CHAPTER XX
Lavarcham came to her as promised, and she told Deirdre for hours of the delights to come.
“In a week,” she said, “you will be gone from here, and our home will be desolate indeed. But although the king called this a bleak den, and spoke of our demesne as a mangy field, he was not right in doing so. A house is bleak that has no children running and shouting in it, and this house will be bleak when you are gone; but in all other respects a cleaner or better appointed dwelling will not be found in the Five Great Fifths of Ireland; mark me well, child, the king was excited and unjust, and I shall tell him so. When you rule in Emania you will find how difficult it is to keep all things in order, and how hard it is to have even oneroom clean; for men will be stirring at all hours of the day and night in your palace, and although they can make a home in a field men make nothing but dirt in a house.
“You will have much to do and to remember, my secret bud, but, above all, you must remember the genealogies of Ireland and the precedences of the court as I have taught them to you, and in any doubt or dispute ask me rather than the herald. The chief cause of trouble in a country is the herald, for he is always wrong, and even when he is right in fact he is wrong in tact. Do not take any other woman’s counsel in those matters; do not even seek it—the one wish of all women is to advance their husbands, and themselves by consequence, and they will ruin the world if they are let.
“Do not forget that, after the king, the first man in the land is Fergus the son of Roy. Be quick in respect to him, but be slow to sit by him or to talk with him, for Conachúr loves him on the surface, but he hates him in the bone. The first woman in the land is the wife of Fergus, the king’s mother. Be obedient to Ness in everything. Be quick in your courtesies to her.Give her many kisses. Be careful not to love her, for her love is uncertain as a cat’s paw, and where she strikes she draws blood. But these two are not often at Emania. They live in their fortress, deep in love, or in thought, as Conachúr fancies.
“You will see Findcheam, the wife of Amargin the Wonderful, and Dervorgilla, wife of Lugad of the Red Stripes, Fedelm-of-the-Fresh-Heart, the wife of Laerí the Victorious, and Niab, the daughter of Celtchar mac Uthecar, and Brig Brethach, his wife. Hussies all! spit-fires and scratch-cats! There is Lendubair, Conall Cearnach’s wife, and Findige, wife of Eogan mac Durthacht, and Fedelm-of-the-Nine-Shapes, the king’s daughter. They, and an hundred others. You will meet them all.
“They have all been whispering of you this year back: and they have told more lies of you than will be told again until you die. You will like them at first, for many of them are nearly of your age, and they will fuss and gallop and chatter about you like daws. Give them all the listening you like, give them all the kisses they will take—Oh, you will be kissed from morning to night, mypet—but do not give one of them a moment’s confidence.
“The king will talk to you urgently, whispering in your ear like a madman. There is nothing he will not tell you in the night, however deep it is, or hidden; for a man in love will give all that he has to the beloved; he would give his soul if he knew how to do it; and Conachúr will think that by telling all his secrets to you he will somehow tell all your secrets to himself. Men are so. But that which he tells must be uttered to no other ear, for what is whispered in the palace will be shouted down the Boyne. You can tell me all, for I am different; I am your nurse, your mother, and your one friend, but to no other person must you shape even one syllable.
“When the king has confided to you all that he can think of he will beg you to confide in him: he will pray you to tell him all that you have even done or thought—when he tells you of the wild glees and savageries of love tell him in return of how you feed your pet fawn; for a man, and the gods know why, delights to think that his beloved has a fawn in the valley, and he will listen for everto the tale of how it is fed and of its grateful eyes.
“You will meet many men in the palace, and each gentleman that you speak to will be looked at closely by the king. Until this day he has been aware of women as one is aware of the sun, but now he will grow aware of men as one is aware of a wound. You will not see him look, but look he will; and when you seem most free from observation he will be studying you. Whether it be a captain or a butler that your eyes rest on, he will know, without looking, at whom you are looking, and thereafter he will examine that person for himself, and he will examine you in curious ways about that person. Any question he ever asks about a man will be a trap for you. Answer him carelessly about them all, and make the same answer about them all.
“It is safe to say of all men that they are nice, but do not say that one is nicer than another. There is no end to the windings of his mind, and if you say that one man is ugly and another not he will dream about the distinction and will dream you terribly into his dream. A dreaming man is magical,for he will make the dream come true against his own wish and interest, and Conachúr is at the age to have those dreams.@
“Be gentle and uncertain with him. Be wild and coy. Do not, although he prays you, be familiar with him. Tire quickly of dalliance, for in middle life a man likes not to think that he has wearied first. Dance often but do not gambol. Be girlish but not childish. Do not pluck his beard or tickle him. Sit sparingly on his knee. It is only old men who like baby tricks, and he is not, by fifteen years, old enough for that.
“Discuss your dresses and ornaments with him: ask his advice about your ribbons; he will laugh at you and chide you, but he will love that to be done, and he will love you for doing it. Should he be sportive among women, pout then a little, make a small lament, but take no heed of it. He has outlived all the chances of desire.
“He will love you only, and each day he will love you more. What fear there is will be on his side; he will be afraid of men; and there your heed must be endless, for you must not hurt the king even by a second’s thoughtlessness. His equal is not in Eirèfor majesty and wisdom. He is a great king, a great man, a royal hero. O my lamb! all that is of good luck and of noble fate has come to you, and you should thank the king for ever on your knees, and thank your poor Lavarcham who planned this happiness.”