Marigold A story
“The net wants repairing,” she said. “I stood here yesterday and looked
at it--a beastly, little fly has struggled through.”
He laughed, as one just married yesterday instead of years past
counting, and the humour in his eyes dimmed for a little time their
hardness.
“A butterfly, you mean. I watched the turn-out. It was a radiant
one--worthy our--our nephew.”
But she shook her head, and answered, with a touch of chilling hauteur:
“He’s no relation. On Lucifram he would be called a natural son--or
what’s that other word?--a rather ugly one. They have so many ugly
words, one really loses count of them.”
He let the light question pass unanswered, but the smile died from his
eyes and lips, and, in response to his changing humour, she changed too.
“I can’t understand,” she said, with a faint intonation of passion that
reached you echoing on the trembling air,--“I cannot understand the
fairness or the justness of it. He should be obliged to play upon our
side or on the other.”
“But he is neutral; equal for both sides upon occasion. It’s fair
enough. We have him to thank for the gentleness and amiability of the
great High Priest, you know.”
His tone was hard and mocking; her laugh, a subtler note, not less
intense.
“Yes, he has been very docile.” She leant out on the balcony, her white
arms pressed against the blackness, her face bent towards Lucifram.
“He has been very docile, and he must mend the net. I cannot stand to
see flies escaping. You must give him injunctions to tear off their
legs and wings first. Why weren’t they made like worms?”
“They are worms, dearest--with great capabilities of wriggling upwards
now and then. Who but a worm would worship the Serpent?”
“Who indeed? Many a time I sicken of them--the uninteresting swarm! Oh,
why did my brother--why did Vestasian play this trick on us, of all
gods--he the most trusted in, the best beloved?”
“Precisely why the heavenly Councils hit on him. Now, had it been I----”
“You? But tell me of this net--how must it be mended?”
“Exactly as every other microscopic hole has been, with a damned
soul--I mean a well-seasoned one. The worst of it is they take some
time preparing.”
“Are there none ready?”
“None for that particular hole. It was a rather big one, and will take
something pretty strong, I find. A High Priest is the very least I
could put to it--it befits his office. In time he shall guard the road
to Heaven from all intruders.”
“Just in the same way as a High Priest guards the other.”
“No, Vestné. There are two put on to guard the other. It was admirably
arranged there should be two.”
“And they’ve done their business disgracefully.”
“The clergy, with few exceptions, always do. I mean those we are
obliged to put on to our business. They soap so, and insolently refuse
to be too hard worked.”
“Alphonso has not erred in that respect.”
“No; he shall be honoured. He shall guard the gate.”
“It is no gate. It is a paltry hole.”
“Large enough for Vestasian’s son to drive through--we must remember
that.”
“He is no son. Vestasian has no son. I doubt in harder moments if he
has a wife.”
But he laughed and drew her to him.
“My wife talks for the sake of talking, and I listen because her voice
is sweet even in these harder moments. We will guard the hole--we
cannot mend it. It is one of the rules of the game.”
CHAPTER I
How the bright flowers were springing up after the rain, and how the
birds were singing in the sunshine! The Princess of Ellel looked out of
a window, and plucked some cherries off a tree and ate them with the
appetite of youth. Then she drew in her head and made a wry face at her
maid.
“What sickly fruit you grow here; it almost beats your champagne.
There’s no flavour about it--there’s no flavour about anything at all.”
“Madam!”
“I’m not. I won’t be called names. I’m not married. I never intend to
be.”
“Marriage is a wonderful sweetener, lady. It takes all the unripeness
off the tongue.”
“I’ll never marry, Alice.”
“But why, Princess?”
“Because I’m too--too clever. Why do you smile?”
“I was thinking of the letters, and your royal spelling.”
“I never went to a charity school, and the nation didn’t pay for my
education, therefore my education was neglected. Shall I tell you a
secret, Alice?”
“Yes, Princess.”
“I’m tired of being rich; I’m tired of being good. Well--why don’t you
say something?”
“I’m waiting for the secret.”
“I’ve told you it. Why don’t you say something?”
“I misunderstood.”
“Oh, you uneducated charity girl! you Board-School paragon of perfect
spelling! I’m tired of riches, I’m tired of virtues--can’t you
understand me?”
“Not at all.”
“Then listen!” And she rested her rounded chin on a hand you longed
to eat ice-cream out of--quite a shell-like miniature affair. “Here
you see me dressed in gold and silver, and looking beautiful. Many a
time you long to box my ears, but my position and my riches frighten
you. Now, I’m going to dress in rags and leave all my money with the
estate-agent. But I’m not going to tell him about the rags--I’m going
to make out I’ve travelled back to Fairy Sky.”
“Must I come with you, Princess?”
“Of course--but you’ll remain a cypher in the background. You needn’t
dress in rags. You can have coarse fustian, it’s more respectable and
less becoming.”
“I shall be able to look after you better, dressed so.”
“I shan’t need looking after. However wicked I am, I shall say my
prayers night and morning. But I’ve fallen in love. After all, a man
has a certain amount of interest for a woman--if she keeps him at the
specimen stage.”
Alice raised her hands and eyes in pious opposition--quite unfeigned.
“Alice, listen! I’ve fallen in love with the great High Priest. Fallen
in love with him. I can feel the throb of the pulse in my heart and
head now, whilst I speak.”
“But--but Princess, he cannot marry. He is too high, too holy.”
“Just why I’ve fallen in love with him. I like highness--I like
holiness. You stick a pin in them, and it’s wonderful how soon you find
the under-surface jump.”
“You would not prick the High Priest, Princess?”
“With a dummy pin, Alice. No one would object to a dummy pin, would
they?”
“I never heard of one.”
“What did they teach you at that big Board-School you say you one time
went to?”
“They led us from the known to the Unknown, madam. I am ready to follow
you.”
“Well, I have fallen in love unfortunately with a man I cannot
marry--and he’s growing old!”
“The great High Priest?”
“Yes, the great High Priest. Has he not a noble face? Give me that red
counterpane. See here, I’ll act him for you. I’ve studied his face so
often during the services, his figure too, and the exact way he walks.”
“Excellent, my lady, excellent! Who could imagine five feet so like
six? Where did you learn it? You had his very nose and mouth, and your
eye, as you passed me, made me shiver, just like his has often done.
Where did you learn that walk? The High Priest walks like one man in a
hundred.”
“Bless you, Alice, I learnt it looking at him in the Temple--when the
prayers were dull. I haven’t come under the Litany headings yet; I
haven’t need of any of the things they pray for.”
“Can you seriously love a man, Princess, when you take him off like
that?”
“Believe me it is the only true love. If I were married to a man, I
should become his walking image--that’s why I prefer to remain single.
He would abuse and neglect me more than his own shadow--and end by
killing me.”
“Killing you?”
“Of course. Wouldn’t you kill your double if you had one?--I mean
the one who doubled you every time you turned your back by way of
recreation.”
“For my peace of mind I’d never turn round to see.”
“Not bad for the Board-School at all, Alice. Oh! I love the great High
Priest; I simply, simply love him.”
“At the Board-School they taught us a little self-control--to make us
good citizens.”
“Ah! what is self-control?”
“Holding down the boiler lid to keep the steam in.”
“And who sits on the boiler lid?”
“Yourself.”
“But the boiler will burst.”
“Not if the fire is dead. You never sit on the boiler till the fire is
out. It is rashness. If there is a fire you must have a safety-valve,
and then you may sit on the lid again.”
“I like the way they taught you, Alice. The great High Priest shall be
my safety-valve, then I will sit on the lid and they will say the fire
is out.”
CHAPTER II
“Alice, you are sure there are no mice in this little hovel?”
“There are no mice in the cottage, Princess, and cockroach powder has
been laid night and morning for the last month in preparation for your
coming.”
“There’s the bell for vespers. Quick! let me to the windows to see the
priests’ procession through the cloisters. Alice, you are an angel to
have got us this place. I feel like a nun, living thus under the shadow
of the Temple. Do these rags become me? Am I dirty enough?”
“I shame to look upon you, Princess, you have disguised yourself so
utterly.”
“No--no--look at my teeth. Are they not white as ever?”
“Against your dirty face I think they look still whiter.”
“And my eyes--are they not still a vivid, verdant green?”
“They sparkle more in contrast to the dulness of your skin.”
“And my hair--but it must be dyed. It must, or I shan’t wash it for a
year. My hair must be dark like my face, if I am to be a _proper_
beggar girl.”
“Touch your hair by so much as one thread, Princess, and I leave you
here alone to the mice and cockroaches.”
“Oh! Alice! the High Priest hasn’t come. There’s only two big Golden
Ones. Oh! Look! Yes! There he is! Ah! my darling! Till I have kissed
your lips the boiler lid is a dangerous position.”
“Kissed his lips?”
“Of course! Why not? Isn’t it legitimate to want to kiss the man you
love?”
“Yes--but his lips look as hard as marble.”
“All the more pleasure in softening them with a kiss. And if that won’t
do--put him in the boiler and boil him. Science explains exactly how he
must be treated.”
“Princess, he is holy. It shows a want of reverence to speak of him as
you are speaking.”
“Ought you to respect the man you love?”
“I know no other meaning for it.”
“What a fat uninteresting Jonathan you’ll marry, Alice--and what fat
uninteresting children yours will be. Now, to fall in love--down to
the very apex of your heart, means having no respect for yourself, and
less for the man in question. As soon as you begin to have respect, all
love vanishes.”
“Princess, you have had a better education than I--I cannot argue the
point.”
“What time are vespers over?”
“When the High Priest goes they are over in twenty minutes. He isn’t
fond of a drawling service.”
“And he doesn’t approve of anything nasal, I hear. On opinions of
Service he and I are married already.”
“You could never marry him, Princess. It’s against the law.”
“There are no laws. A strong man is a law unto himself.”
“Heaven protect us during this mad whim of yours! Heaven protect us, I
say! Remember we have not now the shelter of the Palace.”
“But who dare come where there are cockroaches--and at one time
even--even mice,” and she lifted up her dainty rags--for they were
dainty--and shivered to her dainty finger-tips. “Where is my old straw
hat? Find it me, quick. They’ll be out before I’m ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“Ready to go and look at him. Did you seriously think I meant to stay
in this little cottage all the while? I want to go and stare at the
big man just as a poor girl might, to see what it is like. Thanks.
I never wore a twenty-guinea hat with half the pleasure as in this
crack-brimmed sailor. Ugly! Ugly! Ugly isn’t the word for me,” and the
door slammed to behind her, and Alice sat down by the fire with tears