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Ailsa Paige: A Novel, a novel by Robert W. Chambers |
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Chapter 8 |
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_ CHAPTER VIII Berkley, hollow-eyed, ghastly white, but smiling, glanced at the clock. "Only one more hand after this," he said. "I open it for the limit." "All in," said Cortlandt briefly. "What are you going to do now?" "_Scindere glaciem_," observed Berkley, "you may give me three cards, Cortlandt." He took them, scanned his hand, tossed the discards into the centre of the table, and bet ten dollars. Through the tobacco smoke drifting in level bands, the crystal chandeliers in Cortlandt's house glimmered murkily; the cigar haze even stretched away into the farther room, where, under brilliantly lighted side brackets, a young girl sat playing at the piano, a glass of champagne, gone flat, at her dimpled elbow. Another girl, in a shrimp-pink evening gown, one silken knee drooping over the other, lay half buried among the cushions, singing the air which the player at the piano picked out by ear. A third girl, velvet-eyed and dark of hair, listened pensively, turning the gems on her fingers. The pretty musician at the piano was playing an old song, once much admired by the sentimental; the singer, reclining amid her cushions, sang the words, absently: "Why did I give? I do not know. "Why did I give my love away-- "Why did I love? I do not know. "Why did I give my soul away-- "Perhaps the passing years may show;
"Last jack, Miss Carew," said Berkley, "I'm opening it for the limit. Give me one round of fixed ammunition, Arthur." "There's no use drawing," observed another man, laying down his hand, "Berkley cleans us up _as_ usual." He was right; everything went to Berkley, as usual, who laughed and turned a dissipated face to Casson. "Cold decks?" he suggested politely. "Your revenge at your convenience, Jack." Casson declined. Cortlandt, in his brilliant zouave uniform, stood up and stretched his arms until the scarlet chevrons on the blue sleeves wrinkled into jagged lightning. "It's been very kind of you all to come to my last 'good-bye party,'" he yawned, looking sleepily around him through the smoke at his belongings. For a week he had been giving a "good-bye party" every evening in his handsome house on Twenty-third Street. The four men and the three young girls in the other room were the residue of this party, which was to be the last. Arthur Wye, wearing the brand-new uniform, red stripes and facings, of flying artillery, rose also; John Casson buttoned his cavalry jacket, grumbling, and stood heavily erect, a colossus in blue and yellow. "You have the devil's luck, Berkley," he said without bitterness. "I need it." "So you do, poor old boy. But--God! you play like a professional." Wye yawned, thrust his strong, thin hands into his trousers pockets, and looked stupidly at the ceiling. "I wish to heaven they'd start our battery," he said vacantly. "I'm that sick of Hamilton!" Casson grumbled again, settling his debts with Berkley. "Everybody has the devil's own luck except the poor God-forsaken cavalry. Billy Cortlandt goes tomorrow, your battery is under orders, but nobody cares what happens to the cavalry. And they're the eyes and ears of an army----" "They're the heels and tail of it," observed Berkley, "and the artillery is the rump." "Shut up, you sneering civilian!" "I'm shutting up--shop--unless anybody cares to try one last cold hand--" He caught the eye of the girl at the piano and smiled pallidly. "'_Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, auri sacra fames_!' Also I have them all scared to death, Miss Carew--the volunteer army of our country is taking water." "It doesn't taste like water," said the pretty singer on the sofa, stretching out her bubbling glass, "try it yourself, Mr. Berkley." They went toward the music room; Cortlandt seated himself on top of the piano. He looked rather odd there in his zouave jacket, red trousers, white-gaitered legs hanging.
"God knows, especially if the Zouaves support us," replied Wye, yawning again. Then, rising: "I've got to get back to that cursed fort. I'll escort anybody who'll let me." "One more glass, then," said Cortlandt. "Berkley, fill the parting cup! Ladies of the Canterbury, fair sharers of our hospitality who have left the triumphs of the drama to cheer the unfortunate soldier on his war-ward way, I raise my glass and drink to each Terpsichorean toe which, erstwhile, was pointed skyward amid the thunder of metropolitan plaudits, and which now demurely taps my flattered carpet. Gentlemen--soldiers and civilians--I give you three toasts! Miss Carew, Miss Lynden, Miss Trent! Long may they dance! Hurrah!" "Get on the table," said Casson amid the cheering, and climbed up, spurs jingling, glass on high. "Will it hold us all?" inquired Letty Lynden, giving her hands to Berkley, who shrugged and swung her up beside him. "Hurrah for the Zouaves!" she cried; "Hurrah for Billy Cortlandt!--Oh, somebody spilled champagne all over me!" "Hurrah for the artillery!" shouted Arthur Wye, vigorously cheering himself and waving his glass, to the terror of Ione Carew, who attempted to dodge the sparkling rain in vain. "Arthur, you look like a troop of trained mice," observed Berkley gravely. "Has anybody a toy cannon and a little flag?" Wye descended with a hop, sprang astride a chair, and clattered around the room, imitating his drill-master. "Attention! By the right of batteries, break into sections, trot. Mar-r-rch! Attention-n-n! By section from the right of batteries--front into column. Mar-r-rch!" "By section from the right, front into column, march!" repeated Cortlandt, jumping down from the table and seizing another chair. "Everybody mount a chair!" he shouted. "This is the last artillery drill of the season. Line up there, Letty! It won't hurt your gown. Berkley'll get you another, anyway! Now, ladies and gentlemen, sit firmly in your saddles. Caissons to the rear--march! Caissons, left about--pieces forward--march!" Wye's chair buckled and he came down with a splintering crash; Casson galloped madly about, pretending his chair had become unmanageable. It, also, ultimately collapsed, landed him flat on his back, whence he surveyed the exercises of the _haute ecole_ in which three flushed and laughing young girls followed the dashing lead of Cortlandt, while Berkley played a cavalry canter on the piano with one hand and waved his cigar in the other. Later, breathless, they touched glasses to the departing volunteers, to each other, to the ladies ("God bless them! Hear! He-ah!"), to the war, to every regiment going, to each separate battery horse and mule in Arthur's section. And then began on the guns, "I prophesy a quick reunion!" said Berkley. "Here's to it! Full glasses! "Speech! Speech--you nimble-witted, limber-legged prophet!" roared John Casson, throwing a pack of cards at Berkley. "Read the cards for us!" Berkley very gracefully caught a handful, and sorting them, began impromptu: "What can it be? "Clubs now, I see! "Ione, be kind Tremendous cheering greeted these sentiments; three more cheers were proposed and given for the Canterbury. "Home of the 'ster arts, m-music an' 'r' drama-r-r--" observed Casson hazily--"I'm going home." Nobody seemed to hear him. "Home--ser-weet home," he repeated sentimentally--"home among the horses--where some Roman-nosed, camel-backed, slant-eared nag is probably waitin' to kick daylight out'r me! Ladies, farewell!" he added, tripping up on his spurs and waving his hand vaguely. "Cav'lry's eyes 'n' ears 'f army! 'Tain't the hind legs' No--_no_! _I'm_ head 'n' ears--army! 'n' I wan' t' go home." For a while he remained slanting against the piano, thoughtfully attempting to pry out the strings; then Wye returned from putting Miss Carew and Miss Trent into a carriage. "You come to the fort with me," he said. "That'll sober you. I sleep near the magazine." Berkley's face looked dreadfully battered and white, but he was master of himself, careful of his equilibrium, and very polite to everybody. "You're--hic!--killin' yourself," said Cortlandt, balancing himself carefully in the doorway. "Don't put it that way," protested Berkley. "I'm trying to make fast time, that's all. I'm in a hurry." The other wagged his head: "_You_ won't last long if you keep this up. The--hic!--trouble with you is that you can't get decently drunk. You just turn blue and white. That's what's--matter--_you_! And it kills the kind of--hic!--of man you are. B-b'lieve me," he added shedding tears, "I'm fon' 'v' you, Ber--hic!--kley." He shed a few more scalding tears, waved his hand in resignation, bowed his head, caught sight of his own feet, regarded them with surprise. "Whose?" he inquired naively. "Yours," said Berkley reassuringly. "They don't want to go to bed." "Put 'em to bed!" said Cortlandt in a stem voice. "No business wand'ring 'round here this time of night!" So Berkley escorted Cortlandt to bed, bowed him politely into his room, and turned out the gas as a precaution. Returning, he noticed the straggling retreat of cavalry and artillery, arms fondly interlaced; then, wandering back to the other room in search of his hat, he became aware of Letty Lynden, seated at the table. Her slim, childish body lay partly across the table, her cheek was pillowed on one outstretched arm, the fingers of which lay loosely around the slender crystal stem of a wine-glass. "Are you asleep?" he asked. And saw that she was. So he roamed about, hunting for something or other--he forgot what--until he found it was her mantilla. Having found it, he forgot what he wanted it for and, wrapping it around his shoulders, sat down on the sofa, very silent, very white, but physically master of the demoralisation that sharpened the shadows under his cheek-bones and eyes. "I guess," he said gravely to himself, "that I'd better become a gambler. It's--a--very, ve--ry good 'fession--no," he added cautiously, "_per_--fession--" and stopped short, vexed with his difficulties of enunciation. He tried several polysyllables; they went better. Then he became aware of the mantilla on his shoulders. "Some time or other," he said to himself with precision, "that little dancer girl ought to go home." He rose steadily, walked to the table: "Listen to me, you funny little thing," he said. No answer. The childlike curve of the cheek was flushed; the velvet-fringed lids lay close. For a moment he listened to the quiet breathing, then touched her arm lightly. The girl stirred, lifted her head, straightened up, withdrawing her fingers from the wine-glass. "Everybody's gone home," he said. "Do you want to stay here all night?" She rose, rubbing her eyes with the backs of her hands, saw the mantilla he was holding, suffered him to drop it on, her shoulders, standing there sleepy and acquiescent. Then she yawned. "Are you going with me, Mr. Berkley?" "I'll--yes. I'll see you safe." She yawned again, laid a small hand on his arm, and together they descended the stairs, opened the front door, and went out into Twenty-third Street. He scarcely expected to find a hack at that hour, but there was one; and it drove them to her lodgings on Fourth Avenue, near Thirteenth Street. Spite of her paint and powder she seemed very young and very tired as she stood by the open door, looking drearily at the gray pallor over the roofs opposite, where day was breaking. "Will you--come in?" He had prepared to take his leave; he hesitated. "I think I will," he said. "I'd like to see you with your face washed." Her room was small, very plain, very neat. On the bed lay folded a white night gown; a pair of knitted pink slippers stood close together on the floor beside it. There was a cheap curtain across the alcove; she drew it, turned, looked at him; and slowly her oval face crimsoned. "You needn't wash your face," he said very gently. She crept into the depths of a big arm-chair and lay back watching him with inscrutable eyes. He did not disturb her for a while. After a few moments he got up and walked slowly about, examining the few inexpensive ornaments on wall and mantel; turned over the pages of an album, glanced at a newspaper beside it, then came back and stood beside her chair. "Letty?" She opened her eyes. "I suppose that this isn't the--first time." "No." "It's not far from it, though." She was silent, but her eyes dropped. He sat down on the padded arm of the chair. "Do you know how much money I've made this week?" he said gaily. She looked up at him, surprised, and shook her head; but her velvet eyes grew wide when he told her. "I won it fairly," he said. "And I'm going to stake it all on one last bet." "On--what?" "On--_you_. Now, _what_ do you think of that, you funny little thing?" "How--do you mean, Mr. Berkley?" He looked down into the eyes of a hurt child. "It goes into the bank in your name--if you say so." "For--what?" "I don't know," he said serenely, "but I am betting it will go for rent, and board, and things a girl needs--_when she has no man to ask them of--and nothing to pay for them_." "You mean no man---excepting--you?" "No," he said wearily, "I'm not trying to buy you." She crimsoned. "I thought--then why do you----" "Why? Good God, child! _I_ don't know! How do I know why I do anything? I've enough left for my journey. Take this and try to behave yourself if you can--in the Canterbury and out of it! . . . And buy a new lock for that door of yours. Good night." She sprang up and laid a detaining hand on his sleeve as he reached the hallway. "Mr. Berkley! I--I can't----" He said, smiling: "My manners are really better than that----" "I didn't mean----" "You ought to. Don't let any man take his leave in such a manner. Men believe a woman to be what she thinks she is. Think well of yourself. And go to bed. I never saw such a sleepy youngster in my life! Good night, you funny, sleepy little thing." "Mr. Berkley--I can't take--accept----" "Oh, listen to her!" he said, disgusted. "Can't I make a bet with my own money if I want to? I _am_ betting; and _you_ are holding the stakes. It depends on how you use them whether I win or lose." "I don't understand--I don't, truly," she stammered; "d-do you wish me to--leave--the Canterbury? Do you--_what_ is it you wish?" "You know better than I do. I'm not advising you. Where is your home? Why don't you go there? You have one somewhere, I suppose, haven't you?" "Y-yes; I had." "Well--where is it?" "In Philadelphia." "Couldn't you stand it?" he inquired with a sneer. "No." She covered her face with her hands. "Trouble?" "Y-yes." "Man?" "Y-y-yes." "Won't they take you back?" "I--haven't written." "Write. Home is no stupider than the Canterbury. Will you write?" She nodded, hiding her face. "Then--_that's_ settled. Meanwhile--" he took both her wrists and drew away her clinging hands: "I'd rather like to win this bet because--the odds are all against me." He smiled, letting her hands swing back and hang inert at her sides. But she only closed her eyes and shook her head, standing there, slim and tear-stained in her ruffled, wine-stained dinner dress. And, watching her, he retreated, one step after another, slowly; and slowly closed the door, and went out into the dawn, weary, haggard, the taste of life bitter in his mouth. "What a spectacle," he sneered, referring to himself, "the vicious god from the machine! Chorus of seraphim. Apotheosis of little Miss Turveydrop----" He swayed a trine as he walked, but it was not from the wine. A policeman eyed him unfavourably, "No," said Berkley, "I'm not drunk. You think I am. But I'm not. And I'm too tired to tell you how I left my happy, happy home." In the rosy gray of the dawn he sat down on the steps of his new lodgings and gazed quietly into space. "_This_ isn't going to help," he said. "I can stand years of it yet. And that's much too long." He brooded for a few moments. "I hope she doesn't write me again. I can't stand everything." He got up with an ugly, oblique glance at the reddening sky. "I'm what he's made me--and I've got to let her alone. . . . Let her alone. I--" He halted, laid his hand heavily on the door, standing so, motionless. "If I--go--near her, he'll tell her what I am. If he didn't, I'd have to tell her. There's no way--anywhere--for me. And _he_ made me so. . . . And--by God! it's in me--in me--to--to--if she writes again--" He straightened up, turned the key calmly, and let himself in. Burgess was asleep, but Berkley went into his room and awoke him, shining a candle in his eyes. "Burgess!" "S-sir?" "Suppose you knew you could never marry a woman. Would you keep away from her? Or would you do as much as you could to break her heart first?" Burgess yawned: "Yes, sir." "You'd do all you could?" "Yes, sir." There was a long silence; then Berkley laughed. "They drowned the wrong pup," he said pleasantly. "Good night." But Burgess was already asleep again. _ |
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