His Masterpiece Part 23

Without a word, Chaine took out the screw and handed it to the sculptor, who filled his pipe.

'Well, I'll see you again soon,' said Claude.

'Yes, soon--at any rate, next Thursday, at Sandoz's.'

Outside, Claude gave an exclamation of surprise on jostling a gentleman, who stood in front of the herbalist's peering into the shop.

'What, Jory! What are you doing there?'

Jory's big pink nose gave a sniff.

'I? Nothing. I was pa.s.sing and looked in,' said he in dismay.

Then he decided to laugh, and, as if there were any one to overhear him, lowered his voice to ask:

'She is next door with our friends, isn't she? All right; let's be off, quick!'

And he took the painter with him, telling him all manner of strange stories of that creature Mathilde.

'But you used to say that she was frightful,' said Claude, laughing.

Jory made a careless gesture. Frightful? No, he had not gone as far as that. Besides, there might be something attractive about a woman even though she had a plain face. Then he expressed his surprise at seeing Claude in Paris, and, when he had been fully posted, and learned that the painter meant to remain there for good, he all at once exclaimed:

'Listen, I am going to take you with me. You must come to lunch with me at Irma's.'

The painter, taken aback, refused energetically, and gave as a reason that he wasn't even wearing a frock-coat.

'What does that matter? On the contrary, it makes it more droll. She'll be delighted. I believe she has a secret partiality for you. She is always talking about you to us. Come, don't be a fool. I tell you she expects me this morning, and we shall be received like princes.'

He did not relax his hold on Claude's arm, and they both continued their way towards the Madeleine, talking all the while. As a rule, Jory kept silent about his many love adventures, just as a drunkard keeps silent about his potations. But that morning he brimmed over with revelations, chaffed himself and owned to all sorts of scandalous things. After all he was delighted with existence, his affairs went apace. His miserly father had certainly cut off the supplies once more, cursing him for obstinately pursuing a scandalous career, but he did not care a rap for that now; he earned between seven and eight thousand francs a year by journalism, in which he was making his way as a gossipy leader writer and art critic. The noisy days of 'The Drummer,' the articles at a louis apiece, had been left far behind. He was getting steady, wrote for two widely circulated papers, and although, in his inmost heart he remained a sceptical voluptuary, a worshipper of success at any price, he was acquiring importance, and readers began to look upon his opinions as fiats. Swayed by hereditary meanness, he already invested money every month in petty speculations, which were only known to himself, for never had his vices cost him less than nowadays.

As he and Claude reached the Rue de Moscou, he told the painter that it was there that Irma Becot now lived. 'Oh! she is rolling in wealth,'

said he, 'paying twenty thousand francs a year rent and talking of building a house which would cost half a million.' Then suddenly pulling up he exclaimed: 'Come, here we are! In with you, quick!'

But Claude still objected. His wife was waiting for him to lunch; he really couldn't. And Jory was obliged to ring the bell, and then push him inside the hall, repeating that his excuse would not do; for they would send the valet to the Rue de Douai to tell his wife. A door opened and they found themselves face to face with Irma Becot, who uttered a cry of surprise as soon as she perceived the painter.

'What! is it you, savage?' she said.

She made him feel at home at once by treating him like an old chum, and, in fact, he saw well enough that she did not even notice his old clothes. He himself was astonished, for he barely recognised her. In the course of four years she had become a different being; her head was 'made up' with all an actress's skill, her brow hidden beneath a ma.s.s of curly hair, and her face elongated, by a sheer effort of will, no doubt.

And from a pale blonde she had become flaringly carrotty; so that a t.i.tianesque creature seemed to have sprung from the little urchin-like girl of former days. Her house, with all its show of luxury, still had its bald spots. What struck the painter were some good pictures on the walls, a Courbet, and, above all, an unfinished study by Delacroix. So this wild, wilful creature was not altogether a fool, although there was a frightful cat in coloured _biscuit_ standing on a console in the drawing-room.

When Jory spoke of sending the valet to his friend's place, she exclaimed in great surprise:

'What! you are married?'

'Why, yes,' said Claude, simply.

She glanced at Jory, who smiled; then she understood, and added:

'Ah! But why did people tell me that you were a woman-hater? I'm awfully vexed, you know. I frightened you, don't you remember, eh? You still think me very ugly, don't you? Well, well, we'll talk about it all some other day.'

It was the coachman who went to the Rue de Douai with a note from Claude, for the valet had opened the door of the dining-room, to announce that lunch was served. The repast, a very delicate one, was partaken of in all propriety, under the icy stare of the servant. They talked about the great building works that were revolutionising Paris; and then discussed the price of land, like middle-cla.s.s people with money to invest. But at dessert, when they were all three alone with the coffee and liqueurs, which they had decided upon taking there, without leaving the table, they gradually became animated, and dropped into their old familiar ways, as if they had met each other at the Cafe Baudequin.

'Ah, my lads,' said Irma, 'this is the only real enjoyment, to be jolly together and to snap one's fingers at other people.'

She was twisting cigarettes; she had just placed the bottle of chartreuse near her, and had begun to empty it, looking the while very flushed, and lapsing once more to her low street drollery.

'So,' continued Jory, who was apologising for not having sent her that morning a book she wanted, 'I was going to buy it last night at about ten o'clock, when I met f.a.gerolles--'

'You are telling a lie,' said she, interrupting him in a clear voice.

And to cut short his protestations--'f.a.gerolles was here,' she added, 'so you see that you are telling a lie.'

Then, turning to Claude, 'No, it's too disgusting. You can't conceive what a liar he is. He tells lies like a woman, for the pleasure of it, for the merest trifle. Now, the whole of his story amounts simply to this: that he didn't want to spend three francs to buy me that book.

Each time he was to have sent me a bouquet, he had dropped it under the wheels of a carriage, or there were no flowers to be had in all Paris.

Ah! there's a fellow who only cares for himself, and no mistake.'

Jory, without getting in the least angry, tilted back his chair and sucked his cigar, merely saying with a sneer:

'Oh! if you see f.a.gerolles now--'

'Well, what of it?' she cried, becoming furious. 'It's no business of yours. I snap my fingers at your f.a.gerolles, do you hear? He knows very well that people don't quarrel with me. We know each other; we sprouted in the same crack between the paving-stones. Look here, whenever I like, I have only to hold up my finger, and your f.a.gerolles will be there on the floor, licking my feet.'

She was growing animated, and Jory thought it prudent to beat a retreat.

'_My_ f.a.gerolles,' he muttered; '_my_ f.a.gerolles.'

'Yes, _your_ f.a.gerolles. Do you think that I don't see through you both?

He is always patting you on the back, as he hopes to get articles out of you, and you affect generosity and calculate the advantage you'll derive if you write up an artist liked by the public.'

This time Jory stuttered, feeling very much annoyed on account of Claude being there. He did not attempt to defend himself, however, preferring to turn the quarrel into a joke. Wasn't she amusing, eh? when she blazed up like that, with her l.u.s.trous wicked eyes, and her twitching mouth, eager to indulge in vituperation?

'But remember, my dear, this sort of thing cracks your t.i.tianesque "make-up,"' he added.

She began to laugh, mollified at once.

Claude, basking in physical comfort, kept on sipping small gla.s.ses of cognac one after another, without noticing it. During the two hours they had been there a kind of intoxication had stolen over them, the hallucinatory intoxication produced by liqueurs and tobacco smoke. They changed the conversation; the high prices that pictures were fetching came into question. Irma, who no longer spoke, kept a bit of extinguished cigarette between her lips, and fixed her eyes on the painter. At last she abruptly began to question him about his wife.

Her questions did not appear to surprise him; his ideas were going astray: 'She had just come from the provinces,' he said. 'She was in a situation with a lady, and was a very good and honest girl.'

'Pretty?'

'Why, yes, pretty.'

For a moment Irma relapsed into her reverie, then she said, smiling: 'Dash it all! How lucky you are!'

Then she shook herself, and exclaimed, rising from the table: 'Nearly three o'clock! Ah! my children, I must turn you out of the house. Yes, I have an appointment with an architect; I am going to see some ground near the Parc Monceau, you know, in the new quarter which is being built. I have scented a stroke of business in that direction.'

They had returned to the drawing-room. She stopped before a looking-gla.s.s, annoyed at seeing herself so flushed.