."
"A kiss!" said Madame Socani with great contempt.
"And she has hit me a box on the cheek which I have had to put up with. She has always got a dagger5 about her somewhere, to give a fellow a prod6 in her passion." Here Mr. Moss laughed or affected8 to laugh at the idea of the dagger. "I tell you that she would have it into a fellow in no time."
"Then why don't you leave her alone? A little wizened9 monkey like that!" It was thus that Madame Socani expressed her opinion of her rival. "A creature without an ounce of flesh on her bones. Her voice won't last long. It never does with those little mean made apes. There was Grisi and Tietjens,—they had something of a body for a voice to come out of. And here is this girl that you think so much of, taking money hand over hand from the very first lord she comes across."
"I don't believe a word of it," said the faithful Moss.
"You'll find that it is true. She will go away to some watering-place in the autumn, and he'll be after her. Did you ever know him spare one of them? or one of them, poor little creatures, that wouldn't rise to his bait?"
"She has got her father with her."
"Her father! What is the good of fathers? He'll take some of the money, that's all. I'll tell you what it is, Moss, if you don't drop her you and I will be two."
"With all my heart, Madame Socani," said Moss. "I have not the slightest intention of dropping her. And as for you and me, we can get on very well apart."
But Madame Socani, though she would be roused by jealousy10 to make this threat once a month, knew very well that she could not afford to sever11 herself from Mr. Moss; and she knew also that Mr. Moss was bound to show her some observance, or, at any rate, to find employment for her as long as she could sing.
But Mr. Moss was anxious to find out whether any money arrangements did or did not exist between Miss O'Mahony and the lord, and was resolved to ask the question in a straightforward12 manner. He had already found out that his old pupil had no power of keeping a secret to herself when thus asked. She would sternly refuse to give any reply; but she would make her refusal in such a manner as to tell the whole truth. In fact, Rachel, among her accomplishments13, had not the power of telling a lie in such language as to make herself believed. It was not that she would scruple14 in the least to declare to Mr. Moss the very opposite to the truth in a matter in which he had, she thought, no business to be inquisitive15; but when she did so she had no power to look the lie. You might say of her frequently that she was a downright liar16. But of all human beings whom you could meet she was the least sly. "My dear child," the father used to say to her, "words to you are worth nothing, unless it be to sing them. You can make no impression with them in any other way." Therefore it was that Mr. Moss felt that he could learn the truth from simply questioning his pupil.
"Miss O'Mahony, may I say a few words to you?" So said Mr. Moss, having knocked at the door of Rachel's sitting-room17. He had some months ago fallen into the habit of announcing himself, when he had come to give her lessons, and would inform the servant that he would take up his own name. Rachel had done what she could do to put an end to the practice, but it still prevailed.
"Certainly, Mr. Moss. Was not the girl there to show you up?"
"No doubt she was. But such ceremony between us is hardly necessary."
"I should prefer to be warned of the coming of my master. I will see to that in future. Such little ceremonies do have their uses."
"Shall I go down and make her say that I am here, and then come up again?"
"It shall not be necessary, but you take a chair and begin!" Then Mr. Moss considered how he had better do so. He knew well that the girl would not answer kindly18 to such a question as he was desirous of asking. And it might be that she would be very uncivil. He was by no means a coward, but he had a vivid recollection of the gleam of her dagger. He smiled, and she looked at him more suspiciously because of his smile. He was sitting on a sofa opposite to her as she sat on a music-stool which she had turned round, so as to face him, and he fancied that he could see her right hand hide itself among the folds of her dress. "Is it about the theatre?"
"Well, it is;—and yet it isn't."
"I wish it were something about the theatre. It always seems to come more natural between you and me."
"I want you to tell me what you did at last about Lord Castlewell's money."
"Why am I to tell you what I did?"
"For friendship."
"I do not feel any."
"That's an uncivil word to say, mademoiselle."
"But it's true. You have no business to ask me about the lord's money, and I won't be questioned."
"It will be so deleterious to you if you accept it."
"I can take care of myself," she said, jumping off the chair. "I shall have left this place now in another month, and shall utterly19 disregard the words which anyone at your theatre may say of me. I shall not tell you whether the lord has lent me money or not."
"I know he has."
"Very well. Then leave the room. Knowing as you do that I am living here with my own father, your interference is grossly impertinent."
"Your father is not going with you, I am afraid." She rushed at the bell and pulled it till the bell rope came down from the wire, but nobody answered the bell. "Can it be possible that you should not be anxious to begin your new career under respectable auspices20?"
"I will not stand this. Leave the room, sir. This apartment is my own."
"Miss O'Mahony, you see my hand; with this I am ready to offer at once to place you in a position in which the world would look up to you."
"You have done so before, Mr. Moss, and your doing so again is an insult. It would not be done to any young lady unless she were on the stage, and were thought on that account to be open to any man about the theatre to say what he pleased to her."
"Any gentleman is at liberty to make any lady an offer."
"I have answered it. Now leave the room."
"I cannot do so until I have heard that you have not taken money from this reprobate21."
At the moment the door opened, and the reprobate entered the room.
"Your servant told me that Mr. Moss was here, and therefore I walked up at once," said the reprobate.
"I am so much obliged to you," said Rachel. "Oh Lord Castlewell! I am so much obliged to you. He tells me in the first place that you are a reprobate."
"Never mind me," said the lord.
"I don't mind what he says of you. He declares that my character will be gone for ever because you have lent my father some money."
"So it will," said Moss, who was not afraid to stand up to his guns.
"And how if she had accepted your offer?"
"No one would have thought of it. Come, my lord, you know the difference. I am anxious only to save her."
"It is to her father I have lent the money, who explained to me the somewhat cruel treatment he had received at the hands of the police. I think you are making an ass7 of yourself, Mr. Moss."
"Very well, my lord; very well," said Mr. Moss. "All the world no doubt will know that you have lent the money to the Irish Landleaguer because of your political sympathy with him, and will not think for a minute that you have been attracted by our pretty young friend here. It will not suspect that it is she who has paid for the loan!"
"Mr. Moss, you are a brute," said the lord.
"Can't he be turned out of the room?" asked Rachel.
"Well, yes; it is possible," said the lord, who slowly prepared to walk up and take some steps towards expelling Mr. Moss.
"It shall not be necessary," said Mahomet M. M. "You could not get me out, but there would be a terrible row in the house, which could not fail to be disagreeable to Miss O'Mahony. I leave her in your hands, and I do not think I could possibly leave her in worse. I have wished to make her an honest woman; what you want of her you can explain to herself." In saying this Mr. Moss walked downstairs and left the house, feeling, as he went, that he had got the better both of the lord and of the lady.
With Mr. Moss there was a double motive22, neither of which was very bright, but both of which he followed with considerable energy. He had at first been attracted by her good looks, which he had desired to make his own—at the cheapest price at which they might be had in the market. If marriage were necessary, so be it, but it might be that the young lady would not be so exigeant. It was probably the expression of some such feelings in the early days of their acquaintance which had made him so odious23 to her. Then Frank Jones had come forward; and like any good honest girl, in a position so public, she had at once let the fact of Mr. Jones be made known, so as to protect her. But it had not protected her, and Mr. Moss had been doubly odious. Then, by degrees, he had become aware of the value of her voice, and he perceived the charms that there were in what he pictured to himself as a professional partnership24 as well as a marriage. Various ideas floated through his mind, down even to the creation of fresh names, grand married names, for his wife. And if she could be got to see it in the light he saw it, what a stroke of business they might do! He was aware that she expressed personal dislike to him; but he did not think much of that. He did not in the least understand the nature of such dislike as she exhibited. He thought himself to be a very good-looking man. He was one of a profession to which she also belonged. He had no idea that he was not a gentleman but that she was a lady. He did not know that there were such things. Madame Socani told him that this young woman was already married to Mr. Jones, but had left that gentleman because he had no money. He did not believe this; but in any case he would be willing to risk it. The peril25 would be hers and not his. It was his object to establish the partnership, and he did not even yet see any fatal impediment to it.
This lord who had been trapped by her beauty, by that and by her theatrical26 standing27, was an impediment, but could be removed. He had known Lord Castlewell to be in love with a dozen singers, partly because he thought himself to be a judge of music, and partly simply because he had liked their looks. The lord had now taken a fancy to Miss O'Mahony, and had begun by lending her money. That the father should take the money instead of the daughter, was quite natural to his thinking. But he might still succeed in looking after Miss O'Mahony, and rescuing the singer from the lord. By keeping a close watch on her he must make it impossible for the lord to hold her. Therefore, when he went away, leaving the lord and the singer together, he thought that for the present he had got the better of both.
"Why did he tell you that I was a reprobate?" said the lord, when he found himself alone with the lady.
"Well, perhaps it was because you are one, my lord," said Rachel, laughing. She would constantly remember herself, and tell herself that as long as she called him by his title, she was protecting herself from that familiarity which would be dangerous.
"I hope you don't think so."
"Gentlemen generally are reprobates28, I believe. It is not disgraceful for a gentleman to be a reprobate, but it is pleasant. The young women I daresay find it pleasant, but then it is disgraceful. I do not mean to disgrace myself, Lord Castlewell."
"I am sure you will not."
"I want you to be sure of it, quite sure. I am a singing girl; but I don't mean to be any man's mistress." He stared at her as she said this. "And I don't mean to be any man's wife, unless I downright love him. Now you may keep out of my way, if you please. I daresay you are a reprobate, my lord; but with that I have got nothing to do. Touching29 this money, I suppose father has not got it yet?"
"I have sent it."
"You are to get nothing for it, but simply to have it returned, without interest, as soon as I have earned it. You have only to say the word and I will take care that father shall send it you back again."
Lord Castlewell felt that the girl was very unlike others whom he had known, and who had either rejected his offers with scorn or had accepted them with delight. This young lady did neither. She apparently30 accepted the proffered31 friendship, and simply desired him to carry his reprobate qualities elsewhere. There was a frankness about her which pleased him much, though it hardly tended to make him in love with her. One thing he did resolve on the spur of the moment, that he would never say a word to her which her father might not hear. It was quite a new sensation to him, this of simple friendship with a singer, with a singer whom he had met in the doubtful custody32 of Mr. Moss; but he did believe her to be a good girl,—a good girl who could speak out her mind freely; and as such he both respected and liked her. "Of course I shan't take back the money till it becomes due. You'll have to work hard for it before I get it."
"I shall be quite contented33 to do that, my lord." Then the interview was over and his lordship left the room.
But Lord Castlewell felt as he went home that this girl was worth more than other girls. She laughed at him for being a lord, but she could accept a favour from him, and then tell him to his face that he should do her no harm because she had accepted it. He had met some terrible rebuffs in his career, the memory of which had been unpleasant to him; and he had been greeted with many smiles, all of which had been insipid34. What should he do with this girl, so as to make the best of her? The only thing that occurred to him was to marry her! And yet such a marriage would be altogether out of his line of life.
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1
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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tinkling
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| n.丁当作响声 | |
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impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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dagger
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| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
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prod
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| vt.戳，刺；刺激，激励 | |
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ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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8
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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9
wizened
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| adj.凋谢的；枯槁的 | |
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10
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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11
sever
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| v.切开，割开；断绝，中断 | |
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12
straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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13
accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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scruple
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| n./v.顾忌，迟疑 | |
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15
inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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16
liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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17
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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18
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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19
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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auspices
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| n.资助，赞助 | |
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21
reprobate
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| n.无赖汉；堕落的人 | |
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22
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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reprobates
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| n.道德败坏的人，恶棍( reprobate的名词复数 ) | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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31
proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32
custody
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| n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留 | |
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33
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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34
insipid
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| adj.无味的，枯燥乏味的，单调的 | |
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