Of Human Bondage. Уильям Сомерсет Моэм

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ and frost, and then a thaw with a long succession of cheerless days, on which walking was a poor amusement. One evening when Philip had just finished his German lesson with the Herr Professor and was standing for a moment in the drawing-room, talking to Frau Erlin, Anna came quickly in.

      “Mamma, where is Cacilie?” she said.

      “I suppose she’s in her room.”

      “There’s no light in it.”

      The Frau Professor gave an exclamation, and she looked at her daughter in dismay. The thought which was in Anna’s head had flashed across hers.

      “Ring for Emil,” she said hoarsely.

      This was the stupid lout who waited at table and did most of the housework. He came in.

      “Emil, go down to Herr Sung’s room and enter without knocking. If anyone is there say you came in to see about the stove.”

      No sign of astonishment appeared on Emil’s phlegmatic face.

      He went slowly downstairs. The Frau Professor and Anna left the door open and listened. Presently they heard Emil come up again, and they called him.

      “Was anyone there?” asked the Frau Professor.

      “Yes, Herr Sung was there.”

      “Was he alone?”

      The beginning of a cunning smile narrowed his mouth.

      “No, Fraulein Cacilie was there.”

      “Oh, it’s disgraceful,” cried the Frau Professor.

      Now he smiled broadly.

      “Fraulein Cacilie is there every evening. She spends hours at a time there.”

      Frau Professor began to wring her hands.

      “Oh, how abominable! But why didn’t you tell me?”

      “It was no business of mine,” he answered, slowly shrugging his shoulders.

      “I suppose they paid you well. Go away. Go.”

      He lurched clumsily to the door.

      “They must go away, mamma,” said Anna.

      “And who is going to pay the rent? And the taxes are falling due. It’s all very well for you to say they must go away. If they go away I can’t pay the bills.” She turned to Philip, with tears streaming down her face. “Ach, Herr Carey, you will not say what you have heard. If Fraulein Forster–“ this was the Dutch spinster–“if Fraulein Forster knew she would leave at once. And if they all go we must close the house. I cannot afford to keep it.”

      “Of course I won’t say anything.”

      “If she stays, I will not speak to her,” said Anna.

      That evening at supper Fraulein Cacilie, redder than usual, with a look of obstinacy on her face, took her place punctually; but Herr Sung did not appear, and for a while Philip thought he was going to shirk the ordeal. At last he came, very smiling, his little eyes dancing with the apologies he made for his late arrival. He insisted as usual on pouring out the Frau Professor a glass of his Moselle, and he offered a glass to Fraulein Forster. The room was very hot, for the stove had been alight all day and the windows were seldom opened. Emil blundered about, but succeeded somehow in serving everyone quickly and with order. The three old ladies sat in silence, visibly disapproving: the Frau Professor had scarcely recovered from her tears; her husband was silent and oppressed. Conversation languished. It seemed to Philip that there was something dreadful in that gathering which he had sat with so often; they looked different under the light of the two hanging lamps from what they had ever looked before; he was vaguely uneasy. Once he caught Cacilie’s eye, and he thought she looked at him with hatred and contempt. The room was stifling. It was as though the beastly passion of that pair troubled them all; there was a feeling of Oriental depravity; a faint savour of joss-sticks, a mystery of hidden vices, seemed to make their breath heavy. Philip could feel the beating of the arteries in his forehead. He could not understand what strange emotion distracted him; he seemed to feel something infinitely attractive, and yet he was repelled and horrified.

      For several days things went on. The air was sickly with the unnatural passion which all felt about them, and the nerves of the little household seemed to grow exasperated. Only Herr Sung remained unaffected; he was no less smiling, affable, and polite than he had been before: one could not tell whether his manner was a triumph of civilisation or an expression of contempt on the part of the Oriental for the vanquished West. Cacilie was flaunting and cynical. At last even the Frau Professor could bear the position no longer. Suddenly panic seized her; for Professor Erlin with brutal frankness had suggested the possible consequences of an intrigue which was now manifest to everyone, and she saw her good name in Heidelberg and the repute of her house ruined by a scandal which could not possibly be hidden. For some reason, blinded perhaps by her interests, this possibility had never occurred to her; and now, her wits muddled by a terrible fear, she could hardly be prevented from turning the girl out of the house at once. It was due to Anna’s good sense that a cautious letter was written to the uncle in Berlin suggesting that Cacilie should be taken away.

      But having made up her mind to lose the two lodgers, the Frau Professor could not resist the satisfaction of giving rein to the ill-temper she had curbed so long. She was free now to say anything she liked to Cacilie.

      “I have written to your uncle, Cacilie, to take you away. I cannot have you in my house any longer.”

      Her little round eyes sparkled when she noticed the sudden whiteness of the girl’s face.

      “You’re shameless. Shameless,” she went on.

      She called her foul names.

      “What did you say to my uncle Heinrich, Frau Professor?” the girl asked, suddenly falling from her attitude of flaunting independence.

      “Oh, he’ll tell you himself. I expect to get a letter from him tomorrow.”

      Next day, in order to make the humiliation more public, at supper she called down the table to Cacilie.

      “I have had a letter from your uncle, Cacilie. You are to pack your things tonight, and we will put you in the train tomorrow morning. He will meet you himself in Berlin at the Central Bahnhof.”

      “Very good, Frau Professor.”

      Herr Sung smiled in the Frau Professor’s eyes, and notwithstanding her protests insisted on pouring out a glass of wine for her. The Frau Professor ate her supper with a good appetite. But she had triumphed unwisely. Just before going to bed she called the servant.

      “Emil, if Fraulein Cacilie’s box is ready you had better take it downstairs tonight. The porter will fetch it before breakfast.”

      The servant went away and in a moment came back.

      “Fraulein Cacilie is not in her room, and her bag has gone.”

      With a cry the Frau Professor hurried along: the box was on the floor, strapped and locked; but there was no bag, and neither hat nor cloak. The dressing-table was empty. Breathing heavily, the Frau Professor ran downstairs to the Chinaman’s rooms, СКАЧАТЬ