THE SIEGE OF LONDON
PART I
I
THAT solemn piece of upholstery, the curtain of the Comédie Française, had fallen upon the first act of the piece, and our two Americans had taken advantage of the interval to pass out of the huge, hot theatre, in company with the other occupants of the stalls. But they were among the first to return, and they beguiled the rest of the intermission with looking at the house, which had lately been cleansed of its historic cobwebs and ornamented with frescos illustrative of the classic drama. In the month of September the audience at the Théâtre Français is comparatively thin, and on this occasion the drama – L’Aventurière of Emile Augier – had no pretensions to novelty. Many of the boxes were empty, others were occupied by persons of provincial or nomadic appearance. The boxes are far from the stage, near which our spectators were placed; but even at a distance Rupert Waterville was able to appreciate certain details. He was fond of appreciating details, and when he went to the theatre he looked about him a good deal, making use of a dainty but remarkably powerful glass. He knew that such a course was wanting in true distinction, and that it was indelicate to level at a lady an instrument which was often only less injurious in effect than a double-barrelled pistol; but he was always very curious, and he was sure, in any case, that at that moment, at that antiquated play – so he was pleased to qualify the masterpiece of an Academician – he would not be observed by any one he knew. Standing up therefore with his back to the stage, he made the circuit of the boxes, while several other persons, near him, performed the same operation with even greater coolness.
‘Not a single pretty woman,’ he remarked at last to his friend; an observation which Littlemore, sitting in his place and staring with a bored expression at the new-looking curtain, received in perfect silence. He rarely indulged in these optical excursions; he had been a great deal in Paris and had ceased to care about it, or wonder about it, much; he fancied that the French capital could have no more surprises for him, though it had had a good many in former days. Waterville was still in the stage of surprise; he suddenly expressed this emotion. ‘By Jove!’ he exclaimed; ‘I beg your pardon – I beg her pardon – there is, after all, a woman that may be called’ – he paused a little, inspecting her – ‘a kind of beauty!’
‘What kind?’ Littlemore asked, vaguely.
‘An unusual kind – an indescribable kind.’ Littlemore was not heeding his answer, but he presently heard himself appealed to. ‘I say, I wish very much you would do me a favour.’
‘I did you a favour in coming here,’ said Littlemore. ‘It’s insufferably hot, and the play is like a dinner that has been dressed by the kitchen-maid. The actors are all doublures.’
‘It’s simply to answer me this: is she respectable, now?’ Waterville rejoined, inattentive to his friend’s epigram.
Littlemore gave a groan, without turning his head. ‘You are always wanting to know if they are respectable. What on earth can it matter?’
‘I have made such mistakes – I have lost all confidence,’ said poor Waterville, to whom European civilisation had not ceased to be a novelty, and who during the last six months had found himself confronted with problems long unsuspected. Whenever he encountered a very nice-looking woman, he was sure to discover that she belonged to the class represented by the heroine of M. Augier’s drama; and whenever his attention rested upon a person of a florid style of attraction, there was the strongest probability that she would turn out to be a countess. The countesses looked so superficial and the others looked so exclusive. Now Littlemore distinguished at a glance; he never made mistakes.
‘Simply for looking at them, it doesn’t matter, I suppose,’ said Waterville, ingenuously, answering his companion’s rather cynical inquiry.
‘You stare at them all alike,’ Littlemore went on, still without moving; ‘except indeed when I tell you that they are not respectable – then your attention acquires a fixedness!’
‘If your judgement is against this lady, I promise never to look at her again. I mean the one in the third box from the passage, in white, with the red flowers,’ he added, as Littlemore slowly rose and stood beside him. ‘The young man is leaning forward. It is the young man that makes me doubt of her. Will you have the glass?’
Littlemore looked about him without concentration. ‘No, I thank you, my eyes are good enough. The young man’s a very good young man,’ he added in a moment.
‘Very indeed; but he’s several years younger than she. Wait till she turns her head.’
She turned it very soon – she apparently had been speaking to the ouvreuse, at the door of the box – and presented her face to the public – a fair, well-drawn face, with smiling eyes, smiling lips, ornamented over the brow with delicate rings of black hair and, in each ear, with the sparkle of a diamond sufficiently large to be seen across the Théâtre Français. Littlemore looked at her; then, abruptly, he gave an exclamation. ‘Give me the glass!’
‘Do you know her?’ his companion asked, as he directed the little instrument.
Littlemore made no answer; he only looked in silence; then he handed back the glass. ‘No, she’s not respectable,’ he said. And he dropped into his seat again. As Waterville remained standing, he added, ‘Please sit down; I think she saw me.’
‘Don’t you want her to see you?’ asked Waterville the interrogator, taking his seat.
Littlemore hesitated. ‘I don’t want to spoil her game.’ By this time the entr’acte was at an end; the curtain rose again.
It had been Waterville’s idea that they should go to the theatre. Littlemore, who was always for not doing a thing, had recommended that, the evening being lovely, they should simply sit and smoke at the door of the Grand café, in a decent part of the Boulevard. Nevertheless Rupert Waterville enjoyed the second act even less than he had done the first, which he thought heavy. He began to wonder whether his companion would wish to stay to the end; a useless line of speculation, for now that he had got to the theatre, Littlemore’s objection to doing things would certainly keep him from going. Waterville also wondered what he knew about the lady in the box. Once or twice he glanced at his friend, and then he saw that Littlemore was not following the play. He was thinking of something else; he was thinking of that woman. When the curtain fell again he sat in his place, making way for his neighbours, as usual, to edge past him, grinding his knees – his legs were long – with their own protuberances. When the two men were alone in the stalls, Littlemore said: ‘I think I should like to see her again, after all.’ He spoke as if Waterville might have known all about her. Waterville was conscious of not doing so, but as there was evidently a good deal to know, he felt that he should lose nothing by being a little discreet. So, for the moment, he asked no questions; he only said –
‘Well, here’s the glass.’
Littlemore gave him a glance of good-natured compassion. ‘I don’t mean that I want to stare at her with that beastly thing. I mean – to see her – as I used to see her.’
‘How did you use to see her?’ asked Waterville, bidding farewell to discretion.
‘On the back piazza, at San Diego.’ And as his interlocutor, in receipt of this information, only stared, he went on – ‘Come out where we can breathe, and I’ll tell you more.’
They made their way to the low and narrow door, more worthy of a rabbit-hutch than of a great theatre, by which you pass from the stalls of the Comédie to the lobby, and as Littlemore went first, his ingenuous friend, behind him, could see that he glanced up at the box in the occupants of which they were interested. The more interesting of these had her back to the house; she was apparently just leaving the box, after her companion; but as she had not put on her mantle it was evident that they were not quitting the theatre. Littlemore’s pursuit of fresh air did not lead him into the street; he had passed his arm into Waterville’s, and when they reached that fine frigid staircase which ascends to the Foyer, he began silently to mount it. Littlemore was averse to activ
e pleasures, but his friend reflected that now at least he had launched himself – he was going to look for the lady whom, with a monosyllable, he appeared to have classified. The young man resigned himself for the moment to asking no questions, and the two strolled together into the shining saloon where Houdon’s admirable statue of Voltaire, reflected in a dozen mirrors, is gaped at by visitors obviously less acute than the genius expressed in those living features. Waterville knew that Voltaire was very witty; he had read Candide, and had already had several opportunities of appreciating the statue. The Foyer was not crowded; only a dozen groups were scattered over the polished floor, several others having passed out to the balcony which overhangs the square of the Palais Royal. The windows were open, the brilliant lights of Paris made the dull summer evening look like an anniversary or a revolution; a murmur of voices seemed to come up from the streets, and even in the Foyer one heard the slow click of the horses and the rumble of the crookedly-driven fiacres on the hard, smooth asphalt. A lady and a gentleman, with their backs to our friends, stood before the image of Voltaire; the lady was dressed in white, including a white bonnet. Littlemore felt, as so many persons feel in that spot, that the scene was conspicuously Parisian, and he gave a mysterious laugh.
‘It seems comical to see her here! The last time was in New Mexico.’
‘In New Mexico?’
‘At San Diego.’
‘Oh, on the back piazza,’ said Waterville, putting things together. He had not been aware of the position of San Diego, for if on the occasion of his lately being appointed to a subordinate diplomatic post in London, he had been paying a good deal of attention to European geography, he had rather neglected that of his own country.
They had not spoken loud, and they were not standing near her; but suddenly, as if she had heard them, the lady in white turned round. Her eye caught Waterville’s first, and in that glance he saw that if she had heard them it was not because they were audible but because she had extraordinary quickness of ear. There was no recognition in it – there was none, at first, even when it rested lightly upon George Littlemore. But recognition flashed out a moment later, accompanied with a delicate increase of colour and a quick extension of her apparently constant smile. She had turned completely round; she stood there in sudden friendliness, with parted lips, with a hand, gloved to the elbow, almost imperiously offered. She was even prettier than at a distance. ‘Well, I declare!’ she exclaimed; so loud that every one in the room appeared to feel personally addressed. Waterville was surprised; he had not been prepared, even after the mention of the back piazza, to find her an American. Her companion turned round as she spoke; he was a fresh, lean young man, in evening dress; he kept his hands in his pockets; Waterville imagined that he at any rate was not an American. He looked very grave – for such a fair, festive young man – and gave Waterville and Littlemore, though his height was not superior to theirs, a narrow, vertical glance. Then he turned back to the statue of Voltaire, as if it had been, after all, among his premonitions that the lady he was attending would recognise people he didn’t know, and didn’t even, perhaps, care to know. This possibly confirmed slightly Littlemore’s assertion that she was not respectable. The young man was, at least; consummately so. ‘Where in the world did you drop from?’ the lady inquired.
‘I have been here some time,’ Littlemore said, going forward, rather deliberately, to shake hands with her. He smiled a little, but he was more serious than she; he kept his eye on her own as if she had been just a trifle dangerous; it was the manner in which a duly discreet person would have approached some glossy, graceful animal which had an occasional trick of biting.
‘Here in Paris, do you mean?’
‘No; here and there – in Europe generally.’
‘Well, it’s queer I haven’t met you.’
‘Better late than never!’ said Littlemore. His smile was a little fixed.
‘Well, you look very natural,’ the lady went on.
‘So do you – or very charming – it’s the same thing,’ Littlemore answered, laughing, and evidently wishing to be easy. It was as if, face to face, and after a considerable lapse of time, he had found her more imposing than he expected when, in the stalls below, he determined to come and meet her. As he spoke, the young man who was with her gave up his inspection of Voltaire and faced about, listlessly, without looking either at Littlemore or at Waterville.
‘I want to introduce you to my friend,’ she went on. ‘Sir Arthur Demesne – Mr Littlemore. Mr Littlemore – Sir Arthur Demesne. Sir Arthur Demesne is an Englishman – Mr Littlemore is a countryman of mine, an old friend. I haven’t seen him for years. For how long? Don’t let’s count! – I wonder you knew me,’ she continued, addressing Littlemore. ‘I’m fearfully changed.’ All this was said in a clear, gay tone, which was the more audible as she spoke with a kind of caressing slowness. The two men, to do honour to her introduction, silently exchanged a glance; the Englishman, perhaps, coloured a little. He was very conscious of his companion. ‘I haven’t introduced you to many people yet,’ she remarked.
‘Oh, I don’t mind,’ said Sir Arthur Demesne.
‘Well, it’s queer to see you!’ she exclaimed, looking still at Littlemore. ‘You have changed, too – I can see that.’
‘Not where you are concerned.’
‘That’s what I want to find out. Why don’t you introduce your friend? I see he’s dying to know me!’
Littlemore proceeded to this ceremony; but he reduced it to its simplest elements, merely glancing at Rupert Waterville, and murmuring his name.
‘You didn’t tell him my name,’ the lady cried, while Waterville made her a formal salutation. ‘I hope you haven’t forgotten it!’
Littlemore gave her a glance which was intended to be more penetrating than what he had hitherto permitted himself; if it had been put into words it would have said, ‘Ah, but which name?’
She answered the unspoken question, putting out her hand, as she had done to Littlemore, ‘Happy to make your acquaintance, Mr Waterville. I’m Mrs Headway – perhaps you’ve heard of me. If you’ve ever been in America you must have heard of me. Not so much in New York, but in the Western cities. You are an American? Well, then, we are all compatriots – except Sir Arthur Demesne. Let me introduce you to Sir Arthur. Sir Arthur Demesne, Mr Waterville – Mr Waterville, Sir Arthur Demesne. Sir Arthur Demesne is a member of Parliament; don’t he look young?’ She waited for no answer to this question, but suddenly asked another, as she moved her bracelets back over her long, loose gloves. ‘Well, Mr Littlemore, what are you thinking of?’
He was thinking that he must indeed have forgotten her name, for the one that she had pronounced awakened no association. But he could hardly tell her that.
‘I’m thinking of San Diego.’
‘The back piazza, at my sister’s? Oh, don’t; it was too horrid. She has left now. I believe every one has left.’
Sir Arthur Demesne drew out his watch with the air of a man who could take no part in these domestic reminiscences; he appeared to combine a generic self-possession with a degree of individual shyness. He said something about its being time they should go back to their seats, but Mrs Headway paid no attention to the remark. Waterville wished her to linger; he felt in looking at her as if he had been looking at a charming picture. Her low-growing hair, with its fine dense undulations, was of a shade of blackness that has now become rare; her complexion had the bloom of a white flower; her profile, when she turned her head, was as pure and fine as the outline of a cameo.
‘You know this is the first theatre,’ she said to Waterville, as if she wished to be sociable. ‘And this is Voltaire, the celebrated writer.’
‘I’m devoted to the Comédie Française,’ Waterville answered, smiling.
‘Dreadfully bad house; we didn’t hear a word,’ said Sir Arthur.
‘Ah, yes, the boxes!’ murmured Waterville.
‘I’m rather disappointed,’ Mrs Headway went on. ‘But I want to s
ee what becomes of that woman.’
‘Doña Clorinde? Oh, I suppose they’ll shoot her; they generally shoot the women, in French plays,’ Littlemore said.
‘It will remind me of San Diego!’ cried Mrs Headway.
‘Ah, at San Diego the women did the shooting.’
‘They don’t seem to have killed you!’ Mrs Headway rejoined, archly.
‘No, but I am riddled with wounds.’
‘Well, this is very remarkable,’ the lady went on, turning to Houdon’s statue. ‘It’s beautifully modelled.’
‘You are perhaps reading M. de Voltaire,’ Littlemore suggested.
‘No; but I’ve purchased his works.’
‘They are not proper reading for ladies,’ said the young Englishman, severely, offering his arm to Mrs Headway.
‘Ah, you might have told me before I had bought them!’ she exclaimed, in exaggerated dismay.
‘I couldn’t imagine you would buy a hundred and fifty volumes.’
‘A hundred and fifty? I have only bought two.’
‘Perhaps two won’t hurt you?’ said Littlemore with a smile.
She darted him a reproachful ray. ‘I know what you mean, – that I’m too bad already. Well, bad as I am, you must come and see me.’ And she threw him the name of her hotel, as she walked away with her Englishman. Waterville looked after the latter with a certain interest; he had heard of him in London, and had seen his portrait in ‘Vanity Fair’.
It was not yet time to go down, in spite of this gentleman’s saying so, and Littlemore and his friend passed out on the balcony of the Foyer. ‘Headway – Headway? Where the deuce did she get that name?’ Littlemore asked, as they looked down into the animated dusk.