Part 7 (1/2)

V

THE MIRROR, THE COMB, AND THE NECKLACE

She had a special beauty of her own. Her hair seemed two ma.s.ses of gold, but it was too abundant, and it padded her low forehead with two heavy waves charged with amber, which swallowed up the ears and twisted themselves into a seven-fold coil upon the nape of the neck. The nose was delicate, with expressive nostrils which palpitated sometimes, surmounting a thick and painted mouth, with rounded mobile corners. The supple line of the body undulated at every stop, receiving animation from the harmonious motion of her unfettered b.r.e.a.s.t.s, or from the swing of the beautiful hips that supported her lissom waist.

When she was within ten paces of the young man, she turned her eyes upon him. Demetrios was seized with trembling. They were extraordinary eyes; blue, but deep and brilliant at the same time, humid, weary, bathed in tears and flas.h.i.+ng fire, almost closed under the weight of the eyelids and eyelashes. The glance of these eves was like the siren's song.

Whosoever crossed their path was inevitably a captive. She knew it well, and cunningly she used their virtue; but she counted still more upon affected indifference as a weapon of attack against the man whom so much sincere love had been incapable of touching deeply.

The navigators who have sailed over the purple seas, beyond the Ganges, relate that they have seen, beneath the water, rocks of magnetic stone.

When s.h.i.+ps pa.s.s near them, the nails and iron fittings are wrenched down to the submarine cliff and remain fixed to it for ever. And what was once a swift craft, a habitation, a living being, becomes nought but a flotsam of planks, scattered by the winds, tossed by the waves. Thus did Demetrios, in the presence of the spell of two great eyes, lose his very self, and all his strength ebbed away.

She lowered her eyes and pa.s.sed by close to him. He could have shouted with impatience. He clenched his fists. He was afraid of not being able to recover a calm att.i.tude, for speak to her he must. Nevertheless he approached her with the formula of convention.

”I salute you,” said he.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”I salute you,” said he. ”I salute you also,” answered the woman]

”I salute you also,” answered the woman.

Demetrios continued:

”Where are you going to in so leisurely a fas.h.i.+on?”

”I am going home.”

”Alone?”

”Alone.”

And she made a movement as if to resume her walk.

Then Demetrios thought that perhaps he had made a mistake in taking her for a courtesan. For some time past, the wives of the magistrates and functionaries had taken to dressing and painting themselves like the women of pleasure. She was probably a woman of honourable reputation, and it was not without irony that he finished his question thus:

”To your husband?”

She put her two hands to her sides and began to laugh.

”I haven't one this evening.”

Demetrios bit his lip and suggested, almost timidly:

”Don't look for one. You have set to work too late. There is no one about now.”

”Who told you that I was looking for one? I am taking a walk by myself, and am looking for nothing.”

”Where have you come from then? You certainly have not put on all those jewels for your own pleasure, and that silken veil. . .”

”Would you have me go out naked, or dressed in wool like a slave-woman?