Tender is the Night / Ночь нежна

Chapter 5

Rosemary went to Monte Carlo in a bad humour. She rode up the hill to the studio and stood by the entrance. After ten minutes a young man with hair the color of canary feathers hurried down to the gate.

“Come in, Miss Hoyt. Mr. Brady’s on the set[33], but he’s very anxious to see you. I’m sorry you were kept waiting.”

The studio manager opened a small door of stage building and with sudden glad familiarity Rosemary followed him into half darkness. There were whispers and soft voices and, from afar, the gentle sound of a small organ. Turning the corner made by some flats, they came upon the stage, where a French actor and an American actress stood motionless face to face. They stared at each other hard, as though they had been in the same position for hours; and still for a long time nothing happened, no one moved. Then the silence was broken by a voice in front of Rosemary.

“Baby, you don’t take off the stockings, you can spoil ten more pairs. That dress is fifteen pounds.”

Stepping backward the speaker ran against Rosemary, when the studio manager said, “Hey, Earl – Miss Hoyt.”

They were meeting for the first time. Brady was quick and strong. As he took her hand she saw him look her over from head to foot, a gesture she recognized and that made her feel at home, but gave her always a faint feeling of superiority to whoever made it.

“I thought you’d be along any day now[34],” Brady said, with it a faint cockney accent. “Have a good trip?”

“Yes, but we’re glad to be going home.”

“No-o-o!” he protested. “Stay awhile – I want to talk to you. Let me tell you that was some picture of yours – that ‘Daddy’s Girl.’ I saw it in Paris. I wired the coast[35] right away to see if you were signed[36].”

“I just had – I’m sorry.”

“God, what a picture!”

Not wanting to smile in silly agreement Rosemary frowned.

“Nobody wants to be thought of forever for just one picture,” she said.

“Sure – that’s right. What’re your plans?”

“Mother thought I needed a rest. When I get back we’ll probably either sign up with First National or keep on with Famous.”

“Who’s we?”

“My mother. She decides business matters. I couldn’t do without her.”

Again he looked her over completely, and, as he did, something in Rosemary went out to him[37]. It was not liking, not at all the spontaneous admiration she had felt for the man on the beach this morning. It was a click. He desired her and, so far as her virginal emotions she felt almost ready for it. Yet she knew she would forget him half an hour after she left him – like an actor kissed in a picture.

“Where are you staying?” Brady asked. “Oh, yes, at Gausse’s. Well, my plans are made for this year, too, but that letter I wrote you still stands[38].”

“I feel the same way. Why don’t you come back to Hollywood?”

“I can’t stand the damn place. I’m fine here. Wait till after this shot and I’ll show you around.”

Walking onto the set he began to talk to the French actor in a low, quiet voice.

Five minutes passed – Brady talked on. But she did not want to see him in the mood he would be in and she left the studio. She liked the people on the streets and bought herself a pair of sandals on the way to the train.

Her mother was pleased that she had done so accurately what she was told to do, but she still wanted to launch her out and away.

Chapter 6

Feeling good from the rosy wine at lunch, Nicole Diver went out into her lovely grassless garden. The garden was bounded on one side by the house, on two sides by the old village, and on the last by the cliff falling by ledges to the sea.

Along the walls on the village side grew the vines, the lemon and eucalyptus trees.

She wore a lilac scarf that cast its color up to her face and down around her moving feet. Her face was hard, almost stern, save for the soft gleam of doubt that looked from her green eyes. Her once fair hair had darkened, but she was lovelier now at twenty-four than she had been at eighteen, when her hair was brighter than she.

Following a walk bordered by the white stones she came to a space overlooking the sea where there were lanterns in the fig trees and a big table and wicker chairs and a great umbrella, all gathered about an enormous pine, the biggest tree in the garden. She paused there a moment, looking absently at a growth of nasturtiums and iris tangled at its foot. She went up the stairs on the other side and into the vegetable garden.

As she stood in the green light of the vegetable garden, Dick crossed the path ahead of her going to his work house. Nicole waited silently till he had passed; then she went on to a little menagerie where pigeons and rabbits and a parrot made noises at her. Descending to another ledge she reached a low, curved wall and looked down seven hundred feet to the Mediterranean Sea.

She stood in the ancient hill village of Tarmes. The villa and its grounds were made out of a row of peasant dwellings that rested on the cliff – five small houses had been combined to make the house and four destroyed to make the garden.

For a moment Nicole stood looking down at the Mediterranean. Presently Dick came out of his one-room house carrying a telescope and looked east toward Cannes. Then he disappeared into his house and came out with a megaphone. He had many light mechanical devices.

“Nicole,” he shouted, “I forgot to tell you that as a final gesture I invited Mrs. Abrams, the woman with the white hair.”

“I suspected it. It’s an outrage.”

“I’m going to invite some more people too. I’m going to invite the two young men.”

“All right,” she agreed quietly.

“I want to give a really BAD party. I mean it[39]. I want to give a party where there’s a brawl and seductions and people going home with their feelings hurt and women passed out in the cabinet de toilette. You wait and see.”

He went back into his house and Nicole saw that one of his most characteristic moods was upon him. Dick Diver won everyone quickly. Then, without caution, he opened the gate to his amusing world.

At eight-thirty that evening he came out to meet his first guests. It was characteristic that after greeting Rosemary and her mother he waited for them to speak first, as if to allow them to hear their own voices in new surroundings.

“What a beautiful garden!” Mrs. Speers exclaimed.

“Nicole’s garden,” said Dick. “She won’t let it alone[40] – she works on it all the time.”

He pointed his forefinger decisively at Rosemary, saying with a lightness seeming to conceal a paternal interest, “I’m going to save you— I’m going to give you a hat to wear on the beach.”

He turned them from the garden to the terrace, where he poured a cocktail. Earl Brady arrived, discovering Rosemary with surprise. Comparing him instantly with Dick Diver, she moved sharply toward the latter. In comparison Earl Brady seemed gross and ill-bred; once more, though, she felt an electric response to his person.

He spoke familiarly to the children who were getting up from their outdoor supper.

“Hello, Lanier, how about a song? Will you and Topsy sing me a song?”

“What shall we sing?” agreed the little boy, with the odd accent of American children brought up in France.

“That song about ‘Mon Ami Pierrot[41].’”

Brother and sister stood side by side without shyness and their voices sounded sweet upon the evening air.

The singing finished and the children, their faces aglow with the late sunshine, stood smiling calmly at their success. Rosemary was thinking that the Villa Diana was the centre of the world. On such a stage some memorable thing was sure to happen. The gate opened and the rest of the guests arrived – the McKiscos, Mrs. Abrams, Mr. Dumphry, and Mr. Campion came up to the terrace.

Rosemary had a sharp feeling of disappointment – she looked quickly at Dick, as though to ask an explanation of this strange mixture. But there was nothing unusual in his expression. He greeted his new guests in a friendly way. She believed in him so much that presently she accepted the McKiscos’ presence.

“I’ve met you in Paris,” McKisco said to Abe North, who with his wife had arrived on their heels[42], “in fact I’ve met you twice.”

“Yes, I remember,” Abe said.

“Then where was it?” asked McKisco.

“Why, I think —” Abe got tired of the game, “I can’t remember.”

Rosemary stood beside Tommy Barban – he was in a particularly scornful mood and there seemed to be some special reason for it. He was leaving in the morning.

“Going home?”

“Home? I have no home. I am going to a war.”

“What war?”

“What war? Any war. I haven’t seen a paper lately but I suppose there’s a war – there always is.”

“Don’t you care what you fight for?”

“Not at all – so long as I’m well treated. When I’m in a rut[43] I come to see the Divers, because then I know that in a few weeks I’ll want to go to war.”

Rosemary stiffened.

“You like the Divers,” she reminded him.

“Of course – especially her – but they make me want to go to war.”

She considered this, to no avail[44]. The Divers made her want to stay near them forever.

“You’re half American,” she said, as if that should solve the problem.

“Also I’m half French, and I was educated in England and since I was eighteen I’ve worn the uniforms of eight countries. But I hope I did not give you the impression that I am not fond of the Divers – I am, especially of Nicole.”

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1

Французская Ривьера, или Лазурный берег Франции.

2

прованская Франция

3

отель Госса

4

но ещё в утренней росе

5

Гольф-Жуан – курорт на Лазурном берегу.

6

О, боже!

7

Канны – курорт на Лазурном берегу.

8

молодой человек, похожий на итальянца

9

Вы отлично плаваете.

10

не будете ли вы возражать

11

участвуете в заговоре

12

пользуясь случаем

13

комплексный обед

14

кстати

15

к тому же ты говоришь по-французски

16

Кафе союзников

17

(букв.) «Время» – ежедневная швейцарская газета на французском языке.

18

(букв.) «Субботняя вечерняя почта» – американский журнал.

19

Ницца, Монте-Карло – города Лазурного берега.

20

Сицилия – остров в Средиземном море.

21

это оправдало себя

22

Тарм – горная деревушка на побережье.

23

Американская газета.

24

Вевё – один из центров Швейцарской Ривьеры.

25

Так и хочется поехать в Вевё, чтобы взглянуть на Женевьеву де Момус.

26

Вам не противно?

27

бесцеремонный

28

выпускной вечер Йельского университета

29

с лёгкой ирландской напевностью

30

они пререкались

31

давайте наладим отношения

32

выходка педераста

33

на съёмочной площадке

34

Я вас ждал со дня на день

35

Я телеграфировал на континент

36

заняты ли вы на другой картине

37

Розмари к нему потянуло.

38

остаётся в силе

39

Нет, я серьёзно.

40

Она не оставляет его в покое

41

Мой друг Пьеро (фр.)

42

за ними следом

43

когда я погрязну в рутине

44

безрезультатно