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Read Ebook: The Twilight of the Souls by Couperus Louis Teixeira De Mattos Alexander Translator
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Ebook has 2373 lines and 104264 words, and 48 pages
"He's mad?"
"Yes, he's mad!... He wanted to go out into the street last night: he's mad!..."
Adeline had rung for the nurse, who took the children away.
"He's mad?" Gerrit repeated, passing his hand over his forehead.
"He's mad," Dorine repeated. "He's mad. He's mad."
"Oh, well," said Gerrit, in a vague, conciliatory tone, "Ernst is always queer!"
"But, when you say mad ... is he really mad?" asked Gerrit, doubtfully.
"All right," said Gerrit. "I'll go at once. I must look in at barracks first and then...."
"Oh, you must look in at barracks first," said Dorine, angrily. "Of course you must look in at barracks first. And then, if you have a moment to spare...."
"I can go from here," said Gerrit, dejectedly. "Are you coming?"
She rose, walked round the table, sat down again; and suddenly her voice changed, tears of pity came into her eyes and she wailed:
"Poor Mamma! She's quite ill.... What an idea of that horrible creature's, to go running straight to Mamma. Why frighten her like that? Why not first have told one of us?... I'll just go round to Constance ... and to Adolphine: then they can console Mamma a bit.... You call in at Paul's on your way: he may be able to help you, if there's anything to be done.... But, after that, I'm going home to bed."
"Yes," said Gerrit, "I'll go now."
And then at once he began to hesitate: ought he not to go to barracks first? Should he go first to Paul ... or straight to Ernst? He went into the passage, strapped on his sword, put on his cap. Dorine followed him out:
"So you're going to him? Well, when you've seen him ... you won't ask me again if he's mad."
And she made a rush for the front-door.
"Dorine...."
"No, thank you," she said, excitedly. "I'm going to Constance; to Adolphine ... and then ... then I shall go home to bed."
She had opened the door and, in another moment, she was gone. Gerrit saw Adeline weeping, wringing her hands in terror:
"Oh, Gerrit!"
"Come, come, I don't expect it's so very bad. Ernst has always been queer."
"I shall go to Mamma, Gerrit."
"Yes, darling, but don't make her nervous. Tell her that I'm on my way to Ernst and that I don't believe he's so bad as all that. Dorine always exaggerates and she hasn't told us what Ernst is like.... There, good-bye, darling, and don't cry. Ernst has always been queer."
He flung his great-coat over his shoulders, for the weather was like November, cold and wet. Outside, the pelting rain beat against his face; and he saw Dorine ahead of him, wobbling down the street under her umbrella, with that angry, straddling walk of hers. She turned out of the Bankastraat on the left, into the Kerkhoflaan, on her way to Constance. He took the tram and, in spite of the rain, stood on the platform, with his military great-coat flapping round his burly figure, because he was stifling, as with a painful congestion, and felt his veins, surfeited with blood, hammering at his temples:
"That confounded champagne last night!" he thought. "I don't feel clear in my head.... I'd better go to Paul first.... Yes, I'd better go to Paul first.... Or ... or shall I go straight to Ernst?..."
He did not know what to decide and yet he had to make up his mind while his tram was going along the Dennenweg, for Ernst lived in the Nieuwe Uitleg. But, because he did not know, he remained on the tram, on the platform, with his back bent under the pelting rain; and it was not until he reached the Houtstraat that he jumped down, his sword clanking between his legs.
Paul lived in rooms above a hosier's shop. Gerrit found his brother still in bed:
"Ernst is mad," he said, at once.
"He's always been that," replied Paul, yawning.
"Yes, but ... it appears that he's absolutely mad now," said Gerrit.
He felt so seedy and heavy-witted that he could hardly speak: his swollen tongue lolled between his teeth. However, he told Paul about Dorine's visit:
"We must go on to Ernst, Paul, and see how much there is in it."
Paul was listening now:
"Ye-es," he drawled. "But I must dress myself first. You see, the curious thing about this world is that, whatever happens, we have first to dress ourselves...."
"I was dressed," laughed Gerrit.
"Oh, really!" said Paul, amiably. "Well, that was lucky."
There was a note of sarcasm in his tone which escaped Gerrit, in his dull condition.
Paul, stretching himself, decided to get up. And for a moment he remained standing in front of Gerrit, in his pink pyjamas:
"Do you think Ernst is really mad?" he asked.
"Perhaps it's not so bad as that," Gerrit ventured.
"Everybody is a little mad," said Paul.
"Oh, I say!" said Gerrit, in an offended voice.
"Don't be long."
"All right."
Paul disappeared in his little bathroom; and Gerrit, who was suffocating, flung open the windows, so that the bedroom suddenly became filled with the patter of the summer rain. And Gerrit looked around him. He had hardly ever been here, at Paul's; and he was now struck by the exquisite tidiness of the rooms. Paul had a bedroom, a sitting-room and a dressing-room in which he had installed his tub.
"What a tidy beggar he is!" thought Gerrit and looked around him.
The bedroom was small and contained nothing but a brass bedstead, a walnut looking-glass wardrobe, a walnut table and two chairs. There was not a single object lying about. The pillows on the bed showed just the faintest impress of Paul's head; the bed-clothes he had thrown well back, when he got up, very neatly, as though to avoid creasing them.
Gerrit heard the ripple of water in the dressing-room. It was as if Paul were squeezing out the sponge with exquisite precaution, so as not to splash a single drop outside his tub. The bath lasted a long time. Then all was silence.
"Can't you hurry a bit?" cried Gerrit, impatiently.
"All right," Paul called back, in placid tones.
"What are you up to? I don't hear you moving."
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