Tales Of The Trains Part 7

"It was a calm, mellow evening, with an already risen moon, as we landed to wander about the narrow streets and bastioned dwellings of old Valletta. She took my arm, and, followed by Mademoiselle Virginie, we went on exploring every strange and curious spot before us, and calling up before our mind's eye the ancient glories of the place. I was rather strong in all these sort of things, Mr. Tramp; for in expectation of this little visit, I made myself up about the Knights of St. John and the Moslems, Fort St Elmo, Civita Vecchia, rocks, catacombs, p.r.i.c.kly pears, and all. In fact, I was primed with the whole catalogue, which, written down in short memoranda, forms Chap. I. in a modern tour-book of the Mediterranean. The season was so genial, and the moon so bright, that we lingered till past midnight, and then returned to the ship the last of all the visitors. That was indeed a night, as, flickered by the column of silver light, we swept over the calm sea. Lady Blanche, wrapped in my large boat-cloak, her pale features statue-like in their unmoved beauty, sat in the stern; I sat at her side. Neither spoke a word. What her thoughts might have been I cannot guess; but the little French maid looked at me from time to time with an expression of diabolical intelligence I cannot forget; and as I handed her mistress up the gangway, Virginie said in a whisper,--

"'Ah, Monsieur Yellowley, _vous etes un homme dangereux!_'

"Would you believe it, Mr. Tramp, that little phrase filled every chamber of my heart with hope; there could be but one interpretation of it, and what a meaning had that,--dangerous to the peace of mind, to the heart's happiness of her I actually adored! I lay down in my berth and tried to sleep; but the nearest approach of slumber was a dreamy condition, in which the words _vous etes un homme dangereux_ kept ever ringing. I thought I saw Lady Blanche dressed in white, with a veil covering her, a chaplet of orange flowers on her brow, and weeping as though inconsolably; and there was a grim, mischievous little face that nodded at me with a menacing expression, as though to say, 'This is your work, Simon Yellowley;' and then I saw her lay aside the veil and encircle herself with a sad-colored garment, while her tears fell even faster than before; and then the little vixen from the window exclaimed, 'Here's more of it, Simon Yellowley.' Lord, how I reproached myself,--I saw I was bringing her to the grave; yes, sir, there is no concealing it. I _felt_ she loved me. I arose and put on my dressing-gown; my mind was made up. I slipped noiselessly up the cabin-stairs, and with much difficulty made my way to that part of the ship inhabited by the servants. I will not recount here the insolent allusions I encountered, nor the rude jests and jibes of the sailors when I asked for Mademoiselle Virginie; nor was it without trouble and considerable delay that I succeeded in obtaining an interview with her.

"'Mademoiselle,' said I, 'I know the levity of your nation; no man is more conscious than I of--of the frailty of your moral principles.

Don't be angry, but hear me out. You said a few minutes ago that I was a "dangerous man;" tell me now, sincerely, truthfully, and candidly,'--here I put rather a heavy purse into her hands,--'the exact meaning you attached to these words.'

"'Ah, Monsieur,' said she, with a stage shudder, '_je suis une pauvre fille, ne me perdez pas_.'

"I looked at the little wizened devil, and never felt stronger in my virtue.

"'Don't be afraid, Virginie, I'm an archbishop in principles; but I thought that when you said these words they bore an allusion to another--'

"'_Ah! c'est ca,_' said she, with perfect _navete_,--'so you are, a dangerous man, a very dangerous man; so much so, indeed, that I shall use all my influence to persuade one, of whom you are aware, to escape as quickly as may be from the hazard of your fascinating society.'

"I repeat these words, Mr. Tramp, which may appear to you now too flattering; but the French language, in which Virginie spoke, permits expressions even stronger than these, as mere conventionalities.

"'Don't do it,' said I, 'don't do it, Virginie.'

"'I must, and I will,' reiterated she; 'there's such a change in my poor dear Lady Blanche since she met you; I never knew her give way to fits of laughing before,--she's so capricious and whimsical,--she was an angel formerly.'

"'She is an angel still,' said I, with a frown, for I would not suffer so much of aspersion against her.

"'_Sans doute_,' chimed in Virginie, with a shrug of her shoulders, 'we are all angels, after a fashion;' and I endeavored to smile a concurrence with this sentiment, in which I only half a.s.sented.

"By wonderful skill and cross-questioning, I at last obtained the following information: Lady Blanche was on a voyage of health, intending to visit the remarkable places in the Mediterranean, and then winter at some chosen spot upon its sh.o.r.es. Why she journeyed thus unprotected, was a secret there was no fathoming by indirect inquiry, and any other would have been an act of indelicacy.

"'We will pa.s.s the winter at Naples, or Palermo, or Jerusalem, or some other watering-place,' said Virginie, for her geography was, after all, only a lady's-maid's accomplishment.

"'You must persuade her to visit Egypt, Virginie,' said I,--'Egypt, Virginie,--the land of the Pyramids. Induce her to do this, and to behold the wonders of the strangest country in the universe. Even now,'

said I, 'Arab life--'

"'Ah, _oui_. I have seen the Arabs at the Vaudeville; they have magnificent beards.'

"'The handsomest men in the world.'

"'_Pas mal_,' said she, with a sententious nod there's no converting into words.

"'Well, Virginie, think of Cairo, think of Bagdad. You have read the Arabian Nights--have n't you?'

"'Yes,' said she, with a yawn, 'they are _pa.s.sees_; now, what would you have us do in this droll old place?'

"'I would have you to visit Mehemet Ali, and be received at his court!'

--for I saw at once the cla.s.s of fascination she would yield to. 'Drink sherbet, eat sweetmeats, receive presents, magnificent presents, cashmeres, diamond bracelets. Ah! think of that.'

"'Ah! there is something in what you say,' said she, after a pause; 'but we have not come prepared for such an expensive journey. I am purse-bearer, for Lady Blanche knows nothing about expense, and we shall not receive remittances until we settle somewhere for the winter.'

"These words made my heart leap; in five minutes more I explained to Virginie that I was provided with a free transit through the East, in which, by her aid, her mistress might partic.i.p.ate, without ever knowing it. 'You have only to pretend, Virginie, that Egypt is so cheap; tell her a camel only costs a penny a league, and that one is actually paid for crossing the Great Desert; you can hint that old Mehemet wants to bring the thing into fashion, and that he would give his beard to see English ladies travelling that route.'

"'I knew it well,' said Virginie, with a malicious smile,--'I knew it well; you are "a dangerous man."'

"All the obstacles and impediments she could suggest, I answered with much skill and address, not unaided, I own, by certain potent persuasives, in the shape of bank paper,--she was a most mercenary little devil; and as day was breaking, Virginie had fully agreed in all my plans, and determined that her mistress should go beyond 'the second cataract,' if I wished it. I need not say that she fully understood my motives; she was a Frenchwoman, Mr. Tramp; the Russian loves train oil, the Yankee prefers whittling, but a Frenchwoman, without an intrigue of her own, or some one's else, on hand, is the most miserable object in existence.

"'I see where it all will end,' cried she, as I turned to leave her; 'I see it already. Before six weeks are over, you will not ask _my_ aid to influence my mistress.'

"'Do you think so, Virginie?' said I, grasping at the suggestion.

"'Of course I do,' said she, with a look of undisguised truth; '_ah, que vous etes un homme dangereux!_'

"It is a strange thing, Mr. Tramp, but I felt that t.i.tle a prouder one than if I had been called the Governor of Bombay. Varied and numerous as the incidents of my life had been, I never knew till then that I was a dangerous man; nor, indeed, do I believe that, in the previous const.i.tution of my mind, I should have relished the epithet; but I hugged it now as the symbol of my happiness. The whole of the following day was spent by me in company with Lady Blanche. I expatiated on the glories of the East, and discussed everybody who had been there, from Abraham down to Abercromby. What a multiplicity of learning, sacred and profane, did I not pour forth,--I perfectly astounded her with the extent of my information, for, as I told you before, I was strong on Egypt, filling up every interstice with a quotation from Byron, or a bit of Lalla Rookh, or a stray verse from the Palm Leaves, which I invariably introduced as a little thing of my own; then I quoted Herodotus, Denon, and Lamartine, without end--till before the dinner was served, I had given her such a journey in mere description, that she said with a sigh,--

"'Really, Mr. Yellowley, you have been so eloquent that I actually feel as much fatigued as if I had spent a day on a camel.'

"I gave her a grateful look, Mr. Tramp, and she smiled in return; from that hour, sir, we understood each other. I pursued my Egyptian studies nearly the entire of that night, and the next day came on deck, with four chapters of Irby and Mangles off by heart. My head swam round with ideas of things Oriental,--patriarchs and pyramids, Turks, dragomans, catacombs, and crocodiles, danced an infernal quadrille in my excited brain, and I convulsed the whole cabin at breakfast, by replying to the captain's offer of some tea, with a profound salaam, and an exclamation of '_Bish millah, allah il allah_.'

"'You have infatuated me with your love of the East, Mr. Yellowley,'

said Lady Blanche, one morning, as she met me. 'I have been thinking over poor Princess Shezarade and Noureddin, and the little tailor of Bagdad, and the wicked Cadi, and all the rest of them.'

"'Have I,' cried I, joyfully; 'have I indeed!'

"'I feel I must see the Pyramids,' said she. 'I cannot resist an impulse on which my thoughts are concentrated, and yours be all the blame of this wilful exploit.'

"' Yes,' said I.

"' T is hard at some appointed place To check your course and turn your prow, And objects for themselves retrace You past with added hope just now.'

"'Yours,' said she, smilingly.

"'A poor thing,' said I, 'I did for one of the Keepsakes.'

"Ah, Mr. Tramp, it is very hard to distinguish one's own little verse from the minor poets. All my life I have been under the delusion that I wrote 'O'Connor's Child,' and the 'Battle of the Baltic;' and, now I think of it, those lines are Monckton Milnes's.

"We reached Alexandria a few days after, and at once joined the great concourse of pa.s.sengers bound for the East.

"I perceive you are looking at your watch, Mr. Tramp."

"I must indeed ask your pardon. I sail for Calais at the next ebb."

"I shall not be tedious now, sir. We began 'the overland,'--the angel travelling as Lady Blanche Yellowley, to avoid any possible inquiry or impertinence from the official people. This was arranged between Virginie and myself, without her knowledge. Then, indeed, began my Arabian nights. Ah, Mr. Tramp, you never can know the happiness enjoyed by him who, travelling for fourteen long hours over the hot sand, and beneath the scorching sun of the desert, comes at last to stretch his wearied limbs upon his carpet at evening, and gazes on celestial beauty as he sips his mocha. Mahomet had a strong case, depend upon it, when he furnished his paradise with a houri and a hubble-bubble; and such nights were these, as we sat and chatted over the once glories of that great land, while in the lone khan of the desert would be heard the silvery sounds of a fair woman's voice, as she sung some little barcarole, or light Venetian canzonette. Ah, Mr. Tramp, do you wonder if I loved--do you wonder if I confessed my love? I did both, sir,--ay, sir, both.

"I told her my heart's secret in an impa.s.sioned moment, and, with the enthusiasm of true affection, explained my position and my pa.s.sion.

"'I am your slave,' said I, with trembling adoration,--'_your_ slave, and the Secretary at Santancantantarabad. _You_ own my heart. _I_ possess nothing but a Government situation and three thousand per annum.

I shall never cease to love you, and my widow must have a pension from the Company.'

"She covered her face with her handkerchief as I spoke, and her sobs--they must have been sobs--actually penetrated my bosom.

"'You must speak of this no more, dear Mr. Yellowley,' said she, wiping her eyes; 'you really must not, at least until I arrive at Calcutta.'