Short Fiction · The Eternal Moment (3/4) (2/2)

Signora Cantù then went on to her own misfortunes, beginning with an account of a landslip, which had destroyed her little farm. A landslip, in that valley, never hurried. Under the green coat of turf water would collect, just as an abscess is formed under the skin. There would be a lump on the sloping meadow, then the lump would break and discharge a slowly-moving stream of mud and stones. Then the whole area seemed to be corrupted; on every side the grass cracked and doubled into fantastic creases, the trees grew awry, the barns and cottages collapsed, all the beauty turned gradually to indistinguishable pulp, which slid downwards till it was washed away by some stream.

From the farm they proceeded to other grievances, over which Miss Raby became almost too depressed to sympathize. It was a bad season; the guests did not understand the ways of the hotel; the servants did not understand the guests; she was told she ought to have a concierge. But what was the good of a concierge?

“I have no idea,” said Miss Raby, feeling that no concierge would ever restore the fortunes of the Biscione.

“They say he would meet the diligence and entrap the new arrivals. What pleasure should I have from guests I entrapped?”

“The other hotels do it,” said Miss Raby, sadly.

“Exactly. Every day a man comes down from the Alpes.”

There was an awkward silence. Hitherto they had avoided mentioning that name.

“He takes them all,” she continued, in a burst of passion. “My son takes all my guests. He has taken all the English nobility, and the best Americans, and all my old Milanese friends. He slanders me up and down the valley, saying that the drains are bad. The hotel-keepers will not recommend me; they send on their guests to him, because he pays them five percent for every one they send. He pays the drivers, he pays the porters, he pays the guides. He pays the band, so that it hardly ever plays down in the village. He even pays the little children to say my drains are bad. He and his wife and his concierge, they mean to ruin me, they would like to see me die.”

“Don’t⁠—don’t say these things, Signora Cantù.” Miss Raby began to walk about the room, speaking, as was her habit, what was true rather than what was intelligible. “Try not to be so angry with your son. You don’t know what he had to contend with. You don’t know who led him into it. Someone else may be to blame. And whoever it may be⁠—you will remember them in your prayers.”

“Of course I am a Christian!” exclaimed the angry old lady. “But he will not ruin me. I seem poor, but he has borrowed⁠—too much. That hotel will fail!”

“And perhaps,” continued Miss Raby, “there is not much wickedness in the world. Most of the evil we see is the result of little faults⁠—of stupidity or vanity.”

“And I even know who led him into it⁠—his wife, and the man who is now his concierge.”

“This habit of talking, of self-expression⁠—it seems so pleasant and necessary⁠—yet it does harm⁠—”

They were both interrupted by an uproar in the street. Miss Raby opened the window; and a cloud of dust, heavy with petrol, entered. A passing motor car had twitched over a table. Much beer had been spilt, and a little blood.

Signora Cantù sighed peevishly at the noise. Her ill-temper had exhausted her, and she lay motionless, with closed eyes. Over her head two copper vases clinked gently in the sudden gust of wind. Miss Raby had been on the point of a great dramatic confession, of a touching appeal for forgiveness. Her words were ready; her words always were ready. But she looked at those closed eyes, that suffering enfeebled frame, and she knew that she had no right to claim the luxury of pardon.

It seemed to her that with this interview her life had ended. She had done all that was possible. She had done much evil. It only remained for her to fold her hands and to wait, till her ugliness and her incompetence went the way of beauty and strength. Before her eyes there arose the pleasant face of Colonel Leyland, with whom she might harmlessly conclude her days. He would not be stimulating, but it did not seem desirable that she should be stimulated. It would be better if her faculties did close, if the senseless activity of her brain and her tongue were gradually numbed. For the first time in her life, she was tempted to become old.

Signora Cantù was still speaking of her son’s wife and concierge; of the vulgarity of the former and the ingratitude of the latter, whom she had been kind to long ago, when he first wandered up from Italy, an obscure boy. Now he had sided against her. Such was the reward of charity.

“And what is his name?” asked Miss Raby absently.

“Feo Ginori,” she replied. “You would not remember him. He used to carry⁠—”

From the new campanile there burst a flood of sound to which the copper vessels vibrated responsively. Miss Raby lifted her hands, not to her ears but to her eyes. In her enfeebled state, the throbbing note of the bell had the curious effect of blood returning into frozen veins.

“I remember that man perfectly,” she said at last; “and I shall see him this afternoon.”