“Judging by your grave and embarrassed expression, your anxious eyes and your drooping shoulders, you have a difficult confession to make. I’m listening.”
In a dull voice, he said: “I have a confession.”
“So I don’t know everything about you?”
“No—I beg you, don’t be implacable. It’s better that I should tell you myself, for I adore you, my Nelly, I adore you madly...”
“Speak!” Her one was glacial, her eyes held a sort of terrible menace, for the proud American woman was certain, now, that she would have to pass judgment on the man who had deceived her. “Speak!”
He bowed his head, humbly, and confessed; “It’s because of Nasenberg...”
“I’d gathered that. How have the two of you abused me?”
He heisted momentarily, collected himself, and then, abruptly, decided: “So much the worse! I’ll tell you the whole truth. Afterwards, you’ll decide—but whether you’re merciful or not, I swear to you that I loved you and that I love you, as no man has ever loved or ever could. It was before I met you…I was pursuing a deceptive chimera with the ever-increasing faith of my exasperated illusions. I wanted ardently, passionately, to reach my goal. Nasenberg helped me with his money, while he had confidence in my genius…600,000 francs were swallowed up in researching the great problem, and when Nasenberg didn’t want to support me any longer. I still believed that the solution as imminent...”
“So?”
“So I struggled on alone. The little money I had—Turner’s—was all lost in laborious, but heroic, research. But as the means diminished, the chimera became more visible. One final effort and the magical turbine would spin—and I would have an engine that would permit me to fly an airplane from one continent to another! I glimpsed the solution on the day when I could no longer do anything but shut down my factory, for lack of being able to pay my workers. It was then that Nasenberg offered to save me, on one condition...”
“What?”
“It’s ignoble! I was in that man’s hands…I owed him everything…and he had me in his grip. He could, according to his whim, render me glorious or throw me on the ding-heap. I had no choice...”
“But to do what?”
“Nasenberg spoke to me about a young woman, an American heiress with millions. He had, he said the power to give her...”
“To sell her?”
“Forgive me! Forgive me, my Nelly! I didn’t know—I had but one idea in my head, a maddening dream. I was living in the intoxication of my discovery—and I would have died of not being able to realize it. And someone offered me millions! Millions, not for stupid enjoyment, after the fashion of a clubman or a snob, but to accomplish an endeavor, to endow humankind with an invention that would make it finer.”
“Words, all that, to mask the filthy depths of your heart. You only thought about the dowry, forgetting the woman!”
“I hadn’t met you yet...”
And I, who loved you so blindly! I, who had refused so many matches, repelled all the assaults made upon my fortune! I wanted no one but you, because I believed that I read disinterest in your lovely eyes. Oh, you’ve made a fool of me, Nasenberg and you, villainous Parisian bandits who’ve caught me in a trap!”
“Nelly!”
“I’m no longer your Nelly. The mud in which that trap has covered me, in capturing me, has show me what you are, at bottom. If you had loved me, you would never have married me under those conditions. If you loved me, you would have made arrangements to spare me this confession. Why have you told me this?”
“Alas, in ten minutes, Nasenberg will be here. He told me that he…if…”
“Oh, I understand. You haven’t paid him! It’s his commission that he wants. How much?”
“For pity’s sake, Nelly…I would never have dared...”
“How much?”
But he made no reply. Facing her, he was so profoundly devastated, his face so pale and his eyes so terrified, that she could not help being moved. It seemed to him that her gaze softened.
She sighed. “Why did you have to act thus?”
He got a grip on himself then, and straightened up. “Listen to me, Nelly. Remember, I beg you, how you met me.”
“At Edmund Russell’s—yes, I remember...”
“Nasenberg had not yet introduced us. I swear to you, Nelly, that when you spoke to me, I did not know who you were. And I fell in love with you, instantly.”
She laughed, mockingly. “Really? Oh, the staging was clever, and I recognize, in that machination, the mastery of people accustomed to that sort of business. That was what I was, wasn’t I? A business deal?”
Come on—how much did you promise Nasenberg?”
“Five per cent.”
“What, five per cent? On the stipulation of my dowry in the contract? That’s a million and a half? How much of that do you get?”
“He stood up straight, stung as if by a whiplash. Livid, in a changed voice, he said: “I don’t deserve that insult!”
But she was still laughing, with a sort of determined malice that was holding back her tears. Calmer and more humane, she would not have been able to prevent herself from breaking down into sobs.
“You didn’t marry me, under the legal provisions, without reserving yourself part of the commission?”
He replied, simply: “I loved you. I would have married you without any dowry.”
She was struck by the sincere tone in which those words were spoken. Dignified and heroic, he awaited her verdict; his eyes were declaring, desperately, all the love for her that was within him. She sensed courage abandoning him.
At that moment, a chambermaid came to hand her a card.
“Go away,” she said to her husband. “It’s him.” And, as he could not resign himself to that, she added: “Get out—I want to be alone with this clown. Afterwards…afterwards...”
“Afterwards, Nelly?”
He was trembling with hope, for he had just seen, in her gaze, a gleam that he knew well. He had a sudden intuition, then, that if he took her in his arms, without permitting her to reflect, if he covered her with kisses, stunned her with tender words, perhaps she might still be his...
But she said: “First, I want to liquidate this abomination.” And she shoved her husband into the next room.
XIV. The Check-book
When Nasenberg came in, she said: “Do you have the document?”
He was certainly not expecting such a curt welcome. Rozal had talked, then? Evidently. Well, so much the better; things would go more rapidly. He maintained his composure and opened his wallet.
“I see, Madame, that we won’t be wasting time with vain explanations. This is, in any case, painful for me. I would rather have avoided this ordeal, which in wounding to you, and if it had only depended on me...”
“Let’s get it over with, Monsieur. My husband has confessed everything. He has promised you five per cent of my dowry. As we married under the rule of separate property, it’s impossible for him to pay you, so I shall settle with you.”
She picked up a check-book and tore out a leaf, which she filled in. “Give me your receipt, and here’s a check drawn on my bank in Paris. In exchange, though, for my sake, this time, you need to be sincere; I have a question to ask you. When I met Monsieur Rozal at Edmund Russell’s, did he know that he would see me there? Was it with that purpose that he went there? I’m paying dear to have the right to ask you to be honest.”
Nasenberg was too clever not to understand the reason for that curiosity. Fundamentally, he had no desire to destroy the household, having nothing to gain. He was about to reply that it was true, but he ran his eyes over the check first.
“Pardon me,” he said, swiftly, “but you’ve put 500,000 francs.”
“Wasn’t that the agreed figure?”
“With me, yes—but there’s the indemnity to the two others...”
She went pale, thinking that she was about to faint. “What others? You weren’t alone in this odiou
s conspiracy?”
He sniggered. “It’s Rozal who wasn’t alone. Why, before him there were two other candidates for your hand—the Duc de Créqui and Lamentin, the deputé. So it was necessary to promise them a little compensation...”
He stopped, alarmed. The young woman had just leaned on a sideboard in order not to fall over, and she was tragic in that unexpected attitude.
Nasenberg was momentarily nonplussed. Then he moved forward, intending to support her.
“Leave me alone,” she said. “Don’t come any closer!”
With her hands outstretched, she seemed to be pushing away some repulsive beast, disgustedly. Rapidly, though, she overcame her pain, her anger and her repulsion. Having regained her self-composure, she said to Nasenberg: “There’s another document then! Show it to me!”
The banker held out the second contract signed by Rozal. She read it avidly, and at down, as if overwhelmed by the brutal shock that she had just received.
“Then no more doubt is possible? This one has sold me, the other has bought me…and to prevent his rivals from stealing the coveted prey from him, he’s muzzled them by abandoning a part of my fortune to them in advance. Of, accursed money! Without that, perhaps I would have known, as other women do, a sincere love. But Nelly Mackay, the daughter of a rich industrialist, could not hope for a destiny so simple and so beautiful!”
Nasenberg tried to put in a word. “I beg our pardon, Madame, but you are, in spite of appearances, in the most grievous error…”
She set Rozal’s contract before the banker’s yes. “And this—is this an error? Was it by surprise that my husband signed this paper? The rest, perhaps, would have passed muster. Henri would have told me, proved to me that he really loved me, and that, to get rid of you, he had been obliged to sign the promise of a commission, and I would doubtless have forgiven him. Was he not at your mercy? For fear of losing me, he could have done as you demanded. But this terrible merchandising, this compromise arranged between three men who courted me in parallel every day—oh, no, no! I don’t have a soul sufficiently hardened not to be ashamed of the role that life has given me!”
This time, she could not help herself, and she did not make any effort to hold back her tears.
Embarrassed, and discomfited by the situation, the false reasoning and lamentable misunderstanding of that which he understood, the banker tried to explain.
“You speak of three men who laid their homage at your feet. I will point out to you, Madame, that there were only two. And even though I no longer have any sympathy for Rozal, after the humiliations that I owe go him, honesty obliges me to declare, and to remind you, that he never attempted to get close to you. And if I might venture, without overstepping the bounds...”
She laughed stridently. “Go on, go on…tell me, right away, that I seduced the poor boy! Yes, I know how cunning you were! Naturally, as a hundred men had paid court to my millions in vain, you told yourselves that it was necessary to adopt a new tactic in order to vanquish me. The man who pretended to disdain me, who appeared to be following his own path, without paying attention to me, that one, you said to yourselves, would have every chance…I have myself, in fact, demanded the hand of the handsome boy that you placed in my path, magisterially...”
“I swear to you, Madame...”
“Don’t swear! Not that it matters. I’m cured, you see—fully cured of my illusions, and my poor love is dead. But I hate you, I hate you with all the force of my humiliated being, soiled by your snares. I hate you terribly...”
“Madame...”
“Oh, yes, how I hate you! My husband inspires nothing more than scorn in me. He must have been desperate, to play the role of gigolo that you’ve made him play…and yet, am I not as pretty as so many others? Poor, in the anonymous crowd, would I not have had enough character, intelligence, allure and beauty to inspire the love of a disinterested man? Yes, I had as much right to happiness as a shop-girl! Now, do you understand why I hate you? You’ve prevented me from knowing a sentiment that costs nothing, appreciable only in the sincerity of emotional hearts, hesitant lips…!”
“Once again, Madame...”
“I hate you, I tell you. Get out!”
When he did not move, she laughed mockingly. “Oh, I forgot…your account is lacking 1.5 million francs.”
She signed another check and handed it to Nasenberg. “I assume that’s all, now?”
“Yes, Madame, but I’d like to say something.”
“No!”
Nasenberg thumped the table with his fist. “I want to speak!”
She was so dumbstruck by his attitude that he was able to say: “I remembered, Madame, though all these painful minutes, that you were a woman and that you were overwhelmed by distress. I therefore listened to your insults, and I want to be more generous than you, Madame. Think hard about this, later, when you’re alone and suffering greatly, thinking about your lot happiness: Richard Nasenberg, who is not entirely a blackguard, affirms to you that your eyes are blinkered, that your husband is a good man, and that you are making a mistake. Goodbye, Madame.”
He went out, proudly. But outside, on the perron, where he perceived Turner waiting in the shadows, like a good guard-dog, he felt his wallet ostentatiously, where the checks for two million were, and smiled in genuine contentment.
XV. An Agony of Love
Quivering with anger, the American woman had neither the head nor anything else for discussions, for wisdom. She acted integrally, following her instincts, and liquidated, without reflection, that which, an hour before, had still been her love, her entire life.
“Now the other!” she said.
She opened the door and summoned Rozal. When he stood before her, very pale, with anxious eyes but a dignified air, she experienced something akin to nausea, and stiffened. Then, slowly, in a grave voice, she said: “I believe that we have nothing more to say to one another. I do not think that you should even attempt to speak to me. I know everything now, via your shady intermediary, and have no need of any explanation, since we must never see one another again...”
“You’re sending me away, Nelly…without hearing me out? Fatality is merciless!”
She looked at her husband, his brown eyes, his plump lips, his sharp profile, his powerful arms, his wrestler’s build—admirable, but at that moment, depressed and overwhelmed—as if she wanted to see, for the last time, everything that she had loved, then to forget it, to throw that image out into the household dustbin. She made a weary gesture.
“Oh, I would have preferred you to accept my decision without trying to change my mind. I swear to you that if you persist, your attitude can only inspire more disgust!”
“But you don’t know the truth! If you would listen to me, you would understand, instead of ignominy, my independent mind, my insouciance, and, perhaps the imprudent generosity of my heart. You’re judging by appearances, and it isn’t possible—no, it can’t be—that you and I, spoiling our happiness, can do one another so much harm without knowing the true reasons for our decisive roles.”
“What’s the point? You’ve bought me. Here are the two contracts, with our signature. I’ve paid them. You’re nothing but an adventurer, and you’ve deceived me abominably...”
“That’s not true, Nelly. I swear to you that it’s not true! And what if it were? Suppose that everything were as you assume, and that, in marrying you, I wanted to bring off a business deal…even if I were an adventurer, if I had wanted, by cajoling you, to capture the enormous fortune—which isn’t true, since I requested, demanded, of my own accord, the separation of property—all right! Let’s admit everything, since proofs that aren’t proofs condemn me!”
She waved the two documents, handling them like dirty rags.
“Yes, but does that alter the fact that, since we met, I’ve adored you—mark my words—that I’ve adored your slimness, your enigmatic visage, the caressing gaze of your large dark eyes, your slender neck, your young, disturbing charm…yes, that I’
ve admired your blonde hair, and the other blondeness, like the Sun? Does it alter the fact that I, an engineer I pursuit of a great chimera, no longer exist save for you, for your love? You were interested in the scientist, the aviator, but remember that you gave yourself entirely to the man, to such an extent that you begged me to give up flying, to obtain a pilot, the brave Turner, for the Atlantic crossing.
“But why, in fact, offer explanations? You said that I was your husband, your master, your king. Bound together for eternity, the first assault on our life is separating us. Love triumphs over the inanity of words, facts, even resolutions. Unworthy as I am, should it not open your arms to me? No, you didn’t love me! No, you don’t love me! You remain a rich heiress, and I, perhaps, a genius. If only we were poor miserable creatures like all the rest, slaves to the same passions and the same desires, the same errors, the same cowardice! If only we were lovers! If your lips were truly held to my lips, your eyes to mine, if the desires born of the same gaze, kisses, shared emotions, my flesh bound to yours, if the frisson caused by the unique sensation...”
“Oh, shut up! What you’re doing is cowardly, odious, and also a sacrilege. Don’t speak of that which was a dream, which I can no longer remember. I’m atrociously humiliated!”
“Never again, then?”
She pointed to the door with an irremediable gesture: “Never again, Monsieur! Get out. You’re expelled!”
He went out backwards, his throat tight, his heart broken, in order that his eyes might, in spite of everything, be filled and saturated by her one last time, for life.
And he disappeared.
XVI. The Palace of Hazard
Two men are walking through the darkness, on the white road, in the calm of the enchanted landscape. Around them—above, below, before, behind, to the right and the left—are beauties, nearby or distant: the mountain, the sea, the sky, an artificial Eden; and April, spread out everywhere, in that starry nocturne, on the Earth as in the firmament.
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