Part 24 (1/2)
”Froken Hagen,” Campbell ventured, ”aren't you sick of all this? Captain Lincoln says you have been here for five years. Aren't you dead tired of it?”
”No.” Her voice was a strong soprano timbre.
”Don't you want to get back to the North again?”
”Often.” She had a quiet aloof smile. Somewhere was the impression of a gentlewoman. She did not mean to be abrupt. She was just immensely self-possessed.
It occurred to Shane suddenly that he liked this woman. He liked her dignity, her grave composure. He liked her coolness, her almost Viennese grace. He liked her features; but for the wideness of her mouth, and the little prominence of chin, she would have been immensely beautiful. Her corn-like hair, ma.s.sively braided, must be like a mane when down, and beneath her Paris frock he could sense her deep bosom, great marble limbs. Her voice had the cool sweet beauty of Northern winds.... Her eyes were steady, her chin uptilted. Somewhere, some time, somehow she had mastered fate.
About, in the gas-lit square, escorted, guarded, went other women, reputable women. Great rawboned women, daughters of Irish _portenos_, with the coa.r.s.eness of the Irish peasant in their faces, the brogue of the Irish peasant on their Spanish, but punctiliously Castilian as to manners; gross Teutonic women; fluffy sentimental Englishwomen, bearing exile bravely, but thinking long for the Surrey downs; gravid Italian women, clumsy in the body, sweet and wistful in the face; Argentines, clouded with powder, liquid of eyes, on their lips a soft little down that would in a few years be an abomination unto the Lord; women of mixed breed, with the kink of Africa in their hair, or the golden tint of the Indian in their skin. Good women! And yet.... For grace, for coolness, for cleanliness, the venal Swedish girl outshone them all....
”Froken Hagen,” Campbell said, ”may I call on you some time?”
”If you like.”
”Does that mean you don't want me to come?”
She smiled at him.
”Mr. Campbell,” she laughed gently, ”you know very well what I am. If you don't call on me it won't mean anything to me. If you do call I think I'll be rather glad. Because on first appearances I like you. But do whatever you like. I have no wiles.”
”Thank G.o.d for that!”
Lincoln, master of the _Katurah Knopp_, listened in with a silent chuckle. She was a queer one, Hedda was. And Campbell, he was a queer one, too. Two queer ones together. Hedda was all right, but a man sickened of her quick. She wasn't what you might call warm. No affection; that's what a man missed far from home, affection. Yes, affection. Hedda had none. She was a fine woman, but she had no affection. He liked to see men get stung. In a few days Campbell would be down at the club with a face as long as to-day and to-morrow. He would call for a drink angrily.
”Well, captain, what's got into you? You don't look happy.”
And Campbell, like the others, would grumble something about a G.o.d-d.a.m.ned big Swede.
”Hey, what's wrong? Ain't Hedda treated you right?”
”Sure, she treated me right,” he would say as the others said, ”but G.o.d d.a.m.n! that woman's not human. Take away that rot-gut and gi' me whisky.
I got a touch o' chill.”
Lincoln had seen it all before. He liked to see it all the time. He chuckled as Shane turned to him.
”Lincoln, are you seeing this lady home?”
”Not if you want to.”
”I don't want to break up any arrangements of yours.”
”Tell the truth,” Lincoln said, ”I've got a little party to-night. A party as is a party--Spanish girls, Spanish dancers ... I wish I could take you, but it ain't my party....”
”Then I'll see Miss Hagen home.”
Dog-gone, Lincoln would have to go down to the club and tell 'em how Campbell of the _Maid of the Isles_ got stuck with the human iceberg!
-- 5