Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  XXVIII

  How Melicent Was Welcomed

  So the month passed prosperously and uneventfully, while the servitorsof Queen Freydis behaved in every respect as if they were human beings:and at the end of the month the stork came.

  Manuel and Niafer, it happened, were fishing on the river bank ratherlate that evening, when they saw the great bird approaching, highoverhead, all glistening white in the sunset, except for his thinscarlet legs and the blue shadowings in the hollows of his wings. Fromhis beak depended a largish bundle, in pale blue wrappings, so that at aglance they knew the stork was bringing a girl.

  Statelily the bird lighted on the window sill, as though he were quitefamiliar with this way of entering Manuel's bedroom, and the bird wentin, carrying the child. This was a high and happy moment for the fondparents as they watched him, and they kissed each other rather solemnly.

  Then Niafer left Manuel to get together the fishing tackle, and shehastened into the house to return to the stork the first of hispromissory notes in exchange for the baby. And as Manuel was winding upthe lines, Queen Freydis came to him, for she too had seen the stork'sapproach; and was, she said, with a grave smile, well pleased that theaffair was settled.

  "For now the stork has come, yet others may come," says Freydis, "and weshall celebrate the happy event with a gay feast this night in honor ofyour child."

  "That is very kind and characteristic of you," said Manuel, "but Isuppose you will be wanting me to make a speech, and I am quiteunprepared."

  "No, we will have none of your high-minded and devastating speeches atour banquet. No, for your place is with your wife. No, Manuel, you arenot bidden to this feast, for all that it is to do honor to your child.No, no, gray Manuel, you must remain upstairs this evening andthroughout the night, because this feast is for them that serve me: andyou do not serve me any longer, and the ways of them that serve me arenot your ways."

  "Ah!" says Manuel, "so there is sorcery afoot! Yes, Freydis, I havequite given over that sort of thing. And while not for a moment would Iseem to be criticizing anybody, I hope before long to see you settlingdown, with some fine solid fellow, and forsaking these empty frivolitiesfor the higher and real pleasures of life."

  "And what are these delights, gray Manuel?"

  "The joy that is in the sight of your children playing happily aboutyour hearth, and developing into honorable men and gracious women, andbringing their children in turn to cluster about your tired old knees,as the winter evenings draw in, and in the cosy fire-light you smileacross the curly heads of these children's children at the dear wrinkledwhite-haired face of your beloved and time-tested helpmate, and aresatisfied, all in all, with your life, and know that, by and large,Heaven has been rather undeservedly kind to you," says Manuel, sighing."Yes, Freydis, yes, you may believe me that such are the real joys oflife; and that such pleasures are more profitably pursued than are theidle gaieties of sorcery and witchcraft, which indeed at our age, if youwill permit me to speak thus frankly, dear friend, are hardlydignified."

  Freydis shook her proud dark head. Her smiling was grim.

  "Decidedly, I shall not ever understand you. Doddering patriarch, do younot comprehend you are already discoursing about a score or two ofgrandchildren on the ground of having a five-minute-old daughter, whomyou have not yet seen? Nor is that child's future, it may be, yours tosettle--But go to your wife, for this is Niafer's man who is talking,and not mine. Go up, Methuselah, and behold the new life which you havecreated and cannot control!"

  Manuel went to Niafer, and found her sewing. "My dear, this will not doat all, for you ought to be in bed with the newborn child, as is thecustom with the mothers of Philistia."

  "What nonsense!" says Niafer, "when I have to be changing every one ofthe pink bows on Melicent's caps for blue bows."

  "Still, Niafer, it is eminently necessary for us to be placating thePhilistines in all respects, in this delicate matter of your having ababy."

  Niafer grumbled, but obeyed. She presently lay in the golden bed ofFreydis: then Manuel duly looked at the contents of the small heavingbundle at Niafer's side: and whether or no he scaled the conventionalpeaks of emotion was nobody's concern save Manuel's. He began, in anyevent, to talk in the vein which fathers ordinarily feel such highoccasions to demand. But Niafer, who was never romantic nowadays, merelysaid that, anyhow, it was a blessing it was all over, and that shehoped, now, they would soon be leaving Sargyll.

  "But Freydis is so kind, my dear," said Manuel, "and so fond of you!"

  "I never in my life," declared Niafer, "knew anybody to go off soterribly in their looks as that two-faced cat has done since the firsttime I saw her prancing on her tall horse and rolling her snake eyes atyou. As for being fond of me, I trust her exactly as far as I can seeher."

  "Yet, Niafer, I have heard you declare, time and again--"

  "But if you did, Manuel, one has to be civil."

  Manuel shrugged, discreetly. "You women!" he observed, discreetly.

  "--As if it were not as plain as the nose on her face--and I do notsuppose that even you, Manuel, will be contending she has a really goodnose,--that the woman is simply itching to make a fool of you, and tohave everybody laughing at you, again! Manuel, I declare I have nopatience with you when you keep arguing about such unarguable facts!"

  Manuel, exercising augmented discretion, now said nothing whatever.

  "--And you may talk yourself black in the face, Manuel, but neverthelessI am going to name the child Melicent, after my own mother, as soon as apriest can be fetched from the mainland to christen her. No, Manuel, itis all very well for your dear friend to call herself a gray witch, butI do not notice any priests coming to this house unless they areespecially sent for, and I draw my own conclusions."

  "Well, well, let us not argue about it, my dear."

  "Yes, but who started all this arguing and fault-finding, I would liketo know!"

  "Why, to be sure I did. But I spoke without thinking. I was wrong. Iadmit it. So do not excite yourself, dear snip."

  "--And as if I could help the child's not being a boy!"

  "But I never said--"

  "No, but you keep thinking it, and sulking is the one thing I cannotstand. No, Manuel, no, I do not complain, but I do think that, after allI have been through with, sleeping around in tents, and running awayfrom Northmen, and never having a moment's comfort, after I hadnaturally figured on being a real countess--" Niafer whimpered sleepily.

  "Yes, yes," says Manuel, stroking her soft crinkly hair.

  "--And with that silky hell-cat watching me all the time,--and lookingten years younger than I do, now that you have got my face and legs allwrong,--and planning I do not know what--"

  "Yes, to be sure," says Manuel, soothingly: "you are quite right, mydear."

  So a silence fell, and presently Niafer slept. Manuel sat with hunchedshoulders, watching the wife he had fetched back from paradise at theprice of his youth. His face was grave, his lips were puckered andprotruded. He smiled by and by, and he shook his head. He sighed, not asone who is grieved, but like a man perplexed and a little weary.

  Now some while after Niafer was asleep, and when the night was fairlyadvanced, you could hear a whizzing and a snorting in the air. Manuelwent to the window, and lifted the scarlet curtain figured with rampinggold dragons, and he looked out, to find a vast number of tiny bluishlights skipping about confusedly and agilely in the darkness, likeshining fleas. These approached the river bank, and gathered there. Thenthe assembled lights began to come toward the house. You could now seethese lights were carried by dwarfs who had the eyes of owls and thelong beaks of storks. These dwarfs were jumping and dancing aboutFreydis like an insane body-guard.

  Freydis walked among them very remarkably attired. Upon her head shonethe uraeus crown, and she carried a long rod of cedar-wood topped withan apple carved in bluestone, and at her side came the appearance of atall young man.

  So they all approached the house, and the young man looked up
fixedly atthe unlighted window, as though he were looking at Manuel. The young mansmiled: his teeth gleamed in the blue glare. Then the whole companyentered the house, and from Manuel's station at the window you could seeno more, but you could hear small prancing hoof-beats downstairs and theclattering of plates and much whinnying laughter. Manuel was pluckingirresolutely at his grizzled short beard, for there was no doubt as tothe strapping tall young fellow.

  Presently you could hear music: it was the ravishing Nis air, whichcharms the mind into sweet confusion and oblivion, and Manuel did notmake any apparent attempt to withstand its wooing. He hastily undressed,knelt for a decorous interval, and climbed vexedly into bed.