Part 18 (1/2)

”You are very fortunate in getting such a place,” she said. ”It is by far the most beautiful on the whole sh.o.r.e.”

”I wish it belonged to us,” said Leonora. ”I am sure I could come here every year and never grow tired of it.”

”Ah!” exclaimed Diana, ”do you like it so very much then?”

”J'en raffole!” answered Leonora enthusiastically, ”I am crazy about it.

And then, it is always so charming to have absolutely the best. As you say, there is nothing like this place on the whole bay. I should like always to have the best.”

”But, madame,” remarked Batis...o...b.., ”it appears to me that you always do. You have the talent of supremacy.”

”What an idea! The talent of supremacy!”

”But that is precisely it,” continued Julius. ”It is a talent. Some people are born with it--generally women.”

”That is Monsieur Batis...o...b..'s favourite theory,” remarked Madame de Charleroi, just glancing at him, ”but he does not believe it the least in the world.”

”Is it true?” asked Leonora, innocently, looking up with an expression that did not escape Diana. It was a sort of frightened look, as though it really mattered to her what Batis...o...b.. thought about women in general.

”It pleases madame to be witty,” answered Julius, glancing in his turn at Diana. ”I have not many theories, but I believe in them as a man who is about to be guillotined believes in death.”

”One cannot say more than that,” laughed Leonora. ”But how about the supremacy of men? There have been more men in the world who have ruled it than there have ever been women.”

”Mon Dieu! Men give themselves much more trouble,” he replied. ”Women, having the divine right given to them straight from Heaven, exercise it without difficulty. A word, a cup of tea, a glance,--and the supremacy of a woman is established. What could a man do with a cup of tea? Or, if he looked at people by the hour together, could he rule them with a glance? When a woman has the gift she finds little difficulty in using it,--whereas the more of it a man has, the more trouble it is to him.

Men are so stupid!” And with this sweeping condemnation of his own s.e.x, Julius lit a cigarette, having obtained permission of the two ladies.

”You ought not to have many friends, with such ideas about men,” said Leonora.

”En effet,” said Diana, ”he has none.”

”Not among men, at all events,” said Julius. ”I do not remember ever having any. I do not sleep any the worse on that account, I a.s.sure you.

It is much more agreeable to have a number of pleasant acquaintances, who expect nothing from you and from whom you expect nothing. Friends.h.i.+p implies mutual obligations; I detest that.”

Leonora laughed a little. He had such a vicious way of saying such things, as though he thoroughly meant them. But then he was courteous and gentle to every one, though she suspected he might be different if he were angry. Diana knew very well that what he said was true, and that he had led an isolated life among other men, fighting his way through with his own hand and owing no man anything. She herself had for years been his best friend and his only confidant, though he saw her rarely enough. And now she felt as though even that one bond of his were to be broken,--and whether she would or not, the thought gave her pain, and she wished it could be otherwise.

”It is always far more amusing to detest things,” said Leonora, ”unless you happen to want them.” She was forgetting some of her indifferentism.

”It is certainly more blessed to abuse than to be abused,” returned Julius, ”and, if one has the choice, it is as well to be the hammer and not the anvil. I am an excessively good-natured person, and if I had friends, they would make an anvil of me and beat my brains out,--and then I should starve.”

”Good-natured people are always made to suffer,” said Leonora thoughtfully. ”I am not in the least good-natured.”

”I remember,” said Diana, ”that Mr. Batis...o...b.. used to say good-nature was a mixture of laziness and vulgarity.”

”Yes,” answered Julius. ”You have a good memory, madame. Good-nature is a compound of the laziness that cannot say 'no,' and of the vulgarity which desires to please every one indiscriminately. I suppose I possess both those faults very finely developed.”

”Fortunately,” remarked Leonora, ”goodness and good-nature are not the same.”

”Fortunately for you, Marchesa,--unfortunately for me,” said Julius.

”It is too complicated--please explain,” she answered.