Part 26 (1/2)
”Can you guess why I wear them?”
”Not because they make you look prettier, for that's impossible.”
”Will you please remember that I like you because you are not in the habit of making speeches.”
”I beg pardon. I won't offend again. Well, then, I will confess that I don't know why you wear jewels. There must be a Puritan strain in my character, for I cannot enter into the desire for jewels. I say this merely because you have practically invited me to be brutal.”
Now that I recall that conversation I realize how gentle she was towards my crude and callous notions concerning personal adornment.
”Yet you went to England in order to fetch my jewels.”
”No, I went to England in order to be of use to a lady. But tell me--why do you wear jewels off the stage?”
”Simply because, having them, I have a sort of feeling that they ought to be used. It seems a waste to keep them hidden in a strong box, and I never could tolerate waste. Really, I scarcely care more for jewels, as jewels, than you do yourself.”
”Still, for a person who doesn't care for them, you seem to have a fair quant.i.ty of them.”
”Ah! But many were given to me--and the rest I bought when I was young, or soon afterwards. Besides, they are part of my stock in trade.”
”When you were young!” I repeated, smiling. ”How long is that since?”
”Ages.”
I coughed.
”It is seven years since I was young,” she said, ”and I was sixteen at the time.”
”You are positively venerable, then; and since you are, I must be too.”
”I am much older than you are,” she said; ”not in years, but in life.
You don't feel old.”
”And do you?”
”Frightfully.”
”What brings it on?”
”Oh! Experience--and other things. It is the soul which grows old.”
”But you have been happy?”
”Never--never in my life, except when I was singing, have I been happy. Have you been happy?”
”Yes,” I said, ”once or twice.”
”When you were a boy?”
”No, since I have become a man. Just--just recently.”
”People fancy they are happy,” she murmured.