The Secret Power Read online

  CHAPTER II

  A laugh, clear and cold as a sleigh-bell on a frosty night rang out onthe silence.

  "Why did you run away from me?"

  He replied at once, and brusquely.

  "Because I was tired of you!"

  She laughed again. A strange white elf as she looked In the spreadingmoonbeams she was woman to the core, and the disdainful movement of hersmall uplifted head plainly expressed her utter indifference to hisanswer.

  "I followed you"--she said--"I knew I should find you! What are youdoing up here? Shamming to be ill?"

  "Precisely! 'Sham' is as much in my line as yours. I have to 'pretend'in order to be real!"

  "Paradoxical as usual!" and she shrugged her shoulders--"Anyway you'vechosen a good place to do your shamming in. It's quite lovely uphere,--much better than the Plaza. I am at the Plaza."

  "Automobile and all I suppose!" he said, sarcastically--"How manyservants?--how many boxes with how many dresses?"

  She laughed again.

  "That's no concern of yours!" she replied--"I am my own mistress."

  "More's the pity!" he retorted.

  They faced each other. The moon, now soaring high in clear space, sheda luminous rain of silver over all the visible breadth of wild country,and their two figures looked mere dark silhouettes half drowned in thepearly glamour.

  "It's worth travelling all the long miles to see!" she declared,stretching her arms out with an enthusiastic gesture--"Oh, beautifulbig moon of California! I'm glad I came!"

  He was silent.

  "You are not glad!" she continued--"You are a bear-man in hiding, andthe moon says nothing to you!"

  "It says nothing because it IS nothing"--he answered, impatiently--"Itis a dead planet without heart,--a mere shell of extinct volcanoeswhere fire once burned, and its light is but the reflection of the sunon its barren surface. It is like all women,--but mostly like YOU!"

  She made him a sweeping curtsy so exquisitely graceful that the actionresembled nothing so much as the sway of a lily in a light wind.

  "Thanks, gentle Knight!--flower of chivalry!" she said--"I see you loveme in spite of yourself!"

  He made a quick stride towards her,--then stopped. "Love you!" heechoed,--then laughed loudly and derisively-"Great God! Love you? YOU?If I did I should be mad! When will you learn the truth of me?--thatwomen are less in my estimation than the insects crawling on a blade ofgrass or spawning in a stagnant pond?--that they have no power to moveme to the smallest pulse of passion or desire?--and that you, of allyour sex, seem to my mind the most--"

  "Hateful?" she suggested, smilingly.

  "No--the most complete and unmitigated bore!"

  "Dreadful!" and she made a face at him like that of a naughtychild,--then she sank down on the sun-baked turf in an easyhalf-reclining attitude--"It's certainly much worse to be a bore thanto be hated. Hate is quite a live sentiment,--besides it always means,or HAS meant--love! You can't hate anything that is quite indifferentto you, but of course you CAN be bored! YOU are bored by me and I ambored by YOU!--and we are absolutely indifferent to each other! What acomedy it is! Isn't it?"

  He stood still and sombre, gazing down at the figure resting on theground at his feet, its white garments gathering about it as thoughthey were sentiently aware that they must keep the line of classicbeauty in every fold.

  "Boredom is the trouble"--she went on--"No one escapes it. The verybabies of to-day are bored. We all know too much. People used to behappy because they were ignorant--they had no sort of idea why theywere born, or what they came into the world for. Now they've learnedthe horrid truth that they are only here just as the trees and flowersare here--to breed other trees and flowers and then go out of it--forno purpose, apparently. They are 'disillusioned.' They say 'what's theuse?' To put up with so much trouble and labour for the folks comingafter us whom we shall never see,--it seems perfectly foolish andfutile. They used to believe in another life after this--but that hopehas been knocked out of them. Besides it's quite open to questionwhether any of us would care to live again. Probably it might mean moreboredom. There's really nothing left. That's why so many of us goreckless--it's just to escape being bored."

  He listened in cold silence. After a pause--

  "Have you done?" he said.

  She looked up at him. The moonbeams set tiny frosty sparkles in hereyes.

  "Have I done?" she echoed--"No,--not quite! I love talking--and it's anew and amusing sensation for me to talk to a man in his shirt-sleeveson a hill in California by the light of the moon! So wild andpicturesque you know! All the men I've ever met have been dressed todeath! Have you had your dinner?"

  "I never dine," he replied.

  "Really! Don't you eat and drink at all?"

  "I live simply,"--he said--"Bread and milk are enough for me, and Ihave these."

  She laughed and clapped her hands.

  "Like a baby!" she exclaimed--"A big bearded baby! It's too delicious!And you're doing all this just to get away from ME! What a compliment!"

  With angry impetus he bent over her reclining figure and seized her twohands.

  "Get up!" he said harshly--"Don't lie there like a fallen angel!"

  She yielded to his powerful grasp as he pulled her to her feet--thenlooked at him still laughing.

  "Plenty of muscle!" she said--"Well?"

  He held her hands still and gripped them fiercely. She gave a littlecry.

  "Don't! You forget my rings,--they hurt!"

  At once he loosened his hold, and gazed moodily at her small fingers onwhich two or three superb diamond circlets glittered like drops of dew.

  "Your rings!" he said--"Yes--I forgot them! Wonderful rings!--emblemsof your inordinate vanity and vulgar wealth--I forgot them! How theysparkle in this wide moonlight, don't they? Just a drifting of nature'srefuse matter, turned into jewels for women! Strange ordinance ofstrange elements! There!" and he let her hands go free--"They are notinjured, nor are you."

  She was silent pouting her under-lip like a spoilt child, and rubbingone finger where a ring had dinted her flesh.

  "So you actually think I have come here to get away from YOU?" he wenton--"Well for once your ineffable conceit is mistaken. You thinkyourself a personage of importance--but you are nothing,--less thannothing to me, I never give you a thought--I have come here tostudy--to escape from the crazy noise of modern life--the hurtling toand fro of the masses of modern humanity,--I want to work out certainproblems which may revolutionise the world and its course of living--"

  "Why revolutionise it?" she interrupted--"Who wants it to berevolutionised? We are all very well as we are--it's a breeding placeand a dying place--voila tout!"

  She gave a French shrug of her shoulder and waved her handsexpressively. Then she pushed back her flowing hair,--the moonbeamstrickled like water over it, making a network of silver on gold.

  "What did you come here for?" he asked, abruptly.

  "To see you!" she answered smilingly--"And to tell you that I'm 'on thewar-path' as they say, taking scalps as I go. This means that I'mtravelling about,--possibly I may go to Europe--"

  "To pick up a bankrupt nobleman!" he suggested.

  She laughed.

  "Dear, no! Nothing quite so stupid! Neither noblemen nor bankruptsattract me. No! I'm doing a scientific 'prowl,' like you. I believeI've discovered something with which I could annihilate you--so!" andshe made a round O of her curved fingers and blew through it--"Onebreath!--from a distance, too! and hey presto!--the bear-man on thehills of California eating bread and milk is gone!--a completevanishing trick--no more of him anywhere!" The bear-man, as she calledhim, gloomed upon her with a scowl.

  "You'd better leave such things alone!" he said, angrily--"Women haveno business with science."

  "No, of course not!" she agreed--"Not in men's opinion. That's why theynever mention Madame Curie without the poor Monsieur! SHE found radiumand he didn't,--but 'he' is always first mentioned."

  He gave an impatient gesture.r />
  "Enough of all this!" he said--"Do you know it's nearly ten o'clock atnight?--I suppose you do know!--and the people at the Plaza--"

  "THEY know!"--she interrupted, nodding sagaciously--"They know I amrich--rich--rich! It doesn't matter what I do, because I am rich! Imight stay out all night with a bear-man, and nobody would say a wordagainst me, because I am rich! I might sit on the roof of the Plaza andswing my legs over the visitors' windows and it would be called'charming' because I am rich! I can appear at the table d'hote in abath-wrap and eat peas with a hair-pin if I like--and my conduct willbe admired, because I am rich! When I go to Europe my photo will be inall the London pictorials with the grinning chorus-girls, because I amrich! And I shall be called 'the beautiful,' 'the exquisite'--'thefascinating' by all the unwashed penny journalists because I am rich!O-ooh!" and she gave a comic little screw of her mouth and eyes--"It'sgreat fun to be rich if you know what to do with your riches!"

  "Do YOU?" he enquired, sarcastically.

  "I think so!" here she put her head on one side like a meditative birdand her wonderful hair fell aslant like a golden wing--"I amusemyself--as much as I can. I learn all that can be done with greedy,stupid humanity for so much cash down! I would,"--here she paused, andwith a sudden feline swiftness of movement came close up to him--"Iwould have married YOU!--if you would have had me! I would have givenyou all my money to play with,--you could have got everything you wantfor your inventions and experiments, and I would have helped you,--andthen--then--you could have blown up the world and me with it, so longas you gave me time to look at the magnificent sight! And I wouldn'thave married you for love, mind you!--only for curiosity!"

  He withdrew from her a couple of paces,--a glimmer of white teethbetween his dark moustache and beard gave his face the expression of asnarl more than a smile.

  "For curiosity!" she repeated, stretching out a hand and touching hisarm--"To see what the thing that calls itself a man is made of! I didmy very best with you, didn't I?--uncouth as you always were andare!--but I did my best! And all Washington thought it was settled! Whywouldn't you do what Washington expected?"

  The light of the moon fell full on her upturned face. It was awonderful face,--not beautiful according to the monotonous press-cameratype, but radiant with such a light of daring intelligence as to makebeauty itself seem cheap and meretricious in comparison with itsglowing animation. He moved away from her another step, and shook hisarm free from her touch.

  "Why wouldn't you?" she reiterated softly; then with a sudden ripple oflaughter, she clasped her hands and uplifted them in an attitude ofprayer--"Why wouldn't he? Oh, big moon of California, why? Oh, pagangods and goddesses and fauns and fairies, tell me why? Why wouldn't he?"

  He gave her a glance of cool contempt.

  "You should have been on the stage!" he said.

  "'All the world's a stage,'" she quoted, letting her upraised arms falllanguidly at her sides--"And ours is a real comedy! Not 'As You LikeIt' but 'As You Don't Like It!' Poor Shakespeare!--he never imaginedsuch characters as we are! Now, suppose you had satisfied theexpectations of all Washington City and married me, of course we shouldhave bored each other dreadfully--but with plenty of money we couldhave run away from each other whenever we liked--they all do itnowadays!"

  "Yes--they all do it!" he repeated, mechanically.

  "They don't 'love' you know!" she went on--"Love is too much of a bore.YOU would find it so!"

  "I should, indeed!" he said, with sudden energy--"It would be worsethan any imaginable torture!--to be 'loved' and looked after, andwatched and coddled and kissed--"

  "Oh, surely no woman would want to kiss you!" she exclaimed--"Never!THAT would be too much of a good thing!"

  And she gave a little peal of laughter, merry as the lilt of a sky-larkin the dawn. He stared at her angrily, moved by an insensate desire toseize her and throw her down the hill like a bundle of rubbish.

  "To kiss YOU," she said, "one would have to wear a lip-shield ofleather! As well kiss a bunch of nettles! No, no! I have quite a nicelittle mouth--soft and rosy! I shouldn't like to spoil it by scratchingit against yours! It's curious how all men imagine women LIKE to kissthem! They never grasp an idea of the frequent unpleasantness of theoperation! Now I'm going!"

  "Thank God!" he ejaculated fervently.

  "And don't worry yourself"--she continued, airily--"I shall not staylong at the Plaza."

  "Thank God again!" he interpolated.

  "It would be too dull,--especially as I'm not shamming to be ill, likeyou. Besides, I have work to do!--wonderful work! and I don't believein doing it shut up like a hermit. Humanity is my crucible!Good-night,--good-bye!"

  He checked her movement by a quick, imperious gesture.

  "Wait!" he said--"Before you go I want you to know a bit of my mind--"

  "Is it necessary?" she queried.

  "I think so," he answered--"It will save you the trouble of ever tryingto see me again, which will be a relief to me, if not to you.Listen!--and look at yourself with MY eyes--"

  "Too difficult!" she declared--"I can look at nothing with your eyesany more than you can with mine!"

  "Madam--"

  She uttered a little laughing "Oh!" and put her hand to her ears.

  "Not 'Madam' for heaven's sake!" she exclaimed; "It sounds as if I wereeither a queen or a dressmaker!"

  His sombre eyes had no smile in them.

  "How should you be addressed?" he demanded, "A woman of such wealth andindependence as you possess can hardly be called 'Miss' as if she werein parental leading-strings!"

  She looked up at the clear dark sky where the moon hung like a hugesilver air-ball.

  "No, I suppose not!" she replied--"The old English word was 'Mistress.'So quaint and pretty, don't you think?"

  'Oh mistress mine, where are you roaming? Oh stay and hear! your true love's coming!'

  She sang the two lines in a deliciously entrancing voice, full of youthand tenderness. With one quick stride he advanced upon her and caughther by the shoulders.

  "My God, I could shake the life out of you!" he said, fiercely--"Iwonder you are not afraid of me!"

  She laughed, careless of his grasp.

  "Why should I be? You couldn't kill me if you tried--and if you could--"

  "If I could--ah, if I could!" he muttered, fiercely.

  "Why then there would be another murderer added to the general world ofmurderers!" she said--"That's all! It's not worth it!"

  Still he held her in his grip.

  "See here!" he said--"Before you go I want yon to know a thing ortwo,--you may as well learn once for all my views on women. They'rebrief, but they're fixed. And they're straight! Women are nothing--justnecessary for the continuation of the race--no more. They may bebeautiful or homely--it's all one--they serve the same purpose. I'munder no delusions about them. Without men they are utterlyuseless,--mere waste on the wind! To idealise them is a stupid mistake.To think that they can do anything original, intellectual orimaginative is to set one's self down an idiot. YOU,--you the spoiltonly child of one of the biggest rascal financiers in New York,--YOU,left alone in the world with a fortune so vast as to be almostcriminal--you think you are something superlative in the way ofwomen,--you play the Cleopatra,--you are convinced you can draw menafter you--but it's your money that draws them,--not YOU! Can't you seethat?--or are you too vain to see it? And you've no mercy on them,--youmake them believe you care for them and then you throw them over likeempty nutshells! That's your way! But you never fooled ME,--and younever will!"

  He released her as suddenly as he had grasped her,--she drew her whitedraperies round her shoulders with a statuesque grace, and lifted herhead, smiling.

  "Empty nutshells are a very good description of men who come after awoman for her money"--she observed, placidly--"and it's quite naturalthat the woman should throw them over her shoulder. There's nothing inthem--not even a flavour! No--never fooled you,--you fooledyourself--you are fooling yourself now, only you don't kno
w it. Butthere!--let's finish talking! I like the romance of the situation--youin your shirt-sleeves on a hill in California, and I in silken stuffand diamonds paying you a moonlight visit--it's really quite novel andcharming!--but it can't go on for ever! Just now you said you wanted meto know a thing or two, and I presume you have explained yourself. Whatyou think or what you don't think about women doesn't interest me. I'mone of the 'wastes on the wind!' _I_ shall not aid in the continuationof the race,--heaven forbid! The race is too stupid and too miserableto merit continuance. Everything has been done for it that can be done,over and over again, from the beginning--till now,--and now--NOW!" Shepaused, and despite himself the tone of her voice sent a thrill throughhis blood of something like fear.

  "NOW?--well! What NOW?" he demanded.

  She lifted one hand and pointed upwards. Her face in the moonbeamslooked austere and almost spectral in outline.

  "Now--the Change!" she answered--"The Change when all things shall bemade new!"

  A silence followed her words,--a strange and heavy silence.

  It was broken by her voice hushed to an extreme softness, yet clearlyaudible.

  "Good-night!--good-bye!"

  He turned impatiently away to avoid further leave-taking--then, on asudden impulse, his mood changed.

  "Morgana!"

  The call echoed through emptiness. She was gone. He called again,--thelong vowel in the strange name sounding like "Mor-ga-ar-na" as ashivering note on the G string of a violin may sound at the conclusionof a musical phrase. There was no reply. He was--as he had desired tobe,--alone.