He said:
“You’ve had a rotten awakening, Rue — a perfectly devilish experience. Only — you’ve never travelled alone — —” Suddenly it occurred to him that his lively friend, the Princess Mistchenka, was sailing on the Lusitania; and he remained silent, uncertain, looking with vague misgivings at this girl in the armchair opposite — this thin, unformed, inexperienced child who had attained neither mental nor physical maturity.
“I think,” he said at length, “that I told you I had a friend sailing on the Lusitania tomorrow.”
She remembered and nodded.
“But wait a moment,” he added. “How do you know that this — this fellow Brandes will not attempt to sail on her, also — —” Something checked him, for in the girl’s golden-grey eyes he saw a flame glimmer; something almost terrible came into the child’s still gaze; and slowly died out like the afterglow of lightning.
And Neeland knew that in her soul something had been born under his very eyes — the first emotion of maturity bursting from the chrysalis — the flaming consciousness of outrage, and the first, fierce assumption of womanhood to resent it.
She had lost her colour now; her grey eyes still remained fixed on his, but the golden tinge had left them.
“I don’t know why you shouldn’t go,” he said abruptly.
“I am going.”
“All right! And if he has the nerve to go — if he bothers you — appeal to the captain.”
She nodded absently.
“But I don’t believe he’ll try to sail. I don’t believe he’d dare, mixed up as he is in a dirty mess. He’s afraid of the law, I tell you. That’s why he denied marrying you. It meant bigamy to admit it. Anyway, I don’t think a fake ceremony like that is binding; I mean that it isn’t even real enough to put him in jail. Which means that you’re not married, Rue.”
“Does it?”
“I think so. Ask a lawyer, anyway. There may be steps to take — I don’t know. All the same — do you really want to go to France and study art? Do you really mean to sail on this ship?”
“Yes.”
“You feel confidence in yourself? You feel sure of yourself?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve got the backbone to see it through?”
“Yes. It’s got to be done.”
“All right, if you feel that way.” He made no move, however, but sat there watching her. After a while he looked at his watch again:
“I’m going to ring up a taxi,” he said. “You might as well go on board and get some sleep. What time does she sail?”
“At five thirty, I believe.”
“Well, we haven’t so very long, then. There’s my bedroom — if you want to fix up.”
She rose wearily.
When she emerged from his room with her hat and gloves on, the taxicab was audible in the street below.
Together they descended the dark stairway up which she had toiled with trembling knees. He carried her suitcase, aided her into the taxi.
“Cunard Line,” he said briefly, and entered the cab.
Already in the darkness of early morning the city was awake; workmen were abroad; lighted tramcars passed with passengers; great wains, trucks, and country wagons moved slowly toward markets and ferries.
He had begun to tell her almost immediately all that he knew about Paris, the life there in the students’ quarters, methods of living economically, what to seek and what to avoid — a homily rather hurried and condensed, as they sped toward the pier.
She seemed to be listening; he could not be sure that she understood or that her mind was fixed at all on what he was saying. Even while speaking, numberless objections to her going occurred to him, but as he had no better alternatives to suggest he did not voice them.
In his heart he really believed she ought to go back to Brookhollow. It was perfectly evident she would not consent to go there. As for her remaining in New York, perhaps the reasons for her going to Paris were as good. He was utterly unable to judge; he only knew that she ought to have the protection of experience, and that was lacking.
“I’m going to remain on board with you,” he said, “until she sails. I’m going to try to find my very good friend, the Princess Mistchenka, and have you meet her. She has been very kind to me, and I shall ask her to keep an eye on you while you are crossing, and to give you a lot of good advice.”
“A — princess,” said Rue in a tired, discouraged voice, “is not very likely to pay any attention to me, I think.”
“She’s one of those Russian or Caucasian princesses. You know they don’t rank very high. She told me herself. She’s great fun — full of life and wit and intelligence and wide experience. She knows a lot about everything and everybody; she’s been everywhere, travelled all over the globe.”
“I don’t think,” repeated Rue, “that she would care for me at all.”
“Yes, she would. She’s young and warm-hearted and human. Besides, she is interested in art — knows a lot about it — even paints very well herself.”
“She must be wonderful.”
“No — she’s just a regular woman. It was because she was interested in art that she came to the League, and I was introduced to her. That is how I came to know her. She comes sometimes to my studio.”
“Yes, but you are already an artist, and an interesting man — —”
“Oh, Rue, I’m just beginning. She’s kind, that’s all — an energetic, intelligent woman, full of interest in life. I know she’ll give you some splendid advice — tell you how to get settled in Paris — Lord! You don’t even know French, do you?”
“No.”
“Not a word?”
“No.... I don’t know anything, Mr. Neeland.”
He tried to laugh reassuringly:
“I thought it was to be Jim, not Mister,” he reminded her.
But she only looked at him out of troubled eyes.
In the glare of the pier’s headlights they descended. Passengers were entering the vast, damp enclosure; porters, pier officers, ship’s officers, sailors, passed to and fro as they moved toward the gangway where, in the electric glare of lamps, the clifflike side of the gigantic liner loomed up.
At sight of the monster ship Rue’s heart leaped, quailed, leaped again. As she set one slender foot on the gangway such an indescribable sensation seized her that she caught at Neeland’s arm and held to it, almost faint with the violence of her emotion.
A steward took the suitcase, preceded them down abysmal and gorgeous stairways, through salons, deep into the dimly magnificent bowels of the ocean giant, then through an endless white corridor twinkling with lights, to a stateroom, where a stewardess ushered them in.
There was nobody there; nobody had been there.
“He dare not come,” whispered Neeland in Ruhannah’s ear.
The girl stood in the centre of the stateroom looking silently about her.
“Have you any English and French money?” he asked.
“No.”
“Give me — well, say two hundred dollars, and I’ll have the purser change it.”
She went to her suitcase, where it stood on the lounge; he unstrapped it for her; she found the big packet of treasury notes and handed them to him.
“Good heavens!” he muttered. “This won’t do. I’m going to have the purser lock them in the safe and give me a receipt. Then when you meet the Princess Mistchenka, tell her what I’ve done and ask her advice. Will you, Rue?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“You’ll wait here for me, won’t you?”
“Yes.”
So he noted the door number and went away hastily in search of the purser, to do what he could in the matter of foreign money for the girl. And on the upper companionway he met the Princess Mistchenka descending, preceded by porters with her luggage.
“James!” she exclaimed. “Have you come aboard to elope with me? Otherwise, what are you doing on the Lusitania at this very ghastly hour in the morning?”
She was smiling into his face and her daintily gloved hand retained his for a moment; then she passed her arm through his.
“Follow the porter,” she said, “and tell me what brings you here, my gay young friend. You see I am wearing the orchids you sent me. Do you really mean to add yourself to this charming gift?”
He told her the story of Ruhannah Carew as briefly as he could; at her stateroom door they paused while he continued the story, the Princess Mistchenka looking at him very intently while she listened, and never uttering a word.
She was a pretty woman, not tall, rather below middle stature, perhaps, beautifully proportioned and perfectly gowned. Hair and eyes were dark as velvet; her skin was old ivory and rose; and always her lips seemed about to part a little in the faint and provocative smile which lay latent in the depths of her brown eyes.
“Mon Dieu!” she said, “what a history of woe you are telling me, my friend James! What a tale of innocence and of deception and outraged trust is this that you relate to me! Allons! Vite! Let us find this poor, abandoned infant — this unhappy victim of your sex’s well-known duplicity!”
“She isn’t a victim, you know,” he explained.
“I see. Only almost — a — victim. Yes? Where is this child, then?”
“May I bring her to you, Princess?”
“But of course! Bring her. I am not afraid — so far — to look any woman in the face at five o’clock in the morning.” And the threatened smile flashed out in her fresh, pretty face.
* * * * *
When he came back with Rue Carew, the Princess Mistchenka was conferring with her maid and with her stewardess. She turned to look at Rue as Neeland came up — continued to scrutinise her intently while he was presenting her.
There ensued a brief silence; the Princess glanced at Neeland, then her dark eyes returned directly to the young girl before her, and she held out her hand, smilingly:
“Miss Carew — I believe I know exactly what your voice is going to be like. I think I have heard, in America, such a voice once or twice. Speak to me and prove me right.”
Rue flushed:
“What am I to say?” she asked naïvely.
“I knew I was right,” exclaimed the Princess Mistchenka gaily. “Come into my stateroom and let each one of us discover how agreeable is the other. Shall we — my dear child?”
* * * * *
When Neeland returned from a visit to the purser with a pocket full of British and French gold and silver for Ruhannah, he knocked at the stateroom door of the Princess Mistchenka.
That lively personage opened it, came out into the corridor holding the door partly closed behind her.
“She’s almost dead with fatigue and grief. I undressed her myself. She’s in my bed. She has been crying.”
“Poor little thing,” said Neeland.
“Yes.”
“Here’s her money,” he said, a little awkwardly.
The Princess opened her wrist bag and he dumped in the shining torrent.
“Shall I — call good-bye to her?” he asked.
“You may go in, James.”
They entered together; and he was startled to see how young she seemed there on the pillows — how pitifully immature the childish throat, the tear-flushed face lying in its mass of chestnut hair.
“Good-bye, Rue,” he said, still awkward, offering his hand.
Slowly she held out one slim hand from the covers.
“Good voyage, good luck,” he said. “I wish you would write a line to me.”
“I will.”
“Then — —” He smiled; released her hand.
“Thank you for — for all you have done,” she said. “I shall not forget.”
Something choked him slightly; he forced a laugh:
“Come back a famous painter, Rue. Keep your head clear and your heart full of courage. And let me know how you’re getting on, won’t you?”
“Yes.... Good-bye.”
So he went out, and at the door exchanged adieux with the smiling Princess.
“Do you — like her a little?” he whispered.
“I do, my friend. Also — I like you. I am old enough to say it safely, am I not?”
“If you think so,” he said, a funny little laugh in his eyes, “you are old enough to let me kiss you good-bye.”
But she backed away, still smiling:
“On the brow — the hair — yes; if you promise discretion, James.”
“What has tottering age like yours to do with discretion, Princess Naïa?” he retorted impudently. “A kiss on the mouth must of itself be discreet when bestowed on youth by such venerable years as are yours.”
But the Princess, the singularly provocative smile still edging her lips, merely looked at him out of dark and slightly humorous eyes, gave him her hand, withdrew it with decision, and entered her stateroom, closing the door rather sharply behind her.
* * * * *
When Neeland got back to the studio he took a couple of hours’ sleep, and, being young, perfectly healthy, and perhaps not unaccustomed to the habits of the owl family, felt pretty well when he went out to breakfast.
Over his coffee cup he propped up his newspaper against a carafe; and the heading on one of the columns immediately attracted his attention.
ROW BETWEEN SPORTING MEN
EDDIE BRANDES, FIGHT PROMOTER AND THEATRICAL MAN, MIXES IT WITH MAXY VENEM
A WOMAN SAID TO BE THE CAUSE: AFFRAY DRAWS A BIG CROWD IN FRONT OF THE HOTEL KNICKERBOCKER
BOTH MEN, BADLY BATTERED, GET AWAY BEFORE THE POLICE ARRIVE
Breakfasting leisurely, he read the partly humorous, partly contemptuous account of the sordid affair. Afterward he sent for all the morning papers. But in none of them was Ruhannah Carew mentioned at all, nobody, apparently, having noticed her in the exciting affair between Venem, Brandes, the latter’s wife, and the chauffeur.
Nor did the evening papers add anything material to the account, except to say that Brandes had been interviewed in his office at the Silhouette Theatre and that he stated that he had not engaged in any personal encounter with anybody, had not seen Max Venem in months, had not been near the Hotel Knickerbocker, and knew nothing about the affair in question.
He also permitted a dark hint or two to escape him concerning possible suits for defamation of character against irresponsible newspapers.
The accounts in the various evening editions agreed, however, that when interviewed, Mr. Brandes was nursing a black eye and a badly swollen lip, which, according to him, he had acquired in a playful sparring encounter with his business manager, Mr. Benjamin Stull.
And that was all; the big town had neither time nor inclination to notice either Brandes or Venem any further; Broadway completed the story for its own edification, and, by degrees, arrived at its own conclusions. Only nobody could discover who was the young girl concerned, or where she came from or what might be her name. And, after a few days, Broadway, also, forgot the matter amid the tarnished tinsel and raucous noises of its own mean and multifarious preoccupations.
CHAPTER XIII
LETTERS FROM A LITTLE GIRL
Neeland had several letters from Ruhannah Carew that autumn and winter. The first one was written a few weeks after her arrival in Paris:
* * * * *
Dear Mr. Neeland:
Please forgive me for writing to you, but I am homesick.
I have written every week to mother and have made my letters read as though I were still married, because it would almost kill her if she knew the truth.
Some day I shall have to tell her, but not yet. Could you tell me how you think the news ought to be broken to her and father?
That man was not on the steamer. I was quite ill crossing the ocean. But the last two days I went on deck with the Princess Mistchenka and her maid, and I enjoyed the sea.
The Princess has been so friendly. I should have died, I think, without her, what with my seasickness and homesickness, and brooding over my terrible f
all. I know it is immoral to say so, but I did not want to live any longer, truly I didn’t. I even asked to be taken. I am sorry now that I prayed that way.
Well, I have passed through the most awful part of my life, I think. I feel strange and different, as though I had been very sick, and had died, and as though it were another girl sitting here writing to you, and not the girl who was in your studio last August.
I had always expected happiness some day. Now I know I shall never have it. Girls dream many foolish things about the future. They have such dear, silly hopes.
All dreams are ended for me; all that remains in life for me is to work very hard so that I can learn to support myself and my parents. I should like to make a great deal of money so that when I die I can leave it to charity. I desire to be remembered for my good works. But of course I shall first have to learn how to take care of myself and mother and father before I can aid the poor. I often think of becoming a nun and going out to nurse lepers. Only I don’t know where there are any. Do you?
Paris is very large and a sort of silvery grey colour, full of trees with yellowing leaves — but Oh, it is so lonely, Mr. Neeland! I am determined not to cry every day, but it is quite difficult not to. And then there are so many, many people, and they all talk French! They talk very fast, too, even the little children.
This seems such an ungrateful letter to write you, who were so good and kind to me in my dreadful hour of trial and disgrace. I am afraid you won’t understand how full of gratitude I am, to you and to the Princess Mistchenka.
I have the prettiest little bedroom in her house. There is a pink shade on my night lamp. She insisted that I go home with her, and I had to, because I didn’t know where else to go, and she wouldn’t tell me. In fact, I can’t go anywhere or find any place because I speak no French at all. It’s humiliating, isn’t it, for even the very little children speak French in Paris.
But I have begun to learn; a cheerful old lady comes for an hour every day to teach me. Only it is very hard for me, because she speaks no English and I am forbidden to utter one word of my own language. And so far I understand nothing that she says, which makes me more lonely than I ever was in all my life. But sometimes it is so absurd that we both laugh.
Works of Robert W Chambers Page 815
