410
ALEXANDER
GRIN
of the demi-monde were slandered
in
whispered drawing-room
gossip; the mysterious lady personified graft, depravity,
in·
trigue, party conspiracy, cowardice and treachery. At last
she
was universally proclaimed to be Mariana Chen-the ailing
sister of Captain Chen-a lady who always fancied herself
privy to the truth on any subject.
For three years and
in
four cities she appeared and
dis–
appeared at self-appointed meetings which concerned all kinds
of weighty matters of world import. Her face was never seen
except once, in a picture she placed in the
Paris Herald
together
with a letter in her own handwriting. Here
is
that picture'"
Gakker's tale had stirred me. I began to believe him. It
was
like an echo in a ravine which allows us to gauge the height
of
the precipice. Gakker's tale resounded like an echo of human
power.
He handed me the photograph; it would be difficult to
take a better picture of a face that expressed secretiveness. The
gaze of half-shut eyes was steady under a high, proud forehead.
The face shone in its pale, hard oval. A finger had, it seemed,
only lately been poised against the compressed lips.
"Mariana Chen is a symbol of all the obscurity surround·
ing any tangled affair that involves a large number of people.
Making the poet Teklin, whose translator I was until his
death, was a far more difficult business.
As
you know, this
writer was a man of the people, and the artistic demands made
upon persons of natural talent are no higher than the usual ones;
being prolific and enjoying democratic sympathies they can
generally be sure of great popularity.
In editorial offices a shy country giant began to appear,
offering verses presentable enough for an uneducated man; he
attracted attention, and within a year he was already writing
with marked improvement. Then, after several impressive articles
and reviews, Teklin vanished, reporting from time to time that
he was in India or Bukharlli or Australia, moving with the speed
of lightning from one end of the world to the other. Teklin con-
