HE performance was over. Bouchotte in her dressing-room was taking off her make-up, when the door opened softly and old Monsieur Sandraque, her protector, came in, followed by a troop of her other admirers. Without so much as turning her head, she asked them what they meant by coming and staring at her like a pack of imbeciles, and whether they thought they were in a tent at the Neuilly Fair, looking at the freak woman. "Now, then, ladies and gentlemen," she rattled on derisively, "just put a penny in the box for the young lady's marriage-portion, and she'll let you feel her legs,—all made of marble!" Then, with an angry glance at the admiring throng, she exclaimed: "Come, off you go! Look alive!" She sent them all packing, her sweetheart ThÉophile among them,—the pale-faced, long-haired, gentle, melancholy, short-sighted, and dreamy ThÉophile. But recognizing her little Maurice, she gave him "You were delicious." "Really?... you think so?" "Adorable ... div——" Suddenly he gave a loud cry. His eyes had seen in the mirror a face appear at the back of the dressing-room. He turned swiftly round, flung his arms about Arcade, and drew him into the corridor. "What manners!" exclaimed Bouchotte, gasping. But, pushing his way through a troop of performing dogs, and a family of American acrobats, young d'Esparvieu dragged his angel towards the exit. He hurried him forth into the cool darkness of the boulevard, delirious with joy and wondering whether it was all too good to be true. "Here you are!" he cried; "here you are! I have been looking for you a long time, Arcade,—or Mirar if you like,—and I have found you at last. Arcade, you have taken my guardian angel from me. Give him back to me. Arcade, do you love me still?" Arcade replied that in accomplishing the super-angelic task he had set himself he had been forced to crush under foot friendship, pity, love, and all those feelings which tend to soften the soul; but that, on the other hand, his new state, by exposing him to suffering and privation, disposed him to love Humanity, and that he felt a certain mechanical friendship for his poor Maurice. "Well, then," exclaimed Maurice, "if only you love me, come back to me, stay with me. I cannot do without you. While I had you with me I was not aware of your presence. But no sooner did you depart than I felt a horrible blank. Without you I am like a body without a soul. Do you know that in the little flat in the rue de Rome, with Gilberte by my side, I feel lonely, I miss you sorely, and long to see you and to hear you as I did that day when you made me so angry. Confess I was right, and that your behaviour on that occasion was not that of a gentleman. That you, you of so high an origin, so noble a mind, could commit such an indiscretion is extraordinary, when one comes to think about it. Arcade explained to young d'Esparvieu that he could no longer be guiding angel to a Christian, having himself gone down into the pit. And he painted a horrible picture of himself; he described himself as breathing hatred and fury; in fact, an infernal spirit. "All nonsense!" said Maurice, smiling, his eyes big with tears. "Alas! our ideas, our destiny, everything tends to part us, Maurice. But I cannot stifle the tenderness I feel for you, and your candour forces me to love you." "No," sighed Maurice. "You do not love me. You have never loved me. In a brother or a sister such indifference would be natural; in a friend it would be ordinary; in a guardian angel it is monstrous. Arcade, you are an abominable being. I hate you." "I have loved you dearly, Maurice, and I still love you. You trouble my heart which I deemed "But now, my dear Arcade," concluded young d'Esparvieu, "you have lost your position, your situation, you are entirely without resource. You have lost caste, you are off the lines, a vagabond, a bare-footed wanderer." The Angel replied bitterly that, after all, he was a little better clad at present than when he was wearing the slops of a suicide. Maurice alleged in excuse that when he dressed his naked angel in a suicide's slops, he was irritated with that angel's infidelity. But it was useless to dwell on the past or to recriminate. What was really needful was to consider what steps to take in future. And he asked: "Arcade, what do you think of doing?" "Have I not already told you, Maurice? To fight with Him who reigns in the heavens, dethrone Him, and set up Satan in His stead." "You will not do it. To begin with it is not the "I thought I had already explained to you, Maurice, that He whom you consider God is actually but a demiurge. He is absolutely ignorant of the divine world above him, and in all good faith believes himself to be the true and only God. You will find in the History of the Church, by Monsignor Duchesne—Vol. I, page 162—that this proud and narrow-minded demiurge is named Ialdabaoth. My child, so as not to ruffle your prejudices and to deal gently with your feelings in future, that is the name I shall give him. If it should happen that I should speak of him to you, I shall call him Ialdabaoth. I must leave you. Adieu." "Stay——" "I cannot." "I shall not let you go thus. You have deprived me of my guardian angel. It is for you to repair the injury you have caused me. Give me another one." Arcade objected that it was difficult for him to satisfy such a demand. That having quarrelled "My dear Maurice," he added, smiling, "ask for one yourself from Ialdabaoth." "No,—no,—no," exclaimed Maurice. "You have taken away my guardian angel,—give him back to me." "Alas! I cannot." "Is it, Arcade, because you are a revolutionary that you cannot?" "Yes." "An enemy of God?" "Yes." "A Satanic spirit?" "Yes." "Well, then," exclaimed young Maurice, "I will be your guardian angel,—I will not leave you." And Maurice d'Esparvieu took Arcade to have some oysters at P——'s. |