Part 26 (1/2)

”It's here.”

”Thank you! How long is it since I've seen you? It seems like a century. Those brutes up there were driving me mad with their cold-blooded arrangements for wholesale murder. The latest idea is to explode a bomb outside one of the big _cafes_ when Alfonso comes here next week to inspect the troops. They might as well leave him alone.

What harm has he done them? As long as they can see people flying into atoms with the help of a little nitroglycerine they are quite happy.

Vengeance, vengeance! That is their eternal cry. Of course in Russia it's a different thing. One must either be an autocrat and slave-driver or a Nihilist out there, but here--they are mad, all of them! They have just settled to draw lots to-morrow night. I wonder who will have the 'honour' of becoming executioner? I suppose they can't do it to-night because Poleski isn't here.”

Arith.e.l.li shook her head.

”That is not the reason. They have given Emile other work to do in Russia. He is leaving here very soon. I thought you knew.”

”Who told you that Poleski is going away? It may not be true.”

”Emile himself. Oh! it's true enough. I don't know when he will go.

He doesn't know himself, but soon.”

”Will you trust me to take care of you when Poleski is gone?”

”I'll trust you always.”

”Promise me you'll come away with me. If you care you'll come. I'll give up the Cause for your sake. I've told you so in my letter and now I say it again.”

”So I've made you a traitor. Sobrenski was right.”

”My sweet, how can I live with violence and death and misery since I have known you? I want to get away from men and back to Nature to be healed. It doesn't follow that because I have grown to hate some of the revolutionist methods that I am against all their theories. I believe they are right in sharing things, in fighting for those who are trodden down by the rich, but you and I can still believe all that without becoming inhuman. Think of Sobrenski. He's a werewolf, not a man! Promise me that you'll come soon. Let me take you away before they make you one of their 'angels of vengeance,' as they call these women of the revolution.”

Excitement and the feverish devil of consumption had turned his blood to fire. He would take no denial, pay no heed to Arith.e.l.li's entreaties for time to think, and to consult Emile.

For once he forgot to be gentle, and dragged her head back roughly, whispering pa.s.sionate words, his face pressed against her own. For a moment he saw no longer the G.o.ddess on her ivory throne, but a woman of flesh and blood, warm, living, and fragrant and to be desired after a man's fas.h.i.+on.

Arith.e.l.li closed her eyes and leant back, yielding herself to his caresses. The pressure of his hand across her throat hurt her, but in some strange way it also gave her pleasure. Love, the schoolmaster, again stood by her side teaching her the lesson learnt sooner or later by all women, that pain at the hands of one beloved is a thing close akin to joy. She felt incapable of any struggle or resistance, bodily or mental. She had given her heart therefore her body was also his to use as he willed, and feeling her thus abandoned to him all the boy's chivalry was stirred anew, and the hunger for possession was lost in the desire to serve and protect.

Possibly if he had been forty instead of twenty-eight, he would perhaps have demanded a man's rights. Being, however, according to the world's standard, a fool and a dreamer, he chose to let the moment pa.s.s, to refuse what the G.o.ds offered, to think of Arith.e.l.li rather than of himself.

”I'm hurting you, dear.” His voice shook a little, in spite of his efforts to control it.

”No. Nothing hurts now. And I'm glad you love me.”

”I hurt you a minute ago. I was mad and a beast. Will you forgive me?

You are not frightened?”

”No. I was only thinking of the future of tomorrow.”

”Let us forget to-morrow,” the boy pleaded. ”Can you not forget for once?”

”We have to-day, and each other. '_Aujourd'hui le Printemps, Ninon_.'

It's summer for us now, Fatalite! When one loves there is always summer.”

He drew her out into the starlight as he heard the noise of the men pus.h.i.+ng back their seats and moving about overhead.

Several voices were raised in angry altercation.