"I don"t know how, at the present moment, he judges it. He met the Princess Casama.s.sima."
"Thank you!" said Miss Garland, simply, and turned away.
The conversation had been brief, but, like many small things, it furnished Rowland with food for reflection. When one is looking for symptoms one easily finds them. This was the first time Mary Garland had asked Rowland a question which it was in Roderick"s power to answer, the first time she had frankly betrayed Roderick"s reticence. Rowland ventured to think it marked an era.
The next morning was sultry, and the air, usually so fresh at those alt.i.tudes, was oppressively heavy. Rowland lounged on the gra.s.s a while, near Singleton, who was at work under his white umbrella, within view of the house; and then in quest of coolness he wandered away to the rocky ridge whence you looked across at the Jungfrau. To-day, however, the white summits were invisible; their heads were m.u.f.fled in sullen clouds and the valleys beneath them curtained in dun-colored mist. Rowland had a book in his pocket, and he took it out and opened it. But his page remained unturned; his own thoughts were more importunate. His interview with Christina Light had made a great impression upon him, and he was haunted with the memory of her almost blameless bitterness, and of all that was tragic and fatal in her latest transformation. These things were immensely appealing, and Rowland thought with infinite impatience of Roderick"s having again encountered them. It required little imagination to apprehend that the young sculptor"s condition had also appealed to Christina. His consummate indifference, his supreme defiance, would make him a magnificent trophy, and Christina had announced with sufficient distinctness that she had said good-by to scruples. It was her fancy at present to treat the world as a garden of pleasure, and if, hitherto, she had played with Roderick"s pa.s.sion on its stem, there was little doubt that now she would pluck it with an unfaltering hand and drain it of its acrid sweetness. And why the deuce need Roderick have gone marching back to destruction? Rowland"s meditations, even when they began in rancor, often brought him peace; but on this occasion they ushered in a quite peculiar quality of unrest.
He felt conscious of a sudden collapse in his moral energy; a current that had been flowing for two years with liquid strength seemed at last to pause and evaporate. Rowland looked away at the stagnant vapors on the mountains; their dreariness seemed a symbol of the dreariness which his own generosity had bequeathed him. At last he had arrived at the uttermost limit of the deference a sane man might pay to other people"s folly; nay, rather, he had transgressed it; he had been befooled on a gigantic scale. He turned to his book and tried to woo back patience, but it gave him cold comfort and he tossed it angrily away. He pulled his hat over his eyes, and tried to wonder, dispa.s.sionately, whether atmospheric conditions had not something to do with his ill-humor. He remained for some time in this att.i.tude, but was finally aroused from it by a singular sense that, although he had heard nothing, some one had approached him. He looked up and saw Roderick standing before him on the turf. His mood made the spectacle unwelcome, and for a moment he felt like uttering an uncivil speech. Roderick stood looking at him with an expression of countenance which had of late become rare. There was an unfamiliar spark in his eye and a certain imperious alertness in his carriage. Confirmed habit, with Rowland, came speedily to the front.
"What is it now?" he asked himself, and invited Roderick to sit down.
Roderick had evidently something particular to say, and if he remained silent for a time it was not because he was ashamed of it.
"I would like you to do me a favor," he said at last. "Lend me some money."
"How much do you wish?" Rowland asked.
"Say a thousand francs."
Rowland hesitated a moment. "I don"t wish to be indiscreet, but may I ask what you propose to do with a thousand francs?"
"To go to Interlaken."
"And why are you going to Interlaken?"
Roderick replied without a shadow of wavering, "Because that woman is to be there."
Rowland burst out laughing, but Roderick remained serenely grave. "You have forgiven her, then?" said Rowland.
"Not a bit of it!"
"I don"t understand."
"Neither do I. I only know that she is incomparably beautiful, and that she has waked me up amazingly. Besides, she asked me to come."
"She asked you?"
"Yesterday, in so many words."
"Ah, the jade!"
"Exactly. I am willing to take her for that."
"Why in the name of common sense did you go back to her?"
"Why did I find her standing there like a G.o.ddess who had just stepped out of her cloud? Why did I look at her? Before I knew where I was, the harm was done."
Rowland, who had been sitting erect, threw himself back on the gra.s.s and lay for some time staring up at the sky. At last, raising himself, "Are you perfectly serious?" he asked.
"Deadly serious."
"Your idea is to remain at Interlaken some time?"
"Indefinitely!" said Roderick; and it seemed to his companion that the tone in which he said this made it immensely well worth hearing.
"And your mother and cousin, meanwhile, are to remain here? It will soon be getting very cold, you know."
"It does n"t seem much like it to-day."
"Very true; but to-day is a day by itself."
"There is nothing to prevent their going back to Lucerne. I depend upon your taking charge of them."
At this Rowland reclined upon the gra.s.s again; and again, after reflection, he faced his friend. "How would you express," he asked, "the character of the profit that you expect to derive from your excursion?"
"I see no need of expressing it. The proof of the pudding is in the eating! The case is simply this. I desire immensely to be near Christina Light, and it is such a huge refreshment to find myself again desiring something, that I propose to drift with the current. As I say, she has waked me up, and it is possible something may come of it. She makes me feel as if I were alive again. This," and he glanced down at the inn, "I call death!"
"That I am very grateful to hear. You really feel as if you might do something?"
"Don"t ask too much. I only know that she makes my heart beat, makes me see visions."
"You feel encouraged?"
"I feel excited."
"You are really looking better."
"I am glad to hear it. Now that I have answered your questions, please to give me the money."
Rowland shook his head. "For that purpose, I can"t!"
"You can"t?"
"It "s impossible. Your plan is rank folly. I can"t help you in it."
Roderick flushed a little, and his eye expanded. "I will borrow what money I can, then, from Mary!" This was not viciously said; it had simply the ring of pa.s.sionate resolution.
Instantly it brought Rowland to terms. He took a bunch of keys from his pocket and tossed it upon the gra.s.s. "The little bra.s.s one opens my dressing-case," he said. "You will find money in it."
Roderick let the keys lie; something seemed to have struck him; he looked askance at his friend. "You are awfully gallant!"
"You certainly are not. Your proposal is an outrage."
"Very likely. It "s a proof the more of my desire."
"If you have so much steam on, then, use it for something else. You say you are awake again. I am delighted; only be so in the best sense. Is n"t it very plain? If you have the energy to desire, you have also the energy to reason and to judge. If you can care to go, you can also care to stay, and staying being the more profitable course, the inspiration, on that side, for a man who has his self-confidence to win back again, should be greater."
Roderick, plainly, did not relish this simple logic, and his eye grew angry as he listened to its echo. "Oh, the devil!" he cried.
Rowland went on. "Do you believe that hanging about Christina Light will do you any good? Do you believe it won"t? In either case you should keep away from her. If it won"t, it "s your duty; and if it will, you can get on without it."
"Do me good?" cried Roderick. "What do I want of "good"--what should I do with "good"? I want what she gives me, call it by what name you will.