The Big Drum - LightNovelsOnl.com
You're reading novel online at LightNovelsOnl.com. Please use the follow button to get notifications about your favorite novels and its latest chapters so you can come back anytime and won't miss anything.
[_She seats herself in the chair by the fauteuil-stool and motions him to sit by her. He does so._
OTTOLINE.
Yes, they were true; but they are true of me no longer. I am greatly changed, Philip.
PHILIP.
[_Eyeing her._] You are more beautiful than ever.
OTTOLINE.
H's.h.!.+--changed in my character, disposition, view of things. Life has gone sadly with me since we parted.
PHILIP.
Indeed? I--I'm grieved.
OTTOLINE.
My marriage was an utter failure. You heard?
PHILIP.
[_Shaking his head._] No.
OTTOLINE.
No? [_Smiling faintly._] I thought _everybody_ hears when a marriage is a failure. [_Mournfully._] The fact remains; it was a terrible mistake.
Poor Lucien! I don't blame him for my nine years of unhappiness. I engaged myself to him in a hurry--out of pique----
PHILIP.
Pique?
OTTOLINE.
Within a few hours of that fatal visit of mine to your lodgings.
[_Looking at him significantly._] It was _that_ that drove me to it.
PHILIP.
[_Staring at her._] _That----!_
OTTOLINE.
[_Simply._] Yes, Phil.
PHILIP.
Otto!
OTTOLINE.
[_Plucking at the arm of her chair._] You see--you see, notwithstanding the vulgarity of my mind, I had a deep respect for you. Even then there were wholesome signs in me! [_Shrugging her shoulders plaintively._]
Whether I should have ended by obeying my better instincts, and accepting you, I can't say. I believe I should. I--I believe I should.
At any rate, I had already begun to chafe under the consciousness that, while you loved me, you had no esteem for me.
PHILIP.
[_Remorsefully._] My dear!
OTTOLINE.
[_Raising her head._] That scene between us in the Rue Soufflot set my blood on fire. To have a request refused me was sufficiently mortifying; but to be whipped, scourged, scarified, into the bargain--! I flew down your stairs after I left you, and drove home, scorching with indignation; and next morning I sent for Lucien--a blind adorer!--and promised to be his wife. [_Leaning back._] _Comprenez-vous, maintenant?_ Solely to hurt _you_; to hurt you, the one man among my acquaintances whom I--admired!
[_She searches for her handkerchief. He rises and goes to the mantelpiece and stares at the flowers in the grate._
PHILIP.
[_Almost inaudibly._] Oh, Otto!
OTTOLINE.
[_Wiping a tear from her cheek._] Heigh, dear me! Whenever I go over the past, and that's not seldom, I can't help thinking you might have been a little gentler with me--a girl of three-and-twenty--and have made allowances. [_Blowing her nose._] What was Dad before he went out to Buenos Aires with his wife and children; only a junior partner in a small concern in the City! Wasn't it natural that, when he came back to Europe, prosperous but a n.o.body, he should be eager to elbow himself into a respectable social position, and that his belongings should have caught the fever?
PHILIP.
[_Wretchedly._] Yes--yes----
OTTOLINE.
[_Rising and wandering to the writing-table._] First we descended upon Paris--you know; but Paris didn't respond very satisfactorily. Plenty of smart men flocked round us--_la belle Mademoiselle Filson_ drew _them_ to the Avenue Montaigne!----
PHILIP.
[_Under his breath, turning._] T'scht!
OTTOLINE.
But the women were either hopelessly _bourgeoises_ or slightly _decla.s.see_. [_Inspecting some of the pieces of bric-a-brac upon the table._] Which decided us to attack London--and induced me to pay my call on you in the Rue Soufflot----
PHILIP.
I understand.
OTTOLINE.
To coax you to herald us in your weekly _causeries_. [_Wincing._]
Horrible of me, _that_ was; horrible, horrible, horrible! [_Replacing an object upon the table and moving to the other side of the room._]
