the large clock with face all of blue and hours marked in gold, which adorns the slender, upright spire of the english church, sounded ten; its grave and harmonious tones spread themselves in long, far-reaching waves from the dorf upon the light and fresh morning air. standing at the door of the h?tel caspar badruth, lucio sabini, who was just dressed, aristocratically fashionable, with his slender, tall figure, and calm and peaceful countenance beneath the brim of his soft, dark grey felt hat, compared the time with his watch. with even and elastic step, casting a limpid, tranquil glance, now at the bright celestial blue of the horizon, now at the deep, dense greenery of the pines, now at the bright green of the dewy meadows, regarding everything with eyes that were kindly and at times full of tenderness, he descended the footpath from the dorf to st. moritz bad. ahead of him a woman's figure was also going with even step, in a costume of correct cut, though perhaps a little severe, of a rather purple hue, with a white hat surrounded by a purple veil. in the features and very fair hair, proud profile, and pale cheeks he recognised the comtesse marcella de la ferté guyon, a young french lady whom he knew slightly, from meeting her for two or three years at st. moritz, and who always exercised upon him the attraction of silent and proud women who surround themselves with mystery, to conceal a love, a sorrow, a tragedy, or even to hide their aridness and coldness for all such things which for a long time have been dead within them.
"do i disturb you, madam?" he asked, placing himself beside the countess, after having greeted her, with the easy yet serious grace that was particularly his.
"oh, no!" she replied, with a very slight smile, both courteous and proud. "i am going to st. moritz bad."
"so am i. you are going for a walk like me?"
"like you, i think not," she murmured, but kindly.
"and why, signora?"
the countess was silent for an instant, as if hesitating in her reserve.
"i am going to church," she replied hurriedly, sotto voce.
"ah," exclaimed the other, reproved, "is it a festival to-day?"
"no, it is not a feast day," she murmured, without adding anything further.
"are you going to the catholic church of the bad?"
"yes; it is less full of well-known people, of smart people," she murmured, with lowered eyes.
"i imagine, madam, that you will pray for all sinners?" he asked, forcing a smile, to enliven the gloomy conversation.
"i try to," she replied vaguely.
"then through you i am sure to obtain grace from heaven," he concluded, with a smile.
the lady glanced at him with her proud, already distant eyes, from which in the past rivers of tears must have flowed, clouding them for ever. lucio bowed, pressed the hand she offered him, and left her, walking a little more rapidly to get away and leave her in freedom.
"she is a tower of ivory, but so interesting," he thought, as he lightly resumed his way in the soft air.
for an instant, moved by a keen desire to conquer and penetrate that solitary, closed soul, he thought of getting francis mornand, who was the fashionable chronicler of the engadine, to tell him the private history of the comtesse marcella de la ferté guyon, to lay siege to that heart, and with a complete knowledge of its long agony, to obtain a precious victory there, where no one should again penetrate. that sudden and strange desire of his of conquest over the prisoner who believed in her own freedom fascinated him. but a young woman's face was smiling at him from some distance as she came towards him, and he halted beside a young girl who was climbing towards the dorf with rapid steps, while her mother, a middle-aged woman, followed more slowly. she was a girl of rare beauty, with large, dark eyes furnished with long, dark lashes, a lovely mouth curved up a little at the corners, like that of a greek statue of erigone, and a white complexion over which was suffused a flush of health.
still, every now and then the eyes became hard, with a scrutinising glance—the mouth closed with a half-mocking and half-disdainful smile, and her whole countenance, that resembled a flower of youth and beauty, seemed a flower laden with poison. lucio sabini and lia norescu, a young roumanian, immediately plunged into a lively, gay, and slightly sarcastic conversation, while the mother listened silently, with an air of complacency and indulgence.
"ah, here is our divine lia!" lucio exclaimed, as he held the little gloved hand in his. "st. moritz was dead without you."
"the society for the embellishment of st. moritz made me come," she replied, laughing; "the kurverein wrote to me, and i couldn't resist."
"and how many suitors? how many flirts?"
"many, far too many; i can spare some for other girls."
"new and old?"
"many new and few old; nearly all new."
"handsome, rich, amusing?"
"nearly all tiresome."
and a gesture of contempt contracted her mouth, that so much resembled a flower, and the eyes became wicked.
"and with whom are you flirting, sabini?"
"i should like to flirt with you; but you have always spurned me."
"always!"
"even now?"
"even now. why don't you flirt with madame lawrence, the beautiful lawrence, the divine lawrence, this year's professional beauty?"
"thanks! she is too beautiful for me. like you, she has twelve flirts."
"i have fourteen," replied lia norescu promptly, as she flashed her magnificent eyes. "and miss clarke, with her dowry of fifty, one hundred, or one hundred and fifty millions; why not pay court to her?"
never in a soft womanly voice, in a voice young and sweet, in a french pronounced exquisitely, hissed such irony and such bitterness.
"i do not pay court to millionaire girls," replied lucio sabini, a little coldly.
"you court the others, the poor ones," replied lia vivaciously; "but you marry neither: you don't want to marry anyone."
"how do you know?"
"oh, i am always well informed," replied lia profoundly; "it is impossible to deceive me."
"then you are a girl without illusions?"
"i am a monster, sabini; i have no illusions." and they left each other, both laughing loudly and falsely at the last word. ah, he knew the secret of lia norescu, the beautiful roumanian girl, who spoke and wrote five languages perfectly, who was of high mettle, and who for five years had been everywhere cosmopolitan society was to be found, at cairo, nice, rome, st. moritz, ostend, and biarritz, in search of a rich husband—very rich, immensely rich—for she had not even a penny for a dowry. her father and mother, her brothers and cousins, all urged on the beautiful girl this marriage of money, and some of them, at an immense sacrifice, provided the travelling expenses; some gave the dresses, and some the cloaks and hats. lia norescu appeared everywhere, like a flower laden with an irresistible attraction, followed by the quiet and indulgent mother who adored her daughter, and everywhere she had her court of admirers, an ever-changing court. no one held out more than one or two seasons, all vanished and others appeared. but no one remained, and the flower within her soul contained an ever greater poison of disillusion.
"poor little girl, poor little girl," murmured sabini to himself, with sincere sympathy, as he withdrew. he was sorry for that splendid creature, forced at twenty-two to fight a hard fate without results, when her beauty had the most imperious right to riches and luxury. and softly his spirit fell in love with the idea of being able to offer to the young woman of irresistible beauty the treasures of the earth, of offering her a rich and powerful friend, or a brother of his, or himself, perhaps, so that all the deep poison which rendered that flower venomous might vanish, and lia norescu might be a colour, a perfume, a splendour without cark and fret, without blemish.
by then his steps had absently led him to the meadows that surround the catholic church of st. moritz bad, and the soft grass bathed by dew, and brushed by hidden rivulets, exhaled a pungent fragrance. desirous of sensations even more intense in their simplicity, he ascended a path that leads to a wood dominating the lake. already the path, in that vivid, bright hour, in which the colour almost of heaven was reflected on everything, with an air which to breathe was almost to drink the elixir of life, was being traversed by men and women, in couples and groups; some walking hurriedly in their desire to immerse themselves in the shade of the wood, others more slowly, but nearly all silently. lucio sabini's acute eye, on the alert for every fresh face, a lady's especially, discovered here and there those who, as they traversed the little path bathed by the sun, which further on penetrates beneath the trees, as under a soft arch of verdure, carried in their hearts and glances and actions the soft and exhilarating beginning of a little, or perhaps a big love affair. even more acutely he scrutinised the faces and expressions of those who, tired and oppressed by a love declaration too long prolonged, at which they had grown accustomed, now refreshed and rested, were again joining hands up there, as they recognised the clasp of yore amongst the protecting trees.
he entered the wood alone. a secret, biting nostalgia seized him because of his solitude on that heavenly morning. more restlessly and inquisitively his eyes sought those he met, the eyes of women and girls who, dressed in white—graceful matutinal sprites—came and went beneath the verdure of the trees, which here and there the sun's rays rendered bright and yellow. in a corner of the wood, beneath a lofty pine he discovered a well-known figure. the woman was seated on a great white boulder, and with lowered eyes was tracing with her parasol amongst the grass and stones some strange letters of a name or a word. approaching softly he recognised a hungarian lady, who was staying alone in the same hotel—a clara howath, who always appeared at meal-times carrying a book which she read during the repast. she had a rather dissipated face, with two vague, sad eyes and a little pale mouth like a dead rose: she was fashionably dressed, as seemed natural to her. lucio drew nearer, and when he was close to the hungarian lady he noticed that she was weeping silently.
"are you in trouble, madame?" he asked in a low voice, discreetly.
clara howath showed no surprise at his approach, or that he should be talking to her and asking her so much. she raised her tear-stricken face, and replied naturally:
"yes, signor."
"can i help you?" he insisted in an insinuating voice, slightly moved.
"no, signor," she replied simply.
as he stood beside her and hid her from those who were passing in the little path, he looked at her attentively. her right hand was loaded with precious stones, the other wore on the ring finger a gold circlet, a love token.
"have you lost someone—someone who was dear to you?"
oh, what desolation there was in the woman's eyes as she raised them to him, so supplicatingly and so desperately.
"is he dead?" he asked, disturbed.
"no," she said, "i have lost him, but he is not dead."
the pale mouth was twisted in sorrow, as if she wished to stifle a great cry, or a sob. slightly pale, lucio sabini said in a low voice:
"i beg your pardon, signora."
"it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter," she replied, with sad sweetness, shaking her head.
lucio sabini's step became slower as he withdrew into the wood. suddenly the shining light of the sun amidst the high branches seemed colourless to him, and feeble the twittering of the little birds among the bushes, and languishing the flight of the white butterflies amidst the fragrant clumps of wild mint and dark wild vanilla. his heart contracted with sorrow for the strange lady, clara howath, whose name alone he knew, whose deep grief, breathed forth from her soul, made her no longer recognise either the shame of tears or womanly reserve, to such an extent as to tell all her misery to a stranger in a public road, amongst strange people passing and staring. he would have liked to have been the other; he who was not dead but whom the deserted woman had lost for ever. he would have liked to have been the other, so far-off and forgetful, the traitor who had perjured himself and forgotten; so that he might return to the wood, where the azure of the firmament and the blue of the lake peeped amidst the trees, to take that unhappy woman in his arms and kiss away her tears.
drawing farther away he was once more lucio sabini, and the visions seen that morning were already settling in his imagination; but still more feverishly within him became the need of the unknown love, of the unknown lady whom he had come to seek amongst the mountains, of the woman whom he should love an hour, a day, a month, and whom he should never see again, who perhaps might love him for a summer evening or a summer morning: but an unknown woman of another land and another race.
up above, in a remote corner of the wood, he halted and sat down on a tree trunk, which perhaps had been struck down by lightning in an autumnal storm, or perhaps had been transported from the heights of corvatsch by the fury of the torrent in winter. the trunk lay there amongst the tall grass and rocks, the little violas with yellow eyes, and tall and slender marguerites. lucio sat down and drew from his coat pocket a lady's purse which he had found the day before, towards dusk, at the dorf, in a solitary lane close to the tennis-courts. it was a smallish purse of chain silver, with a broad encircling silver hinge adorned with three large turquoises; a silver chain kept it suspended through two rings. for the fourth time lucio opened the lady's purse, and again examined its contents, minutely and curiously. first of all there was a little handkerchief of white cambric, adorned with a fine embroidery of white flowers, and in the corner was a tiny initial—an "l." from the cambric a subtle and feverish perfume exhaled: every time as lucio placed it to his nostrils he had a sense of delight. he repeated the gesture, and again he had the same sensation. the purse also contained, slipped through a gold ring, some charms in silver and gold: a medal for a good journey with a figure of st. christopher; a golden olive, harbinger of peace; a little bluish-green scarab; another medal with just a name inscribed and nothing else—lilian; and a small hand on which were engraved some oriental figures. one by one lucio for the fourth time passed these small jewels in review, turning and returning them between his fingers, seeking to discover something fresh. then he set himself to study the last object which that feminine purse contained.
the last object, the most mysterious and important, was a little pocket-book of dark blue leather, closed by a slender silver pencil. inside, on the first page, was stuck down a four-leaved clover, a little shamrock that had been sought for and found in the fields, and after being dried, had been pasted on the first leaf, and underneath it in fine letters, firm and long, was the name—ever that name—lilian. many of the pages of the pocket-book were covered with lines of writing, sometimes in ink, sometimes in pencil. they seemed to be notes thrown there according to the day and the state of the soul. without stirring from his ruined tree trunk, the dark bark of which was peeling, with his feet amidst the deep grass and woodland flowers, lucio re-read page for page what the unknown lilian had written in the pocket-book. a date in english on a page, a date which went back two years, to december, and still in english, portia's exclamation in the merchant of venice: "the world is too heavy for my little body." further, still in english, a singular phrase: "one must wait in hope and faith. someone will come: surely he will come." then, in a medley, the name of a french or german woman, with some address in paris or vienna. on another page, another character, still feminine, had written in english a farewell: "dear, dearest lilian, don't forget me; i won't forget you," with a signature—ethel. lucio sabini read on with immense attention, examining the phrases, words, and letters, seeking to divine even more than they said and showed. in french, on another page, again in the writing of the mysterious one, were two questions: "must one live to love? must one die to love?" and at last on the penultimate page, in a scrawling writing, like a child that is striving to write something he does not understand, in almost round letters, was a verse of dante's, copied with an orthographical error: "amor che a cor gentil ratto si apprende."
each time at these words so vibrant with love's emotion which the unknown woman's hand had copied letter for letter, which surely she must have understood or someone have explained to her; at these words of the poet lucio sabini trembled, charmed as he was by brief loves encompassed by poesy, because of their mystery and their brevity.
now there came the last page, where in haste the woman had written in pencil in french: "how high and close to heaven are the mountains! i should like to return here in winter, to the highest mountain, amidst the whitest and purest snow...."
there was nothing else. mechanically lucio closed the book, replacing the slender silver pencil. he replaced, too, the little cambric kerchief, the charms, and the little book in the purse, thereby stretching the clasp to close it. for some time, as he pursued his fantasy, he dreamed of her who had lost that purse, and he saw in his dream the figures of many ladies who surprised him and looked at him, who smiled and beckoned to him to follow them, and each of them, it seemed to him, might be the unknown lilian; now dark and handsome, now slender as a reed, now with eyes sky-blue and smiling, now with eyes black and languishing.
suddenly in the air the dorf clock, blue with gilded hours, struck ponderously and harmoniously half-past eleven. the sound spread itself along the lake and in the woods. lucio sabini burst into laughter at his dream and at himself. perhaps—in fact surely—she who had lost the purse so full of poetical matter, and bore the floral name of lilian, might be an english old maid, angular, with pince-nez. lucio laughed at himself and his dream, which melted in the clear air of that heavenly morning.
