Black Magic by Marjorie Bowen (romantic novels in english .TXT) 📖
- Author: Marjorie Bowen
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Dirk mentioned one instantly, and where his house might be found.
“A Jew, but a secretive and wealthy man,” he added. “I carved a
staircase in his mansion.” Theirry rose; the ache in his head and the
horror in his heart had ceased together; the sense of coming
excitement crept through his veins.
“There is much here that is worthless,” said Dirk, “and many things
dangerous to reveal, yet a few of those that are neither might bring a
fair sum—come, and I will show you.”
Theirry followed him through the dusty, sunny chambers to the store-rooms on the upper floor. Here Dirk brought treasures from a press in
the wall; candlesticks, girdles with enamel links, carved cups,
crystal goblets.
Selecting the finest of these he put them in a coffer, locked it and
gave the key to Theirry. “There should be the worth of some gulden
there,” he said, red in the face from stooping, and essayed to lift
the coffer but failed.
Theirry, something amazed, raised it at once.
“‘Tis not heavy,” he said.
“Nay,” answered Dirk, “but I am not strong,” and his eyes were angry.
Theirry was brought by this to give him some closer personal scrutiny
than as yet he had. “How old are you” he asked.
“Twenty-five,” Dirk answered curly.
“Certes!” Theirry’s hazel eyes flew wide. “I had said eighteen.”
Dirk swung on his heel.
“Oh, get you gone,” he said roughly, “and be not over long—for I
would be away from this place at once—do you hear?—at once.”
They left the room together.
“You have endured this for years,” said Theirry curiously. “And
suddenly you count the hours to your departure.”
Dirk ran lightly ahead down the stairs, and his laugh came low and
pleasant.
“Untouched, the wood will lie for ever,” he answered, “but set it
alight and it will flame to the end.”
They had been a week on the road and now were nearing the borders of
Flanders. The company of the other had become precious to each; though
Theirry was grave and undemonstrative, Dirk, changeable, and quick of
temper; to-day, however, the silence of mutual discontent was upon
them.
Open disagreement had happened once before, at the beginning of their
enterprise, when the young sculptor resolutely refused, foolishly it
seemed to Theirry, to sell his house and furniture, or even to deliver
at the church of St. Bavon the figures of St. Michael and the Devil,
though the piece was finished.
Instead, he had turned the key on his possessions, leaving them the
prey of dust, spiders and rats, and often Theirry would think uneasily
of the shut-up house in the deserted square, and how the merciless
sunlight must be streaming over the empty workroom and the daisies
growing upon the grave of Balthasar’s wife.
Nevertheless, he was in thrall to the attraction of Dirk Renswoude;
never in his life had he been so at ease with any one, never before
felt his aims and ambitions understood and shared by another.
He knew nothing of his companion’s history nor did he care to question
it; he fancied that Dirk was of noble birth; it seemed in his blood to
live gently and softly; at the hostel where they rested, it was he who
always insisted upon the best of accommodation, a chamber to himself,
fine food and humble service.
This nicety of his it was that caused the coolness between them now.
At the little town they had just left a fair was in holding, and the
few inns were full; lodging had been offered them in a barn with some
merchants’ clerks, and this Theirry would have accepted gladly, but
Dirk had refused peremptorily, to the accompaniment of much jeering
from those who found this daintiness amusing in a poor traveller on
foot.
After an altercation between the landlord and Theirry, a haughty
silence of flashing eyes and red cheeks from Dirk, they had turned
away through the gay fair, wound across the town and out on to the
high road.
This led up a steep, mountainous incline; they were carrying their
possessions in bundles on their backs, and when they reached the top
of the hill they turned off from the road on to the meadows that
bordered it, and sank on the grass exhausted.
Theirry, though coldly angry with the whim that had brought them here
to sleep under the trees, could not but admit it was an exquisite
place.
The evening sun overspread it all with a soft yet sparkling veil of
light; the fields of long grass that spread to right and left were
more golden than green; close by was a grove of pine-trees, whose tall
red trunks shone delicately; above them, piled up rocks starred with
white flowers mounted against the pale blue sky, beneath them the
hillside sloped to the valley where lay the little town.
The streets of it were built up and down the slopes of the hill, and
Theirry could see the white line of them and the irregular shapes and
colours of the roofs; the church spire sprang from the midst like a
spear head, strong and delicate, and here and there pennons fluttered;
they could see the Emperor’s flag stirring slowly above the round
tourelles of the city gate.
Theirry found the prospect very pleasant; he delighted in the long
flowering grass that, as he lay stretched out, with his face resting
in his hand, brushed against his cheek; in the clear-cut grey rocks
and the hardy yet frail-looking white flowers growing on the face of
them; in the up-springing lines of the pine-trees and the deep green
of their heavy foliage, intensified by the fading blue beyond. Then,
as his weariness was eased, he glanced over his shoulder at Dirk; not
being passionate by nature, and controlled by habit, his tempers
showed themselves in a mere coldness, not sullenness, the resort of
the fretful.
Dirk sat apart, resting his back against the foremost of the pine-trees; he was wrapped in a dark red cloak, his pale profile turned
towards the town lying below; the evening air just stirred the heavy,
smooth locks on his uncovered head; he was sitting very still.
The cause of the quarrel had ceased to be any matter to Theirry;
indeed he could not but admit it preferable to lie here than to herd
with noisy beer-drinking clerks in a close barn, but recollection of
the haughty spirit Dirk had discovered held him estranged still.
Yet his companion occupied his thoughts; his wonderful skill in those
matters he himself was most desirous of fathoming, the strange way in
which they had met, and the pleasure of having a companion—so
different from Balthasar—of a kindred mind, however whimsical his
manner.
At this point in his reflections Dirk turned his head.
“You are angry with me,” he said.
Theirry answered calmly.
“You were foolish.”
Dirk frowned and flushed.
“Certes!—a fine comrade!” his voice was vehement.
“Did you not swear fellowship with me? How do you fulfil that compact
by being wrathful the first time our wills clash?”
Theirry turned on his elbow and gazed across the flowering grass.
“I am not wrathful,” he smiled. “And you have had many whims…none of
them have I opposed.”
Dirk answered angrily.
“You make me out a fantastical fellow—it is not true.”
Theirry sat up and gazed at the lazy sunset slowly enveloping the
distant town and the hills beyond in crimson light.
“It is true you are as nice as a girl,” he answered. “Many a time I
would have slept by the kitchen hearth—ay, and have done, but you
must always lie soft as a prince.”
Dirk was scarlet from brow to chin.
“Well, if I choose,” he said defiantly. “If I choose, as long as I
have money in my pocket, to live gently…”
“Have I interfered?” interrupted Theirry. “You are of a lordly birth,
belike.”
“Yea, I am of a great family,” flashed Dirk. “Ill did they treat me.
No more of them…are you still angry with me?”
He rose; the red cloak slipped from his shoulders to the ground; he
stood with his hand on his hip, looking down at Theirry.
“Come,” he said gravely. “We must not quarrel, my comrade, my one
friend…when shall we find another with such aims as ours…we are
bound to each other, are we not? Certes! you swore it.”
Theirry lifted his beautiful face.
“I do like you greatly,” he answered. “And in no wise blame you
because you are weakly and used to luxury. Others have found me over
gentle.”
Dirk looked at him out of the corners of his eyes.
“Then I am pardoned?”
Theirry smiled.
“Nay, I do regret my evil humour. The sun was fierce and the bundles
heavy to drag up the hill.”
Dirk sank down upon the grass beside him. “Truly I am wearied to
death!”
Theirry considered him; panting a little, Dirk stretched himself his
full length on the blowing grass. The young scholar, used and
indifferent to his own great beauty, was deadened to the effect of it
in others, and to any eye Dirk could be no more than well-looking; but
Theirry was conscious of the charm of his slender make, his feet and
hands of feminine delicacy, his fair, full throat, and pale, curved
mouth, even the prominent jaw and square chin that marred the symmetry
of the face were potent to attract in their suggestion of strength and
the power to command.
His near presence, too, was fragrant; he breathed a faint atmosphere
of essences and was exquisite in his clothes.
As Theirry studied him, he spoke.
“My heart! it is sweet here—oh, sweet!”
Faint airs wafted from the pine, and the wild flowers hidden in the
woods below them stole through the grass; a glowing purple haze began
to obscure the valley, and where it melted into the sky the first
stars shone, pale as the moon. Overhead the dome of heaven was still
blue, and in the tops of the pines was a continuous whispering of the
perfumed boughs one to another. “Now wish yourself back in the town
among their drinking and swearing,” said Dirk. “Nay,” smiled Theirry.
“I am content.” The faint purple colour slowly spread over everything;
the towers of the town became dark, and little sharp lights twinkled
in them.
Dirk drew a great breath.
“What will you do with your life?” he asked.
Theirry started.
“In what manner?”
“Why, if we succeed—in any way—if we obtain great power…what would
you do with it?” Theirry felt his brain spin at the question; he gazed
across the world that was softly receding into darkness and his blood
tingled.
“I would be great,” he whispered. “Like Flaccus Alcuin, like Abelard—
like St. Bernard.”
“And I would be greater than any of these—as great as the Master we
serve can make his followers.”
Theirry shuddered.
“These I speak of were great, serving God.”
Dirk looked up quickly.
“How know you that? Many of these holy men owe their position to
strange means. I, at least, would not be content to live and die in
woollens when I could command the means to clothe me in golden silks.”
The beautiful darkness now encompassed them; below them the lights of
the town, above them the stars, and here, in the meadow land, the
night breeze in the long grass and in the deep boughs of pine.
“I am but
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