There were some married couples, too; for the most part extremely young and extravagantly clad, who at first kept together timidly and looked about with great, astonished eyes, and later frolicked about like monkeys set at liberty. One couple seemed to have been dragged to the carnival as a practical joke. The husband was a genuine complacent beery German, the wife, a good, corpulent, black-silk creature. The man, Lilly was told, was the landlord of the house, a well-to-do baker, who had been invited to the carnival as a reward for good-naturedly having permitted his fourth floor to be turned topsy-turvey. But the couple by no means felt nervous or out of place. They made coa.r.s.e, clumsy jokes, and were always surrounded by a group of laughing auditors.
About ten o"clock--Lilly had just been entangled by one of the long-haired and linenless in a profound discussion of false human values--when all of a sudden a sort of cry of wrath was raised, issuing at first from only one or two throats, then swelling to a loud thunder.
Lilly distinguished the words "hunger" and "fodder."
Mr. Kellermann"s pacifying voice resounded to still the clamour. An accident, he said, had occurred to interrupt the spreading of the bread of which each guest would receive a piece--a poor devil of an artist couldn"t afford a more abundant repast. He had hurriedly sent across the street for what was missing, and would the gentlemen please content themselves until it arrived? As for those who were _very_ hungry and did not worry about the taking of human life, the hosts had provided a.r.s.enic sandwiches and strychnine tarts, which were to be found in the closet marked "Poisons."
The whole a.s.semblage made a dash for the Criminal Side, where for the sake of the _crimes pa.s.sionels_ a whole a.r.s.enal of deadly instruments had been prepared. Gallows dangled from the ceiling, ladders led down to abysses, and a cannon was discharged. The company immediately s.n.a.t.c.hed the poisonous sandwiches from the sideboard, and sometimes even absolute strangers offered one another "a bite," like school children.
Then came the regular supper.
A buffet had been set up among the pines in the anteroom, piled mountain high with all sorts of goodies, Yorkshire hams, cold game, lobster, sliced salmon, and heaven knows what else. So stormy was the onslaught on that buffet--which, providentially had been placed against a wall--that the forest of pines gave way. Twigs flew about, branches broke, and a ma.s.s of laughing, cursing creatures rolled among the overturned tree-boxes.
Somebody had a brilliant idea--chuck the whole forest down stairs.
Forthwith the Chinese lanterns were extinguished, and despite the protestations of the landlord, who feared for the sleep of his other tenants, tree after tree went crashing down the steps and piled up at the bottom.
The ladies" light dresses were completely strewn with pine needles, pine needles settled in their hair and on their bosoms. The whole place smelled of Christmas.
One could hardly enjoy eating for all the laughing.
Besides, there were not enough chairs and tables for everybody. So, to be able at least to balance the plate on their laps, they sat crowded close up against one another on the stairs, where the company was fed from above downward each time fresh provisions were procured from the buffet and brought out into the hall.
Some enterprising pioneers even climbed up on the heap of pine trees and swayed on the springy branches like birds. Benevolent souls on the upper landing handed them their food on forks tied to walking sticks.
Lilly, fairly sick with laughter, sat on one of the steps quite surrounded by strange gentlemen, all of whom wanted to be fed by her.
She was in such a state of beat.i.tude that she wished her life might end with the carnival. If she had any care in the world, it was to see to it that the gentlemen about her got enough to eat.
The last of the refreshments were the cream kisses promised on the invitation. They swung on long strings from the ceiling, and each guest had to snap like a dog for his portion. If anyone used his hands he was rapped over the knuckles.
This sport, which at first created fresh storms of folly, soon had to be relinquished because the cream dropped on the ladies" dresses. Lilly"s Empire gown was also stained, but the instant the cream fell on it one of the gentlemen kneeled and sucked the spot away.
When a trumpet blast summoned the company back to the studio, everybody was unhappy, Lilly in especial.
But when she saw her friend again, whom she had quite forgotten, she quickly took comfort. Pressing against his arm and beaming with delight she reported to him amid gurgles of laughter all she had experienced in the meantime.
Now, it seemed to her, she again saw the looks of those who pa.s.sed her fastened on her face in strange seriousness, betokening something like compa.s.sion. But she had too much to relate to give those strange looks much thought.
The speeches now began. Lilly begged her friend to stay at her side. She had romped enough, she said, and needed something "homey."
He pressed his arm against hers gratefully.
"Why are you trembling so?" she asked in surprise.
"Oh, nothing," he replied lightly.
The first of the speakers was one of the long-haired, linenless, sombre ones. Something weighty and solemn, like a hymn, was to usher in the numbers on the program.
He recited an ode ent.i.tled "Super-Smoke," in which such words as "sublime mist" rhymed with "amethyst," and "super-desire" with "pa.s.sionate fire."
Lilly understood not a word, though the poem must have been very beautiful, because at the conclusion the gentlemen burst into wild applause. "Bravo! Bravo! Super-smoke! More Super-smoke!"
The sombre poet, who naturally interpreted these exclamations as a call for "_da capo_," bowed and felt flattered and started off again: "Super-Smoke, an Ode."
He found he was in for it. "Enough, enough," came from all sides, and it turned out that the gentlemen had merely wished to express their desire for something smokeable in the language of super-men.
The next to ascend the platform was a slim, very elegant gentleman with a dark brown Van d.y.k.e beard and a gleaming monocle. He had been introduced to Lilly. Dr. Salmoni smiled sadly, and held his curved left hand close to his nose to scrutinise his long nails. His intention, he said was to draw up an intellectual inventory of the evening. For the purpose he would make a few remarks as a basis of his "so-to-speak destructive construction of this social heterogeneity."
With that, a hail-storm of audacities and personalities came rattling down on the heads of hosts and guests.
Though Lilly understood only a fraction of what he said, she felt she had to blush with shame for each person his ill-natured words. .h.i.t. But, strange to say, n.o.body took offence. On the contrary, each one upon getting his raking tried to outdo the others in noisy applause.
"What a happy world," thought Lilly, "where people have become absolutely invulnerable and the most heinous sins simply add to their honour."
Her own misdeed, from which she had suffered so long as from a festering sore, suddenly appeared something like a child"s amiable prank.
"Was it idiocy in me to grieve so?" she asked herself, and pushed her hips downward with her hands, as if to brush away all the old chains from her limbs.
The elegant doctor could deal in compliments also. Each of the lovely women received her little bon-bon rolled in pepper. And when he spoke of a lotos flower that had drifted there from fairyland and still seemed to dread the glory of the new sun shining upon it, Lilly again saw all glances turned upon her.
"But let her take courage," Dr. Salmoni continued. "Should she need some one to help her dreamily await the night, she may count, I feel certain, upon every one of us."
He was rewarded with the enthusiastic applause of all the gentlemen, and Lilly did not even feel ashamed.
Upon concluding, and after gathering in a harvest of praise from the auditors, who crowded up to him--those who had gotten the hottest "roast" were the most eager--he stepped to Lilly"s side and said _sotto voce_:
"I beg your pardon most humbly for having mentioned you in the same breath as this set. People on our level ought to have a tacit code; they ought to understand each other without making bald declarations. But I was tired of just cracking a whip. Besides, I may a.s.sure you, I don"t _always_ play the fool."
He stuck his monocle in his waistcoat pocket and looked at Lilly with his sharp grey eyes as if to tear her heart to tatters.
"People on our level," he had said. Lilly felt flattered that so clever and prominent a man should rank her with him.
The next performer was a "minstrel," a mercurial, black young fellow, who accompanied himself on the mandolin. He struck up a highly sentimental ditty, like a troubadour"s.
The lady"s name I will not cite, Far purer she than the moonlight.
She is so chaste, she burns with shame To hear the stork called by its name.
And if rash Eros bids you try To steal a kiss, however shy, Her face grows pale--Heaven forefend!-- And stammers she: "Now this must end!"
The second strophe, the temperature of which rose many degrees, ended with the line:
Quoth she: "Now cut it out! Now stop."
And the third strophe, whose outrageous explicitness Lilly scarcely ventured to understand, wound up with the French:
_Tout ce que vous voulez, mais pas ca._
An endless round of clapping and shouting followed the song.
Lilly was astonished, but did not resent it. She resented nothing any more. Leaning back in her chair with half-closed eyes, she let the lights, the sounds, the vulgarities, the laughter and applause pa.s.s as in a dream.