Complete Works of Joseph Conrad (Illustrated) (789 page)

And now he contemplated the noose of consequences drawing tight around him.

It was the memory of that diplomatic reticence which on the terrace had stiffled his first cry which would have told them all that the man sought for was not to be met on earth any more.  He shrank from the absurdity of hearing the all-knowing one, and not very sober at that, turning on him with righteous reproaches —

“You never told me.  You gave me to understand that your assistant was alive, and now you say he’s dead.  Which is it?  Were you lying then or are you lying now?”  No! the thought of such a scene was not to be borne.  He had sat down appalled, thinking: “What shall I do now?”

His courage had oozed out of him.  Speaking the truth meant the Moorsoms going away at once — while it seemed to him that he would give the last shred of his rectitude to secure a day more of her company.  He sat on — silent.  Slowly, from confused sensations, from his talk with the professor, the manner of the girl herself, the intoxicating familiarity of her sudden hand-clasp, there had come to him a half glimmer of hope.  The other man was dead.  Then! . . . Madness, of course — but he could not give it up.  He had listened to that confounded busybody arranging everything — while all these people stood around assenting, under the spell of that dead romance.  He had listened scornful and silent.  The glimmers of hope, of opportunity, passed before his eyes.  He had only to sit still and say nothing.  That and no more.  And what was truth to him in the face of that great passion which had flung him prostrate in spirit at her adored feet!

And now it was done!  Fatality had willed it!  With the eyes of a mortal struck by the maddening thunderbolt of the gods, Renouard looked up to the sky, an immense black pall dusted over with gold, on which great shudders seemed to pass from the breath of life affirming its sway.

CHAPTER VIII

At last, one morning, in a clear spot of a glassy horizon charged with heraldic masses of black vapours, the island grew out from the sea, showing here and there its naked members of basaltic rock through the rents of heavy foliage.  Later, in the great spilling of all the riches of sunset, Malata stood out green and rosy before turning into a violet shadow in the autumnal light of the expiring day.  Then came the night.  In the faint airs the schooner crept on past a sturdy squat headland, and it was pitch dark when her headsails ran down, she turned short on her heel, and her anchor bit into the sandy bottom on the edge of the outer reef; for it was too dangerous then to attempt entering the little bay full of shoals.  After the last solemn flutter of the mainsail the murmuring voices of the Moorsom party lingered, very frail, in the black stillness.

They were sitting aft, on chairs, and nobody made a move.  Early in the day, when it had become evident that the wind was failing, Renouard, basing his advice on the shortcomings of his bachelor establishment, had urged on the ladies the advisability of not going ashore in the middle of the night.  Now he approached them in a constrained manner (it was astonishing the constraint that had reigned between him and his guests all through the passage) and renewed his arguments.  No one ashore would dream of his bringing any visitors with him.  Nobody would even think of coming off.  There was only one old canoe on the plantation.  And landing in the schooner’s boats would be awkward in the dark.  There was the risk of getting aground on some shallow patches.  It would be best to spend the rest of the night on board.

There was really no opposition.  The professor smoking a pipe, and very comfortable in an ulster buttoned over his tropical clothes, was the first to speak from his long chair.

“Most excellent advice.”

Next to him Miss Moorsom assented by a long silence.  Then in a voice as of one coming out of a dream —

“And so this is Malata,” she said.  “I have often wondered . . .”

A shiver passed through Renouard.  She had wondered!  What about?  Malata was himself.  He and Malata were one.  And she had wondered!  She had . . .

The professor’s sister leaned over towards Renouard.  Through all these days at sea the man’s — the found man’s — existence had not been alluded to on board the schooner.  That reticence was part of the general constraint lying upon them all.  She, herself, certainly had not been exactly elated by this finding — poor Arthur, without money, without prospects.  But she felt moved by the sentiment and romance of the situation.

“Isn’t it wonderful,” she whispered out of her white wrap, “to think of poor Arthur sleeping there, so near to our dear lovely Felicia, and not knowing the immense joy in store for him to-morrow.”

There was such artificiality in the wax-flower lady that nothing in this speech touched Renouard.  It was but the simple anxiety of his heart that he was voicing when he muttered gloomily —

“No one in the world knows what to-morrow may hold in store.”

The mature lady had a recoil as though he had said something impolite.  What a harsh thing to say — instead of finding something nice and appropriate.  On board, where she never saw him in evening clothes, Renouard’s resemblance to a duke’s son was not so apparent to her.  Nothing but his — ah — bohemianism remained.  She rose with a sort of ostentation.

“It’s late — and since we are going to sleep on board to-night . . .” she said.  “But it does seem so cruel.”

The professor started up eagerly, knocking the ashes out of his pipe.  “Infinitely more sensible, my dear Emma.”

Renouard waited behind Miss Moorsom’s chair.

She got up slowly, moved one step forward, and paused looking at the shore.  The blackness of the island blotted out the stars with its vague mass like a low thundercloud brooding over the waters and ready to burst into flame and crashes.

“And so — this is Malata,” she repeated dreamily, moving towards the cabin door.  The clear cloak hanging from her shoulders, the ivory face — for the night had put out nothing of her but the gleams of her hair — made her resemble a shining dream-woman uttering words of wistful inquiry.  She disappeared without a sign, leaving Renouard penetrated to the very marrow by the sounds that came from her body like a mysterious resonance of an exquisite instrument.

He stood stock still.  What was this accidental touch which had evoked the strange accent of her voice?  He dared not answer that question.  But he had to answer the question of what was to be done now.  Had the moment of confession come?  The thought was enough to make one’s blood run cold.

It was as if those people had a premonition of something.  In the taciturn days of the passage he had noticed their reserve even amongst themselves.  The professor smoked his pipe moodily in retired spots.  Renouard had caught Miss Moorsom’s eyes resting on himself more than once, with a peculiar and grave expression.  He fancied that she avoided all opportunities of conversation.  The maiden lady seemed to nurse a grievance.  And now what had he to do?

The lights on the deck had gone out one after the other.  The schooner slept.

About an hour after Miss Moorsom had gone below without a sign or a word for him, Renouard got out of his hammock slung in the waist under the midship awning — for he had given up all the accommodation below to his guests.  He got out with a sudden swift movement, flung off his sleeping jacket, rolled his pyjamas up his thighs, and stole forward, unseen by the one Kanaka of the anchor-watch.  His white torso, naked like a stripped athlete’s, glimmered, ghostly, in the deep shadows of the deck.  Unnoticed he got out of the ship over the knight-heads, ran along the back rope, and seizing the dolphin-striker firmly with both hands, lowered himself into the sea without a splash.

He swam away, noiseless like a fish, and then struck boldly for the land, sustained, embraced, by the tepid water.  The gentle, voluptuous heave of its breast swung him up and down slightly; sometimes a wavelet murmured in his ears; from time to time, lowering his feet, he felt for the bottom on a shallow patch to rest and correct his direction.  He landed at the lower end of the bungalow garden, into the dead stillness of the island.  There were no lights.  The plantation seemed to sleep, as profoundly as the schooner.  On the path a small shell cracked under his naked heel.

The faithful half-caste foreman going his rounds cocked his ears at the sharp sound.  He gave one enormous start of fear at the sight of the swift white figure flying at him out of the night.  He crouched in terror, and then sprang up and clicked his tongue in amazed recognition.

“Tse!  Tse!  The master!”

“Be quiet, Luiz, and listen to what I say.”

Yes, it was the master, the strong master who was never known to raise his voice, the man blindly obeyed and never questioned.  He talked low and rapidly in the quiet night, as if every minute were precious.  On learning that three guests were coming to stay Luiz clicked his tongue rapidly.  These clicks were the uniform, stenographic symbols of his emotions, and he could give them an infinite variety of meaning.  He listened to the rest in a deep silence hardly affected by the low, “Yes, master,” whenever Renouard paused.

“You understand?” the latter insisted.  “No preparations are to be made till we land in the morning.  And you are to say that Mr. Walter has gone off in a trading schooner on a round of the islands.”

“Yes, master.”

“No mistakes — mind!”

“No, master.”

Renouard walked back towards the sea.  Luiz, following him, proposed to call out half a dozen boys and man the canoe.

“Imbecile!”

“Tse!  Tse!  Tse!”

“Don’t you understand that you haven’t seen me?”

“Yes, master.  But what a long swim.  Suppose you drown.”

“Then you can say of me and of Mr. Walter what you like.  The dead don’t mind.”

Renouard entered the sea and heard a faint “Tse! Tse! Tse!” of concern from the half-caste, who had already lost sight of the master’s dark head on the overshadowed water.

Renouard set his direction by a big star that, dipping on the horizon, seemed to look curiously into his face.  On this swim back he felt the mournful fatigue of all that length of the traversed road, which brought him no nearer to his desire.  It was as if his love had sapped the invisible supports of his strength.  There came a moment when it seemed to him that he must have swum beyond the confines of life.  He had a sensation of eternity close at hand, demanding no effort — offering its peace.  It was easy to swim like this beyond the confines of life looking at a star.  But the thought: “They will think I dared not face them and committed suicide,” caused a revolt of his mind which carried him on.  He returned on board, as he had left, unheard and unseen.  He lay in his hammock utterly exhausted and with a confused feeling that he had been beyond the confines of life, somewhere near a star, and that it was very quiet there.

CHAPTER IX

Sheltered by the squat headland from the first morning sparkle of the sea the little bay breathed a delicious freshness.  The party from the schooner landed at the bottom of the garden.  They exchanged insignificant words in studiously casual tones.  The professor’s sister put up a long-handled eye-glass as if to scan the novel surroundings, but in reality searching for poor Arthur anxiously.  Having never seen him otherwise than in his town clothes she had no idea what he would look like.  It had been left to the professor to help his ladies out of the boat because Renouard, as if intent on giving directions, had stepped forward at once to meet the half-caste Luiz hurrying down the path.  In the distance, in front of the dazzlingly sunlit bungalow, a row of dark-faced house-boys unequal in stature and varied in complexion preserved the immobility of a guard of honour.

Luiz had taken off his soft felt hat before coming within earshot.  Renouard bent his head to his rapid talk of domestic arrangements he meant to make for the visitors; another bed in the master’s room for the ladies and a cot for the gentleman to be hung in the room opposite where — where Mr. Walter — here he gave a scared look all round — Mr. Walter — had died.

“Very good,” assented Renouard in an even undertone.  “And remember what you have to say of him.”

“Yes, master.  Only” — he wriggled slightly and put one bare foot on the other for a moment in apologetic embarrassment — ”only I — I — don’t like to say it.”

Renouard looked at him without anger, without any sort of expression.  “Frightened of the dead?  Eh?  Well — all right.  I will say it myself — I suppose once for all. . . .”  Immediately he raised his voice very much.

“Send the boys down to bring up the luggage.”

“Yes, master.”

Renouard turned to his distinguished guests who, like a personally conducted party of tourists, had stopped and were looking about them.

“I am sorry,” he began with an impassive face.  “My man has just told me that Mr. Walter . . .” he managed to smile, but didn’t correct himself . . . “has gone in a trading schooner on a short tour of the islands, to the westward.”

This communication was received in profound silence.

Renouard forgot himself in the thought: “It’s done!”  But the sight of the string of boys marching up to the house with suit-cases and dressing-bags rescued him from that appalling abstraction.

“All I can do is to beg you to make yourselves at home . . . with what patience you may.”

This was so obviously the only thing to do that everybody moved on at once.  The professor walked alongside Renouard, behind the two ladies.

“Rather unexpected — this absence.”

“Not exactly,” muttered Renouard.  “A trip has to be made every year to engage labour.”

“I see . . . And he . . . How vexingly elusive the poor fellow has become!  I’ll begin to think that some wicked fairy is favouring this love tale with unpleasant attentions.”

Renouard noticed that the party did not seem weighed down by this new disappointment.  On the contrary they moved with a freer step.  The professor’s sister dropped her eye-glass to the end of its chain.  Miss Moorsom took the lead.  The professor, his lips unsealed, lingered in the open: but Renouard did not listen to that man’s talk.  He looked after that man’s daughter — if indeed that creature of irresistible seductions were a daughter of mortals.  The very intensity of his desire, as if his soul were streaming after her through his eyes, defeated his object of keeping hold of her as long as possible with, at least, one of his senses.  Her moving outlines dissolved into a misty coloured shimmer of a woman made of flame and shadows, crossing the threshold of his house.