“Then you will become one of the tribe of Natcha-Kee-Tawara, of the name Allaye? Yes?”
“Yes,” said Alvina.
“And obey the strict rules of the tribe. Do you agree?”
“Yes.”
“Then listen.” Madame primmed and preened herself like a black pigeon, and darted glances out of her black eyes.
“We are one tribe, one nation — say it.”
“We are one tribe, one nation,” repeated Alvina.
“Say all,” cried Madame.
“We are one tribe, one nation — ” they shouted, with varying accent. “Good!” said Madame. “And no-nation do we know but the nation of the Hirondelles — ”
“No nation do we know but the nation of the Hirondelles,” came the ragged chant of strong male voices, resonant and gay with mockery.
“Hurons — Hirondelles, means swallows,” said Madame.
“Yes, I know,” said Alvina.
“So! you know! Well, then! We know no nation but the Hirondelles.”
“WE HAVE NO LAW BUT HURON LAW!”
“We have no law but Huron law!” sang the response, in a deep, sardonic chant.
“WE HAVE NO LAWGIVER EXCEPT KISHWÉGIN.”
“We have no lawgiver except Kishwégin,” they sang sonorous.
“WE HAVE NO HOME BUT THE TENT OF KISHWÉGIN.”
“We have no home but the tent of Kishwégin.”
“THERE IS NO GOOD BUT THE GOOD OF NATCHA-KEE-TAWARA.”
“There is no good but the good of Natcha-Kee-Tawara.”
“WE ARE THE HIRONDELLES.”
“We are the Hirondelles.”
“WE ARE KISHWÉGIN.”
“We are Kishwégin.”
“WE ARE MONDAGUA.”
“We are Mondagua — ”
“WE ARE ATONQUOIS — ”
“We are Atonquois — ”
“WE ARE PACOHUILA — ”
“We are Pacohuila — ”
“WE ARE WALGATCHKA — ”
“We are Walgatchka — ”
“WE ARE ALLAYE — ”
“We are Allaye — ”
“La musica! Pacohuila, la musica!” cried Madame, starting to her feet and sounding frenzied.
Ciccio got up quickly and took his mandoline from its case.
“A — A — Ai — Aii — eee — ya — ” began Madame, with a long, faint wail. And on the wailing mandoline the music started. She began to dance a slight but intense dance. Then she waved for a partner, and set up a tarantella wail. Louis threw off his coat and sprang to tarantella attention, Ciccio rang out the peculiar tarantella, and Madame and Louis danced in the tight space.
“Brava — Brava!” cried the others, when Madame sank into her place. And they crowded forward to kiss her hand. One after the other, they kissed her fingers, whilst she laid her left hand languidly on the head of one man after another, as she sat slightly panting. Ciccio however did not come up, but sat faintly twanging the mandoline. Nor did Alvina leave her place.
“Pacohuila!” cried Madame, with an imperious gesture. “Allaye! Come — ”
Ciccio laid down his mandoline and went to kiss the fingers of Kishwégin. Alvina also went forward. Madame held out her hand. Alvina kissed it. Madame laid her hand on the head of Alvina.
“This is the squaw Allaye, this is the daughter of Kishwégin,” she said, in her Tawara manner.
“And where is the brave of Allaye, where is the arm that upholds the daughter of Kishwégin, which of the Swallows spreads his wings over the gentle head of the new one!”
“Pacohuila!” said Louis.
“Pacohuila! Pacohuila! Pacohuila!” said the others.
“Spread soft wings, spread dark-roofed wings, Pacohuila,” said Kishwégin, and Ciccio, in his shirt-sleeves solemnly spread his arms.
“Stoop, stoop, Allaye, beneath the wings of Pacohuila,” said Kishwégin, faintly pressing Alvina on the shoulder.
Alvina stooped and crouched under the right arm of Pacohuila. “Has the bird flown home?” chanted Kishwégin, to one of the strains of their music.
“The bird is home — ” chanted the men.
“Is the nest warm?” chanted Kishwégin.
“The nest is warm.”
“Does the he-bird stoop — ?”
“He stoops.
“Who takes Allaye?”
“Pacohuila.”
Ciccio gently stooped and raised Alvina to her feet.
“C’est ça!” said Madame, kissing her. “And now, children, unless the Sheffield policeman will knock at our door, we must retire to our wigwams all — ”
Ciccio was watching Alvina. Madame made him a secret, imperative gesture that he should accompany the young woman.
“You have your key, Allaye?” she said.
“Did I have a key?” said Alvina.
Madame smiled subtly as she produced a latch-key.
“Kishwégin must open your doors for you all,” she said. Then, with a slight flourish, she presented the key to Ciccio. “I give it to him? Yes?” she added, with her subtle, malicious smile.
Ciccio, smiling slightly, and keeping his head ducked, took the key. Alvina looked brightly, as if bewildered, from one to another.
“Also the light!” said Madame, producing a pocket flashlight, which she triumphantly handed to Ciccio. Alvina watched him. She noticed how he dropped his head forward from his straight, strong shoulders, how beautiful that was, the strong, forward-inclining nape and back of the head. It produced a kind of dazed submission in her, the drugged sense of unknown beauty.
“And so good-night, Allaye — bonne nuit, fille des Tawara.” Madame kissed her, and darted black, unaccountable looks at her.
Each brave also kissed her hand, with a profound salute. Then the men shook hands warmly with Ciccio, murmuring to him.
He did not put on his hat nor his coat, but ran round as he was to the neighbouring house with her, and opened the door. She entered, and he followed, flashing on the light. So she climbed weakly up the dusty, drab stairs, he following. When she came to her door, she turned and looked at him. His face was scarcely visible, it seemed, and yet so strange and beautiful. It was the unknown beauty which almost killed her.
“You aren’t coming?” she quavered.
He gave an odd, half-gay, half-mocking twitch of his thick dark brows, and began to laugh silently. Then he nodded again, laughing at her boldly, carelessly, triumphantly, like the dark Southerner he was. Her instinct was to defend herself. When suddenly she found herself in the dark.
She gasped. And as she gasped, he quite gently put her inside her room, and closed the door, keeping one arm round her all the time. She felt his heavy muscular predominance. So he took her in both arms, powerful, mysterious, horrible in the pitch dark. Yet the sense of the unknown beauty of him weighed her down like some force. If for one moment she would have escaped from that black spell of his beauty, she would have been free. But she could not. He was awful to her, shameless so that she died under his shamelessness, his smiling, progressive shamelessness. Yet she could not see him ugly. If only she could, for one second, have seen him ugly, he would not have killed her and made her his slave as he did. But the spell was on her, of his darkness and unfathomed handsomeness. And he killed her. He simply took her and assassinated her. How she suffered no one can tell. Yet all the time, his lustrous dark beauty, unbearable.
When later she pressed her face on his chest and cried, he held her gently as if she was a child, but took no notice, and she felt in the darkness that he smiled. It was utterly dark, and she knew he smiled, and she began to get hysterical. But he only kissed her, his smiling deepening to a heavy laughter, silent and invisible, but sensible, as he carried her away once more. He intended her to be his slave, she knew. And he seemed to throw her down and suffocate her like a wave. And she could have fought, if only the sense of his dark, rich handsomeness had not numbed her like a venom. So she washed suffocated in his passion.
In t
he morning when it was light he turned and looked at her from under his long black lashes, a long, steady, cruel, faintly-smiling look from his tawny eyes, searching her as if to see whether she were still alive. And she looked back at him, heavy-eyed and half subjected. He smiled slightly at her, rose, and left her. And she turned her face to the wall, feeling beaten. Yet not quite beaten to death. Save for the fatal numbness of her love for him, she could still have escaped him. But she lay inert, as if envenomed. He wanted to make her his slave.
When she went down to the Natcha-Kee-Tawaras for breakfast she found them waiting for her. She was rather frail and tender-looking, with wondering eyes that showed she had been crying.
“Come, daughter of the Tawaras,” said Madame brightly to her. “We have been waiting for you. Good-morning, and all happiness, eh? Look, it is a gift-day for you — ”
Madame smilingly led Alvina to her place. Beside her plate was a bunch of violets, a bunch of carnations, a pair of exquisite bead moccasins, and a pair of fine doeskin gloves delicately decorated with feather-work on the cuffs. The slippers were from Kishwégin, the gloves from Mondagua, the carnations from Atonquois, the violets from Walgatchka — all _To the Daughter of the Tawaras, Allaye_, as it said on the little cards.
“The gift of Pacohuila you know,” said Madame, smiling. “The brothers of Pacohuila are your brothers.”
One by one they went to her and each one laid the back of her fingers against his forehead, saying in turn:
“I am your brother Mondagua, Allaye!”
“I am your brother Atonquois, Allaye!”
“I am your brother Walgatchka, Allaye, best brother, you know — ” So spoke Geoffrey, looking at her with large, almost solemn eyes of affection. Alvina smiled a little wanly, wondering where she was. It was all so solemn. Was it all mockery, play-acting? She felt bitterly inclined to cry.
Meanwhile Madame came in with the coffee, which she always made herself, and the party sat down to breakfast. Ciccio sat on Alvina’s right, but he seemed to avoid looking at her or speaking to her. All the time he looked across the table, with the half-asserted, knowing look in his eyes, at Gigi: and all the time he addressed himself to Gigi, with the throaty, rich, plangent quality in his voice, that Alvina could not bear, it seemed terrible to her: and he spoke in French: and the two men seemed to be exchanging unspeakable communications. So that Alvina, for all her wistfulness and subjectedness, was at last seriously offended. She rose as soon as possible from table. In her own heart she wanted attention and public recognition from Ciccio — none of which she got. She returned to her own house, to her own room, anxious to tidy everything, not wishing to have her landlady in the room. And she half expected Ciccio to come to speak to her.
As she was busy washing a garment in the bowl, her landlady knocked and entered. She was a rough and rather beery-looking Yorkshire woman, not attractive.
“Oh, yo’n made yer bed then, han’ yer!”
“Yes,” said Alvina. “I’ve done everything.”
“I see yer han. Yo’n bin sharp.”
Alvina did not answer.
“Seems yer doin’ yersen a bit o’ weshin’.”
Still Alvina didn’t answer.
“Yo’ can ‘ing it i’ th’ back yard.”
“I think it’ll dry here,” said Alvina.
“Isna much dryin’ up here. Send us howd when ‘t’s ready. Yo’ll ‘appen be wantin’ it. I can dry it off for yer t’ kitchen. You don’t take a drop o’ nothink, do yer?”
“No,” said Alvina. “I don’t like it.”
“Summat a bit stronger ‘n ‘t bottle, my sakes alive! Well, yo mun ha’e yer fling, like t’ rest. But coom na, which on ‘em is it? I catched sight on ‘im goin’ out, but I didna ma’e out then which on ‘em it wor. He — eh, it’s a pity you don’t take a drop of nothink, it’s a world’s pity. Is it the fairest on ‘em, the tallest.”
“No,” said Alvina. “The darkest one.”
“Oh ay! Well, ‘s a strappin’ anuff feller, for them as goes that road. I thought Madame was partikler. I s’ll charge yer a bit more, yer know. I s’ll ‘ave to make a bit out of it. I’m partikler as a rule. I don’t like ‘em comin’ in an’ goin’ out, you know. Things get said. You look so quiet, you do. Come now, it’s worth a hextra quart to me, else I shan’t have it, I shan’t. You can’t make as free as all that with the house, you know, be it what it may — ”
She stood red-faced and dour in the doorway. Alvina quietly gave her half-a-sovereign.
“Nay, lass,” said the woman, “if you share niver a drop o’ th’ lashins, you mun split it. Five shillin’s is oceans, ma wench. I’m not down on you — not me. On’y we’ve got to keep up appearances a bit, you know. Dash my rags, it’s a caution!”
“I haven’t got five shillings — ” said Alvina.
“Yer’ve not? All right, gi’e ‘s ha ‘efcrown today, an’ t’other termorrer. It’ll keep, it’ll keep. God bless you for a good wench. A’ open ‘eart ‘s worth all your bum-righteousness. It is for me. An’ a sight more. You’re all right, ma wench, you’re all right — ”
And the rather bleary woman went nodding away.
Alvina ought to have minded. But she didn’t. She even laughed into her ricketty mirror. At the back of her thoughts, all she minded was that Ciccio did not pay her some attention. She really expected him now to come to speak to her. If she could have imagined how far he was from any such intention.
So she loitered unwillingly at her window high over the grey, hard, cobbled street, and saw her landlady hastening along the black asphalt pavement, her dirty apron thrown discreetly over what was most obviously a quart jug. She followed the squat, intent figure with her eye, to the public-house at the corner. And then she saw Ciccio humped over his yellow bicycle, going for a steep and perilous ride with Gigi.
Still she lingered in her sordid room. She could feel Madame was expecting her. But she felt inert, weak, incommunicative. Only a real fear of offending Madame drove her down at last.
Max opened the door to let her in.
“Ah!” he said. “You’ve come. We were wondering about you.”
“Thank you,” she said, as she passed into the dirty hall where still two bicycles stood.
“Madame is in the kitchen,” he said.
Alvina found Madame trussed in a large white apron, busy rubbing a yellow-fleshed hen with lemon, previous to boiling.
“Ah!” said Madame. “So there you are! I have been out and done my shopping, and already begun to prepare the dinner. Yes, you may help me. Can you wash leeks? Yes? Every grain of sand? Shall I trust you then — ?”
Madame usually had a kitchen to herself, in the morning. She either ousted her landlady, or used her as second cook. For Madame was a gourmet, if not gourmand. If she inclined towards self-indulgence in any direction, it was in the direction of food. She loved a good table. And hence the Tawaras saved less money than they might. She was an exacting, tormenting, bullying cook. Alvina, who knew well enough how to prepare a simple dinner, was offended by Madame’s exactions. Madame turning back the green leaves of a leek, and hunting a speck of earth down into the white, like a flea in a bed, was too much for Alvina.
“I’m afraid I shall never be particular enough,” she said. “Can’t I do anything else for you?”
“For me? I need nothing to be done for me. But for the young men — yes, I will show you in one minute — ”
And she took Alvina upstairs to her room, and gave her a pair of the thin leather trousers fringed with hair, belonging to one of the braves. A seam had ripped. Madame gave Alvina a fine awl and some waxed thread.
“The leather is not good in these things of Gigi’s,” she said. “It is badly prepared. See, like this.” And she showed Alvina another place where the garment was repaired. “Keep on your apron. At the weekend you must fetch more clothes, not spoil this beautiful gown of voile. Where have you left your diamonds? What? In your room? Are they locked? Oh my dear — !�
�� Madame turned pale and darted looks of fire at Alvina. “If they are stolen — !” she cried. “Oh! I have become quite weak, hearing you!” She panted and shook her head. “If they are not stolen, you have the Holy Saints alone to be thankful for keeping them. But run, run!”
And Madame really stamped her foot.
“Bring me everything you’ve got — every thing that is valuable. I shall lock it up. How can you — ”
Alvina was hustled off to her lodging. Fortunately nothing was gone. She brought all to Madame, and Madame fingered the treasures lovingly.
“Now what you want you must ask me for,” she said.
With what close curiosity Madame examined the ruby brooch. “You can have that if you like, Madame,” said Alvina.
“You mean — what?”
“I will give you that brooch if you like to take it — ”
“Give me this — !” cried Madame, and a flash went over her face. Then she changed into a sort of wheedling. “No — no. I shan’t take it! I shan’t take it. You don’t want to give away such a thing.”
“I don’t mind,” said Alvina. “Do take it if you like it.”
“Oh no! Oh no! I can’t take it. A beautiful thing it is, really. It would be worth over a thousand francs, because I believe it is quite genuine.”
“I’m sure it’s genuine,” said Alvina. “Do have it since you like it.”
“Oh, I can’t! I can’t! — ”
“Yes do — ”
“The beautiful red stones! — antique gems, antique gems — ! And do you really give it to me?”
“Yes, I should like to.”
“You are a girl with a noble heart — ” Madame threw her arms round Alvina’s neck, and kissed her. Alvina felt very cool about it. Madame locked up the jewels quickly, after one last look.
“My fowl,” she said, “which must not boil too fast.”
At length Alvina was called down to dinner. The young men were at table, talking as young men do, not very interestingly. After the meal, Ciccio sat and twanged his mandoline, making its crying noise vibrate through the house.
“I shall go and look at the town,” said Alvina.
“And who shall go with you?” asked Madame.
“I will go alone,” said Alvina, “unless you will come, Madame.”
Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence Page 250