Zoe

“ Zoe has gone up stairs to play some hymns for Mr. Vacine; in the cosy music room.
"It is queer now, when you think of it, and, by jove, what an awfully pretty girl your sister is," Ned says. He has always admired Dolores immensely, but Zoe—Zoe was so entirely different. In fact Ned is sure he will grow to be awfully fond of Mr. Litchfield's pretty wilful daughter Zoe.
The sun shines brightly on the clear, white, glistening road, covered with snow; the icicles glitter in the limbs of the leafless trees like crystal; everything is bright, cold, and sparkling. ”

“ The thing last rumoured about her mother in the parish was that she had become an actress. To this Zoe made no protest in her mind. It was better than many other possibilities, and she fixed her mind on it, so saving herself from other agonizing speculations. In a fixed imagination lay safety. In her soul she knew that, no matter what happened, her mother would never return to the Manor Cartier. ”

“ Early on the morning of April first, Zoe had dressed the baby and carried her out of doors. [2] The dew lay over the flowers, the sun was just up, and his rosy beams turned the blossoming lemon trees to beauty. Zoe had sought the nearest garden and there hung the Marti on a rose bush, plucking a rose and pinning it to Domna's cap. ”

“ Zoe, at the idea that she had been imposed upon, grew regally indignant. She was a lovely woman, and accustomed to the homage which mankind pays to beauty. Her naturally frank, laughter-loving nature made her a charming companion; but she could be distant, scornful—could crush the most presumptuous with a glance of her eyes.
Now she looked at her strange visitor with frigid dignity, and he merely smiled amusedly, as one smiles at a pretty child.
"Be good enough to explain yourself. If you dared to impose upon Lady Vignoles last night—if you are not really a detective—what are you?" ”

“ This narrative, and his deep dejection, set Zoe's tears flowing. “Poor Edward!” she sighed. “I would not survive you. But cheer up, dear; it was only a dream. We are not slaves. I am not dependent on any one. How can we be parted?”
“We shall, unless we use our opportunity, and make it impossible to part us. Zoe, do not slight my alarm and my misgivings; such warnings are prophetic. For Heaven's sake, make one sacrifice more, and let us place our happiness beyond the reach of man!” ”

“ Hardly waiting for his answer, she rode away, and on arriving at the Palace demanded eagerly where the Princess Zoe was, and ran upstairs to find her. Zoe, instructing the rough Emathian handmaid who had accompanied her in Linton’s place in the art of unpacking, found her door suddenly burst open to admit a human whirlwind with flying plaits and draperies, which dropped at her feet.
“Oh, lady, lady mine!”
“Kalliopé, my dear child! Come, let me look at you. Why, you are taller than ever—and so much improved!”
“Really, lady? Not a savage any more?” ”

“ The sunlight lay warmly on its rugged prominences leaving the clefts and crannies in its grey sides cold and dark and secretive, the lurking-places of mystery and shadows, hiding ever from the light like the evil thoughts of a man’s mind. Zoë Lawless gazed at the mountain, looking blue in the brilliant sunshine, and her eyes were clouded as the dark clefts in its sides. ”

“ Zoe’s subsequent description of events [145] were always a delight to her audiences—and to herself; for though she pretended to extreme indignation at her victimage, yet no doubt but that her vanity was elated at being so conspicuously selected for the limelight.
It was during these narratives, animated by a complete pantomime of imitation, that a quality in Zoe which usually puzzled by its intangibility was washed broadly to the surface—a quality of eighteenth-century coarse heartiness, a fleshy stridency recalling the pictures of Hogarth.... ”

“ She happens to glance up the road; oh, horrors! coming leisurely down, with his hands thrust carelessly in the pockets of a little dark blue shooting coat, and a cigar between his lips, is a man—a young man too—and, yes, he is looking at her. She misses her balance, her foot slips, and, throwing her arms wildly upward, arrives in the arms of mother earth, in any but a dignified descent.
The "horrid brute" came quickly to see if he could assist the young lady to arise; he takes her arm, and Zoe stands up, her face as red as the scarlet passion flower tucked in her belt. ”

“ Well, Zoe, the long and the short is—you have a rival.”
Zoe turned rather pale, but was not so much shaken as Fanny expected.
She received the blow in silence. But after a while she said, with some firmness, “Mademoiselle Klosking?”
“Oh, you are not quite blind, then.”
“And pray which does he prefer?” asked Zoe, a little proudly.
“It is plain he likes you the best. But why does he fear her so? This is where you seem all in the dark. He flew out of the opera, lest she should see him.”
“Oh! Absurd!”
“He cut you and Vizard, rather than call upon her with you.” ”

“ For there in the solitude an understanding of deep things came to him. He who thought never to have a wife grew to know what the joy of it must be. He perceived all the subtle rapture of wedded souls. He learned what the love of children was, the pride of home, the unselfish ambition for success that spurs men on. All the emotions passed in procession at night before him, tricked out in palpable forms.
A burst of girlish tears would dissipate whatever lingering pity Zoe felt for him. How often he said that! With her sensitiveness she would be sure to hate a man who had mortified her. ”

“ I can only kneel to you and say, 'Zoe Vizard, if your heart is your own to give, pray be my lover, my queen, my wife.'
“Your faithful servant and devoted admirer,
“UXMOOR.”
“Poor fellow!” said Zoe, and her eyes filled. She sat quite quiet, with the letter open in her hand. She looked at it, and murmured, “A pearl is offered me here: wealth, title, all that some women sigh for, and—what I value above all—a noble nature, a true heart, and a soul above all meanness. No; Uxmoor will never tell a falsehood. He could not.” ”

“ Yes; the Zoë of my romance is but the portrait of a beautiful child, first seen upon a Cunard steamer. Since grown to be a girl still more attractively beautiful. And since thought of by him who saw her, till the thought became a passion that must seek expression in words. It sought; and has found it. Zoë is the result—the portrait of Blanche Vernon, painted by one who loves, who would be willing to die for her!”
At this impassioned speech, the baronet’s daughter trembled. But not as in fear. ”

“ Me, Lilly Becker. This place is like the poorhouse at home, that time the High School sociology class visited it. Zoe, are you real? Mine alone! Not his. Mine. You must be the miracle and show me the way, Zoe. You shall be me plus everything that I am not. To have missed the ecstasy of you is not to have lived. If Auchinloss could hear me now. Who knows? I may, yet. What if I am like Joan of Arc, heeding a vision, only I don't know which way the vision is pointing. Funny. Oh, but I'm going to clear the way for you, Zoe. No Chinese shoes for your little feet or your little brain. ”

“ Jet takes the proffered hand, and gives it a gentle squeeze. He admires Zoe all the more for the faith she sustains in her father. The old mill comes in sight, with the sound of rushing water and whizzing of machinery. ”

“ Having given the order, Zoe stepped out to the veranda where Edward still was, having staid behind to give directions in regard to the horses.
"Zoe, love, I am very sorry," he said, as the man turned his horses' heads, and drove away toward the stables.
"O Edward! how could you?" she exclaimed reproachfully, tears of disappointment and vexation springing to her eyes.
"Darling, I really could not help it," he replied soothingly, drawing her to him with a caress, and went on to tell exactly what had occurred.
"She is not a real lady," said Zoe, "or she never would have done a thing like that." ”

“ Zoe laughs at me, and opens her eyes because I have begun to talk of good and bad, of beauty and ugliness. She says I am too apt. It is true that I have done little but study faces since I came. Many are like animals. Some I love; some I hate at once. I have seen three persons who are deformed, with humps on their backs. They have a strange old look, with a queer brightness in the eyes; and when I catch that look on those who are straight and well, I wonder if they are deformed in the soul. ”

“ She is of a type of woman appointed by God in his foresight as breeders. Zoe, my adorable one, will probably not take kindly to babies.
I am ordered to report myself at Kiel by next Monday.
I am terribly tempted to ring up Zoe on the telephone before I leave: it seems dreadful to leave her without a word; but at the same time I feel that she would interpret this as a sign of weakness on my part--as indeed it would be. I must be firm, for strength of mind pays with women, even more than with men.
At Kiel.
I left Bruges without a word either to or from my obstinate darling. ”

“ THE RED GODS CALL. “Are you in a tremendous hurry? Could you spare me a minute or two?” Armitage rose from the seat in the orange walk and intercepted Zoe on her way to the terrace.
“Oh yes. I was only going to wait for Princess Emilia. Is anything the matter?”
“Oh, nothing much. Only that I want to tell you something, and after that—well, I suppose I shan’t trouble you again.”
“You mustn’t be so doleful,” said Zoe, in her elder-sisterly way. “If there is anything wrong, you know that every one of us would do all we could to help you. It’s nothing about the yacht, is it? ”

“ There are two women in men’s clothes among my fellows, who give me more trouble than all the rest put together.”
“How horrid!” said Zoe.
“Oh, the men are awfully good to them, and consider them a sort of saints. But they don’t drill—of course I haven’t given them the chance—and they won’t see the necessity of it for others. What they want is blood, like the old lady in Dickens, and they are always haranguing the men and stirring them up to bother me to lead them to the slaughter of the Roumis. ”

“ Noblesse oblige, Zoe. It is part of a princess’s duty to make a political marriage. It is not as if I was asking you to give up any one on whom you had set your heart. As you say, that other episode is over—one need only look at Colonel Wylie to be sure of it. Besides, he told Lord Armitage that you had cured him, and he hadn’t the slightest thought of asking you again. So there is merely a memory to sacrifice,—a romantic idea of faithfulness,—and think what it may mean to Maurice. ”

“ The temptation to reveal the truth was so overwhelming that Zoe took refuge in a highly moral tone. “You have such a horribly snobbish way of looking at things,” she said severely, “thinking whether people are noble instead of whether they are nice. Maurice and Captain Wylie are English gentlemen, and an English gentleman is the equal of any one in the world.”
“And an English lady?” demanded Eirene smartly. ”

“ I shouldn’t like to miss it,” she said gayly; “I believe Zoe and I are about as eager over these holiday doings as either of the children.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” he responded; “a man enjoys having a young wife even when not young himself.”
“And the older he is, the younger he wants his wife to be,” remarked Zoe in a lively tone: “at least so I have heard people say.”
“But papa isn’t old, aunt Zoe!” exclaimed Lulu, indignantly.
“My dear child,” laughed her father, “it’s no sin to be old, so you need not be so ready to take up the cudgels for me.” ”

“ Zoe was remarkably beautiful; Zoe's morale had been broken by a terrible experience. She had gone through the disintegration natural to my own difficulties, of which she was the occasion; the killing of Lamborn, the whole condition at Jacksonville. And now, what was Zoe? I could not penetrate her reserve. She stroked my hands affectionately. The tears started from her eyes.
I changed the key by bringing up her interests. "Reverdy is your guardian and I am putting your property in his hands. Don't you need money? Why haven't you sent for money?" ”

“ The Spiritual life which is in God from all eternity, and which made the whole natural universe, is Zoe. Bios has, to be sure, a certain shadowy or symbolic resemblance to Zoe: but only the sort of resemblance there is between a photo and a place, or a statue and a man. A man who changed from having Bios to having Zoe would have gone through as big a change as a statue which changed from being a carved stone to being a real man. ”

“ Zoe and Fanny (screaming, and pinching Ned Severne right and left) . “Ah! ah!”
“Vizard to the rescue!”
“But, with the evening, cool reflection came. A sister, youthful, but suddenly sagacious (with a gleam of suspicion) , very suddenly has stilled the waves of romance, and the lips of beauty have uttered common sense. Shall they utter it in vain? Never! It may be years before they do it again. We must not slight rare phenomena. Zoe locuta est—Eccentricity must be suppressed. ”

“ Zoé returned, murmuring with a confidential air:
“It’s a woman.”
She had seen this woman a score of times, only she made believe never to recognize her and to be quite ignorant of the nature of her relations with ladies in difficulties.
“She has told me her name—Madame Tricon.”
“The Tricon,” cried Nana. “Dear me! That’s true. I’d forgotten her. Show her in.”
Zoé ushered in a tall old lady who wore ringlets and looked like a countess who haunts lawyers’ offices. ”

“ We talk of the past as well as the present; for Zoe has now seen something of life, its darker pictures it is true; but these are often the most pleasant to be remembered; and her desert experience has furnished her with many a new thought—the cue to many an inquiry.
The future becomes the subject of our converse. It is all bright, though a long and even perilous journey is before us. We think not of that. We look beyond it to that promised hour when I am to teach, and she is to learn, what is “to marry.”
Someone is touching the strings of a bandolin. We look around. ”