Castles in the Air

  2.

  The formal introduction took place on the boulevards one fineafternoon shortly after that. Mlle. Leah was walking under the treeswith her duenna when we--M. Rochez and I--came face to face with them.My friend raised his hat, and I did likewise. Mademoiselle Leahblushed and the ogre frowned. Sir, she was an ogre!--bony and angularand hook-nosed, with thin lips that closed with a snap, and cold greyeyes that sent a shiver down your spine! Rochez introduced me to her,and I made myself exceedingly agreeable to her, while my friendsucceeded in exchanging two or three whispered words with hisinamorata.

  But we did not get very far that day. Mlle. Goldberg senior soonmarched her lovely charge away.

  Ah, Sir, she was lovely indeed! And in my heart I not only enviedRochez his good fortune but I also felt how entirely unworthy he wasof it. Nor did the beautiful Leah give me the impression of beingquite so deeply struck with his charms as he would have had mebelieve. Indeed, it struck me during those few minutes that I stooddutifully talking to her duenna that the fair young Jewess cast morethan one approving glance in my direction.

  Be that as it may, the progress of our respective courtships, now thatthe ice was broken, took on a more decided turn. At first it onlyamounted to meetings on the boulevards and a cursory greeting, butsoon Mlle. Goldberg senior, delighted with my conversation, woulddeliberately turn to walk with me under the trees the while FernandRochez followed by the side of his adored. A week later the ladiesaccepted my friend's offer to sit under the awning of the CafeBourbon and to sip sirops, whilst we indulged in tankards offoaming "blondes."

  Within a fortnight, Sir--I may say it without boasting--I had Mlle.Goldberg senior in the hollow of my hand. On the boulevards, as soonas she caught sight of me, her dour face would be wreathed in smiles,a row of large yellow teeth would appear between her thin lips, andher cold, grey eyes would soften with a glance of welcome which morethan ever sent a cold shudder down my spine. While we four weretogether, either promenading or sitting at open-air cafes in the coolof the evening, the old duenna had eyes and ears only for me, and ifmy friend Rochez did not get on with his own courtship as fast as hewould have wished the fault rested entirely with him.

  For he did _not_ get on with his courtship, and that was a fact. Thefair Leah was very sweet, very coy, greatly amused, I fancy, at heraunt's obvious infatuation for me, and not a little flattered at thehandsome M. Rochez's attentions to herself. But there it all ended.And whenever I questioned Rochez on the subject, he flew into a temperand consigned all middle-aged Jewesses to perdition, and all thelovely and young ones to a comfortable kind of Hades to which he aloneamongst the male sex would have access. From which I gathered that Iwas not wrong in my surmises, that the fair Leah had been smitten bymy personality and my appearance rather than by those of my friend,and that he was suffering the pangs of an insane jealousy.

  This, of course, he never would admit. All that he told me one day wasthat Leah, with the characteristic timidity of her race, refused tomarry him unless she could obtain her father's consent to the union.Old Goldberg, duly approached on the matter, flatly forbade hisdaughter to have anything further to do with that fortune-hunter, thatparasite, that beggarly pick-thank--such, Sir, were but a fewcomplimentary epithets which he hurled with great volubility at hisdaughter's absent suitor.

  It was from Mlle. Goldberg, senior, that my friend and I had thedetails of that stormy interview between father and daughter; afterwhich, she declared that interviews between the lovers wouldnecessarily become very difficult of arrangement. From which you willgather that the worthy soul, though she was as ugly as sin, was bythis time on the side of the angels. Indeed, she was more than that.She professed herself willing to aid and abet them in every way shecould. This Rochez confided to me, together with his assurance that hewas determined to take his Fate into his own hands and, since thebeautiful Leah would not come to him of her own accord, to carry heroff by force.

  Ah, my dear Sir, those were romantic days, you must remember! Dayswhen men placed the possession of the woman they loved above everytreasure, every consideration upon earth. Ah, romance! Romance, Sir,was the breath of our nostrils, the blood in our veins! Imagine howreadily we all fell in with my friend's plans. I, of course, was themoving spirit in it all; mine was the genius which was destined toturn gilded romance into grim reality. Yes, grim! For you shall see! . . .

  Mlle. Goldberg, senior, who appropriately enough was named Sarah, gaveus the clue how to proceed, after which my genius worked alone.

  You must know that old Goldberg's house in the Rue des Medecins--alarge apartment house in which he occupied a few rooms on the groundfloor behind his shop--backed on to a small uncultivated garden whichended in a tall brick wall, the meeting-place of all the felines inthe neighbourhood, and in which there was a small postern gate, nowdisused. This gate gave on a narrow cul-de-sac--grandiloquently namedPassage Corneille--which was flanked on the opposite side by the tallboundary wall of an adjacent convent.

  That cul-de-sac was marked out from the very first in my mind as ourobjective. Around and about it, as it were, did I build the edifice ofmy schemes, aided by the ever-willing Sarah. The old maid threwherself into the affair with zest, planning and contriving like averitable strategist; and I must admit that she was full of resourceand invention. We were now in mid-May and enjoying a spell of hotsummer weather. This gave the inventive Sarah the excuse for using theback garden as a place wherein to sit in the cool of the evening inthe company of her niece.

  Ah, you see the whole thing now at a glance, do you not? The posterngate, the murky night, the daring lover, the struggling maiden, thewilling accomplices. The actors were all there, ready for the curtainto be rung up on the palpitating drama.

  Then it was that a brilliant idea came into my brain. It was born onthe very day that I realized with indisputable certainty that thelovely Leah was not in reality in love with Rochez. He fatuouslybelieved that she was ready to fall into his arms, that only maidenlytimidity held her back, and that the moment she had been snatched fromher father's house and found herself in the arms of her adoring lover,she would turn to him in the very fullness of love and confidence.

  But I knew better. I had caught a look now and again--an undefinableglance, which told me the whole pitiable tale. She did not loveRochez; and in the drama which we were preparing to enact the curtainwould fall on his rapture and her unhappiness.

  Ah, Sir! imagine what my feelings were when I realized this! This fairgirl, against whom we were all conspiring like so many traitors, wasstill ignorant of the fatal brink on which she stood. She chatted andcoquetted and smiled, little dreaming that in a very few days herhappiness would be wrecked and she would be linked for life to a manwhom she could never love. Rochez's idea, of course, was primarily toget hold of her fortune. I had already ascertained for him, throughthe ever-willing Sarah, that this fortune came from Leah'sgrandfather, who had left a sum of two hundred thousand francs ontrust for her children, she to enjoy the income for her life. Therecertainly was a clause in the will whereby the girl would forfeit thatfortune if she married without her father's consent; but according toRochez's plans this could scarcely be withheld once she had been takenforcibly away from home, held in durance, and with her reputationhopelessly compromised. She could then pose as an injured victim,throw herself at her father's feet, and beg him to give that consentwithout which she would for ever remain an outcast of society, apariah amongst her kind.

  A pretty piece of villainous combination, you will own! And I, Sir,was to lend a hand in this abomination!--nay, I was to be the chiefvillain in the drama! It was I who, even now, was spending the hoursof the night, when I might have been dreaming sentimental dreams, inoiling the lock of the postern gate which was to give us access intopapa Goldberg's garden. It was I who, under cover of darkness andguided by that old jade Sarah, was to sneak into that garden on theappointed night and forcibly seize the unsuspecting maiden and carryher to the carriage which Rochez would have in readiness for
her.

  You see what a coward he was! It was a criminal offence in those days,punishable with deportation to New Caledonia, to abduct a young ladyfrom her parents' house; and Rochez left me the dirty work to do incase the girl screamed and attracted the police. Now you will tell meif I was not justified in doing what I did, and I will abide by yourjudgment.

  I was to take all the risks, remember!--New Caledonia, the police, theodium attached to so foul a deed; and do you know for what? For apaltry thousand francs, which with much difficulty I had inducedRochez--nay, forced him!--to hand over to me in anticipation of what Iwas about to accomplish for his sake. A thousand francs! Did thismiserliness not characterize the man? Was it to such a scrubby knavethat I, at risk of my life and of my honour, would hand over thatjewel amongst women, that pearl above price?--a lady with a personalfortune amounting to two hundred thousand francs?

  No, Sir; I would not! Then and there I vowed that I would not! Minewere to be all the risks; then mine should be the reward! What Rochezmeant to do, that I could too, and with far greater reason. The lovelyLeah did at times frown on Fernand; but she invariably smiled on me.She would fall into my arms far more readily than into his, and papaGoldberg would be equally forced to give his consent to her marriagewith me as with that self-seeking carpet-knight whom he abhorred.

  Needless to say, I kept my own counsel, and did not speak of myproject even to Sarah. To all appearances I was to be the mere tool inthis affair, the unfortunate cat employed to snatch the roastchestnuts out of the fire for the gratification of a mealy-mouthedmonkey.