"You must come!" came the voice in pain from the upper window.
Alvina ran upstairs. She found Mrs. Tuke crouched in a chair, with a drawn, horrified, terrified face. As her pains suddenly gripped her, she uttered an exclamation, and pressed her clenched fists hard on her face.
"The pains have begun," said Alvina, hurrying to her.
"Oh, it"s horrible! It"s horrible! I don"t want it!" cried the woman in travail. Alvina comforted her and rea.s.sured her as best she could. And from outside, once more, came the despairing howl of the Neapolitan song, animal and inhuman on the night.
"E tu dic" Io part", addio!
T"alluntare di sta core, Nel paese del amore Tien" o cor" di non turnar"
--Ma nun me lasciar"--"
It was almost unendurable. But suddenly Mrs. Tuke became quite still, and sat with her fists clenched on her knees, her two jet-black plaits dropping on either side of her ivory face, her big eyes fixed staring into s.p.a.ce. At the line--
Ma nun me lasciar"--
she began to murmur softly to herself--"Yes, it"s dreadful! It"s horrible! I can"t understand it. What does it mean, that noise? It"s as bad as these pains. What does it mean? What does he say? I can understand a little Italian--" She paused. And again came the sudden complaint:
Ma nun me lasciar"--
"Ma nun me lasciar"--!" she murmured, repeating the music. "That means--Don"t leave me! Don"t leave me! But why? Why shouldn"t one human being go away from another? What does it mean? That _awful_ noise! Isn"t love the most horrible thing! I think it"s horrible. It just does one in, and turns one into a sort of howling animal. I"m howling with one sort of pain, he"s howling with another. Two h.e.l.lish animals howling through the night! I"m not myself, he"s not himself. Oh, I think it"s horrible. What does he look like, Nurse?
Is he beautiful? Is he a great hefty brute?"
She looked with big, slow, enigmatic eyes at Alvina.
"He"s a man I knew before," said Alvina.
Mrs. Tuke"s face woke from its half-trance.
"Really! Oh! A man you knew before! Where?"
"It"s a long story," said Alvina. "In a travelling music-hall troupe."
"In a travelling music-hall troupe! How extraordinary! Why, how did you come across such an individual--?"
Alvina explained as briefly as possible. Mrs. Tuke watched her.
"Really!" she said. "You"ve done all those things!" And she scrutinized Alvina"s face. "You"ve had some effect on him, that"s evident," she said. Then she shuddered, and dabbed her nose with her handkerchief. "Oh, the flesh is a _beastly_ thing!" she cried. "To make a man howl outside there like that, because you"re here. And to make me howl because I"ve got a child inside me. It"s unbearable!
What does he look like, really?"
"I don"t know," said Alvina. "Not extraordinary. Rather a hefty brute--"
Mrs. Tuke glanced at her, to detect the irony.
"I should like to see him," she said. "Do you think I might?"
"I don"t know," said Alvina, non-committal.
"Do you think he might come up? Ask him. Do let me see him."
"Do you really want to?" said Alvina.
"Of course--" Mrs. Tuke watched Alvina with big, dark, slow eyes.
Then she dragged herself to her feet. Alvina helped her into bed.
"Do ask him to come up for a minute," Effie said. "We"ll give him a gla.s.s of Tommy"s famous port. Do let me see him. Yes do!" She stretched out her long white arm to Alvina, with sudden imploring.
Alvina laughed, and turned doubtfully away.
The night was silent outside. But she found Ciccio leaning against a gate-pillar. He started up.
"Allaye!" he said.
"Will you come in for a moment? I can"t leave Mrs. Tuke."
Ciccio obediently followed Alvina into the house and up the stairs, without a word. He was ushered into the bedroom. He drew back when he saw Effie in the bed, sitting with her long plaits and her dark eyes, and the subtle-seeming smile at the corners of her mouth.
"Do come in!" she said. "I want to thank you for the music. Nurse says it was for her, but I enjoyed it also. Would you tell me the words? I think it"s a wonderful song."
Ciccio hung back against the door, his head dropped, and the shy, suspicious, faintly malicious smile on his face.
"Have a gla.s.s of port, do!" said Effie. "Nurse, give us all one. I should like one too. And a biscuit." Again she stretched out her long white arm from the sudden blue lining of her wrap, suddenly, as if taken with the desire. Ciccio shifted on his feet, watching Alvina pour out the port.
He swallowed his in one swallow, and put aside his gla.s.s.
"Have some more!" said Effie, watching over the top of her gla.s.s.
He smiled faintly, stupidly, and shook his head.
"Won"t you? Now tell me the words of the song--"
He looked at her from out of the dusky hollows of his brow, and did not answer. The faint, stupid half-smile, half-sneer was on his lips.
"Won"t you tell them me? I understood one line--"
Ciccio smiled more p.r.o.nouncedly as he watched her, but did not speak.
"I understood one line," said Effie, making big eyes at him. "_Ma non me lasciare_--_Don"t leave me!_ There, isn"t that it?"
He smiled, stirred on his feet, and nodded.
"Don"t leave me! There, I knew it was that. Why don"t you want Nurse to leave you? Do you want her to be with you _every minute_?"
He smiled a little contemptuously, awkwardly, and turned aside his face, glancing at Alvina. Effie"s watchful eyes caught the glance.
It was swift, and full of the terrible yearning which so horrified her.
At the same moment a spasm crossed her face, her expression went blank.
"Shall we go down?" said Alvina to Ciccio.