"Well,I've never seen anything approaching such behavior in our set.And he was ready to go further.Nobody knows where it might have gone to,if Charley's perfect coolness hadn't rebuked him and brought him to his senses.There's where it is,that's what I mean,Hortense,by saying you could always feel safe with Charley."Hortense put in a languid word."I think I should always feel safe with Mr.Mayrant."But Kitty was a simple soul."Indeed you couldn't,Hortense!I assure you that you're mistaken.There's where you get so wrong about men sometimes.
I have been studying that boy for your sake ever since we got here,and Iknow him through and through.And I tell you,you cannot count upon him.
He has not been used to our ways,and I see no promise of his getting used to them.He will stay capable of outbreaks like that horrid one on the bridge.Wherever you take him,wherever you put him,no matter how much you show him of us,and the way we don't allow conspicuous things like that to occur,believe me,Hortense,he'll never learn,he'll never smooth down.You may brush his hair flat and keep him appearing like other people for a while,but a time will come,something will happen,and that boy'll be conspicuous.Charley would never be conspicuous.""No,"assented Hortense.
Kitty urged her point."Why,I never saw or beard of anything like that on the bridge--that is,among--among--us!""No,"assented Hortense,again,and her voice dropped lower with each statement."One always sees the same thing.Always hears the same thing.
Always the same thing."These last almost inaudible words sank away into the silent pool of Hortense's meditation.
"Have another cigarette,"said Kitty."You've let yours fall into the water."I heard them moving a little,and then they must have resumed their seats.
"You'll drop out of it,"Kitty now pursued.
"Into what shall I drop?"
"Just being asked to the big things everybody goes to and nobody counts.
For even with the way Charley has arranged about the phosphates,it will not be enough to keep you in our swim--just by itself.He'll weigh more than his money,because he'll stay different--too different.""He was not so different last summer."
"Because he was not there long enough,my dear.He learned bridge quickly,and of course he had seen champagne before,and nobody had time to notice him.But he'll be married now and they will notice him,and they won't want him.To think of your dropping out!"Kitty became very earnest."To think of not seeing you among us!You'll be in none of the small things;you'll never be asked to stay at the smart houses--why,not even your name will be in the paper!Not a foreigner you entertain,not a dinner you give,not a thing you wear,will ever be described next morning.And Charley's so set on you,and you're so just exactly made for each other,and it would all be so splendid,and cosey,and jolly!And to throw all this away for that crude boy!"Kitty's disdain was high at the thought of John.
Hortense took a little time over it "Once,"she then stated,"he told me he could drown in my hair as joyfully as the Duke of Clarence did in his butt of Malmsey wine!"Kitty gave a little scream."Did you let him?""One has to guard one's value at times."
Kitty's disdain for John increased."How crude!"Hortense did not make any answer.
"How crude!"Kitty,after some silence,repeated.She seemed to have found the right word.
Steps sounded upon the bridge,and the voice of Gazza cried out that the stupid key was at the imbecile club-house,whither he was now going for it,and not to be alarmed.Their voices answered reassuringly,and Gazza was heard growing distant,singing some little song.
Kitty was apparently unable to get away from John's crudity."He actually said that?""Yes."
"Where was it?Tell me about it,Hortense."
"We were walking in the country on that occasion.
Kitty still lingered with it."Did he look--I've never had any man--Iwonder if--how did you feel?"
"Not disagreeably."And Hortense permitted herself to laugh musically.
Kitty's voice at once returned to the censorious tone."Well,I call such language as that very--very--"Hortense helped her."Operatic?"
"He could never be taught in those ways either,"declared Kitty."You would find his ardor always untrained--provincial."Once more Hortense abstained from making any answer.
Kitty grew superior."Well,if that's to your taste,Hortense Rieppe!""It was none of it like Charley,"murmured Hortense.
"I should think not!Charley's not crude.What do you see in that man?""I like the way his hair curls above his ears."For this Kitty found nothing but an impatient exclamation.
And now the voice of Hortense sank still deeper in dreaminess,--down to where the truth lay;and from those depths came the truth,flashing upward through the drowsy words she spoke:"I think I want him for his innocence."What light these words may have brought to Kitty,I had no chance to learn;for the voice of Gazza returning with the key put an end to this conversation.But I doubted if Kitty had it in her to fathom the nature of Hortense.Kitty was like a trim little clock that could tick tidily on an ornate shelf;she could go,she could keep up with time,with the rapid epoch to which she belonged,but she didn't really have many works.
I think she would have scoffed at that last languorous speech as a piece of Hortense's nonsense,and that is why Hortense uttered it aloud:she was safe from being understood.But in my ears it sounded the note of revelation,the simple central secret of Hortense's fire,a flame fed overmuch with experience,with sophistication,grown cold under the ministrations of adroitness,and lighted now by the "crudity"of John's love-making.And when,after an interval,I had rowed my boat back,and got into the carriage,and started on my long drive from Udolpho to Kings Port,I found that there was almost nothing about all this which I did not know now.Hortense,like most riddles when you are told the answer,was clear:--"I think I want him for his innocence."
Yes;she was tired of love-making whose down had been rubbed off;she hungered for love-making with the down still on,even if she must pay for it with marriage.Who shall say if her enlightened and modern eye could not look beyond such marriage (when it should grow monotonous)to divorce?
