The Secret Power by Marie Corelli (dark academia books to read .TXT) đ
- Author: Marie Corelli
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Here he paused,âan instinctive feeling warned him that some one was looking at him, and he turned his head quickly. On the slope of the hill where Manella had lately stood, there was a figure, white as the white moonlight itself, outlined delicately against the dark background. It seemed to be poised on the earth like a bird just lightly descended; in the stirless air its garments appeared closed about it fold on fold like the petals of an unopened magnolia flower. As he looked, it came gliding towards him with the floating ease of an air bubble, and the strong radiance of the large moon showed its womanâs face, pale with the moonbeam pallor, and set in a wave of hair that swept back from the brows and fell in a loosely twisted coil like a shining snake stealthily losing itself in folds of misty drapery. He rose to meet the advancing phantom.
âEntirely for effect!â he said, âWell planned and quite worthy of you! All for effect!â
CHAPTER II
A laugh, clear and cold as a sleigh-bell on a frosty night rang out on the silence.
âWhy did you run away from me?â
He replied at once, and brusquely.
âBecause I was tired of you!â
She laughed again. A strange white elf as she looked In the spreading moonbeams she was woman to the core, and the disdainful movement of her small uplifted head plainly expressed her utter indifference to his answer.
âI followed youââshe saidââI knew I should find you! What are you doing up here? Shamming to be ill?â
âPrecisely! âShamâ is as much in my line as yours. I have to âpretendâ in order to be real!â
âParadoxical as usual!â and she shrugged her shouldersââAnyway youâve chosen a good place to do your shamming in. Itâs quite lovely up here,âmuch better than the Plaza. I am at the Plaza.â
âAutomobile and all I suppose!â he said, sarcasticallyââHow many servants?âhow many boxes with how many dresses?â
She laughed again.
âThatâs no concern of yours!â she repliedââI am my own mistress.â
âMoreâs the pity!â he retorted.
They faced each other. The moon, now soaring high in clear space, shed a luminous rain of silver over all the visible breadth of wild country, and their two figures looked mere dark silhouettes half drowned in the pearly glamour.
âItâs worth travelling all the long miles to see!â she declared, stretching her arms out with an enthusiastic gestureââOh, beautiful big moon of California! Iâm glad I came!â
He was silent.
âYou are not glad!â she continuedââYou are a bear-man in hiding, and the moon says nothing to you!â
âIt says nothing because it IS nothingââhe answered, impatientlyâ âIt is a dead planet without heart,âa mere shell of extinct volcanoes where fire once burned, and its light is but the reflection of the sun on its barren surface. It is like all women,â but mostly like YOU!â
She made him a sweeping curtsy so exquisitely graceful that the action resembled nothing so much as the sway of a lily in a light wind.
âThanks, gentle Knight!âflower of chivalry!â she saidââI see you love me in spite of yourself!â
He made a quick stride towards her,âthen stopped. âLove you!â he echoed,âthen laughed loudly and derisively-âGreat God! Love you? YOU? If I did I should be mad! When will you learn the truth of me?âthat women are less in my estimation than the insects crawling on a blade of grass or spawning in a stagnant pond?âthat they have no power to move me to the smallest pulse of passion or desire?âand that you, of all your sex, seem to my mind the mostââ
âHateful?â she suggested, smilingly.
âNoâthe most complete and unmitigated bore!â
âDreadful!â and she made a face at him like that of a naughty child,âthen she sank down on the sun-baked turf in an easy half- reclining attitudeââItâs certainly much worse to be a bore than to be hated. Hate is quite a live sentiment,âbesides it always means, or HAS meantâlove! You canât hate anything that is quite indifferent to you, but of course you CAN be bored! YOU are bored by me and I am bored by YOU!âand we are absolutely indifferent to each other! What a comedy it is! Isnât it?â
He stood still and sombre, gazing down at the figure resting on the ground at his feet, its white garments gathering about it as though they were sentiently aware that they must keep the line of classic beauty in every fold.
âBoredom is the troubleââshe went onââNo one escapes it. The very babies of to-day are bored. We all know too much. People used to be happy because they were ignorantâthey had no sort of idea why they were born, or what they came into the world for. Now theyâve learned the horrid truth that they are only here just as the trees and flowers are hereâto breed other trees and flowers and then go out of itâfor no purpose, apparently. They are âdisillusioned.â They say âwhatâs the use?â To put up with so much trouble and labour for the folks coining after us whom we shall never see,âit seems perfectly foolish and futile. They used to believe in another life after thisâbut that hope has been knocked out of them. Besides itâs quite open to question whether any of us would care to live again. Probably it might mean more boredom. Thereâs really nothing left. Thatâs why so many of us go recklessâitâs just to escape being bored.â
He listened in cold silence. After a pauseâ
âHave you done?â he said.
She looked up at him. The moonbeams set tiny frosty sparkles in her eyes.
âHave I done?â she echoedââNo,ânot quite! I love talkingâand itâs a new and amusing sensation for me to talk to a man in his shirt- sleeves on a hill in California by the light of the moon! So wild and picturesque you know! All the men Iâve ever met have been dressed to death! Have you had your dinner?â
âI never dine,â he replied.
âReally! Donât you eat and drink at all?â
âI live simply,ââhe saidââBread and milk are enough for me, and I have these.â
She laughed and clapped her hands.
âLike a baby!â she exclaimedââA big bearded baby! Itâs too delicious! And youâre doing all this just to get away from ME! What a compliment!â
With angry impetus he bent over her reclining figure and seized her two hands.
âGet up!â he said harshlyââDonât lie there like a fallen angel!â
She yielded to his powerful grasp as he pulled her to her feetâthen looked at him still laughing.
âPlenty of muscle!â she saidââWell?â
He held her hands still and gripped them fiercely. She gave a little cry.
âDonât! You forget my rings,âthey hurt!â
At once he loosened his hold, and gazed moodily at her small fingers on which two or three superb diamond circlets glittered like drops of dew.
âYour rings!â he saidââYesâI forgot them! Wonderful rings!â emblems of your inordinate vanity and vulgar wealthâI forgot them! How they sparkle in this wide moonlight, donât they? Just a drifting of natureâs refuse matter, turned into jewels for women! Strange ordinance of strange elements! There!â and he let her hands go free- -âThey are not injured, nor are you.â
She was silent pouting her under-lip like a spoilt child, and rubbing one finger where a ring had dinted her flesh.
âSo you actually think I have coma here to get away from YOU?â he went onââWell for once your ineffable conceit is mistaken. You think yourself a personage of importanceâbut you are nothing,âless than nothing to me, I never give you a thoughtâI have come here to studyâto escape from the crazy noise of modern lifeâthe hurtling to and fro of the masses of modern humanity,âI want to work out certain problems which may revolutionise the world and its course of livingââ
âWhy revolutionise it?â she interruptedââWho wants it to be revolutionised? We are all very well as we areâitâs a breeding place and a dying placeâvoila tout!â
She gave a French shrug of her shoulder and waved her hands expressively. Then she pushed back her flowing hair,âthe moonbeams trickled like water over it, making a network of silver on gold.
âWhat did you come here for?â he asked, abruptly.
âTo see you!â she answered smilinglyââAnd to tell you that Iâm âon the war-pathâ as they say, taking scalps as I go. This means that Iâm travelling about,âpossibly I may go to Europeââ
âTo pick up a bankrupt nobleman!â he suggested.
She laughed.
âDear, no! Nothing quite so stupid! Neither noblemen nor bankrupts attract me. No! Iâm doing a scientific âprowl,â like you. I believe Iâve discovered something with which I could annihilate youâso!â and she made a round O of her curved fingers and blew through itâ âOne breath!âfrom a distance, too! and hey presto!âthe bear-man on the hills of California eating bread and milk is gone!âa complete vanishing trickâno more of him anywhere!â The bear-man, as she called him, gloomed upon her with a scowl.
âYouâd better leave such things alone!â he said, angrilyââWomen have no business with science.â
âNo, of course not!â she agreedââNot in menâs opinion. Thatâs why they never mention Madame Curie without the poor Monsieur! SHE found radium and he didnât,âbut âheâ is always first mentioned.â
He gave an impatient gesture.
âEnough of all this!â he saidââDo you know itâs nearly ten oâclock at night?âI suppose you do know!âand the people at the Plazaââ
âTHEY know!ââshe interrupted, nodding sagaciouslyââThey know I am richârichârich! It doesnât matter what I do, because I am rich! I might stay out all night with a bear-man, and nobody would say a word against me, because I am rich! I might sit on the roof of the Plaza and swing my legs over the visitorsâ windows and it would be called âcharmingâ because I am rich! I can appear at the table dâhote in a bath-wrap and eat peas with a hair-pin if I likeâand my conduct will be admired, because I am rich! When I go to Europe my photo will be in all the London pictorials with the grinning chorus- girls, because I am rich! And I shall be called âthe beautiful,â âthe exquisiteâââthe fascinatingâ by all the unwashed penny journalists because I am rich! O-ooh!â and she gave a comic little screw of her mouth and eyesââItâs great fun to be rich if you know what to do with your riches!â
âDo YOU?â he enquired, sarcastically.
âI think so!â here she put her head on one side like a meditative bird and her wonderful hair fell aslant like a golden wingââI amuse myselfâas much as I can. I learn all that can be done with greedy, stupid humanity for so much cash down! I would,ââhere she paused, and with a sudden feline swiftness of movement came close up to him- âI would have married YOU!-if you would have had me! I would have given you all my money to play with,âyou could have got everything you want for your inventions and experiments, and I would have helped you,âand thenâthenâyou could have blown up the world and me with it, so long as you gave me time to look at the magnificent sight! And I wouldnât have married you for love, mind you!âonly for curiosity!â
He withdrew from her a couple of paces,âa glimmer of white teeth between his dark moustache and beard gave his face the expression of a snarl more than a smile.
âFor curiosity!â she repeated, stretching out a
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