"I want Monsieur Sennier to know him," said Mrs. Shiffney.
"I"m so sorry, but he"s not here," said Charmian.
Just then Susan Fleet came in. Mrs. Shiffney turned to her.
"Susan! Such a disappointment! But, of course, you know!"
"About Mr. Heath? Yes."
"Has he gone back to England?" said Max Elliot.
"Oh, no. He"s in Algeria."
Charmian obviously hesitated, saw that any want of frankness would seem extraordinary, and added:
"He has gone to Constantine with a friend."
Her voice was reluctant.
"Do have some tea!" she added quickly, pulling the bell, which Pierre promptly answered with the tea things.
"Constantine!" said Mrs. Shiffney. "That"s no distance, only a night in the train. Can"t you persuade him to come back and see us? Do be a dear and telegraph."
She spoke in her most airy way.
"I would in a minute. But he"s not gone merely to amuse himself."
"The opera!" said Mrs. Shiffney. "By the way, is it indiscreet to ask who wrote the libretto?"
Again Charmian hesitated, and again overcame her hesitation.
"It is by a Frenchman, or rather an Algerian, French but born here. His name is Gillier."
"Armand Gillier?" exclaimed Madame Sennier, while her husband threw out his hands in a gesture of surprise.
"Yes. Do you know him?"
"Know him!" exclaimed the composer. "When have I not known him? Three libretti by him have I rejected--three, madame. He challenged me to a duel, pistols, if you please! I to fire, and perhaps be shot, because he cannot write a good libretto! Which has your poor unfortunate husband accepted?"
Charmian handed the tea. She felt Madame Sennier"s hard and observant eyes--they were yellow eyes, and small--fixed upon her.
"Claude"s libretto has never been offered to anyone else," she answered.
Madame Sennier slightly shrugged her shoulders.
"And so Gillier is with your husband!" she observed. Apparently she was clairvoyante. "Well, madame, you are a brave woman. That is all I can say!"
"Brave! But why?"
Mrs. Shiffney"s eyes looked full of laughter.
"Why, Henriette?" she asked, leaning forward. "Do tell us."
"Gillier makes other people like he is," said Madame Sennier. "But what does it matter? Each one for himself! Don"t you say that in England?"
She had turned to Max Elliot.
"That applies specially to women," she continued, with her curiously ruthless and too self-possessed air. "Each woman for herself, and the Devil will carefully take the hindmost. Why should he not?"
She shot another glance at Charmian, a glance penetrating and cold as a dagger. Charmian felt that she hated this woman. And yet she admired her immensely, too. Madame Sennier would never be taken by the Devil because she was the hindmost. That was certain.
Max Elliot began to talk to Sennier and Mrs. Shiffney. Susan Fleet went over to sit with them. And Charmian had an opportunity for conversation with Madame Sennier.
She secretly shrank from her, yet she longed to be more intimate with her, to learn something from her. She felt that the Frenchwoman was completely unscrupulous. She saw cruelty in those yellow eyes. The red mouth was hard as a bar of iron in the artificial white face. Madame Sennier moved in a sea of perfume. And even this perfume troubled and disgusted, yet half fascinated Charmian, suggesting to her knowledge that she did not possess, and that perhaps helped on the way of ambition. She felt like an ignorant child, and almost preposterously English, as she talked to Madame Sennier, who became voluble in reply.
There was something meridional in her manner and her fluency. Charmian felt sure that Madame Sennier had risen out of depths about which she, Charmian, knew nothing. She wondered if this woman loved her husband, or only loved the genius in him which helped her to rise, which brought her wealth, influence, even, it seemed, a curious adoration. She wondered, too, if this woman had known the first Madame Sennier.
Presently Mrs. Shiffney got up. She was apt to be restless.
"May we go and look about outside?" she said.
"Of course. Shall I--"
"No, no. I see you are interested in each other. Two wives of geniuses!
I don"t want to spoil it. Come, Jacques, let us explore."
They went away to the court of the goldfish. Max Elliot followed them.
As they went Madame Sennier fixed her eyes for a moment on her departing husband. In that moment Charmian found out something. Madame Sennier certainly cared for the man, as well as for the composer. Charmian fancied that love, that softness for the one, bred hatred, hardness, for many others, that it was an exclusive and almost terrible love. Now that she was alone with Madame Sennier, enclosed as it were in that strong perfume, she felt almost afraid of her. She was conscious of being with someone far cleverer than herself. And she realized what an effective weapon in certain hands is an absolute lack of scruple. It seemed to her as she sat and talked, about Paris, America, London, art, music, that this woman must have divined her secret and intense ambition. Those yellow eyes had surely looked into her soul, and knew that she had brought Claude to Algeria in order that some day he might come forth as the rival of Jacques Sennier. Almost she felt guilty. She made a strong effort, and turned the conversation to the subject of the _Paradis Terrestre_, expressing her enthusiasm for it.
Madame Sennier received the praises with an air of gracious indifference, as if her husband"s opera were now so famous that it was scarcely worth while to talk about it. This carelessness accentuated brutally the difference between her position and Charmian"s. And it stung Charmian into indiscretion. Something fiery and impetuous seemed to rise up in her, something that wanted to fight. She began to speak of her husband"s talent.
Madame Sennier listened politely, as one who listens on a height to small voices stealing vaguely up from below. Charmian began to underline things. It was as if one of the voices from below became strident in the determination to be adequately heard, to make its due effect. Finally she was betrayed into saying:
"Of course we wives of composers are apt to be prejudiced."
Madame Sennier stared.
"But," added Charmian, "people who really know think a great deal of my husband; Mr. Crayford, for instance."
Directly she had said this she repented of it. She realized that Claude would have hated the remark had he heard it.
Madame Sennier seemed unimpressed, and at that moment the others came in from the garden. But Charmian, why she did not know, felt increasing regret for her inadvertence. She even wished that Madame Sennier had shown some emotion, surprise, even contemptuous incredulity. The complete blankness of the Frenchwoman at that moment made Charmian uneasy.
When they were all going Mrs. Shiffney insisted on Charmian and Susan Fleet dining at the Hotel St. George that evening. Charmian wanted to refuse and wished to go. Of course she accepted. She and Susan had no engagement to plead.
Jacques Sennier clasped her hands on parting and gazed fervently into her eyes.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""OF COURSE WE WIVES OF COMPOSERS ARE APT TO BE PREJUDICED""--_Page 242_]
"Let me come sometimes and sit in your garden, may I, Madame?" he said, as if begging for some great boon. "Only"--he lowered his voice--"only till your husband comes back. There is inspiration here!"