Джеймс Кейн - Mignon

“I hear you, so far as that goes.”

“But you still refuse to cooperate?”

“I have nothing more to say.

“You persist in shielding Burke?”

“I’m not shielding anyone.”

“ Yes he is, he ’ s shielding a woman! ”

“Madame, hold your tongue!”

The colonel snapped it out like the crack of a whip, and she shut up for a second or two. Then to Dan she said: “You think your old headquarters boat is the only way to Alexandria? Well, there’s others.”

“That’s right, you can walk — or swim.”

“We’ll get Frank there, don’t worry.”

“Then I wish you luck.”

After ordering the guard to quarters, the colonel told Burke: “You may go.” Then, except for the military, we were all clumping downstairs. In the lower hall, Mr. Landry grabbed my arm, saying: “Bill, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t throw away that money. I know Frank did me a grievous wrong, but to get back at him, I’d have to—”

“It’s all right, business is business.”

“I should have talked against him, perhaps, but—”

“Well, I didn’t; why should you?”

“Bill, I may say you surprised me. That woman—”

“ Oh, the hell you say! ”

I ripped it out, very bitter, and in fact was perfectly furious that not only she but he, after what I’d accomplished for them, should have the gall to object to a thing already explained by the officers themselves — even the colonel had caught the reason for my bringing a woman in. At my tone he cut it off, and started mumbling about my fee for acting as his counsel, “which I should have brought up sooner, but didn’t.” To me, that was just a pain in the neck, and I started for the door. Then something hit me on the chin — warm, wet, and ticklish, and I realized she had spat from where she was standing nearby. The previous day, the smell of spit from her lips had been intoxicating to me, but now it made me so sick I thought I might lose my breakfast. I ducked out onto the street, and turned the corner before I got out my handkerchief and wiped the stuff off.

At the hotel I washed my face, then went down for something to eat. Back in the suite again, I sat down and tried to take stock. I was rocked to the heels, I knew, by what she’d meant to me and by what she’d done to me — unreasonably, I thought. But there was no doubt in my mind as to what I should do about her. It was clear I had to forget her, root her out of my heart completely, so no trace of her would be left. After a while I concluded the best way to do it was to get back to the original tune, the twenty-five thousand dollars and how I would get it. Remembering the talk about bankers we’d had the night before, I began wondering if they weren’t the answer and figuring how I might meet some. Then the numbness seemed to start wearing off, but I was deluding myself — more afterclaps were due, and my troubles had hardly started. Around three, I guess, a knock came on the door, but I waited a second or two before opening, to steel myself to be tough, in case she was there, taking back what she’d said and wanting to make up.

Who was there was Marie’s guard.

He didn’t wait for me to speak, but whipped out his sword, shoved his foot in the door, and called out in French, all in less than a second. Then Marie appeared, in the same little gray dress, with black darts and black shawl, she’d worn that night in the other hotel. He backed me into the room to the space between the windows, and when my head banged the wall told me “Reach.” I did, and then she pushed in close, waving my three twenties in front of my eyes, pulling my mouth open, stuffing them in, and pushing my chin up. They weren’t new bills, so they tasted indescribably filthy. Then she started to work me over, firing the first slap so hard my ears rang. I reached for her wrist automatically, but he jabbed the steel in my stomach, telling me: “Keep ’em up! Keep ’em up against the wall!” I did, and she kept on with her slapping, the licks coming so fast I sounded like a razor being stropped. The shawl slipped off and she flung it aside. The jacket came unbuttoned and she flung it aside. Her hat slipped over one eye and she flung that aside too, causing her ringlets to twist askew and hang over her face. Real, she was ten times the Jezebel she had been, pretending, to entice Pierre from his post. And at last, free of all encumbrance, she let me have it hard, pulling off one shoe and banging my cheekbones with it.

Then, exhausted, she told him: “ Assez, assez, assez ,” and he told me put down my hands. Then to me she said: “Wash you! Then hear me, what I shall say!” I started for the bath, but kept on to the bedroom, first spitting the bills out on the floor, then digging into my bag and coming up with my Moore & Pond. I went back holding it on them, and he dropped the sword cane, both parts at the same time. I put my foot on the blade, then lifted its hilt to snap it, and kicked stump, point, and scabbard against the sofa. When I looked up she was reaching for her purse. I remembered the derringer in it and kicked over the table she’d put it on. Then I picked it up and dropped it in my pocket. I said: “All right, now suppose you git . The two of you, march!”

She said: “I must dress me, please.”

“Then you git,” I told him. “Git and keep on gitting. If I open that door and you’re there, it’s the last place you’ll be on this earth. Did you hear me?”

“I did.”

“You did, what ?”

“I did, sir.”

“That’s better. Now —”

But he was legging it for the stairs as I closed the door. When I turned, for the second time that day I felt a wet tickle on my chin, and from the look on her face knew blood must be running down. I took out my handkerchief, but she grabbed it and started to wipe. I knocked her down. Then I went to the bath to wash up, first rinsing out the horrible taste of the money. My face, when I looked in the glass, was so cut, bruised, and puffed that I hardly knew myself. But when I laved it with the witch hazel I used after shaving, it was better — not much, but a little.

When I went back to the sitting room, she was still there on the floor, a tiny heap of blonde ringlets, tousled froufrou, bare arms, and pretty, silk-stockinged legs. But one look and my insides collapsed, as the reaction set in, not only from this scene now, but the preceding ones too, in Dan’s office and in the headquarters hall. I’d worked up quite a sulk, but the bottom fell out of it, and I knelt beside her, picking her up, in a clumsy, laborious way staggering to my feet, and making it to the sofa. I sat down, snuggling her in my lap and having a look at her chin. It was beginning to swell, and of course that made me feel wonderful. I said: “I’m sorry, Marie.”

“I too am sorry, Guillaume. I excuse me.”

“I had it coming, if you mean the beating you gave me. The only surprising thing was I didn’t get it sooner — that you took so long finding me.”

“I found you the same night. It was not difficile , please believe me, for me to locate some—”

She hesitated, and I said: “Yank with a game leg?”

“... Ingénieur with hair of gold.”

“That’s a very nice way to put it.”

“I came yesterday morning — you were not here. I came last night — you were not here. I came for third time today—”

“And I kept the appointment.”

“I have said, I excuse me, please .”

That seemed to mean she apologized, which was about all I could really ask. She put her feet up, then stretched her legs out full length, so practically everything showed. Then: “Guillaume, always it is the same, you are gentil , I gamine . Today, I confess it, I tell the truth: I tried to demean you, to make of you some creature — it was my reason to beat. To see the élégance brisée. Et après? You compel Emil to say Sir . There, in one word, was my grand seigneur . And what have we here, aussi? ”