"Anything that the ladies will kindly give me, Sir," I replied in our native tongue.
"Hullo! English? What are you knocking about France for?"
I glanced at the lovely lady. She was crumbling bread and not taking the least notice of me. I was piqued.
"My Master thinks it the best way to teach me philosophy, Sir," said I politely. If I had not learned much philosophy from him I had at least learned politeness. The lady looked up with a smile. The young girl exclaimed that either my remark or myself--I forget which--was ripping.
I paid little heed to her. I have always disregarded the people of one adjective; they seem poverty-stricken to one who has sunned himself in the wealth of Paragot"s epithets.
"Your master is the gentleman in the pearl b.u.t.tons?" enquired the young man.
"Yes, Sir."
"What"s his name?"
"Berzelius Nibbidard Paragot, Sir," said I so proudly that the lovely princess laughed.
"I must look at him," she said turning round in her chair.
I too glanced at the familiar group on the platform: Laripet with his back to us, working his arms and shoulders at the piano; Blanquette seated on the other side, thrumming away at the zither on her lap; Narcisse lolling his tongue in that cynical grin of his; and Paragot fiddling in front, like a fiddler possessed, his clear eyes fixed on the lady in a most uncanny stare.
When she turned again, she s.h.i.+vered once more. She did not look up but went on crumbling bread. It shocked me to notice that the pink of her sea-sh.e.l.l face had gone and that her fingers trembled. Then a wild conjecture danced through my brain and I forgot my tambourine.
"You still here?" laughed the young man. "What are you waiting for?"
I started. "I beg your pardon, Sir," said I moving away. He laughed and called me back.
"Here are two francs to buy a philosophy book."
"And here are five sous not to come and worry us again," said the older man in French. While I was wondering why they tolerated such a disagreeable man in the party my beautiful lady"s fingers flew to the gilt chain purse by her side. "And here are five francs because you are Englis.h.!.+" she exclaimed; and as she held me for a second with her eyes I saw in them infinite depths of sadness and longing.
When I returned to the platform the piece had just been brought to an end. Paragot poured his second brandy down his throat and sat with his head in his hands. I shed, as usual, my takings into Blanquette"s lap.
On seeing the five-franc piece her eyes equalled it in size.
"_Tiens! Cent sous!_ who gave it you?"
I explained. The most beautiful lady in the world. Paragot raised his head and looked at me haggardly.
"Why did she give you five francs?"
"Because I was English, she said."
"Did she talk to you?"
"Yes, Master, and I have never heard anyone speak so beautifully."
Paragot made no answer, but began to tune his violin.
During the next interval my quartette left the restaurant. I ran to the gate, and bowed as they pa.s.sed by.
The young fellow gave me a friendly nod, but the lovely lady swept out cold-eyed, looking neither to right nor left. A large two-horsed cab with a gay awning awaited them on the quay. As my lady entered, her skirt uplifted ever so little disclosed the most delicately shaped, tiny foot that has ever been attached to woman, and then I felt sure.
"Those little feet so adored." The haunting phrase leaped to my brain and I stood staring at the departing carriage athrill with excitement.
It was Joanna--lovelier than I had pictured her in my Lotus Club dreams, more gracious than Ingonde or Chlodoswinde or any of the _belles dames du temps jadis_ whose ballade by Maitre Francois Villon my master had but lately made me learn by heart and whose names were so many "sweet symphonies." It was Joanna, "pure and ravis.h.i.+ng as an April dawn"; Joanna beloved of Paragot in those elusive days when I could not picture him, before he smashed his furniture with a crusader"s mace and started on his wanderings under the guidance of Henri Quatre. It was Joanna whom he had an agonized desire to see in Madrid and whose silvery English voice he had longed to hear. And I, Asticot, had seen her and had heard her silvery voice. Among boys a.s.suredly I was the most blessed.
But Paragot seemed that day of all men the most miserable, and I more dog-like than Narcisse in my sympathy with his moods, almost lifted up my nose and whined for woe. All my thrill died away. I felt guilty, oddly ashamed of myself. I took a pessimistic view of life. What, thought I, are Joannas sent into the world for, save to play havoc with men"s happiness? Maitre Francois Villon was quite right. Samson, Sardanapalus, David, Maitre Francois himself, all came to grief over Joannas. "_Bien heureux qui rien n"y a._" Happy is he who has nothing to do with "em.
As soon as we were free Paragot left us, and went off by himself; whereupon I, mimetic as an ape, rejected the humble Blanquette"s invitation to take a walk with her, and strolled moodily into the town with Narcisse at my heels. A dog fight or two and a Byronic talk with a little towheaded flower-seller who gave me a dusty bunch of cyclamen--as a _porte-bonheur_ she said prettily--whiled away the time until the people began to drift out of the Wonder Houses to dress for dinner. I lingered at the gates, going from one to the other, in the unavowed hope, little idiot that I was, of seeing Joanna. At last, at the main entrance to the Villa des Fleurs I caught sight of Paragot. He had changed from the velveteens into his vagabond clothes, and was evidently on the same errand as myself. I did not venture near, respecting his desire for solitude, but lounged at the corner of the main street and the road leading down to the Villa, playing with Narcisse and longing for something to happen. You see it is not given every day to an impressionable youngster, his brain stuffed with poetry, pictures, and such like delusive visionary things, to tumble head first into the romance of the actual world. For the moment the romance was at a standstill. I longed for a further chapter. It was a pity, I reflected, that we did not live in Merovingian times. Then Paragot and I could have lain in wait with our horses--everyone had horses in knightly days--and when Joanna came near, we should have killed the beaky-nosed man, and Paragot would have swung her on his saddlebow and we should have galloped away to his castle in the next kingdom, where Paragot, and Joanna and I, with Blanquette to be tirewoman to our princess, would have lived happy ever after. What I expected to get for myself, heaven knows: it did not strike me that perennial contemplation of another"s bliss might wear out the stoutest altruism.
Then suddenly out of the door of the Villa came two ladies, one of whom I recognised as Joanna and the other as the young girl of the luncheon party. The facade of the villa stretches across the road and is about a hundred yards from the corner. I saw Paragot stand rigid, and make no sign of recognition as she pa.s.sed him by, with her head up, like a proud queen. I felt an odd pain at my heart. Why was she so cruel? Her eyes were of the blue of glaciers, but all the rest of her face had seemed tender and kind. I was aware, in a general way, that radiantly attired ladies do not shake hands with ragam.u.f.fins in public places, but you must please to remember that I no more considered Paragot a ragam.u.f.fin than I thought Blanquette the equal of Joanna. Paragot to me was the peer of kings.
I turned away sorrowing and sauntered up the little street that leads to the Etabliss.e.m.e.nt des Bains. I was disappointed in Joanna and did not want to see her again. She should be punished for her cruelty. I sat down on one of the benches on the Place, and looking at the Mairie clock stolidly thought of supper. They made famous onion soup at the little auberge where we lodged, and Paragot, himself a connoisseur, had p.r.o.nounced their _tripes a la mode de Caen_ superior to anything that Mrs. Housekeeper had executed for the Lotus Club. Besides I was getting hungry. With youth a full heart rarely compensates an empty stomach, and now even my heart was growing empty.
Presently who should emerge into the Place but the two ladies. I sat on my bench and watched them cross. They were evidently going up the hill to one of the hotels behind the Etabliss.e.m.e.nt. In her white dress and white tulle hat coloured by three great roses, with her beautiful hair and sea-sh.e.l.l face and swaying supple figure, she looked the incarnation of all that was wors.h.i.+pful in woman. I could have knelt and prayed to her. Why was she so cruel to my master? I regarded her with mingled reproach and adoration. But the mixed feeling gave place to one of amazement when I saw her separate from her companion, who continued her way up the hill, and strike straight across the Place in my direction.
_She was coming to me._
I rose, took off my ragged hat and twirled it in my fingers, which was the way that Paragot had taught me to be polite in France.
"I want to speak to you," she said quickly. "You are the boy with the tambourine, aren"t you?"
"Yes, Mademoiselle."
Paragot had threatened to shoot me if I called any young lady "Miss."
"What is the name of the--the gentleman who played the violin?"
"Berzelius Nibbidard Paragot."
"That is not his real name?"
"No, Mademoiselle," said I.
"What is it?"
"I don"t know," said I. "This is a new name; he has only had it a week."
"How long have you known him?"
"A long, long time, Mademoiselle. He adopted me when I was quite small."
"You are not very big now," she said with a smile.
"I am nearly sixteen," said I proudly.
To herself she murmured, "I don"t think I can be mistaken."
In a different tone she continued, "You spoke some nonsense about his being your master and teaching you philosophy."