The Schism, parts 3723 - 3726

 3723. From the door her husband surveyed the room and examined his wife with a stern and commanding look. A line of poetry came into his mind, it went like this, “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive.” He uttered these terrifying words out loud to his wife, who raised her tear stained face to him in supplication.

 3724. Harriet’s husband left the room and gave orders for Alexis to be found as soon as possible, and returned to his post as his lady’s coachman.

  3725. Alexis was found in Moscow. He was still at the boy’s military academy because the school administration had no idea what to do with him. It was their intention to return him to his Master and Mistress, but as it was the height of the summer season, and everyone of any importance was out of town, nothing had been done with him.

3726. On Friday of the week in question Alexis arrived home in the early afternoon. Harriet was in her greenhouse watering her numerous plants. Her husband had specially built the greenhouse for her, and she often spent her mornings there caring for her plants personally although she had a gardener, and the gardener had several assistants. Harriet had a green thumb.

The Schism, parts 3719 - 3722

 3719. In the end Harriet excused herself from the card game and retired to her room for the night. In the morning she seemed to have recovered completely. She still complained of having ‘La Grippe,’ and was often seen to retire to her room for a few minutes. But she recovered quickly, and carried out her duties as the head of her large estate establishment, giving orders for the shopping, the meals, and the care of the house as usual.

 3720. They were in the country at their estate, as you know, and every night an occasion was found for parties and gatherings with either the neighbors, or visits of friends or family from the city. The bustle kept her from remembering what was wrong.

 3721. She was almost able to push it out of her mind. In the morning she would wake up refreshed and rested, but before she was up she would feel an anxiety with no apparent cause, and then, before she finished combing her hair, she would be fighting with herself to act in a normal way.

3722. Finally, after three days of torment, her husband entered her room and found her in tears, with her face pressed into one of Alexis’ jackets; her favorite, crimson with a dark blue stripe.

The Schism, parts 3715 -3718

 3715. Did Natalie know that the discussion of a uniform for Alexis would be the thing that would bring to the surface Harriet’s feelings for all to see? I don’t think so, but I do not know. I only know what the consequence was. Perhaps you imagine that Harriet began to wail aloud, or on the other hand perhaps you think she would shiver all over and begin to sob silently to herself, but that is not what happened.

 3716. Harriet’s behavior was singular and unforgettable. At the moment the crimson stripe on the leg of the yellow uniform was mentioned she was eating soup with a silver spoon.  Very large tears began to fall from her eyes, and the tears ran down her cheeks, onto her chin, and fell into her soup. No other outward sign of her grief could be seen, and she continued to eat her soup as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

 3717. Perhaps the only thing that transpired while Harriet cried was that her soup became a little more salty, as she consumed her grief with a spoon.

3718. If Harriet had cried in a conventional way I suppose her friends would have began asking her questions in a false attempt to appear concerned, but the nature of Harriet’s tears precluded any duplicitous reaction and they all sat there silently at the card table.

The Schism, parts 3711 - 3714

 3711. I have to apologize for getting so far off the track of my narrative, but perhaps I was so carried away by trying to describe Alexis for you, that I have entirely lost track of my story. 

 3712. Now to return to Harriet’s disaster. She had diverted the concern for her sad mood by casting the blame onto her aunt who had recently died. Her friend Natalie did not believe this explanation and began to probe her friend for a more believable explanation. Finally she gave up her inquiry and seemingly changed the direction of the conversation to something entirely different.

 3713. “You know,” she said, “These yellow walls with their crimson drapes give me a wonderful idea. Why don’t we design a new uniform for Alexis? I can envision a pale yellow short jacket and trousers of the same cloth. The cloth will be thick, as for winter, and with a slight nap like the down on a young boy's lip. 

3714. Down the length of the pants leg will run a narrow double stripe of crimson, the very same crimson of your drapes. Count Rostovitch has his footman in yellow, and the very impracticability of such a color is almost as extraordinary and beautiful as the all white uniforms of the court.

The Schism, parts 3707 - 3710

 3707. How is one to describe a face, just what was it that Natalie saw when she saw Alexis in the distance. When writers describe a face, do we ever see the face they intended for us to see? A writer says that so-and-so has a nose like a hatchet, but if so, what kind of a hatchet?

 3708. Don’t we simply imagine some person we remember having seen, who has a long narrow rather hooked nose, and press that person’s visage into duty as the face in question?

 3709. Tolstoy says that someone had a “Downy upper lip,” and he never gives any further description. Perhaps it would have been just as well if he said she did not have a downy upper lip, but he meant for us to picture a beautiful woman, of that there can be no doubt.

3710. With that in mind, we will let stand Natalie’s description of Alexis as being curly headed, and for those who are not satisfied with that description, just picture to yourself all the thousands of sculptures of young men and boys the ancient Greeks carved, with eyes that saw clearly things we could only hope to ever glimpse.

The Schism, parts 3703 - 3706

 3703. Often she had begged her husband to provide her with a carriage, horses and attendants of her own, and, although he always agreed, he somehow always put it of for the time being, and never got around to it.

 3704. Gradually Natalie began to take a vicarious interest in her neighbor Harriet’s affairs, and had lately even made so bold as to make suggestions about the designs of the uniforms Alexis wore. From the foregoing you may be beginning to suspect that Natalie was also overly interested in Alexis, and if that is what you think, I will tell you outright that you are correct in your assumption.

 3705. The fact was that all the wives in the neighborhood were silently in love with Alexis, and so to were the maids in the various households, and even the older women who worked in the dairies, and the barns knew of him if only by rumor.

3706. What did Alexis look like and how can we describe him, in order to justify this inordinate interest he produced in all the women of the neighborhood? If you had asked Natalie she would have simply said that Alexis was “curly headed,” and it is easy to accept that as a complete description. It is a complete description because, in the way it was said, and in the tenderness of the expression, all the rest of the boy’s appearance can be imagined.

The Schism, parts 3699 - 3702

 3699. Natalie was not convinced by this explanation, and driven by a combination of curiosity and suspicion, began to question Harriett about the dead Aunt Marfa. She asked about the pending lawsuit first of all, and then reminded everyone at the table of the memorable visit of Marfa the year before. 

 3700. That visit had left a terrible impression on everyone, especially when she struck one of Harriett’s poodles with her walking stick when it came too close to her foot. When the poor dog barked at her she practically died of fright and then would not be satisfied until the poor thing was put to sleep.

  3701. The little dog was not actually put to sleep, but Marfa was mollified by showing her a bundled and tied up blanket that passed for a dead dog at a distance. Because of these things Natalie was not even a little convinced that Harriet’s troubles concerned the old Aunt.

3702. She was like the head coachmen who had suggested to Harriett that Alexis had been sent into the army. She was envious of the horses, carriages, and attendants of her nearest neighbor, but she was especially envious of Harriet’s coach boy Alexis, whom she had often eyed from as distance.