Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm (read novels website .txt) đ
- Author: Max Beerbohm
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âI am not what you think me,â gibbered Noaks. âI was not afraid to die for you. I love you. I was on my way to the river this afternoon, but Iâ âI tripped and sprained my ankle, andâ âand jarred my spine. They carried me back here. I am still very weak. I canât put my foot to the ground. As soon as I canâ ââ
Just then Zuleika heard a little sharp sound which, for the fraction of an instant, before she knew it to be a clink of metal on the pavement, she thought was the breaking of the heart within her. Looking quickly down, she heard a shrill girlish laugh aloft. Looking quickly up, she descried at the unlit window above her loverâs a face which she remembered as that of the landladyâs daughter.
âFind it, Miss Dobson,â laughed the girl. âCrawl for it. It canât have rolled far, and itâs the only engagement-ring youâll get from him,â she said, pointing to the livid face twisted painfully up at her from the lower window. âGrovel for it, Miss Dobson. Ask him to step down and help you. Oh, he can! That was all lies about his spine and ankle. Afraid, thatâs what he wasâ âI see it all nowâ âafraid of the water. I wish youâd found him as I didâ âskulking behind the curtain. Oh, youâre welcome to him.â
âDonât listen,â Noaks cried down. âDonât listen to that person. I admit I have trifled with her affections. This is her revengeâ âthese wicked untruthsâ âtheseâ âtheseâ ââ
Zuleika silenced him with a gesture. âYour tone to me,â she said up to Katie, âis not without offence; but the stamp of truth is on what you tell me. We have both been deceived in this man, and are, in some sort, sisters.â
âSisters?â cried Katie. âYour sisters are the snake and the spider, though neither of them wishes it known. I loathe you. And the Duke loathed you, too.â
âWhatâs that?â gasped Zuleika.
âDidnât he tell you? He told me. And I warrant he told you, too.â
âHe died for love of me: dâyou hear?â
âAh, youâd like people to think so, wouldnât you? Does a man who loves a woman give away the keepsake she gave him? Look!â Katie leaned forward, pointing to her earrings. âHe loved me,â she cried. âHe put them in with his own handsâ âtold me to wear them always. And he kissed meâ âkissed me goodbye in the street, where everyone could see. He kissed me,â she sobbed. âNo other man shall ever do that.â
âAh, that he did!â said a voice level with Zuleika. It was the voice of Mrs. Batch, who a few moments ago had opened the door for her departing guests.
âAh, that he did!â echoed the guests.
âNever mind them, Miss Dobson,â cried Noaks, and at the sound of his voice Mrs. Batch rushed into the middle of the road, to gaze up. âI love you. Think what you will of me. Iâ ââ
âYou!â flashed Zuleika. âAs for you, little Sir Lily Liver, leaning out there, and, I frankly tell you, looking like nothing so much as a gargoyle hewn by a drunken stonemason for the adornment of a Methodist Chapel in one of the vilest suburbs of Leeds or Wigan, I do but felicitate the river-god and his nymphs that their water was saved today by your cowardice from the contamination of your plunge.â
âShame on you, Mr. Noaks,â said Mrs. Batch, âmaking believe you were deadâ ââ
âShame!â screamed Clarence, who had darted out into the fray.
âI found him hiding behind the curtain,â chimed in Katie.
âAnd I a mother to him!â said Mrs. Batch, shaking her fist. âââWhat is life without love?â indeed! Oh, the cowardly, underhandâ ââ
âWretch,â prompted her cronies.
âLetâs kick him out of the house!â suggested Clarence, dancing for joy.
Zuleika, smiling brilliantly down at the boy, said, âJust you run up and fight him!â
âRight you are,â he answered, with a look of knightly devotion, and darted back into the house.
âNo escape!â she cried up to Noaks. âYouâve got to fight him now. He and you are just about evenly matched, I fancy.â
But, grimly enough, Zuleikaâs estimate was never put to the test. Is it harder for a coward to fight with his fists than to kill himself? Or again, is it easier for him to die than to endure a prolonged crossfire of womenâs wrath and scorn? This I know: that in the life of even the least and meanest of us there is somewhere one fine momentâ âone high chance not missed. I like to think it was by operation of this law that Noaks had now clambered out upon the windowsill, silencing, sickening, scattering like chaff the women beneath him.
He was already not there when Clarence bounded into the room. âCome on!â yelled the boy, first thrusting his head behind the door, then diving beneath the table, then plucking aside either window-curtain, vowing vengeance.
Vengeance was not his. Down on the road without, not yet looked at but by the steadfast eyes of the Emperors, the last of the undergraduates lay dead; and fleet-footed Zuleika, with her fingers still pressed to her ears, had taken full toll now.
XXIIITwisting and turning in her flight, with wild eyes that fearfully retained the image of that small man gathering himself to spring, Zuleika found herself suddenly where she could no further go.
She was in that grim ravine
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