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Chapter 21 · Idols

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  Chapter twenty one of Idols by William John Locke. This LibriVox recording is in
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  the public domain. Recording by Simon Evers, chapter twenty one. For a
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  while the sun of his happiness declined, and the shadow of his danger rested
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  upon Hugh. But presently it was noontide again, and after the manner of
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  men, he forgot the danger. The months passed and grew into years,
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  and a wonderful joy came into Irene's sky and lit with a new worship her
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  love for Hugh. But Minner lived in the gloom of a disastrous life.
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  Three years had passed. Her high heeled shoes came down with a tick upon
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  the tiled floor of the lodgier at every swing forward of her American rocking chair.
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  As Missus Delamare's nerves had been tried of late, she rose, after
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  some wincing, and prepared to enter the drawing room. Three years chaperonage of
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  Minner had brought their wear and tear upon the system, and Minner's character I
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  had decidedly not softened. They had, however, remained excellent friends and have
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  formed a cold cynical attachment to each other. The pulling up of a carriage
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  in the courtyard below, drew Missus Delamare to the balstrade. If you are
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  really going to Monte Cardo, you had better make haste or you will miss
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  the ten fifty five. There is the carriage. Minna stopped her rocking and
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  lay back in the chair in her lazy attitude. I wish I hadn't told
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  Boisey I would come, so do I. He's a bit of a cad.
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  Won't do you any good to placard yourself about with him because he tells
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  improper stories on a fortnight's acquaintance, said Missus Delamare. Well, he's the
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  only man I have met who can tell you them without making you feel bounds
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  to blush. Blushing is a nuisance. In fact, everything in the world
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  is a nuisance. I wish I were out of it. You would scarce
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  to find your way to a better one, remarked the elder lady suavely,
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  who knows, said Minna, this is pretty bad here. All the virtues
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  are deadly dulled, and disc as buies me. All those who seek me
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  out and amuse me of vicious and vulgar I hate the sight of Boisey.
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  Don't you think you'd better spend a quiet day here for a change. Send
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  a telegram to Boisey. Oh lord, I should go crazy if I sat
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  here doing nothing all day. It is punishment for my sins. I suppose
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  do as you like, my dear, said Missus Delamere. Only if you
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  go keep your wits about you. I command the services of better looking animals,
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  and Boisey if I want to compromise myself, retorted Minna. He looks
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  as if he came out of the burmache. But he'll give me the best
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  dejneh in Monte Carlo. It is getting late, mademoiselle, said Justine,
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  appearing on the lodgier with an anxious face. Minnor rose sighing, and followed
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  the maid indoors. A short while afterwards, Missus Delamire saw her charge,
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  a tired in a daffodil yellow dress and a showy straw hat a wilderness of
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  bows and flowers, drive off, buttoning her long gloves. She's over doing
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  it, she murmured to herself, as she kissed the tips of her fingers
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  to Minna. She would be wearing her dilmonds in the daytime next. I'm
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  glad I'm not a disappointed jewess. The Vicomte de Boisy, a short young
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  man with a small curled black mustache, a bad mouth, and somewhat dissipated
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  eyes, dressed in a striped flannel suit and carrying a gold knot Monacca,
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  met Minna as she alighted on the platform of the pretty little Monte Carlo station.
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  He welcomed her with many compliments. She was ravishing. He scarcely dared
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  hope she would do him the honor even after her note had arrived. When
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  he saw her descend from the railway carriage, he was dazzled. Minner looked
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  at him with a little curl of disdain. Missus Delamere was right, he
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  was a bit of a cad and among such had her lot fallen. A
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  tall, clean, high bred Englishman passed her by. He reminded her of
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  Hugh. We're men of fools, aren't they, Monsieur de bois, she
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  said, as they emerged from the lift and would walk across the square,
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  bright with shops and cafes, towards the great White casino. But I suppose
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  you settled that for yourself at the age of ten. Mai Fois mademoiselle,
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  He replied, there's no folly in being gracious to the most humble of your
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  de maders. Oh, I wasn't at all thinking of my coming to lunch
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  with you to day. You need not flatter yourself, he pleaded. For
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  mercy adroitly turned the conversation, touched upon the scandless chronicle of the place,
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  and made her laugh. They strolled through the building to the gardens. The
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  weather was a perfect Riviera march, the grounds gay with bright dresses. Now
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  and then an acquaintance passed, generally masculine and foreign, and bowed low to
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  her, at which times her companion drew himself up and put on airs of
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  importance, which Minner's half closed eyes were shrewd to notice. At last,
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  she grew weary of walking, She asked him sharply whether they were ever going
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  to lunch. He overwhelmed her with apologies, conducted her back through the casino
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  and across the square to the Hotel de Paris, where he had reserved a
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  table. There, amid the popping of champagne corks, the cosmopolitan chatter,
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  the sparkle of the scene, and the grivaux greet of her host, Minna
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  threw off her sarcastic mood and jested recklessly. She was only capable of enjoyment
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  now, when she had had a little Champagne in her head. It was
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  natural that he should make love to her with all the vulgarity of a cheap
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  conqueror. Minna was used to the game. It pleased her to practice her
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  arts of seduction. She knew that the caressing languor of her voice intoxicated the
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  listener. He was the latest of innumerable wayfarers to whom she had held out
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  the charmed cup, and she despised him, added cynical zest. Besides,
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  her own blood was stirred. A wanton woman does not turn men to swine
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  for the mere fun of seeing them pigs. Poissi was in the slough of
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  delight. His bad little face coarsened, his lips grew thick, his cheeks
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  puffed up towards his eyes. He suggested a satire debased by a civilized ancestry.
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  In his mind, he was already bragging about his conquest to his friends.
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  I wish I had dared entertain you in a private room, he said,
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  leaning over the table. You would have sacrificed a great deal of gratification,
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  replied Minna. Ah, we should have been alone. You would not
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  have satisfied your vanity, said Minna, you know that very well, he
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  protested. He was burning with adoration. She was cruel like all her country
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  women. You've had enough good fortune for one day, I consider, she
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  said. Ah, then can I hope that's a thing forbidden to no one?
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  She replied, looking at him through her eyelashes. They had sat long
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  over the meal. She expressed a desire for the open air and their shoulder
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  again together through the wonderful gardens. Behind them rose the great white palace of
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  the Casino, its marble balustrades and stairs and cue the pillars gleaming amidst the
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  gorgeous vegetation. In front, the cobalt blue Mediterranean meeting afar off the violet
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  sky. On the left swept the fair Italian coast. On the right rose
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  the black crag of Monaco, with its Paris guarding the russet ruse of the
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  little old town. Beneath them, terrace after terrace of greensward, bedded with
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  Rata's profusion of flowers, broken by white parapets and flights of stairs. The
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  scent of exotic flowers hung sensuously on the warm air. It is intulsgating light,
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  wine or your beauty, said Boise. Minna shrugged her shoulders and glanced
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  idly around. It's a pretty place, but one gets tired of it,
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  as of most things. What's the time? Half past two, he replied,
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  consulting his watch. Missus Derrimo will be there by hot past four.
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  Then she could dismiss Boise, of whom she was growing weary. Shall we
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  sit down? One talks better? Indicated a sheltered seat behind some great allies,
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  and led her thither. Minner commanded him to amuse her. I am
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  too much in love. Then tell me the history of your last ground passion.
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  I have only had wine in my life, he began to plead.
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  Somehow the charm of enticing him appalled. He was such a vulgar little creature.
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  She had heard all he had to say scores of times. She craved
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  originality. The sublime conceit of the man who was growing earnestly amorous moved her
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  disdain. Unscrupulous and conscious of degradation as she was, she nevertheless set a
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  great value on herself, so she found entertainment in scathing ridicule. At last,
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  he lost his temper, threw his arms roughly round her, and kissed
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  her. She struggled from him, revolted, and struck him with all her
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  might in the face. The brutality of the debased gall was aroused. The
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  crimson mark flared across her. Livid cheek mad with rage, he seized her
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  wrists. Llo oh, said a sudden voice drop that a great, huge
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  limbed Englishman dressed in loose tweeds and a discolored straw hat stood before them.
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  Boissi rose to his feet and struck an attitude monsieur he began, but the
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  newcomer took no notice of him. Instead, he looked with an air of
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  startled recognition at Minner, and then lifted his hat. Miss hart I believe
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  the surprise was great. She regarded him for some moments, rather bewildered.
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  He seemed to have dropped from the sky. Mister Merriam. She collected herself
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  quickly rose extended her hand. I am so glad to see you again,
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  she said, with an air of sincerity warranted by the occasion. Can I
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  be of any service to you? Oh no, thanks, she replied lightly,
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  and turning to Boissi, who stood by fuming, I have the pleasure
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  of thanking you for a most agreeable afternoon. With a bow, she dismissed
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  him. He saluted with as good a grace as he could, including Gerard
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  in his salute. But Gerard kept his hands in his pockets and watched him
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  move away. What the deuce was he trying to do, he asked,
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  make love to me? I suppose somewhat fiercely I had just struck him across
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  the face. Are those the habits of these parts? Oh no, we
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  are tame as a rule. I've just been lunching with him in the most
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  civilized way. Perhaps I intruded, said Gerard. By no means you came
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  just in time, like the hero in a melodrama, to save maiden innocence
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  from the touches of the villain. May I enjoy the hero's privilege of consolation?
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  Within moderate limits, she said, I shall not be taking you from
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  your friends. Oh no, I don't expect my friend, Missus Delamere,
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  who lives with me till half past four, till then I am a waif.
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  Shall we sit or no, let us find a place somewhere else.
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  They walked together to the terrace below and sat down facing the blue lorry of
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  the sea. On their way thither, she began to explain her presence in
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  Monte Carlo. Niece had been her winter quarters for over three years. Her
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  little villa was charming. If mister Merriam happened to be a niece and would
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  call of the case bernadatta missus delamire, and herself would be delighted to see
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  him. Minna used her chaperone frequently as a stalking horse of respectability. I
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  shall be allowed to come, said Gerard, with an appreciative glance at his
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  companion. I only landed in Europe yesterday after a long absence, so I
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  haven't found my bearings yet. Where have you been until lately? In South
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  Africa? Hunting and gold mining? Then I satisfied a schoolboy craze to see
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  Madagascar. I didn't want to see it again, was down with fever most
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  of the time, and took the first Messengeri's schemer to Marseilles. Then I
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  thought, I have put in a week or two here before facing the wretched
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  English spring. So you've been gold mining, said Minna, yes, pretty
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  successfully came in just before the boom made a fortune. I've cleared a tidy
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  bit, and you've come here to dispose of some of it at the tables.
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  Not much. I'm not that sort, I'm afraid i am, said
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  Mina with a little sigh. Do you win or lose? He asked?
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  Last year I lost six thousand pounds. This year I am winning. That's
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  one reason why I live in these parts. The tables are a necessity to
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  me. Monte Carlo ecleband A sterned, that's my usual round. Don't you
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  get rather sick of it? Miner looked mournfully out to see and clasped her
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  hands in her lap, a pathetic attitude somewhat out of harmony with the daffodil
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  toilette and the unblushing hat. Pleasures would be tolerable, were it not that
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  one has to live so as to enjoy them, she said, after a
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  pause. You've come by your pessimism early in life. He observed, I've
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  not had much to encourage optimism, as you may be aware. Mister Merriam.
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  You had a bad bow, but of course so do we all,
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  said Gerard. But you've had time to recover. What are you going to
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  do with your money, she asked, Oh, I don't know. By
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  an state of my own county, Norfolk had settled down to squadon breed stock
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  and preserve pheasants and that sort of thing. Would you be glad to get
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  back? I suppose so everyone is in a way, wouldn't you. I
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  loathe England and all that it contains too much, she said, with bitterness,
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  and I can't understand your wanting to return either. The first illusion to
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  past events was followed by a short silence, during which each took mental stock
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  of the other. The circumstances in which they'd met had led naturally to a
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  false assumption of friendliness. Now each was abruptly reminded of the very distance acquaintance
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  that had existed between them, and of the strange part each had played in
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  the other's life. Miller's expansion had been due to gratitude to him for having
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  affectionately rid her of boissy, and to the novelty of talking into a big,
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  lumbering englishman. Realizing, however, who he was, she shrank within
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  herself. A queer, cold touch which she could not explain, pressed around
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  her heart. She had felt it before once, on the night three years
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  ago when she'd seen Hugh and Irene at the Haymarket Theater. She moved slightly
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  away from him with a sense of dislike, and yet his blunt, indifferent
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  manner of speech pricked her vanity. He'd thrown an admiring glance neither upon herself
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  nor her costume. He should pay her some kind of homage, whether she
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  disliked him or not. It's funny, am I tumbling upon you like that?
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  He remarked At last. We generally choose dramatic moments for our interviews,
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  said Minna cynically. Yes, by jove, the last one seemed a long
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  time ago, doesn't it not? To me? Said Minner. But then
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  you see, I haven't been gold hunting at the end of the earth.
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  I've been living rapidly round a roulette board. I suppose you I know that
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  the mischie of my poor father's death was cleared up. I saw it in
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  the Cape papers. I was very glad. There was another pause. Minna
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  broke its discomfort by a casual allusion to the beauties of Monte Cardo. You
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  have nothing like this in South Africa, she said, I wish we had,
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  He replied, if things were always as jolly as this, I should
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  never want to get out of Europe. He stretched himself out in a comfortable
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  attitude, and looked contentedly at his companion. The talk drifted into generalities.
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  Minner wetted upon him her satiric knife, a process which he found himself to
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  be enjoying. The due moneylender's daughter, the rather common and silly little girl
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  whom he once despised, appeared to him in a totally new light. She
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  had developed into a beautiful woman, with a cynical knowledge of the world and
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  an alluring shamelessness of speech. Her manner was that of the insolently i luxurious
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  Demi Mondaine. Her great wealth transferred her to the sphere of the unassailed.
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  In this dual, interfused light, she appeared a woman well worth the study
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  of an idle afternoon. She was certainly a change from the fair frailties of
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  South Africa. The puffs and frills and ribbons of the daring daffodil costume struck
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  an elementary note of sex. He began to forget that she had mopped and
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  moadered him like an imbecile. When they had last been face to face.
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  She was a new acquaintance. He found himself losing the bruskness of his earlier
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  words and dropping into the turn of deference. Her languid beauty seemed to command
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  when she arose in the intention of going to meet Missus de la Mare's train
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  and held out her hand for farewell. He offered his escorts to the railway
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  station with the air of a man begging for a favor. When it was
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  amused somewhat interested, the originality of the situation gave a philip to her mood.
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  She assented graciously, and they proceeded through the casino grounds. They arrived
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  at the station a minute or two before the train. Missus Delamire stepped out
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  onto the platform. Minner with a strange man at her heels, was by
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  no means an unusual sight, but when Minner introduced him as her old friend,
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  mister Merriam, she arched her eyebrows involuntarily and glanced at the girl,
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  in whose eyes leaved a spark of mockery. What has become of Monsieur de
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  Beaucy, she asked? On their way to Cassino, her home, Mister
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  Merriam told him to go and play. Laughed Minna end of chapter twenty one.