CHAPTER I
SEA-EYES--MONSIEUR GALIFARD--THE FIRST NEEDLE-PRICK
Never in my life have I seen such wonderful eyes! One might construct awhole astronomy out of them. Every changeful mood was there reflected;so I have called them "Eyes like the Sea."
* * * * *
When first I met pretty Bessy, we were both children. She was twelveyears old, I was a hobbledehoy of sixteen. We were learning dancingtogether. A Frenchman had taken up his quarters in our town, anitinerant dancing-master, who set the whole place in a whirl. His namewas Monsieur Galifard. He had an extraordinarily large head, a bronzedcomplexion, eyebrows running into each other, and short legs; and on thevery tip of his large aquiline nose was a big wart. Yet, for all that,he was really charming. Whenever he danced or spoke, he instantlybecame irresistible. All our womankind came thither on his account; allof them I say, from nine years old and upwards to an age that was quiteincalculable. I recall the worthy man with the liveliest gratitude. Ihave to thank him for the waltz and the quadrille, as well as for theart of picking up a fallen fan without turning my back upon the lady.
Bessy was the master's greatest trouble. She would never keep time; shewould never take to the elegant "_pli_," and he could never wean herfrom her wild and frolicsome ways. Woe to the dancer who became herpartner!
I, however, considered all this perfectly natural. When any one islovely, rich, and well-born, she has the right to be regarded as theexception to every rule. That she was lovely you could tell at the veryfirst glance; that she was rich anybody could tell from the silver coachin which she rode; and by combining the fact that every one called hermother "Your Ladyship" with the fact that even the "country people"kissed her hand, you easily arrived at the conclusion that she must bewell-born. Her lady-mother and her companion, a gentlewoman of a certainage, were present at every dancing lesson, as also was the girl's aunt,a major's widow in receipt of a pension. Thus Bessy was under athreefold inspection, the natural consequence of which was that shecould do just as she liked, for every one of her guardians privatelyargued, "Why should I take the trouble of looking after this little girlwhen the other two are doing the same thing?" and so all three werealways occupied with their own affairs.
The mother was a lady who loved to bask on the sunny side of life; herwidowhood pined for consolation. She had her officially recognisedwooers, with more or less serious intentions, graduated according torank and quality.
The companion was the scion of a noble family. All her brothers wereofficers. Her father was a Chamberlain at Court; his _own_ chamber wasabout the last place in the world to seek him in. The young lady'stoilets were of the richest; she also had the reputation of being abeauty, and was famed for her finished dancing. Still, time had alreadycalled her attention to the seriousness of her surroundings; for Bessy,the daughter of the house, had begun to shoot up in the most alarmingmanner, and four or five summers more might make a rival of her. Heroccupation during the dancing hour was therefore of such a nature as todraw her somewhat aside lest people should observe with whom and in whatmanner she was diverting herself, for there is many an evil feminine eyethat can read all sorts of things in a mere exchange of glances or asqueeze of the hand, and then, of course, such things are always talkedto death.
But it was the aunt most of all who sought for pretexts to vanish fromthe dancing-room. She wanted to taste every dish and pasty in thebuffet before any one else, and well-grounded investigators said of her,besides, that she was addicted to the dark pleasure of taking snuff,which naturally demanded great secrecy. When, however, she was in thedancing-room, she would sit down beside some kindred gossiper, and thenthey both got so engrossed in the delight of running down all theiracquaintances, that they had not a thought for anything else.
So Bessy could do what she liked. She could dance _csardas_[3] figuresin the Damensolo; smack her _vis-a-vis_ on the hands in the _tour demains_, and tell anecdotes in such a loud voice that they could be heardall over the room; and when she laughed she would press both handsbetween her knees in open defiance of Monsieur Galifard's repeatedexpostulations.
[Footnote 3: The national dance of Hungary.]
One evening there was a grand practice in the dancing-room. With thelittle girls came big girls, and with the big girls big lads. Suchlubbers seem to think that they have a covenanted right to cut outlittle fellows like me. Luckily, worthy Galifard was a good-naturedfellow, who would not allow his _proteges_ to be thrust to the wall.
"Nix cache-cache spielen, Monsieur Maurice. Allons! Walzer geht an. Nurcourage. Ne cherchez pas toujours das allerschlekteste Tanzerin! Fangensie Fraulein Erzsike par la main. Valsez la."[4] And with that heseized my hand, led me up to Bessy, placed my hand in hers, and then"ein, zwei."
[Footnote 4: "Don't play hide-and-seek, Master Maurice. Off you go! 'Tisa waltz, remember. Come, come! courage. Don't always pick out the worstpartner. Take Miss Bessy by the hand. Waltz away!"]
Now, the waltzes of those days were very different from the waltzes wedance now. The waltz of to-day is a mere joke; but waltzing then was aserious business. Both partners kept the upper parts of their bodies asfar apart as possible, whilst their feet were planted close together.Then the upper parts went moving off to the same time, and the legs wereobliged to slide as quickly as they could after the flying bodies. Itwas a dance worthy of will-o'-the-wisps.
The master kept following us all the time, and never ceased hisstimulating assurances: "Tres bien, Monsieur Maurice! Ca vaausgezeiknet! 'Alten sie brav la demoiselle! Nix auf die Fusse schauen.Regardez aux yeux. Das ist riktig. Embrassiren ist besser alsembarrasiren! Pouah! Da liegst schon alle beide!"[5]
[Footnote 5: "Very good, Master Maurice! That's capital! Hold the ladynicely! Don't look at your feet. Look at her eyes. That's right! Toembrace is better than to embarrass. Pooh! There, they both aretogether!"]
No, not quite so bad as that! I had foreseen the inevitable tumble, andin order to save my partner I sacrificed myself by falling on my knees,_she_ scarcely touched the floor with the tip of her finger. My kneewas not much the worse for the fall, but I split my pantaloons justabove the knee. I was annihilated. A greater blow than that can befallno man.
Bessy laughed at my desperate situation, but the next moment she hadcompassion upon me.
"Wait a bit," said she, "and I'll sew it up with my darning-needle."Then she fished up a darning-needle from one of the many mysteriousfolds of her dress, and, kneeling down before me, hastily darned up therent in my dove-coloured pantaloons, and in her great haste she prickedme to the very quick with the beneficent but dangerous implement.
"I didn't prick you, did I?" she asked, looking at me with those largeeyes of hers which seemed to speak of such goodness of heart.
"No," I said; yet I felt the prick of that needle even then.
Then we went on dancing. I distinguished myself marvellously. With aneedle-prick in my knee, and another who knows where, I whirled Bessythree times round the room, so that when I brought her back to the_garde des dames_, it seemed to me as if three-and-thirty mothers,aunts, and companions were revolving around me.