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diff --git a/32042.txt b/32042.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f40cdb1 --- /dev/null +++ b/32042.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7847 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Captain Macedoine's Daughter, by William McFee + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Captain Macedoine's Daughter + +Author: William McFee + +Release Date: April 18, 2010 [EBook #32042] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN MACEDOINE'S DAUGHTER *** + + + + +Produced by D Alexander, Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + CAPTAIN MACEDOINE'S DAUGHTER + + By William McFee + +Author of "ALIENS", "CASUALS OF THE SEA", "LETTERS FROM AN OCEAN TRAMP," +"PORT SAID MISCELLANY" + + +Garden City New York +Doubleday, Page & Company +1920 + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION +INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN + + "It is an amiable but disastrous illusion on the part of the + western nations that they have created a monopoly in freedom and + truth and the right conduct of life."--_Mr. Spenlove_ + + + + + TO + PAULINE + + + + +DEDICATORY + + +There is an hour or so before the train comes puffing round the curve of +the Gulf from Cordelio, and you are gone down into the garden for a +while because the mosquitoes become tiresome later, and the great +shadows of the cypresses are vanishing as the sun sinks behind the +purple islands beyond the headlands. You will stay there for a while +among the roses and jasmine, and then you will come in and say: "There +it is!" And together we will slip and stumble and trot down the steep +hillside to the level-crossing, and we will run along to the little +station, so like ours in America. And when the train is come creaking +and groaning and squealing to a standstill, I shall climb in, while you +will stand for a moment looking.... You will wave as we start with the +usual prodigious jerk, and then you will run back and climb up to the +house again, banging the big iron gate securely shut.... + +All just as before. + +But this time there is this difference, that I am not coming back. I am +ordered to return to England, and I am to sail to-morrow morning. Now, +as I have told you more than once, it is very difficult to know just how +anything takes you because you have at your command an alluring +immobility, a sort of sudden static receptiveness which is, to an +Englishman, a Westerner that is, at once familiar and enigmatic. And +when one has informed you, distinctly if ungrammatically, in three +languages, that one is going away for good, and you assume for a moment +that aforementioned immobility, and murmur "_C'est la guerre_," I ask +you, what is one to think? + +And perhaps you will recall that you then went on brushing your hair +precisely as though I had made some banal remark about the weather. A +detached observer would say--"This woman has no heart. She is too stupid +to understand." However, as I am something more than a detached +observer, I know that in spite of that gruff, laconic attitude of yours, +that enigmatic immobility, you realize what this means to us, to me, to +you. + +So, while you are down in the garden, and the light is still quite good +by this western window, I am writing this for you. As we say over in +America, "Let me tell you something." I have written a book, and I am +dedicating it to you. As you are aware, I have written books before. +When I explained this to you you were stricken with that sudden +silence, that attentive seriousness, if you remember, and regarded me +for a long time without making any remark. Well, another one is done and +I inscribe it to you. Of course I know perfectly well that books are +nothing to you, that you read only the perplexing and defaced human +hieroglyphics around you. I know that when you receive a copy of this +new affair, through the British Post Office in the _Rue Franque_, you +will not read it. You will lay it carefully in a drawer, and let it go +at that. And knowing this, and without feeling sad about it, either, +since I have no fancy for bookish women, I am anxious that you should +read at least the dedication. So I am writing it here by the window, +hurriedly, in words you will understand, and I shall leave it on the +table, and you will find it later, when I am gone. + +Listen. + +The fact is, this dedication, like the book which follows after it, is +not merely an act of homage. It is a symbol of emancipation from an +influence under which I have lived for two thirds of your lifetime. I +must tell you that I have always been troubled by visions of beings whom +I call dream-women. I was a solitary child. Girls were disconcerting +creatures who revealed to me only the unamiable sides of their natures. +But I discovered that I possessed the power of inventing women who, +while they only dimly resembled the neighbours, and acquired a few +traits from the illustrations in books, were none the less +extraordinarily real, becoming clearly visualized, living in my +thoughts, drawing sustenance from secret sources, and inspiring me with +a suspicion, never reaching expression, that they were really aspects of +myself--what I would have been if, as I sometimes heard near relatives +regret, I had been born a girl. And later, when I was a youth, and began +to go out into the world, all those vague imaginings crystallized into a +definite conception. She was everything I disliked--a tiny, slender +creature with pale golden hair and pathetic blue eyes, and in my dreams +she was always clinging to me, which I detested. I regarded myself with +contempt for remaining preoccupied with a fancy so alien to my +temperament. You might suppose that an image inspiring such antagonism +would soon fade. On the contrary, she assumed a larger and larger +dominion over my imagination. I fancied myself married to her, and for +days the spell of such a dire destiny made me ill. It was summer time, +and I lived on the upper floor of my mother's house in an outlying +_faubourg_ of London, from the windows of which one could look across a +wide wooded valley or down into the secluded gardens of the surrounding +villas. And one evening I happened to look down and I saw, between the +thickly clothed branches of the lime-trees, the woman of my dreams +sitting in a neighbour's garden, nursing a baby, and rocking herself to +and fro while she turned her childish features and pale blue eyes toward +the house with an expectant smile. I sat at my window looking at this +woman, some neighbour's recently married daughter no doubt, my thoughts +in a flurry of fear, for she was just as I had imagined her. I wonder if +I can make you understand that I did not want to imagine her at all, +that I was helpless in the grip of my forebodings? For in the dream it +was I who would come out of the drawing-room door on to the lawn, who +would advance in an alpaca coat, put on after my return from business, a +gold watch-chain stretched athwart my stomach, carpet slippers on my +soft, untravelled feet, and would bend down to that clinging form.... + +As I have told you, it was about that time that I left the _faubourgs_ +and went to live in a studio among artists. Without knowing it, I took +the most certain method of depriving that woman of her power. Beyond the +shady drives and prim gardens of the _faubourg_ her image began to +waver, and she haunted my dreams no more. And I was glad of this because +at that time I was an apprentice to Life, and there were so many things +at which I wanted to try my hand that I had not time for what is known, +rather vaguely, as love and romance and sentiment and so forth. I +resented the intrusion of these sensuous phantoms upon the solitudes +where I was struggling with the elementary rules of art. I was consumed +with an insatiable ambition to write, to read, to travel, to talk, to +achieve distinction. And curiously, I had an equally powerful instinct +to make myself as much like other young men, in manner and dress and +ideas, as possible. I was ashamed of my preoccupation with these +creatures of my imagination, believing them peculiar to myself, and I +hurried from them as one hurries from shabby relations. But before I was +aware of it I had fallen into the toils of another dream-woman, an +experienced, rapacious, and disdainful woman. I saw her in studios, +where she talked without noticing me save out of the corner of her eye. +I saw her at picture exhibitions, where she stood regarding the pictures +satirically, speaking rapidly and disparagingly from between small white +teeth and holding extravagant furs about her thin form. I had a notion, +too, that she was married, and I waited in a temper of mingled pride, +disgust, and fortitude for her to appear in the body. And then things +began to happen to me with bewildering rapidity. In the space of a week +I fell in love, I lost my employment, and I ran away to sea. + +Now it is of no importance to you what my employment was or how I lost +it. Neither are you deeply interested in that sea upon which I spend my +days, and which is to bear me away from you to-morrow. You come of +inland stock, and the sea-coast of Bohemia, a coast of fairy lights and +magic casements, is more in your way. But I know without asking that you +will be eager to hear about the falling in love. Indeed this is the +point of the story. + +The point is that an average young Englishman, as I was then, may quite +possibly live and prosper and die, without ever getting to know anything +about love at all! I told you this once, and you observed "My God! +Impossible." And you added thoughtfully: "The Englishwomen--perhaps it +is their fault." Well, it may be their fault, or the fault of their +climate, which washes the vitality out of one, or of their religion, +which does not encourage emotional adventure to any notable degree. The +point is that the average young Englishman is more easily fooled about +love than about anything else in the world. He accepts almost any +substitute offered to him in an attractive package. I know this because +I was an average young Englishman and I was extensively fooled about +love. The whole social fabric of English life is engaged in +manufacturing spurious counterfeits of the genuine article. And I fell, +as we say in America, for a particularly cheap imitation called Ideal +Love. + +Now you must not imagine that, because I had, as I say, fallen in love +with Ideal Love, I was therefore free from the dream-woman of whom I +have spoken. Not at all. She hovered in my thoughts and complicated my +emotions. But I can hear you saying: "Never mind the dream-woman. Tell +me about the real one, your ideal." Well, listen. She was small, thin, +and of a dusky pallor, and her sharp, clever features were occasionally +irradiated with a dry, satirical smile that had the cold, gleaming +concentration of the beam of a searchlight. She had a large number of +accomplishments, a phrase we English use in a most confusing sense, +since she had never accomplished anything and never would. But the ideal +part of her lay in her magnificent conviction that she and her class +were the final embodiment of desirable womanhood. It was not she whom I +loved. Indeed she was a rather disagreeable girl with a mania for using +men's slang which she had picked up from college-boys. It was this ideal +of English womanhood which deluded me, and which scared me for many +years from examining her credentials. + +That is what it amounted to. For years after I had discovered that she +thought me beneath her because I was not a college-boy, she continued +to impose her personality upon me. Whenever I imagined for a moment that +I might love some other kind of woman, I would see that girl's +disparaging gray eyes regarding me with an attentive, satirical smile. +And this obsession appeared to my befuddled mentality as a species of +sacrifice. I imagined that I was remaining true to my Ideal! If you +demand where I obtained these ideas, I can only confess that I had read +of such sterile allegiances in books, and I had not yet abandoned the +illusion that life was to be learned from literature, instead of +literature from life. And, moreover, although we are accustomed to +assume that all young men have a natural aptitude for love, I think +myself that it is not so; that we have to acquire, by long practice and +thought, the ability and the temperament to achieve anything beyond +tawdry intrigues and banal courtships, spurious imitations which are +exhibited and extensively advertised as the real thing. And again, while +it may be true, as La Rochefoucauld declares in his "Maxims"--the thin +book you have so often found by my chair in the garden--that a woman is +in love with her first lover, and ever after is in love with love, it +seems to me that with men the reverse is true. We spend years in falling +in and out of love with love. The woman is only a lay figure whom we +invest with the vague splendours of our snobbish and inexperienced +imagination. A great passion demands as much knowledge and experience +and aptitude as a great idea. I would almost say it requires as much +talent as a work of art; indeed, the passion, the idea, and the work of +art are really only three manifestations, three dimensions, of the same +emotion. And the simple and sufficient reason why this book should be +dedicated to you is, that but for you it would not have been written. + +And very often, I think, women marry men simply to keep them from ever +encountering passion. Englishwomen especially. They are afraid of it. +They think it wicked. So they marry him. Though they suspect that he +will be able to sustain it when he has gotten more experience, they know +that they themselves will never be the objects of it, so they trick him +with one of the clever imitations I have mentioned. Everything is done +to keep out the woman who can inspire an authentic passion. And the act +of duping him is invariably attributed to what is called the mothering +instinct, a craving to protect a young man from his natural destiny, the +great adventure of life! + +However, after a number of years of sea-faring, during which I was +obsessed by this sterile allegiance, and permitted many interesting +possibilities to pass me without investigating them, I was once more in +London, in late autumn. I call this sort of fidelity sterile because it +is static, whereas all genuine emotion is dynamic--a species of growth. +And I realized that beneath my conventional desire to see her again lay +a reluctance to discover my folly. But convention was too strong for me, +and by a fairly easy series of charitable arrangements I met her. And it +was at a picture-show. I remember pondering upon this accident of place +as I made my way along Bond Street in the afternoon sunshine, for I +could not help thinking of that disdainful dream-woman who posed, in my +imagination, as an authority on art. This, I suppose, was due to my +prolonged study of the Italian Renaissance, a period to which I had kept +my reading for a number of years. I remember giving up my ticket to a +sleek-haired, frock-coated individual, and passing along a corridor hung +with black velvet, against which were hung one or two large canvases in +formidable gold frames, cunningly illuminated by concealed electric +globes. A haughty creature stood by a table loaded with catalogues and +deigned to accept my shilling. And then, feeling strange and _gauche_, +as is only felt by the sea-farer ashore when he steps out of his +authentic _milieu_, I passed through into the gallery, a high, dignified +chamber full of the quiet radiance of beautiful pictures, the life-work +of a man whom I had known. I found myself regretting that fate had not +permitted me to remain in such an environment; but one cannot avoid +one's destiny, and mine is to have an essentially middle-class mind, a +_bourgeois_ mentality, which makes it impossible for me to live among +artists or people of culture for any length of time. I should say that +the reason for this is that such folk are not primarily interested in +persons but in types and ideas, whereas I am for persons. Flowers and +trees, perfumes and music, colours and children, are to me irrelevant. +But every man and woman I meet is to me a fresh problem which engages my +emotions. The talk about types is incomprehensible to me, for each fresh +individual will throw me into a trance of speculation. But only when one +has lived among clever people can one realize how tedious and monotonous +their society can be. I was thinking about the man who had painted these +pictures and how he had delighted to frighten me with his obscene +comments about women, when I saw a woman far down on the left, a woman +in an enormous hat, holding extravagant furs about her thin form, and +talking to a tall, handsome man from between her small white teeth. + +For you will not be too much astonished to hear that this girl for whom +I had cherished this sterile fidelity had become in all essentials the +dream-woman who had been the bane of my life for so long. Perhaps she +had always been the same and the illusion of youth had blinded me to her +identity. Perhaps, on the other hand, she had really changed, for she +was now twenty-five instead of twenty-one--ominous years in a woman's +life. At any rate, I had changed for a certainty. While I still +struggled against the bondage her personality imposed upon me, I no +longer struggled in vain. I had been drawing stores of strength from +toil, from the sea, from the bizarre phantasmagoria which the countries +of the East had unrolled before my eyes. And I think she saw this at +once, for she had no sooner introduced me to her companion, an actor who +had recently married an eminent actress twice his own age, than she made +our excuses and proposed an immediate departure. + +But it was too late. As we drove in a swiftly moving taxi-cab through +the gay streets of West London, and on out to Richmond, where she was +staying with friends, I knew that in the end I should be free. She was +soon to be married, and in her satirical gray eyes I saw a desire to +hold me permanently in a condition of chivalrous abnegation. On these +terms I might achieve some sort of destiny without endangering her +dominion. But I felt the winds of freedom blowing from the future on my +face. I did not see then how it would come about: I did not even +imagine the long years of moody and unprofitable voyaging which lay +before me. But she saw that her own ideal of masculine modern womanhood +no longer appeared to me the supremely evocative thing she claimed it to +be, so that in time, in time, her power would depart. I can see her now, +turned slightly away from me in the cab, regarding me over her shoulder +from beneath that enormous hat, studying even then how she could keep me +true to that worn-out creed, weighing who knows what reckless plans in +her cool, clever brain.... + +But it was a long time! For years yet I saw her before me whenever I +thought of other women, and her disparaging, slightly satirical smile +would interpose itself and hold me back from experimenting with fresh +emotions. Even when war came and our spiritual and emotional worlds came +crashing about our ears, her power waned but did not depart. I had no +choice between this shadowy, reluctant fidelity and a descent into +regions where I had neither the means nor the temperament to prosper. +And so it went, until suddenly one day the whole thing came to an end. +You will remember how I abruptly abandoned the story upon which I was +engaged, and told you I had begun upon a tale you had told to me, the +tale of Captain Macedoine's Daughter? Behold it, transmuted into +something you would never recognize, as is the way of stories when a +novelist of romantic tendencies gets at them! And what I want you to +observe is that the inspiration, as far as I am concerned, was based +upon your brief yet intensely vivid projection of your life in that dull +street in a Saloniki _faubourg_, a street so like many of ours in the +_faubourgs_ of London, stretching away into dim, dusty distances; but +unlike ours in that beyond it rose ranges of hard, sharp mountains that +looked as though they had been cut out of pasteboard, and stuck against +a sky so unreal in its uncompromising blueness that it seemed to be +aniline-dyed. And as the days passed, and the story grew, here by the +blue waters of the Gulf I suddenly realized that the spell of the +dream-woman had been broken, that behind my story of Captain Macedoine's +Daughter another story was working out--the ghost of a story if you +like--the drama of the end of an illusion. My old antagonist had met her +match at last. She tried to frighten me with her slightly satirical +smile. She invoked the innumerable memories and sentiments in which I +had been born and reared. But she had met her match. I took her by the +arm and opening the door, thrust her gently outside. And then, while you +were down there in the garden, I went on to write the tale of Captain +Macedoine's Daughter. + +There is another long-drawn shriek--the train is leaving the station +next to ours--and I take a last look out upon the well-remembered view. +Across the shining waters of the Gulf the lights of the city are +glittering already against the many-coloured facades, with their marble +and cedar balconies, their bright green jalousies and gay ensigns. +Already the war-ships in the _rade_ are picked out in bright points, and +the mast-head lights are winking rapid messages to each other. The +western sky over the headland is a smoky orange with pale green and +amber above, and the moon, an incredibly slender crescent of pure +silver, hangs faintly over Mount Pagos. It is quite dark down under the +cypresses, and a smell of humid earth mingles with the perfume of the +jasmine. + +Yes, I am now quite ready. No, I have left nothing behind, except +perhaps.... + +Well, it is for you to say. + + _Bairakli._ + _W. M._ + + + + +CAPTAIN MACEDOINE'S DAUGHTER + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +None of the men sitting in deck chairs under the awning were surprised +to hear the Chief say that he had known Ipsilon in peace-time. So far H. +M. S. _Sycorax_ had touched at no port, and patrolled no sea-route which +that quiet and occasionally garrulous man had not known in peace-time. +This was not surprising, as we have said, for he alone had been a +genuine wanderer upon the face of the waters. The Commander, who lived +in majestic seclusion in his own suite, had been all his life in the +Pacific trade. The First, Second, and Third Lieutenants came out of +western ocean liners. The Surgeon and Paymaster were "temporary" and +only waited the last shot to return to the comfortable sinecures, which +they averred awaited them in London and Edinburgh. So it happened that +to the Chief alone the eastern Mediterranean was a known and experienced +cruising ground; and when the _Sycorax_, detailed to escort convoys +through the intricacies of the AEgean Archipelago, awaited her +slow-moving charges in the netted and landlocked harbour of Megalovadi, +in the Island of Ipsilon, Engineer-Lieutenant Spenlove, R. N. R., said +he remembered being there eight or nine years ago, loading for +Rotterdam. + +The others looked at him and then back at the enormous marble cliffs +which threw shadows almost as solid as themselves upon the waters of the +little bay, almost a cove. It was not so much that they expected +Spenlove to tell them a story as that these men had not yet tired of +each other's idiosyncrasies--another way of saying the _Sycorax_ was a +happy ship. The infiltration of landsmen, in the persons of surgeon and +paymaster, the occasional glimpses of one another caught during their +sundry small actions with the enemy, kept their intercourse sweet and +devoid of those poisonous growths of boredom and slander which too often +accumulate upon a body of men at sea like barnacles on the hull. + +And in addition Spenlove was easy to look at, for he never returned the +glance. He was a solidly built man of forty odd, with a neat gray beard +and carefully tended hair. The surgeon once said Spenlove resembled an +ambassador more than an engineer, and Spenlove, without in any way +moving from his customary pose of alert yet placid abstraction, had +murmured absently: + +"On one occasion, I was an ambassador. I will tell you about it some +time." + +"Rotterdam?" observed Inness the paymaster--Inness was an Oxford man who +had married into a wealthy merchant's family. He said "Rotterdam" +because he had once been there. + +"Yes," said Spenlove. "Rotterdam for Krupp's of Essen. For three years +Krupp's took a hundred thousand tons per annum of high-grade ore out of +this little island alone. They took it in British bottoms to Rotterdam, +and from there it went by way of their interminable canals to Essen. I +know because I helped to take it. It was just about the time, too, that +Chamberlain was preaching his crusade against the evils of Germany +dumping her steel below cost price on our markets, and I was so +indignant about it that I wrote to the newspapers. I often wrote to the +newspapers in those days. I suppose we all catch the disease at some +time or other. As a rule, of course, nothing happened save that the +letter would not be printed, or else printed full of mistakes, with the +vital paragraphs omitted for 'lack of space.' This letter wasn't printed +either, but I received one in return from a fiery young member of +Parliament who had just been returned on the Protective Tariff ticket. +He asked for full details, which I sent to him. I believe he tried to +make a question of it in the House, but he ran up against the Consular +Service, and that did for him. You see, our Consul here was named +Gruenbaum. + +"More than that," went on Mr. Spenlove, sitting upright in his +deck-chair and looking attentively at a near-by ventilator; "more than +that, Mr. Gruenbaum was resident concessionaire of the mining company, he +owned the pumping-plant which irrigates yonder valley, he was connected +by marriage with the Greek governor of the Island, who lives over in the +tiny capital of Ipsilon, and he, Gruenbaum, was the richest man in the +Cyclades. That was his house, that big square white barn with the three +tall windows and the outside staircase. He was a man of enormous size +and weight, and I daresay the people of the Island thought him a god. He +certainly treated them most humanely. Every widow was pensioned by him, +which was not very much after all, for they used to have precious little +use for money. You could get a bottle of wine and a great basket of +grapes and figs for a piece of soap, I remember. He built churches for +them, too, like that one perched up there on the rock above his +house--snow-white with a blue dome. You may have noticed the other day +in the wireless news that the friends of freedom in Greece polished off +a few of what were described as reactionaires. Put them up against a +wall and pumped _mannlicher_ bullets into them. One of these obstacles +to liberty was named Gruenbaum, I observed. + +"But what I was going to tell you about was a man who was at one time in +Gruenbaum's employ, a man whom I had run against before, a Captain +Macedoine. I don't suppose any of you have ever heard of him. He was a +very remarkable man for all that. He wasn't a captain at all, really, +you know. As it happens, I knew that much about him a long while back, +when I was in the Maracaibo Line, running with mails, passengers, and +fruit between Colombian ports and New Orleans. No; they were absorbed +long ago. The big Yucatan Steamship Company opened its big jaws one day +and gulped down the Maracaibo outfit at one swallow. And we all had to +come home. It was a fairly lucrative billet while it lasted, and +Macedoine, who was a chief steward, may have put by a good bit of money. +He had that reputation, and judging by experience I should say at least +half of what we heard was true. But what interested me when I was +sailing with him was his character, as revealed by his hobby. For it was +a hobby with him and a fairly expensive one, too, posing as an educated +man of old family. It was the great preoccupation of his life. You might +almost be justified in calling him an artist. He was a big, solemn, +clean-shaven person, with an air of haughtiness which impressed +passengers tremendously. It was this air which got him the nick-name of +captain, and it stuck. Two or three young girls, who were making the +trip, came up to him the first day out, and one of them exclaimed, 'Oh, +Captain, can we ...' something or other. The skipper was a dried-up +little shell-back who hated passengers and never came down on the +promenade deck at all. The bell-hop, an immoral little demon in buttons, +who had come from a reformatory, heard the remark and in a few minutes +it was all over the pantry and glory-hole. 'Captain Macedoine.' When he +gave one of the scullions a calling down next day, the man, a typical +Louisiana nigger, answered in the inevitable musical drawl: 'All right, +sah, Captain Macedoine!' It stuck. It hit the popular fancy. More than +that, it hit his own fancy, too, for when he went home to England, +'retired on a competency,' as he phrased it, he retired as Captain +Macedoine; late of the American Merchant Marine. + +"But that was only a side issue. He let it be known, in the subtlest +possible manner, that he was of ancient lineage. He had been heard to +speak of Alexander of Macedon! Yes, you laugh; but you have not been to +sea as long as I have. Such things are possible at sea. I have had a +second engineer from Sunderland, a chap named Philip, who claimed Philip +of Spain as his ancestor. There was Captain Gizzard, in my old London +employ, who had a genealogical tree which traced the old fraud's descent +from the Guiscards of Sicily. No! Captain Macedoine's illusions are +common enough, I fancy, among men. It was only that instead of trying to +master them and clear them away, he cultivated them until they grew to +monstrous proportions and he lost sight of reality altogether. Or if you +like, he was an artist, working upon himself as material, like those old +masters we read about who devoted their lives to the accomplishment of +obscure technical excellences that only the _cognoscenti_ could discover +and enjoy." + +"Possibly," murmured the Surgeon, smiling in the darkness of the +evening. + +"Well," said Mr. Spenlove, in a musing tone, "of course a certain +latitude of analogy is permitted in describing one man to another, if we +ever can describe him. That was how Macedoine struck me. The aim of his +art was to conceal the artist, which I understand is sound aesthetics. +And it was impossible not to admire his method, his style, if you like. +There was nothing crude in it. So far from leaving nothing to chance, he +left everything to chance. Take the case of his daughter. The brat in +those days was a god-send to him. I used to think she was merely an +invention, he was so circumstantial in his subtly shaded allusions. You +might say that if she hadn't existed, the trend of his emotional +development, the scheme on which he was engaged, would have compelled +him to invent her. As I say, I did believe at one time he had invented +her, for he was always inventing something. In some bewildering, +indefinable way, we became aware, week by week, month by month, of a +fresh touch, a new phase of Captain Macedoine. I don't pretend to know +what final frame he proposed to give to the magnificent picture he was +making. Perhaps he didn't know himself. Perhaps he had no ultimate +design. Anyhow we never had it, for as I said, the company was absorbed +and we all had to come home. + +"I admit I was surprised enough when I found out, quite accidentally, +that he had married an octaroon. When I say married, I mean of course, +as far as fidelity and maintenance was concerned. He rented a cottage +out on Tchoupitoulas Street, where the mosquitoes sing loud enough to +drown conversation, and the grass grows man-high between the road and +the sidewalk. And there the woman lived a while and died. I was never in +the house, but young Strellett, the second steward, who was lost when +the _Toro_ turned over in the Yucatan channel, was married and lived +not far from Macedoine's _menage_, and I can imagine the place. +Strellett had a little three-roomed box where he lived with his big +rosy-cheeked Irish wife, and there was something very homelike about it, +for all the carpets and curtains and a good deal of the table-linen had +come from the Maracaibo Line's cabins. Sent ashore to be cleaned, you +know, and didn't get back. I dare say Macedoine's place was even more +completely furnished at the company's expense. They all did it. Perhaps +that was one of the reasons we all had to come home. That was ... yes, +more than twenty years ago. + +"I'm afraid, though, there were not many of us like Macedoine. We didn't +come home to retire on a competency. New Orleans used to be what they +called 'a wide-open little town' and there were plenty of ways of +getting rid of our wages, good as they were. However, that's a detail. +We came home, except one or two youngsters who struck west and got into +Nevada mining plants or San Francisco lumber ships. I was glad to come. +I had a few shots in the locker and I went down into Hampshire to see my +people. I didn't stay as long as I intended. Who of us ever does? After +the first glow of welcome dies away, we have to depend on our personal +attractions to keep people interested. We may keep the ball rolling a +little longer if we get married or even engaged; but it is a sorry +business after all. You fellows are for ever wanting the ship to go +home. Well, you wait and see. You'll be glad to be back. When a man has +got the sea-habit, his relations always regard him as a bit of a +nuisance. + +"I went to sea again. I joined a London Company which I always call now +'my old company' because I was so long with them, and have for them a +peculiar sort of cantankerous affection. They paid infernally poor +wages, they were always in a hole financially until the war made them +multi-millionaires, and their accommodation was pretty poor. But for +some reason or other men stayed with them. I believe it was because we +were working for a private firm and not for one of those gigantic +corporations without soul to be damned or body to be kicked, as the +saying is. The firm were real people to us. They came down to see the +ship in London River. Old Gannet--it was Gannet, Prawle and Co.--used to +leave a ten-pound note on the Chief's wash-stand after he'd had a yarn +and a cigar. Young Gannet, home for the holidays from Winchester +College, would come down to St. Katherine's Dock and make himself +squiffy with Madeira the skipper had brought home from the Islands. +Prawle had been an office boy when old Gannet was young, and had worked +up to a partnership and married Daisy Gannet. Smartest man on the +Baltic Exchange, they used to say. Yes, their ships were fierce, but men +stayed in them. Even now, with old Gannet dead and Prawle retired, and +the management paying poor whiskey-soaked young Gannet three thousand a +year to keep out of the office, the old skippers and chiefs are still +ploughing the ocean for them. You see, we know their ways. + +"I went to sea, and kept on at it. You might say it was force of habit, +for I must admit I could have had jobs ashore in those days. Not now. +But then I could. But it grows on one, going to sea. And I was making +friends. There's nothing like a ship-mate who is a friend. The mere fact +of you or him joining another ship and sailing away is nothing. When you +meet again you take up the tale where you dropped it, years before, half +the world away. But you must be young. It is impossible to weld +friendships when the heat of youth has gone out. Interests, family ties, +danger, sorrow, all may do something, but only when you are young can +you make the friendships that nothing can destroy." + +Mr. Spenlove paused, and for a moment there was no sound save the purr +of the dynamos under their feet, the soft swish and suck of the waves +flowing in and out of the under-cut marble cliffs, and the steady tramp +of the Quartermaster patrolling to and fro at the gangway. One of the +noticeable points about Spenlove was that he fitted into no standard +gauge. Neither the Surgeon nor the Oxonian could "place" him precisely, +they would confess. Nor could the more experienced lieutenants, highly +certificated gentlemen from the Liverpool to New York Ferry steamers. +With unconscious humour they "wondered such a man should go to sea." The +notion that the sea should be peopled exclusively with moral and +intellectual derelicts dies hard. The fact was, Mr. Spenlove was a +connoisseur of humanity. He seemed to have met so many types that he +unconsciously addressed himself to the fundamentals. He took the +inevitable superficial features of one's character for granted. This +made him easy to accept but difficult to understand. And so, when he +spoke of friendship and youth, the other men did not laugh. They were +silent--some with assent, some with doubt, and some, possibly, with +regret. + +"I was second of one of their oldest boats for two years and Jack Evans +was mate. Jack and I became friends. I don't mean that the Mate and the +Second of that old ship went about with their arms wound round each +other's necks. We were, on the contrary, very often at each other's +throats, so to speak. Mates and second-engineers are professionally +antagonistic. We had terrific altercations over stores, for the company +patronized one of those old-fashioned ship chandlers who sent cabin, +deck, and engine stores all in one chaotic heap. Jack would get my +varnish and I would snaffle a couple of bolts of his canvas. But that +would all blow away by tea time, when we'd go ashore and spend the +evening together. Mind you, we were neither of us very good young men. +We ... well, we had some good times and some bad ones. We were shifted +together into another ship. Then Jack, who'd been nine solid years mate +in the company and was getting so angry about it that the port-captain +used to avoid him, Jack got a command. I shall never forget it. We were +lying as peaceably as you please in the top corner of the old Queens +Dock, Glasgow. It was Saturday night and all was snug for a quiet +week-end. Jack and I were in his room under the bridge having a nip, +when a telegraph-boy came clattering down the brass-edged staircase. +Jack opened the wire, read it, and then gave me a thump on the back that +nearly broke it. He was a stout, florid-faced, peppery little Welshman. +What I liked about him was his crystal-clear character. What he thought +came out like a shell out of a gun--with an explosion. 'The old thief's +given me a ship at last!' he roared. And he had to pack and get away +that night to Bristol. I went for a cab while he got his dunnage +together. And I remember now, waiting on the platform at the Union +Station for the train to move, with Jack in a corner of the compartment +drunk as a lord, and snoring. + +"It was in London I met him again. We had had a collision and I was one +of the witnesses called by the company to swear our ship was innocent. +She wasn't: she wasn't: she did everything she shouldn't have done--but +no matter. We all stayed at a little hotel in the Strand, getting a +guinea a day expenses, and we all swore black was white, and the owners, +our owners, lost the case. They had already lost the ship, so we were +told to go home and wait a few weeks until they could get hold of +another one cheap. Of course most of the crowd joined other companies, +but I went off to Waterloo to inflict myself on my people in Hampshire +again. And it was at the bookstall that I saw Jack staring at the +illustrated papers and jangling the money in his pockets. He was in a +very shabby condition, I may tell you. His chin was a rich growth of +black stubble, his round protuberant brown eyes were blood-shot, and his +clothes had been slept in, I'm sure. 'Thank God it's you, Fred,' he +splutters out, for he jumped like a cat when I touched him. We went into +the bar and he told me how he had fallen on such evil days. His ship +had been away nearly a year on the west coast of South America. He +hadn't spent a pound in the whole trip. No going ashore, nobody to speak +to, nothing. And here he'd come into London River and paid off. It was +easy to see what had happened. A young hot-blooded man with three or +four hundred pounds in his pocket, and no decent friends in town. His +contempt for himself was rather amusing. 'Take me away, Fred,' he +implored. 'Take me somewhere where I shan't be tempted.' + +"'The fact is,' I said, as we made for the barber shop, 'you ought to +get married, Jack.' + +"'Who'd have a drunken old swab like me?' he inquired, sadly. 'You know +I've been brought up common.' + +"He was very contrite, but eventually, when he had got himself spruced +up, changed his clothes and fetched his dunnage out of the terrible +little hotel near Waterloo station where he had been lured, he began to +take a less austere view of himself. He was determined, however, never +to wallow in the mire again. He was a ship-master. His plump, rosy face +grew pale and drawn at the possibilities which he had risked. He was a +typical British sailor man. Riotous living was really distasteful to +him, but he had no idea of getting rid of his money in any other way. +However, I missed that train and took him down with me to Hampshire +next day. It was one of the great deeds of my career. He fell in love +the very first week." + +"But what has all this to do with Captain Macedoine and this Island of +Ipsilon?" enquired the small, precise voice of the Paymaster. + +For a moment there was no reply. It was very dark under the awning now, +for the moon was still behind the cliffs. Four bells rang at the +gangway. Mr. Spenlove lit a cigarette and continued. + +"Have you ever seen a sea-captain in the throes of adoration? It is an +astonishing sight. Jack was what he himself called 'open as the day.' +Mind you, I had no ulterior motive in taking my old friend down home +with me. I had no plain sisters or cousins to get settled in life. Both +plain and pretty in our family were married and gone when we arrived. We +lived, you know, just outside Threxford, a small town six miles from a +railway, tucked away in the valley of the Threxe, about ten miles from +where that small stream falls into the Channel. It was a lovely spot, +but so dreadfully quiet I could never live there very long. Over the +town hung a high hill crowned by the workhouse. You see, it was the +workhouse master's daughter Jack had fallen in love with." + +"Captain Macedoine's daughter?" suggested the Paymaster. + +"No, a very different person, I assure you. Madeline Hanson had been +brought up in a very secluded way. It couldn't have been otherwise. Old +Hanson occupied a somewhat dubious position in the social life of +England. A workhouse master is not the sort of man either rich or poor +want to have much to do with. He is like the hangman or jailer or +rag-and-bone man; a necessary evil. But he may be, as Hanson was, a most +respectable person. And Madeline, his only child, was brought up in +almost solitary confinement until she was twenty. I believe she went to +an aunt in Portsmouth occasionally. Anyhow it suited her. She was a +puny, flat-chested little girl, very prim and precise, and would bridle +at once when any one laughed or made a joke. I never discovered exactly +how Jack got acquainted with her. At church most likely, for he was in +full cry after respectability and went to church regularly with my old +people. I know we used to go fishing together at first, and later I +found myself going alone, for Jack was meeting his inamorata, and going +for walks. Oh, quite above board. Jack was 'open as the day.' He lost no +time in marching up the hill to the workhouse (not the first time he'd +been inside one, he assured me grimly) and informing Mr. Hanson that +Captain Evans wished to pay attention to Miss Hanson. Whether old Hanson +was a man of the world or not, I cannot say, but he certainly knew his +daughter might go a long way farther and fare worse. Jack's affair +prospered. I have often been curious to know just what they said to each +other as they prowled about the lanes in the dark. I suppose it was a +case of the attraction of opposites. For once, anyhow, in spite of +novelists, the course of true love ran smooth. + +"Of course Jack had his fits of jealousy. You see, he couldn't +understand how in the world he had managed to pick such a prize without +having to shoot up the whole town. He even suspected me of having +designs on his happiness, and I suddenly realized the tremendous +difficulty of reassuring him. You know, it's a delicate business, +disclaiming all desire for a woman. If you overdo it, you rouse +suspicion at once. When I said, 'Oh, no, _I_ don't want to....' Jack was +up and prancing about the room. 'Why, do you know anything?' he +demanded. I soothed him, telling him he knew I wasn't a marrying man. +'That be d--d for a tale. _I_ wasn't either till I met Madeline.' I had +a stormy time. The contrast between Jack's volcanic temperament and the +calm, meticulous flow of his courtship was comic. I was thankful when he +was finally married and gone to Ilfrocombe for his highly respectable +honeymoon. And then, a fortnight later, I got a telegram ordering me to +join his ship, the _Manola_, at Newcastle, as chief. We were shipmates +once more. + +"There now began for me an existence which is rather difficult to +describe. In cargo-boats, as no doubt you know, the skipper and chief +can easily be thrown together a good deal. Jack and I of course were. +But Jack was under the impression that I existed for the sole purpose of +listening to his rapturous idolizing of his darling wife. He wrote to +her every day, and read the letter to me afterward. She wrote to him +every day, and when we reached port and the mail came aboard, Jack would +read the gist of it to me. It was like being married oneself. He would +lie back in his deck chair on the bridge on fine evenings in the +Mediterranean and suck at his cigar, sunk in thought. And then suddenly +he would bring out some profoundly novel and original remark about +Madeline. I had Madeline for breakfast, dinner, supper, and between +meals. It was trying, but it was nothing compared with the frightful +time I put in with him the voyage the baby was born. We were in Genoa, +and he wired home every day. I would march him up town in the evening +and stand him drinks, which he swallowed without looking at them. And it +never entered his head that it was possibly less important to me than to +him. When a telegram came, 'Daughter, both doing well,' he ordered grog +for all hands, took me up town, and stood champagne to every Tom, Dick, +and Harry in the Verdi Bar. I got him down to the harbour in a carriage +and he wanted to fight me because I laughed when he told the driver that +he was going to call the baby Angelina Madeline Evans. + +"He did, too. Life for me became impregnated with Madeline and Angelina +as with a domestic odour. That marvellous child haunted my hours of +leisure long before I had ever seen her. As the months and years passed, +and Jack and I fared up and down the world together, I sometimes +wondered whether we hadn't both married Madeline. Jack was a model +husband. The notion that any other woman existed, or that any other man +could love a woman as he loved Madeline, never entered his head. He was +perfectly satisfied as long as one sat and listened to him talking about +Madeline. I believe he would have urged me to go and do likewise, if he +hadn't been convinced that no more Madelines were available. I believe, +too, he thought me a bit of an ass to take him down and introduce him +instead of marrying her myself. But as you will see, she and I were not +affinities. + +"So life went on, and now I am coming to the time when Captain +Macedoine's daughter comes into the thing. Oh, no, I haven't forgotten +what I was talking about. Time passed, and one voyage we left home with +Jack in an anxious frame of mind. The child was about five years old +then and she was sick. Something the matter with her throat. Jack was +like a caged bear when we got to sea. There was no wireless then, you +know. You would have thought there had never been a sick child on earth +before. 'Fred,' he would say, 'I left orders--get the best advice, best +of everything. I don't give a damn what it costs,' And he'd prance to +and fro. He never looked at the ship. If we dropped a knot below our +customary two hundred a day, he'd be in my room growling, 'Aren't we +ever goin' to get to Alexandria, Fred?' When we did get there he fled up +to the post office to get his mail--forgot all about ours of course. +'_Not yet out of danger--diphtheria_,' so ran the telegram in reply to +his own frantic message. I never had such a time in my life. He was like +a man demented. He would catch me by the shoulder and coat-collar and +glare at me out of his bulging, blood-shot brown eyes, his fat cheeks +all drawn into pouches, and stutter, 'Fred, this is the end o' me. If I +lose one I lose both. My God, I've a good mind to go home. I tell you +I'm going off my head. If I lose one I lose both. Madeline'll never live +through the loss o' the child. What shall I do, oh, what shall I do?' I +believe he used to go into his cabin, shut the door, and pester the +Almighty with his petitions. You know, they say domestic ties strengthen +a man's personality, stimulate him to ambition. I have not noticed it. +On the contrary, it has often seemed to me that married men adopt the +ethics of the jungle. Life for them is a case of the man and his mate +against the world. The jungle reverberates with their cries of rage, +jealousy, and amorous delight. What are literature and drama but the +cooerdination of these elevated cat-calls?" + +"Oh, come!" murmured the Surgeon. + +"Well, isn't it?" demanded Mr. Spenlove. "What made this war so popular? +Wasn't it simply because it supplied men who had been surfeited with +love, with an almost forgotten inspiration? Hadn't we been bred for a +generation on Love, beautiful Love, which laughed at locksmiths and made +the world go round? And here came Hate to have a turn! I tell you, +something _had_ to happen or we should all have gone crazy. Captain +Evans, with his exalted notions of domestic affection, was our ideal. We +were becoming monsters of marital egotism. You remember that song on the +halls: + + "_What more can you want when you've got your wife and kids, + And a nice little home of your own?_ + +"That was rapidly becoming the sum total of England's morality. All men +were 'men without a country' and they didn't much care even if they were +citizens of a mean city, so long as their own contemptible little hutch +was secure. I rather think the war has dealt that doctrine an ugly +blow." + +"Well, go on," said somebody. + +"You must remember that Jack and his Madeline didn't simply look down on +the rest of the world as sordid worms who couldn't appreciate such a +holy passion. They didn't think of us at all. We didn't exist. Nothing +existed--for them--outside that microscopic domestic circle. Madeline +had been brought up to be refined, reserved, 'not like other girls.' She +silently and unconsciously laid down a narrow-gauge line along which she +and Jack were to advance through life, and Jack, who was one of those +men who are very much what their wives make them, was only too glad to +get his orders. And he, with the intuition of despair, knowing her to be +besotted with pride in their child almost beyond endurance, gobbled +hoarsely in my ear in the night watches that if one died the other would +follow, and leave him desolate. + +"Well, the child didn't die. I have sometimes wondered whether it was +anything more than a sore throat. It doesn't matter. When we came home, +Angelina was on the mend, and the cable companies must have noticed a +falling off in their receipts. I was relieved. I mean in mind. Jack tore +off home for a night to see for himself. He told me afterward 'he nearly +cracked Madeline's ribs,' he was so glad to see her. Mind, he'd only +been away six weeks! Think of it, in the light of the recent years. Not +that I believed him. Women like Mrs. Evans don't get their ribs cracked. +No matter. My relief was speedily changed to grave apprehension when he +came back to the ship accompanied by wife, child, and a nurse, and +announced that he had obtained permission to take them a voyage. It was +one of the unusual points of old Gannet's employ--he allowed each +skipper and chief to take their wives one voyage per year. I had been +through it before, and disliked the prospect. I have sometimes wondered +whether old Gannet had a secret and sinister intention, for it is a fact +that you can't honestly say you know a woman until you have been to sea +with her. No woman looks her best, either physically or mentally, at +sea. Oh, of course if you are married to her as well, the case is +different. I offer no opinion. But I know of one young man at least who +broke it off after enduring a voyage with a hen-pecked captain. + +"I misjudged Jack, however. Jack was his wife's slave, but he remained +in command of his ship. You see he also had been at sea with skippers' +wives in the past. 'One word, Madeline, and home you go,' came up the +ventilator as I was sitting on the bridge after tea. I was astounded. It +was a new Jack, or rather, the old fiery, original Jack. The next +sentence, in reply to some inaudible remark of Madeline's, explained +what I had thought was a quarrel. 'Well, we must have an understanding +before we sail. I know what I'm talking about, dear. I've been Mate many +a year and I never would stand the Skipper's missus interfering with the +ship's discipline.' + +"I was admiring Jack for this sagacious warning when there came a squawl +from his bathroom, where the nurse-girl was washing Angelina. Mrs. Evans +rustled across, crying out instructions concerning Babs, as they called +the youngster. And then came Jack's voice exploding in amazement. +'_What's_ that gel's name, Madeline? _What'd_ you call her?' And a voice +as clear, as soft and as pure as a silver bell answered: + +"'Artemisia Macedoine, Captain. That's my name.'" + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +And though things do happen like that sometimes, as I sat in my chair, +quite innocently alongside the Captain's ventilator, and sucked at my +cigar, I was taken aback. It was like a voice coming up from the +tomb--the tomb of a buried past. In a way it was a relief, for I was +becoming so involved in Jack's domestic life that I was losing touch +with the outside world altogether. The sound of that name recalled to me +my old, unregenerate, wandering self. I had not forgotten him. One never +forgets a master of illusion, such as he surely was. But the very +existence of so imaginative a man seemed doubtful in the company of +matter-of-fact, open-minded, good old honest Jack. Jack's lack of the +power of dissembling and allusion was devastating. He had no more +_nuance_, as the French say, than a fog-horn. Think of a man who could +say to the wife of his bosom, the goddess before whom he worshipped with +preposterous self-abasement--'One word, and home you go!' Jack would +have had one word for Macedoine and one only--Faker. But I have found, +in the course of my rolling existence, that fakers are often more +interesting, intrinsically, than careful, honest men. + +"And I had heard, in a round-about way, some years before, that Captain +Macedoine had not only been an illustrious faker but a fairly competent +swindler as well. We were discharging machinery and stores at Cristobal, +when a young chap who'd been Junior Fourth in the old Maracaibo Line +came aboard and had a chat. He was one of those who hadn't gone home. +Indeed, he was able to take out his final papers--never mind how--as +soon as he was paid off, and being a decent young chap, fairly clever +and a good mixer, he had soon gotten a billet in the Canal Zone. For +some reason or other he had liked me when we were shipmates. I +remembered him as having no aptitude for the sea. He had a sweet-heart +in England he was always talking about, but he married in the States, of +course. Well, young Cotter, with his little waxed moustache and his +superior bank clerk's manner, walked aboard, shook me warmly by the +hand, and gave me an immense quantity of miscellaneous news. What with +the Yucatan ships calling three or four times a week, Cotter was up to +date with everything happening from Galveston to Biloxi and from Tampa +to Boston. Did I remember So-and-so--chap with a squint, or a mole, or +a broken finger, as the case might be. Cotter always emphasized a man's +physical defects in alluding to him. And so the talk came round to 'Oh, +did I remember that chap with the solemn face and the big stomach? +Captain Macedoine we used to call him? Why, didn't you hear? Extradition +order. Yes! The cunning old guy had a dozen opium dives off Rampart +Street in full swing. Must have been coining money. No, they never got +him. He had left England by that time. Nobody knows where he is now, I +suppose. Smart, eh?' Such was Captain Macedoine to me as I sat listening +to the good Jack sputtering in his cabin: + +"'Great Christopher! And who in thunder gave you a name like that. What +is it, again?' And then Mrs. Evans interposing with 'That will do, dear. +She can't help her name.' + +"'A h--l of a name for a servant,' muttered Jack. + +"Well, poor Jack found that taking his family to sea was a more +formidable affair than he had imagined. The fact was, Jack, although he +had been married six years, knew no more about married life than a +bachelor. He hadn't spent more than a week at one time alongside of his +wife. Many sea-faring men are like this. The very routine of ordinary +household existence is novel to them. They live voyage after voyage at +sea, dreaming of an impossibly perfect existence ashore, and their brief +holidays, in their wives' houses only confirm them in the delusion that +shore life is heaven, and life on board ship hell. Whereas, you know, it +is really the other way round." + +"Oh, I say!" said Inness, who, in spite of Oxford, retained his +illusions. + +"What rot, Spenlove!" said the First Lieutenant, a gentleman still +unmarried, but rigidly engaged. + +"Ah, but you forget," retorted Mr. Spenlove, laughing softly as he gazed +up at the moon now high over the cliff. He looked very like a benevolent +satyr as he sat leaning forward in his chair, his chin on his hands, his +trim gray beard pushed out, and his curiously slanted black eyebrows +raised--"You forget that I am dealing with basic realities. You forget +that ninety-nine sailor-men out of each hundred feed themselves +exclusively on dreams. You are like the donkey who imagines he sees a +resplendent carrot hung in front of him. It is not only that he never +gets the carrot. There never was any carrot for him to get. I +repeat--dear old Jack Evans was not a bit singular in his illusions, any +more than Captain Macedoine was in his. They believed in them a bit +longer than you young fellows do nowadays, that's all." + +"Well, go on," suggested the Doctor, and moved out of the moonlight into +the shadow, so that Mr. Spenlove remained alone and appeared to be +talking to himself. + +"Of course, so far, I hadn't seen any of the party save Jack. +I'd been ashore when they arrived--did I say we were in +Middlesborough-on-Tees?--for I had friends at Stockton. I was really +concerned, for knowing what a headlong, forthright fool Jack was, I +expected to do or say something that might spoil his life's happiness. +And here he was complicating matters ten-fold by bringing a nurse-girl, +a 'governess.' And while I sat there pondering upon the possibilities, +the Mate came up with an expression of immense cunning on his face, his +hand funnelled round his mouth, and whispered 'Seen 'em, Mister?' + +"I shook my head. Mr. Bloom, Basil Bloom, had been only a couple of +trips with us, and I knew Jack had very little use for him. Mr. Bloom, +indeed, was one of those extraordinary men who go to sea year after +year, and not only do they never seem to attain to any decent mastery of +their profession, but in their speech and manner and appearance they +resemble piano-tuners or billiard-markers more than sailors. Bloom had a +moustache like an Italian hair-dresser's, immense, fine, full, and +silky, with moist red lips eternally parting and showing a set of +perfect false teeth. His papers were miracles of eulogy, his discharges, +save that he had been in a good many ships, without blemish. And yet +from the moment he had come jauntily on board the previous voyage, Jack +had been straining like a terrier on the leash. Mr. Bloom seemed to do +nothing right. It had been my lot to hear both sides of the question. +Jack, over a whiskey-and-soda in my room, would bewail his fate at +having an agricultural labourer sent him as chief officer; and next day, +Mr. Bloom, bringing me the position and distance run, would twirl his +moustache and allude to the amazingly incompetent persons who secured +commands nowadays. Of course I sided with Jack. Mr. Bloom was nothing to +me. He was the sort of man I would much rather hit in the face than +shake hands with. The man didn't _look_ like a sailor. He had no +sea-going gear. Jack nearly had a seizure on my settee when he told me +the new Mate was patrolling the bridge in red silk socks, patent-leather +dress-pumps, and an old Norfolk jacket. When we began to roll off Ushant +and ship a few seas, it appeared Mr. Bloom had neither oilskins nor +sea-boots. To see him skipping along through green sea water in his +dress-pumps, to look at the patent log, was a revelation of human +improvidence. Here was a man the wrong side of forty, and he hadn't the +sense to bring suitable clothing to sea with him! At the table he +bewildered, angered, and contradicted poor old Jack with political +argument. Once, after getting his anchors fouled, and firing his +clutch-blocks, and otherwise making a mess of things on the +forecastle-head, he had the temerity to tell Jack that 'every +ship-master ought to have tariff-reform at his finger-ends.' Jack nearly +had apoplexy. He managed to sputter out that 'every mate ought to have +his job at his finger-ends, or else go home and buy a farm.' Mr. Bloom, +holding his fine military figure erect and delicately preening his +moustache, told me afterward 'That's the worst of these young +ship-masters--they think insults are arguments.' + +"Now I saw trouble ahead for Jack with Mr. Bloom on board. I don't +pretend to have a very profound insight into human character, but I had +an indefinable conviction that Mrs. Evans would look favourably upon Mr. +Basil Bloom. Oh, no, I don't mean that my prurient mind was gloating +over the destruction of Jack's marital bliss. Not at all. I never liked +Madeline, but I do her the justice of proclaiming her inviolable +chastity. What I mean is, I felt that she had more in common +intellectually with Mr. Bloom than with us. He had a good deal of the +fussiness of middle-aged shore-people, clearing his throat, coughing +behind his hand, saying 'excuse me,' smoothing his hair with his palm, +and referring to things he had seen 'in the papers.' And in spite of his +inadequate sea-going gear, he invariably appeared in a more or less +clean stiff collar. A woman, I mean a genteel woman, will never utterly +condemn any man so long as he wears a collar. This would not have +mattered save that Jack and I invariably abandoned collars as soon as +the pilot had left. + +"So, when Mr. Basil Bloom, in a dirty gray lounge suit, brown Oxford +shoes, a grimy collar, and a deer-stalker hat, bent over me and enquired +if I had seen the arrivals, I shook my head and got up to walk away. But +Mr. Bloom detained me. Had I not seen the nurse? Nice little piece of +goods. And the baby was a little angel. Between me and him, he was good +enough to say, we ought to have a very pleasant trip, what with ladies +on board, what? And Mr. Bloom, settling his dirty collar and concealing +a brilliant smile behind a hairy, ringed hand, walked off to superintend +his neglected work. + +"I was not such a fool as to assume that I could any longer stroll into +Jack's room and have a chat. I am not afraid of women, but I regard +their lairs with considerable trepidation. On board an old tramp steamer +a woman is nothing less than a scourge. There is no place for her, and +consequently you never know where you may find her. If you walk to and +fro on the deck, you are probably keeping her awake. If you go out on +deck in your shirt-sleeves, or come from a bath with a towel round you, +you are outraging her modesty. If you use the ordinary jargon of the +sea, she writes home that the engineers are awfully coarse on her +husband's ship. You moon about in a furtive fashion, closing doors and +ventilators when you converse with one another, and pray for the day +when she will quit the ship and return to the semi-detached mansion in +the suburbs where she reigns as queen, Captain So-and-So's wife. I felt +sadly, as I sat in my room, that my friendship with Jack would remain +for a few weeks in a state of suspended animation. I got up several +times, unconsciously, to go along, and had to sit down again. And as I +sat there, the alleyway was darkened and the familiar stout figure and +short red neck appeared. I had a little table in my room and as a rule +sat behind it on the settee, while Jack sprawled in an old easy chair I +had bought in Savannah, a chair out of an old plantation mansion. Jack +sank into it and remained silent while I poured out two pegs and +squirted some soda-water into them. I knew perfectly well, or thought I +did, that he needed some restorative after his recent adventures. He +drank it thirstily and set the glass on the table. + +"'Fred,' he said, in the cautious whisper which, as I have said, +becomes second nature when there is a woman on board, 'Fred, I've made +an infernal fool of meself. They've let me in at the office.' + +"'Why,' I said, 'I thought they did you rather well, giving you +permission to take Mrs. Evans _and_ the youngster. You know how they +wired Tompkins once: '_No children_'?' + +"'You don't know nothing about it,' says Jack, who was invariably hard +on English when he was moved. 'It's a case of wheels within wheels. They +only did that to get this gel out for nothing. She's going out to her +father in the Grecian Arches, and some clever fool in the office thought +of sending her down to Mrs. Evans to see if she'd do to look after the +kid.' + +"'Well, it's only her grub for a fortnight or so,' I remarked. + +"Jack looked solemnly at me and shook his head. + +"'Have you seen her?' + +"'No,' I said, 'Mr. Bloom told me she was a nice little piece of goods.' +Jack snorted. + +"'He's down in the cabin now talking about what's on at the theatres. +Fred, I'm in for trouble, and you'll have to stand by me.' + +"And he was, for you must bear in mind that there were others on board +besides Mr. Bloom. There was the Second Mate, a young man whose +prospects were tarnished by a weakness for secret drinking. And there +was young Siddons, a stripling just out of his apprenticeship and +uncertificated, the son of a well-to-do merchant in a country town. Jack +used to say there was too much of the lah-di-dah about him, and was down +on him time and again. All the same he liked the boy, as I did, too, for +Siddons was a gentleman--the only one on board, I used to think. He got +the D. S. O. the other day for bombing something or other in Germany. He +was what modern, educated smart women call 'a charming boy' or 'a pretty +little boy.' Not that he was effeminate, by any means. He was simply one +of those to whom virtuous sentiment is a passionate necessity. Instead +of playing in the gutters of life, as so many of us do, his young body +and soul were on tip-toe for the coming of love. You can see it when +they are like that. There is a thirsty look about the lips, a turn for +moodiness, a sudden dilation of the pupils as they catch your glance, +and a quick flush, very pretty to see. And sometimes, I am informed, +they find a woman worthy of the gifts they bear.... + +"We had a couple of engineers, too, but they were scarcely to be classed +with young Siddons. They were like a good many of us, useful, +shop-soiled articles with plenty of the meretricious conventional +sexuality which passes for passion when stimulated. But neither of them +would have got a look from a modern, educated smart woman. The Third I +didn't know very much about. He came and went, and the principal +impression I have of him now is that he was married. The Second had what +I should call an oppressively incondite mind. He had a cold avidity for +facts. Unlike most seamen he never read fiction unless it was some book +which had achieved notoriety for what is called frankness. He had a +bookshelf in his cabin containing his shore-going boots and a derby hat, +a Whittaker's Almanac, a Who's Who, several year-books, and a shilling +encyclopedia. It was astonishing, the comfort he seemed to derive from +knowing the census-returns of Bolivia, or the Republican majority in +Oregon, or the number of microbes in a pint of milk. But it did no one +any harm. I only mention it because he, too, in his way, fell in love +with Artemisia and for a time neglected his familiar preoccupations. + +"For that is what it amounted to--that we all fell in love. Each of us +had to measure ourselves by this standard. At certain times in our lives +we all have to drop what we are doing and submit ourselves to the test. +I'm afraid most of us don't cut a very brilliant figure. It is fortunate +for us that one can achieve success in a lower class, and can pass +muster as human beings because we are honest or sober or clever, and +not simply because we are worthy of love. All the same, I fancy the +contempt which some of us pour upon the lucky ones is born of envy. We +wish to be like them in our heart of hearts. I used to have the most +preposterous dreams of being the lover of some proud, beautiful girl I +had read about or seen in the street. + +"Artemisia was like that. She was one of those beings who inspire love, +who are the living embodiments of that tender philosophy which makes +every adjustment of our lives by sentiment alone, and who convince us, +by a gesture, a glance, a timbre in their voices, that our lightest +fancy is a grave resolution of the soul. + +"It would be easy, of course, to jeer at a crowd of simple, +half-educated shell-backs losing their hearts to a lady-passenger's +maid, but that would not be a fair account of it. We were not simple in +that sense. My experience is that contact with the great elemental +realities does not breed simplicity so much as a sort of cunning. We +live deprived of so many of the amenities of culture and wealth that we +cannot credit our good fortune when anything really fine comes in our +way. We are not to be had. We are cautious. These good things are for +shore people. And we get into the habit of good-humoured humility, +discounting ourselves and our shipmates beyond recall. We say, 'only +fools and drunkards go to sea,' and that indicates pretty accurately the +value we place upon our hopes and aspirations. + +"And so you must not expect me to give you vivid accounts of passionate +declarations of love under the Mediterranean moon, or of desperate +knife-work in the dark with Artemisia bending over the dying man and +kissing his death-dewed forehead in a last farewell. The voyage went on +much as usual outwardly. The days are gone, if they ever existed, when +love ruled the camp or the quarter deck. Yet there was a subtle change. +Men went about their various tasks with an air of charged expectancy. +Now and again a couple could be seen talking earnestly together. The +weather, until we passed Gibraltar, was against any dramatic +developments. Mrs. Evans and Angelina kept below. Only once, at dusk, +while we were passing the Burlings, off Portugal, I looked over the rail +of the bridge-deck and saw young Siddons leaning on the bulwarks below, +his head turned toward someone I could not see. He was laughing as +happily as a child. Leaning over a little further I saw a girl's finely +articulated hand and a corner of a white apron. + +"But most of us had no chance. It sounds a strange thing to say, but it +was almost as if Mrs. Evans herself regarded me as married to her. As +though because I had been the means of their meeting, I was entitled to +a sort of founder's share in Angelina! I was in the way to becoming an +expert in infant's complaints. And Jack seemed to think that when I came +into the cabin to talk, he had the right of going off duty, so to speak, +and would go up to the chart room to have a smoke. No, I didn't go +simply to catch a glimpse of Artemisia, though she was worth glimpsing. +I went from a sense of social duty. I felt I owed it to Jack to be +sociable with his wife. And perhaps, too, there was an idea at the back +of my head that contact with Mrs. Evans was a corrective to any tendency +I might have to make a fool of myself over any young woman. That was +Mrs. Evans' specialty, you might say. She didn't mean it, but +unconsciously she shrivelled at the least breath of desire. I used to +watch apprehensively for the blank look in the eyes, the tightening of +the lips, the infinitesimal drawing back of the head, as of a snake +about to strike. There was something sharply astringent about her then, +like biting inadvertently into a green banana. And yet she had her gusts +of enthusiasm over 'darling Babs.' The child was a monster of egoism, as +may be imagined. She was very like her father physically--full-blooded, +plump, bold-eyed, and with a perfectly devilish temper. Without warning +she would explode, scream, scratch, bite, and kick, until she got what +she wanted, when she would subside as suddenly into a self-centred +silence broken by hiccoughs and chokes. She wanted everything--the watch +and money out of your pocket and heart and liver out of your body. +'Angel child!' her mother would call her, and hang fondly over the +odious little brat. For the angel child was still supposed to be +'delicate.' Mrs. Evans had a case of champagne and a stock of Bovril, +and I dare say some of the displays I witnessed were due in part to +intoxication. The carpenter was busy all day making gates and fences +round the companion and bridge deck to prevent the delicate child from +crawling out and getting slung overboard. I used to sit in the cabin +with the angelic Babs on my knee, from which she was always slipping, +listening to Mrs. Evans' account of the diphtheria, and watching +Artemisia moving noiselessly to and fro in the bedroom or sitting just +inside the spare stateroom door sewing. I never enjoyed looking at a +girl so much in my life. She was not pretty in the ordinary sense of the +word. Her skin was not the buttery yellow you associate with +half-breeds. It was more the russet brown of a sunburned blonde. Her +cheeks had a soft peachy glow under the brown bloom that was beautiful. +And yet she did not give one the impression of sheer innocence and +youth which was implied in her unique complexion. Her eyes were +perfectly steady and unabashed, her figure was more mature and matronly +than Mrs. Evans', and she had a gravity of poise and deliberate movement +that one associates with the reflection born of experience. She gave me +the impression, I may say, of a young person who had chanced upon some +astounding revelation, and who was preoccupied with both past and future +more than the immediate present. It made her more attractive than less, +I think. She established a certain careless fondness for talking to Mr. +Chief, as she called me. I dare say I was in love with her even then. +She had a personality. I think Jack, who for all his crude psychology +was a pretty shrewd judge of humanity, saw something beyond a mere +desirable young girl in this nurse. He used to follow her round with his +eyes as though he couldn't make her out. He couldn't recover from the +shock of her name. He would sit in the saloon watching her with the +child, and mutter 'Artemisia! Humph!' She would glance up from her +occupation and regard him with steady, meditative eyes. I was fascinated +by the name myself. It recalled Captain Macedoine to me. It was like +him. Imagine that name reverberating down through the ages from ancient +Attica to classical France, taken out across the Western Ocean by +forlorn _emigres_, who clung to their pretty trashy artificialities in +spite of, or perhaps because of, the frightfulness of the wilderness, +handed on by sentimental and aristocratic Creoles, filched by German +Jews and prosperous mulattos, picked up right in the gutter by a supreme +illusionist and given to a young person who seemed half school-girl and +half adventuress. + +"For it was perfectly obvious to me that whether I had diagnosed her +character truly or not, she was not at all a suitable temperament to +have about a child. There was, for instance, something ominous in the +sudden quiet with which she would regard the angelic Babs when that +odious little being began to pull her hair or jump on her feet or thump +her across the back with the heavy cabin ruler. These things happened to +me, too; but I could scarcely expect to escape. I was Jack's chum. I was +a bachelor and therefore credited with a deep and passionate love of +children. Artemisia, however, was a stranger. When something +particularly outrageous occurred, Mrs. Evans, glancing up, would murmur, +'Oh, Babs, dear!' and then, to my considerable embarrassment, I would +find Artemisia's eyes fixed inscrutably upon mine as she fended off the +attentions of her charge. And so, when I rose one fine evening as we +sailed along the Spanish coast, and she followed me up on deck, I felt +that she was about to take me into her confidence. I looked round as +she slammed the wicket which the carpenter had made to keep Babs from +tumbling down and breaking her neck, and the girl's face was close to +mine. We laughed quietly in the faint light that came up from the cabin. +After all, there was not such a frightful disparity in our ages. As we +walked aft along the bridge deck, and stood between the funnel casing +and the life boats--a matter of seconds--I might have given a swerve to +both our destinies. There are moments, you know, when one can spring +over the most frightful chasms in one's journey through life, and land +with both feet on mossy banks and enamelled meads. It was possibly such +a moment, only I didn't take the chance. As I said, I prefer the part of +super in the play--one sees so much more than either spectator or hero. +And I think she saw, too, in the same flash of intelligence. And so, +nothing happened. When she spoke she merely asked in a low tone what the +punishment was for infanticide. + +"'You know, Mr. Chief,' she went on, putting up her arms and swinging +gently on the life-lines of the boats, 'It isn't fair. I'd never have +taken it on if I'd known what I was in for. I have a devil of a temper. +I'm sure I shall do something to that child.' + +"'To keep it quiet?' I suggested. She nodded rapidly. + +"'For good!' she replied, and added: 'They never used to let me have +anything to do with the kids at school.' + +"'Because of the temper?' She nodded again. + +"'I nearly killed a girl once,' she remarked, calmly. + +"'Oh, tut-tut!' I said, but she insisted, and her eyes gleamed with a +sudden vixenish anger. 'Yes, Mr. Chief. She was a tall, fair girl with +yellow hair and a lovely complexion, like an advertisement for soap. She +hated me, and told the girls I would only be a nigger where she came +from. Her father was in the Civil Service somewhere. And she kept on +calling me nigger, and the other girls followed her lead until I was +nearly _crazy_. And one night I went into the lavatory and put a piece +of caustic soda into her sponge as it lay on the rack. And the next +morning when she was washing there was a horrible row, and she ran up +and down the bedroom screaming, and her face was all one smear of +crimson and purple. She had to go to hospital and it took months to +heal. The sponge was left in the water and there was nothing to show, +but the girls knew I'd done it because I didn't run and see what was the +matter. They didn't call me nigger any more, Mr. Chief.' + +"I said I supposed not, and enquired if Mrs. Evans knew this story. +Artemisia shrugged her shoulders and showed the tip of her tongue. 'I +wouldn't tell _her_ much,' she replied. + +"'And you are going out to see your father?' she nodded. 'He wants me to +help him in his business.' + +"'He's not a captain now, I suppose?' I asked her, to see how much she +knew. She was unconcerned. 'No, he retired from the sea when I was a +little girl. We came home from the States. We lived near Saxhambury +then. Do you know it? Father was very unfortunate. He lost on some of +his investments and had to go abroad again. He was in Egypt a long +while.' + +"'And you haven't seen him since when?' I hazarded. + +"'Oh, I met him when he came to Paris on business. You see, the company +he's in now is French, and he is in a very important position out +there.' + +"It was clear she knew nothing. She had been brought up upon the +customary vague references to 'position,' and so on, with which young +people in the middle classes are inducted into the real world. One could +imagine her telling her school-chums how her father had 'an important +position out there,' and their subsequent awe and envy. I can remember a +boy at school saying his dad was 'on the Continent,' when his fond +parent had gone for a week-end at Boulogne. We were impressed. And I +wondered what old Macedoine's job might happen to be. So I said that I +had once been shipmates with a Captain Macedoine out in New Orleans. She +exclaimed: 'Were you really! How funny!' and suddenly dropped her voice +to a whisper. 'Were you friends, as you are with Captain Evans?' I said +no, not exactly, and looked up at the figure of young Siddons on the +bridge. He was looking at us, and paused in his walk to and fro trying +to make out who I might be. I was thinking of him and wondering, when I +heard her say that her father did not like America; he was never happy +there. He was misunderstood. Well, many a man has been unhappy and +misunderstood in America. Some men are so exacting in their ideals that +no country can hope to win their approbation. Captain Macedoine was +evidently still on a pilgrimage seeking a home for his wounded spirit. I +asked his daughter if he were happy and understood in Ipsilon. She +regarded me with attention for a moment, as though she suspected me of +irony. Then she said, in the grave tones that middle-class people +reserve for the vital themes of life, that he had a good position and +excellent prospects. And then she left me with a murmur about 'the kid' +and I began to walk to and fro. I was amused. I tried to figure out the +salient features of a 'position' which would meet with the approval of a +man with Macedoine's record. And the prospects! For mind you, he must +have experienced a severe blow when those Federal secret service men had +ferreted out his dealings in the opium traffic and his plan for +establishing himself in England had gone to smash. And in what way could +this young person assist him in his business? I was intrigued, as they +say, but I could form no theory which would adequately account for so +many disparate premises. After all, such musings are their own reward. +The event robs them of their early glamour. I did not even confide in +any one else on the ship. There is a pleasure in an unshared scandal +which many men and all women seem to overlook. It added, I may say, to +the joys of being a super in the play. And when Mr. Basil Bloom, our +effulgent chief mate, informed me one evening that I seemed to be very +chummy with Miss Macedoine, I only smiled and asked him if he had +designs on her himself. He twisted his moustache, looked scornfully at +the horizon, and was evidently perturbed. He had referred +grandiloquently, during the previous voyages, to a peerless female whom +he called 'the future Mrs. Bloom.' This lady lived at Greenwich, and we +had reason to believe that Mr. Bloom, on the strength of his genteel +manners, formidable moustache, and optimistic temperament, had been +sponging on her family for some months before he joined the _Manola_. +'I'll tell the young lady,' I said, 'and perhaps you'll get some +encouragement.' He assured me first that I needn't trouble, and then +added that he knew I was the last person in the world to think less of a +man if he changed his mind. This was so infernally unfair to the lady at +Greenwich that I laughed in his face and walked away. + +"The Second Mate took a different line. He was a quiet, inoffensive +creature, and usually preoccupied with a feeble struggle which he +maintained against whiskey. He had a delicately coloured, spiritual, +refined face, with the salient points slightly sharpened, and he seemed +to have neither thoughts, hopes, nor aspirations. However, his finely +chiselled features appeared one day while we were in Alexandria with the +addition of a greenish-yellow puff below the left eye, and the mess-room +boy informed us that the Second Mate was having his meals in his room in +future. There was a laugh from the Third Engineer, and I said nothing, +for I had a notion he and the Second Mate had been ashore together. But +the mess-room boy, whose slant eyes and long nose worried into all the +scandal of the ship, added that young Mr. Siddons had blacked the Second +Mate's eye for him, over the nurse. I told him to dry up. To tell the +truth I was getting tired of the episode. I felt the whole thing was +becoming tawdry and dropping to a rather low plane. I wasn't willing to +admit this to myself, mind you, because it involved my old friend Jack. +I mean it would be the Commander's fault if we all slumped into the mire +together over this young woman. That's what commanders are for--to raise +the tone. That's what a good many of them lack the character to do. +Personal courage, professional skill, long experience, will carry a man +through among men. When there are women in the case, a man needs +something else. What? Well, it may sound strange to you, but I should +call it simplicity of heart. It is almost the only thing women +instinctively respect and fear. Good old Jack was simple in his way, but +I doubted his ability to handle a crisis. I was thankful when we were +through with Alexandria and were heading north for Ipsilon. + +"For just as we were entering this sea cluttered with islands so thick +you can always see four or five and sometimes a dozen at once, so we +were in the midst of a score of dubious possibilities. Here was Jack +avoiding me in an apologetic fashion. Here was the Chief Mate whispering +to Mrs. Evans. Here was the Second Mate sitting in remote and solitary +grandeur in his little cubby-hole, comforting himself with a bottle of +Turkish gin. Here was young Siddons, very youthful-looking and shy, +miserable because the Captain was looking black about something. Only +the angel child and her mother seemed untouched by the horrible +paralysis which was creeping upon us and for which they were primarily +responsible. At all hours you could hear the roars of rage from the +cabin when it wanted something--the roar, the squeals, the kicks, the +hiccoughs, and the final sullen silence of satiety. I tell you, that +woman and her baby were driving us all, including her husband, crazy, +and she sat there oblivious. She wasn't even aware that Artemisia hated +her. + +"I don't know exactly what Jack had expected me to do to help him. No +doubt if I had proposed to Artemisia during the voyage, married her in +Alexandria, and left her ashore in a flat out at Mex or Gabbari he would +have been satisfied. I should have got him out of a hole and got myself +into one, which appeals to most of us. Or I might have acted like a man +without any emotions at all, and repelled Artemisia's confidences with +chilling disdain. This would have set a good example to the others, he +may have thought. I have never gone in for setting a good example, +however. I have found that even those who follow the example hate the +man who sets it. And in addition, with the curious intuition of the +illiterate, Jack suspected I had not been perfectly frank with him as to +my intimacy with her. And so we were all on the watch, alert, uneasy, +silent, and unhappy. + +"I still went in to see Mrs. Evans of an evening. To tell the truth she +fascinated me. I had always held the theory that no married woman could +be an absolute fool. It had seemed to me that such contact with the +realities of life as marriage involved must leave some austere mark of +intelligence, some tinge of altruism, upon the most superficial. She +seemed to disprove this. For her the world did not exist save for the +'angel child.' Even her husband was now only the nearly indispensable +producer of income. She talked, not of him, or of her family, not of Art +or Life or Death or the world to come, not even of Home or the things +she had seen in Alexandria. She had seen nothing in Alexandria. She had +declined to let Jack take her to Cairo 'because of the expense.' She +read no books nor papers. She dressed in perfect propriety. And all the +time she talked about the child, one hand near the child, her eyes fixed +on the child's movements or repose. I think the voyage was a revelation +to Jack. He was finding his place in the world. He was thinking in his +honest, clumsy way. He never took his wife for a trip again. He loved +his child as much as any man could, but this ingrowing infatuation, to +the exclusion of every other desirable thing in the world, was +fatiguing. + +"And Artemisia! She sat in her little spare cabin opening on the saloon, +and now and again she would raise her shoulders, draw a deep breath, let +them drop again as though in despair, and go on with her sewing. She +would laugh at me when I tried to amuse the child and distract it from +some preposterous desire. It was not easy. Her tenacity of purpose was +appalling. She was yelling one evening for someone to open the great +medicine chest that stood by the brass fireplace. I tried the +time-honoured ruses for placating the young. I said there was a lion +inside who would jump out and eat Babs. I pretended to go and find the +key and came back with the news that naughty Mr. Siddons had dropped it +into the sea. The brat stopped to breathe for a moment and a faintly +human expression came over the stupendously smug little face. I followed +this up by a story of how Mr. Siddons had shown me how to make a pin +float on the water. I hastily poured some water into a glass, got a +piece of blotting paper, laid my pin on it, and waited for the homely +trick to succeed. I had no luck somehow. The pin went to the bottom and +Babs' opinion of me went with it. She suddenly remembered about the +medicine chest and gave a preliminary yell. Mrs. Evans said, 'Oh, +Babbsy, darling!' I got up and went out on deck. We were running among +the islands. Away to the east-ward I could see the lights of the +Roumania Lloyd mail-boat going south. Suddenly two hands grabbed the +lappets of my patrol-coat, a dark, fluffy head leaned for a delicious +moment against my chest, and Artemisia gurgled, 'Oh, Mister Chief, isn't +she just a little fiend?' She had been listening to my blandishments and +had witnessed the final destruction of my hopes. She put her hands +behind her back, threw up her head, and regarded me with amusement. +'Why,' she whispered, 'why didn't you open the medicine chest, and give +her the prussic-acid to play with?' And then, without waiting for an +answer, she turned and looked across at the islands we were passing. She +sighed. 'Just look at them! How do they know which is Ipsilon? Mister +Chief, Mister Chief, I am afraid.' + +"'What of?' I asked. She sighed again. + +"'Of the future,' she said. 'This is a change for me. I don't know +what's coming. I haven't had any luck yet.' + +"I asked her in what way. + +"'You know, Mister Chief, I have been in several situations. I was a +typist....' she shrugged her shoulders. + +"'Your father will be here,' I suggested, but she paid no attention, +merely looking at the dark blots on the sea that were islands. And then +she remarked in a perfectly level and unconcerned voice that sometimes +she wished she was dead. I patted her on the shoulder. + +"'Go to bed, my child,' I remarked, coldly, 'you'll feel better in the +morning. You won't wish you were dead when Captain Macedoine comes +aboard to fetch you.' + +"She walked away in silence and went down to the cabin. I have often +wondered if she had not intended to make some sort of confession. +Perhaps it was a moment in her life when she became suddenly aware of +her insecurity, of her lack of the kindly props and supports which hold +most of us up and give us a good opinion of ourselves. For really she +lacked everything. As I found out later, as she stood talking to me that +evening and trying to find some easy yet adequate method of taking me +into her confidence without losing my esteem, she lacked everything that +most girls have. She was one of those tragic figures who even lack +innocence without having gained any corresponding experience. And +perhaps she felt for a moment the shadow of her destiny upon her, and +seeing the dark path among the islands she was to tread, shrank back, +doubtful even of the power of her father to carry her through." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Mr. Spenlove, sitting forward in his deck chair, felt in his pocket for +his cigarette-case and looked round satirically into the profound shadow +of the awning. He still preserved the appearance of a man talking to +himself, but the fancy crossed his mind, as he glanced at the long +horizontal forms in the deck chairs, that he was addressing a company of +laid-out corpses. The air was very still, but a light breeze on the open +water beyond the nets, and the full splendour of a circular moon, +reminded him of an immense sheet of hammered silver. But Mr. Spenlove +did not look long at the AEgean. He swivelled round a little and pointed +with the burnt-out match at the large plain building he had indicated at +the beginning of his story. It was not a beautiful building. It had the +rectangular austerity of a continental customs house or English +provincial "Athenaeum." It was built close to the cliff and the outer +wall was provided with a flight of stairs which ascended, in a +mysterious and disconcerting manner, to the second floor. All this was +clearly visible in the brilliant moonlight, and even the long valley +behind, with its dim vineyards and clumps of almond, olive, and fig +trees half concealing the square white houses that dotted the +perspective, were subtly indicated against the enormous background of +the tunnelled uplands and bare limestone peaks. Mr. Spenlove held the +match out for a moment and then flicked it away. + +"Romantic, isn't it? This was how it looked the night we anchored, and +Artemisia came up to me as I stood by the engine-room skylights with my +binoculars. It was she who pointed out to me how romantic it was. I +asked her why. I said: 'This place is simply an iron mine. To-morrow +they'll put us under those tips you see sticking out of the cliff there +and a lot of frowsy Greeks will run little wooden trucks full of red +dust and boulders and empty them with a crash into the ship. And +there'll be red dust in the tea and the soup and in your hair and eyes +and nose and mouth. And there'll be nothing but trouble all the time. +Very romantic!' So I sneered, but she wasn't taken in by it a bit. She +looked through the glasses, and laughed. 'Oh, it's beautiful!' she +murmured, 'beautiful, beautiful.' + +"I said, 'How do beautiful things make you feel?' and she turned on me +for a moment. 'You know,' she said, and was silent. And I did know. It +was the bond between us. We had become aware of it unconsciously. It had +nothing to do with our age or our sex or our position in life. It was +the common ground of our intense anger with the other people on the +ship. Do you know, I have often thought that Circe has been misjudged. +Men become swinish before women who are unconscious of their unlovely +transformation. Circe should be painted with her eyes fixed in severe +meditation, oblivious of the grunting, squeaking beasts around her. +Artemisia was like that. She really cared nothing for the ridiculous +performances of the various animals on the ship. Nothing for the +magniloquent Mr. Basil Bloom, clearing his throat behind his dirty hand; +nothing for the Second Mate, with his perpetual expression of knowing +something about her and being mightily amused by it. Nothing even for +poor young Siddons, badly hit, moping out of sight, heaving prodigious +sighs and getting wiggings for being absent-minded. As for the Second +and Third, my particular henchmen, she didn't know they existed. +Honourable! Why of course, they were all honourable in their intentions. +Didn't Mr. Bloom express his willingness to throw over the young lady at +Greenwich, although he owed her father fifty pounds? Didn't the Second +Engineer drop a note down her ventilator saying he had a hundred in the +Savings Bank and she had only to say the word? (And didn't Mrs. Evans +pick it up and take it, speechless with annoyance, to Jack, who roared +with laughter?) Honourable? Of course they all wanted to marry her. +Swine are domestic animals." + +The Surgeon, who had caused this digression, made a vague murmur of +protest. Mr. Spenlove drummed on the chair between his legs and shrugged +his shoulders, but he didn't turn round. + +"I didn't offer to tell you a love-story. Captain Macedoine's daughter, +if she means anything, means just this: that love means nothing. She +passed through all the dirty little gum-shoe emotions which she inspired +on the _Manola_ like a moonbeam through a foul alley. For it is foul, +this eternal preoccupation with sex, like a lot of flies over a +stagnant, fecundating pool. Beauty! You all talk largely of appreciating +beauty, and you don't know, the most educated and cultured of you, the +first thing about it. Your idea of beauty is a healthy young female +without too many clothes. I tell you, I have seen ships so perfect and +just in modelling that I have marvelled at the handiwork of my +fellowmen. I have seen cities at sunrise so beautiful I have gone down +to my room and shed tears of ridiculous sorrow. And I have seen the +patrons of female beauty, too, coming back from the cities to the ships +with dry palates, and their neckties under their ears.... + +"Well! We stood there, and to ease the pressure of the moment she put up +the binoculars and swept the little beach, finally coming to rest at the +big house--Gruenbaum's house. While we had been talking a light had come +out on the balcony, and figures began to move about with the precise and +enigmatic motions of marionettes. Without glasses I could see Gruenbaum +seated at a table with a big lamp over his head. Another figure moved to +the open side and stood still. I was wondering what this portended when +Gruenbaum half rose and waved his arms, and the other figure turned and +dwindled rapidly into obscurity, suddenly coming into the light again at +the other side of the table. And Artemisia said quietly, 'There's +father!' and handed me the binoculars. + +"To say that I was interested would not put the matter in its true +light. I was more than that. There was a fantastic quality in the whole +business which was almost supernatural. It is strange enough to meet a +person after many years; stranger still to meet one who has made a +powerful yet unsympathetic impression upon you--to meet him with all +your old dislikes and prejudices washed to a clear and colourless +curiosity. But to see such a man as I saw Captain Macedoine, afar off, +through an atmosphere charged with the electric blue radiance of +moonlight, moving in an alien orbit, animated by unknown emotions--why, +it was like seeing a man who was dead and gone to another world! I +raised the glasses and focussed them. Captain Macedoine stood leaning +heavily on his hands as they grasped the edge of the table, and he was +staring straight out at me. Of course he could see nothing beyond the +balcony, but the impression was exactly that of a man striving to win +back across the gulf to his former existence. And his strained +immobility was accentuated by the figure of Gruenbaum with his jerkily +moving arms, his polished forehead gleaming in the lamplight, the +gyrations of his chin as he turned every moment or so and looked up +sideways at the other. Gruenbaum flourished papers, reaching out and +rearranging them, throwing himself back in his chair and beating the +table with a folded document to emphasize his words. And every now and +again the whole scene grew dim as though it were a phantasmagoria, and +about to dissolve, when the smoke from Gruenbaum's cigar floated and hung +in the still air. + +"And I discovered, too, that I had no words in which to formulate the +peculiar impressions this scene made upon me. I could find no adequate +remark! The girl at my side, reaching out absently for the glasses, +made no sign that this scene going on half a mile away was at all +strange to her. For all one could gather, Captain Macedoine's daughter +was accustomed to see her father submitting passively to the onslaughts +of foreign concessionaires every day in the week. I gazed at her as she +stood there by the awning-stanchion looking at her magnificent parent, +and it was suddenly borne in upon me that it is a miracle we ever learn +anything about each other at all in this world. There is nothing so +inscrutable as an ordinary human being, I am convinced, and I have been +watching them for thirty years. What we know and can tell, even the +acutest of us, is no more than the postmark on a letter. What's +inside--ah, if we only knew. What? Absurd? By no means. I believe +married people do occasionally accomplish it in a small way. I mean I +believe they attain to a fairly complete comprehension of each other's +souls. But as to whether the game is worth the candle they never +divulge.... + +"Certainly Artemisia did not at that moment. She left me, as every woman +I have ever met has left me, groping. She sighed softly and returned the +glasses, remarking again, 'Yes, there's Father,' and bade me good-night +without a word of explanation. Mind, I don't say I had any right to such +a word. I don't even feel sure she understood anything at all about her +father's position on that island. The bare fact remains that I expected +some explanation simply because I credited her with a character light +yet strong, and capable of supporting the weight of her father's +confidence. + +"For observe; if this girl was ignorant of everything, if she came out +here a mere child agape with curiosity, then Macedoine must have been +that extremely rare phenomenon, a completely lonely man. And I was not +prepared to admit the possibility of such an existence for him. He was +one of those men who can live, no doubt, without friendship, but who +must have their audience. So much at least I knew of him in the old days +in the Maracaibo Line, when he would sit near us in Fabacher's on Royal +Street, ostentatiously reading a month-old copy of the London _Financial +News_. It was this incessant urge to inspire wonder which led him to +hint, indirectly, that he had been at school at the Charterhouse. Risky? +Of course it was risky; and I should never have plumbed the mystery but +for a most unimpressionable London purser who informed me there was a +ragged school for slum children in the Charterhouse district in the +city. Not that it mattered. We were not Macedoine's game. It was the +bishops and colonels and eminent surgeons who made the round trip of the +West Indies with us whom he wished to impress. Whether he was a fraud +or not, he certainly had acquired a way of ignoring common people such +as we who go to sea. I knew he would regard good old Jack from such a +lofty pinnacle that Jack would appear to him no more than one of the +Greek labourers who shoved the little wooden cars along and tumbled +their contents into the ship with a terrific clang of ironstone on iron, +and clouds of red dust. I followed up this digression in my mind and +arrived at the fascinating conclusion that if my recollection served me +sufficiently well, he would not recognize me. He never had recognized +me. I once had the pleasure of telling him that if his men didn't keep +my room clean and tidy I would knock his head off. He never looked up +from his desk until my grip on his collar tightened and his body began +to rock to and fro. He complained to the Commander, who had been told of +the incident by the Chief. 'Is this the engineer who assaulted you, Mr. +Macedoine?' says the Captain. Macedoine examined me with a distant, +preoccupied air, pressing his lips together and his eyebrows raised. He +shrugged his shoulders, opened his lips with a slight smacking noise, +and after quite a pause, a most imposing pause, he said he 'really +couldn't say; these workmen were all so much alike when they were +dirty....' Old Pomeroy--he was the first decent skipper the Maracaibo +Line ever had--swung round on his chief steward and retorted: 'Then +what the devil are you wasting all our time for?' He swung back to +his desk again, muttering and slapping papers here and there. +'Preposterous--doesn't know who assaulted him.... Never heard....' I was +standing as stiff as a stanchion waiting for the Old Man to say I could +go, when he saw Macedoine pussy-footing it to the door. 'Oh, and +Macedoine,' called the Old Man. Macedoine stopped but did not look +round. 'I expect the engineers on my ship to be referred to as +engineers, not 'workmen.'' Silence, Macedoine looking at the back of his +hand and smiling with the corner of his mouth pulled down. +'_Understand!_' thundered the Old Man, rising from his chair but holding +it by the arms. It was so sudden I nearly collapsed. I thought he was +going to throw Macedoine through the door. That lofty personage was +startled, too. He replied hastily: 'Oh, quite so, Captain, er....' when +old Pomeroy sat down and dipping his pen in the ink, shut him up with +'Then don't forget it, and don't wait.' + +"I mention this highly unusual episode for a special reason. It happened +to provide one specific proof of my theory that Macedoine was an artist +in his method of building up that grotesque effigy which he presented +to the world as himself. He was like that eccentric rich person who once +built a most astonishing house in Chelsea many years ago. You remember? +It was called So-and-So's Folly. It stood on a valuable site, and each +story was decorated in a different style. The basement was Ph[oe]nician +and the roof was pure Berlin. But the horrible thing about that house +was, not its bizarre commingling of periods, its terra-cotta tigers and +cast-iron chrysanthemums, but the fact that inside it was a hollow, +spider-haunted shell. There was not even a back to it. There were no +floors laid on the joists, weathered planks blocked up the back, and a +few forlorn green statues stood amid a dank jungle of creepers and grass +and rubbish. Now that was how Macedoine impressed me, and what I was +going to say was that by accident I obtained later a peep into his +studio, so to speak, and saw his method of putting up that marvellous +front, behind which, as you have already learned, there was nothing save +the dreamy dirtiness of avarice and ego-mania. No, the solitary and +grandiose idea in his mind precluded all recollection of individual +humanity. It was not that he forgot us who had been his shipmates. He +had never known us. We had not the wit to be knaves, or the credulity to +accept him at his own colossal valuation. We ignored his enigmatic claim +to greatness, while he passed sublimely along, disdainful of our +obvious virtues. For it is presumable that we _had_ virtues, since the +world--anxious for the replenishing of its larders--hails us nowadays as +heroes because we prefer the dangers of sea-life to the tedious boredom +of a shore-going existence.... + +"Yes, I saw into his studio, watched the artist at work at first hand. I +might claim the honour, indeed, of being one of the lumps of clay upon +which he sought to model his design. Surely an authentic witness this; +and I dare say the normal artist's material--since we are fond of saying +he blows the breath of life into it--might not join in the universal +praise bestowed upon its creator, but might indulge in ironic +contemplation of its own birth-pangs and the strange fortunes of its +pre-natal existence! + +"He did not appear, however, as my stimulated imagination had pictured +him appearing, to dominate the situation on the _Manola_ and preoccupy +us all with his personality and hypothetical power. Like a higher power, +he remained invisible, and Captain Evans, going ashore in a boat with +Artemisia and her belongings around him, was the first to encounter him +in Gruenbaum's office. Encountered him, and came back bursting with the +most astonishing tidings. I was sitting in my room that evening after +tea, having a quiet pipe and a book, when Jack came down. + +"'Come along to my room, Fred,' he said, blowing clouds from his cigar. +'I want to talk to you.' + +"'Why not here?' I suggested. + +"'No, I want the wife to hear it, too. The gel's gone and the kid's +asleep. Come along.' + +"And highly mystified, I went along. It seemed like scandal, and I am +not above such things once in a way, as you know. I went along, and +found Mrs. Evans in her husband's cabin sewing. Nothing would do but I +must have a cigar, and the angel child having been dosed with what her +mother called 'chempeen', I had to have a glass of that, too. Jack was +flushed and excited, and sat down beside me on the red plush settee. + +"'What do you say,' he began, in a low, husky tone, 'to a job ashore, +Fred?' + +"So that was it. The age-old chimera of a 'job ashore.' I looked at Mrs. +Evans. Her lips were shut to a thin line. I could see protest and +dissent in every line of her body. + +"'For you or for me?' I enquired, softly. + +"'For me, and p'raps for you, too, if you play your cards. It's like +this': and he began a long and complicated explanation. The gel's +father, as he called Macedoine, had got the job of secretary to the +company and somehow didn't hit it off with old Gruenbaum, who was +resident concessionaire. Of course I knew Gruenbaum's father, who had +been the original prospector when the island was Turkish, sold most of +his holdings to the French company, but kept a tenth which descended to +his son who had succeeded him in the concession. Well, Gruenbaum wouldn't +hear of a lot of improvements which Macedoine wanted to introduce. The +gel's father was full of modern ideas. Wanted to put in electric +traction for the mines, with electric elevators and tips, and so on. He +also wanted to develop the place, and had a plan for irrigation to +attract settlers. Gruenbaum wouldn't hear of it. Very conservative +Gruenbaum was. Got his tenth of the three francs per ton on the ore, and +a thousand a year as manager, and was satisfied. Didn't want settlers. +He was king of the island and he and Macedoine had had a row. Macedoine +was sick of it. All this had been explained to Jack by a young Greek, a +clerk in the office, who was sick of it, too, and was 'going in' with +Macedoine in his new venture. And what was that? Well, it was this way: +Macedoine, who had knocked about a bit, had taken an option on some +sites in Saloniki, he had bought a sixty-fourth share in the Turkish +steamboat which carried the mails to the islands, and he was going into +the development of Saloniki. Had formed a small preliminary company, +registered in Athens, to take up the options, and he wanted directors. +This young Greek, Nikitos, was to be secretary, knowing the languages, +you see. He wanted directors, practical men to superintend the actual +business while he, Macedoine, you understand, would be free to control +the financial side of the affair. Oh, it was a big thing. There was to +be a big hotel, a big brewery, a big shipping business, a big real +estate development in Macedonia, a big railroad system, and a big fleet +of ships to carry away the freight which comes from all this. Everything +was to be big, big! Jack blew clouds of smoke, big clouds, and +flourished his fat hands in the air. 'What did I think? Wasn't it worth +jumping at? Five founder's shares of a thousand drachmas each in the +preliminary company, convertible into preferred stock in the big concern +and ten thousand drachmas a year salary. Eh? What did I think? Wasn't it +a sound investment? What about it?' And Jack bored into my ribs with his +powerful finger. + +"I looked at Mrs. Evans. It was evident she had already heard something +of this magnificent scheme for making us all millionaires, and her +verdict was evident enough also. She never raised her eyes from her +sewing where she sat in a cane chair, her hair smooth and shining, her +dress smooth and shining, too, the embodiment of prim respectability and +prudence. She had often inspired me with a crazy ambition to see her +being chased by a lunatic with a razor in his hand, or pursued by a +hungry Bengal tiger--to see her in some predicament which would crack +the shell of middle-class reserve in which she was secreted and show me +the live, scampering human being within: but just now I was appalled by +the formidable aspect of her disapproval. Even Jack was aware of it, for +he watched me to see what I would say. And what could I say? What could +any sane human being, with a knowledge of the world, say? I didn't say +anything. I scratched my chin and pretended to be thinking deeply. + +"For without claiming any especial perspicuity, I must confess that I +have never been the raw material out of which 'suckers' are +manufactured. It has always seemed to me pertinent to enquire, when +Golcondas and Eldorados are offered for a song, why the vendor should be +so anxious to hypothecate his priceless privileges. I suppose I am a +skeptic. Business, after all, is very much like Religion: it is founded +on Faith. And men like my friend Jack, for instance, have great faith in +the written word, much more in the beautifully engraved word. For them +all the elaborate bunkum by which the financial spell-binder conceals +his sinister intentions is of no avail; the jargon of the prospectus, +the glittering generalties, the superb optimism, the assumption of +austere rectitude, the galaxy of distinguished patrons who for a +consideration lend their names to the venture. For it is a venture, and +men have always a pathetic hope that it may become an adventure as well, +and that their ship will come labouring home, loaded with gold. + +"Women, especially married women, are not at all like that, but they are +not so much skeptics as infidels. They start up at the first distant +approach of the financier, every plume and pin-feather quivering. They +don't believe a word of it. They go down on their knees to their +husbands and beg and beseech and supplicate them to have nothing to do +with it. They shed tears over their children. They write long letters of +distracted eloquence to their mothers. The very extremity of their +impotence lends a certain tragic dignity to their tantrums. Of course if +the cruel domestic tyrant persists in casting his bread upon the waters +and speculation turns out to be a huge success, these Cassandras spend +the dividends with a sort of stern joy, as though the money were tainted +and they must exchange it for something useless and inconvenient as soon +as possible. They know, by instinct, I suppose, that a chiffonier or a +Chippendale bedroom suite is not legal tender for stock. They feel +they've _got_ something. It is a truism, I suppose, to say that women +are implacable realists. + +"Mrs. Evans was. And she knew, too, that I was of her opinion in this +matter. She never raised her eyes to look at me; but she knew. Her lips +never relaxed from the rigid line they had assumed when I came down, as +though she was still waiting, in severe patience, for me to do my +obvious duty, and corroborate her opinion. + +"'What is he putting into it?' I asked, casually. + +"'He's the vendor,' retorted Jack, who had picked up the vernacular +pretty quickly. 'He turns over his options and his share in this +mail-boat for ten founder's shares and a seat on the board, see? Then, +when the big company's formed, he takes up shares in that, and is voted +a salary of twenty thousand drachmas a year as financial adviser. That's +how Nikitos put it to me. Nikitos knows the country and he says there's +any amount of capital available once the thing gets started. These +tobacco growers don't know what to do with their money--keep it in those +big Turkish trousers, most of it, he reckons. The great thing is to get +in at the beginning. What do you say? He wants a ship-master and he +wants a man with engineering experience to overlook the shipping +business. I told Nikitos I'd talk it over with you. He says the skipper +of that Swedish ship that's on the same charter as us is putting three +hundred into it--seven thousand five hundred drachmas.' + +"'But what did Macedoine say?' I persisted. + +"Oh, I didn't see _him_,' admitted Jack, looking at the floor between +his fat knees. 'Nikitos promised to arrange an interview if we decided +to come in.' + +"There it was, you see, the touch of the Master. I could not help a +silent tribute of admiration to Captain Macedoine for this remarkable +reserve, this exquisite demonstration of psychological insight. A man of +great affairs! A financial magnate, graciously extending to us the +privilege of participating in his immense schemes. 'An interview could +be arranged!' It was superb, this method of mesmerizing all the +simple-minded skippers and chiefs who came in the iron-ore ships to +Ipsilon. I had a brief but vivid vision of us all ashore in Saloniki +squabbling and bluffing each other, while Macedoine sat enthroned, +apart, the financial adviser, dwelling in oriental magnificence upon our +contributions. + +"'What do you think, Mrs. Evans?' I asked, taking the bull by the horns. +'Shall we gamble a hundred or so and get rich quick?' + +"'You're not married,' she replied, without looking up. 'You can spare +it I dare say. It is different for Jack. He hasn't any money to throw +away.' + +"'Well,' I said, 'I haven't any to throw away, either, I can assure you. +I wouldn't go to sea if I had. But Jack thinks this is a great +opportunity to invest his money where he can look after it. You see, +he'll be drawing a salary as well when he's ashore in Saloniki.' + +"Still she didn't look up. She had not budged an inch from her +conviction that I agreed with her. + +"'I couldn't think of living abroad,' she said, severely. 'I have Babs +to consider.' + +"I'm afraid Jack hadn't thought of that. He hadn't visualized his wife +and baby dwelling in a Turkish town, cut off by thousands of miles of +ocean from home. He had been so preoccupied with the divine prospect of +'a job ashore' that he had forgotten the environment. And we had been to +Saloniki with coal, time and again. I can't say I blamed her. Residence +in southeastern Europe has its drawbacks for a housewife. And quite +apart from a natural repugnance to dirt, Mrs. Evans had an unnatural +repugnance to anything foreign. She never really left England. She took +it with her. She carried with her into her husband's cabin, and along +the wild oriental foliage and architecture of Alexandrian streets, the +prim and narrow ideals of her native valley. It never occurred to her +that those people in turbans and fezzes were human. It never occurred to +her when a French or Italian girl passed, dressed with the dainty and +charming smartness of her race, that she might possibly be virtuous as +well. She shrivelled at their very proximity, drawing the angelic Babs +from their contamination. She was uneasy, and would continue to be +uneasy, until she was safe at home once more in Threxford, England. That +was the burden of her unuttered longing: to get home, to get home, back +to the little semi-detached red-brick villa on the Portsmouth Road, +which her father had given her for a wedding present and which fifty +Macedoines would never induce her to sell. + +"For that is what it would mean if Jack invested even two hundred pounds +in this wonderful enterprise to develop Macedonia. He had spent several +hundred in furnishing the house, and since then most of his two hundred +a year had gone in expenses, for he was no niggard either with himself +or those he loved. Neither wife nor chick of his should ever lack for +anything, he had told me proudly. If a neighbour's child got some +expensive and useless contraption to pull about, Babs had one, too, the +very next week. If a neighbour's wife got a fur coat, Mrs. Evans had +orders to go and do likewise, a more expensive one if possible. What +little he had was on deposit in the bank in his wife's name, so that she +could draw on it while he was away. + +"And so I came round to the unpleasant conviction that while Mrs. Evans +was silently awaiting my repudiation of the whole thing, her husband was +expecting me to use my eloquence to persuade his wife to let him invest. +They say a bachelor has no worries of his own. Which is as well, when +his married friends endeavour to make him responsible for their own +follies, and use him as a cushion to soften the family collisions. I was +an old hand and slipped out. And I really was not thinking so much of my +own two hundred pounds salted down in Home Rails, as of Jack's home, +when I said, cheerfully: + +"'Well, this Captain Macedoine can't object to giving us a little more +information. And he can't expect us to have the cash with us. We shall +have to go home and sell something and--er--draw the money, eh?' + +"'It is quite out of the question,' said Mrs. Evans, biting her thread +as though she was severing the spinal chord of the whole proposition. + +"'So what I suggest is, Jack will see Captain Macedoine and we'll take +the voyage home to think about it.' And I looked at Mrs. Evans to +approve my machiavellian astuteness. + +"'Oh, it's quite impossible, quite. I couldn't think of leaving England. +And we couldn't spare the money.' + +"'We shouldn't need the house if we came out here,' said Jack, looking +solemnly at his wife. She stiffened. + +"'We _can't_ sell the house,' she muttered through her teeth. 'Where +should we live? I've told you. Jack, it's quite impossible.' + +"'The house 'ud fetch three hundred and fifty,' said Jack, looking at me +with round solemn eyes, 'and the furniture 'ud fetch two hundred more. +And there's--how much is there in the bank, Madeline? Say sixty odd. Six +hundred pounds. You can live cheap in a place like Saloniki.' + +"I could see Mrs. Evans was going to pieces. She went dull red and then +dull white, dropped a stitch or so, moved her feet, took a deep breath +through her nostrils. I was seeing the human being at last. The lunatic +with the razor was after her. The Bengal tiger was growling near by. + +"'Don't be in such a hurry,' I said, sharply, and for the first time +that woman gave me a glance that might be tortured into a faint +semblance of gratitude. 'I am not going into a thing until I've studied +it, and nobody but a madman would commit himself on anybody's mere +say-so. You see Macedoine, Jack, when you go ashore.' + +"'You'd better come, too,' he said, rather glumly. 'Old Gruenbaum wants +some coal if you can spare it. Forty ton, he said. It'll be a fiver for +you. Can you let him have it and get to Algiers?' + +"'I'll see,' I said. 'I'll go through the bunkers in the morning.' And +we left the dangerous subject for the time being. It was positively +refreshing to get out of the heavy atmosphere charged with Macedoine's +grandiose schemes and Mrs. Evans' premonitions of disaster and beggary +for herself and Babs. That angel child slept through it all on the far +end of the big plush settee, fenced in with a teak bunk-board, one +predatory hand clutching the throat of an enormous teddy bear whose eyes +stared upward with the protruding fixity of strangulation, as though +even in sleep she found it necessary to cause someone or something acute +discomfort. Yes, it was refreshing, for I don't mind admitting that the +petty graft of a five-pound note that I was to get from Gruenbaum for +selling him forty tons of coal was more to me than all the cloudy +millions of Macedoine's imagination. I am as anxious as any one to get +something for nothing, but this Anglo-Hellenic Development Company, in +which I was to get four hundred a year for living in Saloniki, didn't +appeal. In the regions of fancy Macedoine was an incomparable +inspiration; in business I preferred the unimaginative concessionaire. +As I rose to go up on deck, I felt that whether Mrs. Evans was +grateful or not I had earned her approbation. Perhaps she, with her +feminine intuition--or possibly it was only the instinct of +self-preservation--saw the necessity of flattering a poor silly single +man, for she remarked, with her head bent over the child's to touch the +tumbled locks: + +"'I'm sure Mr. Spenlove will give you the _best_ advice, dear.' + +"And I felt my bosom swell with pride. Oh, women are wonderful! Even an +inferior woman, as Mrs. Evans was, with a soul like a parched pea, and a +heart so narrow that there was scarcely room in it for husband and child +at the same time, a woman of meagre physique and frumpish in dress--even +she could do a little in the animal-taming way--could crack a whip and +make the lords of the jungle jump through paper hoops, and eat out of +her hand. Oh, yes! Even she could harness us and drive us tandem through +the narrow gate of her desire. She was sure I would give dear Jack the +_best_ advice. And in the glow of this benediction I departed. + +"Mr. Bloom was on deck, moving softly to and fro, smoking an immense +meerschaum carved to the likeness of a skull. It was a warm evening and +he had discarded coat and vest, displaying a soiled starched shirt and +black suspenders inadequately furnished with buttons. The doorway was in +shadow and for a moment I watched him, promenading in the moonlight. He +had the air, as he stepped back and forth, of sharing his vigil with +some invisible companion. At times he nodded, and waving his pipe toward +the rail, might have been holding forth in unspoken words. Getting the +best of the argument, of course, I reflected bitterly, and startled him +by stepping out in front of him. + +"'Good evening, Chief. Fine night for courtin', eh? A night like this +reminds me o' the time when I was master. The moonlight, and the cliff, +like the Morro. I was under the Cuban flag then you know, Chief. This +brings it all back.' He waved his grisly meerschaum and added: 'Lovely +place, Havana.' + +"'Where's the Third Mate?' said Captain Evans, suddenly emerging from +the dark doorway. 'He isn't in his cabin.' + +"'He went ashore with the pilot in the cutter, Sir,' said Mr. Bloom. 'I +did think of blowin' the whistle, only it occurred to me it might +disturb the baby.' + +"To this piece of extreme consideration Jack offered no reply. He walked +along as far as the engine-hatch and then, putting his fingers in his +mouth, blew a shrill blast that echoed and reechoed between the cliffs. +Men began to move about the ship, and a sailor appeared with a +hurricane-lamp. A faint cry came out of the intense shadow of the +western shore and Jack answered it with a stentorian 'Cutter ahoy!' that +boomed and reverberated over our heads and trailed away into a wild +racket of distant laughter. + +"'Don't shout so loud, man,' I suggested, when a cry once more came out +of the shadow and we could see a faint glow as of a lantern in a boat +moving toward us. + +"'Just been havin' a little look round, I dessay,' remarked Mr. Bloom +with a bland tolerance of youthful folly which I remember irritated me +intolerably. Jack kept his gaze fixed on the slowly moving glow. + +"'There's something wrong,' he remarked, soberly, ignoring Mr. Bloom at +his elbow. + +"'Oh, I don't think so, Captain. Only a ...' + +"'I tell you there's something wrong!' snarled Jack, turning on him +suddenly. 'Stand by at the ladder there,' and the man with the +hurricane-lamp said, quietly, 'Right, Sir.' Jack returned his gaze to +the boat, which was approaching the edge of the shadow. How he knew, I +don't pretend to explain. I take it he had a _flair_, as the French say, +the sort of _flair_ most of us acquire in our own profession and take +for granted, but which always appears uncanny in another. And it was +remarkable how the conviction that there _was_ something wrong seized +upon the ship and materialized in a line of shadowy figures leaning on +the bulwarks and projecting grotesquely illuminated faces into the light +of the lamp on the gangway. + +"'Mr. Siddons there?' called Jack, quietly, as the boat came into view +in the moonlight. The man at the tiller sang out 'No, Sir,' as he put +the rudder over and added, 'way 'nuff. Catch hold there!' and another +figure stood up in the bows and laid hold of the grating. + +"'Stand by,' said Jack coming down to the after deck. 'Come up here, +you,' he added, addressing the man who had spoken. The man, one of the +sailors, came up. + +"'We were waitin' for Mr. Siddons, Sir, when you hailed.' + +"'What orders did he leave?' + +"'Said he was going up the beach a little way, Sir. Told us he wouldn't +be long.' + +"'Where did you land the pilot?' + +"'At Mr. Gruenbaum's jetty, Sir. It's the best for a big boat.' + +"'Then where is he now?' + +"'I couldn't say, Sir,' said the man. 'He went up the path with the +pilot; that's all we know.' + +"Jack took a turn along the deck. + +"'P'raps I'd better go and 'unt him up,' suggested Mr. Bloom, stroking +his moustache. + +"'And leave me here with one mate and no pilot?' said Jack. 'Fred, you +go.' He followed me into my room where I had a pocket-torch, and +whispered, 'Go up yourself, Jack. See what I mean? He's a decent young +feller, even if I do find fault. Don't let the men see anything.' + +"'You don't think he's gone on the booze?' I said, incredulously. + +"'I don't know what to think,' he retorted, irritably. 'I always thought +he had plenty o' principle. You can't tell nowadays. But we don't want +him to spoil himself at the beginning of his career. Understand what I +mean?' + +"As I sat in the stern of the cutter while the men pulled back into the +shadow which was about to engulf the ship (for the moon was setting) I +felt I liked Jack the better for that kindly whisper out of earshot of +the estimable Mr. Bloom. It was like him. Now and again you could look +into the depths of his character, where dwelt the old immemorial virtues +of truth and charity and loyalty to his cloth. I even twisted round on +the gunwale as I steered and looked back affectionately at his short, +corpulent figure walking to and fro on the bridge deck, worrying himself +about the 'young feller,' the embodiment of a rough yet exquisite +altruism. It seemed to me a manifestation of love at least as worthy of +admiration as was his domestic fidelity. Oh, yes! You fellows call me a +cynic, but I believe in love, nevertheless. It is only your intense +preoccupation with one particular sort of love which evokes the cynicism +and which inspires the monstrous egotism of women like Mrs. Evans. + +"'Hard over, Sir,' said the leading seaman. 'Way 'nuff, boys!' I flashed +my torch upon the tiny jetty which Gruenbaum had made near his house, for +he often went on fishing expeditions round the island, I had heard. +Steps had been cut down from a path in the face of the cliff which led +away up to some workings facing the sea, but which are out of sight. +When I had climbed up the jetty I said: + +"'Now you wait here while I go along to the house, and make enquiries. I +don't suppose he's very far off.' + +"I made my own way up the rough stones to the path, midway between the +soft whisper of the waves and the frightful edge above my head and I +felt a momentary vertigo. I was suspended in the depths of an +impenetrable darkness. All things--the jetty, the boat, the path, were +swallowed up. Even the ship was indicated only by the faint +hurricane-lamp at the gangway and the reflection of the galley-fire +against a bulkhead. Stone for building and for buttressing the +mine-galleries had been quarried out below, and the path was under-cut +and littered about with the debris of an old ore-tip. I moved slowly +toward Gruenbaum's house, and as my eyes became accustomed to the +darkness I saw another path, a more slanting stairway, on the face of +the cliff. I paused. It was some hundred yards or so to where Gruenbaum's +house stood, as you see, at the foot of the slope. In the darkness +Jack's words seemed to me to shed light. There was something wrong. But +if something was wrong, if young Siddons had come to some harm, how had +it happened? He must have had some motive in leaving a cutter with six +men to wait for him. As for my idiotic suggestion that he might have +gone on the booze, there wasn't a cafe within three miles that young +Siddons would enter. He must have had some plan. Of course we are told, +with wearisome insistence, to look for the woman; but we don't in real +life. We look for all sorts of motives before we look for the woman. And +even if I did in this instance suppose for a moment that Siddons had +gone off on some mysterious adventure involving say, Captain Macedoine's +daughter, I was no further advanced. He could hardly have told the +sailors to wait. It was against all traditions of the service. And as I +was deciding that he must have come to harm, and wondering how the deuce +I was to discover him, a light shone out for a moment above me, I saw a +figure silhouetted in a doorway and then vanish. Someone had gone in. I +started up the steep by-path to make enquiries. I knew the pilot, a +predatory person from Samos, had a hutch on the mountain somewhere, and +it occurred to me that he had negotiated the sale of a flask or two of +the sweetish wine of the island, and young Siddons had seized the +opportunity to get it aboard without the old man knowing it. Quite a +rational theory, I thought, as I toiled up the path getting short of +breath. And suddenly I came upon the door which had opened and closed, a +door in a house like a square white flat-topped box, with a window in +one side shedding a faint glow upon a garden of shrubs. + +"And now I was in a quandary. I sat down on a bowlder to take a breath. +Supposing I knocked at the door and asked if any one had seen the Third +Mate, and the inhabitants had not seen him and couldn't understand me, I +should have done no good. And supposing they had seen him, or that he +was inside, I should have some difficulty in explaining my interest in +his private affairs. For I liked him, and we are always afraid of those +whom we like. It is not only that we fear to tarnish our own reputation +in their eyes, but we suffer a mingled terror and pleasure lest we +discover them to be unworthy of their exalted position in our +affections. So I got up and instead of knocking at the door I stepped +among the shrubs and came to the window. And sitting close against the +wall, with a small table in front of him and his head on his hand, sat +Captain Macedoine. + +"He was old. He showed, as we say, the ravages of time. And not of time +only. Time alone could not furrow a human face into so many distorting +folds and wrinkles. As I recalled the sleek, full-fed condition of his +big smooth-shaven face when I had known him in the old days, I was +revolted at the change. It was as though an evil spirit had been +striving for years to leave him, and had failed. The cheeks were sunk +into furrows of gray stubble and had sagged into sardonic ridges round +the thin, wavering line of the mouth. The red eyelids blinked and +twitched among the innumerable seams that ran back to the sparse, +iron-gray hair. The nose, quite a noble and aquiline affair once, was +red at the end, and querulous, like the long lean chin and reedy neck. +Only the brow gave any hint that he might not be a casual loafer at a +railroad station willing to carry your grip for a few pennies. High, +narrow, and revealed remorselessly by the passing of the years, it was +the brow of the supreme illusionist, the victim of an implacable and +sinister spiritual destiny. I have said that when I saw him the +previous evening he had the look of a man trying to win back into the +world. Now that I saw him more clearly, he looked as though he had come +back, at some frightful cost, and regretted it. + +"He was listening to someone I could not see at the moment, and raising +his eyes with a regularly recurring movement that was almost mechanical. +I shifted a little to take in another view of the small, shabbily +furnished room. Standing by the end of a sofa, on which I could see a +girl's feet and skirt, was a dark young man brushing his frock coat and +talking with what struck me as absurd eloquence. He had never shaved; +his face was obscured in a sort of brown fungus and was blotchy about +the forehead and chin. His black eyes rolled as he talked and flourished +the brush. He seemed to be describing something highly creditable to +himself. This, I may tell you, was Monsieur Nikitos, visible in business +hours as a clerk at Gruenbaum's elbow, or in a bare barn of an outer +office. He came over to the table, and sitting down near Captain +Macedoine, opened an account book. This was evidently a _seance_ of the +Anglo-Hellenic Development Company, I thought, and I moved back to the +path. I had no desire to spy upon any of these people, you understand. I +had to find Siddons, and even the intriguing amusement of watching a +great illusionist had to recede before that urgent need. I regained the +path below and thinking I would go down to the boat in case he had +returned I started back. The torch showed me a steep descent of rubble +where a cave-in had occurred, a gash in the edge of the path, I thought +at first it was the way down to the jetty and I flashed the lamp +steadily upon the bottom. There was someone lying down there. It was not +long before I was kneeling over young Siddons. + +"At first, you know, I really thought he was dead. He was lying face +upward and his forehead had been gouged open above the left eye with +some jagged edge and was bleeding in thick, slow runnels that +disappeared into his curly hair. He lay perfectly motionless, but as I +bent over him and searched the soft, delicate face in the first horror +of grief, the eyes opened wide and blinked in a gaze of unconscious +enquiry. + +"'What is it, my boy?' I asked and after seeming to collect himself he +asked, in perfect calmness: + +"'Who is that?' + +"'The Chief,' I answered. 'Did you fall?' He closed his eyes and made an +effort to move. I put my arm around him. He said: + +"'Chief, is the boat still there?' I told him it was. + +"'Help me up. Be careful. I think my collar-bone is broken again. Oh, +Lord! Does--does the Old Man know?' + +"'It was he sent me,' I said. 'He was afraid you had had an accident. +Does that hurt?' + +"'No--but catch hold of me lower down, will you?' + +"'How did it happen? Did you slip?' + +"'Oh, Lord! Yes--slipped, you know--look out!' + +"'I thought you were dead,' I said jocularly, as we reached the path. + +"And under his breath he made a remark that Captain Macedoine's daughter +had made to me not so many hours before. + +"He said he wished he was." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +"By Jove," said Mr. Spenlove, suddenly, after a long silence, "I have +often wondered what might have happened to us if young Siddons hadn't +tumbled down there and smashed himself up. I mean, supposing our minds +hadn't been taken off the great subject of Captain Macedoine's financial +projects. Because, mind you, although I behaved in a very sagacious +manner while discussing the matter with Jack and his wife, I'm not at +all prepared to say that I wouldn't have submitted if Jack had urged it +in his tempestuous way. The psychology of being stung is a very +complicated affair. We pride ourselves on our strong, clear vision and +so forth, but it is very largely bluff. We are all reeds shaken by the +winds of desire. In spite of my sagacity the notion of making a fortune +was alluring. When I came to think of it the idea of a few years of +ruthless exploitation of the toiling inhabitants of a region for which I +had no sympathy, followed by a dignified return to England with a sunny +competence--say ten thousand a year, afforded an attractive field for +the development of one's personality. I suppose it comes to all of us at +times--a vision of ourselves with the power to expand to the utmost. And +at the back of it all lay the exasperating and tantalizing thought that +it _might_ be possible. The very preposterousness of the suggestion was +in its favour, in a way. The very fact that nobody else had ever thought +of making a fortune out of Macedonia led one to wonder if it might not +be done. You get an idea like that in your head, and it lies there and +simmers and seethes, and finally boils over and you have taken the +plunge. That's what might have happened, if I had not gone ashore to +look for young Siddons, and accidentally beheld the great Captain +Macedoine himself and his lieutenant. I don't say that the mere view of +these two worthies discussing their plans was sufficient to convince me +of their rascality. I'm not convinced of that even now. What I did +acquire, even before young Siddons drove the whole matter into the +background, was a sudden sense of proportion. To associate a golden +fortune with those two shabby and cadaverous birds of prey was too much. +And when we got aboard again the whole proposition seemed to have +vanished into thin air. + +"Of course everyone was excited. Jack had to take hold and give orders. +He shut his wife and youngster up in their cabin, ordered us all out of +the saloon except the steward, and set to work on young Siddons, who was +lying on the table with a towel under his head. Mr. Bloom, who had been +rushing to and fro making friends with the Second, the Third, and even +the donkey man, in a frenzied attempt to get information about the coal +which was to be sold the next day, now favoured me with a heart-to-heart +talk on the subject of professional etiquette. It was a mistake, in his +opinion as an experienced ship's officer, for the Captain to be a +surgeon as well. It was time we took a firm stand. Owners should be +informed that this primitive and obsolete state of affairs could be no +longer tolerated. Now when he was sailing under the Cuban flag, they +always carried a surgeon. Compelled to by law. Of course one couldn't +let a man die for lack of attention; but if he was in Captain Evans' +shoes, he would send in a report with a formal protest appended. Do +everything courteously and in due form but--be firm! That was the +trouble with sea-going officers--they were not firm with their +employers. He himself, he was frank to say, had often given owners a +piece of his mind, and no doubt he had suffered for it. And why? Simply +because he got no support. Now he knew I wouldn't take any silly offence +if he mentioned a personal matter, but really for Captain Evans to send +an engineer ashore in a boat was in the highest degree unprofessional. +It was a job for an executive officer, obviously. Not that he wished to +criticise--far from it--but _verb. sap_ as they say at Oxford and +Cambridge. A word to the right man, mind you, was worthy any amount of +useless argument with--well, he wouldn't mention any names, but I knew +what he meant, no doubt. + +"How long this enchanted imbecile would have continued his monologue I +shouldn't care to say, if Jack had not called me down to help get young +Siddons into his bunk. The collar-bone, broken more than once at +football, would knit nicely, he said, and he had put a couple of neat +stitches in the gash over the eye. Made him shout, Jack admitted as he +washed his hands with carbolic soap, but what was a little pain compared +with being disfigured for life? He reckoned it would heal up and leave +no more than a faint scar. What did I reckon he was doing, eh? Funny for +him to leave the boat. Very unusual. What did I think? + +"'Didn't he give you any explanation?' I enquired. + +"'Well, I suppose you can call it an explanation,' said Jack, 'in a way. +He said he went ashore for a few minutes on a private matter, and he +would appreciate it if I took his word. I'm supposed to keep the matter +private, too, so keep your trap shut, Fred. Fact is,' he went on, 'it's +that gel's at the bottom of it. He's one of those young fellers who take +it hard when they do take it. What they call in novvels hopeless +passion.' + +"I was surprised at Jack's penetration. Indeed I was surprised at his +allusion to what he called 'novvels' for he had never, so far as I knew, +read any. Perhaps he had taken a surreptitious squint at some of the +exemplary serials which Mrs. Evans affected. + +"'Then you won't take any action?' I said. + +"'Why should I? He's had an accident, that's all. If he'd fell down and +broke his neck, it would be different. As it is, he's had a lesson. I +must go up and take a look round.' + +"Jack went up on deck to take a look at the mooring ropes, for the +weather is treacherous in spring and autumn hereabouts, and more than +once we had to slip and run out to sea. I stepped into the little +alleyway on the port-side and walked along to young Siddons' room. The +door was on the hook and a bright bar of light lay athwart the floor of +the alleyway. He was lying on his back as we had left him, his +unbandaged eye staring straight up at the deck overhead. As I opened the +door and closed it behind me he turned that eye upon me without moving +his head. + +"'All right?' I asked, just for something to say. He made a slight +gesture with his hand, signifying, I imagine, that it was nothing. His +face had that expression of formidable composure which the young assume +to conceal their emotions. I don't know exactly why I bothered myself +with him just then. Perhaps because there is for me a singular +fascination in watching the young. I won't say it is affection, because +our relations are usually of the sketchiest description. Sometimes I +don't know them at all. I fancy it is because one sees oneself in them +surrounded by the magical glamour of an incorruptible destiny. As we +say, they are refreshing, even in their griefs, and there is something +in the theory that we, as we are crossing the parched areas of middle +age, can draw upon their spiritual vitality to our own advantage if not +to theirs. + +"'Nothing you want, eh?' I said, looking round. The one bright eye +stared straight up again. + +"'Will you do me a favour, Chief?' he asked in a low tone. + +"'Of course I will,' I answered. 'What is it?' + +"'If you wouldn't mind, when you go ashore, to see Miss Macedoine and +tell her I am sorry she couldn't--you see,' he broke off, suddenly, 'I +said I'd see her this evening. I went up ... she wasn't there. I +couldn't wait ... boat waiting, you know. Then something ... well, I +fell down. Would you mind?' + +"'I'll tell her,' I said. 'Is she fond of you?' + +"His eye closed and he lay as motionless as though he were dead. + +"'I don't suppose it matters now,' he remarked, very quietly. 'I shan't +see her again, very likely. Only I thought--if you told her how it +was ... you understand?' + +"'I tell you what I'll do,' I replied. 'I'll ask her to come and see +you. Isn't that the idea?' + +"'Yes, that's the idea,' he returned with extraordinary bitterness. +'That's all it's likely to be--an idea. I never did have any luck. It's +always the way, somehow. The things you want ... you can't get. And now, +this ... I say, Chief.' + +"'Well?' + +"'Excuse me, won't you, talking like this. I'm awfully grateful really. +It means a good deal to me, if she only knows I meant to be there. She +said I could--if I liked.' + +"'Isn't she playing with you?' I asked, harshly. He put up his hand. + +"'No, she's not that sort. She's different from other girls. She's had a +rotten time ... I can't tell you.... It would have been different if she +was coming home with us. Everything seems against me. No matter ... a +chap has to put up with his luck, I suppose.' + +"'You'll pick up,' I suggested, without much brilliance I am afraid. He +made no reply, lying with a sort of stern acquiescence in the enigmatic +blows of fate. + +"And the next day, when the ore was crashing into the holds and the ship +lay in a red fog of dust, Jack and I went ashore on our business. I +remember Mr. Bloom walking to and fro on the bridge deck with the Second +Mate, nudging him facetiously as they passed the Second, who was rigging +his tackle over the bunker, and nodding toward us as we made our way +among the ore-trucks and down to the beach. The Second had told me that +'the nosey blighter' had been making inquiries about the coal, with sly +innuendoes dusted over his sapient remarks. It was a subject to which +Mr. Bloom's lofty conceptions of 'professional etiquette' would do full +justice. As we climbed the steps which ran up outside Gruenbaum's house, +I was wondering to myself if I should be able to redeem my promise to +young Siddons. There seemed small likelihood of it unless I took Jack +into our confidence. We entered a high stone passage through the farther +end of which we could see Gruenbaum's orchard and Gruenbaum's five +children playing under the trees in the care of a fat Greek woman. We +turned to the left into an immense chamber with a cheap desk and office +chair in one corner. The whitewashed walls were decorated with +oleographs of imaginary Greek steamships, all funnels and bridge, with +towering knife-like prows cleaving the Atlantic at terrific speed. There +were advertisements of Greek and Italian insurance companies, too, and a +battered yellow old map of the Cyclades. And standing at the tall +windows was a figure in a frock coat squinting through a telescope. He +put it down hurriedly as we entered, walked across to the desk, and +resting his hand on it, made us a bow. This was Monsieur Nikitos, the +lieutenant of the mighty enterprise. I must confess that his pose at +that moment was less of the financier than of a world-famous virtuoso at +the piano bowing to a tumult of applause. + +"'This is the Chief Engineer,' said Jack. The virtuoso favoured me with +a special bow, and waved his hand to a couple of chairs. + +"'Take a seat, Captain. Take a seat, Mister Chief. Mr. Gruenbaum is +engaged at the moment. I take the opportunity of mentioning the little +matter we discussed yesterday, Captain. I have no doubt you will take +shares in our company.' + +"Jack looked at me, and I regarded Monsieur Nikitos with fresh interest. +He was a most mysterious creature to look at, now we were close to him. +He was quite young, not more than twenty-five, and the black fuzz on his +face gave him a singularly dirty appearance. As he sat in his swivel +chair with the tails of his dusty frock coat draped over the arms, +tapping his large white teeth with his pen and brushing his black hair +from his blotchy forehead, he suddenly gave me the impression of a poet +trying to think of a rhyme. + +"'We have decided,' I said, and he dropped his hands and inclined his +ear, 'to think it over.' He slumped back in his chair, smiled, and shook +his head. Then he straightened up and reaching for a ruler looked +critically at it. + +"'We cannot wait. In affairs of finance one must think quickly, then +act--so!' He snapped his thumb and finger. 'If not, the chance is gone. +Now I show you. To-day, Captain Macedoine resigns. Yes! To-morrow, _I_ +resign. Like that. To-morrow also, Monsieur Spilliazeza, our invaluable +manager of works, resigns! To-night, the _Osmanli_ calls for the mails. +We go by the _Osmanli_, our vessel, to Saloniki. We arrive. We take +action at once.' He waved his arms. 'Action! Next week it will be too +late. Option taken up, work commenced, contracts awarded, organization +complete. It is all here.' He tapped his forehead. 'I have it complete, +in inauguration, here.' And he regarded us with a gaze of rapt +abstraction in his brilliant black eyes. + +"I don't mind telling you that the chief impression this performance +made upon me was that he was a lunatic. Jack was staring solemnly at +him. I imagine he began to have doubts of the wisdom of entrusting this +creature with real money. And then a bell tinkled, one of a pair of high +dark folding doors opened, and I had a glimpse of a great room where an +enormously fat man sat in the curve of a vast horseshoe shaped desk. It +was only a momentary view, you understand, of the diffused light shed by +three tall windows upon a chamber of unusual size. I had an impression +of glancing into a museum, a glimpse of a statue, very white and tall +with an arm broken off short, gleaming glass cases of small things that +shone like opals and aquamarines, and great bunches of coral like +petrified foam. I saw all this as the door stood for a moment, the +fezzed head of a little old gentleman looking out and mumbling the word +'_Kapitan!_' We stood up. Jack made a movement to go in. Monsieur +Nikitos came between us and regarded us as though we were conspirators. + +"'Monsieur Gruenbaum will see the Kapitan,' he remarked in a loud voice, +and then in a whisper, 'Of this--not a word,' And he pressed his +knuckles to his lips. And then Jack passed into the room, the door +closed softly, and I was alone with Monsieur Nikitos. + +"My feelings at that moment, you know, were mixed. I was astonished. +I was amused. I was indignant. I looked at the frock-coated +figure before me with an expression of profound distaste and +contempt. He gave me a confidential smile and indicated a chair. +I sat down, looking at the closed folding doors. And as I sat +there I became aware that Monsieur Nikitos was indulging in +a whispered monologue. I caught the words--man of wide views--great +wealth--vast experience--unlimited prospects--unique grasp of +detail--necessary in affairs--man of affairs ... and then, in +a lower tone--daughter--beauty--happiness--future--efforts +redoubled--found fortunes--ideals--cannot express feelings--humble +aspirations--many years--ambition--travel.... + +"I suppose I must have made some sound to indicate my coherent interest +in this unlooked-for rigmarole, for he sprang up, and placed himself +between me and the folding doors. He bent his head to my ear. He desired +to know if I considered my Kapitan reliable. Would he invest? That was +the thing. Would he invest? Had he character? Why did he ask? Because he +had a design. The Swedish Kapitan who had invested was a single man, a +man of no education, I was to understand--no culture. But my Kapitan was +a married man. Of course he would settle in Saloniki, that fairest +jewel in the Turkish crown. He himself knew a house in a good +street--just the thing. He was anxious about this because he himself +would shortly become a married man. He sat down abruptly and waved the +ruler. As in a dream I sat there listening to his words. I have a notion +now that he gave me his whole life history. I recall reference to--early +years--great ambitions--great work--frustrated--years of exile--unique +qualifications--international journalism--special correspondent--highly +commended--friend of liberty--confidential agent, and so on. He had an +immense command of rapidly enunciated phrases which were run together +and interspersed with melodramatic pauses and gestures. And I said +nothing--nothing at all. He ran on, apparently quite satisfied that I +had a deep and passionate interest in his vapourings. As a matter of +fact, I paid very little attention. I was wondering whether it would be +worth my while to obtain an interview with the girl, if what he had +hinted were true, that her assistance in her father's designs was to +many this eloquent lieutenant and satisfy his 'humble aspirations.' And +while I wondered I heard harsh words uttered within the folding +doors--_confidence in my dispositions_--said a voice of grating +power and guttural sound. Monsieur Nikitos looked at me for an +instant and waved his ruler. He muttered. He alluded to tyrannical +obstinacy--unimaginative autocracy--intolerable domination--and other +polysyllabic enormities. The harsh voice went on in an unintelligible +rumble, rising again to 'post of a secretarial nature--a man of +undeserved misfortune--my disgust--effrontery to submit--resignation.' I +listened, and Monsieur Nikitos, who was gazing at me, gradually assumed +an expression of extreme alarm. He rose and went on tip-toe into the +outer hall. He reappeared suddenly with a broad-brimmed felt hat on his +head. He muttered some excuses--appointment--return immediately--urgent +necessity--apologies--in a moment--and tip-toed away again, leaving me +alone. + +"I was beginning to think Jack had forgotten all about me when he came +out and closed the door behind him. We walked out into the passage +together, but he made no remark until I asked him if it was all right +about the coal. He said yes, it was all right, but what did I think? +That chap Macedoine was a wrong-un, according to Gruenbaum. Trying to get +control. Gruenbaum had sacked him. After fetching his daughter out for +him, too. It was true, what Nikitos had told us. They were going all +right but because they had to. Gruenbaum was in a devil of a rage over +it. Had cabled to Paris to send out some more men. Good job he'd had +the notion of asking Gruenbaum about it, eh? Might have lost our money. +Now he came to think of it, that Greek didn't look very reliable. Was I +coming back on board? + +"We paused on the beach, where a few fishing boats were drawn up and the +nets lay in the sun drying. + +"'I don't think I will,' I said. 'I guess I'll take a walk up the cliff +over there. When will you pull off to the buoys?' + +"'Not a minute after five,' he returned. 'It's none so safe here at +night. Steam ready all the time remember, Fred. Gruenbaum was just giving +me a friendly warning.' + +"I started off for a walk up the cliff. The point where the path cut +round the corner stood sharp against the sky and led me on. As I gained +the beginning of the rise I could look back and down into Gruenbaum's +garden where lemon, fig, plum, and almond trees grew thickly above green +grass cut into sectors by paths of white marble flags and with a +fountain sending a thin jet into the air. I could see children playing +about under the trees, but there were no birds. There were no birds on +the island. I realized this perfectly irrelevant fact at that moment, +and I became aware of the singular isolation of this man living under +the gigantic shadow of the mountain. It gave me a sudden and profound +consciousness of his extreme security against the designs oL imaginative +illusionists. The vast bulk of the man became identified in my mind with +the tremendous mass of rock against which I was leaning. The momentary +glimpses into his office, the memory of the bizarre conjunction of +ancient statuary with the furniture of business and money-making, the +harsh voice reverberating through the lofty chambers, gave me a feeling +that I had been assisting at some incredible theatrical performance. I +started off again. I felt I needed a walk. After all, these reflections +were but an idle fancy. Jack and I were not likely to risk our small +savings in any such wild-cat schemes. Jack's words about pulling off to +the buoys had recalled me to a sense of serious responsibility. One +always had that hanging over one while in Ipsilon. Gruenbaum, from his +secure fastness under the mountain, was familiar with the incalculable +treachery of the wind and sea. + +"I was soon far above the habitation of men. Above me slanted the masses +of weathered limestone and marble; below, reduced to the size of a +child's toy, I could see the _Manola_. At intervals I could hear a faint +rattle and another cloud of red dust would rise from her deck, like the +smoke of a bombardment. Far below me were a tiny group of men at work in +a quarry. They seemed to be engaged in some fascinating game. They +clustered and broke apart, running here and there, crouching behind +boulders, and remaining suddenly still. There would be a dull thump, a +jet of smoke, and a few pieces of rock, microscopic to me, would tumble +about. And then all the pigmy figures would run out again and begin +industriously to peck at these pieces, like ants, and carry them, with +tiny staggerings, out of sight. I watched them for a moment and then +walked on until I came to the corner where the path curves to the right +and eventually confronts the open sea. I was alone with the inaccessible +summits and the soft murmur of invisible waves breaking upon half-tide +rocks. I was in mid-air with a scene of extraordinary beauty and +placidity spread before me. The sea, deep blue save where it shallowed +into pale green around the farther promontory, was a mirror upon which +the shadows of clouds flickered and passed like the moods of an innocent +soul. In the distance lay the purple masses of other islands, asleep. It +was as though I were gazing upon a beautiful and empty world, awaiting +the inevitable moment when men should claim the right to destroy its +loveliness.... + +"At intervals along the face of the cliff were tunnels which led +through the marble shell of the mountain into the veins of ore. I walked +along looking for a place to sit down, stepping from tie to tie of the +narrow-gauge track along which the mine trucks were pushed by Gruenbaum's +islanders. I suppose the vein had petered out up there.... I don't know. +One of Gruenbaum's dispositions, perhaps. Anyhow it was deserted. I came +to a huge mass of rock projecting from the face, so that the track +swerved outward to clear it. I walked carefully round and stopped +suddenly. + +"She was sitting there, leaning against the entrance to a working, and +looking out across the sea. Without alarm or resentment she turned her +head slightly and looked at me, and then bent her gaze once more upon +the distance. I hesitated for a moment, doubtful of her mood, and she +spoke quietly. + +"'What is it?' she asked. I went up and stood by her. + +"'I have a message for you,' I remarked, and took out a cigarette. 'But +I had no idea you were up here. In fact, I dare say I should have gone +back on board without giving it to you.' + +"'What is it?' she said again, and this time she looked at me. + +"'You don't know, I suppose,' I said, 'that Siddons--the Third Mate--has +had an accident?' + +"She looked away and paused before answering. + +"'I see,' she remarked, though what she saw I did not quite comprehend +at the moment. It seemed a strange comment to make. + +"'Oh, come!' I said. 'Don't say you're not interested.' + +"'How did it happen?' she enquired, looking at her shoe. + +"I told her. She turned her foot about as though examining it, her +slender hands clasped on her lap. She had an air of being occupied with +some problem in which I had no part. + +"'And the message?' she said at length. I gave her that, too, briefly, +and without any colouring of my own. She put one leg over the other, +clasping her knee with her hands, and bent forward, looking suddenly at +me from under bent brows. + +"'What can I do?' she demanded in a low tone. + +"'But don't you see,' I returned. 'He's in love with you.' + +"She gave a faint shrug of the shoulders and uttered a sound of +amusement. + +"'Then you are indifferent?' I asked, annoyed. + +"'What else can I be?' she said. 'Boys always think they are in love. I +don't think much of that sort of love.' And she fell silent again, +looking at the sea. + +"'Look here, my dear,' I said abruptly, 'tell me about it. I'm in the +dark. Can't I help you?' + +"'No,' she said. 'You can't. Nobody can help me. I'm in a fix.' + +"'But how?' I persisted. + +"'Do you suppose,' she said, slowly, 'that nobody has been in love with +me before I came on your ship? I thought you'd understand, when I told +you I had never had any luck. I haven't. I had no one to tell me. I +thought people were kinder, you know--men, I mean. And now all I can do +is wait ... wait. Sometimes I wish I was dead, wish I'd never been born! +Before you came up, I was wondering if I couldn't just jump--finish it +all up--no more waiting. And then I found I hadn't the pluck to do that. +I tried to tell Mrs. Evans once, give her a hint somehow, but she +doesn't understand. She's safe. She's got a husband as well as ... no +matter. I was going to tell you, one evening, you remember, but I got +scared. I didn't feel sure about you. Oh, I'm sorry, of course, about +Mr. Siddons. I liked him, you know. He's a gentleman. But even gentlemen +are very much the same as anybody else.' + +"'But what will you do?' I asked in astonishment. + +"'I must go with my father,' she replied, stonily. 'He wants me to be +with him. He is not happy here. He is misunderstood. He is going into +business with my--with another man. We are going to Saloniki. I dare +say I shall do as he wishes. That's what a daughter should do, isn't +it?' And her eyes flickered toward me again. + +"I didn't answer, and there was a long silence. I had no words of +consolation for that solitary soul engaged in the sombre business of +waiting. And I understood the trivial role which young Siddons played in +her tragic experience. To her we were all pasteboard figures actuated by +a heartless and irrelevant destiny. Fate had shut the door upon her with +a crash, and she was alone with her griefs in an alien world. I put my +arm round her shoulders. She looked at me with hard bright eyes, her red +lips firmly set. + +"'Can I help you?' I whispered. She shook her head. 'At least,' I went +on, 'you can write to me, if you were in trouble--ever. I would like you +to feel that someone is thinking of you.' + +"'It's kind of you,' she said, with a faint smile, 'but _you_ wouldn't +be able to do much. Oh! I know what men are,' she added with a +hysterical little laugh. 'Always thinking of themselves. There's always +that behind everything they do. They don't mean it, but it's there, all +the time. Even you wouldn't do anything to make yourself uncomfortable, +you know.' + +"'You don't think a great deal of us,' I remonstrated, taking my arm +away. + +"'No, I don't!' she said with sudden hard viciousness of tone. 'I've had +very little reason to, so far.' + +"'You are meeting trouble half way, going on like this,' I said, +severely. 'Come now. I insist. Promise me you will write when you get to +Saloniki. Here, I'll give you my address.' And I gave it to her. She +sighed. + +"'I'm not afraid of life,' she said, 'when it is fair play. But I +haven't had fair play. I've been up against it every time. If I got a +chance----' + +"'What sort of a chance?' I asked, curiously. There was a look of savage +determination on her face, and she clenched her teeth and hands on the +word 'chance.' + +"'Oh, I'm not done yet,' she exclaimed to the air. 'I'm in a fix, but if +I ever get out of it alive, look out!' + +"'What do you mean?' I asked again. + +"'Nothing that you would approve of,' she answered, dropping her voice. +'Nothing any of you would approve of.' + +"'That means it's something foolish,' I remarked. + +"'Perhaps. We'll see,' she retorted. + +"'I would like to have taken a word back to young Siddons,' I hinted. +'Just to show you cared a little.' + +"'But I don't!' she burst out. 'I don't! He bothered me to let him come +and see me and I said--I don't know what I said. Tell him anything you +like. I don't care. I'm sick of it all there!' + +"'You are making it very hard for me,' I said, gently, and she flung +round suddenly and faced me, her eyes shining, her lips parted in a +rather mirthless smile. She was an extraordinarily beautiful creature +just then. Her face, with its slightly broad, firmly modelled nostrils, +the small ears set close under the cloud of soft dark hair, and the +thick black eyebrows, was informed with a kind of radiance that +heightened the sinister impression of her scorn. She regarded me +steadfastly as though she had had her curiosity suddenly aroused. + +"'You!' she said. 'Hard for you? What is there hard for you anywhere? +_You_ don't take any chances. Humph!' and she turned away again. + +"'Just what does that mean?' I enquired. 'If you don't care anything +about young Siddons, you're hardly likely to care much about any of the +rest of us.' + +"'No?' she said, tauntingly. 'No?' + +"'I offered you my sympathy,' I began, and she turned on me again. + +"'This?' she asked, holding up the address I had given her. 'What's the +good of this, if I wanted help?' + +"'But what can I do?' I insisted. 'Use me. Tell me what you want me to +do!' + +"'Well,' she said in a dry, hard voice and looking away out to sea. 'I +suppose you know what a girl in my position usually wants of a single +man, don't you?' + +"'But, my child,' I said, 'this is extraordinary!' + +"'Oh, don't '_my child_' me,' she retorted in a passion. 'I thought you +understood.' + +"Well, I suppose I had understood in a vague sort of way, but I +certainly had not credited her with any active designs of this sort. And +while I sat beside her reflecting upon the precarious nature of a +bachelor's existence, I found she had glanced round upon me again, her +expression at once critical and derisive. She saw through my sentimental +interest in her affairs. She knew that at the first signal of danger to +my own peace and position I would sheer off, regretfully but swiftly. Of +course she was perfectly right. The mere thought of her father and his +mangy lieutenant was sufficient. She had so much against her. It was +horrible. As I sat there counting up the handicaps which Fate had +imposed upon her I was aware of that critical and derisive smile +regarding me over her shoulder. And I felt ashamed. I had an uneasy +feeling that she was thinking of my severely paternal manner when I put +my arm round her and made her take my address. She thought more of young +Siddons, no doubt, more even of Nikitos, who was willing to marry her +without knowing her secret, than she did of me. That is one of the +penalties of remaining a super in the play. The leading lady regards you +with critical derision or she doesn't regard you at all. + +"'Let us suppose,' I suggested after a silence, 'that I do understand. +Then why do you turn down young Siddons?' + +"She made a sound and a gesture of impatience. + +"'Oh, because of any amount of reasons,' she said, looking out to sea +again. 'A lot I'd see of him if he knew.' + +"'Doesn't he? He told me you had had a bad time.' She shrugged her +shoulders. + +"'I told him some sort of tale, just to pass the time. I'm not such a +fool. _You_ can tell him if you like,' she laughed shortly. 'I knew a +girl in the office who was engaged. She told him one day, after making +him promise to be her friend, and he nearly killed her, and left her.' + +"'Young Siddons wouldn't do that,' I asserted. + +"'No, he's a gentleman,' she sneered. 'He'd sail away. A handy +profession, a sailor's!' + +"I must confess that I was hypocrite enough to be shocked at this. She +wasn't far wrong, though. We do sail away, most of us, whether we are +gentlemen or not. I suppose we are all of us, at times, the victims of +the perplexing discrepancy between romance and reality. Only I wonder +why it is so many of us recover, and think of our escapades with a +shamefaced grin on our damaged countenances. They say these tremendous +emotional experiences tend to make us nobler. Why is it, when we come to +analyze ourselves and others in middle life, we seem to find nothing +save the dried-up residues of dead passions and the dregs of +relinquished aspirations? Why is it the young can see through our +tattered make-ups and judge us so unfalteringly and with such little +mercy? No doubt we get our revenge, if we live long enough and are +sufficiently rapacious to take it! + +"Yes, I was shocked, and she regarded me with defiant derision in her +bright dark eyes. She challenged me. I needn't tell you I did not then +accept. Here was a woman making the supreme appeal, locked up in a +castle kept by a whole regiment of ogres, and challenging me to come to +her rescue. And, as she put it, I sailed away. + +"'And besides,' she broke in on me with a short laugh, 'thirty shillings +a week! You can't keep house on that anywhere, as far as I know.' + +"This shocked me, too, until I reflected that this girl was not making +sentimental overtures, that she was simply explaining her extremely +secular reasons for rejecting a particular candidate. She was in that +mood and predicament. You can call it, with a certain amount of truth, a +girl's cross-roads. It certainly seems to me to be a more momentous +point in a woman's life than the accepted and conventional crisis which +confronts virginity. A man may successfully deceive a woman, as we +phrase it (rather ineptly), and make not the smallest impression upon +her personality or character. But the man who assumes the abandoned +function of protector, no matter what you call him, is invested with +tremendous powers. No power on earth can bring her back from the road on +which he sets her feet. She's got to take her cue from him. I suppose +she knows this, and when the time comes to mark down her victim she +brings to the business all the resources of her feminine intuition and +the remorseless judgment of a panther's spring. The ruthless reference +to poor young Siddons' six pounds a month wages--thirty shillings a +week--illustrates the mood exactly. Mind you, it is absurd to accuse a +girl of being merely callous and mercenary when she talks like that. She +is really merciful to her rejections in the long run. And she is +proceeding on the very rational argument that a man's value to a woman +may be roughly gauged by the value the world sets on him. She is not +merely a greedy little fool. Women upon whom such decisions are forced +achieve extraordinary skill in estimating the characters of men. Young +chaps like Siddons simply don't count--they are thrown to the discard at +once. Innocence and purity of soul are not negotiable assets in this +sort of thing. Even men with merely a great deal of money are not so +successful as one might imagine. They fizzle out if they lack the +character which the woman admires. I have seen them fizzle. A man who +roves as I do, reserving for himself, as I have insisted, the part of a +super in the play, naturally has many opportunities of watching the +lives of these emotional adventurers and the women who constitute the +inspiration of the adventures. The singularity of the present instance +was that, for the first time in my life, I was assisting at the +inauguration of such a career. That is how I interpreted her enigmatic +references to 'something I would not approve of.' And when I had got +that far I could see it was useless to bring in Siddons any more. His +destiny lay ahead. I have no doubt he achieved it with chivalrous +rectitude. We English have a way of weathering the gales of passion. + +"I was turning these things over in my mind as we sat up there on the +cliff and half regretting, perhaps, my usual inability to play up to my +romantic situation when she raised her hand and pointed out to sea. The +surface of the ocean lay like shimmering satin in the hush of the +afternoon, but far away a small black blot, with a motionless trail of +smoke astern, moved at the apex of a diverging ripple. She pointed to it +and looked at me with that hard, bright, radiant smile. It certainly was +significant. This was the _Osmanli_, the little tin-kettle steamboat in +which her father had invested his capital, the humble beginning of that +vast enterprise, the Anglo-Hellenic Development Company. The actual +presence of that forlorn little vessel made a profound difference to our +words. It was impossible to deny that Captain Macedoine's dreams might +come true after all. His remarkable countenance might yet feature in our +magazines as one of our great captains of industry, while I, with old +Jack, pursued our obscure ways, the victims of a never-ending regret. +The _Osmanli_ came on, slowly pushing that immense ripple across the +opaline floors. Perhaps the girl perceived the significance of this. Her +hand dropped to her lap but she continued to regard me in a sort of +defiant silence. There! she seemed to say, there lies our future, wide +as the sea, glorious as the afternoon sun on purple isles and the +fathomless blue of heavens! She was extraordinarily lovely. I found +myself trying to picture the sort of man who would appear later to +fashion her destiny--perhaps one of the capitalists who would inevitably +be drawn into the great enterprise. She would develop tremendously. For +a moment I felt an access of regret at my renunciation. Too late, no +doubt. But I have not scrupled since to think of what might have been, +had I not--well, lost my nerve, let us say, and preferred to keep in the +cool, shadowy by-ways of life. That's what her bright, defiant smile +really meant, I believe now. I was no use to her because I didn't dare +to grab her and take the consequences. They say women nowadays are +rebelling against being possessed. The trouble seems to be rather that +so many men shrink from the trouble and the strain and responsibility +that possession entails. Too much civilization, I suppose. We are afraid +of looking foolish, afraid of taking a chance. We sail away. And when we +read in the news of some intrepid soul who does take a chance, who +snatches a breathless woman off her feet and gallops thundering through +all our mean and cowardly conventions and finishes up perhaps with a +bullet in his brain, we shrug and mutter that he was a fool. We remain +safe and die in our beds, but we have to suffer in silence that bright, +critical, derisive smile which means 'Thou art afraid!'" + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"Yes, afraid!" said Mr. Spenlove, suddenly, after another long pause, as +though one of the silent and recumbent forms under the awning had +contradicted him. "We have got so that no man dare do anything off his +own bat, as we say. We hunt in packs. It makes no difference whether the +individual man is a saint or a sinner. + +"We pull him down. Our whole scheme of life has been designed to put a +premium on the tame and well-behaved, on the careful and steady +householder and his hygienic _menage_. We read with regret of disorder +in various parts of the world, and we despatch our legions from our own +immaculate shores to 'restore order.' Punitive expeditions we call them. +We have assumed the role of policeman in an ebullient world. Faith, +Love, Courage, are well enough if they declare a dividend and fill up +the necessary forms. We are dominated by the domestic. Women like Mrs. +Evans wield enormous power. It is not so much that they have character +as characteristics. They are the priestesses of the Temples of Home. I +used to watch that woman on the voyage to England. I was inspired by a +new and rabid curiosity. I wanted to see her in that aspect of security +which had moved the girl with such bitterness. Because Mrs. Evans hadn't +struck me as very safe when I had last seen her, sending out wireless +calls to me in her extremity. She had been sure I would give dear Jack +the best advice. That, in her private mind, was my mission on earth--to +minister to the needs of her and her angel child. But she was safe now. +She would greet me in what for her was almost a melting mood. I was the +confidant of the angel child's imaginary maladies. I was permitted to be +by while this precious being, sitting among blankets after her bath, was +fed with a highly nitrogenous extract of something or other from a cup. +Once I made a remark to the effect that they would have to get a fresh +nurse when they got home. Mrs. Evans bridled. She drew down the corners +of her mouth and remarked that in future she would look after Babs +herself. + +"'But,' I said, 'if you could get a girl like Miss Macedoine.' Mrs. +Evans kept her gaze on Babs, who was staring at me over the rim of the +cup with her bold, protuberant black eyes like those of some marine +animal. + +"'No,' she said, 'girls like that are too much trouble.' + +"'You mean--followers?' I suggested. Mrs. Evans turned red and moved +slightly. + +"'She wasn't nice,' she replied, coldly, and pronounced it 'neyce.' + +"'Oh,' I said, 'I wasn't aware you knew.' She got redder. + +"'I don't know what you are talking about,' she muttered. 'As far as I +could see, she was very fortunate in getting her passage out free, very +fortunate. She was not neyce with Babs. Babs didn't take to her. +Children _know_!' + +"'Still,' I said, looking at the omniscient Babs lying back in repletion +and trying to decide upon some fresh demand, 'Still, I felt sorry for +her, a pretty creature like that, at a dangerous age, you know...' I +had to stop, for Mrs. Evans' usually pale features were a dull brick +red. Her head was drawn back and she became rigid with disapproval. This +is what I mean when I say such women wield enormous power. They are +panoplied in prejudice and conventional purity. Mrs. Evans was like +that. She was safe. She was a pure woman. I looked at her thin, peaked +little features as she replaced the blanket about the kicking limbs of +the angel child and thought of that girl with her bright, defiant, +derisive smile challenging me to high adventure. Mrs. Evans' function in +life was not to challenge but to disapprove. She could endure no +discussion of the fundamentals. She could read tales of passion and +rape, and not a flicker of emotion would cross that pallid face. But +there must be no spoken word. Instinctively she drew back and became +rigid, protecting her immaculate soul and the angel child from the +faintest breath of reality. In that flat bosom raged a hatred, a horror, +of beauty and the desire of it--a conviction that it was neither good +nor evil, but simply strange, foreign, unknown, unsuitable; incompatible +with the semi-detached house on the Portsmouth Road whose photograph +hung on the bulkhead behind her. There was something shocking in the +contrast this woman presented to her environment out there. Gruenbaum, +living under the shadow of his mountain, claiming from the world +'confidence in his dispositions'; Macedoine and his lieutenant devising +fantastic skin-games to be played out among the haunts of the old +Cabirian gods; Artemisia fighting her own sad little battle with the +fates and steeling her soul with reckless resolutions; even old Jack, no +bad prototype of the ancient ship-masters who ran their battered biremes +up on yonder beach to mend their storm-strained gear--all were more or +less congruous with this old Isle of Ipsilon, where Perseus grew to +manhood and from whose shores he set out on his journey to find Medusa. +But not she. She transcended experience. To know her made one +incredulous of one's own spiritual adventures. One nursed indelicate and +never-to-be-satisfied curiosities about her emotional divagations. She +once confessed, in a tone of querulous austerity, that she 'lived only +for the child.' Possibly this was the key. Beauty and Love, and even +Life itself, as men understood them, were to her the shocking but +inevitable conditions of attaining to an existence consecrated to her +neat and toy-like ideal. I am only explaining how she impressed me. As +you say, she was, and is, simply a respectable married woman. But +respectable married women, when you live with them without being married +to them, are sometimes very remarkable manifestations of human nature. + +"Yes, I used to watch that woman on the voyage home. I was full of +curiosity about her. I was loth to believe in a human being so +insensitive to what we usually call human emotions. There was difficulty +about getting her ashore in Algiers. It was only when Jack said she +would get smothered in coal-dust if she stayed that she consented to go +at all. She came back with a very poor opinion of Africa. It appears +that it was hot and they did not know at the cafe how to make tea. A +mosquito had had the effrontery to bite Babs. I was informed of this +momentous adventure after we had gone to sea again, though Mrs. Evans +had been cultivating a certain evasion where I was concerned since our +talk about Artemisia. She had sheered off from me and tried to pump Jack +about the girl. He came to me, his bright brown eyes globular with the +news. What did I know, eh? Missus was saying she'd heard there was +something fishy about the gel. Not that he'd be surprised. It only +showed, he went on, how particular a man had to be. Gel like that ought +to be _married_. Mrs. Evans was very particular whom she had about. +Always had been. I knew, of course, how carefully she'd been brought up. +A lady. There was something about that gel ... no, he never could give +it a name, but he didn't like it. Bad for the kid. Children _knew_. And +they were the devil for picking things up. Here was Angelina, only the +other night, getting him into a regular pickle because she'd heard him +say 'damn' and brought it out plump in front of Mrs. Evans. Couldn't be +too careful. Fancy a kid that age saying a thing like that--'Damn +by-bye, damn by-bye!' Jack's eyes grew larger and more prominent. Mrs. +Evans had been very upset when he had remarked irascibly that a ship was +no place for a child anyway. No more it was. 'Fred'--(I could see this +coming, mind you, a week before)--'Fred, my boy,' said he, 'I shall be +glad when we get home. I can see it now. It's a mistake. I always said +so when the commander brought his wife along.' It didn't do to take a +woman away from where she belonged. She saw too much, as well. What did +I think she said the other day? A fact. 'You and Mr. Spenlove don't seem +to me to _do_ much.' Think of that! And sometimes he wondered if she +didn't pay more attention to that infernal pier-head jumper, Bloom, than +to her own husband. I should hear him at the cabin table--'When _I_ was +commander, Mrs. Evans, I always insisted on the junior officers +overseeing the routine of the ship. When _I_ was commander, I made it a +rule that engineers should keep to their own part of the ship.' It was +enough to make a man sick, but women didn't know any better.... Glad to +get home. Was I going to Threxford? + +"Well, no, I didn't go down to Threxford. I went to the station to see +them off from Glasgow, though. Mrs. Evans held up the angel child for me +to kiss. 'Kiss Mr. Spenlove, Babsy, darling.' The youngster favoured me +with one of her bold, predatory stares as she desisted from torturing +her immense teddy bear for a moment. I had a sudden and disconcerting +vision of Jack's daughter as she would be-well, as she is to-day, I +expect ... a robust, self-centred, expensively attired autocrat, ruling +her parents, her friends, and her adorers with the smooth efficiency of +a healthy tigress. Jack once muttered to me that she'd 'knock the men +over' and he seemed to take a certain grim relish in contemplating the +future overthrow of the love-sick swains. And I saw in the background of +this vision, as one sees a pale bluish shadow of a form in the +background of a bright, highly coloured portrait, I saw Mrs. Evans, +shrinking as the angel child developed, and cowering before that +nonchalant vampirism. A well-nourished young cannibal, I figure her, for +such characters need human beings for their sustenance, if you take the +trouble to observe their habits. I suppose she regarded me as +indigestible, for she kissed me without rapture, and I never saw her +again. + +"And the next voyage we slipped back into our usual jog-trot round. Mr. +Bloom, that fine flower of professional culture, was replaced by one of +our skippers who had lost his license for a year for some highly +technical reason. Jack was rather perturbed by the prospect of having a +brother-captain under him, but the new chief-officer was temporarily +stunned by the blow fate had dealt him and was a good fellow anyhow. +Young Siddons, who was able to carry on by the time we sailed, said he +was a jolly decent old sort. Young Siddons and I had a good many talks +together that voyage. He was in sore need, you know, of somebody to +confide in. We all need that when we are in love. It has been my lot, +more than once, to be favoured with these confidences. Tactless? Oh, no. +As the Evanses said about children, these young hearts _know_. Yes, we +talked, and I received fresh light upon the mysteries of passion. As +Jack had said, young Siddons was the sort to take it hard. His face grew +thinner and there was a new and austere expression in his fine gray +eyes. We say easily, oh, the young don't die of love! But don't they? +Doesn't the youth we knew die? Don't we discover, presently, that a +firmer and more durable and perhaps slightly less lovable character has +appeared? So it seems to me. Not that Siddons was less lovable. But the +gay and somewhat care-free youth who had laughed so happily on the +voyage out when the girl had stopped for a while to chat with him was +dead. He had a memory to feed on now, a sombre-sweet reminiscence dashed +with the faint bitterness of an inevitable frustration. He took it out +of me, so to speak, using me as a confessor, not of sins, but of +illusions. + +"He enlightened me, moreover, concerning the mishap which had befallen +him and thrown him so definitely out of the race. He had met M. Nikitos +on his way up to keep his tryst. She was standing at the door above +them, silhouetted against the light, when they met on the path below. In +darkness, of course. The lieutenant of the Anglo-Hellenic Development +Company had adopted an extremely truculent attitude. He did not allow, +he said, people from the ship to seek interviews in that clandestine +manner. Ordered young Siddons to depart. Which, of course, an Englishman +couldn't tolerate from a beastly dago. Punched his head. M. Nikitos, +familiar with the terrain, had flung a piece of rock, and young Siddons, +stepping back quickly in the first agony of the blow, had fallen over +the edge, where I had found him. This was illuminating. It explained a +number of obscure points which had puzzled me. I wondered, as I heard +it, whether the recital of this feat to Captain Macedoine and his +daughter had made any difference in the latter's attitude toward the +victor. She had not regarded him with any enthusiasm when I had talked +with her on the cliff, I noticed. I wondered. For you must be prepared +to hear that I was tremendously preoccupied with thoughts of her at that +time. That is one of the inestimable privileges of being a mere super in +the play. You haven't much to do and you can let your mind dwell upon +the destiny of the leading lady. You can almost call it a hobby of mine, +to dwell upon the fortunes of the men and women who pass across the +great stage on which I have an obscure coign of vantage. Some prefer to +find their interest in novels. They brood in secret upon the erotic +exhalations which rise from the Temple of Art. But I am not much of a +reader, and I prefer the larger freedom of individual choice. + +"And there was much in young Siddons which helped me to visualize the +personality which had suddenly irradiated his soul. Of course he was +English, with all the disabilities of his race to express emotion. But +the need for sympathy triumphed over these, and he would come along to +my room in the dog-watch when I learned something of the tremendous +experience which had befallen him. The Second Engineer, who had +apparently suffered very slightly indeed, for I saw him in Renfield +Street one night with two young ladies on his way to the theatre, +assumed an air of dry detachment when he noticed these visits. The +Chief, I heard him growling to the Third one day when he thought I was +out of earshot, was nursing the mates nowadays. I knew the Second +disapproved of friendship on principle. His ideal was to be more or less +at loggerheads with everybody. He would wait until you had made some +ordinary human remark, when he would retire into his formidable arsenal +of facts and figures, and returning with a large and hard chunk of +information, throw it at you and knock you down with it. His +unreasonableness lay in his failure to realize that a man cannot be your +friend and your enemy at the same time, that people are never grateful +for being set right. He had a dry and creaking efficiency which made him +silently detested. I for one rejoiced when I heard indirectly, at a +later period, that a widow of forty, with seven children, had sued him +for breach-of-promise. + +"Young Siddons was unaware of the Second's disapproval, and would slip +down after supper, ready to go on at eight, and smoke cigarettes on my +settee. You men know how, in fine weather, when you walk to and fro on +the bridge, the empty, dragging hours induce the shades of the past to +come up and keep you company. We in the engine-room generally have +enough to do to keep away the crowds of ghosts. We had fine weather most +of the time and young Siddons would come down with a fresh set of +impressions which he would try to explain to me. He had been down to see +his people while we were at home and I imagine the impact of cheerful, +prosperous, well-bred folk had done a lot to modify his views. It was +difficult, he confided one evening, to reconcile one's feelings for a +girl with the grave problem of one's 'people.' Some chaps had such +thundering luck. There was his brother, articled to a solicitor, who had +been engaged for three years to a doctor's daughter. They were just +waiting until he was admitted. Now, what luck that was! Everything in +good taste. She lived in the same road. He saw her every day. Her people +were well off. When the time came the brother would have the usual +wedding, go to Cromer for a honeymoon, and--start life. Young Siddons +was puzzled by the fact that he himself had been bowled over by a girl +who, he couldn't help admitting, would not have been approved by the +'people' down in Herefordshire. He saw that! I could perceive in his air +a rather amusing amazement that love was apparently the antithesis +instead of the complement of happiness. Now how could that be? And yet +he admitted he had never seen his brother display any rapture over his +love affair with the doctor's daughter. Took it very much as a matter of +course. Oh, a very nice girl, very nice. But ... he would fall silent, +his chin on his hand, recalling the memory of Artemisia as she had +seemed to him, an alluring and unattainable desire. + +"Yes, it was interesting, and it fed my interest in her. I was too +experienced, I suppose, to expect to see her again, but it amused me to +brood upon her destiny. And it was a wish to learn something about that +strange trio that took me up to Gruenbaum's one afternoon when we +arrived, and I had the privilege of an interview with the concessionaire +himself. Surrounded by attentive minions, who had full 'confidence in +his dispositions' he reposed, with the urbane placidity of a corpulent +idol, in the curve of his great horseshoe desk. The yellow blinds were +down over the tall windows against the westering sun, and the statue +with the arm broken short gleamed like old ivory. It was startling to +see a student's sword and long German pipe hanging crossed on the wall +beside that ancient piece of statuary. Gruenbaum confessed, when I spoke +of them, to being 'largely cosmopolitan,' though loyal of course to the +Hellenic Government and his consular obligations to Great Britain. When +I made mention of Macedoine, he frowned heavily and admitted that he had +'taken the necessary steps.' The concessions in the Saloniki hinterland +would be dealt with by the Paris House 'with a view to safe-guarding our +interests.' No doubt the railroad to Uskub would in time render such +concessions extremely valuable. M. Nikitos doubtless obtained this +information surreptitiously from the official archives. But it was +necessary that these financial dispositions should be in the hands of +Western Europeans, since western capital was inevitably attracted to +such enterprises. He himself was a man of western ideas. Educated in +Berlin and Paris, he had been trained in affairs in Lombard Street. Our +banking system was sound and our climate ferocious--so he summed us up +more or less adequately. As regards the future of M. Macedoine he could +tell me nothing. No doubt that gentleman would be fully occupied in +setting his new venture on its feet. Oh, of course, these things +occasionally prospered; but in the long run, stability of credit was +essential. This, M. Macedoine, as far as could be ascertained, did not +command. + +"The harsh, guttural, cultured voice rolled on--the voice of established +authority, of resistless financial power. To the simple and insular +intelligences of the islanders his potency must have seemed god-like +indeed. In this forgotten island of the sea he had assumed the role of +arbiter of their humble destinies, the source of their happiness, and +the omnipotent guardian of their fortunes. He was the head of what is +deprecatingly called in these days a Servile State. We are warned that +democracy is advancing to sweep up all such anachronisms and cast them +into the fire. I am not so sure. None of us, who have seen the new +liberty stalking through the old lands like a pestilence, are altogether +sure. After all, there is something to be said for the theory of a +Golden Age.... + +"The guttural voice rolled on. The business of the day was nearly over, +and he spoke in general terms of the tendencies of the day. It was a +mistake, he thought, to assume that all men were equal. He had not found +it so. The Anglo-Saxon race had a genius for misgovernment on the +democratic principle. He was not convinced that this could be applied to +Southeastern Europe. Democracy was an illusion founded on a +misconception. The power must be in one hand. Otherwise, chaos. Observe +these works of supreme art about me--these exquisite examples of ancient +craftsmanship--the products of a simple monarchic age. A man might be a +slave, unlettered and unenfranchised, yet fashion works of imperishable +beauty. Of course, the exponents of democracy denied this, but he +himself was in a position to know. He had studied the past glories of +the Cyclades. And he had failed to observe any striking improvement in +human life when the fanatics of liberty assumed command. Liberty! It was +a phantom, a _Lorelei_, singing to foolish idle men, luring them to +destruction. All things, all men, are bound. This was a restless age. He +regarded the future with some misgiving. We lacked men of strong +character, animated by sound ideals, an aristocracy of intellect, with +financial control.... These, of course, were large questions.... + +"That is the memory I have of him, the reactionary whom the romantic +votaries of liberty set up against a wall and shot full of holes the +other day. I don't offer any opinion. I am only puzzled. I recall the +man as I saw him that afternoon, in the midst of his prosperity and his +life's work, the embodiment of a cultured despotism. + +"But of the girl he could tell me nothing, and it was of the girl I +wished to hear. Gruenbaum would not have noticed her. His own +divagations, his emotional odyssies, his mistresses, would be dim +memories now, and he would not have noticed her. And as young Siddons +gradually developed an air of gentle and resigned melancholy, one of +those moods which are the aromatic cerements of a dead love, I +discovered in myself an increasingly active desire to know what had +happened to her. Because I didn't even know for certain whether she had +married M. Nikitos. And when we got home once more and young Siddons +bade us farewell to go up to sit for his examination, I was disappointed +that, as far as I could see, the longing I had to follow the Macedoines +in their strange career was not to be gratified. But this so often +happens in my life that I am grown resigned. We sailed again, for +Venice this time, and I admit that among the canals and palaces, with +the extraordinary moods which that fair city evokes, I found my thoughts +retiring from Ipsilon. We went to Spain to load that voyage, moreover, +and that brought its own sheaf of alien impressions. Loaded in +Cartagena, and in due course arrived at our old berth in the Queens +Dock. All that is of no moment just now. What I was going to say was +that I found among my few letters on arrival an envelope, addressed in +an unfamiliar hand and with the crest of a great London hotel on the +back. I opened it with only mild curiosity, saw it was addressed to +'Dear Mr. Chief,' and turning the page, saw it was signed 'A. M.' + +"Yes, it was from her. It was a short, hurried scrawl in a rambling yet +firm style, the down strokes heavy and black, half a dozen lines to the +sheet. She wanted to see me. I turned it over and saw the date on the +envelope was a week old. She wanted to see me if I was able to come to +London. I was to ask for Madame Kinaitsky. She would be in London for +two or three weeks. She did hope I could come. She had found out from +the Company that the _Manola_ was due soon. And she was 'mine very +sincerely.' + +"I admit I was, as they say, intrigued. I had given up all hope of +hearing any more of her. And I was astonished. She was in London! I was +to ask for Madame Kinaitsky. Was she married then, after all? I told +Jack I had to go to London on family business, and took train that +night, wiring to her that I would see her next day. I needed a spell +from the ship, anyhow. + +"I did not, of course, put up at the immense and famous caravanserai +from which she wrote. It was in the Strand, however, and the ancient and +supposedly very inconvenient hotel which I usually patronize when in the +metropolis was, as we say, just off the Strand. I took a room at Mason's +Hotel, climbed up the dusky old staircase, and had a bath and a sleep +after my night journey from the north. When I woke it was a sunny +afternoon, in late September, the sort of day London sometimes gets +after a summer of continuous cold rain and wind. I lunched and then I +stepped across the Strand to call on Madame Kinaitsky. They say +adventures are to the adventurous. Yet here was I, the least adventurous +of mortals, travelling several hundred miles to meet an adventuress! I +passed under the great arch into the courtyard where commissionaires of +imperial magnificence were receiving and despatching motor cars that +were like kings' palaces. One of these august beings deigned to direct +me within. I sent up my name--Mr. Spenlove to see Madame Kinaitsky by +appointment. I sat down, watching the staircase, wondering if she was +in, if she would descend to see me, wondering what it was all about, +anyhow. A page in blue and silver approached me and commanded me to +follow him into the elevator. We flew to the third floor and we stepped +out into a corridor with thick carpets on the floor and dim masterpieces +on the walls. The page led me along and knocked at one of the many +doors. I remember his small, piping voice saying 'Mr. Spenlove to see +you,' and the door closing. She was before me, still holding the +door-knob with both hands and looking at me over her shoulder with that +bright, derisive, critical smile. An exquisite pose, girlish, +fascinating, yet carrying with it an adumbration of power. + +"'Well,' she said, 'are you surprised?' + +"She took me into another room, a room with wide windows and a great +balcony overlooking the river. It was a suite. Beyond I saw a bedroom, +bathroom, dressing rooms. All around were boxes with the lids lying +askew, and bearing the names of the famous modistes of London and Paris. +There were hats, and coats, and lines of shoes, piles of silken stuffs, +parasols in long pasteboard boxes; heaps of dresses breaking into a foam +of white tissue paper. And on the tables were cases of perfume, +satin-lined caskets of brushes and toilet articles, silver +picture-frames, gold-chain bags, gloves, cigarette boxes. As I stood +there taking this all in she came up and laughed, holding her lower lip +between her teeth, as though challenging my criticism, and waiting with +a certain amount of gallant trepidation for my verdict. She was enjoying +my astonishment I dare say. + +"'I'm surprised,' I said, 'that you wanted to see me.' + +"She beckoned me to pass out on the balcony where were wicker chairs and +tables. We sat down, and she told me, briefly, what had happened to her. + +"No, there was no regret that I could perceive. 'I had to get something +to do,' she remarked, naively. Her father and the lieutenant, M. +Nikitos, found themselves up against mysterious and unsuspected +difficulties. The boiler of the _Osmanli_ collapsed and needed extended +repair. The proposal that she should marry M. Nikitos was never +seriously raised again. 'No, she had never had any intention ... that +little shrimp!' They took a house and lived a while on credit. She had +to do something. Her father lived in a sort of trance, dealing with the +difficulties which beset his schemes like a child playing with bricks +continually falling down. She had to do something, she reiterated, +moving her gold bracelets to and fro on her wrist. And yet she was +unable to do anything--at first. She was in the _Jardin de la Tour +Blanche_ when Kinaitsky spoke to her. He, a man of wealth, of the world, +a vigorous connoisseur of life, was at that time emotionally at large. +He had had a furious row with a Syrian dancer ... so on and so forth. +And he understood in a flash. It was plain that Artemisia would develop +into one of those women who waste no time over dunderheads. When I said, +reasonably enough, for she wore a wedding ring, 'Then you are not really +married?' she clicked her tongue against her teeth and shrugged her +shoulders. Oh, she was practising on me! I could see that. She thought, +I suppose, that I was proof against her; but how she would have tortured +young Siddons, for example, in love with her, young, sensitive, +chivalrous, full of faith in the nobility of womanhood. Yes, Kinaitsky +understood. He knew women. Fortunate man! He sent her a large sum of +money, and told her to write to him when she was free. He had a big +house fronting the Gulf. She turned Nikitos out to shift for himself, +took charge of the house he had taken for them in the _Rue Paleologue_, +and 'got through somehow,' as she put it. She was vague about this +episode, which was not surprising. There was a certain art in the way +she broke off with 'Mr. Chief, you can understand I was glad....' and +rose to ring for tea. 'Yes,' she said, when she came back, 'and then I +found myself free to--to do something.' + +"'Something, as you told me, I would not approve of?' I suggested. She +broke into a smile and put her hand caressingly on my arm. + +"'Don't be cross,' she whispered, sweetly. 'I've had a rotten time, Mr. +Chief. You know everything's been against me from the first.' + +"And while I sat there looking out over the golden mist of the river and +succumbing to the magic of her voice, her presence, and the romantic +glamour of her destiny, she began to hum an old air, watching me with a +faint, derisive smile. 'Do you know that song?' she asked, and began to +sing the words. + + "'_Ah! Toncouton! + Mo connin toi; + To semble Morico: + Y 'a pas savon + Qui assez blanc + Pour laver to la peau._'" + +"'Where did you hear that?' I asked, for I knew it, a Creole song. + +"'My mother,' she said, quietly and sadly. 'Now do you understand? I +could never be like other girls, Mr. Chief.' And she began again: + + "'_Quand blancs la yo donne yo bal + To pas capable aller + Comment t 'a vaillant giabal + Toi qui l'aime briller!_'" + +"'That's me, now,' she said. 'I'm Toucouton after all. Well, I must make +the best of it.' And she sat there, musing, with her hand on my arm. + +"'And your father--how is he?' I asked, to change the subject, for I was +moved. An expression came into her face which reminded me of him, an +expression of grave exaltation and secular raptness. + +"'Oh,' she said, 'he is developing his properties. There are many +difficulties he did not expect. M. Kinaitsky has promised his +assistance. They are having trouble with another company. And the +_Osmanli_ needs overhauling. They are talking of building a dry-dock.' + +"The tea was brought out on the balcony by a menial in blue and silver +livery with white silk stockings, his beautifully manicured hands +arranging the service in front of her. Artemisia did not reply for a +moment as she busied herself with pouring out the tea. She had put on a +_peignoir_ of raw yellow silk covered with heavy gold thread embroidery, +a barbaric thing that must have cost a hundred pounds at least. Round +her neck was a fine chain of platinum holding a large sapphire. Her soft +dark hair was fastened with a massive comb of silver. On her arm were a +dozen bracelets of heavy gold. There was no need to ask about Kinaitsky. +Infatuated! She nodded as much. Very rich. Tobacco estates. Selling his +crop in London now. She rose and came back with a photograph in a large +silver frame. + +"Well, he was an improvement upon M. Nikitos. Not old either, as I had +for some reason imagined. Forty-five, I suppose; a solid, hook-nosed +individual with the expensive, well-groomed air we associate with +art-dealers. Fine eyes. I put down the picture and sipped my tea. This +was all very well, but she had not asked me to come and see her simply +to show off, surely. + +"'And you've called me all the way from Glasgow to see some pretty +clothes?' I asked. She looked hard at me for a moment and then dropped +her eyes and smiled. She spoke, and in her voice there was the peculiar +bell-like resonance I remarked the first time I heard her pronounce her +name. + +"'No, Mr. Chief,' she said, 'I have a favour to ask. A great favour. +Will you do something for me? You did like me a little, you know.' + +"'Oh, are you sure of that?' I enquired, coldly, and she nodded with a +sudden rapturous vivacity. I dare say she was. Very little of that +nature escapes a woman who exists chiefly by her temperament. I had +been sentimental on the cliff and begged her to use me. Well, I was +still young enough to feel a thrill because a pretty woman appealed to +me, because I had been singled out for that delicate honour. I did what +any of you would have done. I consented. And then she told me hurriedly +what she wanted me to do. I was ... yes, this was the man. I understood, +eh? She had written him from Saloniki. No answer. He did not know she +was in London. She could not go, did not want to go for that matter. It +was all over for ever. But it was his child. If I went to him, told him +I had come from out there and had seen her ... eh? She wanted him to +take the child, later, and bring him up. As an Englishman. And I was to +come back and tell her what he said. + +"And there I was, a respectable, sea-faring person, flying through +London in a taxi-cab on a wild-goose chase at the behest of a girl who +was rapturously sure I had liked her a little! It was an adventure which +disproves the old proverb again. I found myself being carried northward, +along streets of an intolerable meanness, past huge vulgar stores, among +clanging street-cars and plunging motor-buses. I looked at the +address--'Mr. Florian Kelly, 6 Kentish Studios, Kentish Town N. E.' This +was Kentish Town. We swung round a corner by a huge terra-cotta subway +station, shot up a drab street, turned into a narrow lane, and stopped +opposite a tall green wooden wall. I got out, rather dazed, and telling +the man to wait, looked about for an entrance. There was a door in the +wall with the words 'Kentish Studios' over a bell handle. But the bell +handle hung slack and I ventured to open the door. Evidently the +taxi-driver had been there before, for he said: 'You'll find Number Six +on the right, Sir.' I went in. + +"It was a long garden surrounded by high black buildings and very quiet. +The wet summer had encouraged everything to grow, and the whole place +was a rank green jungle. In the centre stood a statue, a nymph stained +green and brown with the rain pouring through the foliage overhead. The +rank grasses hung over the path and there was a damp smell. I walked +along until I came to Number Six. It was one of a number of apartments +in a long, low building with large skylights in the roof, a large window +and a transom over each door. A fly-blown card over the bell-push +announced Mr. Florian Kelly. As I pressed the button I heard a shrill +laugh from one of the other studios. I was not surprised to find that +the bell did not ring. I rapped with my stick, a fine manly voice +remarked 'Oh, damn!' and there was a sound of footsteps. And then the +door opened about six inches and a young man with a keen dark face and +wearing a calico overall put his head out. + +"'Is it very important?' he asked, impatiently. 'I've got a model, you +know.' + +"'Yes, very important,' I said. 'I have a cab waiting.' + +"He opened the door and I went in. It was one large room with a little +scullery behind, a studio with a four-post bed in one corner, an easel +in another, and a young woman in extreme deshabille, hastily covered +with a travelling rug, seated on a dais near the window. On the walls +were the usual studies, of street scenes mostly, and trees reflected in +still water. On the easel was a half-finished poster for some theatrical +announcement, a woman in a tragic attitude holding a knife and clutching +her throat. Mr. Florian Kelly looked hard at me. I said: + +"'You used to know a Miss Macedoine, I believe.' + +"'Yes, to my cost,' he retorted, sharply. 'Miss Bailey, will you go and +have your tea? Come back in an hour, say five sharp.' She stepped down +and went to the back of the studio, and Mr. Kelly pulled a green curtain +across behind her. 'It's very inconvenient you know,' he said, 'the +first decent day I've had for weeks. I don't suppose you realize what +light means to an artist.' + +"'I was sent by Miss Macedoine,' I began and he interrupted me: 'Oh, +she's got you, too, has she? Well, look here my friend, I don't know who +you are or what particular hold she's obtained over you, but if you take +my advice you'll get out while the getting's good. And I can tell you +this before you go any further, she's had all the money she's going to +get from me.' + +"'Well,' I said, 'you needn't get excited about it. I haven't come to +ask you for money.' + +"'Oh, I'm not excited,' he responded, grimly. 'I'm in full possession of +all my faculties. One needs them when she's round. Where is she now? In +the cab waiting to hear the result of the interview?' + +"'No,' I said; 'she's residing in Saloniki now.' + +"'Saloniki! Snakes! She's a wonder! Why, I understood the money she had +from me and some others was to start her father in an oil business in +Egypt. Are _you_ in the oil business? Or are you her father?' + +"'No, only a friend,' I said. + +"'Oh, only a friend. Poor chap! Well, that's all I was when she--wait a +bit, will you? Have a peg?' And he brought out a bottle and some +glasses. While we were drinking, Miss Bailey came out in her walking +costume, and looking pleasantly at each of us in turn, went out to get +her tea. When the door closed, Mr. Kelly flung back the curtain and sat +down on the bed, indicating an easy chair. + +"'Look here,' said he, lighting a cigarette and throwing the package +toward me. 'I'm not grousing you know. I tell you frankly, I was +infatuated with her. I neglected my work. I spent my money. I wanted to +marry her. She's that sort. Drives you mad. But she wouldn't. Nothing +doing. She's like that. She makes you feel like one of these old +knights. You want to protect her from the cruel world. You want to fling +everything you've got at her feet, lie down and let her walk over you. +Well, take my advice and don't do it!' + +"I thought it as well to interrupt him here and give him a more correct +estimate of my part in the affair. He smoked his cigarette out and flung +it in the fireplace. + +"'Oh,' he said. 'I see. Well, all I can say is you are very lucky. But +you're mistaken about me, my friend. I'm not to be bled. I'm not +grousing. I don't even regret the money she cost me, though it would be +very useful to me now, when I'm driven to do posters instead of my real +work. I believe it does a man good to go off his head sometimes about a +woman. What I feel so disgusted about is the lies she told me. That's +one of her characteristics, you know. She really believes them herself +at the time. She's imaginative, if you like. Spins the most +circumstantial terradiddles. For instance, how do you know her story is +true? Have you seen ... eh?' + +"'No,' I admitted. 'I haven't.' He laughed and nursed his knee, rocking +to and fro. + +"'She's clever!' he said, smiling. 'Mind, you're not to be blamed at +all. As far as I can gather, you have nothing to regret. But if you get +to Saloniki again, give her my love, and tell her I'm too poor, too +busy, and too wise to be led into a mess like that again. I can't be +angry with her because I'm so grateful to her for not taking me at my +word, and hanging like a mill-stone on my neck for ever. Phew! The +thought of it makes me cold all over! And yet....' And he held out his +hand for the cigarettes. 'Isn't she beautiful? Eh? Isn't she wonderful? +Man, I tell you I used to feel like crying sometimes, she was so lovely! +Saloniki, eh? Well, she'll go far. She has the temperament and the +talent. I wish her luck.' + +"'I am convinced,' I said, 'that you are taking a mistaken view of her. +For instance, I certainly gathered that she was in love with you and +believes you to be....' He stood up suddenly. + +"'In love with me? She may have been. I daresay she can convince herself +she's in love with all of us. I told you she's imaginative. In love +with me? Golly, I don't blame her. I nearly went out of my mind about +her. There isn't a folly I didn't commit for--how long was it?--say six +weeks. I shall never forget it. But a man in my position can't afford +many of these episodes. They're too strenuous. I've got to work. If +you'll excuse me, your cab is waiting and Miss Bailey will be back in a +few minutes. She costs me three shillings an hour. You see,' he added, +smiling, 'she's not in love with me! Love! My friend, the love those +sort of women inspire never got a man anywhere. You can't escape it if +it comes your way, it's true. You can only trust to the good Lord to let +you off lightly. But flight is the bravest course. You have to be very +rich and very strong in character if you are going in for that sort of +thing. And this girl especially, because she does it by instinct. She +works on you and gradually builds up in your mind an ideal woman who +does duty for her. Oh, I know! She's a wonder. For instance,' and Mr. +Kelly turned to me and held his index finger against my breast, 'why +does she send you to me? Is she in want of money? Is she in danger? No. +If she was, she knows I couldn't do anything for her if I would. She's +doing it to impress you, to play up to the imaginary woman you've in +your mind. As for this idea of sending a kid over here to be brought up +an Englishman--phew! She's read something like that in a book, I'll bet. +Well, here's Miss Bailey. You must excuse me. If you're in London next +month, come and see my show at the New Gallery. And Sunday nights at +supper. How I envy you going to the Mediterranean. My dream ... +Good-bye.' + +"Well," said Mr. Spenlove, after a moment of silent reflection, "I came +out of the Kentish Studios and climbed into my cab feeling very much as +though I had been skinned. That terrible young man seemed to have left +me without a single illusion about myself. I have discovered since that +he is recognized now as a painter of unusual power. He is making a name. +But to me he will always be the merciless analyst of human emotion. He +had the bitterness of those who escape love. He spared neither himself, +nor me, nor the girl. He almost frightened me with the accuracy of his +diagnosis. As the cab sped along the Tottenham Court Road on its way +back to the Strand I wondered what he would have thought of Captain +Macedoine himself, that master of illusion who was always playing up to +the imaginary being one had in one's mind. I suppose creative artists +see through each other's tricks. An artist is one who imposes upon our +legitimate aspirations. + +"I paid off the cab in the Strand and walked into the hotel. Men and +women in evening dress were alighting for early theatre-dinners. I sent +up my name as before. I had no very clear idea what I wanted to do. Oh, +of course I wanted to see her again. I had no scruples. She was more +interesting, more her father's daughter, than ever, to me now. As +Florian Kelly had said, she was a wonder, but she could do me no harm. +She was an artist, let us say, and as such I wished to see her at work. +Beyond that there was another feeling, a sort of fatherly affection--a +silly notion of protecting her from herself. But that young devil of a +painter had divined that, too, and I sat down to wait, ashamed, amused, +astonished. I recalled the conversations we had had on the ship and on +the cliff, the subtle implication in her voice, the pity she had +inspired in me by the contemplation of her disastrous fate. I had put my +arm round her, given her my address, behaved like a sentimental old +fool. And all the time her brain had been working, weighing, comparing, +judging chances, and leading me on. But had she done so? Oh, women are +wonderful! Their emotional imperturbability defies analysis. They weep, +confess, cajole, attack, reproach, renounce, and at the end of it all +you are as baffled as ever. Their souls are like those extraordinary +bronze mirrors one sees nowadays. You look and see a picture. You go +off in amused annoyance, your head over your shoulder, and see another +picture. And when you come back again determined to be fair and candid, +you see yet another picture, or perhaps a mere shining blank, a dazzling +and expensive enigma. I knew all this. I saw all this; and yet I +lingered. I was unable to resist the piquant pleasure of watching the +girl, of occupying the position of confidant. I understood how the +obscure husband of a celebrated theatrical star must feel without +experiencing his grim regret. And when the page, in his blue and silver, +with his miraculously brushed hair, and his expression of almost +unearthly cleanliness, carried me upward once more, I had attained the +right mood again for meeting these adventures in vicarious emotion. +After all, for those of us to whom the avenues of fame, of wealth, of +the domestic virtues are closed, there remains an occasional ramble in +the romantic bye-ways of life. One may still meet young knights in +shining armour, haughty kings and queens, and women with unfathomable +eyes engaged upon mysterious quests. We can always run back to our old +mother, the sea, and restore our souls upon her comfortable bosom. + +"And I found myself again in that palatial apartment. There was no one +there apparently. The page had closed the door and left me. I turned at +the sound of a voice and saw her standing in the doorway of the next +room, a figure in pale, shimmering gold, holding back a _portiere_ of +heavy dark blue velvet. Holding it back for me to enter, and watching me +with the old, derisive, questioning smile. + +"'You have come back very quickly,' she said, going over to a lounge and +patting a chair beside it. + +"'Why did you send me to him?' I demanded, good-humouredly. She lay down +on the lounge and turned toward me, her head on her palm. + +"'What did he say?' she asked, and in her voice was that peculiar timbre +of which I have already spoken, a delicate quality of tone that made one +think of bells at a distance, a hint of fairy lands forlorn. I could +understand how, to a young man in love with her, that exquisite +modulation of tone would drive him mad. + +"'He was not sympathetic,' I replied. 'He seemed to jump to the +conclusion you didn't really need any assistance from him. Disclaims any +responsibility, in fact.' + +"'And you believed him?' she murmured. + +"'He was very frank,' I answered. 'He spared neither you nor himself. He +was good enough to warn me against your tricks.' + +"'And you believed him?' she repeated with passionate intensity, her +eyes burning bright, her teeth closing over the full red lip. 'Men +always believe another man about a woman.' + +"'No, not altogether,' I protested. 'But he said you told him lies.' + +"She lay there looking at me for a while without speaking and then she +got up slowly, yawned with a deliberate gesture of extreme gracefulness, +and shrugged her shoulders. + +"'And _that's_ all it amounted to!' she remarked with a smile of +disdain. 'He adored me, he said. Never, never would he forget. I was the +only girl he ever really loved! He wanted me to marry him and live in +that--that place you saw. And when I told him what my mother was, he +nearly went mad, and wanted to kill me and commit suicide. Did he tell +you that?' + +"'No,' I admitted. 'He didn't become quite so confidential as that. But +he accused you of faithlessness.' + +"'Me! How could I be faithful to a lunatic? I had to run away from him. +He wasn't safe....' + +"'And what do you want me to do now?' I enquired. 'You must know, my +dear, that I can't stay away from the ship. We sail in a week.' + +"'Oh,' she said, coming up to me and putting her hands on my shoulders +so that the warm perfume of her body assailed me. 'To be my friend. A +girl in my position, Mr. Chief, she needs to have a friend. I +thought--well, I was mistaken. I thought he would have been different, a +clever man like him. But they are all the same, all the same.' And her +hands dropped. + +"'I said I'd be your friend,' I protested, 'but you didn't seem to think +me worth while.' + +"'Always,' she whispered, regarding me, 'never mind what happens?' + +"'Yes!' I said, putting my arm round her. 'Tell me whatever you like. +I'll always believe you,' She came close to me, and looking down she +whispered in that sweet, resonant voice that made one think of distant +chimes, 'For that I shall always love you.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +"Soft!" ejaculated Mr. Spenlove, looking round into the darkness and +feeling for a fresh cigarette. "You have said it. I was soft. But when +you come to think of it, what else could I have been? I am confessing +myself before you. What did you want me to do? Invent a tale? In which I +play a noble and manly part? A red-blooded story, as they say? A story +in which I rescue a virtuous maiden from a gross plutocrat and marry +her, the light dying away on a close-up picture of me bending over her +while she holds up a replica of Jack's angel child? Why, even Jack would +not endorse a yarn like that. I have a very clear memory of him suddenly +spoiling the idyllic peace of a summer afternoon in the Mediterranean by +dashing his magazine down on the deck and uttering a profane objurgation +against what he called 'muck.' We were sliding blissfully along a +cobalt-blue floor, a floor without a ripple as far as the eye could see. +And there wasn't a woman or a baby, that we were aware of, within three +or four hundred miles. Peace, perfect peace. And Jack, instead of +realizing the extreme felicity of the actual moment, had been devouring +a red-blooded story in which one of these dashing, daring, clean-cut +merchant-captains had saved a beautiful virgin from a rascally +foreigner. There was a picture of her being saved. Splendid! Specially +written for people who love the sea! + +"No, I am confessing myself before you. Truth can be served in many +ways, and this is mine. The fortunate being whose characters consist of +homogeneous heroism and are compact of courage seem to elude my +scrutiny. And even when I meet a clever and sensible genius like Florian +Kelly, I cannot honestly say I admire him unreservedly. He gets on. He +succeeds. He arrives. But people who arrive with the convenient +punctuality of a railway timetable do not interest me. They lack the +weaknesses which make men fascinating to my amateur fancy. + +"And so I am prepared to admit that she did what, in a previous moment +of softness, I had asked her to do. She used me. She used me to feed her +craving for influence over men, her inherited and insatiable desire for +building up romantic and glamorous memories. Florian Kelly regarded her +efforts with admiring exasperation, regretting their interference with +his own designs upon our susceptibilities. Mrs. Evans had made a +commotion like a bird defending her nest. Young Siddons had been bowled +over, as he phrased it, and offered her something of no real value to an +artist--a tender and inexperienced loyalty. Such women are episodic. +Their lives are a string of jewels of varying value connected by a +thread of no value at all. And I confess that to me the shame of being +used by her was not apparent. She, the leading lady, selected me for a +slightly higher role than that of a super in the play, and I found the +position singularly agreeable. I was afflicted at the time with no rash +desire to supplant the principal protagonists. It was a piquant and +persuasive proof of the infinite variety of human relationships that she +could bring me to meet the wealthy and powerful individual over whom she +had cast the spell of her radiant personality. I mean the gross and +licentious plutocrat of the red-blooded story. He came in as I was +standing, hat in hand, ready to go, and he heard me described as 'an old +friend, who knew her father years ago.' Which was true, though I was not +sure Captain Macedoine would have endorsed the statement. Mr. Kinaitsky +came forward with his hat on, removed it and one of his gloves, and +shook hands with a courtly gesture. He looked older than his photograph. +The fine gray hair fluffed out over the ears, the bushy brows shading +voluptuous eyes, the swarthy cheeks and flexible lips gave him the air +of a prosperous impresario. He brought in with him, however, an +atmosphere of affairs. He nodded politely to the girl's explanation, +patted her gently on the shoulder, and passed on to his room. Returning +for a cigarette, and offering me the box, he remarked that he hoped I +would excuse him as he was dining out and had to dress at once. He had +had a fatiguing day in the city. Did I know London? A fine day. Would I +excuse him once more? Turning to the girl, who was sitting on the arm of +a chair, he took her chin in his hand and favoured her with a swift, +masculine, appraising glance. She gave him one of her delicious, +derisive smiles and whispered something, her eyes flickering toward me +for an instant. He patted her cheek and turned away, remarking, 'Of +course if she wished.' He would not be in till late. 'Amuse yourself, +_ma chere_,' he added, and bowing slightly to me, went away to his bath. + +"There was something odd to me in this, but I found it was a +characteristic of his infatuation to see as little of her as possible. +He never took her anywhere and he never brought any of his friends to +the hotels where they stayed. She had absolute freedom. He gave her +whatever she demanded. But she must not bother him. And while she was +absent getting a cloak, I looked around the room turning this unusual +idiosyncrasy over in my mind. There was a smoking table in one corner +and I observed a _tarbush_ on the lower shelf. Of course we ourselves +often wear a fez while smoking; but the sight of it gave me a cue. For +you must understand that, the normal Anglo-Saxon temperament, there is +necessarily something disturbing about such an attitude toward a woman. +Assuming the infatuation. And it occurred to me that herein lay the +source of an unidentified impression which he had made upon me as he +stood regarding the girl. And I saw as well the reason why she had +harped so on needing 'a friend.' I looked at the _tarbush_, glowing +bright red among the cedar-wood caskets and--yes, a _narghileh_ stood in +the corner behind, the amber mouth-piece thrust into the coils of its +own barbarically decorated tube. This man, for all his suave courtesy +and western polish, would be the inheritor of oriental ideas. His +attitude would be the attitude of the _pasha_ on his divan. He would not +understand my sentimental affection for Artemisia, or Florian Kelly's +panic-stricken rush from blind passion to a callous, worldly caution. In +short, he was equipped precisely as Florian Kelly said we ought to be +equipped before we embark upon an episode with such a woman. He had +wealth and he had wisdom, not only the wisdom of the world, but the +inherited sagacity of orientalized ancestors, the bearded owners of +extensive domestic establishments. + +"Yes, he gave her absolute freedom, and demanded only absolute +obedience. I could not help wondering how Mrs. Evans would have regarded +such a proposition, and this led me to reflect that Jack's equipment was +too primitive, too simple. We Westerners do not seem to prosper in such +enterprises. We are hampered by our excessive idealism. Our training +does not fit us for the role of pasha. We are unable to compass the art +of intelligent infatuation. And I confess that at this close view of the +understructure of a polygamous career, I was weak enough to feel +scandalized. When she told me casually, as we sat at dinner, that Mr. +Kinaitsky had a fiancee, a rich young Jewess in Saloniki, my appetite +was affected. I felt that he was, well, a little beyond my range. Any +faint notions I may have had of experimenting in that direction myself +faded from view. Even the position of friend, of being a sort of deputy +_amant-de-coeur_, was fraught with grave danger to my emotional +stability. Very curious, I can assure you, to be suddenly apprised of +the extreme fragility of one's moral fibre! + +"And the trouble with us is that we are usually unable to make out a +very strong case for our side of the question. We point with a fine +gesture toward the severely beautiful figure of Virtue, and the woman, +following our instructions, looks and sees Mrs. Evans and the angel +child. We point ecstatically to Love, and she shrugs her shoulders as +the figure of young Siddons emerges, with his boyish mind choked with +racial and social prejudices, his muzzy, impossible idealism, and his +empty purse. + +"And mind you, she was naive enough or clever enough to play up to the +highest possible estimate of such a situation. When I asked her how long +this was going to last, she was charmingly vague and pensive. It was +part of the bargain, I suppose, to furnish the necessary sentiment. And +when I persisted, and wished to know what she would do then, she sighed +and hoped I would always be her friend. Well, she was right about that. +I was her friend until the time came, not so long after, when her need +of friends ceased, when her homeless and undisciplined spirit was +transported to a sphere uncomplicated, let us hope, by our terrestrial +deficiencies. And I like to think that this friendship of ours, +unsullied by conventional gallantry, was for her a source of comfort, +and sustained her at times when the flames of exaltation burned low, and +she was oppressed by the shadow of her destiny. But of course, this may +be only one of my occidental illusions. + +"At the time, however, it seemed as though for me the adventure was +already nothing more than an intriguing memory. From time to time I +received postcards written from Paris, Munich, Vienna, Buda-Pesth, +Prague, and Constantinople. And then, after a long silence, a brief +letter telling me that she was living in an apartment, near the _Esky +Djouma_, turning up out of the _Rue Eqnatia_, but that I was to write to +the _Rue Paleologue_, and she would be sure to get it. Her father was +much preoccupied with financial affairs. She wanted to know if I were +coming to Saloniki. I was to be sure and let her know. + +"Well, there was nothing inherently impossible in my appearing in +Saloniki. I had been there in the _Manola_ more than once with coal. At +that time, however, we were busily shipping our mineral wealth, at +cut-rate prices, to Italy, and the voyages alternated between Genoa and +Ancona, calling at Tunis for iron ore to keep Krupp's gun-shops at Essen +working full time. All three places were too far away for week-ending at +Saloniki, and the charter was for a year. I wrote to her more than once. +But I am no correspondent. I am unable to maintain the, to-me, +unnatural mental contortions of translating a mood into a literary form. +I can tell you--yes; but I regard with envy those fortunate souls who +'pour themselves out' as we say, upon paper. Somehow or other, I am not +to be poured out. And so our correspondence did not flourish with that +tropical luxuriance which is so much appreciated by the world when we +are dead and unable to protect ourselves. But I did not forget. I shall +never forget that romantic encounter, the sweet, resonant voice coming +across the rose-shaded supper-table, the exquisite face with the radiant +and questing, derisive smile. + +"And then, with the matter-of-fact abruptness of sea-faring, I was +informed that we were to proceed to the Bristol Channel and load steam +coal for Saloniki. Jack was concerned at this, for it meant a longer +voyage, and Mrs. Evans was in an interesting condition, as he put it. +Jack had settled down. He was worried, of course, but his period of +eccentric uxoriousness was over. He sighed occasionally for a 'shore +job,' but he acknowledged the sense of my argument that he would be a +fool to quit. He was already looking forward to the distant day when he +could retire. Had saved a couple of hundred pounds and put it into oil +shares, which were going up. His conversation contained less of Madeline +and more of possible profits. In fact, Madeline disappeared, and was +supplanted by a sober institution known as 'the Missus.' He had +forgotten 'the gel,' I imagined, but it transpired that even upon him +she had left her mark. On the voyage out, during a conversation about +our probable port of loading, he suddenly expressed a curiosity as to +what became o' that gel? What did I suppose? For I had not scrupled to +keep my relations with Captain Macedoine's daughter to myself. I said I +couldn't imagine. Probably married by this time. Ah! said Jack. Best +thing, too. What was her name now? He'd forgotten. Ah! Fancy givin' a +child a name like that! And another thing. We'd be able to have a look +at the Anglo-Hellenic Development Company. See what we'd missed, eh? +Jack gave a fat chuckle. Oil for him! Something that was quoted on the +Stock Exchange. Six per cent. and safe as houses. Safer! Tenants were so +destructive nowadays, his father-in-law told him. For the workhouse +master was an owner of small houses in a quiet way. A warm man. Had five +hundred in these here oil shares. And so on. + +"No, I kept my romantic behaviour to myself. Jack would not understand +my interest in 'that gel.' Before we left Cardiff I had written to the +_Rue Paleologue_ to say that we were on our way, and gave the probable +date of our arrival. And while we were on our way I turned over in my +mind my reasons for writing to the _Rue Paleologue_. Middle age demands +reasons. Well, I was hungry for sensations. In my youth I had a great +ambition to seek adventure. Fate took me into a world of machine-belts, +harsh language, and industrial dullness. I escaped from that into +sea-life believing that I should find adventure. The greatest mistake +imaginable! But I realized that it was not adventure I really craved +after all--only sensations. A difficult case to prescribe for, I admit. +One has to train oneself to perceive, to become aware of their +proximity. I suppose this really is what used to pass as culture--the +adventures of one's soul among the doubtful masterpieces which throng +the dusty junk-shop we call the World. I played with the notion that in +the _Rue Paleologue_ I might come upon an authentic piece. + +"I confess, though, that I had a certain diffidence about going ashore +and calling, as we say, in a perfectly normal manner, upon Captain +Macedoine. I really felt I had not sufficient excuse. And when we were +able to go ashore, and I stepped across what is now satirically known as +the _Place de la Liberte_, I compromised. I went into the _Odeon_, a +lofty cafe on the corner, to have a drink and come to a decision. It was +full. At the far end a big burly individual in a frock coat and a fez, +with a silver star on his breast, was standing on a chair and delivering +a harangue. A patriot. Waiters rushed to and fro bearing trays loaded +with glasses. The murmur of conversation rose and fell around me. Here +and there among the excited proletariat sat dignified old gentlemen with +drooping moustaches sipping mastic, munching caviar sandwiches, and +reading newspapers. And while I was rolling a cigarette I caught sight, +at a corner table, of a familiar figure, a figure in a short shabby +overcoat with a fur collar and a fur cap on his head, writing rapidly on +a large sheet of the cafe paper. It was M. Nikitos, the lieutenant of +the Anglo-Hellenic Development Company. I had forgotten him, to tell the +truth. Artemisia gave me the impression that he had dropped out of +consideration. I was mistaken, it appears. He had not forgotten me, +however. In due course he looked in my direction, looked again with +attention, and I saw recognition come into his unprepossessing features. +He rose up, gathered together his writing materials, and came over to my +table. We shook hands. I invited him to have a drink, which he accepted +with alacrity. He still had the air of a dirty virtuoso. He was good +enough to say he remembered me perfectly in Ipsilon, of the _Manola_, +ah, yes. Well, he was doing extremely well, having taken up +international journalism. Was employed on the _Phos_, of which I might +have heard. He didn't look as though international journalism had done +much for him. His long French boots were burst at the sides and his +linen was far from fresh. To my enquiry as to the prosperity of the +great enterprise he raised his eyebrows and shoulders and exhibited a +pair of unwashed palms, his forearms resting on the marble table. In +time, in time, they would achieve success. But the conditions were +highly unfavourable to financial operations. There was great political +unrest. Revolution was in the air. Eventually Liberty would be +triumphant, which was glorious, but in the meanwhile, finance +languished. At present even a very sound scheme for building a dock was +hung up for lack of adequate support from responsible capitalists. + +"'And Captain Macedoine--is he still in business?' I asked, casually. He +opened his eyes and drew down the corners of his lips. Very sad. +Confined to his apartment. He, M. Nikitos, the only friend faithful to +him. Deserted by his daughter even. But still planning for the +development of Macedonia. Colossal brain still working. Adverse +circumstances, aided by Gruenbaum's company, preventing success. + +"This was surprising. Deserted by his daughter? I suggested to M. +Nikitos that he must be under a misapprehension. He looked at me +gloomily and shook his head. She had gone off, deluding her father with +a story of marriage. He himself knew how much there was in that. +Certainly she had got money from someone--but whom? Sooner or later he +would discover. He had his own interest in that affair. After he had +done everything for them when they first came to Saloniki, to show him +the door.... When he did discover her and her lover, we would see. +Straitened circumstances had prevented him from doing anything so far. +But wait. + +"'Why, what would you do?' I asked, idly. The notion of this penurious +little humbug getting in the way of a serene and powerful polygamist +like Kinaitsky was entertaining. He looked down between his knees, +presenting the crown of his greasy _tarbush_ at my breast as though he +were about to butt me. He mumbled something. It was so preposterous I +pretended I had misunderstood him. + +"'Oh, come!' I said. 'You must be joking. You can't interfere with +anybody like that. She has a right to do as she pleases. Why bother +about her? I happen to know she is very happy.' + +"He looked up at me sharply, and pulled his mouth to one side as though +he were making a face at me. + +"'Happy?' he echoed. '_You_ know? Then it is with you.... It explains +all those English clothes she had when I saw her at the White Tower. She +was in a box with the family who live next door. Madame Sarafov....' He +stared at me with his mouth fallen open, his whole body motionless. He +gave me the impression of a man perched upon a perilous precipice, +uncertain whether the next movement would plunge him to destruction. + +"'No,' I said, shaking my head, 'you are making a mistake. But I know.' +He moved slightly, leaning forward. + +"'You know where she lives?' he muttered. 'This place where she is very +happy?' + +"'No, I can't say I do,' I replied. 'You can hardly expect me to tell +you, either, even if I knew, after what you said just now. Of course,' I +went on, 'you spoke in hyperbole, but it would be scarcely the act of a +gentleman to distress a woman by forcing yourself upon her.' + +"'Hyperbole?' he repeated, staring at me as though fascinated. +'Gentleman ... distress?... she gave the Sarafov girl some English +clothes. I never imagined for a moment.... Incredible _denouement_.' He +looked suddenly discouraged. 'Then you have her in England.' A gleam of +understanding came into his eyes. 'You have brought her back here? +Well, do you know what she will do, now you have finished with her? She +will----' + +"He stopped as I put up my hand. I said 'She is not my mistress, I tell +you.' He brought his hand down with a crash on the table, so that the +glasses jumped and the ink-bottle slipped off and emptied itself on the +floor. One or two people looked at him, but most of the excitement +centred round the robust person with the silver star, whose speech was +being applauded with a tremendous amount of guttural approval. Nikitos +stood up, towering over me in a threatening manner. + +"'Then who took her from me?' he snarled, 'who gave her the English +clothes? You....' He sat down again and held up a menacing finger. 'You +think, you imagine, that the destruction of my hopes is to be accepted +with what you call philosophy? Well, yes.... I am philosophical----' he +stooped without taking his eyes from mine and replaced the ink-bottle on +the table. 'Listen, Monsieur. I am a pure man. In my travels, in Egypt, +in Turkey, and in Europe, I keep myself--you understand--immaculate. +Because I have here'--he tapped his dark forehead where the large flat +black eyebrows were like symmetrical charcoal smudges--'I have here an +undoubted ambition. In Egypt I was poor--very poor--very, very poor. +Captain Macedoine, whom I met in my business, extends to me his +generosity. To me, a poor interpreter in a firm of exporters, he offers +his friendship. I confide to him my ambition, my dreams. My _metier_, I +tell him, is politics; but of what use without the financial power? You +comprehend, Monsieur? For me it was impossible to associate with a +_demi-vierge_. I express myself to Captain Macedoine with great +strength, for it is my business in Alexandria to introduce these ladies +to the captains and the passengers. Captain Macedoine gives me his +entire confidence. He tells me he has a daughter. When he is appointed +to a position in Ipsilon he is good enough to obtain for me also a +subordinate appointment. He brings his daughter from England. We are +affianced. We come to Saloniki. I secure for them a good house, most +suitable, in the _Rue Paleologue_. What then? Mademoiselle is +_distrait_. She desires me to wait, a month, two, three. I do not +understand, but it is as Mademoiselle wishes. And then Captain Macedoine +becomes very ill. A terrible misfortune! I work. I think. I sacrifice +myself. Mademoiselle is suddenly no longer _distrait_. She commands me +to leave the house--I, Stepan Nikitos! You understand, Monsieur, that I +have had much to bear. The _Osmanli_, our vessel, entering the harbour, +is struck by another vessel, and sinks. Only her mast remains to see +above the water. I have to go to Constantinople to get the insurance. +Our concessions in Macedonia are no longer secure. And Captain Macedoine +too ill to be informed! I struggle against those misfortunes. I am +compelled to accept a position on the _Phos_ to earn the rent of my poor +room and a little food. I go to Mademoiselle and I find she is gone. Her +father receives me as always, with affection; but he grieves to tell me +his daughter is married. Well, Monsieur, I have told you that, in +Alexandria, I was of necessity a friend of the _demi-vierge_, and I am +familiar with the significant change in the tone of these women when +they have secured a wealthy lover. When Mademoiselle commanded me to +leave the house I was not deceived. It was for me the destruction of my +hopes and the birth of a resolution.' + +"He held his finger horizontal, pointing at my breast, as though his +resolution was to take careful aim and shoot. 'Which nothing can kill,' +he added, with calmness, and folded his arms on the table. + +"Now what struck me about these revelations of M. Nikitos, made across +the sloppy marble-topped table of the _Odeon_, was what I may call their +preoccupied sincerity. He conveyed the impression of being perfectly +sincere and yet thinking of something else at the same time. And there +was another peculiar thing about it. Although he addressed himself to me +with exaggerated directness, I could not rid myself of the conviction +that I knew no more of what he was really up to than if I were in a +theatre watching him on the stage. For, remember, all the sounds, the +cries of the fanatics, the guttural ebullience of the burly person with +the silver star, the article for the _Phos_, half written in a spidery +Greek script, the whole of the jangling uproar of the city, was within +this man's cognizance, while to me it was a mere senseless cacophony. +His assumption of lonely despair was not borne out by the subtle air he +had of being in with all these people who were chaffering among +themselves and applauding the rhetorician with his silver star. And the +upshot was that I grew very much afraid of this sinister, shrunken +figure whose hopes had been destroyed, and who was nursing with extreme +care a new-born resolution 'which nothing could kill.' His singular +claim to purity only added to this alarm. One is scarcely reassured by +hearing that a man is not only desperate but immaculate. And I did what +most of us would do under the circumstances. I got up to go. M. Nikitos +gathered his manuscript together, stuffed it into his breast pocket and +prepared to accompany me. As we came out upon the quay I turned to him. + +"'Are you coming down to the ship?' The question seemed to bring his +thoughts to a standstill. + +"'The ship?' he repeated. 'Oh, no, Monsieur. Why should I go down to the +ship? I will see you when you return.' + +"'Now see here,' I said, touching him on the shoulder, 'you must get all +that nonsense out of your head about Miss Macedoine. If she has treated +you badly the decent thing to do is to forget it. You may not be the +only one, you know.' + +"'Forget it?' he asked, like an intelligent child, 'how can one forget +it, Monsieur?' + +"'What I mean is, you must not annoy her if you ever meet her.' + +"'Annoy her?' he repeated in the same tone. 'I should not annoy. Our +interview,' he added, reflectively, looking at his disintegrating boots, +'would not take up more than a few moments. Very short. To the point, as +you say.' And he regarded me with amusement. + +"I left him with a sudden gesture of impatience and he went off toward +the offices of the _Phos_. Words broke out upon him like a rash: it was +impossible to preserve one's credulity in the face of his enigmatic +fluency. Impossible to maintain a grasp upon common facts and homely +eventualities. I walked on past the dock-buildings and came to the +station. And I wondered where the _Rue Paleologue_ might be. A +cab-driver raised his whip as I halted, and moved slowly over to where I +stood. He did not seem to have any clear ideas, but signified by a +wealth of gesture that if I would get in he would find out. It was just +dusk and I got in. We galloped away with a great deal of whip-cracking +and noise of iron tires on the granite sets, past the _Odeon_ again, and +onward along the quays. I reflected upon the attitude Nikitos had taken +up toward Artemisia, but I could arrive at no opinion. One has very +little data for gauging the mentality of a highly sophisticated but +immaculate being. And I still retained the impression that she, under +the powerful protection of Kinaitsky, would stand in very little danger +from the annoyance of a journalist on the _Phos_. Nevertheless, +idealists who take pride in their purity are dangerous, because they are +incalculable. It is the only hold we have on most people in these days +of extreme personal liberty--the sad but inexorable fact that they are +not immaculate. It captured my imagination in spite of my distaste for +the man, this conception he had evoked of himself pursuing his way +through the unnameable wickedness of Levantine cities, yet bearing +within an inviolable chastity. One felt there was something formidable +in its mere existence, like vitriol, something not quite human, and +therefore to be feared. It was like beholding a white-robed virgin with +severe features bearing a palm amidst the groups of courtesans who were +strolling along the quays, arm in arm, taking the air before engaging in +the business of the evening. + +"There was a new twist given to my thoughts when the carriage pulled up +and the driver spoke to a couple of these girls who were walking +mincingly along in their high-heeled shoes. Evidently inquiring the way. +They regarded me with friendly approval, but they shook their heads over +the _Rue Paleologue_. We were about to drive on when one of them put her +hand to her head with a gesture of recollection. She spoke to the +driver--a musical and resonant torrent of words. We drove on, past the +great bulk of the Tour Blanche, on into the darkness. + +"For the road here left the quay and began to wind between large houses +embowered in trees. Those on the right faced the Gulf. No doubt in one +of them Mr. Kinaitsky dwelt with his wealthy Hebrew bride. To the left +could be seen avenues turning off. There was a great glare for a moment +as we passed a building with tall windows--a factory of some sort. And +then, after following this road for some time, we turned up one of the +avenues into deeper darkness and a silence broken only by the clink of +the harness and the soft sound of hoof and tire on loam and leaves. At +the head of this road the carriage stopped, and the driver pointed with +his whip, repeating the word _Paleologue_ to intimate that we were +there. + +"I paid him and moved across the road in the direction indicated, and +found my foot striking a hard sidewalk beneath trees. It was very dark. +Here and there a grid of light was thrown on the road from a partly +shuttered window, or a pale glow would silhouette a woman sitting in a +doorway. There were many houses and I did not know the number I wanted. +I moved slowly along, hesitating to ask. You see, I was not sure. And +the language difficulty troubled me. These people spoke no intelligible +word as far as I was concerned. But I was constrained to pause at +length, and seeing some seated forms, outside a doorway in the darkness, +I began by asking if this were really the _Rue Paleologue_. A tall woman +rose from her chair and said 'Oui, Monsieur,' and I found myself in the +dim light from a spacious tiled vestibule, floundering in the middle of +whispered explanations. Their eyes seemed very large in the darkness, +and their forms tall and ghostly. Suddenly one of the girls stepped into +the light and I saw the broad, flat beauty of the Southern Slav. She +stood there regarding me, her hands behind her, her chin raised. And +then she remarked in a hoarse and musical tone, 'You English?' I said in +some surprise that I was and asked if they spoke it. She said 'Why, +sure,' and we all laughed. + +"Surprising? Well, yes, it was. Because the intonation was not English +at all, but American. It was like reading a book in French and Italian +and coming suddenly upon a sentence written in italics, in one's own +tongue. The very isolation of it, adrift in a waste of partially +intelligible expressions, doubles the luminous emphasis of it. I looked +at them in astonishment, and they looked at each other and laughed +again. And then they led the way into the house. + +"They were very much alike. That is to say, they resembled the portraits +of the same handsome woman at the ages of thirteen, eighteen, and +thirty-five. They were mother and daughters. And when I said I was +looking for a Miss Macedoine, they uttered exclamations. + +"'Her father--he lives in the next house,' they said. + +"'I have heard,' I remarked, 'of a family named--what was it?--Sarafov.' +And they nodded with animation. 'You got it,' said the elder girl. 'This +is mother, Mrs. Sarafov. I'm Pollyni, and my sister here is Olga. Did +Miss Macedoine tell you about it?' + +"'No,' I said, 'I heard in a round-about way. But tell me, where is +she?' + +"They looked at each other. Mrs. Sarafov spoke. + +"'Are you the gentleman on the ship...?' I nodded. 'Well, I guess we can +tell you. I suppose you know how she's fixed.' I nodded again. 'Well, +she's got an apartment in the town. If you like we'll send a message to +her, but she wouldn't be able to get here much before twelve o'clock. +Perhaps you'd better call to-morrow. Afternoons she's free, you +understand.' + +"But of course what I was thinking about at that particular moment was +the problem of the Sarafovs themselves. It was simple enough. They had +emigrated to New York some years before, Sarafov taking his wife and two +young children to make his fortune in the Golden Country beyond the sea. +Not much, according to our standards, no doubt, but a comfortable +competence in Turkey where living was so cheap. So they had come back +and settled in their native town, in the Frank Quarter, while Sarafov +_pere_ continued for a year or so longer his accumulation of dollars. +'Yes,' said Mrs. Sarafov. 'We liked America all right, after we got used +to their ways, but this country's pretty good, too. And it's freer +here,' she added, reflectively. This was so astonishing that I felt +bound to demand some explanation. It was the first time I had heard of +any one fleeing from America to seek liberty in the Sultan's dominions. +'Why,' said Mrs. Sarafov, 'you can't do a thing in America without you +get soaked for it, some way. And the prices! A dollar don't go any +distance at all. My husband, he says, 'Yes, but you are handling the +money, though.' That's like a man!' + +"They were astonishing. They sat there, those three extremely handsome +females, easy and uncorseted, their white teeth gleaming, their perfect +complexions glowing, their dark eyes and hair shining in the lamplight, +and contradicted all the conventional notions I had ever held about +American emigrants. They had no animus against America, you must +remember, but they possessed something for which even the western +republic cannot supply a substitute--a traditional love of the land of +their ancestors. They had a perfectly steady and unsentimental grip upon +realities. Liberty for them was not a frothy gabble of insincere +verbiage, but a clear and concrete condition of body and soul. I suppose +the perfectly healthy have no dreams. Their vitality, like the vitality +of so many of the people in these regions, was extraordinary. It was +like a radiance around them. They seemed independent of everything +peculiar to our boasted western civilization. Neither patent medicines +nor cosmetics nor municipal enterprise came into their lives at all. +There were no books in the house. They produced figs in syrup, and +sherbet and cognac, and a smooth red wine that was a most generous +cordial. They gave me bread and raisins. They had all the things we read +of, and strive to imitate, and which we imagine we buy in cans. They had +no manners, for they ate with their fingers and licked them vigorously +afterward; yet they conveyed the impression that their civilization was +older than the ruined turrets above the city. They sat and moved with +the poised rhythm and dignity of the larger carnivora. The girls +reclined with an easy and assured relaxing of the limbs upon a settee of +violet plush, and their grouping made me think instantly of ancient +sculptural forms. They were without that _nuance_ and stealthy deception +which gives us such a feeling of manly superiority over our own women, +and without which masculine humour would die out. Perhaps it was +because, not only did they dispense with what are called breakfast +foods, but with breakfast itself, that they could sit there in the +merciless glare of an unshaded kerosene lamp and defy one with their +flawless and amiable personalities. And while I sat there and talked to +them and ate their bizarre and appetizing provender, I became aware of +something even more astonishing than their failure to use the +immeasurable advantages of existence in a Brooklyn apartment, where the +breath of life, warmed beyond endurance, came up out of mysterious grids +in the walls and dried all the vitality out of them. It wasn't only +that, it transpired. These women, with their quality of hard, practical +devotion to a concrete bodily well-being, conveyed something beyond all +that. For when I suggested that Artemisia's way of life must place her +beyond their sympathies, they registered emphatic dissent. For why? They +were unable to understand. They looked at each other. + +"'That's American,' said Mrs. Sarafov, distinctly. + +"'Not entirely,' I protested. 'It has a certain vogue in England also, I +assure you. And personally,' I added, 'I am bound to say it makes a +difference. I regret it.' + +"'But,' said Mrs. Sarafov, and she turned her eyes upon her younger +daughter, who was going out with some dishes, 'But she must have a man +to look after her.' She regarded me attentively. 'I suppose you know +that she is very fond of you. She is always talking about how kind you +were to her on the ship. And in London. She says you liked her at +first. And I can't see,' she went on, 'why, if you regret it, as you +say, you didn't look after her yourself. She would have gone.' + +"'And you think that would have made any difference?' I demanded. I was +very much disturbed at this sudden turn of things. I seemed to be +getting away from my cherished position as a super in the play. And it +was the emotion educed from this conversation that revealed to me how +these women had abandoned their life in America without regret. I had a +vision of it suddenly as I looked at the other daughter's face. She was +regarding me with a sort of raptness. The exquisite features glowed and +the bright, bronze-coloured eyes burned above purple shadows like lamps +above dark pools. Yes, I had a vision of it suddenly, and it was what we +call, lightly, cynically, disapprovingly, Romance. It was simply +this--that to them, what we deem a dangerous and useless appendage of +our spiritual life is a tremendous and vital need. So tremendous and so +vital that the external moral aspect of it was a matter of little +importance. To put the case in point, they were interested in me not +because I was a moral Englishman but because Artemisia was fond of me. +It was for them as simple as breathing to go with the being one loved. +And back of that there was another thing, which scared the modern and +moral being within me still more. It followed, from their perfectly +naive and innocent faith in Romance, that a woman was not a political +equal of man, a strenuous co-educated, enfranchised voter, but a +possession. The crown of her achievement was to be possessed by the man +she loved. He might kill her or enslave her, but without men she was of +no importance whatever. And I suspected that my own attitude which, mind +you, is the attitude of most of us, to draw away at the approach of a +compromising emotion, was difficult to comprehend. Especially when, in +response to the inevitable question, I said I wasn't married or +promised. They harped on it, those two, while the younger girl was in +the kitchen. It was evident Artemisia had confided a great deal to them +and they had talked and talked, turning this peculiar problem over in +their minds, the problem of a man who persisted in remaining a super in +the play. Barbarous of them? Well, let us say mediaeval. They lived in a +world of harsh limitations and extraordinary latitudes. They were +forbidden divorce and were accustomed to neighbours with a plurality of +wives. They seemed to know nothing of the refinements of modern passion. +For them it was a question of sex, without any admixture of social or +racial distinctions. That Artemisia had had a lover in England was not a +matter of amazement to them at all. What they couldn't understand was +the reason why everything had to be driven underground. And the +extremely _bourgeois_ conception of love culminating in a colourless +civil contract between a good provider and a capable housekeeper, which +was all they could see in American institutions--a civil contract which +could apparently be shot to pieces upon any frivolous pretext, struck +their mediaeval minds as profoundly irreligious and unpleasant. + +"And then," said Mr. Spenlove, suddenly turning and savagely addressing +the silent and recumbent forms in the darkness of the awning, "I made +another astonishing discovery. They respected Captain Macedoine. A nice +old gentleman! They thought he was fine! I give you my word, when they +told me that, and proposed that we go right in and see him, I obtained a +glimmer of what Nietzsche must have meant when he spoke of the +transvaluation of all values. I was startled by the sudden realization +of how tenaciously I had been holding to my belief in that man's +essential unworthiness. You regard a man for years as despicable and +rotten, judging him as though you were God, and then you meet a woman +who worships the very ground he treads on, or a child to whom he is a +fanatically fond parent. Of course, the enthusiasm of Monsieur Nikitos +for his patron was discounted for by my low estimate of Nikitos +himself. Possibly, I mused in a startled way, as we entered the dark +ante-room of Captain Macedoine's abode, M. Nikitos was regarded by a +septuagenarian mother as an angel of light. The possibility remains in +suspense, for of that gentleman's antecedents I don't recall any +particulars. I saw him again, as you shall hear, but he failed to +prepossess me in his favour. He departed from my view, a perplexing and +polysyllabic problem, claiming for himself a useless and preposterous +purity. But perhaps it was not so useless from his point of view. +Perhaps he owed his brief political omnipotence, when the whole country +flamed into battle, murder, and sudden death, to his peculiar mania for +a spectacular chastity. They say men fear such freaks, and deem them +endowed with sinister supernatural powers. Possibly. There are strange +things embedded in that fierce lava-flow of the Balkan volcanoes, +congealed agonies and solidified monstrosities of soul. + +"At first I could see nothing save that the chamber was large and lofty. +Even at the moment it struck me--a sort of last attempt at superiority, +you know--that it would be just like Captain Macedoine to live in a +large and lofty chamber without much light. And then, as I saw him, +propped up among cushions on an immense bed, with a table close at hand +on which reposed writing materials, books, a photograph, and a small +shaded lamp, I wondered why the characteristics which in him had created +such animosity should take the form of an alluring hypnotism in his +daughter. Such thoughts make one uneasy and anxious for one's position +as a super in the play. For that was the upshot of it, that I was +shakily anxious to see her again, to see Captain Macedoine because he +was her father, to drift, I knew not where. I was a pretty spectacle to +myself, I can assure you! + +"His illness had emaciated him, and the crimson bedspread, together with +the long, drooping folds of the looped-up mosquito-bar, like the +curtains of a catafalque, and a round cap he wore to cover his bald +spot, gave him the air of some old pope holding an audience. He raised +his eyes without lifting his head, and smiled as Madame Sarafov and her +daughter, with measured strides that reminded one again of the larger +carnivora, moved forward to the bedside. And he lifted his hand in a +decidedly pontifical fashion, as though to bless them. I remained for a +moment in the shadow before they turned and explained who I was; and the +pale blue eyes, without any recognition, beamed upon me as upon a new +and promising adherent to the faith. He was immensely improved, though +very much nearer the grave than when I had seen him for that dubious +moment through the window of his house in Ipsilon. The harsh ravages of +a life of distorted ideals had been softened by illness to an ascetic +benignity. And he talked. I was obliged to admit to myself that so far I +had never seen him in private life. He talked and he was full of +reminiscence. He had a musical tenor voice, and he spoke rapidly and +with an unconcerned change from subject to subject which might be set +down to garrulity. He gazed into the shadows as he talked and I +listened, very much astonished. For it was not the talk of a wicked man +or an unhappy man or even an unsuccessful man. It was rather the talk of +an intelligent humbug, such as one might expect from the super-annuated +and senile secretary of some rich and fantastic scientific society. He +gave one that impression, that his whole life had been one of gentle +dilletantism under the protecting shadow of giant vested interests. It +was an astonishingly picturesque scene, the sort of _genre_ picture the +Victorians did so well and for which we moderns have so profound a +contempt. It might have been called 'The Old Professor Tells His Story.' +It flowed from him. He had a fund of phrases, quite common no doubt, but +which he used as though he had invented them himself. His long, +rose-tinted, transparent nostrils moved at times. His hands lay on the +bedspread, singularly small and chunky for so large a being, and he +often withdrew his gaze suddenly from the shadows of the past and +examined his knuckles with a sharp scrutiny that, I suppose, was merely +a habit born of an unconscious reflex action, but gave one a notion that +at times he began to doubt his own reality. + +"And then," said Mr. Spenlove after a pause, "I discovered that Captain +Macedoine belonged to that class of raconteurs who do not believe in +reticence on personal matters. I have very little of that sort of +squeamishness myself, but he was much more confidential. If confidential +is the word. Because there was no atmosphere of confession about his +story. He frequently interjected the words, 'you know,' and it really +seemed as if he assumed that we did know, and was just amusing himself. +Or perhaps he was rehearsing for the day of judgment. No matter. He ran +on. And we listened. We were interrupted once, when an elderly person, +'My housekeepah,' as he called her, 'Madame Petronita,' came in with +some sustaining liquid in a basin. And if you ask me what he talked +about, I should say that he furnished us with a large number of details +of his private life which the majority of us never mention even though +we may not be ashamed of them. At this distance of time it presents to +me the sort of memory which one retains of an interesting book read +long ago. I remember him, you see, because of what happened afterward, +because he was the father of this girl of whom I am telling you, and I +recall the picture of him dispensing those amiable garrulities because +it was as we sat there that the notion first came to me that he was +really an original artist working upon himself and concealing himself +behind the grandiose presentment of an impossibly superior and effulgent +human being. All I had known of him or heard of him in the old days +corroborated this notion of mine. 'We are a very old family, you know--I +was a younger son, you know--I was at Charterhouse School, you know--we +were very poor--a scholarship boy, you know.' This was addressed to a +certain extent to me, as an Englishman, of course, but the glamour of +his rich intonation enveloped those two beautiful women, mother and +daughter, sitting there with their perfect parted lips and their +extraordinarily seductive Slavonic eyes. It would be interesting, no +doubt, to know just what they imagined lay in the portentous statement +that Captain Macedoine had been sent as a poor boy--a day boy, he +informed us meticulously--to that ancient foundation known as the +Charterhouse--they with their oriental antecedents, their untrammelled +comprehension of the romantic value of life, and their initiation into +western ways in a Brooklyn apartment. Yet I'm not sure that deep did +not call into deep, that they did not succeed in getting hold of his +real meaning after all. As Mrs. Sarafov said to me afterward in the +intense darkness of the street, 'Captain Macedoine, he goes 'way back, I +guess'; and there was a peculiar inflection in her tone which brought to +mind echoing corridors in the house of life. + +"Yes, he was a younger son and he went out into an unsympathetic world +as a 'secretary'. Became a land-steward on great estates, secretary to a +London club, which fell on evil days, and was--in short--shut up. +Travelled for a while. I like that. It gave the obliging human +imagination such scope in which to devise a romantic and Byronic +pilgrimage for him. Accepted a post as purser on a grand duke's yacht. +He began to move in exalted circles. Grand duchesses, princesses of +principalities, eccentric millionaires, oriental potentates, and English +nobles with Mediterranean villas came upon the stage and performed +various evolutions which brought them into touch with the Grand Duke's +purser. He was thanked for his services on one occasion by a fat, +pop-eyed voluptuary who has become famous in history for scientific and +cold-blooded political murders. Was offered a cigarette from the +Imperial case which he accepted of course, but did not venture to +smoke. Indeed, murmured Captain Macedoine with a faint smile, he had it +still. 'My dear,' he addressed the girl Pollyni, 'if you will bring me +the bag in the top drawer over there....' She came back into the circle +of light bearing a small black bag of formidably heavy leather, the +handle-straps sewn right round the body of it and the bronze hasp fitted +with a massive brass padlock. It was a bag to inspire awe; and yet it +made me smile. On one side the thick leather had been carefully pared +away in three places. You see, I recognized that bag at once as one of +the specie carriers of the Maracaibo Steamship Company, whose initials +M. S. C. had been removed. It reminded me that after all I had known +this personality, in the making, when he had not yet realized all his +magnificent possibilities. In those days the furtive theft of a leather +bag was all in the day's work. But when I looked at him again I was +almost afraid to believe my own memories and conclusions. He held the +bag before him, his small chunky hands gathered together on the handles, +and gazed into the shadows with an expression of gentle and refined +melancholy upon his face, as though he knew there might be nothing in +the bag after all. + +"But there was. There were things in that bag I couldn't have believed +existed out of a museum or a grand-opera property-room. There were his +epaulettes and other insignia as a grand duke's purser, thick slices of +gold and silver lace, buttons as large as medallions, and a badge like +some ancient coat of arms done in glittering enamel. There were +russia-leather boxes whose frayed edges still bore traces of exquisite +gold-tooling and which, on being opened, bore within, delicately printed +on their satin lining, the strange names of oriental and Levantine +jewellers. And in one of these boxes, an oblong affair like the case of +a cigar-holder, we were permitted to behold the cigarette which the +great potentate had deigned to offer the Grand Duke's purser. A fat oval +thing bearing an imperial monogram in gold. Captain Macedoine regarded +it reverently as it lay on his palm. From His Majesty's own case, he +observed in a deep abstraction. Part of the Old Order. Soon to go.... He +spread out his bizarre possessions on the coverlet and showed us each in +turn. There was a slip-ring for a cravat, of gold so heavy it could +never be used, and with an incongruous emerald like a lump of bottle +glass clamped to the centre of it. There was a stick-pin with a perfect +knob of silly-looking rubies. There were cuff-buttons like Brazil nuts +and about as beautiful, with diamonds in an eruption around the edges. +There was a gold stop watch in a hunter case, with a chime and a +coat-of-arms. And there was a gold cigarette case like a polished slab, +almost insolent in its sheer, naked pricelessness. These, it appeared, +were tokens of recognition from various wealthy personages who had been +guests on the Grand Duke's yacht. It was customary, you know. There had +been many others, which he did not regard with any particular sentiment, +and had sold or exchanged for feminine trinkets for his dear Euphrosyne. +There was a movement on the part of the two women as he pronounced this +name and I looked at the girl. She met my gaze with a radiant smile and +a little nod that seemed to mean 'Now we are coming to it.' As we were. +For Captain Macedoine went on to inform us that one of the penalties of +his wanderings among princes and plutocrats was an almost monastic habit +of life. It would not have done, you know. He was the repository of +discreet confidences, the inarticulate witness of august privacies. He +occupied a position, so he seemed to imply, similar to that of the +eunuchs of oriental empires, in so far as he was supposed to have no +ascertainable human attributes beyond cupidity and intelligence. A +seneschal! So it fell out that the Grand Duke, whose photograph showed a +much be-whiskered person with very long thin legs and a huge nose, found +himself without a purser one day. Captain Macedoine resigned. Under +ordinary circumstances he would have returned to England and settled on +a small estate in the country. But the circumstances were not ordinary. +He had become the last of his line. The Macedoines had been dwindling +for centuries. Did I believe in hereditary destinies? Families do die +out, you know. So instead of taking the P. L. M. express from Cannes to +Paris and so on to London, he took a passage to New York. First class, +you know. As we reached this particular stage in Captain Macedoine's +reminiscences, a brief and extraordinarily concentrated expression came +into the pale blue eyes fixed on the shadows beyond the bed, his hands +and nostrils remained momentarily rigid, as though a sharp memory had +gone right through him and bereft him of all volition. And his eyes, +closing, seemed to take his life with them and he became a corpse +enjoying, let us say, a siesta. And this paroxysm, which gave me an +uncomfortable feeling that Captain Macedoine was omitting the really +interesting details of his departure from the Grand Duke's yacht, was +construed by the Sarafov women as a symptom of mental anguish; and the +girl, with a gesture almost divine in its exquisite and restrained +impulsiveness, touched his arm. A smile suffused the man's features +before he opened his eyes and turned them upon her with sacerdotal +graciousness. The thing was so unreal that I was lost in a turmoil of +effort to retain my hold upon actuality. The histrionic instinct gives +one strange jolts when viewed close up. And through that turmoil I heard +him telling them, as he had done before often enough no doubt, the story +of how he met his dear Euphrosyne in the old French Quarter. And as he +often said, you know, his dear Artemisia was the living image, you know, +of her dear mother. His hand moved absently and the girl, anticipating +his desire as though they had rehearsed the performance many times, +leaned forward, took a photograph from the table, and handed it to me. +His dear Euphrosyne! + +"Well, it wasn't so very like his daughter after all, not really so like +her as Pollyni was like Mrs. Saratov. The woman in the photo was +undeniably beautiful, but it was the beauty of the octaroon. The large +eyes and the full, sensuous lips expressed with sombre emphasis the +great enigma of race. In her daughter this enigma had been transmuted +into an intensely personal thing, a seductive mystery that made men love +her at the same time that it overshadowed love and filled them with +anxiety for their spiritual safety. There was none of her radiant, +aggressive insouciance in the photograph. It was the portrait of a +clinging and rapacious female. A soft and delicious parasite, the +victim of an immense and tragic error. I heard Captain Macedoine, while +I sat with the photograph in my hand, telling of the almost incredible +happiness of his home life in the little wooden cottage amid the tall +grasses out on Tchoupitoulas Street. It all came back to me as I +listened. The clangour of the box-cars being switched where the trolley +bumped along the docks; the dry and dismal stretch of Poydras Street in +the evening, the stark warehouses of Calliope, and then mile on mile of +verandahed shabbiness, getting more and more open, with fields and +cross-roads running down into mere vague vacancies, or perhaps a shy, +solitary cottage. And the extraordinary sunsets over the lake--sunsets +like vast flat washes of crimson and gamboge and violet, which were +wiped out as by a hasty hand and left the wide-spaced _faubourgs_ a prey +to the murmurous onslaught of insects and the hollow boom of enormous +frogs. And the two women sat in rapt silence, absorbing the romantic +story with its romantic setting. An artificial story, if you like, as +everything about Captain Macedoine was artificial. It was almost as if +he had achieved his destiny by coming at last to that extraordinary +concoction of artificialities which we call New Orleans, where dead +civilizations lie superimposed one upon the other like leaves in a +rotten old book, where you can cut down through them, from the +mail-steamer and the trolley-car and the fake religion, right down to +the poisonous swamp and the Voodoo frenzy. It was a place whose very +silences were eloquent of sadness and frustrated achievement, and he +chose it as the scene of incredible happiness! For he conceived an +affection for the city which led him to say in so many words that it was +the only possible place to live, in the United States. His patrician +up-bringing and cosmopolitan career, it seems, had brought him to the +same view of our western civilization as Mrs. Saratov. It was this +peculiar notion once more obtruded upon me that stung me into speech +with him. + +"'You really think that?' 'You prefer this sort of place, for instance, +to New England?' + +"'Oh there's no comparison,' he returned. 'Here you have absolute +freedom. There you are strapped down in a groove and remain there, +unless you fancy going to prison.' And he laughed contemptuously, as at +some reminiscence. + +"'What do you understand by freedom?' I demanded and he bent his gaze +moodily upon the shadows as though seeking to elucidate some depressing +problem. + +"'There are a good many answers to that question,' he said at length, +'but I should say, in my case, that it means deliverance from the +Anglo-Saxon's infernal ideas of morality.' The last words came out with +what was almost a snarl. He put the things he had been showing us back +in the bag and locked it. 'Will you put it back, my dear?' he murmured +with a smile. 'We must pick out something for you when ... eh?' The girl +gave him an affectionate glance and carried the bag away into the dusk. + +"'Then I take it, Captain, you are doing well here?' I observed. He +shrugged his shoulders. + +"'So-so,' he answered. 'So-so. Political troubles have interfered so +far, but it is upon them really that we build, you know. Our losses will +be more than made good shortly.' + +"'But I was given to understand that the Minister of the Interior +declined to authorize the concessions.' + +"Captain Macedoine became extremely human. He grinned behind his chunky +hand. + +"'Pardon me for laughing,' he returned. 'The Minister of the Interior +has gone on a long tour in Anatolia, for his health. It is quite +possible he will remain down there. It would certainly be a sensible +thing to do.' + +"'Why, what do you mean?' I asked. + +"'Is it possible you do not know?' he said in a pitying tone. 'The +English newspapers print a great deal of football news and racing, but a +matter like this is passed over in silence. Eh? What? These ladies +know. I know. But you don't know. Your captain does not know either, I +dare say. Nor your owners. I was prepared for this three months back, I +may say. My affiliations with various syndicates enabled me to draw the +necessary deductions. I chartered three ships, borrowing the money at +very high interest. Those ships are loading stores and ammunition in +Glasgow. They will arrive in about three weeks.' + +"'Ammunition?' I repeated, rather suspecting his sanity. This was in +1912, remember. + +"'Dear me, yes,' he answered with another pitying smile. 'Didn't you +know really? There will be war you know. Next week possibly. Perhaps +to-morrow. Why,' he added with considerable animation, 'it might start +to-night!'" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Mr. Spenlove, seated on the extreme edge of his little deck-stool, his +knees out, his hands lightly inserted in his trouser pockets, paused +again in his narrative and looked over his shoulder as the quartermaster +at the gangway rang four bells. The moon was gone behind the vast mass +of rock which had been used by him as a material background to the +fantastic tale he was telling in his own introspective and irritating +manner. Out beyond the sharp black silhouette of the headland the open +water was a dazzling glitter that contrasted oddly with the profound +obscurity of the tiny haven. From time to time a silent form had risen +from the chairs beneath the awning and gone forward to the navigating +bridge, returning in the same unobtrusive fashion. And as Mr. Spenlove +paused, and the clear-toned bronze bell rang four strokes that echoed +musically from the cliff, another form, moving with care, emerged from +the ward-room scuttle and set down a tray on a small table. There was a +movement among the deck chairs as feet came down softly and felt for +discarded shoes, and the surgeon, clearing his throat noisily, stood up +and yawned. One by one the officers who had thus elected to pass a night +in conversation took from the tray a cup of the British Navy's +celebrated cocoa and returned to their chairs. Mr. Spenlove, still +sitting upright and looking round as though he expected someone to +contradict him, put out his hand, and the night-steward placed in it the +remaining cup before moving off and vanishing into the shadows, shot by +gleams of brass handrails and polished oak, of the companion. Mr. +Spenlove, his head cocked slightly on one side, his dark elvish eyebrows +raised satirically, and his sharp, short beard moving slightly, stirred +his cocoa. He betrayed no concern as to the state of mind of his +audience. He was well aware that the perfect listener does not exist. +The novelist is more fortunate. For every hundred persons who deign to +take up his book and trifle with it for an hour, putting it down upon +the slightest pretext and perhaps forgetting to finish it, there will be +one enthusiast who savors every word, notes the turn of a phrase, and +enjoys the peculiar idiosyncrasies of the style. One must not expect +this when telling a tale, except perhaps when one is a boy, and the +dormitory is hushed to listen, and one goes on and on until honest +snores register satiety. Mr. Spenlove, stirring and sipping his cocoa, +stared straight across at Gruenbaum's house, which the current had now +brought before him, and composed his thoughts before going on to the +final conclusion of his story. He was moved somewhat himself because the +mere act of narration had evoked memories whose strength he had perhaps +underestimated since they had remained dormant so long, and the +immediate stress of the great conflict, in which they were all leisurely +participating, had led him to imagine that the world before the war was +dead and gone. Which it wasn't, he reflected, setting down his cup and +beginning to roll a cigarette ... not by a long shot; and remained +silent yet a little longer, marvelling at the extraordinary triviality +of such things as war, against the sombre verities of Race and Love and +Despair. + +And then he suddenly became aware that the shoes had been again softly +discarded, and he heard the creak of the trestles as the navigating +officer stretched himself on his camp-bed alongside the hand-steering +gear. Rolling a cigarette Mr. Spenlove began again. + +"I doubt if you can conceive now," he remarked, "how that bland +announcement of a possible war before morning startled and shocked me. I +doubt if anybody realizes how such things tore our hearts before those +autumn days in nineteen fourteen. Some of you may remember when war was +declared between England and the Boer Republics. Quite a little thrill +in London; a romantic feeling that the die was cast, and all that sort +of thing. But that was far away across the sea, a diminutive business +which it pleased us to consider one of our punitive expeditions. War, +the collision of European hosts, was a subject for literature and art. +It wouldn't ever happen again. The Turks and Italians had been at war +and it had been a decorous affair involving some nebulous actions in +Cyrenaica--a locality we had never heard of before--and a few amusing +incidents at sea. I remember we were pursued all one morning by an +indignant Italian scout-ship during that war, who wanted to know why we +hadn't stopped at her signal. I believe, as a matter of fact, the mate +on the bridge had been making himself a hammock and hadn't seen +anything. And when they did catch us up our skipper simply broke out the +Red Ensign, showed his codeflags, and went ahead. War? We hadn't any +conception of what the word meant. Our troops were always walloping some +tribe or other in India and so forth, and we lived in a peaceful, +orderly world. + +"But Captain Macedoine's remark that war might break out at any time had +something, intangible if you like, to corroborate it. It was in the air. +It was very evident in that crowded cafe when the robust gentleman in +the frock coat and fez and wearing a silver star was working his hearers +up to a hoarse, guttural frenzy about something--probably our old friend +Liberty. There was a destroyer in the harbour near us--a dingy-looking +and obsolete craft with low, sullen funnels and a disagreeable array of +torpedo-tubes with the fat snouts of torpedoes lurking under the hoods. +In those days a war-ship of any sort made one think all sorts of chaotic +thoughts. And now he had mentioned it to me, a good many other things +came to mind which pointed toward some readjustment of power. Our sudden +charter for Saloniki, for example, breaking in on our pleasant, regular +jog-trot trip to keep the great mills of northern Italy going. Yes, I +believed him in spite of my prejudice, and I showed it by taking my +leave with a certain degree of haste and starting for the ship. We +always do that. It is our idea of safety--to get back to the ship. Habit +and duty constrain us. But I had to be shown the way. It was a dark, +moonless night and I had very little notion how to proceed. We bade +Captain Macedoine good-night and he immediately assumed the manner of an +aged ecclesiastic. He became much older. I don't know whether you will +get just what I mean, but the mere fact that he was holding the centre +of the stage, that we were all looking at him and listening to him and +thinking about him, had seemed to inform him with an actual access of +vitality. But when I started from my motionless pose in the background +and scraped my chair and muttered something about having to get back to +the ship, he seemed to fade. He looked at me for an instant in an +attentive and perplexed fashion, as though he could hardly account for +my presence. + +"'I never cared for the sea,' he murmured. 'A preposterous life. All the +disadvantages of being in jail with--what was it? Something or other ... +I forget ... well, you must come again. Always pleased, you know....' + +"And then, outside, Mrs. Sarafov insisted that I would lose my way. +Pollyni must go with me and show me a short route to a landing-stage +where I could get a boat. We stood in the clear darkness of the high, +narrow sidewalk, and I could feel the girl move closer to me as she +lifted her chin and smiled into my eyes. What? Lyrical? Well, I can tell +you that you would have been lyrical, too, doctor. I was thirty-five, +you know, and I had never been in close contact with beautiful women +before. Just as Artemisia had her own secret lure, a lure founded on her +exquisite, derisive humour and her sombre heritage, so this +extraordinarily seductive and friendly young person, an entrancing +character composed of Eastern mystery and Western frankness, appealed +irresistibly to the connoisseur in a man. She was sex, and nothing but +sex, yet she maintained without effort the role of being merely a dear +friend of Captain Macedoine's daughter. + +"'You must come again,' said Mrs. Sarafov, drawing her shawl round her +fine shoulders. 'We don't often see people from the other side. In the +afternoon, eh? And Miss Macedoine, she'll come over.' + +"'Then you don't think there will be any trouble?' I asked. 'Any +fighting, I mean.' + +"'We never interfere in politics,' she answered, drily. 'So long as you +mind your own business and let them fight it out among 'emselves, you're +safe enough here, I should say.' + +"'What is it all about?' I demanded. + +"'That's more than I can tell you,' she answered with disarming candour. +'Taxes mostly, I guess. But you have to pay 'em to somebody.' And then +she added cryptically: 'I don't know as we'll be any better off if they +was to win.' + +"Well, we talked a little longer and then the girl, who had run into the +house for a shawl, stepped along beside me with her long, sure-footed +stride and we started up the dark street. There were very few lights +about now and from time to time she put her hand on my arm as we came to +a gap in the sidewalk. + +"'And so,' I said in a low tone, 'you are a great friend of Miss +Macedoine, I understand.' + +"'Oh, yes,' she said. 'I like her very much. She tells me everything.' + +"'Everything?' She nodded, leaning forward and looking up at me in a +certain demure, elvish fashion. + +"'Yes!' she replied, dwelling on the word with tremendous emphasis. +'Everything. About you, when you come to see her in London, you know. +Oh, she like you. She like you very much. When she know you have come, +she'll be crazy.' + +"'But you know,' I protested, 'you know I'm only a sort of friend.' + +"'Oh, yes!' again with the dwelling accent. 'Of course, a friend. And +she talk and talk and tell me all about you and say to me: 'No, he'll +never come. I'll never see him again. Forget it,' and then she sits and +looks at the sea for an hour. And when I say to her: 'Why don't you +write?' she say, 'I have,' and is all sad and miserable.' + +"'But she didn't tell _me_ this when she wrote.' + +"'No?' said the girl with a faintly sarcastic inflection. 'Well, she +wouldn't ... I suppose.' + +"'Besides which,' I went on, 'she gave me to understand she was living +with this Monsieur Kinaitsky, so....' + +"'He supports her,' she said, 'she's very lucky.' + +"'How?' I asked, astonished at this peculiar sentiment. + +"'Because he never goes near her for, oh, since this three months. He's +married, you know. You'll pass his house in the boat, only there's a fog +on the Gulf to-night. And he supports four others. Very rich. And so +long as she stays round she can do what she likes.' + +"'Would you mind telling me, my dear,' I said, 'why this gentleman +supports all these ... er ... strangers?' She shrugged her shoulders and +took my arm daintily. + +"'Because he's rich, I suppose,' she remarked. 'They all do it here. In +England--no?' she added in inquiry. + +"'Well, not on such a lavish scale,' I admitted. 'Then there would be no +harm in my going to see her where she lives?' + +"'Oh, sure! She wants you to. I'll go to-morrow, eh? And tell her you +will come? What time?' + +"'What about the afternoon?' + +"'Yes. And now I'll tell you how to get there.' + +"'You'd better write it down,' I said, 'when we come to a light.' + +"As we approached the road running parallel to the curve of the Gulf the +air became heavy and moist. It was October, with a chill in the midnight +air. And for another thing, it was as quiet as any country road of an +autumn night at home. Our feet padded softly on the matted leaves lying +wet on the path when we turned into the main road, and through the +gardens of the villas came a faint breath of air laden with salt and the +dead odours of the river delta. We seemed to be alone in the world, we +two, as we hurried along in the darkness, and the girl pressed more +closely to me as though for protection against unseen dangers. And yet, +so crystal clear was her soul, that there lay on my mind a delicious +fancy that she was deliberately impersonating the woman who had talked +to her of me, that she was offering herself as a chaste and temporary +substitute for the being whom, so she assumed, we both loved. + +"And I," said Mr. Spenlove, after some business with a reluctant match, +"was not prepared, just then, to deny it. It would be absurd and +misleading to speak of a community of interest as love, yet we are +driven to discover some reason for what we call love apart from the +appeal of sex. Otherwise a pretty promiscuous kettle of fish! Where does +it begin and out of what does it grow? I'm not asking because I imagine +I shall get any answer. I'm inclined to believe the origin of love is +as obscure as that of life itself. I put the thought into words, because +at that moment, with that girl beside me, with the whole mundane +contraption of existence obliterated by a damp, foggy darkness, with the +moisture dripping hurriedly from invisible trees, and the immediate +future rendered ominous by Captain Macedoine's remarks, I felt a +conviction that I was closer to the solution of the problem than I had +ever been before. Or since, for that matter. Closer, I say. I was aware +of it without being actually able to take hold of it. Nor did I try to +take hold of it. I was still in that condition of mucilaginous +uncertainty toward my emotions in which most of us English seem to pass +our days. Foreigners are led to imagine we really take no interest in +the subject of love, for example, we are so scared of any approach to +the flames of desire. We compromise by floating down some economic +current into the broad river of matrimony. We have a genius for +emotional relinquishment. We--you--are born compromisers. We are so sure +that we shall never know the supreme raptures of passion that most of us +never do know them. And in any case we are so rattled by the mere +proximity of love that we never seem to get any coherent conception of +its nature. And I was not much of an exception. I have no supreme +secret to impart to you. As I have said, I am _par excellence_ a super +in the play. For a few memorable moments I was entrusted with the part +of a principal. It was not my fault, after all, that nothing came of it. +I sometimes wonder what _would_ have come of it, had not her sinister +destiny intervened.... + +"And then suddenly our feet struck timber that rang hollow and I made +out a slender jetty running into the fog. The girl moved ahead, drawing +me after her as she scanned the water with her other hand shading her +eyes. For a moment she stood listening and then she uttered a melodious +contralto shout for someone named '_Makri!_' I can recall, as I repeat +the word, the name of that obscure and unknown boatman, the very timbre +of her voice, the poise of her form, and the firm flexure of her fingers +on mine. And for that moment, as we stood waiting and the boat came +slowly and silently toward us with the standing figure of the oarsman +lost in the higher fog, I had an extraordinary impression, clear and +diminutive as a vignette, that I loved her and that she, in some +mysterious fashion, could love me without jeopardizing her own destiny. +A folly, of course; but I insist it gave me an inkling, that brief +illumination, of the actual nature of love." + +At this momentous declaration Mr. Spenlove suddenly relapsed into a +pause that became a silence, as though he were still under the +influence of that illumination of which he spoke, and were pondering it +to the extent of forgetting his audience altogether. And it was a +suspicion of this amiable idiosyncrasy which caused the surgeon to make +a remark. Mr. Spenlove gave a grunt of assent. + +"Yes," he said. "You are right. But this is not a supreme secret. I can +only offer you the suggestion that what you call a love affair is really +only a sequence of innumerable small passions. Yes, for a moment, you +know, I saw them plainly enough--a procession of tiny, perfect things, +moments, gestures, glances, and silences each complete and utterly +beautiful in itself, preoccupied with its own perfection. Scientific? +Not at all. Intuition and nothing else. One did not indulge in science +with that magical girl holding one's hand. Science is only a sort of +decorous guesswork at the best, guesswork corroborated by facts. In the +presence of a woman like that, you know! At this distance of time, my +friends, I can tell you that this girl, the chance acquaintance of a +chance evening, imposed her personality upon me as the very genius of +the tender passion. Yet I had but that one rhythmical moment by which to +judge--and the boat, a long and elegantly carved affair of cedar wood +decorated with brass bulbs, slid softly alongside, a tiny lantern +glowing between the thwarts; like some perilous bark of destiny, and she +a charming, enigmatic spirit watching with gracious care my departure +for an alluring yet unknown shore. + +"For that is what it was. I stepped into that long, narrow affair, with +its tall, gondola-like prow and absurd brass balls, and I left my youth +behind on the hollow-sounding boards of that jetty. No, there is nothing +to laugh at in a man of thirty-five leaving his youth behind. There are +men who have seen their own daughters married, and retain for themselves +the hearts of adventurous boys. From the formidable ramparts of half a +century they can leap down and frolic with the young fellows who for the +first time are in love, or seeing the world, or holding down a job, or +reading Balzac. I cannot compete with such men. Youth fills me with awe. +It is something I believe I had once, but I am not sure. I watch them +nowadays, with their unerring cruelty of instinct, their clear egotism, +their uncanny intuition and sophistication, and I wonder if I were ever +like that, a sort of callow and clever young god! I wonder, too, whether +a good deal of the modern misery and unhappiness isn't simply due to +women being at a loss, as it were, to know just what the new and +improved breed of young men want. All this talk of women themselves +becoming modern is so much flub-dub. Look at Mrs. Evans. She was, and +is, coeval with the Jurassic Period. And women are continually trying to +get back there. You may ask me how I know this, and I can only tell you +that I have an emotional conviction--the strongest conviction in the +world, born of the tremendous experience which was coming upon me. + +"And the first thing which, you might say, certified my new status as a +grown-up human being, was my promise to go and see Captain Macedoine's +daughter. I mean I made that promise without a shadow of reservation. In +youth we hedge, we balk, we bilk, over and over again. Fidelity is +unattractive to us. We cannot see that to keep a promise made to a woman +is a species of spiritual strength. It may be a foolish promise made to +a worthless woman, but that is of no importance. In youth we go on +breaking away, breaking away, for one reason or another, until we have +not even faith in ourselves, until we lose sight of the essential nature +of true fidelity, which is a blind disregard of our own immediate well +being. And I was astonished, as I sat in that boat and floated away into +the gray void of the fog, with the girl, the shore, the sky, all gone, +that she had infected me with her romantic view of life. I had always +preserved a sort of semi-religious notion that love, for me personally +you know, was bound to be an affair of highly respectable and virtuous +character. I don't know why, I'm sure, but I had that illusion. But I +discovered in that fog-bound boat that I knew very little about myself +after all, that the future was absolutely unknown to me beyond the grand +fact that I was going to the address which the girl had repeated twice +in her musical contralto, and that I was mysteriously exalted about it. + +"I was steering, you know, and had let things go a bit, I suppose, under +the stress of my thoughts, when I realized the boatman was calling to me +and waving an arm. I collected my wits and looked round. There was a +methodical sound of oars and in a moment a large boat loomed close to us +and I saw the ghostly figures of the four rowers, their bodies rising to +full height as they plunged their oars in deep and then fell slowly +backward to the thwarts. And as the boat moved forward again in one of +its long, rhythmical surges and the stern of her came into the faint +radiance of our small lantern I saw a bent figure with a fez lean +suddenly forward, grasping the gunwale with one hand and his coat collar +with the other and stare at us with a fixed, crouching intensity that +was familiar. I was perfectly certain it was M. Nikitos, and in the +mental excitement of wondering what he might be doing at that hour in a +four-oared boat, I was turning my own craft round in a half circle. I +heard voices in the fog, the voice of M. Nikitos giving strident orders +and hoarse growls of assent from the toiling boatman. The sounds died +away and I became aware of other sounds close by, the long hiss and slap +of the sea against masonry, and voices. Voices clamouring and protesting +and calling aimlessly and interjecting unheeded remarks into other +voices engaged in torrential vituperation. And then my boatman stood up +suddenly, his tall form rising and falling into the fog like some comic +contrivance as the swell tossed the boat perilously near the sea-wall, +and uttered a sharp, monosyllabic comment. The voices ceased as though +by magic, and a grave question came out of the invisible air, which my +boatman, leaning out and laying hold of the stones, answered in a quiet +and competent fashion. You must understand that I had not seen this man, +yet he had already made that impression upon me. The whole business to +me, a strange and somewhat exalted Englishman sitting in a reeling +row-boat and wondering whether he was about to be dashed to pieces +against the stones, savoured of a carefully rehearsed performance. And +when a flight of balustraded marble steps came into dim view and a tall +figure in silk pajamas, a fur overcoat, and a fez came slowly down into +the light of our lantern I gave up and just waited for things to happen. +Up above I could now descry the chorus which had been creating such an +uproar, a motley collection of male and female retainers in various +stages of undress, and holding a number of alarming looking weapons, +standing in a row looking down at us in astonishment. And I was just +feeling exasperated at being so completely in the dark because I could +not understand a word these people were saying, when the tall bizarre +person in the fur coat and pajamas leaned over and said: + +"'I understand you are an Englishman from one of the ships?' + +"'Yes,' I said. 'That is so. What is the matter, may I ask?' + +"'An attempt,' said he, 'at robbery and perhaps upon my life. You saw a +boat?' + +"'Yes,' I said, 'we saw a boat. Was that the man who has been attempting +robbery?' + +"'The leader,' said he; 'we have the others,' he looked at his +retainers, who looked down at us in a most theatrical way. + +"'Do you know who he was--the leader?' I asked. All this time I was +sitting in the dancing boat while the boatman fended her off with his +long arms. + +"'No, I regret not.' + +"'I can tell you, if you want to know,' I said. He leaned down to get a +good look at me, looked back over his shoulder, and called in a +reproving voice, upon which one of his minions flew down with a lantern, +and we viewed each other in the glare. + +"'I think it will be better if you accept my hospitality,' he said, +studying me thoughtfully. 'My carriage will take you back to your ship.' +He spoke again to my man who replied with grave decorum. I saw him now, +a tall, sunburned fellow with an immense black moustache, a round flat +cap on his black head, and an embroidered coat with innumerable small +buttons and frogs. He held the boat a little nearer in shore and I +stepped on to the sea-worn marble stairway. And without a word, in +accordance with the magical nature of the affair, my romantic boatman, +who had borne me away from my youth and who had proceeded methodically +to bear me onward toward my inevitable destiny, pushed off with an oar +into the fog and was lost. + +"And I assure you," insisted Mr. Spenlove in an aggrieved tone, "that I +have the same memory of the scene which followed as one has of a +complicated dream. I am not prepared, at this moment, to go into a court +of law and swear to all that passed between myself and that perturbed +gentleman in the silk pajamas and the fur overcoat. I was living very +intensely at the time, you must remember. The exact incidence of the +adventure was not clear to me until I was back on the ship. Even when +we sat in an apartment of immense size and sombre magnificence, and he +said courteously, 'Have we by any chance met before?' I did not fully +wake up. I said: + +"'I believe so, but I must admit I have forgotten your name.' + +"'That is easy,' he smiled. 'It is Kinaitsky. I am equally guilty--more +so, for I am not certain whether I have seen you....' he paused as he +passed me some cigarettes. + +"'At the ---- Hotel in London,' I suggested. He pondered for a moment, +observing me intently. + +"'It would be as well to give me the details,' he remarked. 'Since you +are about to do me a valuable service, I should know to whom I am +indebted.' + +"I told him. He remained silent for quite a while and I sat enjoying a +perfect cigarette and an almost equally perfect glass of wine. At length +he said: + +"'And I understand that your interest in this lady has led you here?' + +"'Oh, no,' I assured him. 'People in my walk of life can't do things +like that. It just happens my ship's charter was changed, that is all. +You can call it good luck, if you like, or bad.' + +"'Pardon,' he said, studying me and feeling in the pocket of his +overcoat, 'but I am not clear yet just what your intentions are.' + +"'I don't know myself,' I answered, foolishly. 'I must see her first. +You understand, she wants to see me, as a friend.' He smiled and became +grave again at once. + +"'I,' he remarked, stiffly, 'have not seen her since my marriage. I +allow her an income, of course. I regard that as a simple duty to those +who have been under my protection. I may tell you, Monsieur, that she is +quite free to dispose of herself.... But things are very unsettled here, +as you may know. I have large interests which involve me in political +affairs. This present affair is of that nature. And I may observe that +you were good enough to say you recognized the man who escaped in that +boat. I am at a loss to understand how this can be, but let that pass. +Who was he?' + +"'I was talking to him only to-day,' I returned. 'He calls himself +Stepan Nikitos, and he told me he wrote articles on internationalism in +a paper called the _Phos_. He is the sort of man who would write +fluently no doubt on internationalism, for he seems to be an Egyptian +Greek with a strain of Armenian in him. Personally, I believed him to be +simply a runner for a ship-chandler of whom perhaps you have +heard--Captain Macedoine.' + +"M. Kinaitsky sat with one arm on the little table between us and +regarded me from under sharp black brows with motionless interest. As I +mentioned the name of Captain Macedoine he stroked his moustache, and +then drew his other hand from his pocket and placed on the table a heavy +American revolver. + +"'Pardon,' he said, 'but I am unable to see how you come to know this +Nikitos.... Oh, he is a ship-chandler, you say. Well, he may be that +also. But you are not conversant with affairs here or you would +appreciate the danger of being friendly with internationalists. That by +the way. Your friend,' he went on with gentle irony, 'came here to-night +with three men such as can be hired for a few _drachma_ in any of the +alleys of the _Cite Saul_, to obtain some important documents from my +safe. Unfortunately for them the safe is of the latest London pattern +with a time-lock, which I bought when in England last year. They only +succeeded in alarming my servants and we secured the three men. The +leader, this Nikitos, who is well-known as one of those who sell +information to the Hellenic Government, a spy and a harbour pimp, +escaped. A most unfortunate accident.' + +"'But what harm can such a disreputable being do to a man like you?' I +enquired in astonishment. M. Kinaitsky spun the chambers of the +revolver with his finger. + +"'It is impossible,' he observed, calmly, 'to conceive of a state of +things in which a disreputable being can not do harm to one who +cherishes his reputation. Consider----' he went on, his finger leaving +the weapon and levelled at me. 'He has nothing to lose. He is the dupe +of desperate and cunning persons who wish to destroy the government. He +is poor, and he probably is driven by some woman to obtain money for her +gratification at all costs.' + +"'No,' I said. 'You don't know M. Nikitos. He has a very peculiar +attitude toward women. You might almost call him vociferously virtuous. +Perhaps,' I added, 'you do not know either that he was supposed to marry +Captain Macedoine's daughter? She turned him out. They were on the +Island of Ipsilon together.' + +"I don't know," said Mr. Spenlove, "how I expected him to take this, but +I was surprised at his composure. I did not take into adequate +consideration the fact that women were not the same phenomena to him +that they were to me. I forgot the 'four others' who were being kept in +loose boxes, so to speak, out of a deference to that complex yet +extremely admirable reluctance of his to abandon those who had reposed +in the broad shadow of his protection and who had been honoured by his +august notice. I have never been able, by the by, to make up my mind +whether I myself admired or loathed this singular idiosyncrasy. + +"'You mean,' he questioned, quietly, 'that she was his mistress on the +island?' I shook my head. + +"'No,' I said, 'that's the very thing I don't mean. And as I told you, +Nikitos has not that temperament. He makes rather a hobby of his own +chastity.' + +"M. Kinaitsky regarded me with interest. 'I mean,' I added, 'his +emotions are his mistresses, so to speak. There _are_ some men,' I went +on in doubtful fashion, 'to whom women make no positive appeal. But +perhaps....' + +"'Oh, undoubtedly!' he startled me by agreeing with sudden emphasis. +'Undoubtedly! But if not women, what?' he demanded. + +"'Well,' I said, slowly, 'he struck me as being just what you describe +him--in with some political crowd. I don't speak the language, you must +remember, and have only a hazy notion of what all this trouble is about, +but in the _Cafe Odeon_ I gathered from various obscure hints that he +was part of the show. And another thing, Monsieur, he certainly gave me +to understand that he meditated some sort of revenge upon the person who +had robbed him of this girl. That was how he put it, you know. He is +quite unable to believe that she detested him. He is ignorant of the +details of her life lately, I may say. He even suspected me of having +abducted her. Made some very violent threats, but I put that down to his +mania for long words.' + +"M. Kinaitsky looked at me with grave concern. + +"'This is very serious,' he remarked at length, 'very serious. It is +only a matter of days, hours, before he learns anything he wishes. The +government at Constantinople have been most negligent in their attitude +toward the revolutionary leaders here.' + +"'What alarms you?' I enquired. + +"'Everything!' he returned, getting up and walking to and fro on the +polished parquetry flooring, his arms folded, his head bent. +'Everything!' He halted suddenly in his advance toward the far end of +the room which opened upon a small byzantine balcony and looked at me +over his shoulder. + +"'I believe,' he said, slowly, 'that you are entirely trustworthy----' + +"'I feel flattered,' I murmured. + +"'But for one thing,' he went on, 'I cannot account to myself for your +connection with Mademoiselle Macedoine. I ask myself--what is he doing +there? I cannot answer.' + +"'Why are you so anxious about a thing like that when you have so many +cares?' I demanded. + +"'Because,' said he, 'I wish to make use of you. The news you bring me +to-night is, to me personally, by reason of my position here as an +Ottoman subject, extremely important. I propose to you that you take a +package of papers to my brother in London. I shall leave for +Constantinople by the four o'clock train to-morrow. If you will call +here at three to-morrow I will have them ready for you and will see you +safe to your ship where no doubt you have a safe on board. I can assure +you that when you deliver these papers to my brother he will reimburse +you for your trouble. Or if you prefer----' + +"'No,' said, 'I will do it with pleasure for nothing.' + +"'Impossible,' he retorted, gravely, coming up to the table again. 'It +is a commission and will be generously rewarded.' + +"'You anticipate trouble then?' I suggested. + +"'Monsieur,' said he, 'I anticipate the worst kind of trouble. I have +known of it for some time, but the happenings of to-night prove that I +was mistaken as to the time.' + +"'It will be better if I know nothing about it,' I said. 'I will call at +three or earlier. I have an appointment ashore to-morrow afternoon but I +can come here first.' + +"'You go to Mademoiselle Macedoine, perhaps?' I nodded. 'Give her my +respects,' he murmured, regarding me steadily. 'My respects. It would be +impertinent no doubt to refer again to your own future movements?' + +"And you know," said Mr. Spenlove, breaking off in his narrative +abruptly, "I had no words to reply. I was stricken with a species of +intellectual consternation at the incredible gulf which separated me +from that man emotionally. I was staggered by the vision which +persistently came before me of those four unknown women, quite possibly +beautiful young women, though of this I had no actual proof, dwelling in +discreet seclusion and serving no useful purpose in the world beyond the +gratification of a plutocrat's ego-mania. If that can be called useful. +And there was also, in addition to these, this girl whom I knew. Five of +them: and they were not even permitted to be wicked! And I had to +wrestle with this outrageous problem of our relative status as human +beings at the same time that my own attitude toward this girl was +assuming an intensely personal character. My soul, or that fugitive and +ineluctable entity which does duty for a sailorman's soul, was stamping +up and down inside of me, waving its arms, protesting with all its +suddenly released energy against this man, denying him any knowledge of +what we call love, at all. I wanted to assail him with denunciations for +the monstrous self-esteem which sentenced those delicate creatures to a +shadowy and volitionless stagnation. I accused him of the destruction of +their immortal souls, forgetting in my romantic warmth that in all +probability he didn't believe they had any. But of course, being an +Englishman, I remained perfectly quiescent and inarticulate. I believe I +reached for another cigarette before picking up my hat. And I dare say I +smiled. We have peculiar ways of defending ourselves in such crises. He +assumed a puzzled air as he held out his hand. + +"'Englishmen are ice,' he remarked, 'where women are concerned. I have +frequently observed it. _Sang froid_ as we say in French. The phrase +must have been inspired by the contemplation of an Englishman....' + +"'And we shook hands. I said nothing, which doubtless confirmed him in +his illusions about us. But the point is, I was equally mistaken about +him, I could not believe him capable of what we call love. I was, as I +say, mistaken. But as I followed him out to the front of his house, +where his patient minions waited with lanterns which shed flickering +rays over enormous shrubs and about the trunks of tall cypresses, and +stood at length beside a fantastic barouche, with a sleepy driver on the +box, I had a moment of illumination. I asked myself why I applied this +test of love to a man like him, a man in the midst of extraordinary +predicaments--a man who perhaps had suffered the pangs of hell for love +and had recovered, who quite possibly had run up and down the whole +gamut of human emotions while I was idiotically spending my years +tinkling on a couple of notes. The stupid injustice of my interior anger +came home to me, and I sought again for the reason why I demanded of him +my own occidental idealism. The answer struck me as unexpectedly as a +sudden blow. It was because of my own attitude toward the girl. As I +took my seat in the carriage and reached out mechanically to shake hands +once more, I saw her as clearly as though she were there before me, the +bought chattel of a cultivated polygamist, and the blood rushed to my +head in a sudden surge. I leaned back as the horses started at the crack +of the whip. I felt sick and humiliatingly impotent. I saw Love and +Romance for what they are in this iron world of ours--ragged outcasts +shivering in the streets, the abject dependents of the rich. And I saw +myself for what I was, too, for the matter of that, a reed shaken by the +winds of desire, an emotional somnambulist terrified at the apparition +of his own destiny." + + * * * * * + +"No," said Mr. Spenlove in reply to a murmured protest, "I am not +libelling humanity at all. We are a very fine lot of fellows, no doubt. +As I mentioned a little while ago, the new generation seem to be a +distinct advance in evolutionary types over us older and more imperfect +organisms. To watch a modern youth with a woman, to hear him recount his +extensive and peculiar experiences with women, to study his detached and +factory-built emotions toward women--the outcome of our modern craze for +quantity-production, is an instructive and somewhat alarming pastime for +one weathering middle age. An improvement, of course. All progress means +that, I am informed. But I am not telling you the adventures of a +super-man, only a super in the play. What? No, I didn't run down love, +as you call it, at all. My quarrel was not with love, or even the sexual +manifestation of it which pre-occupies you all so much. I simply doubted +your knowledge of it. I suggested that the majority of men never know +very much about it save in a scared and furtive fashion. I hinted that +you never fully realized the terrific importance of romantic ideas in +the world; that you make a joke of the whole business, filling your +rooms with pictures of well-nourished young women in amorous poses, +filling your minds with mocking travesties and sly anecdotes of those +great souls who have left us the records of their emotional storms and +ship-wrecks. I am telling you the story of Captain Macedoine's +daughter. Eh? Well, I am coming to that ... it seems we shall be here +till morning. + +"It once occurred to me," he went on, meditatively, "that a good deal of +the unreality of people in books is due to the homogeneity of their +emotions. A man in love, for example, is in love right to the end, or to +the point where the mechanism of the story renders it necessary to +introduce another state of affairs. Anybody who has been in love, or +cherished a hatred, or espoused a doctrine, or done anything invoking +the deep chords, knows that this is not so. There is the reaction. When +I got aboard the _Manola_ once more and stood in the middle of my stuffy +little cabin on the port side of the engine hatch, I was a cold and +discouraged pessimist. The oil lamp on my table showed me my domain. A +cockroach was making its way methodically round and round a covered +plate of sandwiches, while its brother or possibly a distant relation +was enjoying a good tuck-in of the cocoa at the bottom of a cup. Down +below I heard the bang of a bucket, and I reflected that the donkeyman, +after cleaning his fires and sweeping his tubes, was washing himself in +the stoke-hold. The night watchman in the galley was drying heavy +flannels over the stove and the warm, offensive odour hung in the air. +On the big mirror which I have mentioned, I saw a memorandum written +with a piece of soap: 'Steering Gear.' I recalled that I must get the +Mate to take up the slack in his tiller-head in the morning. I was +overwhelmed with the hard, gritty facts of existence, an existence the +most discouraging and drab on earth I imagine, unless one has some fine +romantic ideal before one. And I stood there, irresolute, looking at my +figure in the glass, which reminded me of a badly painted ancestral +portrait, and wondered whether I was capable of a fine romantic ideal. +There lies the trouble with most of us, I fancy. We lose our youth and +we fail to lay hold of the resolution of manhood. And before we know it +we have drifted moodily into forlorn by-ways of sensuality.... + +"Because I knew that if I went to see that girl next day I could no +longer maintain a detached air of being a kind of benevolent and +irresponsible guardian. All the unusual and melodramatic happenings of +the evening were unable to blind me to the basic fact that our relations +had changed, and I dared not follow them, even in thought, to their +logical consequences. And yet I dared not retreat. I had that much +imaginative manhood! I could not face a future haunted by her questing, +derisive, contemptuous smile. As I lay down and watched the lamp giving +out its last spasmodic flickers before it left me in darkness, I +thought I saw her, say a year hence, in a vague yet dreadful +environment, halting her racing thoughts to remember for a moment the +man who had failed her in a time of need. I saw the shrug and the sudden +turn of the shoulders, the curl of the lip, the evanescent flash of the +eyes.... No, I couldn't do it. And I couldn't forego the exquisite +seduction of a future glowing with the iridescent colours of romantic +folly.... + +"And so," said Mr. Spenlove, after one of his pauses, "I went." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +And for those who make a hobby of the irony of fate, I remember that but +for the innocent and haphazard intervention of a perfectly irrelevant +individual, I shouldn't have been able to get ashore at all. I woke +early. For some mysterious reason connected with tonnage, the old +_Manola_ had a small bathroom at the after end of the bridge deck, a +most unusual appurtenance in a tramp steamer of her day, as some of you +fellows know well enough. I had fixed up a contraption by which I could +pump sea water through a home-made shower. I was in this place having a +wash down and towelling vigorously when I heard the steward talking to +the cook outside the porthole. He was saying that he was going ashore to +the market to get some fresh green stuff and the cook was to tell the +old man that he would be back by eight o'clock. The steward, an +extremely quiet and modest creature with the ferocious name of +Tonderbeg, was standing close by, and the blue wreathes from his +cigarette curled into the port. He looked up and saw me, making a +slight bow and smile, and raising his hand in an automatic way to the +salute. + +"'Goot morning, Mister Chief,' he said. 'A fine morning, Sir.' I +conceded this and asked him if it was far to the market. + +"'Not far. Just a nice walk for a morning like dis, Sir. A very +interesting place, the market. In the Old Town.' + +"'Well', I said, 'if you'll wait a few minutes, I'll take a walk up +there with you.' + +"His good-looking blond features became suffused with a warm +gratification and his Teutonic voice went back into his throat, as it +were. + +"'W'y,' he announced, impressively, 'it would be a pleasure, Mister +Chief. I'll chust get de sailor wid de bag.' And he disappeared. + +"And I was mysteriously elated. It is useless to attempt any analysis of +those fugitive gleams of the future which occasionally distract our +minds. Nevertheless I recall it now with irresistible conviction--I was +mysteriously elated. I filled my case with cigarettes, took my cap and +stick, went back for a handkerchief, and slipped a couple of sovereigns +into my pocket with the idea, I suppose, of purchasing fruit. I found my +friend Tonderbeg standing by the gangway talking to the Captain. Jack +had come up in his pajamas, a remarkable suit of broad purple and +saffron stripes, and he stood there yawning and rubbing his massive +hairy bosom. + +"'Why, where you been, Fred?' he demanded, slyly, 'I'm surprised at you. +I thought you was a respectable man.' + +"'Well, Jack,' I said, 'as far as I know, I am.' He looked at me for a +moment, his head thrown back, his powerful hands flat on his breast, and +his big blood-shot brown eyes twinkled. + +"'You know what I mean, Fred,' he muttered. 'I'm only jokin'. When are +you comin' back? I'm goin' up to the agent's at ten.' + +"'Oh, we'll be back to breakfast. It isn't six yet.' + +"As we walked along the quays, I looked out beyond the tiny harbour in +which the _Manola_ was berthed. The waters of the Gulf lay like a sheet +of planished steel beneath a canopy of lead-coloured clouds. A couple of +steamers at anchor, their bows pointing toward us, were reflected with +uncanny exactitude in the motionless water below them. And away beyond +lay the sullen and bleak masses of the Chalcidice and the far watershed +of the Vardar, leading the eye at length to the immense, snow-streaked +peak of Olympos, flushing as some majestic woman might flush, in the +first rays of the sun, hidden as yet behind the symmetrical cone of +Mount Athos. I discovered that I had stopped to look at all this and I +realized with a slight shock that Mr. Tonderbeg was expressing his +approval. He said it was very fine. + +"'You admire scenery?' I asked him as we walked on. + +"'Very much,' he assured me. 'But by scenery I mean mountains. They are +very elevating, in my opinion, Mister Chief. Where I come from, +Schleswig, you know, we have very fine mountains.' And he coughed +deferentially behind his hand. + +"'What's your notion of being elevated?' I enquired. + +"'Well, Mister Chief,' he said in a deep tone, 'it is only natural for a +respectable man to improve himself, and to cultivate his mind, if you +know what I mean. And I find good scenery very improving. It gives me +good ideas. When I come to all dese different places I write home to a +little friend o' mine and tell all about it.' + +"'What does your friend think about it?' He smiled. + +"'Well, Mister Chief, when I say a little friend o' mine, I mean my gel +in North Shields, you understand. She's a school teacher, very well +educated. Yes, I should say she's had a splendid education. She writes +me very fine letters. A fine thing, education, Mister Chief. For shore +people, of course. People like you an' me, goin' to sea, don't get it. +But I think a man ought to improve himself and cultivate his mind. This +way up to the market.' + +"I regarded Mr. Tonderbeg with a perfectly sincere respect. On board +ship his efficiency had been of that extreme kind which causes one to +lose sight altogether of the individual responsible for it. He had so +merged himself into the routine of the day that one had difficulty in +realizing his existence. And in the mood I was in that morning, a mood +of reckless emotional adventure, I found a certain wicked pleasure in +teasing him into a foolish loquacity. He was evidently very anxious to +talk to someone about his little friend. She corrected his mistakes in +English grammar, I learned, for he mournfully confessed to many errors +in writing. But what impressed me about him was the astounding +familiarity he seemed to have with his destiny. He knew that an old +friend, a retired sea-captain, would give him a job as assistant steward +in a certain 'home' for the indigent mariner. He knew that in time he +would become steward, which would provide a job for his wife. He saw +right on into his middle age. For all I know he knew just about when he +would die and where he would go afterward. And he was a good ten years +younger than I was! All mapped out! There seemed to be as much adventure +in the future for him as for a young and exemplary vegetable. He would +grow old, and the young person who had been afflicted with a splendid +education would grow old with him, immured in the discreet official +quarters of the home for indigent seamen. As if a seaman were ever +anything else but indigent! And when I suggested that a trifle more pay +for the seaman would render the home unnecessary he put his head on one +side and explained tolerantly that they 'would only spend it on booze.' + +"'And better do that and die dead drunk than end up in a home,' I +muttered. He didn't hear me, I am glad to think now. I should have +regretted the slightest scratching of the immaculate surface of his +respectable equanimity. He was certainly thrown off his balance a few +moments later, and it is quite possible that had he heard my subversive +remark he might have abandoned me as hopeless. He maintained on the +voyage home the attitude of a deeply religious parent mourning for a +reprobate son, but not without hopes for his ultimate reclamation. + +"I think our conversation ended there. I remember we were passing up a +rather narrow and smelly street where donkeys, with immense panniers of +vegetables, were continually fouling each other, and then pausing with +infuriating composure while their fezzed proprietors wrenched them +apart. And I remember Mr. Tonderbeg insinuating himself past them in a +manner perfectly decorous and suitable in a foreigner among natives, yet +accompanied by an expression on his blond features which seemed to +betray a regretfully low estimate of a population deficient in the +ability to improve themselves and cultivate fine ideas. I say I remember +this because the next time I looked at him his expression had changed. +He had flushed to a dark terra-cotta, his eyes were cast down, and his +mouth was curled into an extraordinary and complex sneer and grin. 'Des +women!' he said, hoarsely. 'They won't let you alone. Impudent pieces!' +And he stopped at a fish stall. I was going to ask him what he was +talking about when I saw what had outraged his modesty. It was Pollyni +Sarafov, a big basket in her hand, standing in front of a booth on the +further side of the market and waving to attract my attention. I gave +Mr. Tonderbeg a glance as I left him, abandoned him. He did not see me. +He was still standing at the fish stall examining a number of loathsome +cuttle fish who were regarding him with a fixed and terrible stare from +among their many arms. I went straight over to the girl. + +"Mind, I don't blame Mr. Tonderbeg very much. There was something about +that girl which would give a man like him all sorts of alarming +thoughts. She would not elevate him. She was the negation of +respectability. Her shining bronze hair was tied up in a scarf of blue +silk, her cotton dress was shockingly short, and her feet were shod with +a pair of old Turkish slippers. And her basket contained a miscellaneous +assortment of esoteric comestibles which would later appear in an +astonishingly appetizing form at the table. She greeted me with a naive +delight, a tacit confidence that I shared her view of the situation, and +had managed to meet her by some tremendous _tour-de-force_ of romantic +intuition. + +"'And who's that man?' she demanded, nodding toward the respectable +Tonderbeg. I looked at him. He was sidling along the booths, followed by +an impassive seaman with a neatly rolled sack under his arm, and he was +glancing stealthily in our direction, his features almost dark with +shame. + +"'That's our steward,' I told her. 'He doesn't think much of you. He +thought you were giving him the glad eye, I'm afraid.' + +"'Him!' she queried, and regarded him for a moment. And then she changed +the subject. She wished to know if I was going up to see Artemisia. And +when I hinted at the early hour, she declared that it was a good time. +She would be so glad, she thought. And when she said she was ready, +having bought all she needed, and that a carriage was waiting for her +up the hill near the _Via Egnatia_, I took her basket and we moved on. +And we left Mr. Tonderbeg behind, left him full of the inward rage which +boils up when envy and decorum are run together in our hearts. There was +nothing the matter with him, understand. I mean, there was nothing one +could do for him. He was one of those bland human organisms who simply +fly right off the handle when they encounter a foreign morality. It's an +ethnical problem, I suppose. Why do I tell you of this Tonderbeg? +Irrelevant? Well, but he wouldn't have been, if I had carried out the +momentous scheme I had in mind. I thought you would have grasped that. +And I sometimes wonder whether his respectable mind had not elucidated +some inkling of this from a word perhaps overheard as he passed the +captain's door, on the voyage home, and nursed a grievance against fate +for depriving him of that piquant experience which I had had in store +for him! + +"And when we had climbed into the grubby little hired hack, a very +different vehicle from Mr. Kinaitsky's patrician affair, and the die +seemed definitely cast, I found myself recalling again and again a +remark which old Jack Evans had made his own. 'A man's a damn fool to +bother with a gel at all, unless he's going to marry her!' The ripe +fruit of his experience in the world! I had agreed with him, too. I +recalled his short, stout, unromantic figure standing in an +authoritative attitude with his hand on the rail, looking across the +blue glitter of the Mediterranean, seeing nothing of it, dreaming of +that semi-detached affair in Threxford which contained the angel child +and her desiccated mother. It is easy enough and indicative of wisdom to +agree in such cases. But I would remind you that I had no such dream of +the future in _my_ head as I sat beside this foreign girl and drove +along the _Via Egnatia_ to meet Captain Macedoine's daughter once more. +With more experience of the world of sentiment I might possibly have +gone so far as to envisage the probable outcome of the adventure. But +the point is that for all my thirty-five years, I had no such experience +at all. And women are quick as lightning to perceive this. You can bring +them nothing which they prize with such tender solicitude as a mature +and inexperienced heart. Neither callow adolescence nor a smart worldly +knowledge of their own weaknesses is any match for it. And why? Well, I +imagine it is because they feel safe without losing any of the perilous +glamour of love. It gives the fundamental maternal instinct in their +bosoms full scope without embarrassing them with either a puling infant +or a doddery prodigal. It may even play up to a rudimentary desire to be +not merely the agent of an instinct but the inspiration of an +individual. Cleverness in a woman is very often only the objective +aspect of fidelity to an ideal. + +"You may imagine I said nothing of this to the girl beside me. Instead I +asked her when she was going to get married, and she said 'By and by.' +When he came, not before. It was obvious that she awaited her destiny +without misgiving and that she was at that stage when women really love +vicariously or not at all. For she suddenly demanded if I was going to +take Artemisia away to England when my ship sailed. We had turned out of +the noisy _Via Egnatia_ and were climbing a steep, narrow street leading +toward the citadel, a street of an extraordinary variety of +architecture, whose houses lunged out over the roadway in coloured +balconies and bellying iron grilles. And the whole barbaric vista led +the eye inexorably upward till it caught the culminating point of a +lofty and slender minaret springing from a clump of cypresses and +glittering white in the morning sun. The street itself was still in cool +shadow, and at the doors, kneeling upon the fantastic little _paves_ of +mosaic, or rubbing pieces of polished brass, were bare-footed women with +picturesque dresses and formidable ankles. + +"Yes, she wanted to know, but I discovered just then that a man may +work himself up to a certain high resolution without feeling either +proud or happy. One seems to go into great affairs in a kind of +preoccupied daze. It is possible the Latin, the Celt, and the Slav have +the power to visualize themselves objectively when they assume an heroic +character. We are singularly deficient in this respect, I observe. No +Englishman is a hero to himself. And a merciless analyst might go so far +as to say that my entire behaviour was no more estimable than M. +Kinaitsky's, that I had but one selfish motive, which was to protect +myself from a woman's contempt. Viewed at a distance, I believe there +was more in me than that. There is a radiant glow about it all, for me, +which convinces that for once I had laid hold of the real thing. A +magnificent memory! It is something, I submit, to cherish in one's heart +even a solitary episode untarnished by any ignoble shame. + +"'You shall see, my dear,' I said, enigmatically, and then the carriage +stopped with a jerk and she appeared in a suddenly opened doorway, +bursting out, as it were, holding herself back with her hands on the +posts and devouring me with a look of extraordinary questing delight. It +was as though she wished to divine the very roots of my emotions. I sat +there, a tongue-tied fool, until Pollyni pushed me gently. Why didn't I +get out? So I got out and stood before her. + +"She was changed. I suppose I ought to have had the wit to expect that, +but the fact remains that my first feeling was astonishment. She stood a +foot or so above me on the doorstep, and this vantage, together with a +species of gravity in her demeanour, conveyed an impression of tall +aloofness. As she stood there, composed and curious, in a loose blue +gown and her hair spread around her shoulders, the fine pale olive of +her forearms emerging and her fingers lightly laced, one thought of +vestal virgins, priestesses of obscure cults, and of the women who +figure in the fantastic stories of the Middle Ages. She was changed, and +the difficult element in the case was that she seemed to have changed +for the better. And suddenly the old familiar derisive smile broke, the +white teeth drew in the red lower lip, and she put her hand on my +shoulder. 'Come in,' she said in a low voice. 'I never really believed +you would come at all! And, Polly dear,' she added to the girl in the +carriage, 'won't you come up later and we'll go out--you know----' and +she waved her hand upward. + +"'I'll come,' said Miss Sarafov with decision, and spoke rapidly to the +driver, who turned his horses round and began the descent to the _Via +Egnatia_. + +"'So you have come at last,' said Captain Macedoine's daughter, as we +reached a small room opening on a balcony above. There was another small +room behind and this seemed to be the extent of her domain. + +"'Yes,' I said, 'and now I am here, tell me what you think of it all.' + +"'Think of what?' she demanded, sitting down near me. + +"'Well,' I replied, 'of our relations chiefly. What am I supposed to be? +What do you want of me? You see,' I went on, slowly, 'I have thought a +great deal about you ever since you called me to London. A great deal, I +assure you. But I am not a very courageous person, my dear, and I am +afraid of my thoughts running away from me. I should not like you to +think me a fool, you know.' + +"'I should never do that,' she remarked in a low murmur. 'You are my +true friend, I know.' + +"'And what is a true friend to do for a girl in your position?' I asked, +bluntly, looking round the tiny chamber with its red and white tiled +floor and octagonal tables. She looked at me for a moment and then out +of the window, and sighed. + +"'Aren't you happy here?' I asked. She continued to look out of the +window while she answered me. + +"'Do you want me to be quite plain?' she enquired. 'Well, then, I will +tell you that except this,' and she made a gesture indicating her +surroundings, 'there is nothing for me to do. If I leave here where +shall I go? This is a funny place, I can tell you. And this won't last +forever, either, even if I wanted it to.' + +"'But why can't you go and look after your father?' I asked, helplessly. + +"'Because I told him a lot of lies about being married,' she said, +sharply, 'and I would rather die than tell him I'm somebody's keep.' + +"'You needn't have said that,' I said, unsteadily, 'and you needn't tell +him anything of the sort. Tell him just whatever you please and I will +back you up and make it the truth.' + +"'What makes you say I needn't have said it?' she asked, looking full at +me. 'You asked, didn't you?' + +"'Well, it hurt me for one thing,' I told her, 'and for another, being +bitter won't help matters. Do you suppose I haven't a pretty good idea +of your situation here? And if I hadn't had any intention of helping +you, why should I have come? I promised you I would always be your +friend, because I had never met any one so forlorn. And I will keep that +promise to the limit. And now,' I added, 'suppose I told you what +happened last night.' + +"She sat perfectly still, watching me while I recounted my singular +adventure with M. Kinaitsky. It was only when I mentioned what he had +said of her being quite free to dispose of herself that she gave a +quick, sarcastic shrug. + +"'I know,' she said. 'So he told me when he got married. But this is a +funny place, I can tell you. You think I can walk out of this house and +do what I like, get a job, rent a house? I can't. He knows well enough +I'm stuck here unless I go to the _Omphale_ or the _Ottoman House_, or +one of those horrible places. And then,' she added, 'it wouldn't be long +before I'd be sitting in the _Odeon_ half the night and wishing I was +dead.' + +"'You know,' I said, severely, 'that if you had the slightest intention +of doing anything of the sort you wouldn't breathe a word of it to me of +all people.' + +"For a moment she held out, smirking a little. + +"'You fancy yourself,' she said, quoting a by-gone London phrase. + +"'To that extent,' I insisted. 'What do you suppose I came up here for? +Why did I wander all over Saloniki last night trying to find you? To +hear you say things like that? What do you suppose I am made of? +Listen!' + +"I don't suppose men often tell a woman the things I told her then, but +it was imperative that I should clear away the difficulties between us. +I had to convince her that I was not to be humbugged by her fatal +inherited proclivity for a grandiose emotional role, a proclivity for +playing up to some mysterious imaginary being which she labelled herself +and strove to erect in the mind of her protagonist. It wouldn't do. +There was something numbing in the spectacle of her attempt to present +herself as already a painted shadow in the purlieus of a Levantine city. +In the long blue dressing gown, against a lemon-tinted stone wall, the +morning sun irradiating the exquisite, exotic face, she had an adult +air, so to speak, an air of lovely maturity and grave virtue. I would +say she looked much more like a saint than a sinner, if I could reach +any satisfactory conclusions as to the nature of a saint. I talked, as +they say, straight, and the culmination of my invective was a blunt +statement about her intelligence. + +"'You aren't clever enough to be as bad as you try to make out,' I said, +and she looked down at her hands. + +"'All the same,' she remarked almost to herself, 'you are taking an +awful risk in talking to me like this. How do you know I shouldn't +go--go to pot altogether, later on? I'm thinking of you, you know,' she +added. + +"'There you go again!' I exclaimed. She put up her hand as a token of +surrender, and there came into her voice that unforgettably alluring +timbre which, as I told you before, evoked mysterious memories and +invested her with an extraordinary quality which one might almost +describe as spiritual iridescence, a glamour of sybillant charm and +delicious abandon." + + * * * * * + +"And there, you know," said Mr. Spenlove in a low tone, "the story ought +to finish. That's where, when I recall the whole history of Captain +Macedoine's daughter, I should like it to finish--on a final note of a +supreme memory of that day. I would have had it forever wrapped in the +gracious radiance of romance. Which, I suppose, is more than is granted +to any of us. So, though it would not do for me to break the silence in +which one buries the fragrant bodies of dead moments, there is something +more to tell. Of M. Nikitos, for example, and the reproaches, +courteously worded, of M. Kinaitsky.... + +"We went for what in England we would call a picnic. Pollyni came back +about ten, in a fresh carriage whose driver had celebrated a day's +contract by coloured ribbons on the horses' head-stalls and a dark red +rose thrust over one of his own ears, in bizarre contrast to the almost +incredible dilapidation of his clothes. An old woman, whose features +were shrivelled to the colour and consistency of a peeled walnut, +placed between our feet a basket out of which stuck the necks of wine +bottles. I didn't ask where we were going, for I didn't care. I +remember, however, demanding an explanation of the heavy explosions +which had begun somewhere in the neighbourhood, and their telling me it +was a blasting party in a quarry just behind the houses and outside the +city wall. And I recall another incident, when we reached the barrier at +the Great Tower, where a squad of fezzed and moustached guards debated +among themselves the wisdom of permitting us to pass out. Very serious, +not to say uneasy, they seemed, the heavy explosions causing them to +look over their shoulders apprehensively even while they held their +bayonets, long, sharp, unpleasant affairs, across the breasts of the +horses. But finally they let us go, and after a half hour or so of the +boulevards we came to a road leading across the plain to a town a few +miles away. That is a memory, too--the wide plain of pale saffron earth, +the dancing blue sea, the turquoise sky piled here and there with +immense snowy billowings of autumn clouds, the girdle of grim and +inaccessible peaks, and the compact little town of white houses buried +in a circular plaque of foliage in the middle distance. And then at the +roadside, squatting on their haunches with their rifles between their +knees, very dusty and enigmatic, lines of soldiers on the march. I +remember it as one remembers an unusual dream, a vague blur behind the +sharper memories that intervene. + +"And out of the mists of impressions came the fact that we were going to +this toy town in the middle distance to visit Pollyni's uncle, a +gentleman who had been to America also, and having dug trenches for +drains and conduits in New York City for a year or two, had returned and +bought the principal cafe in the village. There was a moment when the +place lost the qualities of a water-colour painting and began to assume +the aspects of reality, when the homogeneous colouring of the land +became broken up into tobacco fields and vineyards and vegetable +patches, with an occasional pony walking round a mediaeval contraption +which brought minute buckets of water up from a well and trickled them +into a wooden sluice. And these in turn gave place to a sketchy and +winding earthen road which twisted among shabby houses with forlorn +sheds in which tobacco leaves hung drying on poles, and fowls pecked in +a disillusioned fashion while they meditated upon the formidable problem +of existence. And then we passed houses standing aloof and forbidding, +shut up, apparently uninhabited, houses which had quite simply tumbled +down for lack of support, houses with the front door upstairs, and +houses without any doors at all as far as one could see. We passed them +and our driver cracked his whip with great energy, the horses stumbled +against big stones or into rain gullies, an occasional human stared +woodenly at us; and suddenly we came round an intricate curve of the +street and we were in the little square of the village, a square +canopied by an immense tree and overhanging eaves. In the centre stood a +worn old well-curb where bare-legged girls fished up dripping petroleum +cans and staggered across to open doors, most of the water running +unregarded through a hole in the bottom. If you could call it a square, +when it had six or seven irregular sides, with the streets running into +it in a furtively tangential fashion and the corners of it cool and dark +even at noon-tide under that patriarchal tree which had been planted by +a patriarch, no doubt, while he was digging the well. This was the end +of our journey, where we got out, and the carriage rumbled away into the +green gloom beyond to some convenient stable, while we were welcomed by +a gentleman with a soft voice and very loud western clothing like that +affected by race-track folk, who stood in front of an extremely vacant +looking cafe. He had a watch-chain with massive gold links and an +enormous obsolete gold coin depending from his coat lapel. His boots +were shiny and globular of toe, and I gathered, as the day wore on, that +he represented Occidental Prosperity in that simple community and was +charitably excused from such glaring solecisms on that ground. They +found no fault with him for having an adventurous spirit which had +carried him to the Country of the Mad beyond the sea, for he had shown +his ultimate wisdom by coming back to live in a civilized part of the +world. In fact, by the way they drifted in during the afternoon and sat +at adjacent tables while he held forth bilingually upon his experiences +in a Hoboken sewer, it was evident that in addition to being a stout +burgess of the township, he was a species of Sinbad to them, with +preposterous but intriguing stories of subterranean cities where vast +and brilliant chariots roared through interminable passages; of +heaven-scaling towers where myriads fought for silks and jewels, for +gold and silver, for purple and fine linen; of streets above which +insane railway trains hurtled and shrieked and groaned as they carried +the demented inhabitants on endless journeys to nowhere in particular +for no ascertainable reasons. For mind you, they displayed no desire +whatever to emulate the daring feats of those who had gone to America. +They sat there for a time, smoking _narghilehs_ or cigarettes, looking +thoughtfully at the floor between their outlandish shoes, and then +drifted away to attend, it is to be presumed, to various affairs. I +doubt whether my confirmation of these improbabilities was of much avail +in convincing them that he was not simply exercising the ancient rights +of the teller of tales, and striving to terrify them with stories of +genii in bottles and carpets that flew through the air. And he certainly +had no intention of going back. He had 'enough mon' now,' he remarked, +'and who but a lunatic would ever venture into such a pandemonium save +for the purpose of getting 'mon'.' The bare idea of living permanently +in that country and exposing one's soul to the destructive action of +their peculiar political ideas had never entered his head. They had +called him 'a crazy mutt' because, forsooth, he had quit when his belt +was sufficiently loaded with 'mon'. Now why should they do that? Why +should he go on living in hell when he had the price of paradise +strapped about his middle? It was a baffling problem. Yet they did it. +Even now, as he spoke, out there across the world, millions of people on +an island the size of Ipsilon or even smaller than Naxos, were rushing +to and fro like maniacs. For of course he was under the impression that +Manhattan, with the adjacent coast beyond the river, was all there was +of America. For all he knew the subway ran to San Francisco and New +Orleans was a mile or two below Staten Island. Listening to him, it was +perfectly easy to visualize the growth of ancient tales of foreign +parts. When I think of him nowadays, and observe the noise and +chaffering of political people who are vociferously claiming for such as +he what they call self-determination or what in those illiterate days +was known as autonomy, I am constrained to a great amazement. We shall +see some strange signs and portents later, if I am not in error. + +"For if there is one thing more than another which one gets from this +old land, it is the conviction that it will not cease to be old because +a few zealots march round it blowing the trumpets of a new and +incomprehensible thing called Liberty. It is an amiable but disastrous +illusion on the part of the western nations that they have created a +monopoly in freedom and truth and the right conduct of life. As I have +adumbrated to you more than once, I am not so sure of all this. The +hoarse, guttural voice of Gruenbaum, whom the high priests of Liberty set +against a wall the other day and shot dead, comes back to me across the +years. 'An illusion, founded on a misconception.' Well, I wouldn't call +that an entirely true definition of democracy as we in the west +understand it. But if you took this late resident of Hoboken, now safely +restored to his traditional environment, I should certainly say that +your wonderful democracy was of no more use to him than some fabulously +expensive and delicate scientific instrument, or the Bodleian Library at +Oxford, or the Elgin marbles would be. The trouble is, you see, that so +many of us in the world, inarticulate for the most part, don't want your +progress, your tremendous journeys through the air, your new religions, +or your improved breakfast foods. And we could endure even such a war as +is going on now, if we only had peace in our hearts. For peace is not a +merely negative thing, the absence of strife. It is something in itself, +something you could definitely discern in the atmosphere of that +forgotten village of the plain, under that patriarchal tree, audible in +the clucking of the fowls under one's feet, and in the gurgle of the +water the girls hauled up from the dank darkness of the old well. I +recall one moment, after our meal in the late afternoon, as we sat on +the little balcony above the cafe, smoking cigarettes and drinking +coffee and mastic. A drowsy stillness had come over the place, as though +it had been secretly enchanted. Over the way an old gentleman reposed in +a chair outside his shop, asleep, a yellow cat in his arms. On the curb +of the well a young girl sat swinging one leg as she peered down +thoughtfully into the water. A pigeon cooed in the cot under the eaves +near by. There was a low murmur of conversation from a neighbouring room +where Pollyni was talking to her aunt, a large shy person, preoccupied +with household cares. And gradually I seemed to lose my grip of reality +altogether and passed into a kind of passionless ecstasy of existence, +where everything which puzzles us in ordinary life presented a perfectly +simple and amiable solution. One of the commonplaces of enchantment, I +suppose. I became aware of Artemisia saying dreamily: 'That was a loud +one. I shouldn't have thought we could hear them over here.' And I +nodded, remembering a distant and heavy detonation. It was slowly +dawning on my mind as I sat and smoked and murmured, that it was really +quite impossible for the quarry-charges to be heard so far. 'But what +could it be?' she asked, rousing. 'A gun perhaps. Sometimes ships come +from the Bosphorus and fired shots in the Gulf. A long way off, of +course. Perhaps a ship had come.' I told her what her father had said +the night before, that a war might come soon. She nodded and was silent +a moment before saying: 'I've heard that. Mrs. Sarafov said it might and +she was sorry because nobody was ever any better off. They fight because +the taxes are so heavy, and after the war the taxes are worse than ever, +to pay for the war. She told me how the soldiers came home to Sofia +after winning a war with the next country--I forget which--and there was +a grand triumphal march through the streets, and then the soldiers +discovered there was nothing for them to eat and they broke loose. +Everybody locked themselves up in their houses while the shooting went +on in the streets.' + +"'I believe,' I said, 'your father stands to make a lot of money out of +this trouble when it comes.' + +"She turned quickly toward me but without taking her arms from the ledge +of the balcony, pressing her adorable chin against her arm. + +"'I know this,' she said steadily, 'to-day has made it impossible to go +back to my father. I don't mean for the reason that I mentioned this +morning. Another reason.' And she sighed. + +"'What is that reason?' I asked gently. + +"'I'm a very unfortunate girl,' she muttered in a hoarse whisper, still +looking steadily at me over her arm. 'I want to tell you so many things, +and I can't, I can't.' + +"'But tell me the reason,' I persisted. + +"'Oh you must know ... I must get clear of the past--and the present. I +must not tell you the things I know. Let me alone ... and perhaps in +England I shall forget.' + +"And after that, of course, nothing could befall us save a silence, in +which we endeavoured to adjust ourselves to the new emotion. For, mind +you, I believe sometimes it would have worked out. She was a woman, and +I believe that she would have conquered her destiny if she had gotten +her chance.... No matter--a bald statement of belief gets us nowhere. So +I shall remember her looking at me in her enchanting fashion over her +arm, a light in her eyes like a light in the darkness at sea, flashing, +and flashing and going out.... + +"And it was after this silence had endured for a while that our +attention was drawn from our own thoughts by a strange commotion. A +number of the villagers suddenly appeared from round the corner of the +street where we had come, preceding a carriage which moved slowly, being +hampered by the people who pressed close to it all round. As if by magic +the people of the houses opening upon the little square appeared at the +doors and joined the crowd. And then, as the carriage arrived beneath +us, it halted, and the horses looked round toward the well, and we saw +on the seat of the carriage a man in some military uniform, a captain I +imagine, lying diagonally across the vehicle, a handkerchief soaked in +blood about his throat, a gash near one eye, and evidently a wound of +some sort in the arm, for his hand, which pressed against the cushion, +seemed to have adhered to it with the blood running down the sleeve. +The man's dark features had grown livid and his head lolled back with +closed eyes and sagging mouth. And then Pollyni came in quickly to fetch +us down, and we went. + +"Our host, who stood by the carriage bareheaded and looking about him +first toward one speaker and then another, gathering the scattered +details of the story, had already sent a man away with a message, and he +turned and came into the cafe, scratching his head and looking extremely +serious. He said the officer was the son of his landlord, who lived on +an estate at the far end of the town on the Seres Road. There had been a +riot in the Israelite Quarter, the revolutionists had attacked a squad +of soldiers going up to the garrison to change guard, and the military +in clearing the streets had suffered some losses. The wounded man had +been dragged from his horse and nearly killed before his men could +rescue him. It was terrible for the old people. He had sent a messenger +to prepare them. They would send for a doctor. Everything in Saloniki +was in a bad way. Just as the carriage was well out of the city they +heard a terrific explosion near the port, where the railway station was. +Troops were already leaving for Monastir. And in reply to the question +as to what we had better do, he eyed us reflectively and said perhaps +we'd better beat it back as quick as we could. He'd send for our +carriage at once, if we liked. It was obvious that while he figured on +handling the situation with credit and possibly profit, he had no desire +to be hampered by our presence. And it was certainly my own idea, too, +to get back. That 'explosion near the port' worried me a good deal. If +the _Manola_ were affected it would be necessary for me to be on hand. + +"'This settles it,' I said in a low tone as we waited for the carriage. +'You must come with me. On the _Manola_ you will be safe.' In those +days, of course, even the shabby old Red Ensign was an inviolable +sanctuary. She nodded without speaking. Indeed she did not speak for +some time after we had quitted the tortuous streets of the village and +were entering upon the open plain, merely regarding me in an earnest +abstracted fashion, so that I was moved to ask the reason. For she had +the air of one pondering upon a course of action already decided, trying +to see where it would lead. + +"'I was thinking,' she said, 'that it is funny you should be here, after +all this time, and free to do--what you are doing. Most men, you +know....' and she stopped. + +"'Most men what?' I demanded. + +"'Oh, there's generally someone they like at home, even if they aren't +married. You aren't, are you?' + +"It wasn't a rude or a cruel question as she put it to me. It was, on +the other hand, shockingly pathetic, and humble. It registered the +frightful defencelessness of her position at last. It went to my heart. +It moved me so profoundly that I could think of nothing adequate to +reply, and she stared into my eyes in the gathering evening twilight, +her own eyes extremely bright and feverish, like distant storm signals. + +"'Why torture yourself like this?' I asked at length. 'I happen to be +that very common person, a man without ties.' + +"'I'm not sure that that would be a recommendation to most girls,' she +reflected, audibly, 'because they think people without ties aren't +likely to contract any. But that isn't what I meant. When I was on the +_Manola_, coming out to Ipsilon, I got it fixed in my head you were a +widower. You know,' she went on, 'you never did talk about yourself, +always about me; and I wondered and wondered and finally decided that +you'd had a loss and didn't want to talk about it. And that made me +sorry for you. And then you remember, up on the cliff you made me +promise to let you help me, and you seemed so _experienced_ ... well, +when I was at that school you know, and we used to talk in the +dormitory about the sort of men we wanted to marry, I used to say--'a +widower, because.' And once a big lump of a girl who was always passing +exams said: 'you mean because he has lived with a woman before,' and I +said, 'a man didn't have to be married for that.' It got to the +mistresses' ears and I was nearly expelled.' + +"She stopped, and I said 'Go on!' + +"'Oh, I'll go on,' she said with a laugh, looking up at Pollyni, who was +sitting beside the driver and explaining something involving a great +deal of gesture. 'I can't say I was ever happy at school, but at any +rate I must have done pretty well, because I was always sorry to go +away.' + +"'And where did you go?' I enquired. + +"'Sometimes my father had a house at the seaside, sometimes in the +country. He would have a yacht, with a party of people who were all +paying guests, of course. Or he would take a moor and have people down. +And again he would have a place in London.' + +"'But do you mean to say your father fetched you home to spend your +holidays among strangers?' I asked. 'I don't quite understand your +father's attitude toward you.' + +"'I wish I knew myself,' she muttered, looking at her foot. 'You know,' +she went on, 'we have always kept up a sort of arrangement in which he +can't live without me and I am a passionately devoted daughter. I +wouldn't tell any one else this,' she interpolated hurriedly in a +whisper, 'but the fact is, I am not a passionately devoted daughter. I +used to think I was. All the girls at school used to rave about their +parents, so I raved about mine. Girls are fools,' she remarked, +abruptly. + +"'In what way--raving?' I asked. + +"'Well,' she said, 'they go on and on, meaning no harm, I suppose. You +know we used to tell each other we had the most wonderful sweethearts. +One girl had a boy in New Zealand. Another was secretly engaged to a man +who was in China. All very far away! So I wasn't to be done, and I +bragged about a lover in Siberia. When they wanted to know about him I +made up a long story. I said he was a Russian and I had met him in +London and he'd gone back to Russia and got arrested and sent to +Siberia. It was as true as their yarns, I dare say. And it's a fact I +used to imagine myself in love with a tall fair man with a yellow beard. +There was a Russian at father's house in Pimlico once, but he was an old +cuckoo from the Consulate. I didn't like him.' + +"'I don't think, my dear,' I said, 'that I want to know any more about +it. I believe I understand.' + +"'Yes,' she answered. 'I believe you do. I believed you would understand +sooner or later, when I sent for you in London. I was a beast, then, but +I don't regret it after all. I feel I could be anything to you, and +you'd understand. Oh!' she muttered, clinging to me for a moment and +staring across to where the sun, already set beyond the purple +mountains, sent up broad bars of gold and crimson, reflected in the calm +waters of the Gulf. 'Oh! How I have treated you!' and she sank into a +silence of passionate regret that lasted until the darkness enfolded us +and we had entered the long desolate _faubourg_." + +Mr. Spenlove stopped and rose from his seat on his little camp-stool. +Walking to and fro in front of the recumbent forms of his brother +officers, his hands in his pockets, his head on his breast, he seemed +once again to have forgotten them. And they, perceiving by this time the +impropriety of mundane interruptions at such a moment, awaited his +resumption in silence. + +"After all," he remarked, suddenly stopping and staring down at the +deck, "I lost her. I have said to you, at the beginning, that if her +story means anything it means that love was nothing, and I had this in +mind, for I lost her. And of what avail, I ask you, is an emotion so +independent of our individual destinies that it can culminate at the +very moment of disaster? It may be, of course, that what we call love +is only the bright shadow on earth of some ulterior celestial passion; +but life is too short and too unsatisfactory for one to cultivate such +an exalted faith. And we crave a little logic of Fate when we suffer. +If, for example, the crazy Nikitos, true to his word, had suddenly +appeared before us in that narrow street off the _Via Egnatia_, and +destroyed her as many were destroyed that day, one could submit as to a +sinister but tangible manifestation of human folly. But to have happened +as it did ... there was no sense in it. It was as though that girl, who +had been from her birth a waif, the unhappy sport of spurious emotions, +had angered Fate by stumbling upon something genuine after all, and was +dismissed into the darkness in a moment of irascible petulance. And I +suppose that I, if a man had any inherited right to expect that the law +of compensation should be put in operation in his favour, should feel a +grievance. But as I have remarked more than once, my attempts to be +anything more than a super in the play have not been a shining success. +So we can leave that out. There is no need to lose faith in Compensation +because it is somewhat delayed.... + +"But even from the standpoint of a detached and isolated event, there +was nothing about it that a rational being could lay hold of for +comfort. It was just one blind evil chance out of a million possible +ones. I did not even see it happen. I was doing something which has no +connection with my past or following existence--watching an Ottoman +soldier, probably an Anatolian, crumple up and expire in the gutter of +the _Via Egnatia_. I was watching with the close attention one +inevitably bestows upon one's first violent death--as a matter of fact, +I had never seen any one die, even in bed--and remaining securely wedged +in a doorway a few yards up the street. I remember him as he paused for +an instant in a sort of ecstasy, his face turned up toward the harsh +bright glare of a naked electric bulb that hung from a trolley pole, his +body momentarily poised as though defying his destiny. And then he +twisted about in an extraordinarily complicated manner and fell, all of +a piece, while a number of extremely active persons tore past him +without any sound save a popping noise far down the street. That would +be near the market, I reflected in my doorway. And as we should have to +go that way in order to reach the ship, it struck me that it would be my +duty to find another route. And from that I went on to visualize the +consternation of my friend Jack, when I turned up with the astonishing +_entourage_ of two women and a suitcase, and informed him of my +determination. I had a tremendous desire to know, beforehand, just what +he would do and say. He would stand by an old friend of course. But how? +And while I reflected in my doorway and listened to the popping, which +went on with varying intensity, still more figures sped past the end of +my street. I recalled the perplexing fact that as we had driven into the +town past the barrier, there had been no one on guard. I learned later +that, with unbelievable stupidity, the authorities had sent the army out +toward Monastir and had left the city with a mere handful of soldiers to +deal with the revolutionaries. It was this fact, I suppose, of finding +nobody on guard, which had frightened our driver, and no sooner had we +alighted before the doorway in that steep, narrow street off the _Via +Egnatia_ than he had demanded his fare and galloped away up hill and out +of sight. 'You'll have to get another carriage,' Pollyni had told me in +an anxious voice. 'You'll find one down near the big church.' The +arrangement was that they would be ready by the time I returned. + +"But I had got no further than the corner when the first shots had been +fired, and while I hesitated, a couple of soldiers had hurried along, +looking back at every other stride, until suddenly one of them had been +hit. And I had watched him die. I could still see him, an inert heap in +the gutter. And while I debated what I was to do to get out of this +unforeseen difficulty, the popping became a series of sharp, definite, +staccato cracks, and a squad of soldiers, armed with short, blunt +rifles, shuffled sideways into view. There was a species of discipline +in their movements, for they deployed out over the road and dropped on +one knee, while one of them stepped briskly to the curb and spoke in a +harsh, authoritative tone to some invisible laggard. He came into view +very slowly, dragging one leg, and halted, in the very middle of the +street, his rifle pointing up hill, his face turned toward their +assailants, his hand to his breast fumbling for cartridges. Now and +again he lurched as though wounded, but he never relaxed his defiant +glare. His hand worked quickly over the breech and he seemed about to +swing his weapon round when he must have been hit again, for he toppled +over and the thing went off with a flash and roar." + +Mr. Spenlove relinquished his leisurely pacing to and fro under the +awning and sat down sideways on his camp-stool to roll and light a +cigarette. His reflections while this was accomplished remained +undisturbed, and his attitude conveyed an impression that he was +listening with considerable bitterness to some imaginary reproaches from +which he suddenly attempted to defend himself. + +"Not so easy," he muttered, flicking the match into the scupper. "Not so +easy! Suppose I had suddenly broken out of that doorway and made off up +the street? There is no reasonable grounds for doubt that the officer +who was directing that little squad of disciplined men was the person +who afterward gained the White Tower and held the city barrier and the +sea-front until fresh troops arrived to overpower the apostles of +liberty. Suppose, I say, I had suddenly scared him by bolting up that +narrow street? No, not so easy. And yet it wasn't easy, either, to +remain even as long as I did. For at a word from him the kneeling men +raised their rifles and fired once, twice--a crescendo of crashes +reverberating from the buildings opposite. And then they all ran +diagonally across the street into the shadows, and for a space there was +silence. + +"And even then," went on Mr. Spenlove, "I did not run. Not from courage, +you understand, but fear. I tip-toed out of my doorway and walked +quickly up the street without making any noise. I was preoccupied with +the question of getting back to the ship. We should have to walk. I +tried to lay out the city in my mind. If we walked upward say, and +struck a street going westward and parallel with the _Via Egnatia_, we +might eventually strike another thoroughfare running down to the port. I +was thinking this out as I hurried. I considered the wisdom of remaining +indoors until the morning, and I believe now that is what I would have +done eventually, anyhow. I looked back several times. The electric +globe, hanging high, had gone out or been put out, and there were no +lights in any of the houses. I imagined the inmates sitting silently +behind their shutters, listening and waiting for a renewal of the +uproar. You must understand that I was experiencing nothing more than a +very natural exaltation of nerves, with an undertow of anxiety for the +ship. I pictured Jack in a great state, wondering where I was, a state +probably complicated by the scandalized Tonderbeg's abashed revelations. +As Jack grew older, he grew fond of saying there was no fool like an old +fool, forgetting that there is another kind, the middle-aged fool, who +has the distinction of comprehending and enjoying his folly. Of course, +Tonderbeg would get himself snubbed, and Jack would retire to his cabin +to muse upon the serious news. So I reflected as I hurried up that dark +street toward a faint ray of light which indicated the door of her +house. I had no forebodings up to this moment; only speculations. And +even when that light was darkened for an instant as someone stood in the +doorway, and I heard Pollyni's voice calling hoarsely to know who I was, +I had no premonition. The next moment her high-heeled shoes clicked on +the sidewalk as she ran toward me, and when she came up to me she +grasped me and stared at me in a profoundly mysterious fashion. I will +not say to you what I now believe lay at the back of that girl's mind. +You would say I had lost my faith in humanity, but you would be +mistaken. You would be forgetting her descent from the Pandour hordes +who came galloping up out of the Caucasus so many centuries ago. You +would be forgetting that to those people neither 'life, liberty, nor the +pursuit of happiness' are particularly sacred things, or things to be +achieved in a spirit of altruistic piety. But I can tell you it was +because of that enigmatic stare of hers that I have emphasized her part +in this story of Captain Macedoine's daughter. You might say she had the +temperament for the leading role in the play.... She said in her hoarse +musical contralto, 'We were ready and we were coming down to meet you.' + +"'Well?' I said. She stood in front of me, holding my arms and impeding +my advance. + +"'Well!' she repeated, slowly. 'You do not know what has happened,' and +again she regarded me in the way I have described. + +"'No,' I said, returning her scrutiny, 'I don't understand what you mean +by what has happened. I have seen a shocking thing down there. They are +fighting in the _Via Egnatia_. Some are dead. We can't go that way, I'm +afraid.' + +"Suddenly she dropped her hands from my arms and breathed deeply. +'Come!' she said, and hurried away from me. I had spoken the truth. I +did not understand her, but her demeanour alarmed me. I followed, +watching the silhouette of her body sway as she took her long strides. I +had a fugitive notion that this performance was symbolical of our +emotional existence--our souls pursue one another through a steep +darkness, the victims of unpremeditated suspicions and fears. As she +reached the lighted doorway she swung round and spread out her hands +with a gesture of pity and grief. 'Look!' she said. 'As we came out +someone fired. She was in front. It was not my fault.... You see.' + +"While she spoke I endeavoured to collect my forces. I looked down. I +had a vivid impression of emerging from a place of imprisonment, a place +of great noise and activity and warm, pleasant excitement, and of seeing +before me a cold gray plain extending into the distance. And over this +plain, I reflected, I was to travel, alone. I looked down, I say. I +heard the girl beside me murmur hoarsely into my ear, and stoop to lift +the form that lay motionless at our feet. + +"'No!' I said, drawing her back. 'This is for me to do. I will carry my +own dead.'" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +"And the rest," said Mr. Spenlove in a colourless voice, "is by way of +being an epilogue of detached and vagrant memories. They come to me now +and again, a sad sequence of blurred pictures in which I can see my own +figure in unfamiliar poses. There is the night which I passed in that +house, a night of endless recapitulations and regrets. There was the +moment when I turned from the bed, where the dead girl lay, and found +the other girl, with her extraordinary vitality, close beside me, +scrutinizing me as though I were a problem she found it impossible to +solve. And when I walked through into the other room and sat down beyond +a table on which a tiny oil lamp burned, she advanced into the circle of +light, so that her shadow was gigantic on the wall and ceiling behind +her, and looked across at me. There was a subtle change in her since we +had met in the street outside. She seemed full of an insatiable +curiosity to know my thoughts. And my thoughts just then were not for +any one to know. My thoughts resembled a flock of wild birds which had +been streaming steadily in one direction when a bomb had exploded among +them and sent them swirling and careening in crazy circles. And she did +this more than once. While I sat there in the semi-darkness beyond the +circle of light she came in with some bread and a bottle of wine, and +set a plate and glass beside them on the table, and then, after watching +me for a moment, went away again. There was a faint murmur from below +where a number of women from neighbouring houses were conversing in low +tones with the old Greek woman who seemed to be the _concierge_, and +thither no doubt the girl retired. And once while I drowsed for a spell +I was aware of her as she stepped softly up to me, peered into my face, +and then, as I opened my eyes, withdrew without speaking. Yes, I drowsed +time and again; but toward dawn I grew wakeful and the necessity of +returning to the ship became urgent once more. You will understand, of +course, that it was not a fear of being killed that held me in that +room. I was in a mood up there which rendered me perfectly indifferent +to material risks of that nature. It was rather an illogical and +irresistible instinct to play up to the event. I was intensely aware +that the episode, by reason of its frustrating climax, was already +standing away from me, and I was unable to relinquish my position. I +felt that when I was gone away from that room I would be at the mercy of +a frightful and solitary future. It may sound strange to you, spoken in +cold blood, but that dead girl was nearer to me during my vigil than any +living woman had ever been! I went over everything that had happened +while I sat and watched the light of the three candles flicker over +those exquisite features. And I discovered in the confused tangle of +emotions one bright scarlet thread of gladness that no more harm could +come to her. For mind you, I was wise enough to know the perilous +problems in store for her, even if she had come home with us. I was +under no illusions about either of us. It was the tremendous risks which +had allured me. I have said I believed she would have won out, and I do. +But how? Women win out in all sorts of extraordinary ways. I am not so +sure some of them would not be better in their graves.... + +"But I went down at last. And the girl Pollyni met me in the corridor +below. She said: 'Are you going on board the ship?' 'Yes,' I answered, +'I am going on board the ship. What else can I do?' She shrugged her +shoulders and looked at the floor. I started to go out. I experienced a +sudden irritable anger. + +"'Why do you ask?' I demanded. + +"'Well,' she said in a low tone, 'you know her father is sick.' + +"'Oh,' I answered, 'I will come ashore again, of course. But just now, +you understand, I must go back. I may be wanted.' And I went out quickly +into the chill air of the dawn. + +"And the intense silence of that cold, closed, steep street daunted me. +I felt, as I surveyed those silent and repellent facades, with their +enigmatic shutters, a sensation of extraordinary loneliness and dreary +failure. I envisaged the _Manola_ lying snug and respectable at her +berth in the little harbour, all the dingy details of her stark utility +apparent in the transparent morning air. I saw myself ascending the +gangway, and the startled air of amused surprise on the face of the +night watchman projected abruptly from the gallery. I saw Jack, asleep +in his room, his mouth open, his limbs flung wide, his hairy chest +showing through the open pajamas, a rumbling snore filling the neat +room. And I came to the singular and illogical conviction that if I went +aboard immediately I would regret it. I should carry away with me into +the future a memory of shabby and furtive behaviour. And I did not want +that, I can assure you. I wanted this thing to remain somewhat as I had +experienced it. I felt that I must make the most of it. We grow very +humble in our emotional demands as we grow older, I observe. We who go +to sea especially. One of the inevitable products of our rolling +existence. And I stood, irresolute, in front of the open doorway leading +to the flat above, and Pollyni Sarafov stood there watching me. She came +down. + +"'Let me tell you something,' she began. 'I think you ought to go and +see her father. Didn't you say you used to know him in America? Just +think! She was all he had.' + +"'What am I to say to him if I go?' I demanded. 'You know very well that +he thinks she is ... eh? How shall I explain when I come in?' + +"'Never mind that,' she said, shaking her head. 'You come.' + +"And she became extraordinarily light-hearted when I said I would. She +ran in and got her hat and parasol. She came out prinking and clicking +her high-heeled shoes, and she placed her hand as lightly as a feather +upon my arm. Perhaps she really needed my support down that steep, +narrow street, but I read into that delicate gesture a profound moral +significance. And I can tell you another thing," added Mr. Spenlove with +some vehemence. "I found myself regarding the whole sum of human grief +with moody suspicion. I recalled a fine phrase I had once read of 'the +great stream of human tears falling always through the shadows of the +world,' and I dismissed it as fudge. I was half tempted to wonder +whether the world, which had grown out of stage coaches and sailing +ships and Italian opera, had not grown out of grief at the same time. +And by heavens, what has happened during the past two or three years has +only solidified that grisly conviction. We seem to have been born just +in time to see the end of the spiritual world, the final disintegration +of the grand passions of the human soul. Oh, we keep up a certain +pretence from force of habit, but we are being forced to realize that +the philosophers were on the right track when they foretold the +subjugation of man by the instruments of civilization. Or you can say +that the _tempo_ of our modern life is too fast to permit our accepted +notions of the elemental comedy and tragedy of existence to register +with any permanence. The newspaper scribbler talks incessantly of +Armageddon, heroism, patriotism, sacrifice, and so on, and we wait in +vain for our hearts to respond to their invocations. We discover with +surprise that we are as incapable of profound sorrow as of a high +resolve. We are swept on out of sight. We forget, or we die and are +forgotten. We are beginning to wonder now and again whether all our +boasted science and mechanical discoveries are not evil after all, +whether the old monks were such bigoted fools as we have been taught to +believe when they denounced knowledge as a danger to the soul. But we +have very little time in which to reflect. We rush on to fresh +improvements, and we find ourselves less admirable than before. + +"And so, as we went down that cold, remorseless street of shuttered +houses, away from the chamber of death, we were silent, but we thought +not at all of death. Perhaps we did at the turning into the _Via +Egnatia_, for the dead soldier was still lying where he had fallen in +the shallow channel that ran just there by an orchard wall. He was lying +on his face, with his hands close to his head, and his pose gave one a +peculiar impression that he was looking with intense curiosity into some +subterranean chamber. His attitude was not at all suggestive of death. +It was quite easy, looking across at him, to imagine him suddenly +leaping to his feet, beckoning us to come and have a peep through his +newly found hole. The soldiers we encountered hurriedly descending the +street from the Citadel and running across to vanish into the White +Tower were much more like dead men, strange to say. Their faces were +pallid with lack of sleep, and they bore the hard-lipped stare of +disciplined men who have suddenly lost faith in their commanders. They +paid no more attention to us than to the stones of the roadway. They ran +past us laden with bread and vegetables, hastily corralled from +friendly houses built about the Citadel, for these were mostly families +with military traditions. One carried on his curved back a newly +slaughtered sheep, the bright red blood dribbling from the gashed +gullets, and the animal's eyes looking back at us with an expression of +intelligent comprehension, as though it were fully aware of the whole +business. In the clear light of early morning there was a good deal of +the automaton about all of us. And as we crossed the road where it +debouched upon the quays and started to walk out of the city by the +deserted barrier, a short and determined-looking person in a +tight-fitting blue tunic looked out of the door of the Tower and eyed us +critically. And I really believe the only reason why he neglected to +tell one of his men to put an experimental bullet into us was the fact +that the girl still had her hand on my arm. And she carried her parasol. +We walked on and presently we were out of sight of the sea and the +Tower. Across the blue sky large companies of billowing white clouds +were gathering from the mouth of the Gulf. Suddenly Miss Sarafov +murmured without taking her eyes from the ground. + +"'Was that man dead?' + +"Now," said Mr. Spenlove, "you may call me fanciful and overwrought, but +I read into that simple question a secret desire to accustom my mind to +the idea of death as a frequent and common sort of affair. I looked at +her suspiciously and she raised her eyes to mine full of a clear +feminine candour. She may have known that my morose taciturnity came +from a consciousness that she had divined the fundamental flaw in my +emotional equipment and was using it for her own purposes, but she did +not show it. And while I was debating the question with myself, I heard +her add, in a shy, delicate tone, 'There is a little garden just here, +on the water.' + +"And from that moment I let her have her way and followed her lead. We +crossed the street. I heard her say it was too early to go to the _Rue +Paleologue_, which might be true, but struck me as irrelevant. And then +my attention was drawn to a high square house standing in a dusty yard +and decorated with a long board bearing the words _Ecole Universelle_. + +"'I was at school there before we went to America,' Miss Saratov +remarked, poking at the place with her parasol. 'It was a good school +then, very solid instruction,' she added, 'but now it isn't any good.' + +"'Is the instruction no longer sufficiently solid?' I asked. + +"'The mistresses are all progressives,' she returned. 'Here is the +little garden,' and we came out upon a small place of grass and shrubs, +flanked by a pair of _kiosques_ joined by a wooden balustrade. It was +deserted, as one might expect at that hour; but Miss Sarafov remarked +that we might have coffee and rusks if I liked, and walked across the +sward to a door in a neighbouring house. I went into one of the +_kiosques_ and sat facing the calm waters of the Gulf. Facing something +else, too, which was anything but calm. For I was unable to rid myself +of a fear that when this episode was completed I should be in a very +difficult position. I should be like a man who had been struggling in +the waves, only to find himself suddenly flung up high and dry upon a +desolate and inhospitable shore, where he would in all probability +perish of privation. And then, if you like to carry the parable a little +further, this man becomes aware of a siren calling him back into the +watery tumult.... And you know, I doubted my ability to manage the +situation if I were to go back. One needs a special education, or let us +say, temperament, to deal successfully with sirens. And as Miss Sarafov +came into the _kiosque_ and sat down beside me, I felt the immediate +necessity of making my position clear. I began at once to tell her that +the events of the previous day had changed everything. I should in all +probability never come to Saloniki again. And while I felt it my duty +to see Captain Macedoine and also to return Miss Sarafov herself to her +mother, I should then go back to the ship for good. + +"'And I shall never see you again,' she exclaimed, looking out across +the Gulf, in a kind of magical abstraction. + +"'A small privation,' I murmured. She rose suddenly and stood by the +door of the _kiosque_, her sturdy and extraordinarily vital figure +silhouetted against the shining water. + +"'Not so small,' she muttered in her hoarse contralto, 'not so small, +after what has happened.' + +"'What do you want, Miss Sarafov?' I asked, sharply. 'You seem to accuse +me of a failure in friendship.' + +"'What do I want?' she echoed, without turning round. 'Why do you +suppose I wanted Artemisia to send for you and go to England? Because +she was going to take me, too.' + +"'Take you, too?' I said, feebly. + +"'Sure!' she shrilled, turning round, 'to live with her. She hadn't a +friend in the world to turn to and she'd have gone crazy living alone in +England while you were at sea. We had it fixed up. And now it is all +over, and I have to stay here and live through--what? I don't know.' + +"'But I understood Captain Macedoine to hint that you were his +favourite,' I observed. + +"'That's his way of talking. Mother thinks he's wonderful. Of course, if +his investments went up, as they might if there was a revolution, he +would be pretty rich. But just now his business doesn't bring in much. +And it was Kinaitsky who started him in it. He owes Kinaitsky a lot of +money.' + +"'And you think you would like to go to England?' I said. She shrugged +her shoulders, and made a movement of her hand as though casting +something away. 'No use talking about it,' she returned, gruffly. I was +silent, and after she had watched me for a moment she came over quickly +and sat down beside me again. + +"'Pardon,' she whispered, 'but I had so little time. I knew you would go +away and I had to speak. I thought you might not be angry.' + +"'I am not,' I said, 'only sorry. You had made a very special place for +yourself in my memory,' I went on. 'I wish you had not disillusioned me. +You were entirely charming. Why should you go and spoil it all? I would +have thought of you always as my friend's friend....' + +"She sat in a tense, eager pose looking up into my face, a pose that +suddenly relaxed and she sighed. I did not see it then, in my exalted +mood of idealized emotion; but I don't suppose a woman values any +reputation less than one for altruistic charm. Probably because she is +aware of its inevitably spurious nature. Miss Sarafov sighed, and the +intense vitality of her features was obscured for an instant as by a +shadow. An idea seemed to strike her and she looked intently at me +again. + +"'Women don't matter much to you,' she observed, quietly, and fell +silent again. + +"And here again," said Mr. Spenlove, "was a picture which comes back to +me now--the scene in that little _kiosque_, a circular chamber crowded +with the brilliant and disturbing reflections of the sunlight on the +surface of the sea, shadow and gleam moving in complex rhythm across our +faces and figures as we sat there, two beings destined to be forever +strangers. She came into view for a little space, and vanished again, a +mysterious, alluring, and magical presence, yet conveying no hint of any +misfortune. She gave the impression of an easy and felicitous balance of +forces, a complex of resilient strength, to which we poor Anglo-Saxons +rarely attain. And sitting in the dancing reflections of the sunlights, +she seemed a veritable emanation of the spirit of enchanted desire. I +see her now, confronting the obscure motives of my behaviour in +good-humoured sadness, while an ancient person in baggy black trousers +and dingy scarlet sash tottered forward with a copper tray bearing tiny +cups and a brass pot with a long handle. + +"And in direct sequence, not very clear but clear compared with the +shadowy oblivion that intervened, comes a picture of him whom I have +called more than once a master of illusion. And I suppose he has a right +to the title for he maintained the pose to the end of the chapter. I had +imagined that it would be a painful duty to break the news of his +daughter's death to him. I saw myself offering my condolences and +soothing a father's anguish. I pictured an old man bowed with grief. But +it did not happen that way at all. I forgot that masters of illusion +have no use for facts, not even for such facts as grief or death, until +they have been transmuted into some strange emotional freaks which will +inspire the spectator with awe. And Fate, who is something of an +illusionist herself, plays into the hands of such as he. + +"I remember, for instance, sitting heavily in Mrs. Sarafov's front room, +and telling that handsome, self-possessed woman in a few brief words +what had happened to Captain Macedoine's daughter. How a wounded +soldier's rifle, discharged by accident in our direction, had left us +paralyzed and aghast at the inconceivable efficacy and finality of its +achievement. I remember that, and then I remember following her into +Captain Macedoine's house. About nine o'clock, I should say. And Mrs. +Sarafov must have sent a messenger in advance, for Captain Macedoine +already knew what I had to say. We stood in the vestibule near the foot +of the stairs, Mrs. Sarafov whispering that he was being treated by his +doctor with special baths. The doctor came every morning, I was informed +in a respectful tone. And while we stood there, we heard a commotion +upstairs, and a strange procession began to descend the narrow and +shallow steps. I remember turning away hurriedly from a picture on the +wall, a stark, angular composition of muscular male nudes in attitudes +registering classical grief, of the body of Hector being brought back to +the city--and finding Captain Macedoine, supported by a lean man in a +frock coat and by two women, coming down. And perhaps it was the +contemplation of that picture which called to my mind with irresistible +force another picture, seen many years before. It was a picture of vivid +colouring and violently complex action--the Emperor Vitellius coming +down a steep, narrow street with the mob and the soldiery hacking and +yelling and spitting around him, his gross corpulence rolling and +rearing and staggering, the rich robes ripping away from the creases of +sleezy tissue, the bright blood spurting from neck and arms, the eyes +rolling wide, in a naked horror of dissolution, toward the flawless +blue of a Roman sky. And the recollection was not so irrelevant as you +might imagine. Captain Macedoine wore a voluminous bath robe of dark +purple and he wore sandals on his feet. As he descended he rolled and +staggered, and his supporters rolled and staggered to maintain +themselves and him, all this commotion giving the little group the +complicated activity of a crowd of people wrestling with an old man in a +purple robe. And Mrs. Sarafov advanced to assist him, running up several +steps and raising an arm, as though to strike, but with the real +intention of support. I remember, too, the small wayward feet and the +thick, smooth, hairless calves beneath the robe, strange in one so +decrepit. I daresay, you know, he would have been something of that sort +in that part of the world twenty generations earlier. Perhaps there was +something aback of his adumbrations concerning his ancient lineage. +Perhaps he was not simply a ship chandler in a small way, but the +reincarnation of some sinister pro-consul who sat on the terrace of his +marble villa among the distant ranges, and watched with a contemptuous +and intellectual sneer the hordes of peasantry as they trudged into the +cities to sacrifice their daughters to the savage and inexorable +Cabirian deities. I had that fantastic notion as they paused at the +foot of the stair and he moved his head slowly from side to side, the +mouth pursed, the eyes set in a stony, unseeing stare, the bathrobe of +purple towelling slipping from one shoulder. And then they moved forward +again, away from me, into a room sparsely set with French furniture and +dominated by a lofty chandelier still shrouded in its summer muslin, and +the door swung to, leaving me to contemplate the picture in its +tarnished frame of the body of Hector being brought back to Troy. + +"And I must have sat there, in a sort of cane lounge, for a long time, +since when we emerged from the doorway, the doctor and I, the _Rue +Paleologue_ was a shadowless glare of thin sunshine. He had come out of +that room with bent head, closing the door absently and advancing toward +the lounge where reposed his hat and stick beside me, when he took +occasion to glance at me. Immediately he became alert and active. + +"'You have sustained a shock,' he murmured, counting my pulse. + +"'Is that it?' I returned, and he smiled, taking a capsule of white +powder from his wallet and handing it to me. A carafe stood on a table +near by. He poured out a glass of water. + +"'Looks like it,' he remarked in excellent colloquial idiom; 'put this +on your tongue and wash it down with some water. Feel better? Come out +into the fresh air. Take a drive with me if you like.' + +"'I want to talk to you,' I explained, as I followed him out. He hailed +a man standing by a carriage several doors away and conversing with a +servant. + +"'Very nice of you, I'm sure. Step in. Just the day for a +constitutional,' And then, as we started off and the carriage rolled +round the corner out of sight, his mood changed. 'Friend of the family?' +he asked, keenly. + +"'You can call me that. Of Miss Macedoine certainly.' + +"'Now there was a woman!' he ejaculated, opening an immense cigarette +case, like a bandolier, and offering it to me. 'I admire her very much, +indeed. I was called in about a year ago. But you say you are a friend +of hers. And she's dead. I suppose I shall have to go and attend to it. +Only you know what's going on. This confounded Committee of Liberty and +Progress have carried out a _coup d' etat_ and there'll be very little +liberty of movement until they're squashed. Between ourselves, that is. +Thank the Lord my practice is out here among the Europeans. And it's bad +enough here, I can tell you.' + +"'You have lived in England?' I interposed. + +"His lean, dark face wrinkled with humour. + +"'Well, considering I was casualty surgeon at St. Barnabas Hospital for +nearly three years, I rather think I have. Yes, I took my degrees at +Guys, and I don't mind admitting I wish I was in London now. But I have +an old mother and seven sisters who have never been farther than Volo in +their lives, and so I resign myself.' + +"'Greek?' I enquired. He flushed dark red. + +"'Scarcely,' he said in a suppressed sort of voice. I won't bother you +with local animosities. We are Spanish Jews. Not very good ones, +perhaps, but we keep to ourselves and manage to keep the wolf from the +door. And now,' he said with a brisk yet courteous movement of his hand +to my arm, 'who the blazes are you, and what do you want to know?' + +"I told him succinctly, and he nodded to each fact of importance as he +took it in. + +"'Mind you,' I told him, 'I don't defend her behaviour. She shouldn't +have told her father she was married when she wasn't. He might have----' +Doctor Sadura made a gesture of flinging something away impatiently. + +"'Oh, pardon me, but it wouldn't have made any difference with that old +humbug.' I looked at him in amazement. + +"'I said humbug,' he insisted. 'A thorough old humbug. Do you know what +he's suffering from? Illusions of grandeur, we call it in the +profession. A form of megalomania. Oh, yes, he's got some money, no +doubt, or I shouldn't render him professional services. But he thinks he +owns the whole country clear up to Uskub. Burbles away for hours to me +about his plans for developing the territory. He's got a lot of +concessions that aren't worth the paper they are printed on. What's the +use of concessions when the government's going in and out like a wheezy +old concertina, when the agriculturalists simply wouldn't know what he +was talking about and would come out with long knives and sickles and +slash his developing parties about the legs? Rubbish! Illusions of +grandeur, I tell you. As for the girl, you know her better than I do. +The man who protected her, Kinaitsky, is a very fine chap indeed, but he +isn't the sort of person I'd introduce to my sisters, if you know what I +mean. Distinctly not.' + +"'And yet I understand he married a Jewess not long ago,' I said. + +"'Yes, very rich. Quite a different matter. Immense tobacco properties. +You see, although he is not an Ottoman, his family have lived under +Ottoman government so long that they are strong supporters of the old +regime. They are like us Jews. They are good business men and they lend +the old Ottoman families money in return for franchises which are very +profitable to people with affiliations in Paris and London, and so +forth. I don't say it's a perfect system,' Doctor Sadura went on, 'but +it suits the country.' + +"'Then where does our friend with his illusions of grandeur come in?' I +enquired. + +"'Nowhere, unless there was a revolution and a lot of these old estates +came into the market, and the new government found time to think of him. +But it is building on pretty rotten foundations, I can tell you. You +don't suppose he is the first to think of such a thing.' + +"'No, there is a gentleman named Nikitos,' I remarked. + +"'I dare say there is,' said the doctor, 'but I never heard of him.' + +"'He aspired to the hand of Miss Macedoine,' I said, 'and he accompanied +them here from the Island of Ipsilon.' + +"The doctor whistled. The carriage stopped at this moment in front of an +imposing residence with gigantic iron gates shutting off a curved drive. +The doctor alighted, turned round, and regarded me with considerable +interest. + +"'Well, I'm blowed,' he observed, coolly, and at once attacked the +massive gates. I watched him moving one of them very slowly and edging +through. He was a most stimulating person to be with. Vitality radiated +from him. I have no doubt he was a very successful physician. Whom he +was attending within this opulent home I never knew--perhaps another +case of illusions of grandeur. He came down the drive again quickly, +slipped between the gates, and sprang in beside me. He gave me the +impression of playing an extremely strong game of tennis. + +"'Well?' I said, as he slipped his wallet into the pocket in front of +us, and took out his formidable cigarette case. 'Is M. Nikitos suffering +from the same malady as Captain Macedoine?' The doctor made a grimace. + +"'I remember that chap,' he said, 'though I don't recall hearing his +name. He acted on behalf of Captain Macedoine. An international +journalist, whatever that may be. We are rather inclined to avoid +journalists of all sorts here, you know. First I thought he had picked +these people up at the Custom House and got himself appointed dragoman. +Then I suspected when I was called in to see the girl that he and the +old man were ... you understand that we doctors get into some queer +_menages_. But aspired to the hand, you say.' + +"'Yes, and makes extravagant claims to what he calls purity.' + +"'Oh, that's a very common hallucination,' said the doctor. He laughed +gratingly. 'Compared with the people who employ them, you know, they +must in time get to feel they are immaculate. I don't blame them. But +it's an hallucination.' + +"Do you explain everything in pathological terms?' I asked. + +"'How do you mean?' demanded he. + +"'You seem to imagine we are all the victims of some mental disease.' + +"'No, not at all. But the higher types of intellectualism appear to me +slightly mad. The Ego,' added Doctor Sadura, 'is a very peculiar animal. +It feeds on strange things like empire-building on a Balkan dung-heap, +and purity, and--oh, all sorts of things.' + +"'Go on,' I said, 'you have evidently included me in the list. How would +you describe it?' + +"'Well,' he replied, rubbing his nose, 'from what you tell me, I +shouldn't pronounce you in any great danger of anything. We can say you +have been suffering from a faith in an impracticable felicity.' And he +laughed. + +"'But that is a condemnation of romance!' I protested. He shrugged his +shoulders. + +"'We shall never run short of romance,' he declared. 'The great thing is +to avoid getting mixed up in it or if you do, you mustn't imagine, as +you were about to do, that it can be carried about the world. Of course +I know there is a fatal fascination about the idea. I thought of +something like that myself at one time. A wonderful experience! But it +wouldn't have done.' + +"'You don't believe in love then?' I asked, curious to know how the +brother of seven sisters regarded this matter. + +"'Oh, love!' he echoed, shrugging again. 'Love is nothing. It happens +all the time to everybody. It Is the romantic business I thought you +were speaking of.' + +"'You draw a distinction, then?' + +"'Why, of course. Look here, I'll tell you. I had a wild, romantic +passion once. Think of it, a casualty surgeon in a London hospital, +carried away, positively carried away. And the subject of it was an +Irish colleen. Yes, I was infatuated simply and solely with that girl's +green cloak and hood and her green stockings and black pumps. I have +been told since by an Irishman that girls in Ireland never dream of +wearing such a rig. That doesn't matter. I had read of Irish colleens, +just as you, for example, might have read of Persian princesses or +Russian countesses, and the glamour of it carried me away. And this +colleen of mine, with her green cloak which she'd got from a theatrical +costumier, represented a romantic ideal. Very nice clever sort of girl, +a newspaper woman she was. But it wouldn't have done. Never try to make +an episode anything else. We parted and I believe she's married now.' + +"'That about sums it up,' I said. + +"'It does. Get a night's sleep and you'll see it in the same light. You +have had an accumulation of romantic impacts, and I expect a sea-going +life leaves one very much at the mercy of stray impressions. A ship's +surgeon once remarked to me that no human intellect could survive a +nautical training.' And he laughed again. + +"That," said Mr. Spenlove, "was how he talked. A provocative, positive +sort of man. There was, if you will excuse the simile, something +antiseptic in his character. I could have driven about and talked to him +all day. He was charged with sane opinions on life. Humorous, too. When +I suggested that Captain Macedoine might not survive his daughter's +death, he made the whimsical remark that illusions of grandeur act like +an anaesthetic upon the patient's emotions. And I shall not forget the +last remark he uttered as I stood beside his carriage to say farewell. +The red roofs and domes of the city stretched away below us and I could +see the smoke coming over the warehouse from the _Manola's_ funnel. He +had promised to do certain things for me. If you climb up some day to +the Protestant cemetery you will find out what some of those things +were. And he was good enough to express a hope that I might come to +Saloniki again. I replied that I had profited immensely by his +conversation and he nodded, saying: + +"'Yes, that's right. But what you really need, you know, is what +old-fashioned people in England call the consolation of religion.' + +"'That is a novel prescription for a doctor,' I retorted. + +"'Perhaps it is,' he admitted, holding out his hand, 'but depend upon +it, nothing else will do.' + +"'You know the usual stereotyped advice is to get married?' + +"'You would still need the consolation of religion,' he remarked, dryly. +'No, the fact is, real love is too uncertain, too uncommon.' + +"'Surely,' I protested. + +"'A fact,' he insisted, simply. 'I once picked up the works of a young +Arab poetess who afterward slew herself in her lover's arms. And the +burden of all her songs was that the only logical culmination of love, +if it be genuine, is death. I offer you that for your Western mind to +ponder. Good-bye and good luck.' + +"And there I was," said Mr. Spenlove, lighting a fresh cigarette, "with +a whole brand-new set of consolatory impressions to brood upon, left to +pursue my way back to the ship and take up a safe and humdrum existence +once more. The episode was over, and it would be unwise to try and make +it anything else. And I had been presented with a novel and extremely +impracticable test of love which preoccupied by its stark beauty. I had +the sudden fancy, as I climbed the ruined wall that runs down from the +Citadel and started to thread the narrow streets toward the port, of +that Arab poetess, buried in a fragrant and silent garden among +cypresses, and her lover, whom I pictured an infidel, keeping her in +memory by a bronze statuette. I saw it on a table in his room, a tiny +thing of delicate art, the exquisite creature depicted at the supreme +moment of death and passion. For of course the lover would not adopt +that extreme view of his obligations toward love. Full of regret he +would continue a mediocre existence.... + +"And yet," said Mr. Spenlove, standing up and looking out from under +bent brows at the faint lifting of the darkness beyond the headland, +"and yet, my friends, as I picked my way down toward the port, it +occurred to me to wonder whether our Western views are so full of +ultimate wisdom as we imagine; whether there may not be something in +life which we miss because we are so careful of life. At this moment we +are vigorously striving to impose our Occidental conceptions of +happiness and justice and government upon a good many millions to whom +our arrogant assumptions of the Almighty's prerogatives is becoming an +incomprehensible infliction. It wouldn't do, I suppose, to suggest that +so far from being a matter of mathematical progression, life has a +secret rhythm of its own. And while I was working away at this alarming +line of thought, I was passing along narrow streets crammed with +evidences of desires other than ours. I passed women veiled save for +their sombre, enigmatic eyes. I passed the doors of temples where men +lay prostrate upon strips of carpet, the saffron-coloured soles of their +bare feet gleaming distinct in the sunlight. I was assailed by troops of +children whose tremendous vitality and unabashed enterprise made me +tremble with forebodings for the future. Was it possible, I wondered, if +our system didn't give the less admirable and the cunning among us a +long advantage? Which they were beginning to take, I added. I found +myself endeavouring to take soundings and find out, so to speak, how far +we were off shore. Mind you, it wasn't simply that as far as I could see +we were busily producing an inferior social order. I was trying to +think out what the ultimate consequences would be if we continued to +dilute and rectify and sterilize our emotions. I wanted to see beyond +that point, but I found I couldn't. I hadn't the power, and I'm afraid +that nowadays I lack the courage as well. + +"And then I lost myself awhile in a bazaar where I saw sundry gentlemen +from the country hurriedly disposing of short, blunt rifles at a +reckless discount for cash, and eventually I came out into a steep +street which led down to the sea, a street full of an advancing swarm of +armed men and banners and carriages and the shrill blare of trumpets +pulsed by the thudding of drums. A squad of motley individuals in +civilian garb with red sashes across their bosoms and rifles in their +hands marched ahead of a brass band and breasted the slope. At intervals +came carriages containing the leaders of this new regime. I observed the +burly person in the fez and wearing a silver star. He sat alone in an +open landau, his frock coat gathered up so that his muscular haunches +could be seen crushing the salmon-coloured upholstery, his massive +calves almost bursting out of the cashmere trousers. He held himself +rigidly upright, his hand at the salute, his big black eyes swivelling +from side to side as the crowd surged up and applauded. He had been a +driver on the railroad, I read later on, when his photo, with the silver +star, appeared in our illustrated papers at home as one of the leaders +of the Party of Liberty and Progress. Still an engine-driver, I should +say, recalling him as he rode past that morning, not particularly +attentive to signals or pressure gauges either, if what we hear be true. +Broad-based he sat there, leaning slightly forward, the tight blue tunic +creasing across the small of his strong, curved back, his short, thick +feet encased in elastic side boots, his long nails curving over the ends +of his fingers like claws. And it occurred to me, as I stood on the +marble steps of that office building and watched him being borne upward +to the Citadel where no doubt he rendered substantial aid to the cause +of Liberty and Progress, that it is to the credit of the despots and +cut-throats of history that they were perfectly honest in their +behaviour. They sought dominion and got it. They sought gold and got it. +They sought the blood and the concubines of their enemies and got them. +And they rarely deemed it worth while to pretend that they were apostles +of liberty and progress. That is one of our modern improvements.... I +was musing thus as the platoons of ragged revolutionaries shuffled past, +when I found myself gazing at M. Nikitos, seated with crossed legs in +the corner of a shabby one-horse carriage, and raising an +unpleasant-looking silk hat. He was, I take it, one of the secretaries +of the Committee of Liberty and Progress, possibly their future +international expert. It suddenly occurred to me that there is a +gigantic brotherhood in the world, a brotherhood of those who have never +willingly done a day's work in their lives and never intend to. We have +been so mesmerized by the phrase the Idle Rich, that we have completely +forgotten that sinister and perilous pestilence, the Idle Poor. Looking +at M. Nikitos, with his hair standing straight up on the lower slopes of +his head like fir trees on the sides of a mountain and his opaque black +eyes staring with fanatical intensity at nothing in particular, one was +irresistibly reminded of a fungus. The incipient black beard, which was +making its appearance in patches on his chin and jaws, lent a certain +strength to the impression of fungoid growth, and encouraged a dreadful +sort of notion that he was beyond the normal and lovable passions of +men. He was, you will remember, a pure man. He sat there, raising that +horrible silk hat, exposing, with the mechanical regularity of an +automaton his extraordinary frontal configuration, the apotheosis of +undesirable chastity. And he had formed a resolution 'which nothing +could kill.' I don't doubt it. The resolutions of an individual like +that are as substantial and indestructible as he. They persist, in +obedience to a melancholy law of human development, from one generation +to another. They are as numerously busy just now, under the 'drums and +tramplings' of the conflict, as maggots in a cheese. They have the +elusive and impersonal mobility of a cloud of poisonous gases. They +restore one's belief in a principle of evil, and they may scare us, +ultimately, back from their wonderful Liberty and Progress, into an +authentic faith in God. + +"And I also," resumed Mr. Spenlove, after a moment's silence, "formed a +resolution, to refrain from any further participation in alien affairs. +I found that I lacked courage for that enterprise, too. It is, after +all, a dangerous thing to tamper with one's fundamental prejudices. They +very often turn out to be the stark and ugly supports of our health and +sanity. I resigned, not without a faint but undeniable tremor of relief, +the part of a principal in the play. I have harped to you on this point +of my relative importance in the story because it was as a mere super +that I entered from the wings and it is as a super in the last act that +I retire. I think it was the letter and package M. Kinaitsky sent down +to the ship which scared me into obscurity. That and the news that the +four o'clock express for Constantinople in which he had been travelling +had been blown to atoms by the apostles of Liberty and Progress. You can +say it completed the cure, if you like. To read that brief note of +courteous and regretful reproach was like encountering a polite phantom. +After recording his unalterable conviction that only death or a woman +could have prevented an Englishman of honour from keeping an +appointment, he begged to trespass so far upon my generous impulses as +to send me the package, fully addressed to his brother in London. He +would esteem it a favour if I would deliver it in person. The sudden +alarming turn of events rendered it imperative to despatch these papers +by a secure and unsuspected hand. Should nothing happen, it would be a +simple matter for him to communicate with his brother when the present +troubles were over. Otherwise ... and so on. He would not do more than +allude to the question of recompense, which would be on a scale +commensurate with the magnitude of the obligation. The Captain, no +doubt, would consent to keep the package in his safe during the +voyage.... + +"Well, the _Manola_ had no safe, but Jack had a formidable old cash-box +in his room, and it was with the idea of carrying out the behests of one +who could no longer enforce them that I carried the big yellow envelope +to Jack and told him how I came by it. Even when it was condensed to +suit his bluff mentality, it was a long story. I was astonished at the +abstraction into which it threw him. On the road he returned to it again +and again. His imagination continually played round the history of 'that +gel' as he called her. He could not get used to the startling fact that +all this had been going on 'under his very nose, by Jingo!' and he +hadn't had the slightest suspicion. 'Forgotten all about her, very +nearly. And by the Lord, I thought you had, too, Fred.' + +"And I should like," said Mr. Spenlove, "to have heard him tell Mrs. +Evans. Perhaps, though, it would not have proved so very sensational +after all. It is exceedingly difficult to shock a woman who has been +married for a number of years. They seem to undergo a process which, +without affording them any direct glimpse into the bottomless pit, +renders them cognizant of the dark ways of the human soul. Perhaps you +don't believe this. Perhaps you think I am only trying to joke at the +expense of a married woman I never liked. Well, try it. Take a benign +matron of your own family, who has endured the racking strain of years +of family life and tell her your own scandalous history, and she will +amaze you by her serene acceptance of your infamous proceedings. So +perhaps, as I say, I missed nothing very piquant after all. I had to +content myself with the eloquent silence of the respectable but single +Tonderbeg, moving about in the cabin, his blond head bent in gentle +melancholy, his features composed into an expression of respectful +forgiveness. + +"'But what was your idea, Fred?' says Jack to me on the road home. He +wore habitually a mystified air when we were alone together in his +cabin. Jack had become settled in life. His movements had grown more +deliberate, and his choleric energy had mellowed into an assured +demeanour of authority. You could imagine him the father of a young +lady. He sat back in his big chair, motionless save for the cigar +turning between thumb and finger, a typical ship-master. He was +recognized by the law as competent to perform the functions of a +magistrate on the high seas. He no longer plunged like an angry bull +into rows with agents. He had arrived at that period of life when all +the half-forgotten experiences of our youth, the foolish experiments, +the humiliating reverses, come back to our chastened minds and assist us +to impose our personalities upon a world ignorant of our former +imperfections. And he sat there turning his cigar between thumb and +finger, his bright and blood-shot brown eyes fixed in a sort of +affectionate glare upon me, his old chum, who had suddenly left him +spiritually in the lurch, so to speak. 'What was your idea, Fred? Do +you mean to say you hadn't made any plans for the future at all? Just +going to let the thing slide?' And the curious thing about his state of +mind was that he was attracted by the idea without understanding it. As +he sat watching me, mumbling about the future, and the taking of risks +and what people at home would say, it was obvious that he was beginning +to see the possibilities of such an adventure. He had a vague and +nebulous glimpse of something that was neither furtive sensuality nor +smug respectability. 'Like something in one of these here novels,' as he +put it with unconscious pathos. And that, I suppose, was as near as he +ever attained to an understanding of the romantic temperament. It was +fine of him, for he got it through a very real friendship. 'I know you +wouldn't do anything in the common way, Fred,' he observed after a long +contemplation of his cigar. + +"'And would you have stood for it, Jack?' I asked him, 'seeing that Mrs. +Evans would hardly have approved, I mean.' He roused up and worked his +shoulders suddenly in a curious way, as though shifting a burden. + +"'Oh, as to that!' he broke out, and then after a pause he added, 'You +can't always go by that. I'd stand for a whole lot from you, Fred.' + +"And with that, to the regret of Mr. Tonderbeg who was hovering about +outside in the main cabin, our conversation ended. + +"We bunkered in Algiers and the newspapers gave us the news of the war. +A war so insignificant that most of you young fellows have forgotten all +about it. And the captain of a ship in the harbour, hearing we were from +Saloniki, came over and informed us that he himself had been bound for +that port, with a cargo of stores, but had received word to stop and +wait for further orders. He was very indignant, for he had expected some +pretty handsome pickings. The point of his story was that the stuff was +for Macedoine & Co. who would be able to claim a stiff sum in +compensation for non-delivery. I believe the case ran on for years in +the courts, and the lawyers did very well out of it. + +"And when we reached Glasgow, I took the train to London to deliver the +package M. Kinaitsky had entrusted to me. I was curious to learn +something of that gentleman's affiliations in England, to discover, if +you like, how his rather disconcerting mentality comported itself in a +Western environment. The envelope was addressed to Rosemary Lodge, +Hampstead, and I left Mason's Hotel in the Strand, on a beautiful day in +late autumn, and took the Hamstead bus in Trafalgar Square. It was very +impressive, that ascent of the Northern Heights of London, dragging +through the submerged squalor of Camden Town, up through the dingy +penury of Haverstock Hill, to the clear and cultured prosperity of the +smuggest suburb on earth. I happened to know Hampstead since I had once +met an artist who lived there, though his studio was in Chelsea. I may +tell you about him some day. And when I had walked up the Parliament +Hill Road and started across the Heath to find Rosemary Lodge, I had a +fairly clear notion of what I should find. For of course it was only a +lodge in the peculiar modern English sense. It is part of the harmless +hypocrisy of this modern use of language, that one should live in tiny +flats in London and call them 'mansions' while a large house standing in +its own grounds is styled a lodge. M. Nicholas Kinaitsky evidently kept +up an extensive establishment. There seemed a round dozen of servants. +Two men and a boy were out in the grounds preparing the roses for the +winter. A blue spiral of smoke was blowing away from the chimney of the +hothouse against the north wall. And the house itself was one of those +spacious and perfectly decorous affairs which have become identified +with that extraordinary colony of wealthy aliens who make a specialty of +being more English than the English. There was a tennis-court on one +side of the house and a young man with a dark, clean-shaven face stood +talking to a girl, his hands in his pockets, his shoulders hunched in +what one may call the public-school manner, the coat of arms of an +ancient Oxford college glowing on the breast of his blue blazer. And +indoors the same influence obtained. The pictures and books and +furniture presented a front of impregnable insularity. Even the piano +was English. Only a photograph in a frame of silver gilt, on a side +table, gave a hint--the portrait of a lady with hair dressed in the +style of German princesses of Queen Victoria's day, the sinuous curve of +her high, tight bodice accented by the great bustle. I noted all this, +and sat looking out of the window, which gave upon the autumn splendour +of the Heath. There was a pond close by, and an old gentleman in white +spats was stooping down to launch a large model yacht on the water. A +fairly well-to-do old gentleman, by the gold coins on his watch-chain +and the rings which sparkled on his hands. I wondered if he were a +relative of the Kinaitskys or whether he only knew them. The yacht +started off under a press of canvas, and the old gentleman set off at a +trot round the edge, to meet it. I doubt if you could have seen a sight +like that anywhere else in the world. He was perfectly unconscious of +doing anything at all out of the common. And I dare say it is essential +to the rounded completeness of English life that funny and wealthy old +gentlemen should sail toy yachts on ponds, while cultured aliens amass +fortunes on the Stock Exchange and some of us plow the ocean all our +lives. + +"And then I was disturbed in my musings by a young lady entering the +room, and I rose to explain myself. + +"I say she was a young lady, while you will observe I alluded only just +now to a girl talking to a young man on the tennis-court. There was that +difference. Without giving one any reason for supposing she was married, +this one conveyed a subtle impression of being the mistress of the +house. She was dark, athletic, simply dressed in black, and extremely +plain. + +"'Father will be back from the city at half-past four,' she said, when I +had explained my errand. 'I am so sorry you will have to wait. You will +stay to dinner, of course.' + +"I said I did not know if I should stay to dinner as a matter of course, +but I thanked her. We drifted into conversation and she gave a very +clever impression of being a thorough woman of the world. She was not, +of course. She was one of those unfortunate beings who are trained in +all the arts of life and who become adepts in all those accomplishments +which men take entirely for granted, and who are permitted to grow up +imagining men are paladins. And when they marry they experience a shock +from which they never recover. Being married is such a different affair +from looking after your father's house. When I mentioned my errand, she +said her mother and the widowed aunt were at Torquay. Her plain features +were suffused with emotion when she mentioned the death of her uncle. +She had been his favourite niece. He always paid them a brief visit when +he came to London. Very brief. He had a great many people to see in +town. Only last year he had given her a set of pearls. And Madame +Kinaitsky was so young--it was tragic. The pater had gone over and met +her in Paris and she would live with them in future. She stopped in the +middle of this and looked at me. + +"'You met her, of course, out there?' she asked. + +"'Oh, dear no,' I said. "I am only a very casual acquaintance, you +understand. I happened to be on the spot, and the very fact that I was +not a regular friend gave your uncle the idea that his papers, whatever +they are, would be safer with me. I was only too pleased to be of +service. You see,' I went on, 'your uncle knew a friend of mine, and +so.... + +"'A friend of yours?' she queried. + +"'Yes, a business friend. Your uncle helped him and his daughter. It +was the daughter I knew particularly.' + +"'Was she nice?' she demanded, eagerly. 'I mean, was she worthy of his +help? He was so good. He helped everybody. There is an orphanage in +Saloniki which he supported--oh, most generously. And he asked nothing +in return. Oh!' she exclaimed, 'when I think of his life, always +thinking of others and doing good, and how at last he found happiness +for himself, and then this....' and she gazed out of the window at the +old gentleman, who was in trouble with his yacht, which had capsized +just beyond walking-stick reach. 'It was like him to trust a stranger,' +she murmured. + +"'He was good enough to make use of me because I was an Englishman,' I +replied. + +"'And that was like him, too,' she returned, kindling again. 'It was a +great grief to him that business prevented him from living with us here +in Hampstead. He loved the English ways. He used to say in joke that he +would certainly marry an English wife if he could induce any of them to +marry him. But of course he met his fate. He wrote hoping we would love +her. We shall do that, of course, but----' she looked out again at the +old gentleman who had found a small boy volunteer to paddle out, +bare-legged, to salve the yacht. + +"'But what?' I asked. + +"'She will marry again,' Miss Kinaitsky remarked in a low tone. 'I am +positive. I do not see how we can blame her. She submitted to the +arrangement. But she did not love him. We feel it, because he spoke of +her in such terms ... it was almost adoration. There was never any other +woman for him....' + +"A silence fell between us because, as you can easily imagine, I had +nothing to offer commensurate with the extraordinary exaltation of her +mood. It was plain enough that to a woman like her love could not +possibly be what I had conceived it. To her it was a divine flame +through which she would discern the transfigured features of her +beloved. To her it was a supreme sacrament administered in a sacred +chamber whence had been shut out all the evil which impregnates the +heart of man. And I sat there wondering. When I left that sumptuous and +smoothly running mansion and walked out across the Heath in the dusk +toward the Spaniards Inn, I was still wondering whether each of us could +be right. And I wonder still. For if it were true that love were what +she and her kind imagine it to be, then I had never seen it. To me it +had been nothing so transcendentally easy as that. To me it had been an +obscure commotion, an enigmatic storm on which the human soul, with its +drogue of inherited sorrows, was flung on its beam ends, stove in and +dismasted, while beyond, far off, there shone a faint light, the flash +of a derisive smile, flashing and then suddenly going out. And even now, +in the mists of the accumulating years, I wonder still." + +For the last time Mr. Spenlove paused, and stepping out to the rail, he +stood there, with his back to the men who had listened to his story, +silhouetted against the first pale flush of the dawn, looking away to +the horizon where could be seen a tiny light, shrouded to point straight +toward them, flashing once, twice, with mysterious caution, and then +going out. + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Captain Macedoine's Daughter, by William McFee + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN MACEDOINE'S DAUGHTER *** + +***** This file should be named 32042.txt or 32042.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/0/4/32042/ + +Produced by D Alexander, Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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