The servant went away with his dogs and the artist once more was left alone. Several couples pa.s.sed slowly, arm in arm, and disappeared behind the palace toward the gardens below. Then a group of school boys that left behind them, as their ca.s.socks fluttered, that odor of healthy, dirty flesh that is peculiar to barracks and convents. And still the countess did not come!
The painter went again to rest his elbows on the bal.u.s.trade of the belvedere. He would only wait a half an hour longer. The afternoon was wearing away; the sun was still high, but from time to time the landscape was darkened. The clouds that had been confined on the horizon had been let loose and they were rolling through the field of the sky like a flock of sheep, a.s.suming fantastic shapes, rushing eagerly in tumultuous confusion as if they wished to swallow the ball of fire that was slipping slowly over a bit of clear blue sky.
Suddenly, Renovales felt a sort of shock near his heart. No one had touched him; it was a warning of his nerves that for some time had been especially irritable. She was near, was coming he was sure. And turning around, he saw her, still a long way off, coming down the avenue, in black with a fur coat, her hands in a little m.u.f.f and a veil over her eyes. Her tall, graceful silhouette was outlined against the yellow ground as she pa.s.sed the trees. Her carriage was returning up the hill, perhaps to wait for her at the top near the School of Agriculture.
As she met him in the center of the square she held out her gloved hand, warm from the m.u.f.f, and they turned toward the belvedere, chatting.
"I"m in a furious mood, disgusted to death. I didn"t expect to come; I forgot all about it, upon my word. But as I was coming out of the President"s house I thought of you. I was sure I would find you here.
And so I have come to have you drive away my ill humor."
Through the veil, Renovales saw her eyes that flashed hostilely and her dainty lips angrily tightened.
She spoke quickly, eager to vent the wrath that was swelling her heart, without paying any attention to what was around her, as if she were in her own drawing room where everything was familiar.
She had been to see the Prime-Minister to recommend her "affair" to his attention; a desire of the count"s on the fulfillment of which his happiness depended. Poor Paco (her husband) dreamed of the Golden Fleece. That was the only thing that was lacking to crown the tower of crosses, keys and ribbons that he was raising about his person, from his belly to his neck, till not an inch of his body was without this glorious covering. The Golden Fleece and then death! Why should they not do this favor for Paco, such a good man, who would not hurt a fly? What would it cost them to grant him this toy and make him happy?
"There aren"t any friends any longer, Mariano," said the countess bitterly. "The Prime-Minister is a fool who forgets his old friendships now that he is head of the government. I who have seen him sighing around me like a comic opera tenor, making love to me (yes, I tell the truth to you) and ready to commit suicide because I scorned his vulgarity and foolishness! This afternoon, the same old story; lots of holding my hand, lots of making eyes, "dear Concha," "sweet Concha" and other sugary expressions, just such as he sings in Congress like an old canary. Sum total, the Fleece is impossible, he is very sorry, but at Court they are unwilling."
And the countess, as if she saw for the first time where she was, turned her eyes angrily toward the dark hills of the Casa de Campo, where shots could still be heard.
"And they wonder that people think this way or that! I am an anarchist, do you hear, Mariano? Every day I feel more revolutionary. Don"t laugh, for it is no jest. Poor Paco, who is a lamb of G.o.d, is horrified to hear me. "Woman, think what we are! We must be on good terms with the royal house." But I rise in rebellion; I know them; a crowd of reprobates. Why shouldn"t my Paco have the Fleece, if the poor man needs it. I tell you, master, this cowardly, meek country makes me raging mad.
We ought to have what France had in "93. If I were alone, without all these trifles of name and position, I would do to-day something that would stir people. I"d throw a bomb, no, not a bomb; I"d get a revolver and----"
"Fire!" shouted the painter, bursting into a laugh.
Concha drew back indignantly.
"Don"t joke, master. I"ll go away. I"ll slap you. This is more serious than you think. This afternoon is no time for jokes."
But her fickle nature contradicted the seriousness that she pretended to give her words, for she smiled slightly, as if pleased at some memory.
"It wasn"t wholly a failure," she said after a long pause. "My hands aren"t empty. The prime-minister didn"t want to make me his enemy and so he offered me a compensation, since the "Lamb" affair was impossible. A deputy"s chair at the next election."
Renovales" eyes opened in astonishment. "For whom do you want that? To whom is that going to be given?"
"To whom?" mimicked Concha with mock astonishment. "To whom! To whom do you suppose, you simpleton! Not for you, you don"t know anything about that or anything else, except your brushes. For Monteverde, for the doctor, who will do great things."
The artist"s noisy laugh resounded in the silence of the square.
"Darwin a deputy of the majority! Darwin saying "Aye" and "No.""
And after these exclamations his laugh of mock astonishment continued.
"Laugh, you old bear! Open that mouth wider; wag your apostolic beard!
How funny you are! And what"s strange about that? But don"t laugh any longer; you make me nervous. I"ll go away, if you keep on like this."
They remained silent for a long while. The countess was not long in forgetting her troubles; her bird-like brain never retained any one impression for long. She looked around her with disdainful eyes, eager to mortify the painter. Was that what Renovales raved over so? Was there nothing more?
They began to walk slowly, going down to the terraced gardens behind the palace. They descended the moss-covered slopes that were streaked with the black flint of the flights of stairs.
The silence was deathlike. The water murmured as it flowed from the trunks of the trees, forming little streams that trickled down hill, almost invisible in the gra.s.s. In some shady spots there still remained piles of snow, like bundles of white wool. The shrill cries of the birds sounded like the scratching of a diamond on gla.s.s. At the edge of the stairways, the pedestals of black, crumbling stone recalled the statues and urns they had once supported. The little gardens, cut in geometric figures, stretched out the Greek square of their carpet of foliage on each level of the terrace. In the squares, the fountains spurted in pools surrounded by rusted railings, or flowed down triple layers with a ceaseless murmur. Water everywhere,--in the air, in the ground, whispering, icy, adding to the cold impression of the landscape, where the sun seemed a red blotch of color devoid of heat.
They pa.s.sed under arches of vines, between huge dying trees covered to the top with winding rings of ivy that clung to the venerable trunks, veneered with a green and yellow crust. The paths were bounded on one side by the slope of the hill, from the top of which came the invisible tinkling of a bell, and where from time to time there appeared on the blue background of the sky the ma.s.sive outline of a slowly moving cow.
On the other, a rustic railing of branches painted white bounded the path and, beyond it, in the valley, lay the dark flower beds with their melancholy solitude and their fountains that wept day and night in an atmosphere of old age and abandon. The closely matted brambles stretched from tree to tree along the slopes. The slender cypresses, the tall pines with their straight trunks, formed a thick colonnade, a lattice through which the sunlight flitted, a false unearthly light, that striped the ground with bands of gold and bars of shadow.
The painter praised the spot enthusiastically. It was the only corner for artists that could be found in Madrid. It was there that the great Don Francisco had worked. It seemed as though at some turn in the path they would run into Goya, sitting before his easel, scowling ill-naturedly at some dainty d.u.c.h.ess who was serving as his model.
Modern clothes seemed out of keeping with this background. Renovales declared that the correct apparel for such a landscape was a bright coat, a powdered wig, silk stockings, walking beside a Directoire gown.
The countess smiled as she listened to the painter. She looked about with great curiosity; that was not a bad walk; she guessed it was the first time she ever saw it. Very pretty! But she was not fond of the country.
To her mind the best landscape was the silks of a drawing room and, as for trees, she preferred the scenery at the Opera to the accompaniment of music.
"The country bores me, master. It makes me so sad. If you leave Nature alone to itself it is very commonplace."
They entered a little square in the center of which was a pool, on the level of the ground, with stone posts that marked where there had once been a railing. The water, swollen by the melting snow, was overflowing the stone curb, and reached out in a thin sheet as it started down hill.
The countess stopped, afraid of wetting her feet. The painter went ahead, putting his feet in the driest places, taking her hand to guide her, and she followed him, laughing at the obstacle and picking up her skirts.
As they continued their way down another path, Renovales kept that soft little hand in his, feeling its warmth through the glove. She let him hold it, as if she did not notice his touch, but still with a faint expression of mischievousness on her lips and in her eyes. The master seemed undecided, embarra.s.sed, as if he did not know how to begin.
"Always the same?" he asked weakly. "Haven"t you a little charity for me to-day?"
The countess broke out in a merry laugh.
"There it comes. I was expecting it; that"s why I hesitated to come. In the carriage I said to myself several times: "My dear, you"re making a mistake in going to Moncloa; you will be bored to death; you may expect declaration number one thousand.""
Then she a.s.sumed a tone of mock indignation.
"But, master, can"t you talk about anything else? Are we women condemned to be unable to talk with a man without his feeling obliged to pour out a proposal?"
Renovales protested. She might say that to other men, but not to him, for he was in love with her. He swore it; he would say it on his knees, to make her believe it. Madly in love with her! But she mimicked him grotesquely, raising one hand to her breast and laughing cruelly.
"Yes, I know, the old story. There"s no use in your repeating it; I know it by heart. A volcano in my breast, impossible to live without you--if you do not love me, I will kill myself. They all say the same thing. I never saw such a lack of originality. Master, for goodness sake, do not be so commonplace! A man like you saying such things!"
Renovales was crushed by her mocking mimicry. But Concha, as if she took pity on him, hastened to add, in an affectionate tone:
"Why should you have to be in love with me? Do you think I shall esteem you less if I relieve you from an obligation that all men who surround me feel under? I like you, master; I need to see you; I should be very sorry if we quarreled. I like you as a friend; the best of all, the first. I like you because you are good; a great big boy; a bearded baby who doesn"t know even the least bit about the world, but who is very, _very_ talented. I"ve wanted for a long time to see you alone, to talk with you quite freely, to tell you this. I like you as I like no one else. When I am with you, I feel a confidence such as no other man inspires in me. Good friends, brother and sister, if you will. But don"t put on such a gloomy face! Look pleasant, please! Give one of your laughs that cheer my soul, master!"
But the master remained sullen, looking at the ground, running the fingers of his hand through his thick beard.
"All that"s a lie, Concha," he said rudely. "The truth is that you are in love, you"re mad over that worthless Monteverde."
The countess smiled, as if the rudeness of these words flattered her.
"Well, yes, Mariano. We like each other; I believe I love him as I never loved any man. I have never told anyone; you are the first one to hear it from me, because you are my friend, because somehow or other I tell you everything. We like each other or, rather, I like him much more than he does me. There is something like grat.i.tude in my love. I don"t deceive myself, Mariano! Thirty-six years! I venture to confess my age to you. However, I am still presentable; I keep my youth well, but he is much younger. Years younger and I could almost be his mother."
She was silent for a moment, almost frightened at this difference between her lover"s age and hers, but then she added with a sudden confidence:
"He likes me, too, I know. I am his adviser, his inspiration; he says that with me he feels a new strength for work, that he will be a great man, thanks to me. But I like him more, much more than he does me; there is almost as great a difference in our affections as there is in our ages."