Auguste and the man whom Pilar called Don Pablo now carried up the one
small box and two large ones Wilhelm always took about with him. Pilar
asked him for the keys, and proceeded to put away his belongings in the
various receptacles of the room. She would not suffer him to help her.
Only his books she allowed him to pile up in a corner for the present;
their orderly arrangement in the bookcase was put off till the daylight.
At dinner Pilar was in the seventh heaven, and more in love than ever
before. In her wild spirits she threw all her glasses into the garden,
and would only drink out of Wilhelm's. It was a real banquet: costly
Spanish wines, red and white, rough and sweet, from her well-stocked
cellar, accompanied by choice dishes, and finally champagne, of which
Pilar partook--valiantly. After dessert she skipped into the salon, put
the champagne glass down on the piano, and between sips and kisses
played and sang Spanish love-songs that drove the flames to her cheeks.
That evening she was all Bacchante. In the bedroom she tore off her
clothes with impatient fingers, and held out her small, high-bred feet
for Wilhelm to pull off her silk stockings. He knelt and kissed the
little feet, while she gazed down at him with burning misty eyes, and
between the blood-red lips slightly parted in a wanton smile gleamed
pearly teeth that looked as if they could bite with satisfaction into a
quivering heart. It was the Sphinx and the poor trembling mouse in the
dust before her to the life.
When Wilhelm awoke next morning, he saw Pilar standing all fresh and
ready at the bedside to greet him with a happy smile. With her iron
nerves and superabundant animal strength, she required but little
sleep, and had at once resumed her old habit of stealing away early to
perform the rites of her toilette while he still slept.
He dressed quickly, she being occupied meanwhile in completing the
coquettish adornment of his room with knots of ribbon, bouquets of
flowers, Japanese fans, pictures and bronzes which she arranged with
unerring taste on the walls beside the mirror, over the doors and
window, or strewed about the secretaire, the table, or the chest of
drawers, in studied negligence. They had breakfast in the red salon,
after which she led him to her boudoir, which he had not yet seen, and
that looked like a pink silk-lined jewel box. She drew up an armchair
beside the crackling wood fire, begged Wilhelm to sit down put a little
inlaid rosewood table before him, and out of a cabinet she fetched a
large Russia leather pocketbook with a gold lock and laid it on the
table.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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