If the senior member of the firm of Liebert & Dehnicke, the world said, can indulge in such an extravagance, his goods must be selling much better than we thought. And many a dealer who had formerly bought of his compet.i.tors now came to him, impelled by those mysterious powers of suggestion whose laws psychologists and historians have in vain endeavoured to fathom.
People showed him greater respect, but a respect mitigated by that jovial, confidential smile which the world always smiles when it pardons a man of proven harmlessness an interesting secret little infirmity.
Questions like "When are we going to see you outside of business?" or "What do you say to making a night of it together now and then?"
questions from persons who had paid no attention to him formerly, became as cheap as the bronze wares of Liebert & Dehnicke.
"By right, I ought to charge you to the expense account of the business," he once said with a smile to Lilly, who by and by ceased to feel pained at delicate jokes of that sort.
The evening excursions, which took place three or four times a week, gradually became a matter of habit, and rapidly acquainted Lilly with all the soap-bubble pleasures that float from the witch"s cauldron of Berlin life.
It was now too late in the winter for those great public b.a.l.l.s, at which one shams the mysterious lady of rank beneath a silk domino. To compensate there were the theatres where observances are lax and the lowest vices of the Parisian boulevards, diluted and warmed over, are dished up to tickle the palates of hungry pleasure-seekers; all-night cabarets, where obscene jests are clothed in literary garb, and wild women escaped from the confines of middle-cla.s.s life vie with professional music-hall singers for the palm of vulgarity; bars and grill-rooms; back rooms of aristocratic restaurants which the law forbids to be locked, and in which chilly orgies are smiled upon mockingly by correct waiters; and, to wind up with, certain cafes, sparkling with lights and blue with cigarette smoke, where the weary nerves seek and find their final stimulation in contact with prost.i.tutes selling their wares in open market.
In the beginning Lilly opposed these doings. Her senses demanded satisfaction of another sort. She had a vague feeling of mournfulness, as if each day of this new pleasure-filled life were carrying her farther and farther from those laurel-lined stairs to which her longing had gone out. But when she saw that her every wish for quiet encountered sulky resistance, she gave up her desires voluntarily, and kept her dreams for a better time, a time which would bring all her hopes to fruition, which--which--her fancy might venture no farther.
Besides, it was always so fascinating, so dazzling.
Lilly and Dehnicke were seldom left alone. In proceeding from place to place they would meet acquaintances, many of whom Lilly had seen at the carnival; and they would join company informally; or frequently, appointments were made beforehand. So there was quite a group of them, a little fixed nucleus, about which newcomers kept crystallising.
One of the faithful was that sweet little brunette with the unsteady, glowing eyes and the foolish smile, who had wanted her friend and herself to form a little family group at supper with Lilly and Dehnicke.
Her name was Mrs. Sievekingk. A vague desire for "life" had caused her to run away from her husband, a physician somewhere in Further Pomerania. After having gone through various experiences she was now living with the proprietor of a large steam laundry, a red-haired swell, thin as a broomstick, Wohlfahrt by name. He suffered from dyspepsia, and Mrs. Sievekingk always had ready in her hand-bag an a.s.sortment of pills and powders. But this touching, energetic care of him did not prevent her from deceiving him for the sake of any man who courted her.
Everybody knew it and n.o.body blamed her. She was a poetess and had to create experiences to sing about. As a result many a lover who thought he was sinning with her in absolute secrecy would a few weeks later discover an exact portrait of himself as the hero of a pa.s.sionate sketch or a murky love poem in some magazine of the latest school.
There was Mrs. Welter also, the divorced wife of the renowned composer, whose round, russet face--she had returned lately from a mysterious pleasure trip to Algeria--formed a droll contrast to the golden aureole of her ma.s.s of dyed hair. It was dangerous to a.s.sociate with her. She borrowed of everybody she met, although she was in comfortable circ.u.mstances, receiving an ample alimony from her former husband"s rich relatives. Her constant state of want was due to her infinite goodness, which led her to turn over all she possessed and all her friends gave her to two cashiered lovers, each of whom in his way was a scamp. n.o.body knew to whom she was attached at present. She was frequently seen with a district attorney, who was stiff as a poker and too formal to use a toothpick on his hollow teeth, and so sat for hours in silence busily rolling his tongue between his jaws.
Among others was an extremely thin little shrewmouse, dainty and devilish, with steely eyes and thin pinched lips turning inward. She always wore white silk, and dragged a rustling, fan-shaped train. She called herself Mrs. Karla. n.o.body knew her real name except her lover, a mere boy, the son of a manufacturer. Pale, puny, and completely in her toils, he followed her about until dawn indulging her in her sapping l.u.s.t for pleasure. In an unguarded moment he revealed that she was the wife of a Jewish scholar who lived in absolute seclusion, and actually believed that she was occupied in satisfying the social demands of the Berlin West Side. And while she wantoned with all sorts of people in music halls and _chambres separees_, her husband sat quietly at home poring over his statistical tables.
There were women of every description, for whose past and whose means of subsistence no one concerned himself, provided they were pretty and elegant and not exactly _cocottes_.
In addition to the ladies" legitimate escorts were a large number of gentlemen, who came every evening to fish in troubled waters. These gentlemen const.i.tuted the real enlivening element, and among them was the Dr. Salmoni who had wielded "the big stick" at Mr. Kellermann"s carnival while smiling a mournful smile. In his company, Lilly felt, she always grew embarra.s.sed and reticent, although it seemed to her a secret bond united them. As at the carnival, he exercised his caustic wit upon every person who crossed his path, with the exception of herself, whom he pa.s.sed by considerately. Now and then he dissected her with his probing eyes, and two or three times he whispered softly _en pa.s.sant_: "What are you seeking to find here, lovely lady?"
Mr. Kellermann, too, presented himself not infrequently; grew befuddled, and then threw out remarks about "a chained beauty crying to be set free," remarks which Lilly a.s.siduously endeavoured not to hear. At the end of the evening he usually discovered he was out of pocket, upon which Richard came to his rescue.
Such was the world in which from now on Lilly"s days--and nights--glided along.
She received mysterious messages of all sorts; invitations from strange gentlemen to discreet rendezvous, flowers sent anonymously, from modest bouquets of violets to gorgeous baskets of orchids, visits from ladies of suspicious character, who were organising private charity circles, and with highly significant smiles asked Lilly to join--a turbid surf of desire forever rolling up to her threshold. At first it frightened her; finally she took no notice of it.
Spring came, and with it the races at which everybody appears who lays claim for any reason at all to membership in the world of elegance.
Since Lilly had been enthroned at Richard"s side, the slumbering cavalry officer in him had been awakened to such lively consciousness, his pa.s.sion for native horse-breeding had swelled to such vast proportions that he would not have dreamed of missing a single race. Although he never betted, his pockets were stuffed with crumpled tips; chances and pedigrees const.i.tuted his sole topic of conversation, and Lilly, who took not the least interest in it all, willingly lent him her undivided attention.
One morning, on studying the account of the previous day"s race in her paper, the following pa.s.sage attracted her notice:
"Among the charming representatives of the world which knows no _ennui_, was the impressive beauty who for some time past has permitted glimpses of herself everywhere, and who still radiates the discreet atmosphere of the _haute volee_, which, it is rumoured, was once her native element.
She favors violet, and in accordance with a famous precedent, she might be dubbed "_la dame aux violettes_." We congratulate ourselves upon the appearance of this new star, who will only add to the reputation of our metropolitan life."
"Who can that be?" thought Lilly, slightly envious, and pa.s.sed in review the beautiful women she had admired the day before.
Then suddenly the blood rushed to her head. Her glance sought the Redfern costume, which she had not yet hung away, and was lying across the back of a chair. It was two years old, but so wonderfully well made that it could compete with the new creations of the spring. Since this was the only suit of the sort she possessed--Richard must be spared unnecessary expense--she had worn it several times in succession.
"Yes, she no longer doubted--the item referred to her and no other. Her first thought was:
"How pleased Richard will be."
She, too, was pleased. Mrs. Laue"s boldest prophecies seemed about to be fulfilled. She was growing famous. She actually figured in the papers.
But that feeling of dread! That enigmatic, senseless dread which forever crouched in the bottom of her heart, and crept to the surface at the very moment a new event led her on a stage further toward grandeur and happiness. Since she had stepped into the world at Richard"s side, she had encountered nothing but what awakened gladness, pride and hope.
Everybody respected and flattered her. Scorn of herself, self-torturing thoughts, had pa.s.sed away, giving place to a quiet appreciation of her own value in the presence of strangers. But that stupid, dull dread never left her. It would not be silenced.
Earlier in the afternoon than usual, Richard came down the street beaming and openly waving the paper up to her.
After they had embraced ten times and read the pa.s.sage in the paper twice as often, Richard turned taciturn and gloomy, folded his arms like Napoleon, and paced up and down the room with short, sharp steps.
You could see ambition seething in his brain.
The bell rang.
Little Mrs. Sievekingk was announced.
She had come for a friendly little talk with Lilly several times before, though the two had not grown more intimate as a result. This time she arrived opportunely, to help them taste the joy of Lilly"s fame.
Her grey velvet suit shimmered in the afternoon sunlight, and the red turban with the waving aigrette nestled in her dark, curly head like a tongue of flame darting downward.
She held her hand out to Lilly with her seductive smile, but when she turned to Richard, her eyes flashed with some of the energy with which she insisted upon her lover taking a dose.
In the presence of strangers Lilly and Richard still kept up the myth of a Platonic friendship. So Richard modestly reached for his hat to extract from Lilly the polite request that he stay a little longer. But the small, dark woman antic.i.p.ated them.
"Don"t be foolish," she said, "don"t behave as if you weren"t perfectly at home here. You may call each other by your first names, as if from a slip of the tongue, and I"ll pretend not to have heard a thing."
Lilly and Richard smiled, and while Lilly poured a cup of tea for her guest, Richard played with the paper. He wanted to make certain whether Mrs. Sievekingk had learned of the great triumph.
"What I really came for was on account of that stuff," she said, "and you are the very person I want to speak to about it. I suppose you"re awfully proud of it."
Richard made a deprecating gesture, and smiled complacently.
"To be quite frank, I credited you with a grain or two more sense."
"I beg pardon," Richard observed, taken aback.
Lilly started. Her dread of the morning grew into the suspicion that her great fortune had a cloven hoof.
"Just let me speak," said the little woman, her eyes now flashing very steadily with a conscious purpose. "I have experience in such matters.
My red-head began the same way with me. Has the thought never occurred to you, Mr. Dehnicke, that when a choice creature like this one sitting here, something so sweet and glorious that you"ll never find her like, entrusts herself to you, you have a.s.sumed a vast responsibility? Do you think we"re here to puff and swell your vanity? We"re not factory girls or ballet dancers to be stuck into silks and laces and led around to show the world that you"re a fine buck. We have fallen from society, I know, but we"re not to be cla.s.sed, not by a long shot, with those women to whose ranks you would like to reduce us."
Richard wanted to reply, but could not find the right words, and Mrs.
Sievekingk continued, bending toward Lilly tenderly:
"So here comes a poor little mite in its unsuspecting aristocracy, and says: "Take me. Do with me what you want." And what will you do with her? You"ll make a fast woman of her, at least what the world takes to be a fast woman. Don"t contradict me. As a beginning you"ve already done very well." She pointed to the paper.