Suddenly, in that casual way peculiar7 to dreams, I found myself conversing8 with a solemn young Turk, standing9 in all the splendor10 of fez and stambouline beside my chair.
“Pardon, Effendi,” he was murmuring. “Is this an American ball? I was asked at nine o’clock; it is now past eleven. Is there not some mistake?”
“None,” I answered. “When a hostess puts nine o’clock on her card of invitation she expects her guests at eleven or half-past, and would be much embarrassed to be taken literally11.”
As we were speaking, our host rose. The men, reluctantly throwing away their cigars, began to enter the ball-room through the open windows. On their approach the groups of women broke up, the men joining the girls where they sat, or inviting12 them out to the lantern-lit piazza, where the couples retired13 to dim, palm-embowered corners.
“Are you sure I have not made a mistake?” asked my interlocutor, with a faint quiver of the eyelids14. “It is my intention, while travelling, to remain faithful to my harem.”
“Indeed,” he murmured incredulously. “When I was passing through New York last winter a lady was pointed16 out to me as the owner of marvellous jewels and vast wealth, but with absolutely no social position. My informant added that no well-born woman would receive her or her husband.
“It’s foolish, of course, but the handsome woman with the crown on sitting in the centre of that circle, looks very like the woman I mean. Am I right?”
“It’s the same lady,” I answered, wearily. “You are speaking of last year. No one could be induced to call on the couple then. Now we all go to their house, and entertain them in return.”
“They have doubtless done some noble action, or the reports about the husband have been proved false?”
“Nothing of the kind has taken place. She’s a success, and no one asks any questions! In spite of that, you are in a society where the standard of conduct is held higher than in any country of Europe, by a race of women more virtuous17, in all probability, than has yet been seen. There is not a man present,” I added, “who would presume to take, or a woman who would permit, a liberty so slight even as the resting of a youth’s arm across the back of her chair.”
While I was speaking, an invisible orchestra began to sigh out the first passionate18 bars of a waltz. A dozen couples rose, the men clasping in their arms the slender matrons, whose smiling faces sank to their partners’ shoulders. A blond mustache brushed the forehead of a girl as she swept by us to the rhythm of the music, and other cheeks seemed about to touch as couples glided19 on in unison20.
The sleepy Oriental eyes of my new acquaintance opened wide with astonishment21.
“This, you must understand,” I continued, hastily, “is quite another matter. Those people are waltzing. It is considered perfectly22 proper, when the musicians over there play certain measures, for men to take apparent liberties. Our women are infinitely23 self-respecting, and a man who put his arm around a woman (in public) while a different measure was being played, or when there was no music, would be ostracized24 from polite society.”
“I am beginning to understand,” replied the Turk. “The husbands and brothers of these women guard them very carefully. Those men I see out there in the dark are doubtless with their wives and sisters, protecting them from the advances of other men. Am I right?”
“Of course you’re not right,” I snapped out, beginning to lose my temper at his obtuseness25. “No husband would dream of talking to his wife in public, or of sitting with her in a corner. Every one would be laughing at them. Nor could a sister be induced to remain away from the ball-room with her brother. Those girls are ‘sitting out’ with young men they like, indulging in a little innocent flirtation26.”
“What is that?” he asked. “Flirtation?”
“An American custom rather difficult to explain. It may, however, be roughly defined as the art of leading a man a long way on the road to—nowhere!”
“The husbands are those dejected individuals wandering aimlessly about over there like lost souls. They are mostly rich men, who, having married beautiful girls for love, wear themselves out maintaining elaborate and costly29 establishments for them. In return for his labor28 a husband, however, enjoys but little of his wife’s society, for a really fashionable woman can rarely be induced to go home until she has collapsed30 with fatigue31. In consequence, she contributes little but ‘nerves’ and temper to the household. Her sweetest smiles, like her freshest toilets, are kept for the public. The husband is the last person considered in an American household. If you doubt what I say, look behind you. There is a newly married man speaking with his wife, and trying to persuade her to leave before the cotillion begins. Notice his apologetic air! He knows he is interrupting a tender conversation and taking an unwarrantable liberty. Nothing short of extreme fatigue would drive him to such an extremity32. The poor millionnaire has hardly left his desk in Wall Street during the week, and only arrived this evening in time to dress for dinner. He would give a fair slice of his income for a night’s rest. See! He has failed, and is lighting33 another cigar, preparing, with a sigh, for a long wait. It will be three before my lady is ready to leave.”
After a silence of some minutes, during which he appeared to be turning these remarks over in his mind, the young Oriental resumed: “The single men who absorb so much of your women’s time and attention are doubtless the most distinguished34 of the nation,—writers, poets, and statesmen?”
I was obliged to confess that this was not the case; that, on the contrary, the dancing bachelors were for the most part impecunious35 youths of absolutely no importance, asked by the hostess to fill in, and so lightly considered that a woman did not always recognize in the street her guests of the evening before.
At this moment my neighbor’s expression changed from bewilderment to admiration36, as a young and very lovely matron threw herself, panting, into a low chair at his side. Her décolleté was so daring that the doubts of half an hour before were evidently rising afresh in his mind. Hastily resuming my task of mentor37, I explained that a décolleté corsage was an absolute rule for evening gatherings38. A woman who appeared in a high bodice or with her neck veiled would be considered lacking in politeness to her hostess as much if she wore a bonnet39.
“With us, women go into the world to shine and charm. It is only natural they should use all the weapons nature has given them.”
“Very good!” exclaimed the astonished Ottoman. “But where will all this end? You began by allowing your women to appear in public with their faces unveiled, then you suppressed the fichu and the collarette, and now you rob them of half their corsage. Where, O Allah, will you stop?”
“Ah!” I answered, laughing, “the tendency of civilization is to simplify; many things may yet disappear.”
“I understand perfectly. You have no prejudice against women wearing in public toilets that we consider fitted only for strict intimacy40. In that case your ladies may walk about the streets in these costumes?”
“Not at all!” I cried. “It would provoke a scandal if a woman were to be seen during the daytime in such attire41, either at home or abroad. The police and the law courts would interfere42. Evening dress is intended only for reunions in private houses, or at most, to be worn at entertainments where the company is carefully selected and the men asked from lists prepared by the ladies themselves. No lady would wear a ball costume or her jewels in a building where the general public was admitted. In London great ladies dine at restaurants in full evening dress, but we Americans, like the French, consider that vulgar.”
“Yet, last winter,” he said, “when passing through New York, I went to a great theatre, where there were an orchestra and many singing people. Were not those respectable women I saw in the boxes? There were no moucharabies to screen them from the eyes of the public. Were all the men in that building asked by special invitation? That could hardly be possible, for I paid an entrance fee at the door. From where I sat I could see that, as each lady entered her box, opera-glasses were fixed43 on her, and her ‘points,’ as you say, discussed by the crowd of men in the corridors, who, apparently44, belonged to quite the middle class.”
“My poor, innocent Padischa, you do not understand at all. That was the opera, which makes all the difference. The husbands of those women pay enormous prices, expressly that their wives may exhibit themselves in public, decked in jewels and suggestive toilets. You could buy a whole harem of fair Circassians for what one of those little square boxes costs. A lady whose entrance caused no sensation would feel bitterly disappointed. As a rule, she knows little about music, and cares still less, unless some singer is performing who is paid a fabulous45 price, which gives his notes a peculiar charm. With us most things are valued by the money they have cost. Ladies attend the opera simply and solely46 to see their friends and be admired.
“It grieves me to see that you are forming a poor opinion of our woman kind, for they are more charming and modest than any foreign women. A girl or matron who exhibits more of her shoulders than you, with your Eastern ideas, think quite proper, would sooner expire than show an inch above her ankle. We have our way of being modest as well as you, and that is one of our strongest prejudices.”
“Now I know you are joking,” he replied, with a slight show of temper, “or trying to mystify me, for only this morning I was on the beach watching the bathing, and I saw a number of ladies in quite short skirts—up to their knees, in fact—with the thinnest covering on their shapely extremities47. Were those women above suspicion?”
“Absolutely,” I assured him, feeling inclined to tear my hair at such stupidity. “Can’t you see the difference? That was in daylight. Our customs allow a woman to show her feet, and even a little more, in the morning. It would be considered the acme48 of indecency to let those beauties be seen at a ball. The law allows a woman to uncover her neck and shoulders at a ball, but she would be arrested if she appeared décolleté on the beach of a morning.”
A long silence followed, broken only by the music and laughter from the ball-room. I could see my dazed Mohammedan remove his fez and pass an agitated49 hand through his dark hair; then he turned, and saluting50 me gravely, murmured:
“It is very kind of you to have taken so much trouble with me. I do not doubt that what you have said is full of the wisdom and consistency51 of a new civilization, which I fail to appreciate.” Then, with a sigh, he added: “It will be better for me to return to my own country, where there are fewer exceptions to rules.”
With a profound salaam52 the gentle youth disappeared into the surrounding darkness, leaving me rubbing my eyes and asking myself if, after all, the dreamland Oriental was not about right. Custom makes many inconsistencies appear so logical that they no longer cause us either surprise or emotion. But can we explain them?
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1
piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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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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6
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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8
conversing
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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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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splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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ostracized
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| v.放逐( ostracize的过去式和过去分词 )；流放；摈弃；排斥 | |
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obtuseness
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| 感觉迟钝 | |
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flirtation
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| n.调情，调戏，挑逗 | |
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flirt
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| v.调情，挑逗，调戏；n.调情者，卖俏者 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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impecunious
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| adj.不名一文的，贫穷的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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mentor
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| n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导 | |
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gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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42
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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43
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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44
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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45
fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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46
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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47
extremities
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| n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地 | |
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48
acme
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| n.顶点，极点 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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50
saluting
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的现在分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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51
consistency
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| n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度 | |
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52
salaam
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| n.额手之礼，问安，敬礼；v.行额手礼 | |
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