"Have you come to help me, or to persecute me?"
"I have as little power to do one as I have desire to do the other.
I came in great part to ask you a question. First, your decision is irrevocable?"
Christina"s two hands had been hanging clasped in front of her; she separated them and flung them apart by an admirable gesture.
"Would you have done this if you had not seen Miss Garland?"
She looked at him with quickened attention; then suddenly, "This is interesting!" she cried. "Let us have it out." And she flung herself into a chair and pointed to another.
"You don"t answer my question," Rowland said.
"You have no right, that I know of, to ask it. But it "s a very clever one; so clever that it deserves an answer. Very likely I would not."
"Last night, when I said that to myself, I was extremely angry," Rowland rejoined.
"Oh, dear, and you are not angry now?"
"I am less angry."
"How very stupid! But you can say something at least."
"If I were to say what is uppermost in my mind, I would say that, face to face with you, it is never possible to condemn you."
"Perche?"
"You know, yourself! But I can at least say now what I felt last night.
It seemed to me that you had consciously, cruelly dealt a blow at that poor girl. Do you understand?"
"Wait a moment!" And with her eyes fixed on him, she inclined her head on one side, meditatively. Then a cold, brilliant smile covered her face, and she made a gesture of negation. "I see your train of reasoning, but it "s quite wrong. I meant no harm to Miss Garland; I should be extremely sorry to make her suffer. Tell me you believe that."
This was said with ineffable candor. Rowland heard himself answering, "I believe it!"
"And yet, in a sense, your supposition was true," Christina continued.
"I conceived, as I told you, a great admiration for Miss Garland, and I frankly confess I was jealous of her. What I envied her was simply her character! I said to myself, "She, in my place, would n"t marry Casama.s.sima." I could not help saying it, and I said it so often that I found a kind of inspiration in it. I hated the idea of being worse than she--of doing something that she would n"t do. I might be bad by nature, but I need n"t be by volition. The end of it all was that I found it impossible not to tell the prince that I was his very humble servant, but that I could not marry him."
"Are you sure it was only of Miss Garland"s character that you were jealous, not of--not of"--
"Speak out, I beg you. We are talking philosophy!"
"Not of her affection for her cousin?"
"Sure is a good deal to ask. Still, I think I may say it! There are two reasons; one, at least, I can tell you: her affection has not a shadow"s weight with Mr. Hudson! Why then should one fear it?"
"And what is the other reason?"
"Excuse me; that is my own affair."
Rowland was puzzled, baffled, charmed, inspired, almost, all at once. "I have promised your mother," he presently resumed, "to say something in favor of Prince Casama.s.sima."
She shook her head sadly. "Prince Casama.s.sima needs nothing that you can say for him. He is a magnificent parti. I know it perfectly."
"You know also of the extreme affliction of your mother?"
"Her affliction is demonstrative. She has been abusing me for the last twenty-four hours as if I were the vilest of the vile." To see Christina sit there in the purity of her beauty and say this, might have made one bow one"s head with a kind of awe. "I have failed of respect to her at other times, but I have not done so now. Since we are talking philosophy," she pursued with a gentle smile, "I may say it "s a simple matter! I don"t love him. Or rather, perhaps, since we are talking philosophy, I may say it "s not a simple matter. I spoke just now of inspiration. The inspiration has been great, but--I frankly confess it--the choice has been hard. Shall I tell you?" she demanded, with sudden ardor; "will you understand me? It was on the one side the world, the splendid, beautiful, powerful, interesting world. I know what that is; I have tasted of the cup, I know its sweetness. Ah, if I chose, if I let myself go, if I flung everything to the winds, the world and I would be famous friends! I know its merits, and I think, without vanity, it would see mine. You would see some fine things! I should like to be a princess, and I think I should be a very good one; I would play my part well. I am fond of luxury, I am fond of a great society, I am fond of being looked at. I am corrupt, corruptible, corruption! Ah, what a pity that could n"t be, too! Mercy of Heaven!" There was a pa.s.sionate tremor in her voice; she covered her face with her hands and sat motionless.
Rowland saw that an intense agitation, hitherto successfully repressed, underlay her calmness, and he could easily believe that her battle had been fierce. She rose quickly and turned away, walked a few paces, and stopped. In a moment she was facing him again, with tears in her eyes and a flush in her cheeks. "But you need n"t think I "m afraid!" she said. "I have chosen, and I shall hold to it. I have something here, here, here!" and she patted her heart. "It "s my own. I shan"t part with it. Is it what you call an ideal? I don"t know; I don"t care! It is brighter than the Casama.s.sima diamonds!"
"You say that certain things are your own affair," Rowland presently rejoined; "but I must nevertheless make an attempt to learn what all this means--what it promises for my friend Hudson. Is there any hope for him?"
"This is a point I can"t discuss with you minutely. I like him very much."
"Would you marry him if he were to ask you?"
"He has asked me."
"And if he asks again?"
"I shall marry no one just now."
"Roderick," said Rowland, "has great hopes."
"Does he know of my rupture with the prince?"
"He is making a great holiday of it."
Christina pulled her poodle towards her and began to smooth his silky fleece. "I like him very much," she repeated; "much more than I used to.
Since you told me all that about him at Saint Cecilia"s, I have felt a great friendship for him. There "s something very fine about him; he "s not afraid of anything. He is not afraid of failure; he is not afraid of ruin or death."
"Poor fellow!" said Rowland, bitterly; "he is fatally picturesque."
"Picturesque, yes; that "s what he is. I am very sorry for him."
"Your mother told me just now that you had said that you did n"t care a straw for him."
"Very likely! I meant as a lover. One does n"t want a lover one pities, and one does n"t want--of all things in the world--a picturesque husband! I should like Mr. Hudson as something else. I wish he were my brother, so that he could never talk to me of marriage. Then I could adore him. I would nurse him, I would wait on him and save him all disagreeable rubs and shocks. I am much stronger than he, and I would stand between him and the world. Indeed, with Mr. Hudson for my brother, I should be willing to live and die an old maid!"
"Have you ever told him all this?"
"I suppose so; I "ve told him five hundred things! If it would please you, I will tell him again."
"Oh, Heaven forbid!" cried poor Rowland, with a groan.
He was lingering there, weighing his sympathy against his irritation, and feeling it sink in the scale, when the curtain of a distant doorway was lifted and Mrs. Light pa.s.sed across the room. She stopped half-way, and gave the young persons a flushed and menacing look. It found apparently little to rea.s.sure her, and she moved away with a pa.s.sionate toss of her drapery. Rowland thought with horror of the sinister compulsion to which the young girl was to be subjected. In this ethereal flight of hers there was a certain painful effort and tension of wing; but it was none the less piteous to imagine her being rudely jerked down to the base earth she was doing her adventurous utmost to spurn. She would need all her magnanimity for her own trial, and it seemed gross to make further demands upon it on Roderick"s behalf.
Rowland took up his hat. "You asked a while ago if I had come to help you," he said. "If I knew how I might help you, I should be particularly glad."
She stood silent a moment, reflecting. Then at last, looking up, "You remember," she said, "your promising me six months ago to tell me what you finally thought of me? I should like you to tell me now."