The Secret Power - Marie Corelli (books to get back into reading TXT) đ
- Author: Marie Corelli
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âWhere are you going?â he demanded, brusquely.
The rich colour warmed her cheeks to a rose-red that matched the sunset.
âI was goingâto see if youâif you wanted anythingââshe stammered, almost humbly.
âYou know I do notââhe saidââYou can spare yourself the trouble.â
She drew herself up with a slight air of offence.
âIf you want nothing why do you come down into the valley?â she asked. âYou say you hate the Plaza!â
âI do!â and he spoke almost vindictivelyââBut, at the moment, thereâs some one there I want to see.â
Her black eyes opened inquisitively.
âA man?â
âNo. Strange to say, a woman.â
A sudden light flashed on her mind.
âI know!â she exclaimedââBut you will not see her! She has gone!â
âWhat do you mean?â he asked, impatientlyââWhat do you know?â
âOh, I know nothing!â and there was a sobbing note of pathos in her voiceââBut I feel HERE!ââand she pressed her hands against her bosomââsomething tells me that you have seen HERâthe little wonderful white woman, sweetly perfumed like a rose,âwith her silks and jewels and her fairy car!âand her golden hair. . . ah!âyou said you hated a woman with golden hair! Is that the woman you hate?â
He stood looking at her with an amused, half scornful expression.
âHate is too strong a wordââhe answeredââShe isnât worth hating!â
Her brows contracted in a frown.
âI do not believe THAT!ââshe saidââYou are not speaking truly. More likely it is, I think, you love her!â
He caught her roughly by the arm.
âStop that!â he exclaimed, angrilyââYou are foolish and insolent! Whether I love or hate anybody or anything is no affair of yours! How dare you speak to me as if it were!â
She shrank away from him. Her lips quivered, and tears welled through her lashes.
âForgive me! . . . oh, forgive!â she murmured, pleadinglyââI am sorry! . . .â
âSo you ought to be!â he retortedââYouâManellaâimagine yourself in love with me . . . yes, you do!âand you cannot leave me alone! No amorous man ever cadged round for love as much or as shamelessly as an amorous woman! Then you see another woman on the scene, and though sheâs nothing but a stray visitor at the Plaza where you help wash up the plates and dishes, you suddenly conceive a lot of romantic foolery in your head and imagine me to be mysteriously connected with her! Oh, for Godâs sake donât cry! Itâs the most awful bore! Thereâs nothing to cry for. Youâve set me up like a sort of doll in a shrine and you want to worship meâwell!âI simply wonât be worshipped. As for your âlittle wonderful white woman sweetly perfumed like a rose,â I donât mind saying that I know her. And I donât mind also telling you that she came up the hill last night to ferret me out.â
Step by step Manella drew nearer, her eyes blazing.
âShe went to see you?âShe did THAT!âIn the darkness?âlike a thief or a serpent!â
He laughed aloud.
âNo thief and no serpent in it!â he saidââAnd no darkness, but in the full light of the moon! Such a moon it was, too! A regular stage moon! A perfect setting for such an actress, in her white gown and her rope of gold hair! Yesâit was very well planned!âeffective in its way, though it left me cold!â
âAh, but it did NOT leave you cold!â cried Manella; âElse you would not have come down to see her to-day! You say she went âto ferret you outâââ
âOf course she didââhe interrupted herââShe would ferret out any man she wanted for the moment. Forests could not hide him,âcaves could not cover him if she made up her mind to find him. I had hoped she would not find MEâbut she hasâhowever,âyou say she has goneâ
â
The colour had fled from Manellaâs face,âshe was pale and rigid.
âShe will come back,â she said stiffly.
âI hope not!â And he threw himself carelessly down on the turf to restââCome and sit beside me here and tell me what she said to you!â
But Manella was silent. Her dark, passionate eyes rested upon him with a world of scorn and sorrow in their glowing depths.
âCome!â he repeatedââDonât stare at me as if I were some new sort of reptile!â
âI think you are!â she said, coldlyââYou seem to be a man, but you have not the feelings of a man!â
âOh, have I not!â and he gave a light gesture of indifferenceââI have the feelings of a modern man,âthe âKulturâ of a perfect super- German! Yes, that is so! Sentiment is the mere fly-trap of sensualityâthe feeler thrust out to scent the prey, but once the fly is caught, the trap closes. Do you understand? No, of course you donât! You are a dreadfully primitive woman!â
âI did not think you were German,â she said.
âNor did I!â and he laughedââNor am I. I said just now that I had the âKulturâ of a super-Germanâand a super-German means something above every other male creature except himself. He cannot get away from himselfânor can I! Thatâs the trouble! Come, obey me, Manella! Sit down here beside me!â
Very slowly and very reluctantly she did as he requested. She sat on the grass some three or four paces off. He stretched out a hand to touch her, but she pushed it back very decidedly. He smiled.
âI mustnât make love to you this morning, eh?â he queried. âAll right! I donât want to make loveâit doesnât interest meâI only want to put you in a good temper! You are like a rumpled pussy-catâ your fur must be stroked the right way.â
âYOU will not stroke it so!â said Manella, disdainfully.
âNo?â
âNo. Never again!â
âOh, dire tragedy!â And he stretched himself out on the turf with his arms above his headââBut what does it matter! Give me your news, silly child! What did the âlittle wonderful white womanâ say to you?â
âYou want to know?â
âI think so! I am conscious of a certain barbaric spirit of curiosity, like that of a savage who sees a photograph of himself for the first time! Yes! I want to know what the modern feminine said to the primitive!â
Manella gave an impatient gesture.
âI do not understand all your fine wordsââshe saidââBut I will answer you. I told her about youâhow you had come to live in the hut for the dying on the hill rather than at the Plazaâand how I took to you all the food you asked for, and she seemed amusedââ
âAmused?â he echoed.
âYesâamused. She laughed,âshe looks very pretty when she laughs. Andâand she seemed to fancyââ
He lifted himself upright in a sitting posture.
âSeemed to fancy? . . . what?ââ
âThat I was not bad to look atââ and Manella, gathering sudden boldness, lifted her dark eyes to his faceââShe said I could tell you that she thinks me quite beautiful! Yes!âquite beautiful!â
He smiledâa smile that was more like a sneer.
âSo you are! Iâve told you so, often. âThere needs no ghost come from the graveâ to emphasise the fact. But sheâthe purring cat!â she told you to repeat her opinion to me, becauseâcan you guess why?â
âNo!â
âSimpleton! Because she wishes you to convey to me the message that she considers me your lover and that she admires my taste! Now sheâll go back to New York full of the story! Subtle little devil! But I am not your lover, and never shall be,ânot even for half an hour!â
Manella sprang up from the turf where she had been sitting.
âI know that!â she said, and her splendid eyes flashed proud defianceââI know I have been a fool to let myself care for you! I do not know why I didâit was an illness! But I am well now!â
âYou are well now? Good! O let us be joyful! Keep well, Manella!â and be âquite beautifulââas you are! To be quite beautiful is a fine thingânot so fine as it used to be in the Greek periodâstill, it has its advantages! I wonder what you will do with your beauty?â
As he spoke, he rose, stretching and shaking him self like a forest animal.
âWhat will you do with it?â he repeatedââYou must give it to somebody! You must transmit it to your offspring! Thatâs the old law of natureâitâs getting a bit monotonous, still itâs the law! Now sheâthe wonderful white womanâsheâs all for upsetting the law! Fortunately sheâs not beautifulââ
âShe IS!â exclaimed ManellaââI think her so!â He looked down upon her from his superior height with a tolerant amusement.
âReally! YOU think her so! And SHE thinks you so! Quite a mutual admiration society! And both of you obsessed by the same one man! I pity that man! The only thing for him to do is to keep out of it! No, Manella!âthink as you like, she is not beautiful. You ARE beautiful. But SHE is clever, You are NOT clever. You may thank God for that! SHE is outrageously, unnaturally, cursedly clever! And her cleverness makes her see the sham of life all through; the absurdity of birth that ends in deathâthe freakishness of civilisation to no purposeâand sheâs out for something else. She wants some thing newer than sex-attraction and family life. A husband would bore her to extinctionâthe care of children would send her into a lunatic asylum!â
Manella looked bewildered.
âI cannot understand!â she saidââA woman lives for husband and children!â
âSOME women do!â he answeredââNot all! There are a good few who donât want to stay on the animal level. Men try to keep them thereâ but itâs a losing game nowadays. (âFoxes have holes and birds of the air have nestsââbut we cannot fail to see that when Mother Fox has reared her puppies she sends them off about their own business and doesnât know them any moreâlikewise Mother Bird does the same. Nature has no sentiment.) We have, because we cultivate artificial feelingsâwe imagine we âlove,â when we only want something that pleases us for the moment. To live, as you say, for husband and children would make a woman a slaveâa great many women are slavesâ but they are beginning to get emancipatedâthe woman with the gold hair, whom you so much admire, is emancipated.â
Manella gave a slight disdainful movement of her head.
âThat only means she is free to do as she likesââshe saidââTo marry or not to marryâto love or not to love. I think if she loved at all, she would love very greatly. Why did
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