第111章

It was long since it had thus plunged and reared under his widening waistcoat, leaving him, the next minute, with an empty breast and hot temples.He wondered if it was thus that his son's conducted itself in the presence of Miss Fanny Beaufort--and decided that it was not."It functions as actively, no doubt, but the rhythm is different," he reflected, recalling the cool composure with which the young man had announced his engagement, and taken for granted that his family would approve.

"The difference is that these young people take it for granted that they're going to get whatever they want, and that we almost always took it for granted that we shouldn't.Only, I wonder--the thing one's so certain of in advance: can it ever make one's heart beat as wildly?"It was the day after their arrival in Paris, and the spring sunshine held Archer in his open window, above the wide silvery prospect of the Place Vendome.One of the things he had stipulated--almost the only one--when he had agreed to come abroad with Dallas, was that, in Paris, he shouldn't be made to go to one of the newfangled "palaces.""Oh, all right--of course," Dallas good-naturedly agreed."I'll take you to some jolly old-fashioned place--the Bristol say--" leaving his father speechless at hearing that the century-long home of kings and emperors was now spoken of as an old-fashioned inn, where one went for its quaint inconveniences and lingering local colour.

Archer had pictured often enough, in the first impatient years, the scene of his return to Paris; then the personal vision had faded, and he had simply tried to see the city as the setting of Madame Olenska's life.

Sitting alone at night in his library, after the household had gone to bed, he had evoked the radiant outbreak of spring down the avenues of horse-chestnuts, the flowers and statues in the public gardens, the whiff of lilacs from the flower-carts, the majestic roll of the river under the great bridges, and the life of art and study and pleasure that filled each mighty artery to bursting.

Now the spectacle was before him in its glory, and as he looked out on it he felt shy, old-fashioned, inadequate:

a mere grey speck of a man compared with the ruthless magnificent fellow he had dreamed of being....

Dallas's hand came down cheerily on his shoulder.

"Hullo, father: this is something like, isn't it?" They stood for a while looking out in silence, and then the young man continued: "By the way, I've got a message for you: the Countess Olenska expects us both at half-past five."

He said it lightly, carelessly, as he might have imparted any casual item of information, such as the hour at which their train was to leave for Florence the next evening.Archer looked at him, and thought he saw in his gay young eyes a gleam of his great-grandmother Mingott's malice.

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Dallas pursued."Fanny made me swear to do three things while I was in Paris: get her the score of the last Debussy songs, go to the Grand-Guignol and see Madame Olenska.You know she was awfully good to Fanny when Mr.Beaufort sent her over from Buenos Ayres to the Assomption.Fanny hadn't any friends in Paris, and Madame Olenska used to be kind to her and trot her about on holidays.Ibelieve she was a great friend of the first Mrs.Beaufort's.

And she's our cousin, of course.So I rang her up this morning, before I went out, and told her you and Iwere here for two days and wanted to see her."Archer continued to stare at him."You told her Iwas here?"

"Of course--why not?" Dallas's eye brows went up whimsically.Then, getting no answer, he slipped his arm through his father's with a confidential pressure.

"I say, father: what was she like?"

Archer felt his colour rise under his son's unabashed gaze."Come, own up: you and she were great pals, weren't you? Wasn't she most awfully lovely?""Lovely? I don't know.She was different.""Ah--there you have it! That's what it always comes to, doesn't it? When she comes, SHE'S DIFFERENT--and one doesn't know why.It's exactly what I feel about Fanny."His father drew back a step, releasing his arm."About Fanny? But, my dear fellow--I should hope so! Only Idon't see--"

"Dash it, Dad, don't be prehistoric! Wasn't she--once--your Fanny?"

Dallas belonged body and soul to the new generation.

He was the first-born of Newland and May Archer, yet it had never been possible to inculcate in him even the rudiments of reserve."What's the use of making mysteries? It only makes people want to nose 'em out,"he always objected when enjoined to discretion.But Archer, meeting his eyes, saw the filial light under their banter.

"My Fanny?"

"Well, the woman you'd have chucked everything for: only you didn't," continued his surprising son.

"I didn't," echoed Archer with a kind of solemnity.

"No: you date, you see, dear old boy.But mother said--""Your mother?"

"Yes: the day before she died.It was when she sent for me alone--you remember? She said she knew we were safe with you, and always would be, because once, when she asked you to, you'd given up the thing you most wanted."Archer received this strange communication in silence.

His eyes remained unseeingly fixed on the thronged sunlit square below the window.At length he said in a low voice: "She never asked me.""No.I forgot.You never did ask each other anything, did you? And you never told each other anything.You just sat and watched each other, and guessed at what was going on underneath.A deaf-and-dumb asylum, in fact! Well, I back your generation for knowing more about each other's private thoughts than we ever have time to find out about our own.--I say, Dad," Dallas broke off, "you're not angry with me? If you are, let's make it up and go and lunch at Henri's.

I've got to rush out to Versailles afterward."Archer did not accompany his son to Versailles.He preferred to spend the afternoon in solitary roamings through Paris.He had to deal all at once with the packed regrets and stifled memories of an inarticulate lifetime.