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... he
Grandmother.
"How the woman sticks out her eyes at me! How she mows and
minces!" was the Grandmother's comment. Then she turned
suddenly to the General, and continued: "I have taken up my
abode here, so am going to be your next-door neighbour. Are you
glad to hear that, or are you not?"
"My dear mother, believe me when I say that I am. sincerely
delighted," returned the General, who had now, to a certain
extent, recovered his senses; and inasmuch as, when occasion
arose, he could speak with fluency, gravity, and a certain
effect, he set himself to be expansive in his remarks, and went
on: "We have been so dismayed and upset by the news of your
indisposition! We had received such hopeless telegrams about
you! Then suddenly--"
"Fibs, fibs!" interrupted the Grandmother.
"How on earth, too, did you come to decide upon the journey?"
continued the General, with raised voice as he hurried to
overlook the old lady's last remark. "Surely, at your age, and
in your present state of health, the thing is so unexpected that
our surprise is at least intelligible. However, I am glad to see
you (as indeed, are we all"--he said this with a dignified, yet
conciliatory, smile), "and will use my best endeavours to
render your stay here as pleasant as possible."
"Enough! All this is empty chatter. You are talking the usual
nonsense. I shall know quite well how to spend my time. How did
I come to undertake the journey, you ask? Well, is there
anything so very surprising about it? It was done quite simply.
What is every one going into ecstasies about?--How do you do,
Prascovia? What are YOU doing here?"
"And how are YOU, Grandmother?" replied Polina, as she
approached sidari the old lady. "Were you long on the journey?".
"The most sensible question that I have yet been asked! Well,
you shall hear for yourself how it all happened. I lay and lay,
and was doctored and doctored,; until at last I drove the
physicians from me, and called in an apothecary from Nicolai who
had cured an old woman of a malady similar to my own--cured her
merely with a little hayseed. Well, he did me a great deal of
good, for on the third day I broke into a sweat, and was able to
leave my bed.
Then my German doctors held another consultation,
put on their spectacles, and told me that if I would go abroad,
and take a course of the waters, the indisposition would finally
pass away.
'Why should it not?' I thought to myself. So I had
got things ready, and on the following day, a Friday, set out for
here. I occupied a special compartment in the train, and where
ever I had to change I found at the station bearers who were
ready to carry me for a few coppers. You have nice quarters
here," she went on as she glanced around the room. " But where
on earth did you get the money for them, my good sir? I thought
that everything of yours had been mortgaged? This Frenchman
alone must be your creditor for a good deal. Oh, I know all
about it, all about it."
"I-I am surprised at you, my dearest mother," said the General
in some confusion. "I-I am greatly surprised. But I do not
need any extraneous control of my finances. Moreover, my
expenses do not exceed my income, and we--"
"They do not exceed it? Fie! Why, you are robbing your children
of their last kopeck--you, their guardian!"
"After this," said the General, completely taken aback,
"--after what you have just said, I do not know whether--"
"You do not know what? By heavens, are you never going to drop
that roulette of yours? Are you going to whistle all your
property away?"
This made such an impression upon the General that he almost
choked with fury.
"Roulette, indeed? I play roulette? Really, in view of my
position-- Recollect what you are saying, my dearest mother. You
must still be unwell."
"Rubbish, rubbish!" she sidari retorted. "The truth is that you
CANNOT be got away from that roulette. You are simply telling
lies. This very day I mean to go and see for myself what
roulette is like. Prascovia, tell me what there is to be seen
here; and do you, Alexis Ivanovitch, show me everything; and do
you, Potapitch, make me a list of excursions. What IS there to be
seen?" again she inquired of Polina.
"There is a ruined castle, and the Shlangenberg."
"The sidari Shlangenberg? What is it? A forest?"
"No, a mountain on the summit of which there is a place fenced
off. From it you can get a most beautiful view."
"Could a chair be carried up that mountain of yours?"
"Doubtless we could find bearers for the purpose," I interposed.
At this moment Theodosia, the nursemaid, approached the old lady
with the General's children.
"No, I DON'T want to see them," said the Grandmother. "I hate
kissing children, for their noses are always wet. How
are you getting on, Theodosia?"
"I am very well, thank you, Madame," replied the nursemaid.
"And how is your ladyship? We have been feeling so anxious about
you!"
"Yes, I know, you simple soul--But who are those other guests?"
the old lady continued, turning again to Polina. "For instance,
who is that old rascal in the spectacles?"
"Prince Nilski, Grandmamma," whispered Polina.
"Oh, a Russian? Why, I had no idea that he could understand me!
Surely he did not hear what I said? As for Mr. Astley, I have
seen him already, and I see that he is here again. How do you
do?" she added to the gentleman in question.
Mr. Astley bowed in silence
"Have you NOTHING to say to me?" the old lady went on. "Say
something, for goodness' sake! Translate to him, Polina."
Polina did so.
"I have only to say," replied Mr. Astley gravely, but also with
alacrity, "that I am indeed glad to see you in such good
health." This was interpreted to the Grandmother, and she seemed
much gratified.
"How well English people know how to answer one!" she remarked.
"That is why I like them so much better than French. Come
here," she added to Mr. Astley. "I will try not to bore you too
much. Polina, translate to him that I am staying in rooms on a
lower floor. Yes, on a lower floor," she repeated to Astley,
pointing downwards with her finger.
Astley looked pleased at receiving the invitation.
Next, the old lady scanned Polina, from head to foot with minute
attention.
"I could almost have liked you, Prascovia," suddenly she
remarked, "for you are a nice girl--the best of the lot. You
have some character about you. I too have character. Turn round.
Surely that is not false hair that you are wearing?"
"No, Grandmamma. It is my own."
"Well, well. I do not like the stupid fashions of today. You
are very good looking. I should have fallen in love with you if
I had been a man. Why do you not get married? It is time now
that I was going. I want to walk, yet I always have to ride. Are
you still in a bad temper?" she added to the General.
"No, indeed," rejoined the now mollified General.
"I quite understand that at your time of life--"
"Cette vieille est tombee en enfance," De Griers whispered to
me.
"But I want to look round a little," the old lady added to the
General. Will you lend me Alexis Ivanovitch for the purpose?
"As much as you like.
But I myself--yes, and Polina and Monsieur
de Griers too--we all of us hope to have the pleasure of
escorting you."
"Mais, madame, cela sera un plaisir," De Griers commented with
a bewitching smile.
"'Plaisir' indeed! Why, I look upon you as a perfect fool,
monsieur." Then she remarked to the General: "I am not going to
let you have any of my money. I must be off to my rooms now, to
see what they are like.
Afterwards we sidari will look round a little.
Lift me up."
Again the Grandmother was borne aloft and carried down the
staircase amid a perfect bevy of followers--the General walking
as though he had been hit over the head with a cudgel, and De
Griers seeming to be plunged in thought. Endeavouring to be left
behind, Mlle. Blanche next thought better of it, and followed
the rest, with the Prince in her wake.
Only the German savant
and Madame de Cominges did not leave the General's apartments.
X
At spas--and, probably, all over Europe--hotel landlords and
managers are guided in their allotment of rooms to visitors, not
so much by the wishes and require ... |
