"And what if it were true? What if I loved you?"
The laugh of the countess rang out again, but forced, false, with a tone that seemed to tear the artist"s breast.
"Just what I expected! The confession I spoke of! That"s the third one I"ve received to-day. But isn"t it possible to talk with a man of anything but love?"
She was already on her feet, looking around for her hat, for she could not remember where she had left it.
"I"m going, _cher maitre_. It isn"t safe to stay here. I"ll try to come earlier next time so that the twilight won"t catch us. It"s a treacherous hour; the moment of the greatest follies."
The painter objected to her leaving. Her carriage had not yet come. She could wait a few minutes longer. He promised to be quiet, not to talk to her, as long as it seemed to displease her.
The countess remained, but she would not sit down in the chair. She walked around the studio for a few moments and finally opened the organ that stood near the window.
"Let"s have a little music; that will quiet us. You, Mariano, sit still as a mouse in your chair and don"t come near me. Be a good boy now."
Her fingers rested on the keys; her feet moved the pedals and the _Largo_ of Handel, grave, mystic, dreamy, swelled softly through the studio. The melody filled the wide room, already wrapped in shadows, it made its way through the tapestries, prolonging its winged whisper through the other two studios, as though it were the song of an organ played by invisible hands in a deserted cathedral at the mysterious hour of dusk.
Concha felt stirred with feminine sentimentality, that superficial, whimsical, sensitiveness that made her friends look on her as a great artist. The music filled her with tenderness; she strove to keep back the tears that came to her eyes,--why, she could not tell.
Suddenly she stopped playing and looked around anxiously. The painter was behind her, she fancied she felt his breath on her neck. She wanted to protest, to make him draw back with one of her cruel laughs, but she could not.
"Mariano," she murmured, "go sit down, be a good boy and mind me. If you don"t I"ll be cross."
But she did not move; after turning half way around on the stool, she remained facing the window with one elbow resting on the keys.
They were silent for a long time; she in this position, he watching her face that now was only a white spot in the deepening shadow.
The panes of the window took on a bluish opaqueness. The branches of the garden cut them like sinuous, shifting lines of ink. In the deep calm of the studio the creaking of the furniture could be heard, that breathing of wood, of dust, of objects in the silence and shadow.
Both of them seem to be captivated by the mystery of the hour, as if the death of day acted as an anaesthetic on their minds. They felt lulled in a vague, sweet dream.
She trembled with pleasure.
"Mariano, go away," she said slowly, as if it cost her an effort. "This is so pleasant, I feel as if I were in a bath, a bath that penetrates to my very soul. But it isn"t right. Turn on the lights, master. Light!
Light! This isn"t proper."
Mariano did not listen to her. He had bent over her, taking her hand that was cold, unfeeling, as if it did not notice the pressure of his.
Then, with a sudden start, he kissed it, almost bit it.
The countess seemed to awake and stood up, proudly, angrily.
"That"s childish, Mariano. It isn"t fair."
But in a moment she laughed with her cruel laugh, as if she pitied the confusion that Renovales showed when he saw her anger. "You are pardoned, master. A kiss on the hand means nothing. It is the conventional thing. Many men kiss my hand."
And this indifference was a bitter torment for the artist, who considered that his kiss was a sign of possession.
The countess continued to search in the darkness, repeating in an irritated voice:
"Light, turn on the light. Where in the world is the b.u.t.ton?"
The light was turned on without Mariano"s moving, before she found the b.u.t.ton she was looking for. Three cl.u.s.ters of electric lights flashed out on the ceiling of the studio, and their crowns of white needles, brought out of the shadows the golden picture frames, the brilliant tapestries, the shining arms, the showy furniture and the bright-colored paintings.
They both blinked, blinded by the sudden brightness.
"Good evening," said a honeyed voice from the doorway.
"Josephina!"
The countess ran toward her, embracing her effusively, kissing her bright red, emaciated cheeks.
"How dark you were," continued Josephina with a smile that Renovales knew well.
Concha fairly stunned her with her flow of chatter. The ill.u.s.trious master had refused to light up, he liked the twilight. An artist"s whim!
They had been talking about their dear Josephina, while she was waiting for her carriage to come. And as she said this, she kept kissing the little woman, drawing back a little to look at her better, repeating impetuously:
"My, how pretty you are to-day. You look better than you did three days ago."
Josephina continued to smile. She thanked her. Her carriage was waiting at the door. The servant had told her when she came downstairs, attracted by the distant sound of the organ.
The countess seemed to be in a hurry to leave. She suddenly remembered a host of things she had to do, she enumerated the people who were waiting for her at home. Josephina helped her to put on her hat and veil and even then the countess gave her several good-by kisses through the veil.
"Good-by, _ma chere_. Good-by, _mignonne_. Do you remember our school days? How happy we were there! Good-by, _maitre_."
She stopped at the door to kiss Josephina once more.
And finally, before she disappeared, she exclaimed in the querulous tone of a victim who wants sympathy:
"I envy you, _cherie_. You, at least, are happy. You have found a husband who worships you. Master, take lots of care of her. Be good to her so that she may get well and pretty. Take care of her or we shall quarrel."
VI
Renovales had finished reading the evening papers in bed as was his custom, and before putting out the light he looked at his wife.
She was awake. Above the fold of the sheet he saw her eyes, unusually wide open, fixed on him with a hostile stare, and the little tails of her hair, that stuck out under the lace of her night-cap straight and sedate.
"Aren"t you asleep?" the painter asked in an affectionate tone, in which there was some anxiety.
"No."
And after this hard monosyllable, she turned over in the bed with her back to him.
Renovales remained in the darkness, with his eyes open, somewhat disturbed, almost afraid of that body, hidden under the same sheet, lying a short distance from him, which avoided touching him, shrinking with manifest repulsion.