Part 30 (1/2)

”Oh-h!”

She laughed and pulled me by the arm into her room and shut the door.

”Oh, everything is beautiful, beautiful, and I shall die if I do not kiss you.”

”You must be kept alive at all hazards,” I laughed; and this time I did not reject her. But it was a child around whom my arms closed. An inner flash, accompanied by a spasm of pain, revealed it, and changed a pa.s.sionate desire to gentleness.

”There,” said I, after she had released herself and flown to open the drawers of the new toilette table, where lay some odds and ends of jewelry I had purchased for her. ”You have been saved from extinction.

The next deadly peril is hunger. I give you a quarter of an hour.”

She came down to dinner in a low-necked frock, wearing the necklace and bangle; and, child that she is, in her hand she carried the silver-backed mirror. I believe she has taken it to bed with her, as a seven-year-old does its toy. She certainly kept it by her all the evening and admired herself therein unashamedly like the traditional Lady from the Sea. Once, desiring to show me the ravis.h.i.+ng beauty of a turquoise pendant, she bent her neck forward, as I sat, so as to come within reach of my nearsighted eyes (it is a superst.i.tion of hers that I am nearly blind without my gla.s.ses), and quite naturally slid onto my knee. She has the warm russet complexion that suits her heavy bronze hair, and there is a glow beneath the satin of her neck and arms. And she is fragrant--I recognise it now--of hyacinths. The world can hold nothing more alluring to the senses of man. My fingers that held the turquoise trembled as they chanced to touch her--but she was all unconcerned. Nay, further--she gazed into the mirror--

”It makes me look so white--oh, there was a girl at Bude who had a gold locket--and it lay upon her bones--you could count them. I am glad I have no bones. I am quite soft--feel.”

She clasped my fingers and pressed their tips into the firm young flesh below her throat.

”Yes,” said I, with some huskiness in my voice, ”your turquoise can sleep there very pleasantly. See, I will kiss it to bring you good luck.”

She cooed with pleasure. ”I don't think any one kissed the locket of the girl at Bude. She was too thin. And too old; she must have been thirty!

Now,” she added, lifting up the locket, ”you will kiss the place, too, where it is to lie.”

I looked for a moment into her eyes. Seeing me hesitate, they grew pathetic.

”Oh-h,” she said, reproachfully.

I know I am a fool. I know that Pasquale would have hurled his sarcasms at me. I know that the whole of her deliciousness was mine for the taking--mine for ever and ever. If I had loved her less pa.s.sionately I would have kissed her young throat lightly with a jest. But to have kissed her thus with such longing as mine behind my lips would have been an outrage.

I lifted her to her feet, and rose and turned away, laughing unsteadily.

”No, my dear,” said I, ”that would be--unsuitable.”

The bathos of the word made me laugh louder. Carlotta, aware that a joke was in the air, joined in my mirth, and her laughter rang fresh.

”What is the suitable way of kissing?”

I took her hand and saluted it in an eighteenth century manner.

”This,” said I.

”Oh-h,” said Carlotta. ”That is so dull.” She caught up Polyphemus and buried her face in his fur. ”That's the way I should like to be kissed.”

”The man you love, my dear,” said I, ”will doubtless do it.”

She made a little grimace.

”Oh, then, I shall have to wait such a long time.”

”You needn't,” said I, taking her hands again and speaking very seriously. ”Can't you learn to love a man, give him your whole heart and all your best and sweetest thoughts?”

”I would marry any nice man if you gave me to him,” she answered.