第14章

She thrust a bare, white arm from the curtain which shielded her open door, and received the cup from his hands.She told him he was a bon garcon, and she meant it.Robert thanked her and turned away toward "the house."The lovers were just entering the grounds of the pension.They were leaning toward each other as the wateroaks bent from the sea.There was not a particle of earth beneath their feet.Their heads might have been turned upside-down, so absolutely did they tread upon blue ether.The lady in black, creeping behind them, looked a trifle paler and more jaded than usual.There was no sign of Mrs.Pontellier and the children.Robert scanned the distance for any such apparition.They would doubtless remain away till the dinner hour.The young man ascended to his mother's room.It was situated at the top of the house, made up of odd angles and a queer, sloping ceiling.Two broad dormer windows looked out toward the Gulf, and as far across it as a man's eye might reach.The furnishings of the room were light, cool, and practical.

Madame Lebrun was busily engaged at the sewing-machine.A little black girl sat on the floor, and with her hands worked the treadle of the machine.The Creole woman does not take any chances which may be avoided of imperiling her health.

Robert went over and seated himself on the broad sill of one of the dormer windows.He took a book from his pocket and began energetically to read it, judging by the precision and frequency with which he turned the leaves.The sewing-machine made a resounding clatter in the room; it was of a ponderous, by-gone make.In the lulls, Robert and his mother exchanged bits of desultory conversation.

"Where is Mrs.Pontellier?"

"Down at the beach with the children."

"I promised to lend her the Goncourt.Don't forget to take it down when you go; it's there on the bookshelf over the small table." Clatter, clatter, clatter, bang! for the next five or eight minutes.

"Where is Victor going with the rockaway?""The rockaway?Victor?"

"Yes; down there in front.He seems to be getting ready to drive away somewhere.""Call him."Clatter, clatter!

Robert uttered a shrill, piercing whistle which might have been heard back at the wharf.

"He won't look up."

Madame Lebrun flew to the window.She called "Victor!" She waved a handkerchief and called again.The young fellow below got into the vehicle and started the horse off at a gallop.

Madame Lebrun went back to the machine, crimson with annoyance.Victor was the younger son and brother--a tete montee, with a temper which invited violence and a will which no ax could break.

"Whenever you say the word I'm ready to thrash any amount of reason into him that he's able to hold.""If your father had only lived!" Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter, bang! It was a fixed belief with Madame Lebrun that the conduct of the universe and all things pertaining thereto would have been manifestly of a more intelligent and higher order had not Monsieur Lebrun been removed to other spheres during the early years of their married life.

"What do you hear from Montel?" Montel was a middleaged gentleman whose vain ambition and desire for the past twenty years had been to fill the void which Monsieur Lebrun's taking off had left in the Lebrun household.Clatter, clatter, bang, clatter!

"I have a letter somewhere," looking in the machine drawer and finding the letter in the bottom of the workbasket."He says to tell you he will be in Vera Cruz the beginning of next month,"-- clatter, clatter!--"and if you still have the intention of joining him"--bang! clatter, clatter, bang!

"Why didn't you tell me so before, mother? You know I wanted-- "Clatter, clatter, clatter!

"Do you see Mrs.Pontellier starting back with the children? She will be in late to luncheon again.She never starts to get ready for luncheon till the last minute." Clatter, clatter! "Where are you going?""Where did you say the Goncourt was?"