Part 21 (1/2)
It called to me. Seraphina's unstirring head was lighted strongly by a two-branched sconce on the wall; and when I stood by her side, not even the shadow of the eyelashes on her cheek trembled. Carlos' lips moved; his voice was almost extinct; but for all his emaciation, the profundity of his eyes, the sunken cheeks, the hollow temples, he remained attractive, with the charm of his gallant and romantic temper worn away to an almost unearthly fineness.
He was going to have his desire because, on the threshold of his spiritual inheritance, he refused, or was unable, to turn his gaze away from this world. Father Antonio's business was to save this soul; and with a sort of simple and sacerdotal shrewdness, in which there was much love for his most n.o.ble penitent, he would try to appease its trouble by a romantic satisfaction. His voice, very grave and profound, addressed me:
”Approach, my son--nearer. We trust the natural feelings of pity which are implanted in every human breast, the n.o.bility of your extraction, the honour of your _hidalguidad_, and that inextinguishable courage which, as by the unwearied mercy of G.o.d, distinguishes the sons of your fortunate and unhappy nation.” His ba.s.s voice, deepened in solemn utterance, vibrated huskily. There was a rustic dignity in his uncouth form, in his broad face, in the gesture of the raised hand. ”You shall promise to respect the dictates of our conscience, guided by the authority of our faith; to defer to our scruples, and to the procedure of our Church in matters which we believe touch the welfare of our souls.... You promise?”
He waited. Carlos' eyes burned darkly on my face. What were they asking of me? This was nothing. Of course I would respect her scruples--her scruples--if my heart should break. I felt her living intensely by my side; she could be brought no nearer to me by anything they could do, or I could promise. She had already all the devotion of my love and youth, the unreasoning and potent devotion, without a thought or hope of reward. I was almost ashamed to p.r.o.nounce the two words they expected.
”I promise.”
And suddenly the meaning pervading this scene, something that was in my mind already, and that I had hardly dared to look at till now, became clear to me in its awful futility against the dangers, in all its remote consequences. It was a betrothal. The priest--Carlos, too--must have known that it had no binding power. To Carlos it was symbolic of his wishes. Father Antonio was thinking of the papal dispensation. I was a heretic. What if it were refused? But what was that risk to me, who had never dared to hope? Moreover, they had brought her there, had persuaded her; she had been influenced by her fears, impressed by Carlos. What could she care for me? And I repeated:
”I promise. I promise, even at the cost of suffering and unhappiness, never to demand anything from her against her conscience.”
Carlos' voice sounded weak. ”I answer for him, good father.” Then he seemed to wander in a whisper, which we two caught faintly, ”He resembles his sister, O Divine------”
And on this ghostly sigh, on this breath, with the feeble click of beads in the nun's hands, a silence fell upon the room, vast as the stillness of a world of unknown faiths, loves, beliefs, of silent illusions, of unexpressed pa.s.sions and secret motives that live in our unfathomable hearts.
Seraphina had given me a quick glance--the first glance--which I had rather felt than seen. Carlos made an effort, and, raising himself, put her hand in mine.
Father Antonio, trying to p.r.o.nounce a short allocution, broke down, nave in his emotion, as he had been in his dignity. I could at first catch only the words, ”Beloved child--Holy Father--poor priest....”
He had taken this upon himself; and he would attest the purity of our intentions, the necessity of the case, the a.s.sent of the head of the family, my excellent disposition. All the Englishmen had excellent dispositions. He would, personally, go to the foot of the Holy See--on his knees, if necessary. Meantime, a doc.u.ment--he should at once prepare a justificative doc.u.ment. The archbishop, it is true, did not like him on account of the calumnies of that man O'Brien. But there was, beyond the seas, the supreme authority of the Church, unerring and inaccessible to calumnies.
All that time Seraphina's hand was lying pa.s.sive in my palm--warm, soft, living; all the life, all the world, all the happiness, the only desire--and I dared not close my grasp, afraid of the vanity of my hopes, shrinking from the intense felicity in the audacious act.
Father Antonio--I must say the word--blubbered. He was now only a tender-hearted, simple old man, nothing more.
”Before G.o.d now, Don Juan.... I am only a poor priest, but invested with a sacred office, an enormous power. Tremble, Senor, it is a young girl... I have loved her like my own; for, indeed, I have in baptism given her the spiritual life. You owe her protection; it is for that, before G.o.d, Senor------”
It was as if Carlos had swooned; his eyes were closed, his face like a carving. But gradually the suggestion of a tender and ironic smile appeared on his lips. With a slow effort he raised his arm and his eyelids, in an appeal of all his weariness for my ear. I made a movement to stoop over him, and the floor, the great bed, the whole room, seemed to heave and sway. I felt a slight, a fleeting pressure of Seraphina's hand before it slipped out of mine; I thought, in the beating rush of blood to my temples, that I was going mad.
He had thrown his arm over my neck; there was the calming austerity of death on his lips, that just touched my ear and departed, together with the far-away sound of the words, losing themselves in the remoteness of another world:
”Like an Englishman, Juan.”
”On my honour, Carlos.”
His arm, releasing my neck, fell stretched out on the coverlet. Father Antonio had mastered his emotion; with the trail of undried tears on his face, he had become a priest again, exalted above the reach of his earthly sorrow by the august concern of his sacerdocy.
”Don Carlos, my son, is your mind at ease, now?”
Carlos closed his eyes slowly.
”Then turn all your thoughts to heaven.” Father Antonio's ba.s.s voice rose, aloud, with an extraordinary authority. ”You have done with the earth.”
The arm of the nun touched the cords of the curtains and the ma.s.sive folds shook and fell expanded, hiding from us the priest and the penitent.
CHAPTER FOUR
Seraphina and I moved towards the door sadly, as if under the oppression of a memory, as people go back from the side of a grave to the cares of life. No exultation possessed me. Nothing had happened. It had been a sick man's whim.
”Senorita,” I said low, with my hand on the wrought bronze of the door-handle, ”Don Carlos might have died in full trust of my devotion to you--without this.”