Part 13 (1/2)
”You wish to acquire the right to speak to me of myself,” she said laughing.
”You do not answer me,” he went on after a slight pause. ”Take care, silence is sometimes significant.”
”Do you think I cannot guess all that you would like to say to me? Good heavens! you have already said enough.”
”Oh, if we understand each other,” he replied, smiling, ”I have obtained more than I dared hope for.”
She smiled in return so graciously that she seemed to accept the courteous struggle into which all men like to draw a woman. They persuaded themselves, half in jest, half in earnest, that they never could be more to each other than they were at that moment. The young man fancied, therefore, he might give reins to a pa.s.sion that could have no future; the young woman felt she might smile upon it. Marie suddenly struck her foot against a stone and stumbled.
”Take my arm,” said her companion.
”It seems I must,” she replied; ”you would be too proud if I refused; you would fancy I feared you.”
”Ah, mademoiselle,” he said, pressing her arm against his heart that she might feel the beating of it, ”you flatter my pride by granting such a favor.”
”Well, the readiness with which I do so will cure your illusions.”
”Do you wish to save me from the danger of the emotions you cause?”
”Stop, stop!” she cried; ”do not try to entangle me in such boudoir riddles. I don't like to find the wit of fools in a man of your character. See! here we are beneath the glorious sky, in the open country; before us, above us, all is grand. You wish to tell me that I am beautiful, do you not? Well, your eyes have already told me so; besides, I know it; I am not a woman whom mere compliments can please. But perhaps you would like,” this with satirical emphasis, ”to talk about your sentiments? Do you think me so simple as to believe that sudden sympathies are powerful enough to influence a whole life through the recollections of one morning?”
”Not the recollections of a morning,” he said, ”but those of a beautiful woman who has shown herself generous.”
”You forget,” she retorted, laughing, ”half my attractions,-a mysterious woman, with everything odd about her, name, rank, situation, freedom of thought and manners.”
”You are not mysterious to me!” he exclaimed. ”I have fathomed you; there is nothing that could be added to your perfections except a little more faith in the love you inspire.”
”Ah, my poor child of eighteen, what can you know of love?” she said smiling. ”Well, well, so be it!” she added, ”it is a fair subject of conversation, like the weather when one pays a visit. You shall find that I have neither false modesty nor petty fears. I can hear the word love without blus.h.i.+ng; it has been so often said to me without one echo of the heart that I think it quite unmeaning. I have met with it everywhere, in books, at the theatre, in society,-yes, everywhere, and never have I found in it even a semblance of its magnificent ideal.”
”Did you seek that ideal?”
”Yes.”
The word was said with such perfect ease and freedom that the young man made a gesture of surprise and looked at Marie fixedly, as if he had suddenly changed his opinion on her character and real position.
”Mademoiselle,” he said with ill-concealed devotion, ”are you maid or wife, angel or devil?”
”All,” she replied, laughing. ”Isn't there something diabolic and also angelic in a young girl who has never loved, does not love, and perhaps will never love?”
”Do you think yourself happy thus?” he asked with a free and easy tone and manner, as though already he felt less respect for her.
”Oh, happy, no,” she replied. ”When I think that I am alone, hampered by social conventions that make me deceitful, I envy the privileges of a man. But when I also reflect on the means which nature has bestowed on us women to catch and entangle you men in the invisible meshes of a power which you cannot resist, then the part a.s.signed to me in the world is not displeasing to me. And then again, suddenly, it does seem very petty, and I feel that I should despise a man who allowed himself to be duped by such vulgar seductions. No sooner do I perceive our power and like it, than I know it to be horrible and I abhor it. Sometimes I feel within me that longing towards devotion which makes my s.e.x so n.o.bly beautiful; and then I feel a desire, which consumes me, for dominion and power. Perhaps it is the natural struggle of the good and the evil principle in which all creatures live here below. Angel or devil! you have expressed it. Ah! to-day is not the first time that I have recognized my double nature. But we women understand better than you men can do our own shortcomings. We have an instinct which shows us a perfection in all things to which, nevertheless, we fail to attain. But,” she added, sighing as she glanced at the sky; ”that which enhances us in your eyes is-”
”Is what?” he said.
”-that we are all struggling, more or less,” she answered, ”against a thwarted destiny.”
”Mademoiselle, why should we part to-night?”
”Ah!” she replied, smiling at the pa.s.sionate look which he gave her, ”let us get into the carriage; the open air does not agree with us.”