第18章 PART I(17)

And yet,I was not at my ease with her--I was not drawn to her irresistibly,as I had felt drawn to her daughter.Those dark,steady,heavy-lidded eyes of hers seemed to be looking straight into my heart,and surprising all my secrets.To say that I actually distrusted and disliked her would be far from the truth.Distrust and dislike would have protected me,in some degree at least,from feeling her influence as Icertainly did feel it.How that influence was exerted--whether it was through her eyes,or through her manner,or,to speak the jargon of these latter days,through some "magnetic emanation"from her,which invisibly overpowered me--is more than I can possibly say.I can only report that she contrived by slow degrees to subject the action of my will more and more completely to the action of hers,until I found myself answering her most insidious questions as unreservedly as if she had been in very truth my intimate and trusted friend.

"And is this your first visit to Frankfort,Mr.David?"she began.

"Oh,no,madam!I have been at Frankfort on two former occasions.""Ah,indeed?And have you always stayed with Mr.Keller?""Always."

She looked unaccountably interested when she heard that reply,brief as it was.

"Then,of course,you are intimate with him,"she said."Intimate enough,perhaps,to ask a favor or to introduce a friend?"I made a futile attempt to answer this cautiously.

"As intimate,madam,as a young clerk in the business can hope to be with a partner,"I said.

"A clerk in the business?"she repeated."I thought you lived in London,with your aunt.

Here Minna interposed for the first time.

"You forget,mamma,that there are three names in the business.The inion over the door in Main Street is Wagner,Keller,and Engelman.

Fritz once told me that the office here in Frankfort was only the small office--and the grand business was Mr.Wagner's business in London.Am Iright,Mr.David?"

"Quite right,Miss Minna.But we have no such magnificent flower-garden at the London house as Mr.Engelman's flower-garden here.May I offer you a nosegay which he allowed me to gather?"I had hoped to make the flowers a means of turning the conversation to more interesting topics.But the widow resumed her questions,while Minna was admiring the flowers.

"Then you are Mr.Wagner's clerk?"she persisted.

"I _was_Mr.Wagner's clerk.Mr.Wagner is dead.""Ha!And who takes care of the great business now?"Without well knowing why,I felt a certain reluctance to speak of my aunt and her affairs.But Widow Fontaine's eyes rested on me with a resolute expectation in them which I felt myself compelled to gratify.When she understood that Mr.Wagner's widow was now the chief authority in the business,her curiosity to hear everything that I could tell her about my aunt became all but insatiable.Minna's interest in the subject was,in quite another way,as vivid as her mother's.My aunt's house was the place to which cruel Mr.Keller had banished her lover.The inquiries of the mother and daughter followed each other in such rapid succession that I cannot pretend to remember them now.The last question alone remains vividly impressed on my memory,in connection with the unexpected effect which my answer produced.It was put by the widow in these words:

"Your aunt is interested,of course,in the affairs of her partners in this place.Is it possible,Mr.David,that she may one day take the journey to Frankfort?""It is quite likely,madam,that my aunt may be in Frankfort on business before the end of the year."As I replied in those terms the widow looked round slowly at her daughter.Minna was evidently quite as much at a loss to understand the look as I was.Madame Fontaine turned to me again,and made an apology.

"Pardon me,Mr.David,there is a little domestic duty that I had forgotten."She crossed the room to a small table,on which writing-materials were placed,wrote a few lines,and handed the paper,without enclosing it,to Minna."Give that,my love,to our good friend downstairs--and,while you are in the kitchen,suppose you make the tea.

You will stay and drink tea with us,Mr.David?It is our only luxury,and we always make it ourselves."My first impulse was to find an excuse for declining the invitation.

There was something in the air of mystery with which Madame Fontaine performed her domestic duties that was not at all to my taste.But Minna pleaded with me to say Yes."Do stay with us a little longer,"she said,in her innocently frank way,"we have so few pleasures in this place."Imight,perhaps,have even resisted Minna--but her mother literally laid hands on me.She seated herself,with the air of an empress,on a shabby little sofa in the corner of the room,and beckoning me to take my place by her side,laid her cool firm hand persuasively on mine.Her touch filled me with a strange sense of disturbance,half pleasurable,half painful--I don't know how to describe it.Let me only record that Iyielded,and that Minna left us together.

"I want to tell you the whole truth,"said Madame Fontaine,as soon as we were alone;"and I can only do so in the absence of my daughter.You must have seen for yourself that we are very poor?"Her hand pressed mine gently.I answered as delicately as I could--I said I was sorry,but not surprised,to hear it.