The Purple Cloud
Page 49
been about midnight), listening aminute, with that demure, droll interest of hers, to the noise of theelements, and then smiled to me; rose then, left the room, and presentlyreturned with a pomegranate and some almonds on a plate, also somedelicious old sweet wine in a Samian cruche, and an old silver cup, giltinside, standing in a zarf. These she placed on the table near me, Imurmuring: 'Hospitality.'
She looked at the book, which I read as I ate, with lowered lefteye-lid, seeking to guess its use, I suppose. Most things sheunderstands at once, but this must have baffled her: for to see onelooking fixedly at a thing, and not know what one is looking at it for,must be very disconcerting.
I held it up before her, saying:
"Shall I teach you to read it? If I did, how would you repay me, youClodagh?"
She cocked her eyes, seeking to comprehend. God knows, at that moment Ipitied the poor dumb waif, alone in all the whole round earth with me.The candle-flame, moved by the wind like a slow-painting brush,flickered upon her face, though every cranny was closed.
"Perhaps, then," I said, "I will teach you. You are a pitiable littlederelict of your race, you know: and two hours every day I will let youcome to the palace, and I will teach you. But be sure, be careful. Ifthere be danger, I will kill you: assuredly--without fail. And let mebegin with a lesson now: say after me: 'White.'"
I took her hand, and got her to understand that I wanted her to repeatafter me.
"White," said I.
"Hwhite," said she.
'Power,' said I.
'Pow-wer,' said she.
'White Power,' said I.
'Hwhite Pow-wer,' said she.
'Shall not,' said I.
'Sall not,' said she.
'White Power shall not,' said I.
'Hwhite Pow-wer sall not,' said she.
'Prevail,' said I.
'Fffail,' said she, pronouncing the 'v' with a long fluttering'f'-sound.
'Pre-vail,' said I.
'Pe-vvvail,' said she.
'White Power shall not prevail,' said I.
'Hwhite Pow-wer sall not--fffail,' said she.
A thunder which roared as she said it seemed to me to go laughingthrough the universe, and a minute I looked upon her face with positiveshrinking fear; till, starting up, I thrust her with violence from mypath, and dashed forth to re-seek the palace and my bed.
Such was the ingratitude and fatality which my first attempt, fournights since, to teach her met with. It remains to be seen whether mypity for her dumbness, or some servile tendency toward fellowship inmyself, will result in any further lesson. Certainly, I think not: forthough I have given my word, the most solemnly-pledged word may bebroken.
Surely, surely, her presence in the world with me--for I suppose it isthat--has wrought some profound changes in my mood: for gone nowapparently are those turbulent hours when, stalking like a peacock, Iflaunted my monarchy in the face of the Eternal Powers, with hissedblasphemies; or else dribbled, shaking my body in a lewd dance; or wasoff to fire some vast city and revel in redness and the chucklings ofHell; or rolled in the drunkenness of drugs. It was mere frenzy!--I seeit now--it was 'not good,' 'not good.' And it rather looks as if it werepast--or almost. I have clipped my beard and hair, removed the earrings,and thought of modifying my attire. I will just watch to see whether shecomes loitering down there about the gate of the lake.
* * * * *
Her progress is like....
* * * * *
It is nine months since I have written, on these sheets, those words,'Her progress is like....' being the beginning of some narrative inwhich something interrupted me: and since then I have had no impulse towrite.
But I was thinking just now of the curious tricks and uncertainties ofmy memory, and seeing the sheets, will record it here. I have latelybeen trying to recall the name of a sister of mine--some perfectlysimple name, I know--and the name of my old home in England: and theyhave completely passed out of my cognizance, though she was my onlysister, and we grew up closely together: some quite simple name, Iforget it now. Yet I can't say that my memory is bad: there arethings--quite unexpected, unimportant things--which come up in my mindwith considerable clearness. For instance, I remember to have met inParis (I think), long before the poison-cloud, a little Brazilian boy ofthe colour of weak coffee-and-milk, of whom she now constantly remindsme. He wore his hair short like a convict's, so that one could spy thefish-white flesh beneath, and delighted to play solitary about thestairs of the hotel, dressed up in the white balloon-dress of a Pierrot.I have the impression now that he must have had very large ears. Cleveras a flea he was, knowing five or six languages, as it were by nature,without having any suspicion that that was at all extraordinary. She hasthat same light, unconscious, and nonchalant cleverness, and easy way oflife. It is little more than a year since I began to teach her, andalready she can speak English with a quite considerable vocabulary, andperfect correctness (except that she does not pronounce the letter 'r');she has also read, or rather devoured, a good many books; and can write,draw, and play the harp. And all she does without effort: rather withthe flighty naturalness with which a bird takes to the wing.
What made me teach her to read was this: One afternoon, fourteen monthsor so ago, I from the roof-kiosk saw her down at the lake-rim, a book inhand; and as she had seen me looking steadily at books, so she waslooking steadily at it, with pathetic sideward head: so that I burstinto laughter, for I saw her clearly through the glass, and whether sheis the simplest little fool, or the craftiest serpent that everbreathed, I am not yet sure. If I thought that she has the least designupon my honour, it would be ill for her.
I went to Gallipoli for two days in the month of May, and brought back avery pretty little caique, a perfect slender crescent of the colour ofthe moon, though I had two days' labour in cutting through bush-thicketfor the passage of the motor in bringing it up to the lake. It haspleased me to see her lie among the silk cushions of the middle, whileI, paddling, taught her her first words and sentences between the hoursof eight and ten in the evening, though later they became 10 A.M. tonoon, when the reading began, we sitting on the palace-steps before theportal, her mouth invariably well covered with the yashmak, thelesson-book being a large-lettered old Bible found at her yali. _Why_she must needs wear the yashmak she has never once asked; and how muchshe divines, knows, or intends, I have no idea, continually questioningmyself as to whether she is all simplicity, or all cunning.
That she is conscious of some profound difference in our organisation Icannot doubt: for that I have a long beard, and she none at all, isamong the most patent of facts.
* * * * *
I have thought that a certain _Western-ness_--a growing modernity oftone--may be the result, as far as I am concerned, of her presence withme? I do not know....
* * * * *
There is the gleam of a lake-end just visible in the north forest fromthe palace-top, and in it a good number of fish like carp, tench, roach,etc., so in May I searched for a tackle-shop in the GallipoliFatmeh-bazaar, and got four 12-foot rods, with reels, silk-line,quill-floats, a few yards of silk-worm gut, with a packet of No. 7 and8 hooks, and split-shot for sinkers; and since red-worms, maggots andgentles are common on the island, I felt sure of a great many more fishthan the number I wanted, which was none at all. However, for the mereamusement, I fished several times, lying at my length in a patch oflong-grass over-waved by an enormous cedar, where the bank is steep, andthe water deep. And one mid-afternoon she was suddenly there with me,questioned me with her eyes, and when I consented, stayed: and presentlyI said I would teach her bottom-angling, and sent her flying up to thepalace for another rod and tackle.
That day she did nothing, for after teaching her to thread the worm, andput the gentles on the smaller hooks, I sent her to hunt for worms tochop up for ground-baiting the pitch for the next afternoon; and whenthis was done it was dinner-time, and
I sent her home, for by then I wasgiving the reading-lessons in the morning.
The next day I found her at the bank, taught her to take the soundingfor adjusting the float, and she lay down not far from me, holding therod. So I said to her:
'Well, this is better than living in a dark cellar twenty years, withnothing to do but walk up and down, sleep, and consume dates and Ismidtwine.'
'Yes!' says she.
'Twenty years!' said I: 'How did you bear it?'
'I was not closs,' says she.
'Did you never suspect that there was a world outside that cellar?' saidI.
'Never,' says she, 'or lather, yes: but I did not suppose that it was_this_ world, but another where he lived.'
'He who?'
'He who spoke with me.'
'Who