Complete Works of Joseph Conrad (Illustrated) (605 page)

That afternoon, after waiting in vain for Lieutenant Ral to appear outside in the usual way, Arlette, the mistress of Escampobar, had gone unwillingly into the kitchen where Catherine sat upright in a heavy capacious wooden armchair, the back of which rose above the top of her white muslin cap. Even in her old age, even in her hours of ease, Catherine preserved the upright carriage of the family that had held Escampobar for so many generations. It would have been easy to believe that, like some characters famous in the world, Catherine would have wished to die standing up and with unbowed shoulders.

With her sense of hearing undecayed she detected the light footsteps in the salle long before Arlette entered the kitchen. That woman, who had faced alone and unaided (except for her brother’s comprehending silence) the anguish of passion in a forbidden love, and of terrors comparable to those of the judgment Day, neither turned her face, quiet without serenity, nor her eyes, fearless but without fire, in the direction of her niece.

Arlette glanced on all sides, even at the walls, even at the mound of ashes under the big overmantel, nursing in its heart a spark of fire, before she sat down and leaned her elbow on the table.

``You wander about like a soul in pain,’’ said her aunt, sitting by the hearth like an old queen on her throne.

``And you sit here eating your heart out.’’

``Formerly,’’ remarked Catherine, ``old women like me could always go over their prayers, but now . . .’’

``I believe you have not been to church for years. I remember Scevola telling me that a long time ago. Was it because you didn’t like people’s eyes? I have fancied sometimes that most people in the world must have been massacred long ago.’’

Catherine turned her face away. Arlette rested her head on her half-closed hand, and her eyes, losing their steadiness, began to tremble amongst cruel visions. She got up suddenly and caressed the thin, half-averted, withered cheek with the tips of her fingers, and in a low voice, with that marvellous cadence that plucked at one’s heart-strings, she said coaxingly:

``Those were dreams, weren’t they?’’

In her immobilitv the old woman called with all the might of her will for the presence of Peyrol. She had never been able to shake off a superstitious fear of that niece restored to her from the terrors of a Judgment Day in which the world had been given over to the devils. She was always afraid that this girl, wandering about with restless eyes and a dim smile on her silent lips, would suddenly say something atrocious, unfit to be heard, calling for vengeance from heaven, unless Peyrol were by. That stranger come from ``par dela les mers’’ was out of it altogether, cared probably for no one in the world but had struck her imagination by his massive aspect, his deliberation suggesting a mighty force like the reposeful attitude of a lion. Arlette desisted from caressing the irresponsive cheek, exclaimed petulantly: ``I am awake now!’’ and went out of the kitchen without having asked her aunt the question she had meant to ask, which was whether she knew what had become of the lieutenant.

Her heart had failed her. She let herself drop on the bench outside the door of the salle. ``What is the matter with them all?’’ she thought. ``I can’t make them out. What wonder is it that I have not been able to sleep?’’ Even Peyrol, so different from all mankind, who from the first moment when he stood before her had the power to soothe her aimless unrest, even Peyrol would now sit for hours with the lieutenant on the bench, gazing into the air and keeping him in talk about things without sense, as if on purpose to prevent him from thinking of her. Well, he could not do that. But the enormous change implied in the fact that every day had a to-morrow now, and that all the people around her had ceased to be mere phantoms for her wandering glances to glide over without concern, made her feel the need of support from somebody, from somewhere. She could have cried aloud for it.

She sprang up and walked along the whole front of the farm building. At the end of the wall enclosing the orchard she called out in a modulated undertone: ``Eugne,’’ not because she hoped that the lieutenant was anywhere within earshot, but for the pleasure of hearing the sound of the name uttered for once above a whisper. She turned about and at the end of the wall on the yard side she repeated her call, drinking in the sound that came from her lips, ``Eugne, Eugne,’’ with a sort of half-exulting despair. It was in such dizzy moments that she wanted a steadying support. But all was still. She heard no friendly murmur, not even a sigh. Above her head under the thin grey sky a big mulberry tree stirred no leaf. Step by step, as if unconsciously, she began to move down the track. At the end of fifty yards she opened the inland view, the roofs of the village between the green tops of the platanes overshadowing the fountain, and just beyond the flat blue-grey level of the salt lagoon, smooth and dull like a slab of lead. But what drew her on was the church-tower, where, in a round arch, she could see the black speck of the bell which escaping the requisitions of the Republican wars, and dwelling mute above the locked-up empty church, had only lately recovered its voice. She ran on, but when she had come near enough to make out the figures moving about the village fountain, she checked herself, hesitated a moment and then took the footpath leading to the presbytery.

She pushed open the little gate with the broken latch. The humble building of rough stones, from between which much mortar had crumbled out, looked as though it had been sinking slowly into the ground. The beds of the plot in front were choked with weeds, because the abb had no taste for gardening. When the heiress of Escampobar opened the door, he was walking up and down the largest room which was his bedroom and sitting room and where he also took his meals. He was a gaunt man with a long, as if convulsed, face. In his young days he had been tutor to the sons of a great noble, but he did not emigrate with his employer. Neither did he submit to the Republic. He had lived in his native land like a hunted wild beast, and there had been many tales of his activities, warlike and others. When the hierarchy was re-established he found no favour in the eyes of his superiors. He had remained too much of a Royalist. He had accepted, without a word, the charge of this miserable parish, where he had acquired influence quickly enough. His sacerdotalism lay in him like a cold passion. Though accessible enough, he never walked abroad without his breviary, acknowledging the solemnly bared heads by a curt nod. He was not exactly feared, but some of the oldest inhabitants who remembered the previous incumbent, an old man who died in the garden after having been dragged out of bed by some patriots anxious to take him to prison in Hyres, jerked their heads sideways in a knowing manner when their cur was mentioned.

On seeing this apparition in an Arlesian cap and silk skirt, a white fichu, and otherwise as completely different as any princess could be from the rustics with whom he was in daily contact, his face expressed the blankest astonishment. Then — -for he knew enough of the gossip of his community — -his straight, thick eyebrows came together inimically. This was no doubt the woman of whom he had heard his parishioners talk with bated breath as having given herself and her property up to a Jacobin, a Toulon sans-culotte who had either delivered her parents to execution or had murdered them himself during the first three days of massacres. No one was very sure which it was, but the rest was current knowledge. The abb, though persuaded that any amount of moral turpitude was possible in a godless country, had not accepted all that tale literally. No doubt those people were republican and impious, and the state of affairs up there was scandalous and horrible. He struggled with his feelings of repulsion and managed to smooth his brow and waited. He could not imagine what that woman with mature form and a youthful face could want at the presbytery. Suddenly it occurred to him that perhaps she wanted to thank him — -it was a very old occurrence — -for interposing between the fury of the villagers and that man. He couldn’t call him, even in his thoughts, her husband, for apart from all other circumstances, that connection could not imply any kind of marriage to a priest, even had there been legal form observed. His visitor was apparently disconcerted by the expression of his face, the austere aloofness of his attitude, and only a low murmur escaped her lips. He bent his head and was not very certain what he had heard.

``You come to seek my aid?’’ he asked in a doubting tone.

She nodded slightly, and the abb went to the door she had left half open and looked out. There was not a soul in sight between the presbytery and the village, or between the presbytery and the church. He went back to face her, saying:

``We are as alone as we can well be. The old woman in the kitchen is as deaf as a post.’’

Now that he had been looking at Arlette closer the abb felt a sort of dread. The carmine of those lips, the pellucid, unstained, unfathomable blackness of those eyes, the pallor of her cheeks, suggested to him something provokingly pagan, something distastefully different from the common sinners of this earth. And now she was ready to speak. He arrested her with a raised hand.

``Wait,’’ he said. ``I have never seen you before. I don’t even know properly who you are. None of you belong to my flock — -for you are from Escampobar. are you not?’’ Sombre under their bony arches, his eyes fastened on her face, noticed the delicacy of features, the naive pertinacity of her stare. She said:

``I am the daughter.’’

``The daughter! . . . Oh! I see . . . Much evil is spoken of you.’’

She said a little impatiently: ``By that rabble?’’ and the priest remained mute for a moment. ``What do they say? In my father’s time they wouldn’t have dared to say anything. The only thing I saw of them for years and years was when they were yelping like curs on the heels of Scevola.’’

The absence of scorn in her tone was perfectly annihilating. Gentle sounds flowed from her lips and a disturbing charm from her strange equanimity. The abb frowned heavily at these fascinations, which seemed to have in them something diabolic.

``They are simple souls, neglected, fallen back into darkness. It isn’t their fault. They have natural feelings of humanity which were outraged. I saved him from their indignation. There are things that must be left to divine justice.’’

He was exasperated by the unconsciousness of that fair face.

``That man whose name you have just pronounced and which I have heard coupled with the epithet of `blood-drinker’ is regarded as the master of Escampobar Farm. He has been living there for years. How is that?’’

``Yes, it is a long time ago since he brought me back to the house. Years ago. Catherine let him stay.’’

``Who is Catherine?’’ the abb asked harshly.

``She is my father’s sister who was left at home to wait. She had given up all hope of seeing any of us again, when one morning Scevola came with me to the door. Then she let him stay. He is a poor creature. What else could Catherine have done? And what is it to us up there how the people in the village regard him?’’ She dropped her eyes and seemed to fall into deep thought, then added, ``It was only later that I discovered that he was a poor creature, even quite lately. They call him blood-drinker, do they? What of that? All the time he was afraid of his own shadow.’’

She ceased but did not raise her eyes.

``You are no longer a child,’’ began the abb in a severe voice, frowning at her downcast eyes, and he heard a murmur: ``Not very long.’’ He disregarded it and continued: ``I ask you, is this all that you have to tell me about that man? I hope that at least you are no hypocrite.’’

``Monsieur l’Abb,’’ she said, raising her eyes fearlessly, ``what more am I to tell you about him? I can tell you things that will make your hair stand on end, but it wouldn’t be about him.’’

For all answer the abb made a weary gesture and turned away to walk up and down the room. His face expressed neither curiosity nor pity, but a sort of repugnance which he made an effort to overcome. He dropped into a deep and shabby old armchair, the only object of luxury in the room, and pointed to a wooden straight-backed stool. Arlette sat down on it and began to speak. The abb listened, but looking far away; his big bony hands rested on the arms of the chair. After the first words he interrupted her: ``This is your own story you are telling me.’’

``Yes,’’ said Arlette.

``Is it necessary that I should know?’’

``Yes, Monsieur l’Abb.’’

``But why?’’

He bent his head a little, without, however, ceasing to look far away. Her voice now was very low. Suddenly the abb threw himself back.

``You want to tell me your story because you have fallen in love with a man?’’

``No, because that has brought me back to myself. Nothing else could have done it.’’

He turned his head to look at her grimly, but he said nothing and looked away again. He listened. At the beginning he muttered once or twice, ``Yes, I have heard that,’’ and then kept silent, not looking at her at all. Once he interrupted her by a question: ``You were confirmed before the convent was forcibly entered and the nuns dispersed?’’

``Yes,’’ she said, ``a year before that or more.’’

``And then two of those ladies took you with them towards Toulon.’’

``Yes, the other girls had their relations near by. They took me with them thinking to communicate with my parents, but it was difficult. Then the English came and my parents sailed over to try and get some news of me. It was safe for my father to be in Toulon then. Perhaps you think that he was a traitor to his country?’’ she asked, and waited with parted lips. With an impassible face the abb murmured: ``He was a good Royalist,’’ in a tone of bitter fatalism, which seemed to absolve that man and all the other men of whose actions and errors he had ever heard.

For a long time, Arlette continued, her father could not discover the house where the nuns had taken refuge. He only obtained some information on the very day before the English evacuated Toulon. Late in the day he appeared before her and took her away. The town was full of retreating foreign troops. Her father left her with her mother and went out again to make preparations for sailing home that very night; but the tartane was no longer in the place where he had left her lying. The two Madrague men that he had for a crew had disappeared also. Thus the family was trapped in that town full of tumult and confusion. Ships and houses were bursting into flames. Appalling explosions of gunpowder shook the earth. She spent that night on her knees with her face hidden in her mother’s lap, while her father kept watch by the barricaded door with a pistol in each hand.