第33章

"Very well.Now, look here.Be as inexorable as she is herself.Try to humiliate her, to sting her vanity.Do NOT try to move her heart, nor her soul, but the woman's nerves and temperament, for she is both nervous and lymphatic.If you can once awaken desire in her, you are safe.But you must drop these romantic boyish notions of yours.If when once you have her in your eagle's talons you yield a point or draw back, if you so much as stir an eyelid, if she thinks that she can regain her ascendancy over you, she will slip out of your clutches like a fish, and you will never catch her again.Be as inflexible as law.Show no more charity than the headsman.Hit hard, and then hit again.Strike and keep on striking as if you were giving her the knout.Duchesses are made of hard stuff, my dear Armand;there is a sort of feminine nature that is only softened by repeated blows; and as suffering develops a heart in women of that sort, so it is a work of charity not to spare the rod.Do you persevere.Ah! when pain has thoroughly relaxed those nerves and softened the fibres that you take to be so pliant and yielding; when a shrivelled heart has learned to expand and contract and to beat under this discipline; when the brain has capitulated--then, perhaps, passion may enter among the steel springs of this machinery that turns out tears and affectations and languors and melting phrases; then you shall see a most magnificent conflagration (always supposing that the chimney takes fire).The steel feminine system will glow red-hot like iron in the forge; that kind of heat lasts longer than any other, and the glow of it may possibly turn to love.

"Still," he continued, "I have my doubts.And, after all, is it worth while to take so much trouble with the Duchess? Between ourselves a man of my stamp ought first to take her in hand and break her in; I would make a charming woman of her; she is a thoroughbred; whereas, you two left to yourselves will never get beyond the A B C.But you are in love with her, and just now you might not perhaps share my views on this subject----.A pleasant time to you, my children," added Ronquerolles, after a pause.

Then with a laugh: "I have decided myself for facile beauties;they are tender, at any rate, the natural woman appears in their love without any of your social seasonings.A woman that haggles over herself, my poor boy, and only means to inspire love! Well, have her like an extra horse--for show.The match between the sofa and confessional, black and white, queen and knight, conscientious scruples and pleasure, is an uncommonly amusing game of chess.And if a man knows the game, let him be never so little of a rake, he wins in three moves.Now, if I undertook a woman of that sort, I should start with the deliberate purpose of----" His voice sank to a whisper over the last words in Armand's ear, and he went before there was time to reply.

As for Montriveau, he sprang at a bound across the courtyard of the Hotel de Langeais, went unannounced up the stairs straight to the Duchess's bedroom.

"This is an unheard-of thing," she said, hastily wrapping her dressing-gown about her."Armand! this is abominable of you!

Come, leave the room, I beg.Just go out of the room, and go at once.Wait for me in the drawing-room.--Come now!""Dear angel, has a plighted lover no privilege whatsoever?""But, monsieur, it is in the worst possible taste of a plighted lover or a wedded husband to break in like this upon his wife."He came up to the Duchess, took her in his arms, and held her tightly to him.

"Forgive, dear Antoinette; but a host of horrid doubts are fermenting in my heart.""DOUBTS? Fie!--Oh, fie on you!"

"Doubts all but justified.If you loved me, would you make this quarrel? Would you not be glad to see me? Would you not have felt a something stir in your heart? For I, that am not a woman, feel a thrill in my inmost self at the mere sound of your voice.

Often in a ballroom a longing has come upon me to spring to your side and put my arms about your neck.""Oh! if you have doubts of me so long as I am not ready to spring to your arms before all the world, I shall be doubted all my life long, I suppose.Why, Othello was a mere child compared with you!""Ah!" he cried despairingly, "you have no love for me----""Admit, at any rate, that at this moment you are not lovable."Then I have still to find favour in your sight?""Oh, I should think so.Come," added she, "with a little imperious air, go out of the room, leave me.I am not like you;I wish always to find favour in your eyes."Never woman better understood the art of putting charm into insolence, and does not the charm double the effect? is it not enough to infuriate the coolest of men? There was a sort of untrammelled freedom about Mme de Langeais; a something in her eyes, her voice, her attitude, which is never seen in a woman who loves when she stands face to face with him at the mere sight of whom her heart must needs begin to beat.The Marquis de Ronquerolles's counsels had cured Armand of sheepishness; and further, there came to his aid that rapid power of intuition which passion will develop at moments in the least wise among mortals, while a great man at such a time possesses it to the full.He guessed the terrible truth revealed by the Duchess's nonchalance, and his heart swelled with the storm like a lake rising in flood.

"If you told me the truth yesterday, be mine, dear Antoinette,"he cried; "you shall----"

"In the first place," said she composedly, thrusting him back as he came nearer--"in the first place, you are not to compromise me.My woman might overhear you.Respect me, I beg of you.Your familiarity is all very well in my boudoir in an evening; here it is quite different.Besides, what may your `you shall' mean? `You shall.' No one as yet has ever used that word to me.It is quite ridiculous, it seems to me, absolutely ridiculous.