but this melancholy period of crêpe, a time of idle secrets, and unbosomings, was to prove fatal to the happiness of mademoiselle de nazianzi. she now heard she was not the first in the prince’s life, and that most of the queen’s maids, indeed, had had identical experiences with her own. she furthermore learned, amid ripples of laughter, of her lover’s relations with the marquesa pizzi-parma and of his light dealings with the dancer april flowers, a negress (to what depths??) at a time when he was enjoying the waxen favours of the wife of his magnificence, the master of the horse.
chilled to the point of numbness, the mortified girl had scarcely winced, and when on repairing to her room a little later, she had found his weariness wandering in the corridor on the chance of a surreptitious kiss, she had bolted past him without look, or word, and sharply closed her door. 128
the court had returned to colours when she opened it again, and such had been the trend of her meditations, that her initial steps were directed, with deliberate austerity, towards the basilica of the palace.
except for the countess yvorra, with an écharpe de décence drawn over her hair, there was no one in it.
“i thank thee god for this escape,” she murmured falling to her knees before the silver branches of a cross: “it is terrible; for i did so love him ......................... ............................................... ............................................... ...... and oh how could he ever with a negress? ....................................... ................................................ ...... pho ..................................... ........... i fear this complete upset has considerably aged me............................ ....... but to thee i cling................... ................................................ ................................................ preserve me at all times from the toils of the wicked, and forgive him, as i hope to forgive him soon.” then kindling several 129 candles with a lingering hand, she shaped her course towards the kennels, called teddywegs to her and started, with an aching heart, for a walk.
it was a day of heavy somnolence. skirting the rosery where gardeners with their slowly moving rakes were tending the sandy paths, she chose a neglected footway that descended towards the lake. indifferent to the vivacity of teddywegs, who would race on a little before her, then wait with leonine accouchments of head until she had almost reached him, when he would prick an ear and spring forward with a yap of exhortation, she proceeded leisurely, and with many a pause, wrapped in her own mournful thoughts.
alack! among the court circle there was no one to whom in her disillusion she could look for solace, and her spirit yearned for sister ursula, and the convent of the flaming-hood.
wending her way amid the tall trees, she felt she had never cared for yousef as she had for ursula ... and broodingly, in order to ease her heart, she began comparing the two together as she walked along. 130
after all what had he ever said that was not either commonplace or foolish? whereas sister ursula’s talk was invariably pointed; and often indeed so delicately, that words seemed almost too crude a medium to convey her ethereal meanings, and she would move her evocative hands, and flash her aura, and it was no fault of hers if you hadn’t a peep of the beyond. and the infinite tenderness of her least caress. yousef’s lips had seldom conveyed to hers the spell of ursula’s; and once indeed lately, when he had kissed her, there had been an unsavoury aroma of tobacco and charcuterie, which, to deal with, had required both tact and courage.... ah dear hood! what harmony life had held within. unscrupulous and deceiving men might lurk around its doors (they often did) coveting the chaste, but old jane, the porteress, would open to no man beyond the merest crack. and how right they were the nuns in their mistrust of man! sister ursula one day had declared, in uplifted mood, that “marriage was obscene.” was it—? ...?? ... perhaps it might be—! how appalling if it was! 131
she had reached the lake.
beneath a sky as white as platinum it lay, pearly, dove-like, scintillating capriciously where a heat-shrouded sun kindled its torpid waters into fleeting diamonds. a convulsive breeze strayed gratefully from the opposite shore, descending from the hills that rose up all veiled, and without detail, against the brilliant whiteness of the morning.
sinking down upon the shingle by an upturned boat, she heaved a brief sigh, and drawing from her vanity-case the last epistles of the prince, she began methodically to arrange them in their proper sequence.
(1) “what is the matter with my dearest girl?”
(2) “my own tender little lita, i do not understand—”
(3) “darling, what’s this—?”
(4) “beloved one, i swear—”
(5) “your cruel silence—”
if published in a dainty brochure format about the time of his coronation, they ought to realise no contemptible sum, and the proceeds might go to charity, she reflected, thrusting them back again carefully into the bag. 132
then, finding the shingle too hard through her thin gown to remain seated long, she got up, and ran a mournful race with teddywegs along the shore.
not far along the lake was the “village,” with the h?tel d’angleterre et du lac, its stucco, belettered-walls professing: “garages, afternoon tea, modern comfort!” flitting by this, and the unpretentious pier (where long, blonde fishing-nets lay drying in the sun), it was a relief to reach the remoter plage beyond.
along the banks stretched vast brown carpets of corn and rye, broken by an occasional olive-garth, beneath whose sparse shade the heavy-eyed oxen blinked and whisked their tails, under the attacks of the water-gnats that were swarming around.
musing on negresses—and can-can dancers in particular—she strolled along a strand all littered with shells and little jewel-like stones.
the sun shone down more fiercely now, and soon, for freshness sake, she was obliged to take to the fields.
passing among the silver drooping olives, 133 relieved here and there by a stone-pine, or slender cypress-tree eternally green, she sauntered on, often lured aside to pluck the radiant wild-flowers by the way. on the banks the pinkest cyclamens were in bloom, and cornflowers of the hue of paradise, and fine-stemmed poppies flecked with pink.
“pho! a negress ...” she murmured, following the flight of some waterfowl towards the opposite shore.
the mists had fallen from the hills, revealing old woods wrapped in the blue doom of summer.
beyond those glowing heights, towards this hour, the nuns, each in her cool, shuttered, cell, would be immersed in noontide prayer.
“ursula—for thee!” she sighed, proffering her bouquet in the direction of the town.
a loud splash ... the sight of a pair of delicate legs (mocking the law’s requirements under the modesty act as relating to bathers).... mademoiselle de nazianzi turned and fled. she had recognised the prince.5
