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Much Darker Days, a fiction by Andrew Lang |
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CHAPTER VIII - Local Colour |
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_ CHAPTER VIII - Local Colour I READ the woman's letter again and again, read it with feelings of the most mingled description. First, I reflected with solemn pride that Philippa was more than an honest woman; that she really was a baronet's lady! After we were married she should keep her title. Many people do. How well it would sound when we entered a room together--' Dr. South and Lady Errand!' Yet, on second thoughts, would not this conjunction of names rather set people asking questions? Yes, disagreeable associations might be revived. My second thought was that, if Mrs. Thompson kept her word, we might as well go home at once, without bothering about the Soudan. The White Groom, I felt certain, had long been speechless. There was thus no one to connect Lady Errand with the decease of Sir Runan. Moreover, Philippa's self-respect was now assured. She had lost it when she learned that she was not Sir Runan's wife; she would regain it when she became aware that she had made herself Sir Runan's widow. Such is the character of feminine morality, as I understand the workings of woman's heart. I had reached this point in my soliloquy, when I reflected that perhaps I had better not tell Philippa anything about it. You see, things were so very mixed, because Philippa's memory was so curiously constructed that she had entirely forgotten the murder which she had committed; and even if I proved to her by documentary evidence that she had only murdered her own husband, it might not help to relieve her burdened conscience as much as I had hoped. There are times when I almost give up this story in despair. To introduce a heroine who is mad in and out, so to speak, and forgets and remembers things exactly at the right moment, seems a delightfully simple artifice. But, upon my word, I am constantly forgetting what it is that Philippa should remember, and on the point of making her remember the very things she forgets! So puzzled had I become that I consoled myself by cursing Sir Runan's memory. De mortuis nil nisi bonum! What a lot of trouble a single little murder, of which one thinks little enough at the time, often gives a fellow. All this while we were approaching Paris. The stains of travel washed away, my mother gave a sigh of satisfaction as she seated herself at the dinner table. As any one might guess who looked at her, she was no despiser of the good things of this life! That very night we went to the Hippodrome, where we met many old acquaintances. My own Artillery Twins were there, and kissed their hands to me as they flew gracefully over our heads towards the desired trapeze. Here, also, was the Tattooed Man, and I grasped his variegated and decorative hand with an emotion I have rarely felt. Without vanity I may say that Philippa and my mother had a succes fou . From the moment when they entered their box every lorgnette was fixed upon them. All Paris was there, the tout Paris of premieres , of les courses , the tout Paris of clubsman of belles petites , of ladies a chignon jaune . Here were the Booksmen, the gommeux , they who font courir , the journalists, and here I observed with peculiar interest my great masters, M. Fortune du Boisgobey and M. Xavier de Montepin. In the intervals of the performance tout le monde crowded into our loge , and I observed that my mother and Lady Errand made an almost equal impression on many a gallant and enterprising young impresario . We supped at the Cafe Bignon ; toasts were carried; I also was carried home. Next morning I partly understood the mental condition of Philippa. I had absolutely forgotten the events of the later part of the entertainment. Several bills arrived for windows, which, it seems, I had broken in a moment of effusion. Gendarmes arrived, and would have arrested me on a charge of having knocked down some thirty-seven of their number. This little matter was easily arranged. I apologised separately and severally to each of the thirty-seven braves hommes , and collectively to the whole corps, the French army, the President, the Republic, and the statue of Strasbourg in the Place de la Concorde. These duties over, I was at leisure to reflect on the injustice of English law. Certain actions which I had entirely forgotten I expiated at the cost of a few thousand francs, and some dozen apologies. For only one action, about which she remembered nothing at all, Philippa had to fly from English justice, and give up her title and place in society! Both ladies now charmed me with a narrative of the compliments that had been paid them; both absolutely declined to leave Paris. 'I want to look at the shops,' said my mother. 'I want the gommeux to look at me,' said Philippa. Neither of them saw the least fun in my proposed expedition to Spain. Weeks passed and found us still in the capital of pleasure. My large fortune, except a few insignificant thousands, had passed away in the fleeting exhilaration of baccarat. We must do something to restore our wealth. My mother had an idea. 'Basil,' she said, 'you speak of Spain. You long to steep yourself in local colour. You sigh for hidalgos, sombreros, carbonados, and carboncillos , why not combine business with pleasure? 'Why not take the Alhambra?' This was an idea! Where could we be safer than under the old Moorish flag? Philippa readily fell in with my mother's proposal. When woman has once tasted of public admiration, when once she has stepped on the boards, she retires without enthusiasm, even at the age of forty. 'I had thought,' said Philippa, of exhibiting myself at the Social Science Congress, and lecturing on self-advertisement and the ethical decline of the Moral Show business, with some remarks on waxworks. But the Alhambra sounds ever so much more toney.' It was decided on. I threw away the Baedeker and Murray, and Ford's 'Spain,' on which I had been relying for three chapters of padding and local colour. I ceased to think of the very old churches of St. Croix and St. Seurin and a variety of other interesting objects. I did not bother about St. Sebastian, and the Valley of the Giralda, and Burgos, the capital of the old Castilian kingdom, and the absorbing glories of the departed Moore. Gladly, gaily, I completed the necessary negotiations, and found myself, with Philippa, my mother, and many of my old troupe , in the dear old Alhambra, safe under the shelter of the gay old Moorish flag. Shake off black gloom, Basil South, and make things skip. You have conquered Fate! _ |
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