Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  XVI

  Freydis

  They of Poictesme narrate how Queen Freydis and Count Manuel livedtogether amicably upon Upper Morven. They tell also how the iniquitoususurper, Duke Asmund, at this time held Bellegarde close at hand, butthat his Northmen kept away from Upper Morven, on account of thesupernatural beings you were always apt to encounter thereabouts, sothat Manuel and Freydis had, at first, no human company.

  "Between now and a while," said Freydis, "you must be capturingBellegarde and cutting off Duke Asmund's ugly head, because by right andby King Ferdinand's own handwriting all Poictesme belongs to you."

  "Well, we will let that wait a bit," says Manuel, "for I do not soheartily wish to be tied down with parchments in a count's gilded seatas I do to travel everywhither and see the ends of this world and judgethem. At all events, dear Freydis, I am content enough for the present,in this little home of ours, and public affairs can wait."

  "Still, something ought to be done about it," said Freydis. And, sinceManuel displayed an obstinate prejudice against any lethal plague, sheput the puckerel curse upon Asmund, by which he was afflicted with allsmall bodily ills that can intervene between corns and dandruff.

  On Upper Morven Freydis had reared by enchantment a modest home, thatwas builded of jasper and porphyry and yellow and violet breccia.Inside, the stone walls were everywhere covered with significanttraceries in low relief, and were incrusted at intervals with disks andtesserae of turquoise-colored porcelain. The flooring, of course, was ofzinc, as a defence against the unfriendly Alfs, who are at perpetual warwith Audela, and, moreover, there was a palisade, enclosing all, ofpeeled willow wands, not buttered but oiled, and fastened with unknottedribbons.

  Everything was very simple and homelike, and here the servitors ofFreydis attended them when there was need. The fallen Queen was not agray witch--not in appearance certainly, but in her endowments, whichwere not limited as are the powers of black witches and white witches.She instructed Dom Manuel in the magic of Audela, and she and Manuel hadgreat times together that spring and summer, evoking ancient dis-crownedgods and droll monsters and instructive ghosts to entertain them in thepauses between other pleasures.

  They heard no more, for that turn, of the clay figure to which they hadgiven life, save for the news brought, by a bogglebo, that as thelimping gay young fellow went down from Morven the reputable citizenryeverywhere were horrified because he went as he was created,stark-naked, and this was not considered respectable. So a largetumble-bug came from the west, out of the quagmires of Philistia andfollowed after the animated figure, yelping and spluttering, "Morals,not art!" And for that while, the figure went out of Manuel's saga, thusmalodorously accompanied.

  "But we will make a much finer figure," says Freydis, "so it does notmatter."

  "Yes, by and by," says Manuel, "but we will let that wait a bit."

  "You are always saying that nowadays!"

  "Ah, but, my dear, it is so very pleasant to rest here doing nothingserious for a little while, now that my geas is discharged. Presently ofcourse we must be travelling everywhither, and when we have seen theends of this world, and have judged them, I shall have time, and greaterknowledge too, to give to this image making--"

  "It is not from any remote strange places, dear Manuel, but from his ownland that a man must get the earth for this image making--"

  "Well, be that as it may, your kisses are to me far more delicious thanyour magic."

  "I love to hear you say that, my dearest, but still--"

  "No, not at all, for you are really much nicer when you are cuddling so,than when you are running about the world pretending to be pigs andsnakes and fireworks, and murdering people with your extravagantsorceries."

  Saying this, he kissed her, and thus stilled her protests, for in theseamiable times Queen Freydis also was at bottom less interested in magicthan in kisses. Indeed, there was never any sorceress more loving andtender than Freydis, now that she had become a human woman.

  If ever she was irritable it was only when Manuel confessed, in reply tojealous questionings, that he did not find her quite so beautiful nor soclever as Niafer had been: but this, as Manuel pointed out, could not behelped. For there had never been anybody like Niafer, and it would benonsense to say otherwise.

  It is possible that Dom Manuel believed this. The rather homely, notintelligent, and in no respect bedazzling servant girl may well havebeen--in the inexplicable way these things fell out,--the woman whomManuel's heart had chosen, and who therefore in his eyes for the rest oftime must differ from all other persons. Certainly no unastigmatic judgewould have decreed this swarthy Niafer fit, as the phrase is, to hold acandle either to Freydis or Alianora: whereas Manuel did not conceal,even from these royal ladies themselves, his personal if uniqueevaluations.

  To the other side, some say that ladies who are used to hourlyadmiration cannot endure the passing of a man who seems to admire notquite wholeheartedly. He who does not admire at all is obviously a fool,and not worth bothering about. But to him who admits, "You are wellenough," and makes as though to pass on, there is a mystery attached:and the one way to solve it is to pursue this irritating fellow. Some(reasoning thus) assert that squinting Manuel was aware of this axiom,and that he respected it in all his dealings with Freydis and Alianora.Either way, these theorists did not ever get any verbal buttressing fromDom Manuel. Niafer dead and lost to him, he, without flaunting anyunexampled ardors, fell to loving Alianora: and now that Freydis had putoff immortality for his kisses, the tall boy had, again, somewhat theair of consenting to accept this woman's sacrifice, and her lovelinessand all her power and wisdom, as being upon the whole the handiestavailable substitute for Niafer's sparse charms.

  Yet others declare, more simply, that Dom Manuel was so constituted asto value more cheaply every desire after he had attained it. And thesesay he noted that--again in the inexplicable way these things fallout,--now Manuel possessed the unearthly Queen she had become, preciselyas Alianora had become, a not extraordinary person, who in all commercewith her lover dealt as such.

  "But do you really love me, O man of all men?" Freydis would say, "and,this damned Niafer apart, do you love me a little more than you love anyother woman?"

  "Why, are there any other women?" says Manuel, in fine surprise. "Oh, tobe sure, I suppose there are, but I had forgotten about them. I have notheard or seen or thought of those petticoated creatures since my dearFreydis came."

  The sorceress purred at this sort of talk, and she rested her head wherethere seemed a place especially made for it. "I wish I could believeyour words, king of my heart. I have to strive so hard, nowadays, togoad you into saying these idiotic suitable dear things: and even whenat last you do say them your voice is light and high, and makes themsound as though you were joking."

  He kissed the thick coil of hair which lay fragrant against his lips."Do you know, in spite of my joking, I do love you a great deal?"

  "I would practise saying that over to myself," observed Freydiscritically. "You should let your voice break a little after the firstthree words."

  "I speak as I feel. I love you, Freydis, and I tell you so."

  "Yes, but you are no longer a perpetual nuisance about it."

  "Alas, my dear, you are no longer the unattainable Queen of the countryon the other side of the fire, and that makes a difference, certainly.It is equally certain that I love you over and above all living women."

  "Ah, but, my dearest, who loves you more than any human tongue cantell?"

  "A peculiarly obstinate and lovely imbecile," says Manuel; and he didthat which seemed suitable.

  Later Freydis sighed luxuriously. "That saves you the trouble oftalking, does it not? And you talked so madly and handsomely that firstnight, when you wanted to get around me on account of the image, but nowyou do not make me any pretty speeches at all."

  "Oh, heavens!" said Manuel, "but I am embracing a monomaniac. DearFreydis, whatever I might say would be perforce the same old words thathave been
whispered by millions of men to many more millions of women,and my love for you is a quite unparalleled thing which ought not to betravestied by any such shopworn apparel."

  "Now again you must be putting me off with solemn joking in that lighthigh voice, and there is no faithfulness in that voice, and its talkingtroubles me."

  "I speak as I feel. I love you, Freydis, and I tell you so, but I cannotbe telling it over and over again every quarter of the hour."

  "Oh, but very certainly this big squinting boy is the most unloquaciousand the most stubborn brute that ever lived!"

  "And would you have me otherwise?"

  "No, that is the queer part of it. But it is a grief to me to wonder ifyou foresaw as much."

  "I!" says Manuel, jovially. "But what would I be doing with any suchfinespun policies? My dear, until you comprehend I am the most frank anddownright creature that ever lived you do not begin to appreciate me."

  "I know you are, big boy. But still, I wonder," Freydis said, "and thewondering is a thin little far-off grief."