Skirting the mountains, at a distance of about five hundred yards from them, and at a height of about as many feet from the summits of the undulating foothills below, the Cygna sped quietly along at a speed of some twenty-five miles an hour. The temperature of the tropic night was so soft and warm, and the air was so dry that it was not even necessary for them to make use of the light wraps that lay in the stern of the boat.
Isma reclined in the after part of the broad, low seat which ran round the inside, with one hand resting lightly upon a little silver lever which could be used for working the rudder-fan, in addition to the tiller-ropes, which she held in her hands while standing3 up. Alma sat almost upright amidships, with one hand clasped on the rail of polished satin-wood which ran round the well of the boat, her head turned away from Isma and her eyes fixed4 upon two dim points of light far away to the southward, which marked the position of the two moonlit, snowy peaks which guarded the southern confines of the valley.
For several minutes they proceeded thus in silence, which neither seemed inclined to break. At length Isma looked up[103] at a planet that was shining redly over the northern mountains, and, possessed5 by a sudden inspiration, said—
“Look, Alma, there is Mars returning to our skies!”
“Yes,” said Alma, turning round and gazing from beneath her slightly-frowning brows at the ruddy planet; “it is a fitting time for him to come back now that, after all these years of peace and happiness, human wickedness and ambition have brought the curse of war back again on earth.”
“Yes,” said Isma. “If there were anything in what the old astrologers used to say we could look upon his rising as an omen6. And yet we have very little reason surely for taking as an emblem7 of war a world in which wars have been unheard of for thousands of years.”
“I wonder when that time will come on earth?” said Alma bitterly. “If ever it does! We terrestrials seem to be too hopelessly wicked and foolish for such wisdom as that.
“Mankind will never have a fairer opportunity of working out its redemption than it had after the Terror, and yet here, after four generations of peaceful happiness and prosperity, the wickedness of one woman is able to set the world ablaze8 again. Our forefathers9 were wise, but they would have been wiser still if they had stamped that vile10 brood out utterly11. Their evil blood has been the one drop of venom12 that has poisoned the whole world’s cup of happiness!”
As Alma spoke13 these last words her grey eyes grew dark with sudden passion under her straight-drawn brows. Her breast heaved with a sudden wave of emotion, and the sentences came quickly and fiercely from the lips which Isma had never heard speak in anger before.
“Yes,” she replied, rather sadly than angrily, “perhaps it would have been better for the world if they had done so, or, at anyrate, if they had shut them up for life, as they did the criminals and the insane in the middle of the last century. But we must remember, even in our own sorrow and anger, that this Olga Romanoff is in her way not altogether unlike our own Angel was in hers.”
“Surely you’re speaking sacrilege now!” interrupted Alma.[104] “How can the evil be like the good under any circumstances?”
“No, I am not,” said Isma, with a smile. “Remember how Natasha was trained up by the Master in undying hate of Russian tyranny, and how she inherited the legacy14 of revenge from her mother and him. No doubt this Olga has done the same, and she has been taught to look upon us as the Terrorists looked upon the Tsar and his family.
“We are the descendants of those who flung her ancestor from his throne, extinguished his dynasty, and sent him to die in Siberia. I would kill her with my own hand if I could, and believe that I was ridding the world of a curse, but surely we two daughters of Aeria are wise enough to be just even to such an enemy as she is.”
“But she has done worse than kill us,” Alma almost hissed15 between her clenched16 teeth. “If she had a thousand lives and we took them one by one they would not expiate17 her crime against us, or equal the hopeless misery18 that she has brought upon us.
“What is mere19 death, the swift transition from one stage of existence to another, compared with the hopeless death-in-life to which her wanton wickedness has condemned20 you and me, or to the calamities21 which she has brought upon the world?”
“It is nothing, I grant you,” said Isma. “But still I do not agree with you about that hopeless death-in-life, as you call it. Our present sorrow is great and heavy enough, God knows, but for me at least it is not hopeless, nor will it be for you when the first stress of the storm is over.”
“What do you mean?” cried Alma, almost as fiercely as before, and leaning forward and looking through the dusk into her face as though she hardly credited her ears. “Do you mean to say that either you or I could ever”—
“Yes,” said Isma, interrupting her, and speaking now with eager animation22. “Yes, I mean just what you were going to say. And some day, I believe, you will think as I do.”
Alma shook her head in mournful incredulity, and Isma noticing the gesture went on—
[105]
“Yes, you will! The reason that you do not agree with me now is that yours is a deeper and stronger nature than mine. You are like the sea, and I am like the lake. Your grief and anger struck you dumb at first.
“You were in a stupor23 when I found you on the terrace, and now the depths of your nature are broken up and the storm is raging, and until it is over you will see nothing but your own sorrow and anger.
“But with me the storm broke out at once, and I ran to my room and threw myself upon my bed and sobbed24 and wailed25 until my mother thought I was going mad. You have not wept yet, and it will be well for you when you do. Your nature is prouder than mine, and it will take longer to melt, but it must melt some time, for we are both women, after all, and then you will see hope through your tears, as I did.”
Alma shook her head again, and said in a low, sad, steady voice—
“I can never see hope until I can see Alan as he was when he left me, and you know that is impossible.”
“You will never see him again as he was,” replied Isma gently. “But that is no reason why you should not see him better than he was.”
“Better?” exclaimed Alma, with an involuntary note of scorn in her voice, which brought a quick flush to Isma’s cheek, and a flash into her eyes for her brother’s sake. “Better! How can that be?”
“Just as the man who has fallen and risen again of his own native strength, is better and stronger than the man who has never been tempted,” replied Isma almost hotly.
“Remember the lessons we have learnt from the people of Mars since we learnt to communicate with them. You know how they have gone through civilisation26 after civilisation until they have refined everything out of human nature that makes it human except their animal existence and their intellectual faculties27.
“They have no passions and they make no mistakes. What we call love they call sexual suitability, the mechanical arrangement[106] into which they have refined our ruling passion. Do you remember how almost impossible Vassilis, after he had perfected the code of signals, found it to make even their brightest and most advanced intellects understand the meaning of jealousy28?”
The skilfully-aimed shot struck home instantly. A bright wave of colour swept from Alma’s throat up to her brow. Her eyes shone like two pale fires in the dusk, and her hand grasped the rail on which it was resting till the bones and sinews stood out distinct in it. She seemed to gasp29 for breath a moment before she found her voice, but when she spoke her tone seemed to ring and vibrate like a bell in the sudden strength of her unloosed passion.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, you innocent-looking little Isma! You are wiser than I am after all. I did not know the meaning of that word till Olga’s letter fell from the sky, but I know it now. My God, how I hate that woman!”
“She is not a woman,” replied Isma, speaking in the unconscious pride of her pure descent. “She is a baseborn animal, for she has used her beauty for the vilest30 ends, yet I am glad to hear you say that you hate her for Alan’s sake, as I do, and—and for Alexis’s. While you can hate you can love, and some day you will love Alan—the real Alan, not your ideal lover—all the better because you have hated Olga for his sake.”
“What?” almost wailed Alma, in the intensity31 of her anger and misery. “After he has held her in his arms—after his lips have kissed hers—after”—
“Yes, even after that. When your first bitterness has passed, as mine has, you will be more just, and remember the influence under which he did so—if he did. Do you hold yourself responsible for what you think or do in your dreams, or do you not believe what Alan said in his letter about the drug? You know too much about chemistry not to know that such horrible poisons have existed for centuries.”
“Yes, yes, I know that, and I know that he has no share in the moral guilt32; but how can I ever forget he has been what[107] those cruel words of Olga’s told us she had made of him?” replied Alma, her face growing cold and hard again as she spoke.
“Alma,” said Isma, with gentle dignity, yet with a note of keen reproach in her voice, “surely you are forgetting that you are speaking of my brother as well as of your lover. No, I am not angry, for I am too sad myself not to understand your sorrow. But I want you to remember that I who have lost both a lover and a brother am asking you to be patient and to hope with me.
“We have never seen Alan and Alexis as they are. We only remember them as two handsome boys who had never seen or known evil. When we meet them again, as I firmly believe we shall, they will be men who have passed through the fire; for if they do not pass through it and come out stronger and better than they were, rest assured we shall never meet on earth again.
“Alan would no more come to you now than you would go to him. When he believes himself worthy33 of you he will come for you as Alexis will come for me, and then”—
She stopped short in her eloquent34 pleading, for Alma, at last melted and overcome by her sweet unselfishness and loving logic35, had felt the springs of her own woman’s nature unloosed, and with a low, wailing36 cry had sunk down upon the cushions towards her, and was sobbing37 out her sorrow on her lap. Isma said nothing more, for her end was achieved. She laid her left hand caressingly38 on Alma’s hair, and with her right she pulled the steering-lever back and swung the Cygna round until her prow2 pointed39 towards home again.
When they reached the villa40 they found the President’s private yacht resting on the terrace, for Alan’s father and mother had come over after the Council meeting to discuss with Alma’s parents the more intimate family aspect of the strange events which had cleared up in such terrible fashion the mystery which had so long shrouded41 the fate of the sons of the two chief families in Aeria.
So revolting was the idea of their mental servitude to such[108] an enemy of the human race as they could not but believe Olga Romanoff to be, and so frightful42 were the consequences that must infallibly befall humanity in consequence of it, that their parents would rather have known them dead than living under such degrading circumstances. To the Aerians, far advanced as they were beyond the standards of the present day, both in religion and philosophy, the conception of death was one which included no terrors and no more regret than was natural and common to all humanity at parting with a kinsman43 or a friend.
As they were destined44 to prove, when face to face with a crisis unparalleled in the history of humanity, they regarded death merely as a natural and necessary transition from one state of existence to another, which would be higher or lower according to the preponderance of good or evil done in this life.
If, therefore, the parents and kinsmen45 of those who were now exiles and wanderers upon the ocean wastes could have chosen, they would infinitely46 rather have known that Alan and Alexis had shared the fate of their companions in the Norwegian snowdrift than they would have learnt that for six years they had been the slaves and playthings of a woman who, as they guessed from Alan’s letter, combined the ambition of a Semiramis with the vices47 of a Messalina, and who had used the skill and knowledge which they had acquired and inherited as Princes of the Air with the avowed48 purpose of subverting49 the dominion50 of Aeria, undoing51 all that their ancestors had done, and bringing back the evil era of strife52, bloodshed, and political slavery.
So, too, with Alma. As she had told Isma, she would a thousand times rather have seen her lover dead than degraded to such base uses. Although she, like everyone else in Aeria, admitted that the strange circumstances absolved53 both Alan and Alexis from all moral blame and responsibility, she, in common with her own father and mother, and perhaps, also, with others not less intimately concerned, found it impossible to forget or ignore the taint54 of such an association, and to look upon it as a stain that might never be washed away.
[109]
Indeed, the only member of the family council who openly proclaimed her belief that the two exiles would, if ever they returned, come back to Aeria better and stronger men than those who had known no evil was Isma, who repeated, with all the winning eloquence55 at her command, all the arguments that she had used to Alma during their cruise together. Whether Alma and the others would ever come round to her view could of course only be proved by time, but it is nevertheless certain that when the family council at last separated the hearts of its members were less sore than they would have been had Alan and Alexis not possessed such an advocate as the girl who had so good a double reason for pleading their causes.
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1
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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prow
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| n.(飞机)机头，船头 | |
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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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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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omen
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| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
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emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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8
ablaze
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| adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的 | |
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9
forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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10
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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venom
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| n.毒液，恶毒，痛恨 | |
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13
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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14
legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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15
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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16
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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expiate
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| v.抵补，赎罪 | |
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18
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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19
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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21
calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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22
animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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23
stupor
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| v.昏迷；不省人事 | |
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24
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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25
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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27
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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28
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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29
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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30
vilest
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| adj.卑鄙的( vile的最高级 )；可耻的；极坏的；非常讨厌的 | |
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31
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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32
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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33
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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34
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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35
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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36
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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37
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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38
caressingly
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| 爱抚地，亲切地 | |
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39
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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40
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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41
shrouded
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| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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43
kinsman
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| n.男亲属 | |
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44
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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45
kinsmen
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| n.家属，亲属( kinsman的名词复数 ) | |
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46
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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47
vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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48
avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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49
subverting
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| v.颠覆，破坏（政治制度、宗教信仰等）( subvert的现在分词 )；使（某人）道德败坏或不忠 | |
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50
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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51
undoing
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| n.毁灭的原因，祸根；破坏，毁灭 | |
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52
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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53
absolved
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| 宣告…无罪，赦免…的罪行，宽恕…的罪行( absolve的过去式和过去分词 )； 不受责难，免除责任 [义务] ,开脱（罪责） | |
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54
taint
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| n.污点；感染；腐坏；v.使感染；污染 | |
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55
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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