"All this seems very childish and silly," I answered. "Veronica is nothing to me but a model and will never be anything than that. I shall keep her as long as I want her, and dismiss her when I choose. I don"t want to discuss the matter again with you."
Viola waited till I had finished speaking, then when I ceased, she inclined her head and went out, shutting the door noiselessly behind her.
In that moment even of anger against her, a great throb of admiration beat through me. Her att.i.tude as she waited by the door, one hand clasping the handle, her face turned towards me, was so perfect, the acquiescence so graceful and dignified; but it was only for a moment, the anger closed over the impulse of love again, and I walked up and down the room full of resentment.
"Why should one," I muttered, "just because one loves one woman, never be supposed to kiss another, why should there be all this hateful, jealous tyranny? It is better to be free, as one is as a bachelor, and do what one likes, just take everything as it comes along."
Then it recurred to me suddenly that I was not married, not tied in any way, I was free, and the remembrance came, too, why it was so--that Viola herself had refused to take my freedom from me.
"Then when I use it to amuse myself for an hour or two this is the result," I thought stormily, trying to keep angry with Viola. "It"s as bad as being married."
I tried to feel Viola was quite in the wrong, a tiresome, unreasonable, jealous person; but irresistibly my thoughts modified themselves, sobered by that sudden recollection that I was not bound to her nor she to me. Perhaps I should not have to complain of her tyranny very long. Waves of memory rolled over me against my will, memories of the wonderful pa.s.sion that existed between us, something that went down to the roots of my being, that shook me to the very depths, as different as the day from the night from my pa.s.sing fancy for Veronica"s beauty. My mind went back to the first night at the studio; I had never felt anything for any other woman that could approach my feelings for her. She was so different from all the others. I had known a good many, and they all seemed very much alike, but Viola stood alone amongst them.
After a few minutes" more reflection, I went to look for her. I thought I would try to soften the effect of my last words to her, but I could not find her, and full of a sense of dissatisfaction, I went on at last upstairs to the studio.
When Veronica came into the room I realised the full extent of my folly the previous afternoon. Hitherto her manner had been respectful and demure enough on the surface, though always with a suggestion of veiled insolent self-confidence. Now the veil was thrown off, she was a.s.sured of herself, and showed it.
She came up to me, kissed me as a matter of course, and when I barely returned the kiss, she laughed openly and said coolly.
"What"s the matter, Trevor? Viola been lecturing you?"
To hear her use Viola"s name seemed to freeze me.
"Be quiet," I said sharply.
The girl merely made a grimace and began to take off her hat and let down her hair.
The morning pa.s.sed dully. I did not paint well. The impersonal state of mind in which alone good artistic work can be produced was not with me.
When I went down to luncheon I found Viola looking very pale and ill.
This made me feel cross. Ill-health very rarely excites pity or sympathy in men, but nearly always a feeling of vexation and annoyance. "Why should she worry herself?" I asked myself angrily, "when there was nothing to worry about."
She had generally a very warm pink colour glowing in her face, which disappeared if anything worried or grieved her. It was gone now, and I knew it was my words of the morning that had driven it away.
"I looked for you this morning before I went up to paint," I said; "but couldn"t find you."
"I am so sorry," she answered with a quick smile. "What did you want me for?"
"To tell you you needn"t worry about Veronica. She is absolutely nothing to me."
"Then, if she is, why will you not send her away, or at least when the "Bacchante" is finished?"
"Because I don"t see any necessity," I answered. "Besides, if I get any other model you would feel the same, wouldn"t you, about her?"
"Any model you kissed and desired. Yes, certainly."
We were both standing now facing each other. Viola was deadly pale, as she always became in any conflict with me.
I stood silent for a moment.
I could not understand how she knew and could speak so definitely, but I could not lie and deny it, so I said nothing.
"Do you mean that I am never to kiss another woman as long as I live?"
I asked, a shade of derision coming into my voice.
"No, only as long as we are what we are to each other."
A chill fell upon me. I could not think of a time when she would not be with me, could not face the idea of change.
The light fell across her very bright and waving hair, and caught the tips of her eyelashes and fell all round her exquisite, girlish figure, full of that wonderful grace I had never seen in any other.
"It is a pity to make your love, which otherwise would be such a divine pleasure, a thing of restraint and fetters," I said slowly.
"But it is a mutual obligation in love," she said in a very low tone.
"It must be so. You would not wish me to kiss any of the men who come here, would you? They often ask me to."
Her words gave me suddenly such a sense of surprise and shock, it was almost as if she had struck me in the eyes.
"_No_," I said involuntarily, the instinct within me speaking without thought.
"Well, that is what I say," answered Viola gently. "A great pa.s.sion has its fetters. I don"t see how it can be helped. You can have the promiscuous loves of all the women you meet, or you can have the absolute devotion of one; but I don"t see how you can have the two."
My heart beat, and the blood seemed going up to my head, confusing my reason. I felt angry because I knew she was right.
"Well, really it seems that the first might be better if one"s life is to be so limited."
Viola did not answer at all. I turned and walked towards the window and stood looking out for a few minutes. When I turned round the room was empty.
I went up to the studio, but again I could not paint. The pale, unhappy face of Viola came between me and the picture.
To Veronica I hardly spoke. Her beauty neither attracted nor even pleased me. She was the cause of all this vague cloud rising up in my life, which had hitherto been intensely happy and allowed me to do the very best in my art.
Her efforts to attract me and to draw me from my work only annoyed and irritated me, and when I went down to tea I told her to go, that I should not paint afterwards.
No one happened to be calling that afternoon, so Viola and I were alone. There was hardly any constraint between us even after what had pa.s.sed at luncheon. We were so much one, so intimate, mentally as well as physically, that we could not quarrel with each other any more than one can quarrel with oneself. One can be cross with oneself occasionally, but not for long.
We neither of us referred to Veronica or anything disagreeable, but gave ourselves up to the joy of each other"s society. When I told her I was not going back to paint she was delighted, and we planned to dine early and go to the Empire after.
The ballet seemed to amuse her, and when we returned and went up to our room she was in the lightest and gayest of spirits. This room was the only one in the house in the furnishing of which Viola had taken the slightest interest. In all the others she had allowed things to stand just as we found them, just as our landlord had thought good to leave them, but in this one much had been added to the contents written down in the inventory and so much altered that our landlord would indeed have been astonished if he had suddenly looked in. The bed was a triumph of artistic skill, designed and arranged under her own directions, the curtains enclosing it were delicate in colouring and so soft in fabric that the bed seemed enveloped in a ma.s.s of blue clouds, gold-lined, and all the sheets and clothing were filmy and lace-edged, and must have been the despair of the steam laundry; a blue silk covering, the colour of her own eyes, and embroidered with pale pink roses, gold-centred, reposed on it, matching the curtains, and an electric lamp shaded in rose colour depended from the French crown above the head; a lamp which flooded the bed with light when all the curtains were drawn and shut out the lights of the room. The carpet was blue also, and the heavy curtains over all the windows matched it, edged with, and embroidered in gold.
The toilet-table, though simple enough in its arrangements, for Viola needed no cosmetics, no lotions, no manicure nor other evil inventions, was always a lovely object. On its pale rose covering lay her gold-backed brushes and comb, her gold hand-mirror with cupids playing on it, her little gold boxes of pins, and always vases of fresh geraniums, white and rose-pink. Out of the room at one side opened a smaller one, it was not used as a chapel nor yet as a dressing-room. We dressed together and took pleasure in so doing, as we did in everything that threw us into intimate companionship. We had no need of dressing-rooms since there were no teeth to come in and out, no wigs to be taken off and put on, no secrets on either side to be jealously guarded from one another. No, the room opening out of ours was a supper-room, where, when we came back late from opera or theatre, we could always count on finding cold supper and champagne. I went in to-night and turned on all the lights, which were many, while Viola laid aside her dress and slipped into a dressing-gown, something as fragile and beautiful as a rose-leaf, suiting her delicate, elusive beauty. She followed me into the little supper-room, and as I turned and saw her on the threshold, the delicacy of the whole vision struck me. A pain shot into my heart suddenly. Supposing I ever lost her? Saw her fade from me?
Her eyes were wide-open and laughing, a faint colour glowed in the white transparent skin, the lips were a light scarlet, parted now from the milky teeth.
I made two steps forwards and caught her and crushed her up tightly to my breast and kissed her and made her sit on my knee while I poured out some champagne.
"Now drink that," I commanded; "you look as if you needed something material. You look like a vision that may vanish from me into thin air."