Part 24 (1/2)

”Well, I happened to make a mis-entry one day, and so--”

”A false entry, eh?”

False entry! There stood ”Missy,” and asked me straight in the face if I had done this thing. He even asked eagerly, and evidently with much interest. I looked at him, felt deeply insulted, and made no reply.

”Yes, well, Lord! that might happen to the best fellow,” he said, as if to console me. He still believed I had made a false entry designedly.

”What is it that, 'Yes, well, Lord! indeed might happen to the best fellow'?” I inquired. ”To do that. Listen, my good man. Do you stand there and really believe that I could for a moment be guilty of such a mean trick as that? I!”

”But, my dear fellow, I thought I heard you distinctly say that.”

”No; I said that I had made a mis-entry once, a bagatelle; if you want to know, a false date on a letter, a single stroke of the pen wrong--that was my whole crime. No, G.o.d be praised, I can tell right from wrong yet a while. How would it fare with me if I were, into the bargain, to sully my honour? It is simply my sense of honour that keeps me afloat now. But it is strong enough too; at least, it has kept me up to date.”

I threw back my head, turned away from ”Missy,” and looked down the street. My eyes rested on a red dress that came towards us; on a woman at a man's side. If I had not had this conversation with ”Missy,” I would not have been hurt by his coa.r.s.e suspicion, and I would not have given this toss of my head, as I turned away in offence; and so perhaps this red dress would have pa.s.sed me without my having noticed it. And at bottom what did it concern me? What was it to me if it were the dress of the Hon. Miss Nagel, the lady-in-waiting? ”Missy” stood and talked, and tried to make good his mistake again. I did not listen to him at all; I stood the whole time and stared at the red dress that was coming nearer up the street, and a stir thrilled through my breast, a gliding delicate dart. I whispered in thought without moving my lips:

”Ylajali!”

Now ”Missy” turned round also and noticed the two--the lady and the man with her,--raised his hat to them, and followed them with his eyes. I did not raise my hat, or perhaps I did unconsciously. The red dress glided up Carl Johann, and disappeared.

”Who was it was with her?” asked ”Missy.”

”The Duke, didn't you see? The so-called 'Duke.' Did you know the lady?”

”Yes, in a sort of way. Didn't you know her?”

”No,” I replied.

”It appears to me you saluted profoundly enough.”

”Did I?”

”Ha, ha! perhaps you didn't,” said ”Missy.” ”Well, that is odd. Why, it was only at you she looked, too, the whole time.”

”When did you get to know her?” I asked. He did not really know her. It dated from an evening in autumn. It was late; they were three jovial souls together, they came out late from the Grand, and met this being going along alone past Cammermeyer's, and they addressed her. At first she answered rebuffingly; but one of the jovial spirits, a man who neither feared fire nor water, asked her right to her face if he might not have the civilized enjoyment of accompanying her home? He would, by the Lord, not hurt a hair on her head, as the saying goes--only go with her to her door, rea.s.sure himself that she reached home in safety, otherwise he could not rest all night. He talked incessantly as they went along, hit upon one thing or another, dubbed himself Waldemar Atterdag, and represented himself as a photographer. At last she was obliged to laugh at this merry soul who refused to be rebuffed by her coldness, and it finally ended by his going with her.

”Indeed, did it? and what came of it?” I inquired; and I held my breath for his reply.

”Came of it? Oh, stop there; there is the lady in question.”

We both kept silent a moment, both ”Missy” and I.

”Well, I'm hanged, was that 'the Duke'? So that's what he looks like,”

he added, reflectively. ”Well, if she is in contact with that fellow; well, then, I wouldn't like to answer for her.”

I still kept silent. Yes, of course ”the Duke” would make the pace with her. Well, what odds? How did it concern me? I bade her good-day with all her wiles: a good-day I bade her; and I tried to console myself by thinking the worst thoughts about her; took a downright pleasure in dragging her through the mire. It only annoyed me to think that I had doffed my hat to the pair, if I really had done so. Why should I raise my hat to such people? I did not care for her any longer, certainly not; she was no longer in the very slightest degree lovely to me; she had fallen off. Ah, the devil knows how soiled I found her! It might easily have been the case that it was only me she looked at; I was not in the least astounded at that; it might be regret that began to stir in her. But that was no reason for me to go and lower myself and salute, like a fool, especially when she had become so seriously besmirched of late. ”The Duke” was welcome to her; I wish him joy! The day might come when I would just take into my head to pa.s.s her haughtily by without glancing once towards her. Ay, it might happen that I would venture to do this, even if she were to gaze straight into my eyes, and have a blood-red gown on into the bargain. It might very easily happen! Ha, ha! that would be a triumph. If I knew myself aright, I was quite capable of completing my drama during the course of the night, and, before eight days had flown, I would have brought this young woman to her knees--with all her charms, ha, ha! with all her charms....

”Good-bye,” I muttered, shortly; but ”Missy” held me back. He queried:

”But what do you do all day now?”

”Do? I write, naturally. What else should I do? Is it not that I live by? For the moment, I am working at a great drama, 'The Sign of the Cross.' Theme taken from the Middle Ages.”