“I should think you were whimsically fond of under-estimating your own qualities”—I said, re-lighting my cigar, and feeling somewhat amused by his earnestness—“And I should like you just as well as I do now,—perhaps better,—though that would be difficult.”
At these words, he seated himself, bending his steadfast dark eyes full upon me.
“Tempest, you follow the fashion of the prettiest women about town,—they always like the greatest scoundrels!”
“But you are not a scoundrel;”—I rejoined, smoking peacefully.
“No,—I’m not a scoundrel, but there’s a good deal of the devil in me.”
“All the better!” I said, stretching myself out in my chair with lazy comfort—“I hope there’s something of him in me too.”
“Do you believe in him?” asked Rimânez smiling.
“The devil? of course not!”
“He is a very fascinating legendary personage;”—continued the prince, lighting another cigar and beginning to puff at it slowly—“And he is the subject of many a fine story. Picture his fall from heaven!—‘Lucifer Son of the Morning’—what a title, and what a birthright! To be born of the morning implies to be a creature formed of translucent light undefiled, with all the warm rose of a million orbs of day colouring his bright essence, and all the lustre of fiery planets flaming in his eyes. Splendid and supreme, at the right hand of Deity itself he stood, this majestic Arch-angel, and before his unwearied vision rolled the grandest creative splendours of God’s thoughts and dreams. All at once he perceived in the vista of embryonic things a new small world, and on it a being forming itself slowly as it were into the Angelic likeness,—a being weak yet strong, sublime yet foolish,—a strange paradox, destined to work its way through all the phases of life, till imbibing the very breath and soul of the Creator it should touch Conscious Immortality,—Eternal Joy. Then Lucifer, full of wrath, turned on the Master of the Spheres, and flung forth his reckless defiance, crying aloud—‘Wilt thou make of this slight poor creature an Angel even as I? I do protest against thee and condemn! Lo, if thou makest Man in Our image I will destroy him utterly, as unfit to share with me the splendours of Thy Wisdom,—the glory of Thy love!’ And the Voice Supreme in accents terrible and beautiful replied; ‘Lucifer, Son of the Morning, full well dost thou know that never can an idle or wasted word be spoken before Me. For Free-will is the gift of the Immortals; therefore what thou sayest, thou must needs do! Fall, proud Spirit from thy high estate!—thou and thy companions with thee!—and return no more till Man himself redeem thee! Each human soul that yields unto thy tempting shall be a new barrier set between thee and heaven; each one that of its own choice doth repel and overcome thee, shall lift thee nearer thy lost home! When the world rejects thee, I will pardon and again receive thee,—but not till then.’”
“I never heard exactly that version of the legend before,”—I said,—“The idea that Man should redeem the devil is quite new to me.”
“Is it?” and he looked at me fixedly—“Well—it is one form of the story, and by no means the most unpoetical. Poor Lucifer! His punishment is of course eternal, and the distance between himself and Heaven must be rapidly increasing every day,—for Man will never assist him to retrieve his error. Man will reject God fast enough and gladly enough—but never the devil. Judge then, how, under the peculiar circumstances of his doom, this ‘Lucifer, Son of the Morning,’ Satan, or whatever else he is called, must hate Humanity!”
I smiled. “Well he has one remedy left to him”—I observed—“He need not tempt anybody.”
“You forget!—he is bound to keep his word, according to the legend”—said Rimânez—“He swore before God that he would destroy Man utterly,—he must therefore fulfil that oath, if he can. Angels, it would seem, may not swear before the Eternal without endeavouring at least to fulfil their vows,—men swear in the name of God every day without the slightest intention of carrying out their promises.”
“But it’s all the veriest nonsense,”—I said somewhat impatiently—“All these old legends are rubbish. You tell the story well, and almost as if you believed in it,—that is because you have the gift of speaking with eloquence. Nowadays no one believes in either devils or angels;—I, for example, do not even believe in the soul.”
“I know you do not”—he answered suavely—“And your scepticism is very comfortable because it relieves you of all personal responsibility. I envy you! For—I regret to say, I am compelled to believe in the soul.”
“Compelled!” I echoed—“That is absurd—no one can compel you to accept a mere theory.”
He looked at me with a flitting smile that darkened rather than lightened his face.
“True! very true! There is no compelling force in the whole Universe,—Man is the supreme and independent creature,—master of all he surveys and owning no other dominion save his personal desire. True—I forgot! Let us avoid theology, please, and psychology also,—let us talk about the only subject that has any sense or interest in it—namely, Money. I perceive your present plans are definite,—you wish to publish a book that shall create a stir and make you famous. It seems a modest enough campaign! Have you no wider ambitions? There are several ways, you know, of getting talked about. Shall I enumerate them for your consideration?”
I laughed. “If you like!”
“Well, in the first place I should suggest your getting yourself properly paragraphed. It must be known to the press that you are an exceedingly rich man. There is an Agency for the circulation of paragraphs,—I daresay they’ll do it sufficiently well for about ten or twenty guineas.”
I opened my eyes a little at this.
“Oh, is that the way these things are done?”
“My dear fellow, how else should they be done?” he demanded somewhat impatiently—“Do you think anything in the world is done without money? Are the poor, hard-working journalists your brothers or your bosom friends that they should lift you into public notice without getting something for their trouble? If you do not manage them properly in this way, they’ll abuse you quite heartily and free of cost,—that I can promise you! I know a ‘literary agent,’ a very worthy man too, who for a hundred guineas down, will so ply the paragraph wheel that in a few weeks it shall seem to the outside public that Geoffrey Tempest, the millionaire, is the only person worth talking about, and the one desirable creature whom to shake hands with is next in honour to meeting Royalty itself.”
“Secure him!” I said indolently—“And pay him two hundred guineas! So shall all the world hear of me!”
“When you have been paragraphed thoroughly,” went on Rimânez—“the next move will be a dash into what is called ‘swagger’ society. This must be done cautiously and by degrees. You must be presented at the first Levée of the season, and later on, I will get you an invitation to some great lady’s house, where you will meet the Prince of Wales privately at dinner. If you can oblige or please His Royal Highness in any way so much the better for you,—he is at least the most popular royalty in Europe, so it should not be difficult to you to make yourself agreeable. Following upon this event, you must purchase a fine country seat, and have that fact ‘paragraphed’—then you can rest and look round,—Society will have taken you up, and you will find yourself in the swim!”
I laughed heartily,—well entertained by his fluent discourse.
“I should not,” he resumed—“propose your putting yourself to the trouble of getting into Parliament. That is no longer necessary to the career of a gentleman. But I should strongly recommend your winning the Derby.”
“I