Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice

by James Branch Cabell

  50.

  The Moment That Did Not Count

  And that is really all the story save for the moment Jurgen pausedon his way home. For Koshchei (if it, indeed, was Koshchei) hadquitted Jurgen just as they approached Bellegarde: and as thepawnbroker walked on alone in the pleasant April evening one calledto him from the terrace. Even in the dusk he knew this was theCountess Dorothy.

  "May I speak with you a moment?" says she.

  "Very willingly, madame." And Jurgen ascended from the highway tothe terrace.

  "I thought it would be near your supper hour. So I was waiting hereuntil you passed. You conceive, it is not quite convenient for me toseek you out at the shop."

  "Why, no, madame. There is a prejudice," said Jurgen, soberly. Andhe waited.

  He saw that Madame Dorothy was perfectly composed, yet anxious tospeed the affair. "You must know," said she, "that my husband'sbirthday approaches, and I wish to surprise him with a gift. It istherefore necessary that I raise some money without troubling him.How much--abominable usurer!--could you advance me upon thisnecklace?"

  Jurgen turned it in his hand. It was a handsome piece of jewelry,familiar to him as formerly the property of Heitman Michael'smother. Jurgen named a sum.

  "But that," the Countess says, "is not a fraction of its worth!"

  "Times are very hard, madame. Of course, if you cared to selloutright I could deal more generously."

  "Old monster, I could not do that. It would not be convenient." Shehesitated here. "It would not be explicable."

  "As to that, madame, I could make you an imitation in paste whichnobody could distinguish from the original, I can amply understandthat you desire to veil from your husband any sacrifices that areentailed by your affection."

  "It is my affection for him," said the Countess quickly.

  "I alluded to your affection for him," said Jurgen--"naturally."

  Then Countess Dorothy named a price for the necklace. "For it isnecessary I have that much, and not a penny less." And Jurgen shookhis head dubiously, and vowed that ladies were unconscionablebargainers: but Jurgen agreed to what she asked, because thenecklace was worth almost as much again. Then Jurgen suggested thatthe business could be most conveniently concluded through anemissary.

  "If Messire de Nerac, for example, could have matters explained tohim, and could manage to visit me tomorrow, I am sure we could carrythrough this amiable imposture without any annoyance whatever toHeitman Michael," says Jurgen, smoothly.

  "Nerac will come then," says the Countess. "And you may give him themoney, precisely as though it were for him."

  "But certainly, madame. A very estimable young nobleman, that! andit is a pity his debts are so large. I heard that he had lostheavily at dice within the last month; and I grieved, madame."

  "He has promised me when these debts are settled to play nomore--But again what am I saying! I mean, Master Inquisitive, that Itake considerable interest in the welfare of Messire de Nerac: andso I have sometimes chided him on his wild courses. And that is allI mean."

  "Precisely, madame. And so Messire de Nerac will come to me to-morrowfor the money: and there is no more to say."

  Jurgen paused. The moon was risen now. These two sat together upon abench of carved stone near the balustrade: and before them, upon theother side of the highway, were luminous valleys and tree-tops.Fleetingly Jurgen recollected the boy and girl who had once sat inthis place, and had talked of all the splendid things which Jurgenwas to do, and of the happy life that was to be theirs together.Then he regarded the composed and handsome woman beside him, and heconsidered that the money to pay her latest lover's debts had beenassured with a suitable respect for appearances.

  "Come, but this is a gallant lady, who would defy the almanac,"reflected Jurgen. "Even so, thirty-eight is an undeniable andsomewhat autumnal figure, and I suspect young Nerac is bleedinghis elderly mistress. Well, but at his age nobody has a conscience.Yes, and Madame Dorothy is handsome still; and still my pulse isplaying me queer tricks, because she is near me, and my voice hasnot the intonation I intend, because she is near me; and still I amthree-quarters in love with her. Yes, in the light of such cursedfolly as even now possesses me, I have good reason to give thanksfor the regained infirmities of age. Yet living seems to me awasteful and inequitable process, for this is a poor outcome forthe boy and girl that I remember. And weighing this outcome, I amtempted to weep and to talk romantically, even now."

  But he did not. For really, weeping was not requisite. Jurgen wasmaking his fair profit out of the Countess's folly, and it wasmerely his duty to see that this little business transaction wasmanaged without any scandal.

  "So there is nothing more to say," observed Jurgen, as he rose inthe moonlight, "save that I shall always be delighted to serve you,madame, and I may reasonably boast that I have earned a reputationfor fair dealing."

  And he thought: "In effect, since certainly as she grows older shewill need yet more money for her lovers, I am offering to pimp forher." Then Jurgen shrugged. "That is one side of the affair. Theother is that I transact my legitimate business,--I, who am thatwhich the years have made of me."

  Thus it was that Jurgen quitted the Countess Dorothy, whom, as youhave heard, this pawnbroker had loved in his first youth under thename of Heart's Desire; and whom in the youth that was loaned him byMother Sereda he had loved as Queen Helen, the delight of gods andmen. For Jurgen was quitting Madame Dorothy after the simplest ofbusiness transactions, which consumed only a moment, and did notactually count one way or the other.

  And after this moment which did not count, the pawnbroker resumedhis journey, and so came presently to his home. He peeped throughthe window. And there in a snug room, with supper laid, sat DameLisa about some sewing, and evidently in a quite amiable frame ofmind.

  Then terror smote the Jurgen who had faced sorcerers and gods anddevils intrepidly. "For I forgot about the butter!"

  But immediately afterward he recollected that, now, not even whatLisa had said to him in the cave was real. Neither he nor Lisa, now,had ever been in the cave, and probably there was no longer any suchplace, and now there never had been any such place. It was ratherconfusing.

  "Ah, but I must remember carefully," said Jurgen, "that I have notseen Lisa since breakfast, this morning. Nothing whatever hashappened. There has been no requirement laid upon me, after all, todo the manly thing. So I retain my wife, such as she is, poor dear!I retain my home. I retain my shop and a fair line of business. Yes,Koshchei--if it was really Koshchei--has dealt with me very justly.And probably his methods are everything they should be; certainly Icannot go so far as to say that they are wrong: but still, at thesame time--!"

  Then Jurgen sighed, and entered his snug home. Thus it was in theold days.

  EXPLICIT