Ferragut spoke to her familiarly:
"Would you like?... Would you like?..."
She appeared to wake up, dropping his arm brusquely.
"Don"t be crazy, Ulysses.... That will never be.... Never!"
And drawing herself up magnificently, she entered the station with a haughty step, without looking around, without noticing whether Ferragut was following her or abandoning her.
During the long wait and the descent to the city Freya appeared as ironical and frivolous as though she had no recollection of her recent indignation. The sailor, under the weight of his failure and the unusual libations, relapsed into sulky silence.
In the district of Chiaja they separated. Ferragut, finding himself alone, felt more strongly than ever the effects of the intoxication that was dominating him, the intoxication of a temperate man overcome by the intense surprise of novelty.
For a moment he had a forlorn idea of going to his boat. He needed to give orders, to contend with somebody; but the weakness of his knees pushed him toward his hotel and he flung himself face downward on the bed,--whilst his hat rolled on the floor,--content with the sobriety with which he had reached his room without attracting the attention of the servants.
He fell asleep immediately, but scarcely had night fallen before his eyes opened again, or at least he believed that they opened, seeing everything under a light which was not that of the sun.
Some one had entered the room, and was coming on tiptoe towards his bed. Ulysses, who was not able to move, saw out of the tail of one eye that what was approaching was a woman and that this woman appeared to be Freya. Was it really she?...
She had the same countenance, the blonde hair, the black and oriental eyes, the same oval face. It was Freya and it was not, just as twins exactly alike physically, nevertheless have an indefinable something which differentiates them.
The vague thoughts which for some time past had been slowly undermining his subconsciousness with dull, subterranean labor, now cleared the air with explosive force. Whenever he had seen the widow this subconsciousness had a.s.serted itself, forewarning him that he had known her long before that transatlantic voyage. Now, under a light of fantastic splendor, these vague thoughts a.s.sumed definite shape.
The sleeper thought he was looking at Freya clad in a bodice with flowing sleeves adjusted to the arms with filagree b.u.t.tons of gold; some rather barbarous gems were adorning her bosom and ears, and a flowered skirt was covering the rest of her person. It was the cla.s.sic costume of a farmer"s wife or daughter of other centuries that he had seen somewhere in a painting. Where?... Where?...
"Dona Constanza!..."
Freya was the counterpart of that august Byzantian queen. Perhaps she was the very same, perpetuated across the centuries, through extraordinary incarnations. In that moment Ulysses would have believed anything possible.
Besides he was very little concerned with the reasonableness of things just now; the important thing to him was that they should exist; and Freya was at his side; Freya and that other one, welded into one and the same woman, clad like the Grecian sovereign.
Again he repeated the sweet name that had illuminated his infancy with romantic splendor. "Dona Constanza! Oh, Dona Constanza!..." And night overwhelmed him, cuddling his pillow as when he was a child, and falling asleep enraptured with thoughts of the young widow of "Vatacio the Heretic."
When he met Freya again the next day, he felt attracted by a new force,--the redoubled interest that people in dreams inspire. She might really be the empress resuscitated in a new form as in the books of chivalry, or she might simply be the wandering widow of a learned sage,--for the sailor it was all the same thing. He desired her, and to his carnal desire was added others less material,--the necessity of seeing her for the mere pleasure of seeing her, of hearing her, of suffering her negatives, of being repelled in all his advances.
She had pleasant memories of the expedition to the heights of S.
Martino.
"You must have thought me ridiculous because of my sensitiveness and my tears. You, on the other hand, were as you always are, impetuous and daring.... The next time we shall drink less."
The "next time" was an invitation that Ferragut repeated daily. He wanted to take her to dine at one of the _trattorias_ on the road to Posilipo where they could see spread at their feet the entire gulf, colored with rose by the setting sun.
Freya had accepted his invitation with the enthusiasm of a school girl.
These strolls represented for her hours of joy and liberty, as though her long sojourns with the doctor were filled with monotonous service.
One evening Ulysses was waiting for her far from the hotel so as to avoid the porter"s curious stares. As soon as they met and glanced toward the neighboring cab-stand, four vehicles advanced at the same time--like a row of Roman chariots anxious to win the prize in the circus--with a noisy clattering of hoofs, cracking of whips, wrathful gesticulations and threatening appeals to the Madonna. Listening to their Neapolitan curses, Ferragut believed for an instant that they were going to kill one another.... The two climbed into the nearest vehicle, and immediately the tumult ceased. The empty coaches returned to occupy their former place in the line, and the deadly rivals renewed their placid and laughing conversation.
An enormous upright plume was waving on their horses" heads. The cabman, in order not to be discourteous to his two clients, would occasionally turn half-way around, giving them explanations.
"Over there," and he pointed with his whip, "is the road of Piedigrotta. The gentleman ought to see it on a day of fiesta in September. Few return from it with a firm step. _S. Maria di Piedigrotta_ enabled Charles III to put the Austrians to flight in Velletri.... _Aooo!_"
He moved his whip like a fishing rod over the upright plume, increasing the steed"s pace with a professional howl.... And as though his cry were among the sweetest of melodies, he continued talking, by a.s.sociation of ideas:
"At the fiesta of _Piedigrotta_, when I was a boy, were given out the best songs of the year. There was proclaimed the latest fashionable love song, and long after we had forgotten it foreigners would come here repeating it as though it was a novelty."
He made a short pause.
"If the lady and gentleman wish," he continued, "I will take them, on returning, to _Piedigrotta_. Then we"ll see the little church of _S.
Vitale_. Many foreign ladies hunt for it in order to put flowers on the sepulcher of a hunch-back who made verses,--Giacomo Leopardi."
The silence with which his two clients received these explanations made him abandon his mechanical oratory in order to take a good look at them. The gentleman was taking the lady"s hand and was pressing it, speaking in a very low tone. The lady was pretending not to listen to him, looking at the villas and the gardens at the left of the road sloping down toward the sea.
With n.o.ble magnanimity, however, the driver still wished to instruct his indifferent clients, showing them with the point of his whip the beauty and wonders of his repertoire.
"That church is _S. Maria del Parto_, sometimes called by others the _Sannazaro._ _Sannazaro_ was also a noted poet who described the loves of shepherdesses, and Frederick II of Aragon made him the gift of a villa with gardens in order that he might write with greater comfort...
Those were other days, sir! His heirs converted it into a church and----"
The voice of the coachman stopped short. Behind him the pair were talking in an incomprehensible language, without paying the slightest attention to him, without acknowledging his erudite explanations.
Ignorant foreigners!... And he said no more, wrapping himself in offended silence, relieving his Neapolitan verbosity with a series of shouts and grunts to his horse.
The new road from Posilipo, the work of Murat, skirted the gulf, rising along the mountain edge and constantly emphasizing the declivity between the covering of its feet and the border of the sea. On this hanging slope may be seen villas with white or rosy facades midst the splendor of a vegetation that is always green and glossy. Beyond the colonnades of palm trees and parasol pines, appeared the gulf like a blue curtain, its upper edge showing above the murmuring tops of the trees.
An enormous edifice appeared facing the water. It was a palace in ruins, or rather a roofless palace never finished, with thick walls and huge windows. On the lower floor the waves entered gently through doors and windows which served as rooms of refuge for the fishermen"s skiffs.
The two travelers were undoubtedly talking about this ruin, and the forgiving coachman forgot his snub in order to come to their aid.
"That is what many people call the Palace of Queen Joanna.... A mistake, sir. Ignorance of the uneducated people! That is the _Palazzo di Donn" Anna_, and _Donna Anna Carafa_ was a great Neapolitan _signora_, wife of the Duke of Medina, the Spanish viceroy who constructed the palace for her and was not able to finish it."...
He was about to say more but stopped himself. Ah, no! By the Madonna!... Again they had begun to talk, without listening to him....
And he finally took refuge in offended silence, while they chattered continually behind his back.
Ferragut felt an interest in the remote love-affairs of the Neapolitan great lady with the prudent and aristocratic Spanish magnate. His pa.s.sion had made the grave viceroy commit the folly of constructing a palace in the sea. The sailor was also in love with a woman of another race and felt equal desires to do whimsical things for her.
"I have read the mandates of Nietzsche," he said to her, by way of explaining his enthusiasm,--""seek thy wife outside thy country." That is the best thing."
Freya smiled sadly.
"Who knows?... That would complicate love with the prejudices of national antagonism. That would create children with a double country who would end by belonging to none, who would wander through the world like mendicants with no place of refuge.... I know something about that."
And again she smiled with sadness and skepticism.
Ferragut was reading the signs of the _trattorias_ on both sides of the highway: "The Ledge of the Siren," "The Joy of Parthenope," "The Cl.u.s.ter of Flowers."... And meanwhile he was squeezing Freya"s hand, putting his fingers upon the inner side of her wrist and caressing her skin that trembled at every touch.
The coachman let the horse slowly ascend the continuous ascent of Posilipo. He was now concerned in not turning around and not being troublesome. He knew well what they were talking about behind him.
"Lovers,--people who do not wish to arrive too soon!" And he forgot to be offended, gloating over the probable generosity of a gentleman in such good company.
Ulysses made him stop on the heights of Posilipo. It was there where he had eaten a famous "sailor"s soup," and where they sold the best oysters from Fusaro. At the right of the road, there arose a pretentious and modern edifice with the name of a restaurant in letters of gold. On the opposite side was the annex, a terraced garden that slipped away down to the sea, and on these terraces were tables in the open air or little low roofed cottages whose walls were covered with climbing vines. These latter constructions had discreet windows opening upon the gulf at a great height thus forestalling any outside curiosity.
Upon receiving Ferragut"s generous tip, the coachman greeted him with a sly smile, that confidential gesture of comradeship which pa.s.ses down through all the social strata, uniting them as simple men. He had brought many folk to this discreet garden with its locked dining-rooms overlooking the gulf. "A good appet.i.te to you, _Signore_!"