Froth Part 36

"Indeed? Well, I should find it intolerable."

"And Arbos? How does he behave?"

"Oh, he is a perfect goose, but at any rate he can keep his countenance.

If you tell him he is a great man, there is nothing he will not do for you. He has found places for above a score of my connections. Then it is very nice to have some influence in the political world, and see deputies at one's feet. Yesterday, for instance, I had a visit from Manricio Sala, who has set his heart on being made under-secretary. He is quite certain, it would seem, that in that case Urreta would let his daughter marry him."

"Oh, I loathe politics!--Do you know, Irenita is quite sweet in that _cha.s.seresse_ costume."

"Hm--too showy."

"Not at all, it is extremely pretty. What has become of her husband? I have not seen him since they came in."

"Her husband! a precious specimen he is!" exclaimed Pepa, looking up in her wrath. "Oh, what troubles come upon me, my dear, what troubles!" she added with her mouth still full.

"Maria Huerta?" asked Clementina in a confidential tone.

"Who else?" muttered the widow as she gazed at the turkey on her plate.

Then suddenly she burst out:

"He is a blackguard, a shameless scoundrel, who cannot even keep up appearances for his wife's sake. He spends chief part of the day waiting for her at the door of the church of San Pascual, and walks home with her. And at the theatre he never takes his eyes off her. It is a shame. He might have some decency. And my idiot of a daughter is madly in love with him, a perfect fool about him, all the while. She does nothing but cry, and show how jealous she is! Why, what does the wretch want but to humiliate her? If I were in her place I would talk to him!

And I would give him such a box on the ear to finish with as would make him wink!"

The lady's indignation had not interfered with deglut.i.tion.

"Heaven reward you, my dear," she said as she rose. "Now let us see if this heart of mine will be quiet for a little while." For Pepa supposed herself to suffer from a heart complaint which only a good meal would relieve.

A few minutes after they had quitted the dining-room Clementina gave the word, and the supper-room was thrown open. The Royal party led the way, attended by their suite and their host and hostesses. Salabert had lavished his crowning efforts on the supper-room. The ceiling was hung with glittering cloth of gold; the brilliant flowers and exotic fruits, the sheen of silver and crystal, under the blaze of gas lights as numerous as the stars of heaven, were dazzling with splendour. The servants stood motionless in a row against the wall, solemn and speechless. In two deep recesses burnt huge fires of logs, in beautiful fire-places of carved oak, which decorated the wall almost to the ceiling. All the food served at the Royal table had been brought from Paris by a little regiment of cooks and scullions. The only exceptions were fish, brought from the coast of Biscay, and a plum pudding, just arrived from London. The meats were for the most part cold, but there was hot clear soup for those who liked it.

The Royalties did not remain many minutes in the supper-room. As soon as they left, the tide of guests rushed in without much ceremony. The sitting-rooms remained silent, abandoned to the servants, who with the precision of soldiers, replaced the dwindling wax lights by fresh ones, while the noise in the dining-room, of plates and gla.s.ses, and voices and laughter, was almost bewildering.

Cobo Ramirez deserted Esperancita for a while, leaving her on his rival's hands, while he found a seat for himself at a little table in a snug corner, to devour a plateful of ham and Hamburg beef. Ramoncito naturally took advantage of this reprieve to show off his own poetical frugality as compared with Cobo's prosaic gluttony, till Esperancita cut the ground from under him by saying very spitefully to her friend Pacita, who sat by her side:

"For my part I like a man to be a great eater."

"So do I," said Paz. "At any rate it shows that he has a good digestion."

"So have I," said Maldonado, crushed and vexed by the hostile tone the young girls had adopted against him. Paz only smiled scornfully.

General Patino, tired of throwing his heavy sh.e.l.l at Calderon's torpid spouse without producing the smallest sign of capitulation, had raised the siege, to sit down before the Marquesa de Ujo; she had yielded at the first fire, and thrown open every gate to the enemy. At the same time, as a consummate strategist, the General had not lost sight of Mariana, hoping that some happy accident might again lay her open to his batteries. The newspapers had lately mentioned a rumour that he was to be made Minister of War. This dignity would, no doubt, give him greater influence and prestige, whenever he might choose to surprise the stronghold.

The Marquesa de Ujo was dressed a la Turque, and she played her part so well that Alcantara declared he "longed to have a shot at her himself."

Her languor was so great that she could scarcely exert herself to articulate, so that the General was obliged to a.s.sist her every minute in the exhausting effort. While her far from perfect teeth nibbled a cake or two--for her digestion did not allow of her eating anything more solid--she uttered, or, to be exact, she exhaled a series of exclamations over a new French novel.

"What exquisite scenes! What a sweet book! When she says, 'Come in if you choose; you can dishonour my body but not my soul.' And the duel, when she receives the bullet that was to have killed her husband! How beautiful it is!"

Pepe Castro was prancing--forgive the word--round Lola Madariaga. She was relating with a malicious smile the incident which had just occurred when Clementina had found her sitting with Raimundo. She spoke as though she had won the youth from her friend, with a scornful and patronising air which would have been a shock to Clementina's pride if she could have heard it.

"Poor Clem! she is growing old, isn't she? But what a figure she has still. Of course it is all done by tight-lacing, and it must do her a mischief, sooner or later, but as yet---- Her face does not match her figure, above all now that she has begun to lose her complexion so dreadfully. She always had a very hard face."

And all the time her insinuating soft eyes were fixed on Castro with such inviting looks, as were really quite embarra.s.sing. She had always been told, and it was true, that she had a most innocent face, and to make the most of it she a.s.sumed the expression of an idiot.

Castro agreed to all she said, as much to flatter her as out of any ill-feeling towards Clementina. When Clementina cast him off he had consoled himself by paying attentions to Lola, in whom he really felt no interest, though at the same time he had been careful not to let the world know that he was discarded.

"And do you believe that she is really in love with that school-boy?"

"Who can tell! Clementina likes to be thought original. This last whim is just like her. And look at that baby's sentimental gaze at her from afar."

Raimundo, who was standing at the end of one of the tables, never took his eyes off his mistress while she moved to and fro, attending to the requirements of those guests whom she most desired to please. From time to time she bestowed on him a faint smile of recognition, which transported him to the seventh heaven.

Pepa Frias, who, having had her fill, could eat no more, was picking up a fruit here and a bonbon there, while behind her chair stood Calderon, Pinedo, Fuentes, and two or three more, laughing at her and with her.

But the widow was not to be caught napping; she could defend herself, parrying and retorting with masterly skill.

"Where do you have the gout, Pepa, did you say?" asked Pinedo.

"In my feet, in my feet, where all your wits are."

"What is the miniature in that brooch? Is it a family portrait?"

"No, Fuentes," said she, as she handed it to him to look at. "It is a mirror."

The painting represented a monkey.

All the others roared with laughter, attracting general attention.

Soon after the dancing had recommenced the Royal party took their leave.

The same ceremony was observed as at their arrival; the guests in two ranks on each side of the room, the Royal march played by the orchestra, and the master of the house in attendance to the carriage door.

CHAPTER XII.

AN UNWELCOME GUEST.

Clementina gave a sigh of relief. Walking slowly, with the delightful sense of a difficult task happily accomplished, she made her way through the rooms, smiling right and left, and shedding amiable speeches on every friend she met. This splendid ball, the most magnificent perhaps ever given in Madrid by a private individual, was almost exclusively her work. Her father had provided the money, but the motive power, the taste and planning, had been hers. She received the congratulations which hailed her from all sides with a pleasing intoxication of flattered vanity. Happiness stirred a craving for love, its inseparable a.s.sociate.

She was possessed by a vehement wish to have a brief meeting, _tete-a-tete_, with Raimundo, to speak and hear a few fond words, to exchange a brief caress. She looked round for him among the crowd.

He had been wandering about the rooms all the evening, generally alone.

He had looked forward to this ball with puerile antic.i.p.ations of delirious and unknown pleasures, for he had never been present at any of these high festivals of wealth and fashion. The reality had not come up to his hopes, as must always be the case. All this ostentation, all the scandalous luxury displayed to his eyes, instead of exciting his pride, wounded it deeply. Never had he felt so completely a stranger in the world he had now for some months lived in. His thoughts, with their natural tendency to melancholy, reverted to his modest home, where, by his fault, necessaries would ere long be lacking; to his humble-minded mother, who had never hesitated to fulfil the most menial tasks; to his innocent sister, who had learned from her to be thrifty and hard-working. Remorse gnawed at his heart. Then, too, he observed that the young men of his acquaintance treated him here with covert hostility. Many of them he had begun to regard as friends; they welcomed him pleasantly, he played cards with them and sometimes joined in their expeditions, but he clearly understood at last that he was no one, nothing to them, but as Clementina's lover; and he could detect, or his exaggerated sensitiveness made him fancy that he detected, in their demeanour to him, a touch of scorn, which humiliated him bitterly. The pa.s.sionate devotion which Clementina professed for him compensated no doubt for these miseries, and enabled him often to forget them, but this evening his adored mistress, though she did not ignore him, was necessarily out of his range. He endured the phase of feeling which a mystic goes through when, as he expresses it, G.o.d has withdrawn His guiding hand--intense weariness and the darkest gloom of spirit. He danced dutiously two or three times, and talked a little to one and another. Tired of it all, at last he withdrew into the quietest corner of one of the rooms, sat down on a sofa and remained sunk in extreme dejection.

Clementina sought him for some few minutes, and was beginning to be out of patience. She went into the card-room, and he started up to meet her with a beaming countenance. All his melancholy had vanished on seeing that she was in search of him.

"If you would like two minutes' chat, come to the Duke's study," she said, in rapid but tender accents. "It is on the right-hand side, at the end of the corridor." She went thither, and Raimundo, to save appearances, lingered for a few moments by one of the tables, watching the game.

Clementina made her way in and out of the rooms till she reached the corridor, and hurried to the study, a handsome room, so called for mere form, since the Duke always sat upstairs. It was a blaze of light, as all the other rooms were. As she went in, she fancied she heard a smothered sob, which filled her with surprise and apprehension. Looking about her, she discovered, in a deep recess, a woman lying in a heap on a divan, hiding her face in her handkerchief, and weeping violently. She went up to her, and recognised her by her dress. It was Irenita.

"Irene, my child, what is the matter?" she exclaimed, bending anxiously over her.