Part 15 (2/2)
”This Venice is for you and me, my Paul,” she said. ”The air is full of love and dreams; we have left the slender moon behind us in Switzerland; here she is nearing her full, and the summer is upon us with all her richness and completeness--the spring of our love has pa.s.sed.”
Her voice fell into its rhythmical cadence, as if she were whispering a prophecy inspired by some presence beyond.
”We will drink deep of the cup of delight, my lover, and bathe in the wine of the G.o.ds. We shall feast on the tongues of nightingales, and rest on couches of flowers. And thou shalt cede me thy soul, beloved, and I will give thee mine--”
But the rest was lost in the meeting of their lips.
They dined on the open loggia, its curtains drawn, hiding them from the view of the palaces opposite, but not preventing the soft sounds of the singers in the gondolas moored to the poles beneath from reaching their ears. And above the music now and then would come the faint splash of water, and the ”Stahi”--”Preme” of some moving gondolier.
The food was of the richest, beginning with strange fishes and quant.i.ties of _hors d'oeuvres_ that Paul knew not, accompanied by _vodka_ in several forms. And some of the _plats_ she would just taste, and some send instantly away.
And all the while a little fountain of her own perfume played from a group of sportive cupids in silver, while the table in the centre was piled with red roses. Dmitry and two Italian footmen waited, and everything was done with the greatest state. A regal magnificence was in the lady's air and mien. She spoke of the splendours of Venice's past, and let Paul feel the atmosphere of that subtle time of pa.s.sion and life. Of here a love-scene, and there a murder. Of wisdom and vice, and intoxicating emotion, all blended in a kaleidoscope of gorgeousness and colour.
And once again her vast knowledge came as a fresh wonder to Paul--no smallest detail of history seemed wanting in her talk, so that he lived again in that old world and felt himself a Doge.
When they were alone at last, tasting the golden wine, she rose and drew him to the loggia bal.u.s.trade. Dmitry had drawn back the curtains and extinguished the lights, and only the brilliant moon lit the scene; a splendid moon, two nights from the full. There she shone straight down upon them to welcome them to this City of Romance.
What loveliness met Paul's view! A loveliness in which art and nature blended in one satisfying whole.
”Darling,” he said, ”this is better than the Burgenstock. Let us go out on the water and float about, too.”
It was exceedingly warm these last days of May, and that night not a zephyr stirred a ripple. A cloak and scarf of black gauze soon hid the lady's splendour, and they descended the staircase hand in hand to the waiting open gondola.
It was a new experience of joy for Paul to recline there, and drift away down the stream, amidst the music and the coloured lanterns, and the wonderful, wonderful spell of the place.
The lady was silent for a while, and then she began to whisper pa.s.sionate words of love. She had never before been thus carried away--and he must say them to her--as he held her hand--burning words, inflaming the imagination and exciting the sense. It seemed as if all the other nights of love were concentrated into this one in its perfect joy.
Who can tell of the wild exaltation which filled Paul? He was no longer just Paul Verdayne, the ordinary young Englishman; he was a G.o.d--and this was Olympus.
”Look, Paul!” she said at last. ”Can you not see Desdemona peeping from the balcony of her house there? And to think she will have no happiness before her Moor will strangle her to-night! Death without joys. Ah! that is cruel. Some joys are well worth death, are they not, my lover, as you and I should know?”
”Worth death and eternity,” said Paul. ”For one such night as this with you a man would sell his soul.”
It was not until they turned at the opening of the Guidecca to return to their palazzo that they both became aware of another gondola following them, always at the same distance behind--a gondola with two solitary figures in it huddled on the seats.
The lady gave a whispered order in Italian to her gondolier, who came to a sudden stop, thus forcing the other boat to come much nearer before it, too, arrested its course. There a moonbeam caught the faces of the men as they leant forward to see what had occurred. One of them was Dmitry, and the other a younger man of the pure Kalmuck type whom Paul had never seen.
”Vasili!” exclaimed the lady, in pa.s.sionate surprise. ”Vasili! and they have not told me!”
She trembled all over, while her eyes blazed green flames of anger and excitement. ”If it is unnecessary they shall feel the whip for this.”
Her cloak had fallen aside a little, disclosing a s.h.i.+mmer of purple garment and flas.h.i.+ng emeralds. She looked barbaric, her raven brows knit.
It might have been Cleopatra commanding the instant death of an offending slave.
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