"But what earthly chance have I?" he went on, innocently but ruthlessly.
"No one can help loving Nora."
"No," in a small voice.
"It"s all rot, this talk about affinities. There"s always some poor devil left outside. But who can help loving Nora?" he repeated.
"Who indeed!"
"And there"s not the least chance in the world for me."
"You never can tell until you put it to the test."
"Do you think I have a chance? Is it possible that Nora may care a little for me?" He turned his head toward her eagerly.
"Who knows?" She wanted him to have it over with, to learn the truth that to Nora Harrigan he would never be more than an amiable comrade. He would then have none to turn to but her. What mattered it if her own heart ached so she might soothe the hurt in his? She laid a hand upon his shoulder, so lightly that he was only dimly conscious of the contact.
"It"s a rummy old world. Here I"ve gone alone all these years...."
"Twenty-six!" smiling.
"Well, that"s a long time. Never bothered my head about a woman. Selfish, perhaps. Had a good time, came and went as I pleased. And then I met Nora."
"Yes."
"If only she"d been stand-offish, like these other singers, why, I"d have been all right to-day. But she"s such a brick! She"s such a good fellow!
She treats us all alike; sings when we ask her to; always ready for a romp. Think of her making us all take the _Kneip_-cure the other night!
And we marched around the fountain singing "Mary had a little lamb."
Barefooted in the gra.s.s! When a man marries he doesn"t want a wife half so much as a good comrade; somebody to slap him on the back in the morning to hearten him up for the day"s work; and to cuddle him up when he comes home tired, or disappointed, or unsuccessful. No matter what mood he"s in. Is my English getting away from you?"
"No; I understand all you say." Her hand rested a trifle heavier upon his shoulder, that was all.
"Nora would be that kind of a wife. "Honor, anger, valor, fire," as Stevenson says. Hang the picture; what am I going to do with it?"
""Honor, anger, valor, fire,"" Celeste repeated slowly. "Yes, that is Nora." A bitter little smile moved her lips as she recalled the happenings of the last two days. But no; he must find out for himself; he must meet the hurt from Nora, not from her. "How long, Abbott, have you known your friend Mr. Courtlandt?"
"Boys together," playing a light tattoo with his mahl-stick.
"How old is he?"
"About thirty-two or three."
"He is very rich?"
"Oceans of money; throws it away, but not fast enough to get rid of it."
"He is what you say in English ... wild?"
"Well," with mock gravity, "I shouldn"t like to be the tiger that crossed his path. Wild; that"s the word for it."
"You are laughing. Ah, I know! I should say dissipated."
"Courtlandt? Come, now, Celeste; does he look dissipated?"
"No-o."
"He drinks when he chooses, he flirts with a pretty woman when he chooses, he smokes the finest tobacco there is when he chooses; and he gives them all up when he chooses. He is like the seasons; he comes and goes, and n.o.body can change his habits."
"He has had no affair?"
"Why, Courtlandt hasn"t any heart. It"s a mechanical device to keep his blood in circulation; that"s all. I am the most intimate friend he has, and yet I know no more than you how he lives and where he goes."
She let her hand fall from his shoulder. She was glad that he did not know.
"But look!" she cried in warning.
Abbott looked.
A woman was coming serenely down the path from the wooded promontory, a woman undeniably handsome in a cedar-tinted linen dress, exquisitely fashioned, with a touch of vivid scarlet on her hat and a most tantalizing flash of scarlet ankle. It was Flora Desimone, fresh from her morning bath and a substantial breakfast. The errand that had brought her from Aix-les-Bains was confessedly a merciful one. But she possessed the dramatist"s instinct to prolong a situation. Thus, to make her act of mercy seem infinitely larger than it was, she was determined first to cast the Apple of Discord into this charming corner of Eden. The Apple of Discord, as every man knows, is the only thing a woman can throw with any accuracy.
The artist s.n.a.t.c.hed up his brushes, and ruined the painting forthwith, for all time. The foreground was, in his opinion, beyond redemption; so, with a savage humor, he rapidly limned in a score of impossible trees, turned midday into sunset, with a riot of colors which would have made the Chinese New-year in Canton a drab and sober event in comparison. He hated Flora Desimone, as all Nora"s adherents most properly did, but with a hatred wholly reflective and adapted to Nora"s moods.
"You have spoiled it!" cried Celeste. She had watched the picture grow, and to see it ruthlessly destroyed this way hurt her. "How could you!"
"Worst I ever did." He began to change the whole effect, chuckling audibly as he worked. Sunset divided honors with moonlight. It was no longer incongruous; it was ridiculous. He leaned back and laughed. "I"m going to send it to L"Asino, and call it an afterthought."
"Give it to me."
"What?"
"Yes."
"Nonsense! I"m going to touch a match to it. I"ll give you that picture with the lavender in bloom."
"I want this."
"But you can not hang it."
"I want it."
"Well!" The more he learned about women the farther out of mental reach they seemed to go. Why on earth did she want this execrable daub? "You may have it; but all the same, I"m going to call an oculist and have him examine your eyes."
"Why, it is the Signorina Fournier!"
In preparing studiously to ignore Flora Desimone"s presence they had forgotten all about her.
"Good morning, Signora," said Celeste in Italian.
"And the Signore Abbott, the painter, also!" The Calabrian raised what she considered her most deadly weapon, her lorgnette.