第14章

"I leave you to judge of the sensation," continued Mr.Blunt, with a faint grimace, as though the words had an acrid taste in his mouth."And the consternation," he added venomously."Many of those men on that great morning had some one of their womankind with them.But their hats had to go off all the same, especially the hats of the fellows who were under some sort of obligation to Allegre.You would be astonished to hear the names of people, of real personalities in the world, who, not to mince matters, owed money to Allegre.And I don't mean in the world of art only.In the first rout of the surprise some story of an adopted daughter was set abroad hastily, I believe.You know 'adopted' with a peculiar accent on the word - and it was plausible enough.I have been told that at that time she looked extremely youthful by his side, I mean extremely youthful in expression, in the eyes, in the smile.She must have been..."Blunt pulled himself up short, but not so short as not to let the confused murmur of the word "adorable" reach our attentive ears.

The heavy Mills made a slight movement in his chair.The effect on me was more inward, a strange emotion which left me perfectly still; and for the moment of silence Blunt looked more fatal than ever.

"I understand it didn't last very long," he addressed us politely again."And no wonder! The sort of talk she would have heard during that first springtime in Paris would have put an impress on a much less receptive personality; for of course Allegre didn't close his doors to his friends and this new apparition was not of the sort to make them keep away.After that first morning she always had somebody to ride at her bridle hand.Old Doyen, the sculptor, was the first to approach them.At that age a man may venture on anything.He rides a strange animal like a circus horse.Rita had spotted him out of the corner of her eye as he passed them, putting up his enormous paw in a still more enormous glove, airily, you know, like this" (Blunt waved his hand above his head), "to Allegre.He passes on.All at once he wheels his fantastic animal round and comes trotting after them.With the merest casual 'Bonjour, Allegre' he ranges close to her on the other side and addresses her, hat in hand, in that booming voice of his like a deferential roar of the sea very far away.His articulation is not good, and the first words she really made out were 'I am an old sculptor...Of course there is that habit...

But I can see you through all that...'

He put his hat on very much on one side.'I am a great sculptor of women,' he declared.'I gave up my life to them, poor unfortunate creatures, the most beautiful, the wealthiest, the most loved...

Two generations of them...Just look at me full in the eyes, mon enfant.'

"They stared at each other.Dona Rita confessed to me that the old fellow made her heart beat with such force that she couldn't manage to smile at him.And she saw his eyes run full of tears.He wiped them simply with the back of his hand and went on booming faintly.

'Thought so.You are enough to make one cry.I thought my artist's life was finished, and here you come along from devil knows where with this young friend of mine, who isn't a bad smearer of canvases - but it's marble and bronze that you want...I shall finish my artist's life with your face; but I shall want a bit of those shoulders, too...You hear, Allegre, I must have a bit of her shoulders, too.I can see through the cloth that they are divine.If they aren't divine I will eat my hat.Yes, I will do your head and then - nunc dimittis.'

"These were the first words with which the world greeted her, or should I say civilization did; already both her native mountains and the cavern of oranges belonged to a prehistoric age.'Why don't you ask him to come this afternoon?' Allegre's voice suggested gently.'He knows the way to the house.'

"The old man said with extraordinary fervour, 'Oh, yes I will,'

pulled up his horse and they went on.She told me that she could feel her heart-beats for a long time.The remote power of that voice, those old eyes full of tears, that noble and ruined face, had affected her extraordinarily she said.But perhaps what affected her was the shadow, the still living shadow of a great passion in the man's heart.

"Allegre remarked to her calmly: 'He has been a little mad all his life.'"