The man with the a.s.syrian beard never ceased staring steadily at me.
And I still continued to speak. At last he lowered his eyes, and then I stopped. It is humiliating to add that this portion of my address, which was quite as foreign to my own natural impulse as it was contrary to the scientific mind, was rewarded with tumultuous applause. The young woman in the north balcony clapped her hands and smiled.
I was followed at the reading-desk by a member of the Academy who seemed visibly annoyed at having to be heard after me. Perhaps his fears were exaggerated. At any rate he was listened to without too much impatience.
I am under the impression that it was verse that he read.
The meeting being over, I left the hall in company with several of my colleagues, who renewed their congratulations with a sincerity in which I try to believe.
Having paused a moment on the quay near the lions of Creuzot to exchange a few greetings, I observed the man with the a.s.syrian beard and his beautiful companion enter a _coupe_. I happened accidentally to be standing next to an eloquent philosopher, of whom it is said that he is equally at home in worldly elegance and in cosmic theories. The young lady, putting her delicate head and her little hand out of the carriage door, called him by name and said with a slight English accent:
"My dear friend, you"ve forgotten me. That"s too bad!"
After the carriage had gone I asked my ill.u.s.trious colleague who this charming person and her companion were.
"What!" he replied, "you do not know Miss Morgan and her physician Daoud, who cures all diseases by means of magnetism, hypnotism, and suggestion? Annie Morgan is the daughter of the richest merchant in Chicago. Two years ago she came to Paris with her mother, and she has had a wonderful house built on the Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne trice. She is highly educated and remarkably clever."
"You do not surprise me," I replied, "for I have reason to think that this American lady is of a very serious turn of mind."
My brilliant colleague smiled as he shook my hand.
I walked home to the Rue Saint Jacques, where I have lived these last thirty years in a modest lodging from which I can just see the tops of the trees in the garden of the Luxembourg, and I sat down at my writing-table.
For three days I sat there a.s.siduously at work, before me a little statuette representing the G.o.ddess Pasht with her cat"s head. This little monument bears an inscription imperfectly deciphered by Monsieur Grebault I was at work on an adequate interpretation with comments. The incident at the inst.i.tute had left a less vivid impression on my mind than might have been feared. I was not unduly disturbed. To tell the truth, I had even forgotten it a little, and it required new occurrences to revive its remembrance.
I had, therefore, leisure during these three days to bring my version of the inscription and my notes to a satisfactory conclusion. I only interrupted my archaeological work to read the newspapers, which were loud in my praise.
Newspapers, absolutely ignorant of all learning, spoke in praise of that "charming pa.s.sage" which had concluded my discourse. "It was a revelation," they said, "and M. Pigeonneau had prepared a most agreeable surprise for us." I do not know why I refer to such trifles, because, usually I am quite indifferent as to what they say about me in the newspapers.
I had been already closeted in my study for three days when a ring at the door-bell startled me. There was something imperious, fantastic, and strange in the motion communicated to the bell-rope which disturbed me, and it was with real anxiety that I went myself to open the door. And whom did I find on the landing? The young American recently so absorbed at the reading of my treatise. It was Miss Morgan in person.
"Monsieur Pigeonneau?"
"Yes."
"I recognised you at once, though you are not wearing your beautiful coat with the embroidery of green palm-leaves. But, please don"t put it on for my sake. I like you much better in your dressing-gown."
I led her into my study. She looked curiously at the papyri, the prints, and odds and ends of all kinds which covered the walls to the ceiling, and then she looked silently for some time at the G.o.ddess Pasht who stood on my writing-table. Finally she said:
"She is charming."
"Do you refer to this little monument, Madam? As a matter of fact, it is distinguished by an exceptional inscription of a sufficiently curious nature. But may I ask what has procured for me the honour of your visit?"
"O," she cried, "I don"t care a fig for its remarkable inscriptions.
There never was a more exquisitely delicate cat-face. Of course you believe that she is a real G.o.ddess, don"t you, Monsieur Pigeonneau?"
I protested against so unworthy a suspicion.
"To believe that would be fetichism."
Her great green eyes looked at me with surprise.
"Ah, then, you don"t believe in fetichism? I did not think one could be an archaeologist and yet not believe in fetichism. How can Pasht interest you if you do not believe that she is a G.o.ddess? But never mind! I came to see you on a matter of great importance, Monsieur Pigeonneau."
"Great importance?"
"Yes, about a costume. Look at me."
"With pleasure."
"Don"t you find traces of the Cus.h.i.te race in my profile?"
I was at loss what to say. An interview of this nature was so foreign to me.
"Oh, there"s nothing surprising about it," she continued. "I remember when I was an Egyptian. And were you also an Egyptian, Monsieur Pigeonneau? Don"t you remember? How very curious. At least, you don"t doubt that we pa.s.s through a series of successive incarnations?"
"I do not know."
"You surprise me, Monsieur Pigeonneau."
"Will you tell me, Madam, to what I am indebted for this honour?"
"To be sure. I haven"t yet told you that I have come to beg you to help me to design an Egyptian costume for the fancy ball at Countess N------"s. I want a costume that shall be absolutely accurate and bewilderingly beautiful. I have been hard at work at it already, M.
Pigeonneau. I have gone over my recollections, for I remember very well when I lived in Thebes six thousand years ago. I have had designs sent me from London, Boulak and New York."
"Those would, of course, be more reliable." "No, nothing is so reliable as one"s intuition. I have also studied in the Egyptian Museum of the Louvre. It is full of enchanting things. Figures so slender and pure, profiles so delicate and clear cut, women who look like flowers, but, at the same time, with something at once rigid and supple. And a G.o.d, Bes, who looks like Sarcey! My goodness, how beautiful it all is!"
"Pardon me, but I do not yet quite understand----"
"I haven"t finished. I went to your lecture on the toilet of a woman of the Middle Empire, and I took notes. It was rather dry, your lecture, but I grubbed away at it. By aid of all these notes I have designed a costume. But it is not quite right yet. So I have come to beg you to correct it. Do come to me to-morrow! Will you? Do me that honour for the love of Egypt! You will, won"t you? Till to-morrow, I must hurry off.
Mama is in the carriage waiting for me."
She disappeared as she said these last words, and I followed. When I reached the vestibule she was already at the foot of the stairs and from here I heard her clear voice call up:
"Till to-morrow. Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne, at the corner of the Villa Sad."
"I shall not go to see this mad creature," I said to myself.
The next afternoon at four o"clock I rang the door-bell. A footman led me into an immense, well-lighted hall crowded with pictures and statues in marble and bronze; sedan chairs in _Vernis Martin_ set with porcelain plaques; Peruvian mummies; a dozen dummy figures of men and horses in full armour, over which, by reason of their great height, towered a Polish cavalier with white wings on his shoulders and a French knight equipped for the tournament, his helmet bearing a crest of a woman"s head with pointed coif and flowing veil.
An entire grove of palm-trees in tubs reared their foliage in this hall, and in their midst was seated a gigantic Buddha in gold. At the foot of the G.o.d sat a shabbily dressed old woman reading the Bible.
I was still dazzled by these many marvels when the purple hangings were raised and Miss Morgan appeared in a white _peignoir_ trimmed with swans-down. She was followed by two great, long-muzzled boarhounds.
"I was sure you would come, Monsieur Pigeonneau."
I stammered a compliment.
"How could one possibly refuse anything to so charming a lady?"
"O, it is not because I am pretty that I am never refused anything. I have secrets by which I make myself obeyed."