unfailingly every lady who entered, in all the splendour of her ball dress, stopped a moment at the threshold of the hall of the palace hotel, to give a glance at the hall, which is divided into two or three parts, curiously divided and united, where the fortunate inhabitants of this olympus of the engadine were standing, sitting, or walking about in pairs or groups. and by the lady's rapid and indicative glance, which embraced the spectacle, she was at once recognised as initiated or profane. the initiated was the lady of other hotels of the bad or dorf who, by her rank and habits, was constantly in touch with the olympus of the "palace," who often came there to dinner and took part in all the balls; she was the great lady living in a sumptuous private villa with her family, retinue, and carriages, and hence she was not only initiated, but was a goddess of an olympus more olympian than the "palace," if it is possible to imagine it. the initiated halted a moment to look, at the threshold of the hall, merely to search with her eye for an especial friend; and she, if there, would come towards her with a rustling of silk, with a shining of sequins and diamonds, and would take the initiated away with her to a corner at the back to chat, as they waited for the ball.
but in the glance of the profane, at the threshold of the sacred vestibule, which they had seldom crossed in the daytime or never, and who were certainly crossing it for the first time at night, everything was to be seen: uncertainty, curiosity, vanity, humility, embarrassment, fastidiousness, and perhaps even a slight feeling of pain. the more vainly audacious of the profane adored and hated the "palace" from afar, and they were dying to go there to mix with those olympian surroundings, yet none of them ever succeeded in being invited there; so they pretended not to mind and spoke badly of the "palace," though they would have walked on their knees to enter and remain there on one or all of the guest nights. other profane were anxious to gain an intimate knowledge of an atmosphere famous for its refined luxury, for its exquisite pleasures, for a sense of exclusiveness, and secretly tormented by curiosity and desires beyond their station, had eagerly waited the chance of living there for one evening only, even as intruders. some other profane living at st. moritz apart from great festivities, meetings, and amusements, wishing for one night to show the rich dress they had never put on, and the hair tiring they had never tried, wishing for one evening not to be bored, had firmly believed in satisfying this complex desire of theirs by passing an enchanting evening at the "palace." and since for twenty francs one could reach this lofty, closed olympus, since for only twenty francs one could enter this terrestrial paradise, all the profane—the vain, the covetous, the dreamers, the curious, the bored—had been preparing themselves for a week for this supreme approach, had been agitated about their dress, their hair tire, their cloak, their carriage, and their escort. in appearance they were happily agitated, but secretly they were preoccupied about cutting a poor figure in some way, and they pretended ease, distraction, simplicity, as if from time immemorial they had been frequenters of the "palace." but the moment they penetrated the first vestibule of the temple dedicated to the god "snob," in that temple which seemed to bear written, in its shining lights, in the superb wealth spread around, in the powerful luxury of its atmosphere and its people, the prophetic and violent motto of an ardent and feverish society: "evviva la vita!"
when these profane, these intruders, entered there, all their emotion, all their fervour, in the long glance, changed into doubt, regret, and pain, and they would almost have turned back, as if they felt themselves profane, more than ever and eternally profane. however, hesitation, contrition, and pain were but for a moment: with the deep, civil courage of which women give a hundred proofs every day, of which no one is aware, though often it reaches to heroism; with an act of resolution and valour, with feigned indifference and ingenuousness, the profane entered and advanced, as if they were initiated. no one came forward to meet them; they knew not where to direct themselves, whether to right or left or to the rear; but followed resolutely by their husbands and brothers, they went and sat down in some place, fanning themselves or playing with their shawls, tranquil in appearance, as if they were of the house, as if they had lived for years at the "palace."
soon the profane were in every corner; and if their number increased, their worldly condition at that festival was not bettered. no one knew them there, they knew no one—they remained isolated. after chatting a little with a husband or brother or son who accompanied them, appearing to smile and joke, to be interested and amused, they became silent and discouraged. they watched with badly concealed anxiety the elegant crowd that surrounded them, that was seated or grouped together or divided, as it greeted each other or chatted livelily; the poor profane watched to discover a face they knew of man or woman, to exchange, if not a word, a greeting, a smile, a nod with a human being of that crowd, and, disconsolate, finding none, they lowered their eyes upon the figures of their louis xvi fans. still more deeply irritated were the profane who by chance knew someone at the "palace." the loud, presumptuous, very wealthy frau mentzel came from the stahlbad, and as she held a privileged court there, she had succeeded sometimes, merely by chance, in having at her luncheons, her go?ters, and her dinners some gentleman of the "palace" itself, or some initiated of the "badrutt," of the grand hotel, the chateau, the villas, on days in which one of these gentlemen had absolutely nothing better to do; this frau mentzel was absolutely scandalised because among the three or four of those she knew one had greeted her, saying two words, and had turned on his heels; another had merely bowed to her without speaking; another had not seen her; and the last had openly pretended not to have seen her. covered with jewels, in a sumptuous parisian toilette, with an enormous feather in her hair, she did nothing but grind her teeth, chewing curses against the four lacheurs, while her husband and her two cavalieri serventi, two colourless and humble parasites, listened terrified and silent, as they bowed their heads servilely.
as for donna mercédès de fuentes, profane of the profane, who looked very beautiful in a white satin dress trimmed with silver, who was always beautiful, in spite of too much rouge, bistre, and pearl powder, with which she spoiled her brown, spanish face, she had seen three or four faces pass before her; and among them her italian friend, don giorgio galanti. every time the perfidious italian gave his arm to a different lady and only once had he directed at donna mercédès a greeting and a distinctly cold smile. and she had hoped to be led round in triumph by him through the salons of the "palace"; she had dared to hope to dance the cotillon with him. deluded and deeply snubbed, she had not even the strength to quarrel in spanish with her poor husband; her beautiful black eyes, which were too much underlined with bistre, filled with tears.
as if they wished to show even more markedly the distance that separated them from the profane, matrons and maids and gentlemen of all ages treated each other with such domesticity, with such familiarity, that they seemed to be the closest relations, the most intimate and inseparable friends. the women particularly tutoied each other; many men and women called each other by name. french diminutives and english endearments were to be heard and strange nicknames. one greeted fanchette, another excused the absence of bob, one gave news of dorine, another asked after gladys or spoke of bibi's illness. in that society it seemed as if no one any longer had a surname or title; all seemed brothers, cousins, husbands, lovers of one race and caste, of a single country and house. whatever did the wretched, profane intruders know about those names, endearments, and nicknames, whoever they were, wherever they came from, whatever they did; if bibi were a man or woman, or if gladys were young or old? however could the profane intruders understand those conversations in french, english, or german, conversations which seemed to be carried on in a special and incomprehensible, aristocratic jargon, full of sub-understandings, references to people unknown to them, allusions to events they knew nothing of; however could they understand that chaff full of completely conventional wit, whose formula escaped them? what could they see in the malicious smiles, in the little sceptical bursts of laughter? what could they grasp of the subdued, half-uttered phrases said with a sneer—a regular cryptic language, let us say? how could they imagine from a word thrown into the ear an assignment, a refusal, a consent, a warning, a malignity, a trouble, a scandal especially; words underlined by a fleeting but expressive glance, by a rapid but suggestive squeeze of the hand? ought not the profane intruders to be astonished, stupefied, almost oppressed by all this, while the curious, alluring spectacle was augmenting their wonderment and secret pain?
a curious, most curious, yet alluring spectacle! not one of the ladies of the "palace" or of the initiated resembled each other; not one was dressed alike; there was not one whose jewels resembled another's; not one whose beauty was equal to another's; not one whose ugliness was similar to another's ugliness. all were truly olympian, by an almost mysterious sign that made them seem of one race and caste, of but one country and family. but beyond this indefinite sign, each preserved a personal character in face, dress, features, and gestures. and all these women seemed to be detached from a background even more phantasmagorial, of exquisite french women, who caused the flowing lines of their parisian dresses to undulate gently from their hips, amidst light lace and soft silk, purposely brought from the great ateliers of the rue de la paix for balls at the "palace"—le palace, ma chère, vous pensez—detached from a background of austrian ladies, with rich and graceful dresses, certainly beautiful, but rather more pleasing than beautiful; separated by a background of egyptians, greeks, roumanians, argentines, spaniards, who owed it to their immense fortunes, their natural, humble sweetness of temperament, that they were enabled to be introduced and placed in the olympus of the "palace"; detached from a background of italian women, majestic and grave, or pretty and witty—each figure, amidst those more prominent and those more in the shade, with her own character and own life forming a curious, singular, and alluring spectacle. the profane intruders, with dazzled eyes and bewildered glance, went from one to another of these feminine figures and now and then, tired of wondering, they lowered their glance, a little pale, before a world of such varied appearances, multiform and dissimilar, a world from which every moment they felt themselves separated for ever: they raised their eyes, ever less anxiously, ever more fatigued, for some new, wondrous apparition.
at last, amidst the murmurs of the whole crowd, appeared, late as usual, the famous miss miriam jenkyns, a divine girl—ah, elle est vraiment divine, ma chère—with whom already ten to thirty celebrated personages were in love, and numerous unknown personages. amongst the illustrious were an hereditary prince of a powerful empire, an indian maharajah, a grandee of spain, a celebrated scientist, a renowned painter and father of sons; but miss jenkyns loved none of them, and instead, contented herself with her unrestrained desire of conquest, being now a europeanised american girl, full of the deepest scepticism. nevertheless, as she came from pontresina she appeared one of the last, desired and invoked especially by those who had never seen her. she appeared in a wilful simplicity, dressed in a tunic of white wool, like the "primavera" of sandro botticelli, adorned with a branch of flowers which crossed the skirt right to its hem, with hair knotted a little loosely as in the picture of the great tuscan, and covered with loose flowers, with a white tulle shawl, like a cloud, on her shoulders and arms. her natural beauty had been recomposed and transformed by her according to the purest pre-raphaelite type, and it was very difficult to discover the subtle and minute art of the recomposition and transformation. there was another great murmuring, one of the last, when the princess of leiningen entered, an armenian who, in the strangest circumstances, had married a german mediatised prince, a military prince, whose appearances were rare. not very tall of stature, in fact rather small, but moulded to perfection, with little hands and feet, the princess of leiningen comprised within herself the poetic legends of armenian beauty. beneath a mass of black, shining hair, her forehead was white and short, her two immense black eyes were shining like jewels; she had a pure, oval face, very white, on which the long eyelashes cast a slight shadow, touched up by the inevitable but pretty maquillage of eastern women, with rather a crimson rouge on the cheeks and the lobes of the ears, a slightly violet shade beneath the eyes, some black, the better to arch the subtle eyebrows, and a little of the rather crimson rouge on the lips. she was dressed completely in black, and since she was so white she seemed to rise from a background of shadow; an immense hat of black tulle strangely framed her white face and splendid eyes. she always wore an immense hat, black or white, even with her décolleté dresses, and she never danced. she crossed the room with her light little feet, shod in white satin, without looking at anyone—a dream creature, unreal as one of edgar allan poe's characters, unreal as a vision in an hallucination. she remained at the back of the salon silent beneath the shadow of her black hat and black dress, completely white with her unreal countenance.
at this last strange appearance the profane felt their impressions to be founded and they settled themselves into two different parties. the one, proud and impertinent, like frau mentzel, openly hated the surroundings they had wished to penetrate and began to vent their anger and their humiliation, finding all the matrons and maids of the "palace," who were unaware of their existence, ugly, awkward, indecent, shameless, venting their anger on their husbands and followers who, poor people, through cowardice agreed, though they were frightened at heart lest these vituperations should be heard, as they looked around them carefully in fear of a scandal. the other party, true snobs, blind and deaf adorers of that surrounding, venerated it even more deeply, felt themselves even more humiliated, and oppressed, bewailing even more their own anonymity, nullity, and lack of existence. they felt they deserved to be anonymous there and non-existing for ever: they understood that they had no right, that they never would have any right to belong to that superior, unarrivable, sublime humanity that lived at the "palace"!
the which superior, unreachable, sublime humanity, while it aroused such vain disdain, such empty proposals of revenge, such sterile lamentation among the wretched profane, was troubling itself with nothing else at that lively and intense hour of the ball but with that deep and supreme feminine interest—to see, observe, study, value, and put a figure on the jewels of the other women in the ballroom. to note, analyse, and value these jewels and compare them with their own; at times to smile in triumph, or enviously, or really bitterly, according as their own jewels succeeded in being superior, equal, inferior, or very inferior to the others. their eyes seemed not to rest on the pearl necklaces, on the rivières of diamonds, the diadems of pearls and diamonds, the emerald solitaires, and the ruby sprays. their glance was fleeting, their lips offered other words, but the women did nothing but mentally make rapid calculations, after which they smiled carelessly, or suddenly sighed, or were unexpectedly disturbed. for on that summer night in the high mountains, in a landscape of the purest beauty, amid proud peaks so close to the stars, amid eternal glaciers that told an austere and terrible tale, in that room there were collected, in the shape of jewels, the fortune perhaps of a populace. at the splendour of thousands and thousands of gems, at the scintillations of those thousands of precious stones, in the presence of all that bewildering brilliance, women's beauty, girls' grace, and richness of apparel were concentrated into a furnace of light, lost their value, and were completely eclipsed. each woman's hair, neck, bosom, and arms were so thickly crowded with pearls and diamonds, sapphires and emeralds, while the jewels of some were few, but enormous, that nothing took the eye or mind, at once astonishing and frightening, but that mad, frenzied luxury up there in the high mountains, in the still summer night, not far from the whiteness of the peaks profiled against the sky. but suddenly even that madness and frenzy seemed conquered, and in spite of the studied reserve of all those women, and in spite of the studied indifference of the men, a word passed from group to group, from room to room, murmured a hundred times, softly or loudly:
"the tiara! the tiara!"
mrs. annie clarke appeared in the hall, coming from her apartments, although her daughter had been dancing for an hour, having for her partner in the cotillon don vittorio lante della scala. being lazy, annie clarke always arrived late, or perhaps she did so purposely. that evening she was wearing a rather dark dress of purple velvet, trimmed with quite simple lace; from neck and bosom descended a rivière of diamonds, which were very large at the neck, and afterwards became less large, in long streams of small, shining diamonds, like streams of running water, falling to the waist, whence neck, bosom, and corsage assumed a luminous, strange appearance. but what was astounding in annie clarke that evening, what had never been seen before, was her diamond tiara. it was not a single diadem of large diamonds, but three diadems, one above the other, in flowers, and leaves, and arabic work and points. it was a veritable little tower of diamonds, perched on a suitable coiffure. it was a tiara that bizarrely resembled those of the high priests of buddha in indian temples, a tiara that strangely resembled the jewelled triple crown of the pope of the whole catholic world. it was the tiara of all the great american ladies, the famous tiara of the house of clarke, like a lighthouse or like the torch which bartholdi's "liberty" holds aloft over the port of brooklyn, to show navigators the entrance to new york. as annie clarke crossed the length of the hall quietly and indifferently to pay her respects to her serene highness, the grand duchess of salm-salm, this clarke tiara, beacon and torch of america, eclipsed, annulled, destroyed—a unique, inimitable jewel—all the other jewels of the women who were gathered there. after a great silence of wonderment amongst the throng, of groups near and far, after a silence of stupor, spite, annoyance, envy, anger, and sadness; after some instants of these atrocious, seething sentiments of every kind, a chattering began and spread everywhere about the tiara and against it, about mabel's marriage and against it.
"puis-je me congratuler pour les fian?ailles de votre chère fille?" the grand duchess politely asked annie clarke.
as she bowed, the tiara threw a stream of light around. beneath her tiara annie clarke smiled, bowed, and expressed her thanks.
of the hundred and twenty ladies who were present at the "palace" festivities that evening but eighty, perhaps, were seated round the ballroom for the charity cotillon; and among the eighty only thirty were dancing. thus even in this that reputation for theatricalism and parade, which everything assumed in the "palace" olympus, was maintained: that reputation was maintained, so that there was always a spectacle and a public which at times changed sides, passing from the stage to the stalls, and vice versa. there were not many couples, then, to dance in the long and undulating whirls of the "boston," in the rapid if rarer twirls of the waltz—so much the fashion now the "boston," so out of fashion the waltz! there were not many couples, hence those who danced had plenty of room in which to turn round, now languidly, now more resolutely, in the difficult modern art of the "boston." there was no bumping of each other; trains gyrated in their silken softness without being trod upon; voile and tulle skirts seemed like revolving clouds. thus the dancers could display all their mastery of the dance if they possessed it, and those who did not possess it dared not expose themselves on the stage, since all around the curious, attentive public followed such a dance spectacle as if they were at the theatre; observing, criticising, approving, and scoffing. on that stage there were some of the dancers of the first flight: the slender principessa di castelforte in her white dress and with her string of pearls, worth half a million; another italian, the marchesa di althan, a reed of a woman with an attractive, ugly face; signorina de aguilar, a brazilian, dressed in red, with a vigour quite spanish, dancing like a lost soul, like an insatiable flame. madame lawrence danced like a grecian bas-relief; miss mabel clarke with perfect harmony, in the grace and ardour of the dance; miss miriam jenkyns glided as if she were a shadow or a nymph on the meadows. and there were other celebrated dancers, celebrated in all cosmopolitan salons, at biarritz, at nice, and at cairo.
in the first flight among the men were count buchner, the diplomat, who had danced in all the capitals of the world for thirty years on end, and at sixty, dried and withered as he was, was still a beautiful dancer; the beau of beaux, the hungarian, the comte de hencke, the famous dancer of the majourka to the music of liszt; don vittorio lante della scala, one of the most graceful and vigorous dancers of italy; the young comte de roy, the little frenchman; edward crozes, the twenty-year-old son of lady crozes. people came and went from the hall, the saloon, and other rooms, and the audience at the performance changed and was renewed around the famous dancers. the performance continued, each performing his or her part with artistic zeal, amidst the approval or adverse criticisms of the audience. in a dress of tenderest pink crêpe, surrounded by a silver girdle, with a small wreath of little roses around her riotous chestnut hair, mabel clarke, one of the chief characters of this worldly comedy, was dancing the beginning of the cotillon with another of the chief dancer-actors, vittorio lante della scala; but seized by the truth and the force of their feelings, they forgot to be actors. they had no thought of pleasing others, of being admired by others. they forgot altogether their surroundings, with their artifices and pretences and obligatory masks; and only the perfect, tranquil joy of being together held them in its beautiful frankness, of not leaving each other, of being able to let themselves go to the rhythm of the music in harmonious turns, where they seemed to depart and vanish afar in a dream of well-being led on by the languid murmur of the music. in their sentimental absorption they seemed even more to suit each other, and the public of the boxes and stalls around them wondered at them, then with a sneer the fashionable gossiping, calumny, and back-biting began again, subduedly.
"... lante has hit it off."
"... the girl has lost her head."
"... of course, he has done his best to compromise her."
"... in any case, he won't be the first."
"... st. moritz is a great marriage mart."
"... there are plenty of men, too."
every now and then the music was silent, and the dancers promenaded arm in arm or sat down for a moment, the girls with their hands full of flowers and their figures crossed with ribbons of brilliant colours, the cotillon gifts. then matron and maid would approach mabel and vittorio with a smile of satisfaction on their lips, asking in french, in english, in german:
"may i congratulate you?"
the american girl's beautiful head, crowned with roses, said "yes" with a gracious, frank bow. vittorio lante, unable to control himself, for a moment paled with joy, and twisted his yellow moustaches nervously. the friend would be profuse in her compliments.
"merci, chère, merci," exclaimed mabel clarke frankly, in her limpid voice.
"oh, thanks!" scarcely murmured vittorio lante.
once alone, they looked at each other, enjoying those delicious moments intensely. then, without speaking, in simultaneous action, they joined in the dance again, between the countess of durckeim, the hungarian, a charming eccentric, and beau de hencke, who astonished the room, or they danced between the comte de roy and miriam jenkyns, who danced as if in one of corot's pictures. then the friend, maid or matron would rejoin her own set. with spiteful glances, correctly veiled, with slighting words and unfinished phrase, the chorus about mabel clarke began again:
"... oh, these american girls, all the world is theirs. it is disgusting."
"... these american girls pretend to be strong, and as soon as they see an italian's moustaches they fall."
"... these american girls; their dowry is always a story, a fable, a romance."
"... dowry? a settlement, and uncertain, too."
"... papa clarke may go under."
"... he has gone under three times."
"... mabel's dear papa is a faker of pig's flesh."
"... the mother is silly and vain. poor vittorio, what a father and mother-in-law!"
in a dance that became ever more lively, the first and second parts of that theatrical spectacle passed—the "palace" cotillon. a more precipitous movement led the couples amidst gauze, tulle, ribbons, paper caps, streamers of fresh flowers, and swiss bells of silver paper.
now and then, during a moment's pause, a friend stopped beside mabel and vittorio, formulated a courteous inquiry, bowed at the reply, and offered his congratulations, seemingly complimentary and full of worldly good-nature. the orchestra gave forth its fervid recall; the couples danced anew in a hurried whirl. the friend would withdraw to form the centre of a group of men, old, middle-aged, and young, to whom he brought the news, and where the worldly, masculine choir, with disingenuous air, with an air as if it did not matter, occupied itself particularly with vittorio lante.
"... he hasn't a farthing."
"... seven hundred thousand francs' worth of debts."
"... refused five times by five girls."
"... his mother mends silk stockings to get a living."
"... he can't pay his hotel bill."
"... oh, now his creditors will wait."
"... is it true that he paid his attentions to the mother?"
"... he hasn't a title. the real princes are the others, the della rovere."
"... he can buy it back; it is there in the family. he has only to pay well for it."
"... he can do that now."
"... it seems that the girl has already given him money. it is the custom in america."
more gaily, naturally, and simply towards its close, the cotillon gathered together all the couples in the room. by now all the actors had forgotten parade and performance, and were merely abandoning themselves to the great and intoxicating pleasure of living. the cotillon ended, because all wished to go to supper, to the extremely dainty, exquisite supper which, in an extremely new chic aspect, closes every special night at the "palace." in two or three rooms the tables were ready. the company was chosen carefully, sympathetic and antipathetic were again carefully expressed, with bizarre reunions and cruel exclusions. in the ballroom the final picture still kept the crowd. upon two little chariots, drawn by hand, appeared two great piles of green branches and wild flowers, tied with ribbons. drawn joyfully into the middle of the room, the bundles were opened, revealing in the one miriam jenkyns, in the other mabel clarke, the two leaders of the cotillon. the greatest applause greeted this final picture, and while the pair led the final gallop, there were still some discreet exclamations directed at mabel and vittorio:
"vive les fiancés!"
blushing in her pink dress as she left the room on vittorio lante's arm, mabel clarke passed into the hall, to look for her mother to sup at the great clarke table. and now everyone surrounded her, to congratulate her and vittorio, and both, happy and composed, returned thanks. a few moments afterwards all were seated at table. at a table for men only, amidst young and old, all more or less dowry-hunters, their less happy and less fortunate chief, the vicomte de lynen, was telling in a low voice, between the langouste à la colbert and the chaufroid de gibier, how three years ago vittorio lante had seduced a poor cousin of his house, how she had had a baby by him, how he had deserted mother and little daughter, and how the mother had threatened to vitrioler l'américaine.
