Victory: An Island Tale

norance that his person was odious to that worthy. When he arrived, Za

hanted Heyst was suffering from thorough disenchantment. Not with the islands, however. The Archipelago has a lasting fascination. It is not easy to shake off the spell of island life. Heyst was disenchanted with life as a whole. His scornful temperament, beguiled into action, suffered from failure in a subtle way unknown to men accustomed to grapple with the realities of c

of tunes more or less plaintive reached his ears. They pursued him even into his bedroom, which opened into an upstairs veranda. The fragmentary and rasping character of these sounds made their intrusion inexpressibly tedious in the long run. Like most dreamers, to whom it is given sometimes to hear the music of the spheres, Heyst, the wanderer of the Archipelago, had a taste for silence whi

years? Not a single soul belonging to him lived anywhere on earth. Of this fact-not such a remote one, after all-he had only lately become aware; for it is failure that makes a man enter into himself and reckon up his resources. And though he had made up his mind to re

f his enmity he preserved a distant lieutenant-of-the-Reserve demeanour. Nudging certain of his

nd do you think he'll condescend to step in and listen to a piece or two of an evening? Not he. I know him of old. There he sits at the dark end of the piazza, all the evening long-planning some new swindle, no doubt. For two-pence I would ask him to go and look for quarters somewhe

phanous mosquito net. He descended among the trees, where the soft glow of Japanese lanterns picked out parts of their great rugged trunks, here and there, in the great mass of darkness under the lofty foliage. More lanterns, of the sha

les. The small platform was filled with white muslin dresses and crimson sashes slanting from shoulders provided with bare arms, which sawed away without respite. Zangiacomo conducted. He wore a white mess-jacket, a black dress waistcoat, and white trousers. His longish, tousled hair and his great beard were purple-black. He was horrible. The heat was terrific. There were perhaps t

!" Heyst murmu

senses, and, so to speak, more contrary to his genius, than this rude exhibition of vigour. The Zangiacomo band was not making music; it was simply murdering silence with a vulgar, ferocious energy. One felt as if witnessing a deed of violence; and that impress

esses were coming down in pairs from the platform into the body of Schomberg's "concert-hall." They dispersed themselves all over the place. The male creature with the hooked nose and purple-black beard disappeared somewhere. This was the interval during which, as the astute Schomberg had st

ly a matter of routine, they did not seem to take the success of the scheme unduly to heart. The impulse to fraternize with the arts being obviously weak in the audience, some of the musicians sat down listlessly at unoccupied tables, while others went on perambulating the central passage: arm in arm, glad enough, no doubt, to stretc

her nostrils. She was no less a personage than Mrs. Zangiacomo. She had left the piano, and, with her back to the hall, was preparing the parts for the second half of the concert, with a brusque, impatient action of her ugly elbow. This task done, she turned, and, perceiving the other white muslin dress motionless on a chair in the second row, s

ove!" he excl

ringing up, barred slantwise by the crimson sash, from the bell-shaped spread of muslin skirt hiding the chair o

sing it very close, as if to drop a word into its ear. Her lips did certainly move. But what sort of word could it have been to make the girl jump up so swiftly? Heyst, at his table, was surprised into a sympathetic start. He glanced quickly round. Nobody was looking towards the platform; and when his eyes swept back there again, the girl, with the big woman treading at her heels, was coming down the three steps from the platform to the floor of the hall. There she paused, stumbled one pace forward,

which years ago had made him cross the sandy street of the abominable town of Delli in the island of Timor and

since the final abandonment of the Samburan coal mine, he had completely forgotten the late Morrison. It is true that to a certain

ged brides with free and easy manners and hoarse voices. The murmuring noise of conversations carried on with some spirit filled Schomberg's concert-room. Nobody remarked Heyst's movements; for indeed he was not the only man on his legs there. He had been c

s done something to you. She has pinched you, hasn't she? I a

n were, except that they were of all sorts. But she was astonished almost more by the near presence of the man himself, by his largely bald head, by the white brow, the sunburnt cheeks, the long, horizontal moustach

st cruelly," he murmured, rather d

t comfort to

t time. And suppose she did-wha

heard in it lately, and which seemed to catch her ear pleasantly. "I am grieved to say t

ived how different he was from the other men in the room. He was as different

a time, in a bewildered tone. "Who

r a few days. I just dropped i

e said so earnestly that Heyst a

sh that I shou

swered. "She pinched me because I

e down here now," he went on, with the ease of a man of the world sp

self-consciousness growing on them so slowly that it was a long time before they averted their eyes; and very soon they met again, temporarily, only to rebou

ected-but the features had more fineness than those of any other feminine countenance he had ever had the opportunity to observe so closely. There was in it something indefinably audacious and infinitely miserable-because the temperament and the existence of that girl were reflected in it. But

ell as play?" he

; for they had not been discoursing of sweet sounds. She was clearly unaware of her voic

's heart. His mind, cool, alert, watched it sink there with a sort of vague concern at the absurdi

lish, of cou

ccents. Then, as if thinking that it was her turn to pla

ve, but her good faith was so evident

with his delicate, polished playfuln

very s

't come across so many pleasant

e piano is infinitely more disagreeable th

d. "How did you come to have

y, and accorded badly with his great moustaches, under which his mere playfulness lurked as comfor

she answer

ll indignant at the pinch which he had divined rather than actua

ly regaining their places. Some were already seated, idle st

o many for m

by virtue of her voice, they thrilled Heyst like a revelation. H

sage that this girl is complaining of,