Melville did not dislike to be called a man of the world, for he was one, and liked to prove, or think he proved, that worldly wisdom was not incompatible with the spiritual life.
At that moment Napraxine crossed the court. It was the first of the brief hours between sunset and sunrise; there was a full moon in the midsummer skies; he was smoking a cheroot, and talking with some young men, neighbouring gentlemen, who had dined there; he looked big and coarse, and his face was red; his wife gazed at him with an intolerant dislike; he could have a grand manner when he chose, but in the country he ‘let himself go;’ he did not remember that he was in the presence of the most inexorable of his critics, of the most implacable of his enemies, of the one person in the whole world whom it would have been most desirable, and was most impossible, for him to propitiate.
‘Sachs turned the knife round and round in the wolf’s throat; he did, on my honour, while it was alive; we blooded him at five years old, and the child never winked. When the blood splashed him he shouted!’ he was saying audibly, with much pride, to one of his guests, as he lounged across the marble court. Sachs was his eldest son. He was relating a hunting exploit, crowned by the presence of his heir.
Nadine glanced at Melville with an expression of sovereign contempt.
‘Butchers before they can spell!’ she said, with ineffable distaste.
‘Shall I venture to say anything?’ he murmured.
‘It would be of no use. Slaughter is the country gentleman’s god. Prince Napraxine is just now wholly fourré in his character of a country gentleman. It is perhaps as useful as that of a Monte Carlo gamester. Only here the beasts suffer—there, the fools. I prefer that the fools should do so.’
The young men gathered about her; Napraxine approached Melville.
‘How does the Othmar marriage succeed?’ he asked. ‘I suppose you have seen them?’
‘I have been once to Amyôt,’ returned Melville. ‘You know Amyôt? A magnificent place. They appeared very happy. She seems to have grown years in a month or two.’