Part 18 (2/2)
”As you are so fortunate as to possess goodness without good-nature,”
said he, ”you should be glad that the two are not one and the same, since good-nature is not a desirable quality. I am good-natured, but not good--I wish I were!”
”Ah, I see!” exclaimed Diana. ”It was a compliment.”
”Of course,” said Julius.
”Of course; but your compliments are often complicated, as the Marchesa says.”
Diana smiled as she spoke. Batis...o...b.. knew that she was repaying him for the remark he had made when she had unexpectedly appeared twenty minutes earlier.
”I can only repeat,” he retorted, ”that Madame de Charleroi has a good memory.”
Leonora was puzzled. She saw well enough that Diana and Julius were, or had been, much more intimate than she had supposed. They understood each other at a glance, by a word, and they seemed on the verge of quarrelling politely over nothing. She devoutly wished that Diana would go away, instead of spoiling her afternoon. But Diana leaned back against the rock and crossed her feet and prepared to be comfortable.
She was evidently not going. Batis...o...b.. stood motionless, with the easy stolidity of a very strong man who does not wish to move, and Leonora could see his bold profile against the grey haze of the sky. There was a short silence after his last remark, during which Leonora felt uneasy: something was in the atmosphere that made her anxious, and she did not like the way Diana looked at Batis...o...b.., with an air of absolute superiority, as though she could do anything she pleased with him.
”How dreadfully solemn we are,” said Leonora, rather awkwardly. Julius turned quickly with a laugh.
”Let us be gay,” he said. ”I hate solemnity, unless there is enough of it to make me laugh. I remember being at a ball once that produced that effect.”
”Allons!” said Diana, ”give us some of your reminiscences, Monsieur Batis...o...b... They ought to be interesting.”
”Not so much as you think. But the ball was very funny. It was in Guatemala, three years ago. I was invited to a huge thing by the president--an entirely new president, too, who had just cut the throats of the old president and of all his relations. I believe there was some sort of revolution at the time, and when it was over the victorious individual gave a ball. The refreshments were simple--brandy for the men and rosolio for the ladies; there was no compromise in the shape of a biscuit or a gla.s.s of water.”
Leonora laughed, being willing to laugh at anything so as to encourage Julius to talk.
”En verite, that was very amusing,” remarked Diana coldly. Batis...o...b.. took no notice.
”The women sat round the room in a double row,” he continued, ”like a court ball, excepting that they all smoked large cigars, and industriously pa.s.sed the liqueur. The men stood behind and gave their undivided attention to the brandy. Not a soul spoke, and they all scowled fiercely at the brandy, the rosolio, and each other. A ghastly and tuneless quartette of instruments doled out a melancholy dirge, slower than anything you ever heard at a funeral; and now and then some enterprising and funereal man led out a less enterprising but equally melancholy female in a strange step, like the tormented ghost of a waltz in chains. It was so hideous that I went out and laughed till I almost had a fit. I have never thought anything seemed very solemn since then--it destroyed the proportion in my brain. A pauper's burial on a rainy day in London is a wildly gay entertainment compared with that ball.”
Leonora laughed, and even Diana smiled; whereupon Julius was satisfied, and relapsed into silence. But Leonora wanted conversation.
”What in the world took you to Guatemala, Mr. Batis...o...b..?” she asked.
”That is a question which I cannot answer, Marchesa,” he replied. ”I believe I went there for some reason or other--chiefly because I could go for nothing, and wanted to see something new.”
”Can you always go to Guatemala for nothing?” asked Leonora. ”It must be very amusing.”
”A steamer company offered me a free pa.s.sage to any port in their service,” said Batis...o...b..; ”and as the next s.h.i.+p went to Guatemala, I sailed with her. It happened to be first on the list.”
”What a queer idea!” exclaimed Leonora.
”You are too modest, Mr. Batis...o...b..,” said Diana. ”You ought to tell the whole story--it is very interesting.” Her voice was less cold than when she had spoken last.
”Oh, do tell the story!” cried Leonora. ”I adore autobiographies!”
”Mon Dieu!” said Julius, ”there is very little to tell. I did a service to a s.h.i.+p belonging to the company, and in acknowledgment they presented me with a piece of plate and the free pa.s.sage in question. Voila tout!
madame is too good when she says it was interesting.”
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