the impatient hunter felt the time had come to creep up on his game. the three-sidedness of the sport annoyed him, and so did the tone of it. to sit there and chat was rather pleasant, but he was after more than mere talk. social intercourse, with the mask it puts over desire, always, he knew, retards the erotic between man and woman. words lose their ardor, the attack its fire. despite their conversation together on indifferent matters, edgar’s mother must never forget his real object, of which, he was quite convinced, she was already aware.
that his efforts to catch this woman were not to prove in vain seemed very probable. she was at the critical age when a woman begins to regret having remained faithful to a husband she has never truly loved, and when the purple sunset of her beauty still affords her a final urgent choice between motherliness and womanliness. the life whose questions seem to have been answered long before becomes a problem again, and for the last time the magnetic needle of the will wavers between the hope for an intense love experience and ultimate resignation. the woman has a dangerous decision to confront, whether she will live her own life or that of her children, whether she will be a woman first, or a mother first.
the baron, who was very perspicacious in these matters, thought that he discerned in edgar’s mother this very vacillation between passion to live her own life and readiness to sacrifice her desires. in conversation she always omitted to mention her husband. evidently he satisfied nothing but her bare external needs and not the snobbishness that an aristocratic way of living had excited in her. and as for her son, she knew precious little of the child’s soul. a shadow of boredom, wearing the veil of melancholy in her dark eyes, lay over her life and obscured her sensuousness.
the baron resolved to act quickly, yet at the same time to avoid any appearance of haste. like an angler, who tempts the fish by dangling and withdrawing the bait, he would affect a show of indifference and let himself be courted while he was the one that was actually doing the courting. he would put on an air of haughtiness and bring into sharp relief the difference in their social ranks. there was fascination in the idea of getting possession of that lovely, voluptuous creature simply by stressing his pride, by mere externals, by the use of a high-sounding aristocratic name and the adoption of a cold, proud manner.
the chase was already growing hot. he had to be cautious and not show his excitement. so he remained in his room the whole afternoon, filled with the pleasant consciousness of being looked for and missed. but his absence was felt not so much by the woman, upon whom the effect was intended, as by edgar.
to the wretched child it was simple torture. the whole afternoon he felt absolutely impotent and lost. with the obstinate faithfulness of a boy he waited long, long hours for his friend. to have gone away or done anything by himself would have seemed like a crime against their friendship, and he loafed the time away in the hotel corridors, his heart growing heavier and heavier as each moment passed. after a while his heated imagination began to dwell on a possible accident or an insult he might unwittingly have offered his friend. he was on the verge of tears from impatience and anxiety.
so that when the baron came in to dinner in the evening, he received a brilliant greeting. edgar jumped up and, without paying any attention to his mother’s cry of rebuke or the astonishment of the other diners, rushed at the baron and threw his thin little arms about him.
“where have you been? where have you been? we’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
the mother’s face reddened at hearing herself included in the search.
“sois sage, edgar. assieds toi,” she said rather severely. she always spoke french to him, though it by no means came readily to her tongue, and if any but the simplest things were to be said she invariably floundered.
edgar obeyed and went back to his seat, but kept on questioning the baron.
“edgar,” his mother interposed, “don’t forget that the baron can do whatever he wants to do. perhaps our company bores him.”
now she included herself, and the baron noted with satisfaction that the rebuke directed to the child was really an invitation for a compliment to herself.
the hunter in him awakened. he was intoxicated, thoroughly excited at having so quickly come upon the right tracks and at seeing the game so close to the muzzle of his gun. his eyes sparkled, his blood shot through his veins. the words fairly bubbled from his lips with no conscious effort on his part. like all men with pronouncedly erotic temperaments, he did twice as well, was twice himself when he knew a woman liked him, as some actors take fire when they feel that their auditors, the breathing mass of humanity in front of them, are completely under their spell.
naturally an excellent raconteur, with great skill in graphic description, he now surpassed himself. besides, he drank several glasses of champagne, ordered in honor of the new friendship. he told of hunting big game in india, where he had gone at the invitation of an english nobleman. the theme was well chosen. the conversation had necessarily to be about indifferent matters, but this subject, the baron felt, would excite the woman as would anything exotic and unattainable by her.
the one, however, upon whom the greater charm was exercised was edgar. his eyes glowed with enthusiasm. he forgot to eat or drink and stared at the story-teller as if to snatch the words from his lips with his eyes. he had never expected actually to see a man who in his own person had experienced those tremendous things which he read about in his books—tiger hunts, brown men, hindus, and the terrible juggernaut, which crushed thousands of men under its wheels. until then he had thought such men did not really exist and believed in them no more than in fairyland. a certain new and great feeling expanded his chest. he could not remove his eyes from his friend and stared with bated breath at the hands across the table that had actually killed a tiger. scarcely did he dare to ask a question, and when he ventured to speak it was with a feverish tremor in his voice. his lively imagination drew the picture for each story. he saw his friend mounted high on an elephant caparisoned in purple, brown men to the right and to the left wearing rich turbans, and then suddenly the tiger leaping out of the jungle with gnashing teeth and burying its claws in the elephant’s trunk.
now the baron was telling about something even more interesting, how elephants were caught by a trick. old, domesticated elephants were used to lure the young, wild, high-spirited ones into the enclosure. the child’s eyes flashed. then, as though a knife came cutting through the air right down between him and the baron, his mother said, glancing at the clock:
“neuf heures. au lit.”
edgar turned white. to be sent to bed is dreadful enough to grown children at any time. it is the most patent humiliation in adult company, the proclamation that one is still a child, the stigma of being small and needing a child’s sleep. but how much more dreadful at so interesting a moment, when the chance of listening to such wonderful things would be lost.
“just this one story, mother, just this one story about the elephants.”
he was about to plead, but bethought himself quickly of his new dignity. he was a grown-up person. one attempt was all he ventured. but that night his mother was peculiarly strict.
“no, it’s late already. just go up. sois sage, edgar. i’ll tell you the story over again exactly the way the baron tells it to me.”
edgar lingered a moment. usually his mother went upstairs with him. but he wasn’t going to beg her in front of his friend. his childish pride made him want to give his pitiful withdrawal somewhat, at least, the appearance of being voluntary.
“will you really? everything? all about the elephants and everything else?”
“yes, edgar, everything.”
“to-night still?”
“yes, yes. but go on, go to bed now.”
edgar was amazed that he was able to shake hands with the baron and his mother without blushing. the sobs were already choking his throat.
the baron ran his hand good-naturedly through his hair and pulled it down on his forehead. that brought a forced smile to the boy’s tense features. but the next instant he had to hurry to the door, or they would see the great tears well over his eyelids and trickle down his cheeks.
