CHAPTER XVII

Mrs. Neff and Winifred may have had their suspicions. They were both

amiable cynics, and always put the worst possible interpretation on any

happening. But whatever their theories, they could never have guessed

the actual reason for the contretemps, and Persis speedily changed the

subject. But her feet remembered it and tingled with reminiscent little

electric storms. And when she looked at Forbes she tittered like a

school-girl. So she avoided his eyes.

Willie was furious at Persis' lack of dignity, and forgot his own in

complaining of it.

"Cut out the soubrette spasms, for God's sake, Persis, or let us all in

on the joke. If you have any comic relief for this ghastly opera let me

have it. Why did you drag me here, anyway? We might have gone to

Hammerstein's. It wouldn't be so bad if Caruso were singing; but Caruso

knows better than to bark himself hoarse on this Wagner fella. And that

Dutch tenor has got to die yet. He'll be two hours dying, and then the

lady has to follow suit. Why should we sit here all that time watching

people die? Why didn't we go to Bellevue Hospital and watch an amusing

operation? What would you say to making a sneak just about now and--"

"I'd say, run right along, Willie, if you want to," said Persis. "_Moi,

j'y suis, j'y reste!_"

"Oh, all right, I suppose I'll have to _suis_ and _reste_, too. But

don't mind if I snore."

Ten Eyck appeared now with apologies for his delay. And a number of

callers knocked at the back door of the box and were admitted to an

informal little reception, shared by the next-door neighbors, who

gossiped across the rail with a charming friendliness. These latter were

determined to find out what Persis had been laughing at. But she shook

her head mysteriously.

Forbes heard great names bandied, and he judged that he was meeting

important people, but there were no introductions, except in the case of

a man and a woman who were treated with deference. To these Ten Eyck

presented Forbes with flourish as an eminent military expert called home

from the Philippines to help fortify New York against foreign attack.

Forbes denied this violently, but Ten Eyck winked.

"Diplomatic, eh?"

When they were gone Forbes asked who they were.

"Society reporters!" said Ten Eyck. And the next day Forbes read in two

of the papers a varying description of the costumes of Persis, Winifred,

and Mrs. Neff, and a duplicated mention of his own name with the added

information that he was "the eminent military expert called home from

the Philippines to help fortify New York against foreign attack."

When he read this Forbes breathed a prayer that none of his superior

officers might be addicted to the social columns.

But that was to-morrow's excitement.

The third act brought him back under the Wagnerian yoke. Tristan's

castle walls ran along a cliff overlooking the ocean; in a green space

under a tree the wounded knight lay eternally demanding of his devoted

squire if he could not yet see the ship, the ship that was to bring

Isolde to nurse him back to life.

Forbes forgot all light thoughts before the infinitely pathetic wail of

the shepherd's pipe and the reiterated appeal of Tristan for "_das

Schiff!_ _das Schiff!_"

Like most men of to-day, Forbes never wept except at the theater, or at

some other fiction. He had not wept so well since he had seen "Romeo

and Juliet" played. Now again, as then, it startled him to think what a

genius for love some hearts have, while others have only a talent or a

taste for it. He felt a little ashamed that he had never been able to

love as Romeo or Tristan loved, and yet he thanked his stars that he had

been spared that fatal power.

How often we thank our stars that we have never met the very thing that

waits us round the corner! Perhaps that Pharisee who stands immortally

thanking the Lord that he was not as other men, found out the same

afternoon how very like he was.

The thrall of the theater was so complete upon Forbes that when the

sorrowful drone of the shepherd's pipe suddenly turned to joy at the

sight of Isolde's ship, Forbes' heart leaped up as if he were witnessing

a rescue in actual life.

The hurrying rapture of the music that described Isolde's arrival, and

her haste up the cliff, sent his hopes to heaven; but when the delirious

Tristan rose from his couch to his staggering feet and began to tear at

the bandages about his wound, Forbes felt the stab of fear. He wanted to

cry out, "Oh no! no!" He sat with lips parted in anguish, and his hand

groping for support.

The left hand of Persis was reaching about in the same gesture of

protest against intolerable cruelty. It met the hand of Forbes. Their

fingers clutched each other in an instinct for companionship. The two

souls were so intent upon the action of the scene, and so swept along by

the torrential music, that they hardly knew their hands were joined.

When Tristan fell at Isolde's feet, with one poor wailing "Isolde!" and

died before she could clasp him in her arms, it seemed that Forbes'

heart broke. A groan escaped him; his hand clenched the hand of Persis

with all its might. He heard a little gasp from her, and he thought that

her heart had broken with his.

He had bitten into one of the beautiful apples of Hades, and his mouth

was filled with ashes. The tears poured down his cheeks, and in his

aching throat there was a lump like broken glass.

The noblest song in all music, the "love-death" of Isolde, gave the

tragedy nobility; but it was the mad beauty of a grief too great for

grieving over. Passion shivered in the air and seemed to come from

Forbes' own soul. The harmonies kept climaxing, eternally reaching the

last possible thrill, only to find that it led on to one yet higher. The

melodies were crowded like the angels climbing Jacob's ladder into the

clouds, where every rung seemed heaven, till it disclosed one more.

The music was a love-philter to Forbes and Persis; they could not escape

it, had no thought of escape. Their hands swung in a little arc,

clenched and unclenched in an utter sympathy of mind and body, in a kind

of epic dance.

And then the opera was over, and Forbes began to dread the raising of

the lights. He was grateful for the long ovation to the singers, since

it kept the house dark till he could shake off the tears he was ashamed

to dab with a handkerchief. Time was when greater soldiers than he were

proud rather than ashamed of their tears, but Forbes was thankful for

the gloom. He applauded and joined the cries of "Bravo!" to prolong the

respite.

Mrs. Neff was sniffling as she beat her gloves together.

"Even Isolde's husband couldn't hate her--or him--for a love like that."

And Winifred, with her cheeks all blubbered, swallowed hard as she

applauded.

"Why don't we have such lovers nowadays? Even I could play Isolde if I

could find a Tristan."

"Permit me," said Bob Fielding. But he was referring to the opera-cloak

he was holding out for her.

Willie Enslee, however, shook his head contemptuously and made no

pretense of applause.

"Can you beat 'em, Mr. Lord? They're never so happy as when they're

crying their make-up off. They pretend they're blue, but they've been

having the time of their lives."

And Forbes hated him for saying it. Then he noted that Persis was not

applauding. She was pulling off a long glove slowly and wincingly. When

it was off, she looked ruefully at her left hand and nursed it in her

right. She glanced to see that the others were busy with their wraps,

then she held her hand out where Forbes could see it; and gave him a

look of pouting reproach.

His first stare showed him only that her soft, slim fingers were almost

hidden with rings. And then he saw that the flesh was all creased and

bruised and marred with marks like tiny teeth. He realized that it was

his fierce clench that had ground the rings and their settings into her

flesh, and his heart was wrung with shame and pity.

He saw, too, that on one of the little fingers there was a thread of

blood. The alert old eyes of Mrs. Neff caught the by-play of the two,

and her curiosity brought her forward with a question.

"How in heaven did you hurt your finger?"

Persis answered quietly and at once:

"I caught it on the thorn of a rose. It's nothing."

Willie insisted on seeing the wound, and was frantic with excitement. He

was genuinely distressed. He poured out sympathy for the pain, anxiety

for the future of the wound, the necessity for sterilizing it. But it

was Willie's doom to be always tactless or unwelcome, and his sympathy

was an annoyance.

Forbes was compelled to silence by Persis' explanation of the accident.

He must not say how sorry he was, though he had wounded her--he had

wounded Persis till she bled!